Staffs-Worc canal Castlecroft Sunday 2/12/12

This was the last Halesowen match of the year on our own stretch of the canal at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton, the temperature had cooled down a lot over the last week and most of the still-waters had started to freeze over luckily this stretch rarely freezes due to a slow and steady tow on it. We all know that if the Chub feed there are one or two pegs you need to draw and if you don't draw one it can be impossible to do well with small fish, I drew peg 35 which used to be a good Chub peg where I have even broke the ice a couple of years ago on a fur & feather and still caught Chub but the Ivy bush that used to hold the fish has been cut back and the last time we put the peg in there were no Chub caught from it.
I spent most of the match fishing punch down the track catching small Roach and having a look over by what is left of the ivy bush with caster and worm now and then for a Chub but never had a bite over all day, there were a few walking around saying the couldn't get a single bite. I ended the match with 45 Roach for 3lb 13oz while the 2 lads to my left never had a bite and the next one to catch was Barry with just 4 small Roach, Martin had drew peg 17 where Shaun had 28lb of big fish off last year and annihilated the match with 16lb of Chub to 4lb Perch over 2lb and Roach to 1lb this must be one of the best big fish pegs on the whole canal. I ended up 3rd overall with Shaun having 4lb 5oz of punch fish from a peg in-front of the old club for some reason the only Chub that had fed were on peg 17 and no one else had one? Well done to Martin Yardley who not only won the match on the day but sealed the averages the mini league and to top it all he was sitting on one of the days bonus pegs so emptied that as well just in time for Christmas!!! ( I asked him in the pub after the match to pull me 6 numbers for the lotto but he declined, well done Mart). 

Blythe Pairs League Sunday 25/11/12

This was round 2 of our pairs league at Blythe waters and after a disapointing start to the league with both of us finishing 9th out of 15 on both pools we were hoping for a better result today, I drew for us and put myself on peg 22 on Cherries and John on peg 21 on willow. My peg had thrown up 9lb on the first round and while not very good as the fish are still up the other end of the pool it was the best weight from this end of the pool, John's peg had not been good on the first round either with 10lb off it and not a lot from the pegs either side so overall I don't think we had a good draw.
It was 2 1/2 hours into the match before I had my first bite on the pellet which came from down the left-hand  margin a small 2lb Carp the margins on this peg are 5ft deep so it is like fishing at 14-16m up the other end of the pool, I had tried all the other lines at 6m, 13m, 14.5m and the right hand margin with lots of different baits maggots, pinkies, pellets & corn but all without a sign. I ended the match with 6 Carp 5 of the small and one around 8-9lb for 22lb 12oz for 3rd on the pool which I was pleased with as my end of the pool had fished hard again with 5lb off peg 20 in the corner and 3lb off peg 23 to my right, Martin had won the pool off end peg 32 with 45lb and Chris 2nd off peg 10 which is the next peg in which I thought would happen as we are using 2 pools they had decided to leave all of the disabled pegs out which gives pegs 32 & 10 around a 1/3 of the pool each!!!! How much room do you want to give 2 good pegs anyway ( see the pic of the pool?). John had a bad match on Willow pool with just one bite a 2lb Carp but he wasn't on his own Brian to his left had one Roach and Tony to his right had 2 bites but they were 2 Carp for 14lb you cannot odds the size of the fish when the float goes under or the tip goes around had John's Carp been 7lb he would have beaten a few more on the pool but as it was he was well down.

Staffs-Worc canal Hinksford Sunday 18/11/12

I am going to keep the next few blogs short & sweet in an effort to catch up as I am some 6 weeks behind, as I write this its Boxing day so a belated Merry Christmas to you all.
This was a Halesowen club match on the Staffs canal at Hinksford a stretch we use quite often with both the clubs I am in, I drew 3 pegs upstream of the bridge on a good peg which has threw up some good bags of fish in the past. I struggled early on while the 2 pegs to my right caught from the off with just the odd Roach coming to the punch it wasn't until the last hour and half before I started to catch some good fish on the caster down the track, Gary on the peg nearest to the bridge had caught all day from the off with mainly small punch fish but we didn't know what was going on else where. I put 5lb 7oz on the scales, Mark to my right had 4lb 4oz and Gary just done me with 5lb 10oz, when the lads came back from the bottom stretch saying that 4lb odd was the best weight that left Gaz and I first and second so not a bad day after all.

Blythe pairs league Sunday 11/11/12

This was the first round of this years Blythe pairs league and for this year I had a new partner John Babb as Stav had given up winter fishing saying he was getting to old for fishing 16-17m of carbon in the snow and ice (puff), joking apart they have changed his shifts at work and has to work some weekends making it impossible for him to join any leagues (plus after winning the league 3 years on the trot we have noting to prove. I on the other hand had decided to fish it again as most of the lads I travel with are fishing ( I don't drive) so if I don't fish this league I would be having a lie-in tucked up in a warm bed on a Sunday morning with the misses!!!! That's why I am fishing. John by his own admission would tell you that he his not the best at fishing the pools and seems to struggle sometimes on our club matches on this type of venue he catches a few on the rivers & canals so it was going to be up to me to give him a few tips and put him on the right path,  this year a few more pairs wanted to fish so it was decided to use 2 pools ( cherries & willow ) as we did a couple of years ago that time we used Bridge pool but not a lot was known about willow pool so a practice session was on the cards Cherries pool was no problem as I have fished it for the last 4-5 years.
We had a good practice session on Willow I fished peg 24 and John peg 27 both pegs were totally different my peg has a natural island to fish to although it is 17.5m to reach it there was plenty of of open water to have a go at, John's peg had a floating boom at 16m which is the same as the boom on Cherries pool about a meter wide held down by scaffold tubes and hollow underneath apart from a few roots dangling from the vegetation on the boom. We both tried a few different things I had 2 Carp & 1 Skimmer from a 16m line towards the island 4 Carp & a Bream from the margins plus plenty of small Roach & Skimmers from a 10m line on light gear, John had around 3 small Carp a nice 3lb Chub plus Skimmers just swapping and changing lines with different baits trying to sort out a few things it looked like there were plenty of fish to be caught!
On the morning of the match I drew peg 18 on willow pool and John got peg 20 on Cherries now Jon's peg I have fished a few times before and it has won more than a few matches on here so after giving him a few tips on where to try in the peg it was just a matter of weather the fish had gone up this end of the pool, this is the deeper end of the pool the only concern was that it had not gone cold enough yet to send the fish down here and the fish would still be in the shallower pegs the other end of the pool. My peg looked OK tucked up in a corner with a long margin towards peg 17 and a boom to fish to a 14.5m slightly to the right again my only concern was that as with most corner pegs on a lot of Carp pools it's normally feast or famine!
 It took me around 40 mins to get a bite from the boom on the pellet which was a 2lb Carp and I was off the mark another 5 mins and bite no2 was a 2lb f1 another 5 mins and bite no3 which felt like another small Carp but it came off while I was shipping back it looked like I was on for a few today! I went for a pee up the bank where John was fishing so I could ask him how it was going he said it was hard up his end of the pool and all he had got was 1 small 1lb Carp and a couple of bits but there were some around him that hadn't had a bite yet, I went back to my peg and try a I might I couldn't get another bite I went all over the peg with different baits but to no avail I had one more bite on the maggot from my right hand margin a 3lb Carp and that was it for my match 4 bites 3 fish! I couldn't work it out I failed to get a bite even on single pinkie on a 22 just no silverfish at all, so much for practicing!!! My 3 Carp went 7lb 15oz for 9th  on the pool out of 15 which was very disappointing and a bad start to the league, John had 3 small Carp plus a few bit's for 5lb 13oz for the same 9th on the pool as me there was a 9lb up this end of the pool John managed to beat all the other pegs around him. As we had feared all the fish were still in the shallow water on Cherries pool although we have had a couple of heavy frosts, the match was won by a mate of mine Mick Davies off peg 11 on Cherries with 47lb so well done to him on his first league match. My pool was won by Ade off peg 15 on the point with 41lb with Martin 2nd off peg 10 there was a few big Carp caught and lost which was the differance between doing well or not Brian on peg 24 had 17lb with 14lb 12oz of that 1 Carp my 3 Carp must have been some of the smallest in the pool, are well there is always next week.

Staffs-Worc canal Limekilns Sunday 4/11/12

This Sunday saw us on the Limekilns section of the Staffs-Worc canal right in the center of Kidderminster town for Cradley Heath's fur & feather, I have not fished this stretch of canal for at lest 25 years I used to fish here with my Dad when I was a lad. To the left of the bridge is down towards the back of Sainsbury's opposite a Church we used to call this ding dong alley as the church strikes its bell every hour and to the right of the bridge there used to be a lot of factory units which have long since gone but there is still a wide concrete path leading up to a new housing estate we used to call this the concrete road. It was the fact that no one had fished here for a long time that it had been chosen for the fur & feather so at least you would go to your peg and fish it instead of being disapointed at the draw, 21 of us had turned up for this one and 11 pegs were on the concrete road the other 10 on ding dong alley I drew peg 7 on the concrete road which looked the same as all the others apart from pegs 1,2 & 3 which were on natural bank where all the others the far bank had just been done by the British Waterways. From the bridge to peg 4 there was new brickwork on the far side along with new reeds that the BW had planted I supposed it had been done to make the canal look good as there were a lot of new builds on the far bank some finished and some not, the other side of the bridge had not been touched but they were still working on the bridge so we had to park in the road and walk over.
To cut a long story short the match was very slow I caught a few small Roach to start with on the punch down the track and then just the odd Perch on the worm over by the far reeds, Ollie to my right never had a bite while John to my left had just 2 Perch for 6oz I put 1lb 10z 8drams to win my section. Pegs 1-3 were first, second & third Martin on peg one had 6lb odd for 3rd, Shaun on peg 2 had 9lb odd for 1'st and Frank on peg 3 had 7lb for 2nd, my mate John Babb was on peg 4 the first peg on the new far bank where the work had been done and weighed in just ounces having to watch the first 3 pegs bagging up! There were 2 more weights over 1lb in our section but mine was the best of them, below the bridge there was a 4lb and a 2lb but on the other 8 pegs no one broke a 1lb, it was hard match but at least I had a few bites and won a Turkey it looked like all the building work and noise had forced most of the fish up to the end of the section.

Woodside Winter League Sunday 21/10/12

This Sunday saw us on the first round of the Woodside winter league on our stretch of the Dudley canal no1 nr Merryhill, we have controlled this stretch of canal for many years which has got a lot harder than when we first took it over. Many of the Roach that we used to catch along here seem to have vanished leaving most of the weights made up of Perch, Skimmers and odd Chub on a few pegs, I used to fish every match on here years ago but as it became harder during the winter months I used to stick to the Carp pools and just fish the odd match here when it took my fancy. Due to a lot of congestion during the summer months with a lot of or lads fishing in two or more clubs or fishing opens there is only time to fish the canal during the winter months, I only fished 2 matches on here last winter and they were both hard winning my section both times with just over 1lb so there a lot of people with less than that, I have planned to fish all of the matches this year come rain or shine ( more like sleet or snow ) but I will see how hard it fishes or how bad the weather gets first! There was a poor turnout today for the first match with only 12 turning up normally there are 20-30 anglers on the first one then a few drop out as the weather gets colder or they have had a couple of bad draws, at least with only 12 we should all be in for a half decent peg. I drew peg 94 which is just before a bridge a few hundred yards away from the main Merryhill Waterfront Basin and not a bad peg but as I have said they were all decent pegs with on 12 fishing, John Babb had drew next to me on peg 95 right on the bridge so at least I had someone to talk to as the next peg in my section was Baz Robson on peg 82 and way out of sight.
I set up 4 rigs to tackle the peg which were a punch line down the track at 10m, a squatt line on top of the shelf at 13m, a caster line at 14.5m to a small bush to my left right over and 2 worm lines at 10 & 2'o clock just out of the track at 11m which I would use the same rig for both lines.
After feeding all of my lines I kicked off on the punch down the track with a 4mm piece of bread on the hook and had a small 1oz Roach on my first put-in followed by another of the same size on the next drop-in a good start I thought to myself, just as I was thinking of a big bag of Roach the bites slowed down and by the end of the first half hour I had got 8 small Roach so it was time to switch lines. I was going to try the squatt line which I had fed with a couple of small balls of g/bait at the start and loosefed squatt over the top but the sun had come out after a misty grey start and it was bouncing off the brick wall on the opposite side making seeing the float impossible, with the reflection of the sun on the far bank I switched to the chopped worm lines which I had fed with around 1/4 of a pot on each at the start I had bites straight away from the 10'o clock swim with Perch in the 1-3oz bracket. While I was not setting the world on fire at least I was catching the odd fish John on my left was having only odd fish with around half the amount I had got, I was switching between my two worm lines in an effort not to blow them out too early taking 2-3 fish from each line then re-feeding before switching to the other. I had a quick look on the squatt line when the sun had moved around a bit but the wind had blew a raft of leaves over the top of my feed and after just 1 small Roach 1 missed bite and around 5 leaves I gave up, back on the punch line for 5mins produced just 1 Roach so it looked like sticking to the worm for the time being. After another few Perch on the worm I had a look on the caster which I had been feeding with half a dozen casters now and then from the start, I had a 3oz Perch straight away but waited a long time for the next bite which was a 2oz Roach I gave it another 5mins after this but decided I was getting more bites from my worm lines. With around an hour to go a big fish topped in peg 93 to my right which seemed more like a predator striking than a fish just  topping I joked to John that it might be a Pike and if it was it can stay over there, you can guess what happened next I was fishing my 2'o clock worm line around 5mins after I saw the big fish rise when I struck into a solid fish that a first refused to move of the bottom I shouted to John that it looked like I had hooked what ever it was that had topped. With a no4 elastic the fish was going where he wanted but after a couple of mins I managed to get some of the pole back then right back to the top kit but with such a light elastic I couldn't get the fishes head up, it started to swim along the inside right along the tins by my feet but with me standing up and around 10ft of elastic out I couldn't see what it was then the 0.08 line parted and the unseen beast had won the battle S**T. That was probably a match winning fish both John and I both guessed that it most likely was a pike after JB had one last year on the winter league around 6lb there are odd ones in the stretch but very rarely hooked I have only ever seen one before around 2-3lb looking at the fish in my net. What ever the fish was didn't put the Perch off and I just picked them off both of my worm lines until the whistle I had caught a few fish with the biggest only around 5-6oz and thought I had got around 4lb, When Barry appeared with the scales he said that he had struggled saying he had only got around 2lb, John was first to weigh with 3lb 8oz, my net went 5lb which I was happy with but as we couldn't see anyone else we didn't know how the rest of the canal had fished. When we got back to the pub we found out that Tony Bowen had caught 8lb odd off peg 57 in the bay for the match win catching a big Perch around 1 1/2lb some skimmers up to 1lb and a lot of small Perch and Roach, I was shocked to have come 2nd with 5lb while the next 3 weights below mine were only 6oz apart so it was close and all of the rest of the lads had 2-4lb weights so apart from Tony's weight the canal had fished well with a few fish caught.

Warwickshire Avon Pensham Sunday 14/10/12

This Sunday saw us on the Pensham stretch of the Avon for a Cradley Heath club match, I have not fished for more years than I care to remember this stretch is slower and deeper than the the next stretch upstream which is Pershore, Pershore is more noted as Chub, Barbel & Roach venue where Pensham is more Bream & Roach. As per usual the rain gods had decided to do there dance in the week leading up to this match leaving the river up and coloured, looking on the web cams it looked up around 18 inches to me but when we got there I would say it was more like 2ft. I drew a peg just below the car park that looked like it had a bit of slack water but on closer inspection the cut away bank below me was just boiling over and didn't look very inviting at all, it looked like there was something just below the surface which without the extra water on would probably be above the water. I just set up one pole rig with a 5gram flat float to be fished at 6m just below me which was just out of the main flow and a small openend feeder, I planned to fish chopped worm & maggots on the pole line with worm, cater & maggot in the feeder with a little amount of groundbait to hold it all in.
To cut a long story short the match was crap for most I messed about with the pole for around half an hour before throwing it up the bank as it don't think that the bait was on the bottom for more than 5 seconds before the water erupted lifting the float out of the water!, I had a massive 14 eels ( sorry elvers they were that small ) and one daddy ruff for 2lb 2oz no matter what I put on the hook or what size hook I put on tiny eels was all that I could catch. John below me had 3-4 eels and half a dozen bits for 1lb 6oz and Baz Robson below him had 3-4 Roach plus eels to beat me by 8drams for 2lb 2oz 8drams. The match was won by Martin Yardsley on upstream peg one opposite the last couple of pegs on Pershore with 3 Bream for 12lb on the pole and he lost another, Ollie was 2nd with one good Bream and two smaller ones for 9lb on the feeder, Shaun was 3rd with one bream for 2lb 12oz, for most less than 1lb was the norm on a very hard and rising river. Baz managed to scrape in 4th leaving me winning the section it was just a shame that there was so much water on as in the right conditions there would have been a lot more fish caught.