Winter Canal Pairs – Final Round at Shardlow
So that's it for another year.
Loughborough Soar Match Group – Winter Canal Pairs
Final round at Shardlow on the Trent and Mersey Canal.
With the draw held at the Shakespeare pub in Shardlow, there was next to no travelling from the draw to the sections, so things kicked off a little later than usual. Draw at 8:45, fishing 10:30–3:30.
A good frost early doors soon lifted as the sun came out around 7:30am — looked like it was shaping up to be a cracking day. The flip side? A busy canal and towpath were almost guaranteed.
The Draw
Jacob drew peg 5, just on the upstream side of Dobson's Boat Yard — a fairly consistent peg, though not a typical winner. I pulled out an end peg 💪 — peg 26, up near the Packhorse Bridge.
Not a bad draw on paper, but it hadn't fared too well in the last round. A narrow peg at around 11 metres that got even narrower the closer it got to the bridge. Boat traffic was always going to be a challenge, and with the locks not far above, the extra tow and backwash could be a real issue. But hey — got to be in it to win it.
Setting Up
I set my stall out with two bread lines — one on the top 5, one at around 9 metres. I also put a groundbait line tight across to the reeds, and a chopped worm and caster line below that, closer to the bridge, just in case there was a perch or a decent skimmer to be had.
The main line was the near bread line, with the groundbait line as the backup if the boats got too much. The idea being that if the fish backed off, I could hopefully get them to settle on the far line, away from the traffic — the way the canal plumbed up, the boat traffic would be closer to my side than across.
Groundbait: Simple — VDE Super Black blended with some of our own Mole Hill, roughly 60/40. Punch groundbait: Spiced Canal Crumb. Nothing complicated.
On the Day
I caught well for most of the match. The biggest headache was the sheer amount of rubbish coming down the canal — rafts of pennywort, reeds, and branches. As it reached my peg it would hang up due to the narrowing, and then when the lock gates opened, the tow was absolutely nuts. Great for clearing the rubbish out of the peg, but it just dragged more down from upstream.
When the tow was running hard there was no way of presenting a rig properly — it would race off to the right for a few minutes, then swing back to the left as the gates closed. 😩
I felt I lost a lot of actual fishing time because of it, but it is what it is — you just have to try and work around it.
The Weigh-In
I put 3lb 14oz on the scales, with the next peg beating me by just 1oz with 3lb 15oz. 🤦🏼♂️ A 4lb 1oz in our section meant I came a close 3rd — fairly happy with that all things considered. The whole section fished well with plenty of weights around the 3lb mark, making it a tight, competitive match.
Jacob weighed in just over 1lb for 3rd in his section. He struggled to keep fish coming and had to settle into trying to catch as many small fish as he could.
Final Standings
That gave us 6 points for the final round and a total of 23 points across the league — good enough for a respectable 5th place overall. With just 6 points separating us from the winners, it was a tight contest at the top all the way through.
Proper enjoyed it. A big thank you to the lads and to Loughborough Soar Match Group for putting it on.
And to my partner Jacob — cracking effort throughout, especially in some tough conditions in the early rounds. Let's see if the Dry Netters can get on that top step next year. 💪
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