Kennet and Avon Canal - Open

•  Peg 23
• 11lb 14oz
• 4th
• 33 fished

Just started with my new, well old team really, so was very keen on doing well as I have my motivation back.  I was lucky to draw one of the six end pegs on the Marlborough's water, as with any end peg it is well worth having!  I drew Churches which can throw up good weights of skimmers and big perch.  However, the canal has seen a lot of matches recently and was concerned the canal may fish hard again and if the roach don’t feed because of spawning then I/we could be in trouble.  The favoured section was the station as this has been fishing really well for skimmers.

The looked a good colour and I fancied for a few fish, however the moored boat was quite the way down and also the far bank had very little cover with no depth.  Therefore fished 16 meters to my right towards the boat with chop worm and caster, then 11 meters in front of me for roach with squatts and other skimmer line to my left which was groundbait with worms.

I started on my 11 meter line for the first thirty minutes and caught about 6 roach and 4oz skimmer.  A little slow, Dave Johnson next to me had three skimmers for about a pound.  So went of the 16 meter line and the next thirty minutes saw me have a skimmer a chuck (4lb).  So I was pleased with 4lb 8oz within an hour.  Then reefed the long 16 meter line and went of groundbait line to the left which resulted in nothing despite flicking casters over the top.  So put a big pot of worm over the top (no groundbait) and went of squatt line which was stronger, so this line was building in strength.  So went on the hunt for big fish again, and caught 1lb perch over the big pot of worm, then nothing and then reefed again and went on the long line at 16 meters and to my surprise didn’t catch, so continued to change baits and rigs to try and catch but nothing.  

I the roach line was alright but I wasn’t catching fast, maybe 40 fish an hour and not 50 – 70 which is the norm.  The fish were spooking and backing off.   So felt that I needed to catch bigger fish so rotated all my lines and ensured that I primed the big fish which did give me a boost at 2 0’clock with three puts which result in 2lb of perch and again gone.   The big fish never really came back.  So I had 7lb of skimmers and perch and just under 5lb of roach. 

Will go into more detail next week after my super league.

Top 6

1. Chris Ives 14lb 12oz
2. Alan Caldcott 12lb 13oz
3. Richard Head 12lb 1oz
4. Myself 11lb 14oz
5. Paul Passmore 11lb 2oz
6. Geoff Leweondon 10lb 3oz

Roll on next weeks super league

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