Whitmore East Canal............I think

After missing the last match with Pem, I was really looking to this match but the day could've started a bit better. After oversleeping a bit and forcing myself into a rush to get ready, I then had what we will call a 'maggot incident' in the kitchen that delayed me further. When I eventually got on the road down to pick up Wayne, I'd realised I'd left my trolley at home. So back home I go and eventually we are on the road and heading to the fishery. 

Always one of the highlights of trips to Whitmore and first order of the day was to indulge in one of the full month breakfasts. I think this is one of, if not the best fishery breakfast around. After scoffing that down my mid soon switched from fishing to lying down on the bank with my belt undone but duty called.

The draw put me on peg 1, which was lucky in some respects as I didnt need to drag my gear and a gut full of breakfast a long way. My peg looked ok although it did look like the water level was a bit low as half my near shelf was exposed and plumbing up didn't reveal much better. I decided to focus on 3 lines. Tight across to the bank I manage to find a few areas where one rig set about 8 inches deep would cover all areas. On the slope at about 11 metres and short on 2+2 where one rig set about 2 1/2 foot would do both. Bait wise, I decided to try a mix of marukyu jpellets and Skrill pellets in - mix of 2 and 4 mm. Hook pellets for the day was either jpellets or Skrill soft hookers, JPz or banded hard pellet. I also had a pint of maggot (or what was left of a pint) as a backup option. At the all in I started off fishing the 11metre line and after feeding a small pot of pellets, I went over with a soft hooker. Now these new soft hookers from marukyu are meant to be a 6mm pellet but I think they are a 'big' 6mm so my hope was that the small fish would leave them alone and I'd hopefully be able to pick off the bigger ones.......or at least that was the plan. I didn't have I wait long for indications and a proper bite followed shortly after. Sadly the big fish plan didn't work and what I landed was a tiny roach of about 1.5 inches long. What followed was a run of these small fish, interrupted by just one carp of around 14oz. The small fish were just to difficult to get through and honestly I don't even know how they were doing it, I had a look at the smaller fish and their mouths weren't even big enough to take the pellets, I can only assume they were sucking the flavour out of the pellet and accidentaly pricking themselves on the hook. A change was in order so I dumped another pot of feed in the 11 metre line and had a look across to the far bank. This swim proved a tough nut to crack as a combination of cross winds, and long overhanging grass meant presenting the bait was very difficult and when I did get to present properly there were no signs of activity to keep me interested. I soon abandoned this line and looked short after putting another pot of bait on the 11m line. The short swim was busy enough but once again was plagued by the small fish. I was now beginning to fear that another session similar to our match on old hough, where I couldn't get through the smaller species, was on the cards. Having fed quite heavily on the 11metre line, I decided it was now the time to have a look and this seemed to have done the trick a bit, whilst the bigger carp were not there, I did manage to put some better roach and ide in the net, along with some good skimmers, tench and a lone barbel. Looking around me at this stage, I could see John Ruddy on the next peg had caught well through the match and put a good net of silvers together with a few bonus carp to boost his weight so I knew that I was well behind but to the other side of me I could see that a few of the lads were either about the same or slightly less than me so I was still positive of a decent result and kept plugging away on this line to the end of the match, hoping others has struggled along the way. When the all out sounded, I was guessing I had around 15lb.

In this match I learned a valuable lesson about checking pole elastic. 3 of my top kits, all with the same elastic, had snapped at the connector at some point in the match. 2 luckily enough were whilst I was handling the rigs or pulling out of the grass on the far bank so didn't result in list fish but one sadly did and it was the last fish of the day and what felt by far would have been my biggest. The elastics I had in the kits are ones that I had used all winter and all year so far, so I am under no illusions that the snap was due to fair wear and tear rather than being a poor elastic and in future I will e checking more often.

At the weigh in, early weights would show that it wasn't going to be my day for a decent position as weights of 32lb and 24lb were recorded on the first 2 weighs. A few more in the 20s followed. Around on my section of the lake, weights were a little bit lower and at my peg I managed to put 18lb on the scales. Last to weigh in, John Ruddy recorded 34lb to win the match. Well done John. My weight put me 8th in the match but I managed a controversial section win by default.

Overall, not the greatest days fishing which wasn't helped by the weather but as always, it's good to get out and get on the bank regardless. No weekend off this time and next Saturday, the club are taking on Partridge Lakes Covey 6, a lake  where I am hoping my previous experience on Covey 5, will put me in with a chance of a decent place, we will see.!!