Still cold from the overnight frosts, it wasn't going to be a classic and so it proved, with plenty of people struggling for bites. I was through the wires and almost sheltered from the chilly breeze which got up - a bit of the frozen north being carried in on it. If we're being honest, the fishing wasn't very good. A couple of boats which looked like cruise liners came through along with a few others - my fishing was literally wiped out by the first one - The Maggie D, which just looks miles too big for the Rufford Canal; it even had bow-thrusters...
I'd been picking my way through tiny roach as the bites presented themselves, along with the odd better fish including today's solitary caster victim. All the others fell to punch, apart from one billy which went for a piece of worm.
Even though the fishing was pretty crap, it felt good to be on the canal today - I'm sure the garlic-gurgling surrender monkey (he started it with his froggy car) who won the match will agree. Someone called him golden balls - perhaps they had a better view than the rest of us as I can't really confirm it, so I'll bow to their superior knowledge. He had a fair owd trek to his peg, but made it count with good skimmers and roach for his 3lb-odd. I must admit, I didn't stay to find out what the weights were, but I'm sure someone will put it on the SDAA website (sometime this year...)
Apparently, the rest of the land next to the car park is now available for car parking after the owners cut some trees down over Christmas. If today's turn-out is anything to go by, the sooner the road-planings are delivered, the better.
The field will probably be thinned a bit for the next 2-3 months as there are team comps on the Wigan waters, so we'll see how these sweep matches develop as the weeks go by.
1 comment:
I was pike fishing there yesterday and the pole anglers were struggling, onyl a few small roach on punch.
The water was very clear, and I blanked. One fella had a pike about 5 1/2lb, had a gag and really struggled to unhook it, flinching everytime it moved. I had to hold it in the margins for a few seconds before it went off, so wasn't happy about that at all.
If these tench and crucians get established in a few years it should be quite good.
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