This Sunday it was off to maldon canal for the final round of the Essex Interclub league (www.essexinterclubleague.co.uk) Our Braintree team have a 4 point lead going into this final round, with Maldon and Does joint 2nd behind us.
Maldon are super consistent on this canal, and anywhere in fact. Being their home water of course we had to get a good result if we were to hold on to our lead.
I drew peg C8, which was just up from the bridge by the car park, my team mate Danny Mason told me this could be a match winner due to some resident bream and skimmers, so at least I had a decent peg for once!
I set up several rigs to cover different areas of the canal, but my main two lines were going to be a 6m bread line and 6meter bloodworm line and 10 and 2. I also had a rig set up for at my feet incase it was hard and I needed to catch a little perch behind my keepnet! And also a chopworm caster line up towards the bridge on the far shelf.
The whistle blew, and I started to catch steadily at 6meters on bread, after 20minutes I was happy enough, I was catching one a chuck so I couldnt be doing much wrong I thought... Well, I looked to my right down the section, and I couldnt see a pole sticking out, strange I thought, I spend a minute or so peering down through the bushes to see if I could see what was going on, and it became apparant that everyone was fishing a whip to hand! I was really annoyed with myself at this point for not considering this option, ive never fished this section before and you dont normally catch to hand, but by the number of anglers fishing this way clearly its how to fish this section!
I straight away started to feed bread short and set up a top kit to fish to hand, as I didn't have a whip on me, I caught straight away, but I wasn't getting the better fish, so I ended up using a top 4 and I got into the better fish. Unfortunately I knew not having a whip was costing me in efficiency, and to top it off when I had a nice 4oz roach coming to the net a bloody pike took it, this pike ended up staying for the long haul aswell and I lost several decent fish to it, If I had a whip I could be much quicker in striking and lifting the fish out of the water away from Mr pike! It really was peeing me off as every time I would get into a rhythm it went through the swim and would unsettle the fish for 10minutes.
It slowed down after 2 hours, and everyone was then on the longer poles catching what they can, this is when I managed to claw my way back into the section as I was catching quicker than those I could see.
I ended the day with 113fish, knowing I could have probably had over 150 if id had a whip, and who knows how many more if Mr Pike didn't show up! No bream or skimmers turned up either! Unfortunately that's the name of the game though, and I ended up weighing 3-11-8 for 5th in the section out of 10, the section was won with 5lb 8. I left my peg frustrated that I hadn't made the most of it on the day, I felt as though it would have been worth 7 or 8lb had things gone to plan, and if I could do it again im sure I could achieve this! But, that's my own inexperience, and now I have learnt, so in years to come I will always be prepared for this scenario, but knowing my luck I wont draw this area again! The positive I take from this is that I am learning from my mistakes, I spend hours running through how I have fished, how I can improve, and how others have fished and done well, not doing this would defeat the object of being a match fisherman in my opinion, so always make sure you quiz the people who have won to find out what baits and tactics were used!
When I got back to the car park I met my team mates to find 4 of them had won their sections! With my 6 points and another team mates 4 points we had a total of 50 points, which we felt was probably unbeatable, and certainly not a blow out so we had won the league for sure.
The results were called out, we won on the day, beating Maldon who finished 2nd. We won the overall league by 5 points, and our team member Danny Mason has won the individual league and also the knockout cup. I finished joint 6th in the end in the overall league, which although if my day had gone to plan I could have been 2nd, I was still happy with this being my first full season on the Interclub team, learning new waters along the way and beating some quality anglers. My target for next season is simply to finish higher up in the table than this year, and also help Braintree defend the league title! Im already looking forward to next year, Im confident I can do well as I now have experience of fishing the waters, which as shown in my last match can help a great deal!
Next week im off to Rayne lodge top lake on Saturday for an open match, id normally be looking forward to this but with the cold weather coming in I will need to have my drawing arm in gear as you need a flyer when its cold! Then Sunday im off to the river Wid, last year I caught 2 stickleback, the year before I had a 4lb bag of roach, and the year before I had 3 chub for 7lb. Lets hope this year is a good year or I may not visit this stretch of river again, id rather go to an open match or have a days practice than catch silly stickleback, thats just not fishing!
Thanks for reading my blog, come back next week to see how I get on!
Tight lines,
Reece Hearn
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