Individual League round 5

Well this weekend saw a long awaited return to action after the last 2 weeks had been wiped out by the weather and the matches cancelled. This week was the re arranged Several Fisheries Trophy match,  it also incorporated round 5 of the individual league and was to be fished on the clubs section of the river Welland through Deeping St James. There were 14 anglers at the draw and the venue had been pegged to try and put everyone on fish as the river was low, Gin clear and lacking any real flow with certain areas completely devoid of any fish. I had however visited the river on the Friday afternoon to have a couple of hours and I had managed 2 1/2lb of fish from a swim 2' 6" deep and as clear as tap water so I was reasonably hopeful. 

High Locks at Deeping St James

I was second into the bag and was quite relieved to pull out peg 14 which was one of the 3 best pegs in the match and directly below lock at the top end of the stretch with a good depth of water.
I arrived at the peg and set about tackling up deciding to set up 3 top kits for the pole and a 4 metre whip, the pole was to be fished at 8 metres into 6ft of water with a 0.5g rig set to fish 4 inches off the bottom to avoid the weed and a 4x12 float set at 3ft to fish up in the water. The 3rd rig was set up for a chopped worm swim by a tree to my right and the whip was also set to fish just off the bottom. With the water as clear as it was I planned to start off on punch and take it from there and at the whistle I introduced a ball of bread with some hemp and gravel in it and as soon as the float settled I had my first bite.  My match was under way as I unhooked a 2oz Roach and for the next half an hour it was a fish every put in before I topped up with some more bread. The fish were coming fairly regularly but I was concerned that the other 2 anglers near me were also catching but fishing whips and I thought that they may be able to catch quicker than I was so I kept a close eye on their catch rates. 
On the whole I was keeping up with them which wasn't bad going as I was having to ship and break down the pole and so I decided to stick with it. After 2 hours I had a go for 5 minutes under the tree on worm to see if I could boost my catch with a bonus Perch but nothing showed and so I decided it best to just get my head down and stick with the small Roach on the pole.
In the 3rd hour of the match I kind of lost my rhythm and was loosing ground on the other anglers around me but I finished the last hour strongly and although I wasn't sure if I had done enough to clinch it I though I had probably framed. 


At the weigh in it turned out that most anglers hadn't even had a bite and so it was the 3 of us up by the lock and 1 angler downstream who had caught some better Perch in the running. Anyway the three of us at the locks had all finished within a few ounces of each other with me taking the win with 6lb 1oz of small roach and second place coming of the next peg with 5lb 14oz.
I have been very lucky at the draw bag today with some decent anglers falling by the wayside but I guess its all part of match angling but no complaints from me as the 10 point for the win has put me at the top of the league going into the final round next week.


Next Sundays match is on Ravely Drain which has been fishing very well for small fish of late so I am expecting it to be a fish race but we will see soon enough!