Things have been a little busy of late meaning I’ve had no time to update the blog. The weather has been awful and this has freed up some time to inform the web site users of what has been happening on the team front!
Matches all over the country have been called off due to this severe drop in temperature, snow and iced up waterways are common nationally. Some matches still went ahead and last weekend saw the penultimate round of the Shropshire teams of five winter league on the Shropshire Union at Soudley in which we have been competing.
The start was put back to 10.30am to assist ice breaking but unfortunately this still left some starting late. After a quick sandwich I was first on the bank and began breaking my peg along with team mate Ian Morrison. The plan was to break my peg early and let it settle whilst others then broke their pegs. I had a good twenty minutes on the bank before anyone else appeared.
After fifty minutes we went through the bridge and broke Ian’s peg. The ice in his peg was much thinner as the bright sun had already begun melting the ice.
Back to my peg just in time to set up a couple of rigs, my bread rig consisted of a Preston Classic 6 strung with number 13 shots on a .09 mainline finished of with a .06 hook link with a size 24 IM1 and a Milo trot pole stick for fishing the caster on .09 straight through to a P.I (311) size 20 (Yeah right!)
At the all in I cupped in a small ball of licky at 8 metres and went over with a 3mm punch, just touching bottom. Unbelievably this went under first chuck and a 3oz roach lay in my net, quickly followed by another two of a similar size and a small hybrid. 12oz in the first 15 minutes was a cracking start.
No more bites were coming so I topped up with a marble size ball of bread I lay the rig in, the float settled and again sank out of sight. This time I was attached to a much healthier fish and it was getting a little frantic on my light rig, number two elastic and my three feet width ice cut channel. After some nerve twitching moments a pound plus chub lay in the net! What a bonus, could it get any better? (Oh yes!)
There is something to be said for luck in angling and I will be the first to admit that I get more than my share but not all the time (look at the National!!!). After the initial flurry bites tailed off! I decided a change of bait was in order, so slipped on a fluoro pinky, a quick bite saw several feet of number two elastic streaming up and down under the ice and another battle followed for about five minutes.
This time a chub of about 2lb lay in the net, low and behold this little rascal was foul hooked in its pectoral fin. How I managed to get that out I will never know. (Lucky man!) Anyhow that secured the all important section win as I tipped 4-14-10 onto the scales.
The canal fished well in general given the weather conditions, there were fourteen dry nets in total, 6 in A, 4 in B and 4 in C, far less than those that know the canal best predicted. Section A fished the worst (Goldstone boats).
Sections £30 each
A1-6 Stef Johanson (Eclipse Blue) 0-5-12
A7-13 Kevin O’Hanlon (Birkenhead) 0-1-2 (bits)
B1-6 Paul Dobing (Trabucco Mids VdE) 2-0-6
B7-13 Paul Turner (Maver Tipton) 0-7-7
C1-6 Bruce Birch (Moreton Arms) 2-13-12
C7-13 Damian Parry (Trabucco Mids VdE) 0-6-8
D1-6 Fred Cheetham (Eclipse Green) 2-1-7
D7-13 Gary Lunt (Trabucco Midlands VdE) 3-6-5
E1-6 Frank Belfield (Latecomers) 1-15-7
E7-13 John Brogden (T C Southport) 1-14-7
Team wise we had done well. Mitch returning with a section winning 6lb plus of perch, ending third individual too! Roger Gardom endured a real gripper but did very well to sneak three tiny roach out for good points. John ended up with good points too courtesy of a late roach flurry in the last forty minutes and a defaulted section win.
Ian Morrison lost a 4oz perch at the net that cost him dearly and resulted in a blank. Ian has had a great season so far and luck was just not on his side on this occasion! He has a great angling future ahead of him and will bounce back in the final round I am sure!
We totalled 43 points to take third position on the day and top spot in the overall league! Yet again it is very tight and realistically any of the top four teams could take the honors going into the final round! We will see…
On the individual front Chris Harvey (Trabucco Midlands Van den Eynde) put in a magnificent effort to net 54 roach to 10 ounces on punched bread. Chris was two pegs short of the Farm Bridge and weighed in 7-14-13 to win £100.
Runner-up Mark Roberson (SBS Spa MG) wasn’t too far behind with 6-15-9 of smaller punch roach backed up with a few better samples on caster to win £80.
In third was Steve Mitchell (Ted Carter, Southport) with a rare catch of all small perch for 6-3-6 from the Broken Bridge section. He won £70 leaving myself in fourth with a couple of chub and roach, from the Barn length, for 4-14-10 (£60). Youngster Luke Boden (Warrington) did a top job, netting 4-7-12 of roach and £40 for fifth place.
Teams on the day: (Top 4)
- Trabucco Midlands VdE 54;
- SBS Spa MG 45;
- Ted Carter Southport 43;
- Maver Tipton VdE 36;
League: (Top 6)
- Ted Carter Southport 217;
- Dudley Bait and Tackle 214;
- Maver Tipton Van den Eynde and Trabucco Midlands VdE both 207;
- Eclipse Green 202;
- Eclipse Blue 189;
Individuals Aggregate:
- Paul Turner (Maver Tipton VdE) 59;
- Fred Cheetham (Eclipse Green) 57;
- Dave Brown (Maver Tipton VdE) 53;
- John Garbett (Dudley Bait and Tackle) 52;
- Stef Johanson (Eclipse Blue), Chris Gorrell (Ted Carter Southport) and Ian Morrison (Ted Carter Southport) all 48.
The final round (weather permitting) is on the Shropshire Union Canal at Little Onn. Draw 8ish at the Royal Oak, Church Eaton, ST20 0AJ.
Good luck to all of the lads competing in the final round!
The team has been busy in other events too including the Cudmore teams of four Saturday league. We have entered two teams and in the early stage of the league the teams are third and fourth. Over at Heronbrook Ted Carter Southport Green are currently lying fifth in the league, and hope to improve on this in coming weeks. Pete Richmond being the teams most consistent performer dropping only one point after four matches (Keep it up mate!)
Team stalwart Barry Thomas performed well in the recent 100 plus peg Wigan Infirmary Cup with a bread and caster caught net of roach, skimmers and a hybrid. It was also ironic that Baz was accompanied by two of his former team mates on the podium too! Baz drew a good peg and did the business rotating lines at 6,13 and 16 metres to keep bites coming all day. The winner had a pike of four pound plus in his net too!
- J. Farrell – Liverpool AS – 5lb 5oz 0dr
- B. Thomas – Ted Carter Southport – 5lb 4oz 4dr
- F. Holden – Liverpool AS – 3lb 15oz 4dr
- R. Porter – Mosella Lostock TB – 3lb 15oz 0dr
- D. Martin – Sams Tackle Wigan – 3lb 7oz 0dr
John, Ian and myself have started the Hankat Teams of three league on the Walsall and Birmingham canals. I ended up with 5-9-0 of roach and a 12oz perch for a section win in round one. The fortunes of the other lads were not as good with Ian learning some valuable lessons, finishing half way in his section. Unfortunately for John he had to endure a noisy day as the house owner opposite embarked on a day of DIY, leaving John with a head ache and some early small fish for his efforts!
The team has recently added another member to its squad. Liverpool based commercial angler Jay De Clouet has joined the ranks. Jay has a great knowledge of the commercial circuit in the North West and looks forward to fishing in the North Wales winter league next year! We wish him all the best with the team!
For a bit of fun I have included the awards for 2010 season!
Best Individual Angling Performance –
John Brogden’s section second in this years Division One National on the River Trent (Top performance!)
Best Team Performance –
Middlewich Canal Summer Series, 2nd overall! Top two individuals too!
Funniest Angling Moment –
- Lee Murphy (AKA Jack Sparrow) losing his brolly at Heronbrook, getting the boat out to get it back – whilst Paul Hart was stood on the rope! Then finishing well down in his section to boot (definitely one to forget Smurfs)
- Steve Mitchell’s Brummie accent after the round five match of the Shropshire league (nobody knows to this day what he actually said?)
Another year is nearly up, on behalf of the team I would like to take this opportunity to thank Graham and Ian for their continued sponsorship and support for the team and wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!