ULC – Match 6, 14.07.13, Upper Pound

The Upper Pound is a stretch of the old Sankey canal that has been blocked off and it contains about 100 pegs.
Weather: Sunny, 25C, Wind 7mph
This was the 2nd of the 3 canals we have this year and if you had read my last canal blog you will know I don’t like fishing them much. Reluctantly I set about changing some elastics the night before, but unfortunately when I looked in my tin of elastics I realised the lightest one I has was a 6-10 middy shockcore, so that’s what it would have to be and I set about changing just the one top kit.
My wife Chrissi actually won this match the last time we fished it 2 years ago, pipping me by 3oz with a weight of 5lb 11oz.

Now this match is usually won by someone sitting it out for the big fish, with there being large tench, bream and carp to be had. The trouble is this is a bit of gamble because this tactic can easily result in a blank if the fish don’t turn up and as I was just 3 points behind in the overall averages I didn’t want to take the risk of blowing my chance of winning the averages.

I had decided that like last time I would sit it out on pellet for an hour before targeting the very small silvers.

As there was only to be 9 of us the match secretary had said that we can fish wherever we wanted on the stretch and he advised that the pegs from 30 upwards had been fishing well, so this is where we chose to fish on the day.

Before the draw I helped Brian peg out and in doing so I did notice that pegs 4 and 5 looked good, with there being what looked like a large shaded basin type area to fish in. So as well as wanting the end pegs these were the other 2 pegs I wanted. I drew peg 8 and the missus was next to me on end peg 9.

Now before I go in to detail of the match I must let you know that this stretch is vey popular for cyclists and walkers and for the entire match you are constantly in and out accommodating them. (well over 100 walkers/cyclists). They have just as much right to the towpath as we anglers, so I just have to accept that this is a bad choice for a match.

I set up two rigs:
4 x 14 karpa tricky to .13 powerline. .13 hooklength to B911 16 set at 5ft deep to black hydro. This would be used to fish at 14m against the lillies and 16m to an overhanging tree at the far bank.
4 x 14 Karpa lake to .09 poweline, .08 hooklength to drennan silverfish match 20 set at 5ft to yellow middy shockcore. This line was for 8m fishing pinky.

On the all in I cupped half a 250ml pot of choppy on the 14m line and then I went on the 16m line with a 4ml expander and a small tosspot of expanders and micros. I gave this line and the choppy line a full hour and but no large fish were to be had, I was basically getting bites of really small skimmers which at 16m and black hydro were hard to keep on the hook.

Meanwhile Ray next to me had already landed a bream and a carp fishing at about 8m on choppy. I decided I could not play the waiting game anymore I decided to come short and fish for small silvers, hoping to add one or two bonus skimmers. I would ship out, feed 10 pinkies and usually hit a bite on the drop. Well for the rest of the match I caught steadily but the fish were averaging 20 to the pound, I stuck with it and ended up with 5lb 4oz for third place.

Ray Naylor took the honours by landing a bream in the last 15 minutes for a weight of 9lb 6oz, John Grimshaw was second with 8lb 5oz. I was 3rd, Chrissi was 4th and Colin was 5th.

In hindsight I don’t think I would have done much different, except maybe fishing a shallow rig on pinkie as most fish were hooked half way down on the drop. I decided against this during the match as I was catching on most put ins and I wanted the option of letting my rig settle at 2 inch over depth hoping to get a bonus skimmer. I am fairly satisfied with 3rd place as my tactics on canals is to fish for a place and not play the big fish gamble.

At this point Colin is winning the averages with me just 1 point behind and John Grimshaw a point behind me. Timmy has slipped away a little due to him having to miss this match and although we can discount 1 match he already had a 10 pointer to his name. I think I will be missing the next canal if I can get an extra day at Whiteacres in September. We now have 3 commercials on the run so I am looking to go on a run and get a few point lead before I miss the canal in September.

Tight lines