David's end peg

Not very much preperation went into this qualifier simply because i’ve been out fishing all over the place for the past few weekends leading up to this. I haven’t visited Newry Canal in some time, in fact the last time I can remember fishing it was one of the Drennan Super League matches when I fished for Lurgan VDE which was nearly 8 years ago maybe more.

The last match that took place on Newry Canal was the King of the Canal 3-4 weeks previous and it was won by Jacko with 22lb and the rest of the top places went to ends pegs which seem to be a regular occurance.

18 pegs were in today with 4 more anglers fishing as end peg blockers (2 at each end). I wasn’t looking for any particular peg or any one of the 3 sections but when peg 10 came out I knew it was going to be tough right in the middle.

In my section today I had:

7. John Heys

8. Dave Slator

9. Gary Radcliffe

10. Myself

11. Tommy Lawton

12. Damien Maddok

It was going to be Long Pole Short Line and whip only for me today, no slider or waggler. I started to plumb up on the long pole and wended up with top 3’s and around 11ft of water @ 8m. I plumbed up right out to 13m and it was 2” shallower.I plumbed right back to the deepest part of my swim which was at 9m and at the bottom of the main slope/drop off. I set up a 5m whip also which was 6” shallower than my main line.

Plan of Attack:

I was going to base my main line around the 9m line. I was also going to have a 13m line incase the fish backed off or if it was extremely hard. I also would have a whip line for the first 5-10 minutes of the match or incase there were plenty of Roach about.

Groundbait:

For my Main 9m Line: 1.5kg of VDE Special, 1Kg of VDE Black Damp Leem, Sensas Anniseed additive and 100g of Surface Leem.

For my 13m line: 0.5Kg of VDE Secret, 0.5kg of Sensas Gross Gardons Fine, 1Kg of VDE Black Damp Leam.

Whip line would be fed with The same mix as on my 9m line if I needed to start this line.

Rigs:

4 top 3’s and an extra cupping kit went up. A Trabucco RED One 1g for laying on bottom 3” and for holding back against any tow. 1g Colmic Cosmo’s and Sensas Auchy’s for fishing from 2”-18” off bottom. 5m Whip also had a Colmic Cosmo 1g starting 2” off bottom. 0.08mm hooklengths to size 22 & 20 B511’s.

At the 5 minute prebait period, I cupped in 5 balls of my Special Mix into my 9m line. I contained a pinch of hemp and 20 odd pinkies. I then cupped in 2 balls of my Secret Mix into my 13m line. It contained a pinch of hemp and a pinch of Caster for the Hybrids if they turned up.

At the all in I started staright away on the 9m line with a 2” off bottom rig. I can’t remember if I caught straight away but it was a slowish start. No indications on the 5m whip for the minute or 2 that I tried it so it was back out to the 9m line to work at it and extract whatever was in my swim.

The first 2 hours were slow but steady, I was having to work the hookbait, letting the tow gradually take it through and also had a few fish holding back against the tow and then letting it go which usually got an indication with the slight movement. Every bite I had was positive and I hadn’t missed or lost a fish during the first 2 hours. I was having to top up with a ball every 45 minutes to keep the small roach interested. I was catching better at 4-6” off bottom.

The last 2 hours went downhill somewhat. I started to miss bites from very small roach and I went for 45 minutes with only 1 fish going into the last hour. A look on my 13m line produced nothing at all, and no indications on my 5m whip line either. It was back to the 9m line and trying to work out where the fish had gone. I managed 2 Perch around 1-2oz coming into the last hour which suggested that the roach had either moved to a different level in the water or they had moved out altogether.

During the last hour I had figured out that by cupping in a ball there would be a few fish there straight away in the colum of cloud that it was giving off. I worked with this and ended up cupping in every 10 minutes for the last hour t get bites and also the biggest fish of the day which was a 4oz Roach.

I had a late run of 8-10 small Roach during the last 30 minutes to end with 43 fish.

The section fished hard, Tommy to my left struggle for most of the day. Gary to my right caught steady enough to end up with 44 fish caught nearly 2ft off bottom.

The scales came to me before they got to Gary with 500g odd leading the section by Damien Maddok. My 43 fish put 1Kilo 150g on the scales which I was happy enough with but knew it was going to be tight with Gary. Gary was next and his 44 fish brought the scales around to 1Kilo 150g also which ended up both of us joint winners of the middle section.

That’s 4 Qualifers over so far and i’ve had 1pt, 3pts, 3pts & a 6pts which has left me standing 5th overall. There are 2 more Qualifiers to go, both on the Lower Bann @ Portglenone and there also 2 droppers.