Staffs-Worc canal Castlecroft Sunday 27/11/11

This was the last match of the year for one of my clubs Halesowen on our own stretch of the staffs-worc canal at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton, this stretch can be a bit peggy with most of the winning weights made up of Chub that seem to live in numbers on certain pegs.The Chub flier on this stretch is peg 35 and if you have read my blog before this peg has won a lot of matches on here due to an overhanging ivy bush that sticks out into the canal creating a haven for the Chub, in an attempt to stop the domination of this peg we have decided to move the peg to the left on the edge of the ivy and move peg 36 to the opposite end to try and share the fish out a bit? This will either share the fish out or create 2 fliers leaving the rest of the field fishing for third only time will tell. I was sitting pretty on top of the clubs averages with an 11 point cushion over my nearest rival Shaun Waite, but with 21 of us turning out today meant that 21 points were up for grabs so a win for Shaun and a blow-out for me would see him take the title. We all went in for the draw and I came out with peg 21 which to be honest I was quite happy with as during a match up here earlier this year Andy Smart had won the section off just beating me with 6lb odd of small fish, with the peg having no Chub form I thought the chances of winning or even framing off of it was very slim but as long as I could catch a few slivers and come in the top 10 the title would be mine. A quick word with Shaun reviled that he had drawn peg 17 a noted chub peg (jammy git)and would be going all out for the win but normally peg 18 is the better peg with a lot more form, peg 21 is next to a bridge which is the only peg from 18-24 to be used loads of room I can here you shout but it cannot be that good as it has 3 empty pegs either side and pegs 13-18 are all in, why? because that's were all the fish are? Peg 21 is around 13m wide with a big set of reeds to the right which stick out virtually into the middle of the canal and the canal naturally narrows right down at this point just before going under the bridge, the very edge of the reeds can be reached with only 6m of pole and the deepest part of the canal is only 4m out where the boats line up to get under the bridge. The canal was very clear the clearest I have ever seen it to the point that from 10-13m I could see the bottom so all my lines were going to be at angles either side of me using the spare peg to my left and the bridge to the right, I planned to fish the punch at 6&8m the worm & caster to my right on the edge of the reeds and a caster line 13m down the canal towards peg 20 just out of the track at around a 10'o clock angle. I set up 4 rigs to cover these lines,
Rig 1, 4x12 Tubertini styx float, 0.08 mainline to a 0.07 hooklength and a 22 B511 hook, set 1 inch off the bottom in around 3 1/2 ft of water down the track finished with a no3 elastic.
Rig 2, 4x8 Tubertini styx float with the same line, hook & elastic as above but at 8m where the canal shallowed right up to around 2ft deep beyond this I could see the bottom.
Rig 3, 4x12 Drennan caster float, 0.12 straight through to a 18 B611 hook, J-range 6-10 hollo elastic for Perch & Chub fished to the edge of the reeds at 8m.
Rig 4, 4x12 Drennan caster float, 0.08 straight through to a 18 Preston PR322 hook, no 4 elastic fished down the canal at 10'o clock 13m.
For bait I had brought a loaf of liquidized bread, 1/2 pint each of casters & squatts and 1/2kg worms plus a few pinkies for the hook along with a couple of slices of bread also for the hook, just before the whistle Shaun came walking passed on his way to see his mate Gary who was on peg 26 saying all he needed was for him to win the match and me completely blow out "Cheers mate all the best to you as well" I said "only joking" he said but I knew that the competitor in him meant it.
On the whistle I feed the short bread line with a golf ball size of bread the worm line got around 1/4 of a pot of chopped worm and 20 casters while the 13m down the track swim was fed with 12 casters just loose fed with the catapult, I was going to leave the 8m bread line alone until I had gauged the response of the first bread line in-case I had to feed squatt there if the fish didn't like the bread. I kicked off on the bread with a 3mm punch on the hook and no soon as the float had settled it shot under and Roach no1 was swung in at around 1oz it was a good start, over the course of the first hour I stuck with the punch getting bites on a regular basis and had around 12 roach for around 1lb. The only thing about being so far away from any other anglers is that I couldn't tell if anyone else was catching then I saw 2 figures walking towards me down the tow-path, it was Andy and Bob who were on pegs from around the corner saying that neither of them had had a bite yet while Shaun had 2 Chub and Martin 1 I thought they were on the wind-up but they weren't. Great that's all I need this early in the match Shaun bagging but then I reassured myself that I didn't need to win the match just catch fish and with people starting to walk already it was a good sign for me, the punch line had started to slow so it was time for a little top-up I put in just half the amount of the initial feed a walnut size of licky went in. I changed up in hook size to 20 B511 and switched to a 4mm punch as I had dropped a couple of fish off while swinging them in so hopefully the bigger hook would help with this, the first 2 Roach I had after re-feeding were slightly bigger around 3oz each then it went quite for 3-4mins before I hooked a bigger fish some distance down the peg away from the feed area a 10oz skimmer which was a welcome bonus. Hoping for more of the same but over the next 10mins I couldn't get another bite so I put in another small amount of licky just enough to cover the bottom of the pot and fed it loose instead of a ball which is normally a no no on this stretch as it has a steady flow all the time, I thought that the smaller Roach were hanging higher in the water so I changed back to a smaller 3mm punch and shallowed up to around 3 inches off the bottom. This worked for a time with around 6 Roach in the 1oz bracket before the bites totally dried up and with around 2 hours gone the bread line had dried up so switch to the worm was called for, I had topped up the worm line a couple of times while fishing the punch but before I could ship out the worm my phone rang and it was Steve Robson who was up on peg 1A saying that he was dry and so was the rest of the top section apart from JB on peg 6 who was catching punch fish. This was good news for me to get into the top 10 and win the averages so I shipped out the worm and lay the rig in which promptly carried on going under a 4oz Perch was the culprit, the next 10mins saw me have 2 more Perch around 2oz each before bites dried up on this line as well so with around 2 1/2 hours gone I thought I had got around 3lb so all was good. I went back on the punch line but never had a bite so I fed the line another section over at 8m with a small nugget of lickey and a few squatts before I tried the 13m caster line, no bites on the caster despite sitting on it for around 15mins and no bites on the new line either on the punch or squatt. I had failed to get a bite at all for the last 45mins and was starting to get worried, despite trying all the swims I had put in I couldn't get another bite it was like there were no fish left in the swim at all. I opened up a new line down the canal at 13m towards the bridge with a small amount of worm mush & fluro pinkies a sure fire get out of jail tactic but even this failed to get me a bite, the whistle sounded and I couldn't get my head why I had caught for the first 2 1/2 hours then totally blanked for the next 2 1/2 talk about a game of two halves! I was just hoping that I had done enough to get into the top 10 as the last I heard from Shaun was that he had got at least 6 Chub and a couple of big Perch, before long the scales arrived after weighing in Shaun and Martin first Shaun had a fantastic 28lb 14oz with 8 chub and 4 Perch, Martin had 3 Chub+ bits for 9lb 14oz, my first half fish gave me 3lb 7oz I just hoped it was enough. I packed in and walked up the canal stopping at Shaun who was still packing away to congratulate him he said that apart from the Chub one of the Perch he had went 3lb 1oz! (no wonder we cannot catch any gudgeon up here) what a great canal weight, Shaun said that the more bait he put in the better it got running out of bait in the end after putting in 1/2kg of worm and a pint of casters! He also said that he had tried to stop one Chub from going through reeds so he pulled harder with his tight black hydro the result ended in his top kit looking like 50 pence piece smashed into around 8 pieces? OOPS! Well done to Shaun for annihilating the match, Martin was 2nd and John Bab was 3rd of peg 35 with 6lb odd. There were 2 4lb+ weights from JB on peg 6 and Gary on peg 26 who said he had 20 chub in the 1-2oz bracket, I ended the day 7th after getting done by Ade on peg 13 by 4oz with 3lb 11oz that done by 2oz last week on the river and 4oz this week but I cannot complain the season I have had ending up winning the averages. Next week we have the last match of the year with Cradley Heath the fur & feather on the Staffs-Worc canal at Hinksford but with 1 match left to go I have already won the averages unable to be caught?