Roger reels in a big win at scales

SUNDAY saw Shackerstone AC stage their now annual End of Season open match fished on the Woodside length of the Ashby canal, where there was fairly good protection from the strong winds.

A good turnout saw 16 anglers battle it out over the five-hour competition and the results, whilst very disappointing for some who never even had one bite as the fish were very tightly shoaled up, did see the closest of finishes to the season.

The winner on peg 14 was Hinckley angler Roger Benn who fed liquidised bread to the far shelf and fished punch on the hook for the whole match. Setting off like a train he was soon catching some lovely roach to 6ozs and skimmers to 8ozs. He carried on catching fish at regular intervals and when they deserted him, simply re-feeding brought them back to carry on catching. At the scales he weighed 4lbs 4ozs.

Second place went to Ashby angler Ian Plant on peg 12 who, like the winner, fished exactly the same. He had to wait a while before his fish arrived and setting himself a target of 30, he began steadily netting small roach, rudd and skimmers to 6ozs. When they dried up, he re-fed then switched to worm down the track and managed a couple of small perch. As the finish time drew near he managed five fish in the last ten minutes to end agonisingly short with 4lbs 3ozs.

Third place from peg 15 was Barwell angler John Gamble who again fed and fished bread to the far ledge. He also managed to catch roach and skimmers on and off and even a mink on the far bank didn’t deter his fish to see him end with 3lbs 14ozs. Fourth place went to another Hinckley angler Doug Dimbleby on peg 9, who also fed and fished his favourite bread attack. Sadly for him fish were very hard to find and he struggled throughout. He did manage a few small roach and skimmers to end with 1lb 4ozs. The section winners - pegs 1-8 were Nuneaton angler Phil Baker on peg 8 who fished bread to the far shelf to catch small roach for 1lb 3.5ozs, while pegs 9-16 was won by another Hinckley angler Kev Milne on peg 16, who struggled throughout but did manage one very nice roach around the 10oz mark on maggot down the track plus a small perch or two to end with 1lb 8drams.

All canal anglers please now note - fishing on the Ashby canal is now banned until June 16 for the traditional close season as this part of the canal is a designated SSSI. Bailiffs will patrol and anyone found fishing out of season which is an offence contrary to the Salmon & Freshwater Fisheries Act could face a fine of up to £50,000.