Match Report

Our first evening match was on the Chichester Canal starting from Hunston bridge and going away from the city. Although the weather was sunny it was actually quite cool with a slight breeze. Unfortunately just after the stretch had been pegged the canoe club arrived to do some coaching / lessons just in front of the boathouse on the bend. This meant that we lost our first peg, in retrospect we should probably have pulled the 2nd peg as well as although they had said they wouldn’t get near it some did wander quite close and the fishing was affected. The canal society have done some work along this section to widen the towpath but it is still quite narrow and tends to favour fishing a waggler rather than the pole.

This proved the case for Keith Hughes although after the first hour or so he was seriously considering going home. However with a change in tactics he was able to locate three bream which together with a few bits and pieces gave him a match winning total of 10 – 3 – 0.

Pegged next to Keith was Mark Pantling who started very well on a short pole line but then had a quiet period through the middle of the match before catching a run of eels. Mark’s mixed bag of 6 – 0 – 0 was enough for 2nd place.

Vince also started well although his fish disappeared quite early and again he finished up with a run of eels all of which proved to be exceptionally hard fighting and one in particular was a very decent size. Vince’s eels together with his over bits and pieces totalled 4 – 6 – 0 for 3rd place.