Because we couldn't muster a full team for this season's Angling Times Winter League which started today, I was on the club match on the sluice.
It was 'whoppa flask' weather, so the first job after getting to my peg was a brew and a think. It's been over two months since I last fished a match on the sluice, and even longer since i fished this stretch. The water level was down at least 18 inches thanks to the winter levels now in force, so it was head scratching time. It was 13m across to the far margin which made it at least fishable so a rig was put up for that as an option.
The usual butty line was setup and a wassum heavy rig (basically, the canal snig rig - complete with baitdropper for the chopped wassums - full assault.
We were all-in at 9:45 on the button and the first two put-ins on the micro-butty resulted in two micro-roach. I switched to the big butty in the hope that a better stamp of roach was to be had, but nothing stirred. Over to the groundbait line I went and had a go with the shell - again, nothing. As the title implied, this was shaping up to be as hard as a Rhino's bugle.
In went a dropper full of chopped worm at 10m over to my left. The sluice was backing-up with water off the land drains, so there appeared to be a bit of a tow to the left. In went the 2g snig rig with a segment of dendrabena tethered to the bottom with a free-running olivette. Once the tow had straightened the rig, the float dipped slightly and then slid away against the flow. Lifting into the bite, I had the optimistic vision of a nice slab of bream, but the initial darting run and lack of sustained effort gave it away as a Perch. I slid the landing net under it and was quite impressed - at least 10oz.
Out went another dropper loaded with chopped worm, followed by a long, long wait with no fish at the end of it. All the fed lines exhausted, I decided to go right across and fed a fresh line with fluoro-pinkie. Two pots went in and a small roach immediately went for it. Three more followed, without any urgency which left me struggling to make an impression at the end. Looking around me, it seemed that everyone had struggled - Steve to my left had 1lb 10oz and there was a DNW to my right. I weighed in (if only to see how heavy that Perch was) and was suprised to see the scale go round to 1lb - this place is getting worse than the canal!!!
The match was won with 2lb-dead of tiny stuff from the far side (I sussed it miles too late) and second was 1lb 15oz 8dr - close, but not close enough.
Dunno where to go next week - can't quite see it being that hard on there again, but perhaps another venue would be better?
It was 'whoppa flask' weather, so the first job after getting to my peg was a brew and a think. It's been over two months since I last fished a match on the sluice, and even longer since i fished this stretch. The water level was down at least 18 inches thanks to the winter levels now in force, so it was head scratching time. It was 13m across to the far margin which made it at least fishable so a rig was put up for that as an option.
The usual butty line was setup and a wassum heavy rig (basically, the canal snig rig - complete with baitdropper for the chopped wassums - full assault.
We were all-in at 9:45 on the button and the first two put-ins on the micro-butty resulted in two micro-roach. I switched to the big butty in the hope that a better stamp of roach was to be had, but nothing stirred. Over to the groundbait line I went and had a go with the shell - again, nothing. As the title implied, this was shaping up to be as hard as a Rhino's bugle.
In went a dropper full of chopped worm at 10m over to my left. The sluice was backing-up with water off the land drains, so there appeared to be a bit of a tow to the left. In went the 2g snig rig with a segment of dendrabena tethered to the bottom with a free-running olivette. Once the tow had straightened the rig, the float dipped slightly and then slid away against the flow. Lifting into the bite, I had the optimistic vision of a nice slab of bream, but the initial darting run and lack of sustained effort gave it away as a Perch. I slid the landing net under it and was quite impressed - at least 10oz.
Out went another dropper loaded with chopped worm, followed by a long, long wait with no fish at the end of it. All the fed lines exhausted, I decided to go right across and fed a fresh line with fluoro-pinkie. Two pots went in and a small roach immediately went for it. Three more followed, without any urgency which left me struggling to make an impression at the end. Looking around me, it seemed that everyone had struggled - Steve to my left had 1lb 10oz and there was a DNW to my right. I weighed in (if only to see how heavy that Perch was) and was suprised to see the scale go round to 1lb - this place is getting worse than the canal!!!
The match was won with 2lb-dead of tiny stuff from the far side (I sussed it miles too late) and second was 1lb 15oz 8dr - close, but not close enough.
Dunno where to go next week - can't quite see it being that hard on there again, but perhaps another venue would be better?
2 comments:
Happy New Year Mark, how's the Sluices fishing this time of year?
Dunno Pete - it's under an inch & a half of ice at present. Chopped two pegs out on the Three Pools on Tuesday and the first one had frozen over again by the time I'd finished the second one.
I might have another look tomorrow
Happy New Year to you too btw.
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