Staffs-Worc canal Botterham Lock-Swindon 16/10/11

This match was another Cradley Heath club match on the Staffs-Worc canal at Swindon and Botterham lock, normally when these two stretches are used the winner comes from Botterham lock as this pound contains a large head of Chub. The Saturday before our match some of our club members were on the Botterham stretch with weights of 18,14,13 and two 10lb weights of Chub you can see why it is the place to draw, not that Swindon is rubbish but it is more of what I would call normal with weights of silverfish on squatts & hemp with just odd Chub & big Perch. With this in mind we had decided to pay out as two separate matches and with 20 names down this had worked out easily with 10 pegs put on each, so we were all set and after a good breakfast in the Green Man pub in Swindon village we took the draw. I came out with peg 8 at Botterham and a day hunting Chub was the order of the day, my travelling partner Stav had pulled out peg 20 ( the end peg again!) at Swindon so I gave him my squatts as I was going all out Chubbing with worm, caster & big maggots. This was the first time I had even seen this stretch let alone fish it as every time we have had the two stretches over the years I have always drawn the short pound or Swindon, the short pound is what it says on the tin a short stretch above Swindon bridge with a few mooring in-between two locks with only enough room for 3-4 pegs but full of Roach and a few odd Chub. The last time we fished this stretch a couple of years ago I framed with 9lb odd of hemp Roach and two small 1lb Chub, at last this time I was walking past these pegs up and over the next lock as the pegs at Botterham are on the opposite bank and up too Chub heaven. The first 100m above the lock cannot be pegged due to overhead power cables then as you turn the corner the first peg (our peg 10) was on a set of reeds the rest of the stretch looks very Chubby indeed with lots of overhanging trees & bushes. I put my tackle down on peg 8 and went for a walk along the stretch to have a look at the two most famous pegs here the end peg by the cottage (peg1) and the green pipe peg (peg2), they both looked very good and it was the pipe peg that had won the match the week before with 18lb. At my peg I was told by John Morgan who had fished here the week before that he was 2nd with 14lb form somewhere in-between mine and Baz's peg to my left as they had only put 8 pegs up here last week, so at least we were in an area that had some form. My peg had two bushes on the far bank that was only 11m wide with a 1m gap in-between them that looked nice and fishy, I was only going to set up two rigs one for over and one for down the shelf in the deeper water away from the bushes so I could run the rig through when the locks opened.

Rig 1, for the far bank a Preston 4x10 pink float, 0.14 Silstar straight through to a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook and tight black hydro elastic through just in the top section of a power kit.

Rig 2, in the deeper water a 4x14 M.A.P pole stick for holding back with the same hook and line as above but black hydro through the top 2 of a power kit.

For bait I had got 1/2 kilo of worms, 1 pint of casters, 1 pint of hemp and a pint of big white maggots nice and simple I was going to fish hemp & maggot over and worm & caster down the track, Just before the all in the locks opened and the first of the days boats was on its way and I was shocked at the pace of the water with only around 300m in-between the two locks. I started on the deeper water rig but was unsure whether or not to feed and wait for the impending barge, well after around the first 40mins and 10 boats later we were all moaning how busy the canal was and no bites as you could hardly get the bait in the water. It looked like every boater on the canal was out today on the very unseasonal hot sunny day for October then all of a sudden like someone had flicked a switch and the boats stopped and we didn't get another one until the last 10mins of the day? very strange. I had a couple of gonks on the maggot before I hooked my first Chub which I managed to get away from the roots of the bushes only to pull out of it down the track as I had to double break down my pole due to the bank behind me falling away very steeply, never mind I thought there are plenty more where that came from, WRONG. To cut a long story short it fished crap I hooked what I thought was another Chub half way through only to ping out of it a second later leaving my rig up the bushes Great, it was like someone had poisoned the water with acid or something no one was catching there was only Ollie on the end peg (1o) with 3 Chub and John Crump on peg (1) with 2 chub and two Chublets the rest of us had nothing. I had a few gonks, 2 Perch and 4 Roach I couldn't believe it the first time I had managed to drawn up here and the Chub had failed to feed for what ever reason CRAP is the only word to describe it. John's fish on peg 1 went 4lb odd Steve on the famous pipe peg 2 had a 3lb Chub on the last put-in of the match (jammy git) to weigh 3lb 9oz then 5 DNW's on the trot, John Morgan who had 14lb the week before had 1 Roach first put-in then nothing for the rest of the of the match just 1 fish? My bits went 1lb 9oz then Ollie on the end peg (10) had 6lb 9oz for his 3 Chub & a few bits. Four anglers weighed in out of 10 lepers bath water or what! Down at Swindon BIG Ritchie had 2 Chub & a small Carp for 1oz short of Ollie with 6lb 8oz, my partner Stav was joint 3rd with Martin Yardsley with 5lb 15oz both of them small fish squatt weights. It was noticeable that all the money was won from end pegs on both of the stretches! This was one to forget for me.