“Drawing an end peg brings that extra tingle of excitement!”
FOLLOWING carnage and cancellations due to foul weather, it’s been great to get back into action with my local match league. Swelling to over 30 regulars, the opening fixtures have been more tightly contested than ever.
I didn’t feel match fit for the latest fixture, to put it mildly. Following a cold day’s coaching before, I’d then had a wretched night’s sleep. However, at the draw bag I quickly went from death warmed up to having a spring in my step! Drawing an end peg always brings that extra tingle of excitement. Perhaps ironically, for the guy who has the ‘End Peg’ in this very magazine, I can’t remember the last time this happened.
The only slight drawback was the walk involved. It was a trek of about half-a-mile along the Tiverton Canal at Greenway, and although that was well past the fancied tench swims in the twenties, the far end had recent form for roach.
I was sweating by the time I got there, but in place of the usual pre-match apprehension I couldn’t wait to get cracking. Straight off the whistle, things looked good, too, with plenty of small roach on breadpunch. I must have caught more in the first 40 minutes than I had in my entire previous match.
These canal club matches are always on a knife-edge, however. Just one fish landed or lost can make a vast difference, and the regulars know the place better than their own back yards. With Martin Heard, a few pegs along, landing a tench, and whip fishing maestro Bruce Hunt getting into gear, it was going to be tight.
Halfway through, things felt precarious as bites slowed on the whip and my bonus fish line produced only small perch on worm. One advantage of the end peg, though, is that with that extra space to one side and less rival bait going in, there’s always the chance a bonus fish or two will move into the swim.
With around an hour to go, a funny sort of lift bite had me convinced a tench had arrived. The next moment, elastic hurtling off at breakneck speed suggested pike.
Now, for 99 per cent of match anglers, pike are a pain. However, with our odd local rules, they count! Strange, and even unfair, you might think, but there are merits to this. Most are under two pounds and, while sprats and lures are banned, they do like a worm. And, as they are numerous, it gives every angler an additional shot at a bonus fish. Luck was with me on this occasion and after a couple of nervous minutes I bundled my unexpected gift into the net.
Ultimately, it was tench that had won overall, with Dave Pulman taming over 30lb of them for the win.
Nevertheless, my assorted bits and flukey pike were worth third in a very tough section and eight precious league points.
“After a couple of nervous minutes I bundled my gift pike into the net”