Pewsey Vs Kintbury away leg

Early,ish start to be in Hungerford High St to meet the lads at 07.30.  Whizzed along the A 4 and ten minutes later we were in Kintbury.  Leo had cried off still in too much pain with his bad back, and Spanners was under the thumb this weekend on family duty.

We still had a good turn out of club members and hoped to do the double over Kintbury having beaten them at Ladies Bridge back in October. The stretch were fishing had a calm few pegs with no movement though a bit boily below the lock. Then after about peg 5 the Kennet side stream came in and after all the rain we have had was bombing through right to left.

We did the draw and the rules were re-iterated trout and Pike don't count if you caught trout put them behind you into river not back in Canal.

I drew and faced a long walk to peg 25.  When I got to my peg I sat down disappointed at the lack of options.  I wished I could turn around and fish the river which was only 5 yards  behind me.

It looked fantastic stacks of features a lovely crease off a large slack beautiful clean green colour and a dreamy stick float pace, with Dace topping etc.  Still no use dreaming I suddenly realised that it was a 9 o'clock start and after the long walk  I was not ready again.  The all in was called as I tightened my landing net on and sat down to fish.  Cupped in some ground bait and Leam laced with some lovely squat from Reids Tackle (thanks Christine).

Had Kintburys Pete Whale to my right and Steve Dean to his right. To my left Steve Hiscock and to his left Kev Chubb. Fancied getting one over on Kev the "Bread" as he did me by half an ounce last week; but what mattered was beating Kintbury.  So head down and get on with it.

After fishing a 4 gram flat float to trying hold in the very fast flow. I packed it away and swapped to 8 gram to hold , the fish didn't want it moving so waggler and stick was not productive; and the cage feeder faced a lot of rubbish on the bottom.

Nevertheless I hooked a 2 oz 'er and as I shipped in the elastic went solid and pulled away, damn it PIKE! Coaxed it closer and closer and as I placed the net in he bolted and spat the fish straight into the landing net.

 The match was slow along our straight bit couldn't really tell if Steve Hiscock or Kev the Bread , were catching Pete Whale on my right was having a few and Steve had just lost a trout around 5 lb +.  The ground bait was working slowly but I noted that Pete was catching faster and putting his bait in with a dropper and I noted it was Hemp.

So dug around in the bag and found a tin of hemp and started baiting up.  Using my lovely turned caster (thanks Dave) and hemp. I placed quite a bed of bait down, had I over done it? First put in a the float ripped under, Trout!! 

Then another and another and another. Pete to my right was up and down like a yo yo as well as we put the Trout in the stream behind us. Eight (4 each) in the end.  Perhaps now they were gone the silvers would feed.

However they didn't and I ground out what I could small fish after small fish.  With 45 minutes to go I figured Pete to my right and I were fish for fish.  His bites had dried up as well and I was scratching my head to find a way to get the fish that would put me in front of him.  In the end I added my 16 mtr section to my pole which enabled me to fish at full 16 meters to a over hanging bush. I was at full stretch and suddenly had an attack of cramp!  Agony ensued as I tried every position to get rid of the cramps.  In the end I had to stand and hold the pole in front of me. It paid off though as I scraped a small perch 3 oz and another blade 2 oz.

The all out was shouted and it was clear that the low numbers had fished better particularly the first 4 or 5 in the "canal stretch".  Good Anglers on good pegs not much of a chance for the rest of us.

Pete next to me weighed in for Kintbury and had 1 lb 4 oz 8 dram.  It was going to be tight, and the last two fish in the last half an hour on long pole had done it for me as I pipped him with 1 lb 9 oz.

In fact managed to beat the three to my right and the three to my left including Kev the Bread 1 lb 6 oz 8 dram.

All the best weights came early pegs particularly 1 - 5. The water was calmer there a bit boily in places but fair play to James Carty Mike Marsden and Dave Johnson you still gotta catch them.

Paul Giddings at the other end of my section won our section.  With Kintbury taking the other two sections; but the top Three weights going to Dave Johnson 12.0.0 , James Carty close with 11 - 12 oz, and Mike Marsden next with 9 lb - 10 oz.

Well done Pewsey winning by 61 lb and 1 oz to Kintburys 29 lb and 12 oz 

See you next week for the Pewsey Lake Championship.