At the weekend I fished the Sensas Challenge match run by Mark Downes on the Gloucester canal, and I must say this was a much better choice of venue than previous years at Packington Summers. The Gloucester Canal has a more uniform bank and a depth that does not vary too much throughout its length which in my opinion makes it a more suitable venue when fishing to CIPS rules.

I practised on Friday with travelling partner Lee Kerry on E section of the match near to the Pilot arms, it was difficult, but I caught a few fish fishing close at 4meters and a few Skimmers on the long pole keeping everything tightly presented with a front rest over cupped-in bait at 13meters. Lee also put up a slider and snared a couple of big Skimmers over Fishmeal Groundbait over to the far side of the canal, so by the end of the session we had formulated some sort of plan. We met up with the rest of our five man team that evening and over a couple of pints discussed tactics, which we hoped would get us a good start in the 4 hour match on Saturday.

Lee drew at the Pilot on peg E7 next to E8 where we had practised , and went to his peg with what we hoped would give him a good result in that section. I drew D13 at Sims bridge and after a long walk, made a quick phone call to Lee, to give him grief for drawing me in a bay!   Sat 3meters back from the anglers either side I began to assess my options on how to fish my peg.  I didn’t fancy my chances of catching short as it plumbed up horrible on the inside and was too deep for Roach. I balled in on this line but pretty much knew it was a non-starter.  The long line was top five deep and apparently, they had caught a few skimmers in this area on the feeder the week before. But of course this isn’t allowed in CIPS rules matches, so the pole was the only method viable to present a still bait for the Skimmers and Bream.

I balled this line with a Leam and Groundbait mix and accurately cupped in 4 balls with a large pole pot of the same mix full of particle baits, casters,dead maggots, pinkies and Joker.  By using the front rest to keep a 1.5g float right on this area of cupped-in bait, I caught a couple of Bream and a big Skimmer.  I also had a few small fish on multiple Bloodworm hook baits to win the Section with 11lb 8oz.  Lee had also had 8lb plus half his weight at 4meters that would have won him the section easily, but he also had a 4lb Bream to annihilate it.  Young James Dent fishing with us had won his section and the match with 17lb but the other two lads had struggled a little leaving us in third place with 16 points.

The next day we had a good chance to win, but unfortunately it all went a little wrong. Lee put in a great performance in B section, catching a match winning 21lb of Bream on the long pole.  This also got him an individual win over the two days, a fantastic result for a real class angler. James did well again 3rd, but the rest of us found it difficult and our thirty nine point total was only good enough for 5th with the team.

I drew in A section, in a shallow part of the canal and really struggled to find any fish.  It was a small fish section with no Bream, and quite honestly, I got the tactics all wrong !  Next to me, Christophe Nouillier fishing for the French team Sensas 28 did a brilliant job catching Bleak and finishing second in section with 7lb.  So next year I will have this covered just in case I’m faced with the same conditions.  Local team Daiwa Gordan League won with 28 points a great result against some stiff opposition.

The fishing was difficult for many anglers, with the poor weather conditions all weekend, the canal backing up and a hard frost on Saturday night.  But I’m still looking forward to next year, and hopefully coming out top on a competition we are overdue to win !