2010 Sam's Tackle Autumn League: Round 2 - Heaton's Bridge to Pinfold Lane (88 pegs)

After the torrential rain at Adlington in round 1 a fortnight ago, we were all hoping for less inclement conditions for round 2.  Sadly, it proved not to be the case as the 88 weary souls who fished between the S-bends on the piggery side of Heatons Bridge and Pinfold Lane got another degging.

I predicted as long ago as the draw at last Wednesday's flyer that I'd end up under the trees behind the caravans by the culvert and sure enough I got landed with peg C10 which put me 2 pegs from the exact spot.  It was a struggle & no mistake.  A couple of punch roach early on weren't followed by more of the same and the stink line over by the boat wasn't producing anything of substance either.  I kept topping-up the worm line down the track, but a couple of small billies and a tommy were all that came from there for the much of the match.  

Glyn Jones was catching small stuff all the way through the match on one side and Banksy had a day off from the graffiti art and was proper tonking me on the other.  He caught steadily from the off and was at least 4lb ahead of me up to the last half hour.  He'd caught several net roach ont themp from right under the far bank and was looking like having a good net of them until a couple of space cadets from the caravan park walked up the bank and attempted to setup their Argos kit less than 12 inches from Banksy's target area.

Needless to say, the hemp roach vanished and Paul wasn't happy.  I wasn't either when they walked to the other end of the boat and tried setting up closer to me - some folk just don't take the hint, do they??

All the way through the match, the pike had been patrolling in front of us - I had long strings of bubbles appearing all along the boat in front of me and there were several angry swirls with fry scattering in all directions.  Banksy had one strike at a gonk he'd hooked early on which was a big fish and Glyn had one in his swim which virtually finished his match.

As the match drew to a close, I stuck it out on the snig line and was rewarded with a billy which looked for all the world like it was a bite from a snig at first.  I went sraight back over the same line and five minutes from the all-out, I struck at what looked a certain perch bite only to be met by a snig over a pound.  Persistance eventually paid, but it was too little too late.

The scales told the only story worth reading which said that Steve Powley had bagged the section (and match) with a fine net of silvers from the far end of the section for 7lb-odd.  Dave Trafford wasn't far off with a big 5lb from the end peg and in-between them & me there were loads of 3lbs with the odd struggler.  We got to Glyn and I thought he'd well & truly done me with his 2-14-4, but when I tipped mine in the basket I was surprised to see the beam settle on 2-13-1 - that snig added some respectibility to my weight but didn't exactly spare me many blushes.  Banksy took second in the section (and subsequently the match) with 5-14-summat and from there it was more 3s and big 2s including Micky Maggot who ounced me from C4.

Hindley took the day's spoils with a brilliant 20pts, so we'll await the overall numbers when they appear on the WDAA website later in the week.

SOAPBOX

Nowt much really, apart from being completely baffled by people who will go out of their way to avoid paying a quid to park on a pub car park next to the canal - even when that quid goes to charity.  Instead, they park a quarter of a mile up the road, even when the car park (30 yards from the cut) is empty.  This perhaps explains why pubs won't open for us, the distances from HQs to venues are getting longer & longer and  starts are being delayed because people can't get to their pegs in time.   

Back for another one of Steve's proper fry-ups at the Slipway next week - followed by 5 hours of fun somewhere between Spencer's Bridge and Wheat Lane. (get that goat's knee polished...)

Keep smiling - back inside to Mr & Mrs Lovejoy...