MATCH NEWS
When the mudline ran dry, it was time to hunt for fish under the vegetation
Supercup semi-finals – the full stories behind the winning tactics and teams
SEMI-finals for this year’s Bait-Tech Supercup drew to a close with the Northern clash at Cheshire’s Partridge Lakes. In common with the Midlands and Southern matches, the sultry weather saw the F1s of the Covey Canal Lakes in a less than obliging mood for the 72 anglers.
Talk before the match was of which lake would win and that honour went to Canal 6. There, Furness FA man Nathan Stretch took 116-13-0 of carp and F1s to seal the deal by 8lb from Scunthorpe Pisces A skipper Jack Turner on Canal 4. Prison Service North rod Wayne Thompson completed the top three with third from Canal 3 on 106-2-0. These were the only three ton-plus weights of the day. Lancaster-based Nathan was given peg 147 but his heroics proved to be in vain as, sadly, his side ended up 12th on the day.
At the peg
“I fish Partridge regularly and knew that my peg would be up against peg 149, which has been dominating the lake, so second in section would be the best I could hope for if the lake fished to form,” says Nathan.
“Given the number of carp swimming around close to the surface and the hot weather, I got the impression that it would be a hard day. That’s why I also set a rig up to fish just off the edge of a big reed bed where I thought the fish might go and hide under when the temperature really picked up.
“After 90 minutes of fishing pellet over micros and groundbait to the mudline, I’d got 5lb! There just didn’t seem to be any number of fish wanting to feed, even though there were plenty about. That forced me to look in the margins a bit earlier than I’d have liked and there was nothing happening there. Already, Plan B of going to the farbank reeds was going to have to be used.”
Like flicking a light switch
“After two hours I changed to fishing the ‘mong’ rig, which is a short length of line with a weight on it that’s held tight and the pole-tip tapped on the surface.
“Fishing maggot and feeding 20 maggots twice on each drop in, I could get under the overhanging reeds and that’s where the fish were! For the rest of the match I caught from there. It wasn’t hectic and the fish were on the small side at an average of 2lb or 3lb, but I felt it might be harder than a lot expected. Obviously in the bright and hot weather, the fish wanted some shade and cooler water.
“The lake had fished hard and that seemed to be the case on all the waters. My peg had produced 90lb on the open match the day before so 116lb was about right, I guess, but it was still a surprise to win overall when you consider how well Canals 3 and 4 had been fishing.”
The Supercup team battle…
With five places in the final up for grabs and the Partridge Lakes F1s not in the most cooperative of moods, it was very much all to play for on the team front.
Top of the tree was individual runner-up Jack’s Scunthorpe Pisces A team with 21pts, just three clear of Old Hough Fishery, who in turn were two in front of Sixfields Warriors. Completing the final line-up are Prison Service North and Hooks 2 Go, who took third place overall in last year’s final.
Scunthorpe were led by Jack’s sectionwinning performance on Canal 4, backed up handsomely by a third for Dave Lloyd and a section win for Matt York on Canal 6.