Staffs-Worc Canal Castlecroft Sunday 10/4/11

This weekend we are back on the Halesowen controlled stretch of the Staffs-Worc canal at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton for the second Cradley Heath club match of the year, both of the clubs i am in control a stretch of canal and this is an idea i have heard of a few times recently swapping a club match on each others stretches in an attempt to reduce booking costs which is on the rise all the time from most of the big commercial fisheries. I was hoping for a good draw as if you have read my blog before you will know that i have drawn peg 7 three times and peg 6 once out of five visits the only time i have drawn passed the bend on peg 7 was the fur and feather which i won off the chub flier peg 35. At last i pulled out peg 15 and i had drawn away from the top end after a few words with John Babb who i had traveled with he said there is some big roach and odd chub on the peg which is not a bad peg, when i got to the peg it looked very good with a nice overhanging tree on the other side just to the right which is 2 pegs passed an overflow on our bank. Looking at the peg i decided to go for it and leave the squatt and groundbait in the bag and go for the chub as the overhanging tree looked very inviting indeed, i had got some info from other anglers that had fished the peg before and they said that it is nice and clean under the tree and virtually snag free. I was told that the peg had won a match before with 9lb odd when they didn't peg down to the chub flier 35, today Gary Mason had the privilege of peg 35 and all the ribbing that comes with drawing a flier "jammy git" or words to that effect? I set up 4 rigs as follows.
Rig 1, for worm & caster at 11m to run under the far bank tree a 4x10 Drennan caster, 0.08 straight through to a 18 Preston pr322 hook, No 4 elastic.
Rig 2, hemp at 13m off at 11 o'clock towards a bush 4x10 Tubertini styx float, 0.08 to 0.07 and a 20 pr322 hook with a No 3 elastic.
Rig 3, big maggot down the track at 6m 4x14 M.A.P pole stick, 0.08 straight through to a 20 pr322 with a No 3 elastic.
Rig 4, chub far bank rig a 4x10 Preston pink in-line float, 0.14 line straight through to a 14 B611 hook with tight 14 solid elastic.
For bait i had brought 1 pint of casters, 1/2kg worm, 1/2 white maggots, some hemp and the squatt & g/bait i had left in the bag.
I started on the worm after potting in a 1/4 of a pot of chopped worm & caster while firing hemp on that line and throwing a few maggots down the track, i had a fish first run through 2oz roach on a worm head then a small 2oz chub next put-in and things had got off to a good start. Things started to slow up a bit after that but on the half hour mark i had got around 6 small fish when i hit something a lot better, with my No4 elastic running towards the trees at a rate of knots i threw the pole back as fast as possible in an attempt to get the fish under control. Luckily the fish came out of trees and down the track and after a short but spirited fight on the relativity light gear a 1lb chub was in the net, this was a good start i thought but it after only 1 small 3oz perch in the next 30mins it was time to try another line. I tried the hemp for 10mins without a bite before switching to the maggot down the track on the pole stick, the reason for setting up a pole stick on this venue is that there is quite a strong tow up here compared to other stretches of the Staffs-Worc and you have a bit more control with a stick than with a bristle float when trying to slow the bait down by fishing over-depth. I had 3 nice 2-3oz roach and a couple of gonks on the big white maggot it wasn't fast action but either side of me weren't catching at all so i was happy to take what i was getting for now, after switching back to the caster&worm line for a couple of perch i was back down the track where i hooked another good fish and this one gave me a good run around on the No3 elastic. Chub number no2 was safely in the net and around the same size as the first i was pleased they weren't any bigger as i might have lost them on the light gear, with around 2 hours gone i thought i had got around 3 1/2 lb and while i wasn't catching a fish a bung i thought if i could catch a few bits in-between the odd chub then i might end up with a good weight. After the chub down the track i couldn't get another bite there so a switch was called for and i went for the caster under the tree which produced 2 roach around 3-4oz each and all was well sitting in the sun catching a few fish, then the wheel's started to come off big style as the sun came around and the boats stopped which we had around 6 of in the first half of the match but what ever the excuse i was trying to find i couldn't get a bite on anything. I rotated all three of my lines on a number of occasions without success, trying every trick in the book failed and i was at a loss as to think why but all i could come up with was the lack of boats and lock movement colouring the water? What was looking like a good day was fast turning into a disaster i dumped a load of worm & caster on a new line 13m down the canal towards some tree roots in an attempt to find another chub, i gave my normal worm & caster line the same treatment to try and force a chub into feeding also deciding to sit on the heavy rig for the remainder of the match as if i hooked a good chub i wanted there to be 1 winner. With 30mins remaining on the clock i had a bite on the new line on double caster and with the tight 14 elastic the fight was short lived which turned out to be another 1lb and although it was late in the day this fish gave me a new scene of hope, I re-fed both lines again with loose feed caster in a hope of some last ditch chub action but it was all in vein as that was the last fish of the day for me. Talk about a match of two half's i enjoyed the first 2 1/2 hours but was thoroughly bored the last 2 1/2 with only the one bite in the last half of the match, John on peg 16 had 2 chub & a skimmer for 4lb 20z and my 3 chub & bits went 5lb 1oz, mr. whitmore to my left on peg 15 failed to weigh. Gary Mason won the match as expected from peg 35 on the ivy bush with 16lb made up of a dozen chub the biggest around 2 1/2lb so well done to him, 2nd was Johnny bill off peg 17 with a few small chub and 2 tench. I missed out on my section prize by a few ounces which was won by Andy on peg 21 with 5lb 10z, Kev Clarke on peg 12 fished squatt from front to back in the match and managed 4lb of bits so i think that i had made the right decision by leaving them in the bag and going for bigger fish and on another day felt that the peg would be worth double what i had managed? Back to the pub for the pay out and overall the canal fished quite well with my 5lb giving me 8th overall out of the 23 fishing, apart from the chub flier the match was good with 8lb 2nd and over 4lb+ needed to make the top 12 points board.
There has been a bit of a debate over peg 35 which has won 4 of the last 5 matches on the stretch and coming 2nd by only 6oz on the other one, some club member are all for leaving it in and giving some of the less competent anglers in the club a chance of winning? others are for putting 2 pegs on the ivy as the peg is long enough to take it in the hope of cutting the amount of fish caught by 1 angler? but will you then be fishing for 3rd? and of course the leave it out altogether brigade which i am leaning towards as there are a few of us thinking that it is becoming a 1 peg venue which is a shame as there are lots of other good pegs but none that can compete with the amount of chub under the ivy on peg 35? I will certainly think twice about fishing here again if they decide to put it in as i know most venues have a number flier's but this one is totally dominating which sounds a bit funny after i won the fur & feather and the bouns peg off it but i feel something now needs to be done, there are some long walks on the stretch due to only 1 access point above peg1 and Gary's mate walked passed him to peg36 only to be given the neck ache all day watching him bag and pack in after 4 hours having caught next to nothing with a nice 3/4 of a mile walk back?