Winter League Round 6 2011 Practice Match Wolverton

The final round of our winter league this year was on a new venue for our league, based around Wolverton on the Grand Union Canal, in the north of Milton Keynes.

 

The canal was fishing really hard, due mostly to the lock at Cosgrove being shut and there being very little movement and only a couple of boats. As a result the water was gin clear, you could see the bottom in three feet plus of water.

 

I drew 46 on the New Inn stretch back towards Rogues Lane, a bit disappointed to have no real cover on the far bank, and with my section going to my left onto the cover I didn't fancy it at all.

 

Starting on bread with no bites, and dropping in on lobworm and punch long with no bites, it was about half an hour before I caught. Gradually I began to sort out a few fish, but with opposing team members walking around I decided against giving a show of perch fishing down the inside, and opted to try and catch long. The best line was the top kit to hand line fed with leam and joker for perch and an odd gudgeon. Across I was able to catch over the leam and on a raw line, it wasn't until 3 hours that I caught a fish that wasn't a small perch of about 50 to the pound.

 

My 2-5-0 was enough for a section second, and given the match again the following week in the same conditions, I reckoned nearly 4lb was on the cards, and with our team all catching well things were looking good for next weeks winter league match.

 

Winter League Round 6 2011 Grand Union Wolverton

The following week found the canal in a different condition, the lock was open, pressure had been yo yoing all week, there had been a lot of rain which the canals really do not like, so although there were boats the water was coloured and cold, which I have never liked.

 

Our team draw wasn't very helpful, and my section summed it up really, I was the farthest from the bridge in my section, the end section at Rogues Lane bridge. On top of having the end peg in the match in my section, Maver Bait Tech's Gavin Butler next to me had an empty peg on his left, so we had to contend with two end pegs in our section.

 

It was soon apparent that the big perch that were caught the week before, were not going to have a go, and with the perch and gudgeon being really hard to catch, I was worried that our approach was a little too aggressive for these small species. In the end I was right and I barely caught a fish beyond the middle, with all my fish being caught at 3m. I did miss a bite on a full lobworm with 1/2 an hour to go but as the heavens opened I knew I hadn't caught well enough.

 

The section was tied first with Martin Caldecote and Gav Butler (the two "end pegs") coming equal first, I was relieved to come third with 1-2-0, as this also meant that I couldn't be beaten in the Stacey Cup for the top individual in the league with 10 points over the six rounds. More importantly we tied for second in the league with Stanjays as Hotrods had done us on weight on the day. In the end we tied on match points, match positions over the six rounds, and we ended up beating them on section thirds countback, as we had tied on section wins and seconds too.

 

The league was that tight that 1/2oz in one section would have gained us a point and we would have won it overall......roll on the semi finals, wherever they may be!!