stevetheangler

On Saturday 18th November I fished a club Fur & Feather competition on one of my clubs’ waters, the River Severn at Hampton Loade. I fished peg 13 which was pegged at the start of the ‘members only’ section of the stretch and which lies downstream of the 2 meadows that day tickets are available for…. but the entire water was closed to non-competitors for the day. Fishing was to be from 0900-1430.

The weather was mild but it also drizzled with unforecast rain for most of the day – and, in fact, I packed up early due to the dampening due to the rain having a cooling factor and the onset of an headache too – plus the fact that after three and a half hours of the five and a half hour match I’d had just one fish – a dace of about 2oz – although I was constantly getting small plucks and sucked maggots on my maggot feedered rod. I also fed bread mash throughout the session and tried bread flake and worm as bait.

Seemingly, I had a good (theoretically) swim – one that had been newly created fairly recently by cutting back vegetation. However, the actual swim wasn’t ideal from a ‘fishing from’ point ….. a small wooden platform that just about accommodated my seat but access to bags, etc meant I had to leave seat and climb ‘steps’ cut into the bank and similarly due to the height above the water I’d have had to climb down ‘steps’ to net sizeable fish and to place in the keepnet – and due to the drizzle these steps were very slippery with mud. And my low chair (actual seat part is <=6” from the ground), tends to tilt forwards on to the front legs when rising from it … and as my legs overhung the platform that tilt threatened to throw me into the water… so leaving seat was subject to a set of contortions that the human body was not designed for..  So I never really settled down in my spot and with the oncoming headache that was enough to send me home early.

Anyway, the winning weight was 9-14 off the end peg (18), boosted by a 5lb+ chub landed with 15 minutes to go, 2nd was 7-15 taken from peg 14 (yep, next peg down from me), with third being 5-01 off peg 9 … section 1-10 was won with 1-15, with 11-18 being won 2-10 from peg 12 (yep, the next peg up from me!).

Oh well, that was yet another foray into match fishing … my ‘once-a-year’ thing …. don’t know why I keep doing it to be honest … just never get settled and keep looking around and thinking ‘that’s a nice looking swim over there, wish I was there…’ or ‘bet the pike are having it at XXX’…. Match fishing for me isn’t in keeping really, well, actually at all, with what I view as the important aspects of ‘fishing’

And no fishing tomorrow (Monday 20th November) either – need to sort/dry tackle and weather is not looking that good – plus some Christmas shopping to be done with Liz so an opportune time to do so rather than have to do it when its better fishing weather. So I’m looking at fishing on Friday 24th next – and which is actually my birthday too!! So maybe the gods will look kindly on me for that day!

UPDATED:
I forgot – Thursday 23rd, Liz and I are off to the Dudley Winter Ales Festival on the night – and usually several ales they have on are over 10% ABV. Which means that with my birthday the following day (Friday 24th), even if I’m sober on the day, that my blood alcohol will be way over the driving limit…. so looks like the Friday session will not be undertaken…. and so Monday 27th will be the next outing.

Harking back to my ‘pole’, well poles its become as I’ve bought an 8 metre whip too. However, I’ve since decided that they are not suitable for the tasks ahead – originally  I was thinking of using just to catch livebait for my piking but now I’ve had added extra  thoughts as to the use – probably use on the canal from time to time. So I’ve just put both current poles up for sale on eBay at less than half what I paid … and ordered a new 8m pole that should meet my requirements fully, possibly with an additional purchase of a spare universal top kit set so that I can have 2 top kits with eg size 8 elastic and 12 or 14 elastic for heavier use..