David's end peg

A 2 hour drive home yesterday and back again this morning saw me back at the Boyle Canal. I was slightly confident this morning after yesterdays result so I was looking forward to the fishing again.

Three 6 peg sections were in today, this time with one 6 peg section to the right of the bridge and the other two 6 pegs sections to the left of the bridge. The pegging was slightly different today with 30 paces between each peg as opposed to 25 paces yesterday. I was nearly last to draw as usual and out came peg 17, not that far away from where Bob Hulme won the overall yesterday.

In my section today thee was:

14.  Phill Walton

15.  Brian Bohan

16.  Bob Hulme

17.  Myself

18.  Fintan Brennan

19.  Tommy Dowd

20.  John Brown (blocker)

With last years results going downhill on the 2nd day here, I was geared up for a tougher day with hoperfully over 1Kg being the target. The Bloodworm & Joker was coming out today.

Rigs:

Exactly the same as yesterday but with another slightly lighter 1g Sensas Auchy for fishing further up in the water.

Groundbait:

Leftover from yesterday: 1 part VDE Secret, 1 part Special, 1 part Superblack, 2 parts VDE Black Damp Leem.

I used damp leam to seperate 1/4kg of Joker and kept this in a seperate bucket to add to my groundbait mix when I was ready to feed.

Plan of attack:

I was going to take it easy today and let the joker draw in whatever fish were in my swim.

10 Minute Prebait:

I cupped in 4 balls which contained a good pinch of Joker, a pinch of hemp again and half a dozen casters. I started to loosfeed caster again today but less frequently than yesterday.

All in:

It was a slower start than yesterday, I started to catch early but I was having to wait on bites. I started on single pinkie 2” off bottom. By the time I was on 10 fish, Bob beside me was on 18. He had fed quite a bit at the start and was fishing bloodworm on the hook. I started to catch the odd 1oz Roach which seemed bigger than the stamp Bob was catching on Bloodworm but it was still alot slower than yesterday.

After an hour and a half, I think I was on 25 fish whilst Bob was way ahead on 40 fish. Next drop in on single fluro Pinkie saw me attached to a 6oz Roach which bumped my weight up.

After the half way stage, Bob started to slow while I started to catch slightly faster. I was still catching slower than yesterday but I was getting some nice 1.5oz Roach regulary. Fintan was catching steady past the half way stage and was catching faster than Bob had been.

I was behind Fintan and Bob at this stage and I didn’t think I would be able to catch enough to catch up. I took a deceision to cup in six small 1 handed balls of groundbait and joker in an attempt to create a new leese of life in my swim. It would either work or else it would kill the swim.

Going into the last hour I was on 60 fish whilst Fintan admitted to 70 odd and Bob on 80 odd. I knew my 6oz Roach would be worth 10 small fish and I thought my stamp were bigger than Bob’s and maybe Fintans but I wasn’t watching him requlary to see what he was catching. I started to think positive because I thought both Fintan and Bob had more than they actually had.

I started to put a run of fish together and started to catch up with Bob & Fintan but it wasn’t quite enough come the final whiltle. At the all out, I finished up on 78 fish. Fintan had 89 and Bob had 104.

Tommy Dowd was the first in the section to weigh in with 67 fish for 1Kg 880g. Fintan was next with his 89 fish that registered 2Kilo 530g. I knew i’d have something similar to yesterday, although not as many fish but some were bigger. The scales only managed to go round to 2Kilo 100g to leave me with the same weight as yesterday. Bob was next and his 104 smaller fish put 2Kg 300g on the scales to prove that it was a good fought section. Brian was next with 1Kg 500g and then Phil Walton with 1Kg 900g.

I ended up 3rd in my section, which means that I didn’t improve on my overall points but at least it would bump up my overall weight.

I don’t know if the Bloodworm & Joker were worth it today. I couldn’t help think that if I had of fished to the same plan as yesterday then I could have done better. But then again I thought it was going to be alot harder today but in fact it fished slightly better for most bar the section to the right of the bridge.

Top weight today was Rory Dunne with 2Kg 580g which give him his 2nd section win for the 2nd day running. Garry Radcliffe won a very hard section to the right of the bridge with 40 odd fish for 800g on the peg nearest the bridge.

That’s the qualifiers for the 2012 teams over for this year and i’ve ended up joint 2nd overall with Bob Hulme. That’s alot better result than I could have hoped for at the start of the qualifiers and i’ve learn’t a few things along the way.

Last up this year is the rest of the Sensas Erne Anglers Float Only Winter League.