Match Report

We had to move from our expected venue of Lakeside to the Chichester Canal. Our initial intention was to fish the section going away from the city from Hunston bridge but our earliest arrivals noted a fair number of anglers already on that section. So just for a change we decided to fish from immediately below the bridge back towards the city.

It was good to see Nick Wren back a relative newcomer to our club matches Nick fished some of the early season matches with some success. We were without one or two of our normal stalwarts who had duties elsewhere so numbers were thin.

Everyone started off catching fish down the middle on maggot or caster and these fish continued to come quite freely until the boat went through for the first time. The inevitable ‘stir up’ tends to put the fish down for a while and it is always worth trying an inside line at this point. Steve S found roach and the odd skimmer at about 4 metres on the edge of the inside shelf next to a patch of lilies and these fish remained relatively undisturbed by the boat traffic. A switch to pinkie on a smaller hook also increased the bite rate although the bites were quite shy and the float had to be really dotted down well. Keith H favoured going back to the middle line as he had no inside features to hold fish and again found that a swap to pinkie kept the bites coming. Other anglers who only had maggot with them found that the bites were harder to come by as the match progressed.

Although not realising it Steve and Keith were obviously neck and neck throughout the match because when it came to the weigh in their weights could not be separated by Vince who gave them each 7 – 0 – 0. Just to make Keith feel a bit better Steve reported losing a fish just on the whistle which would presumably have just given him the match – it happens to us all! John Savage wasn’t that far behind in 3rd place with 6 – 3 – 0.

Many thanks to Vince who came along and weighed us in. Unfortunately I didn’t have a chance to get my camera out so no pictures I’m afraid.