“Last Wednesday I made the 245 mile trip up North to join my London Central Spreadeagle teammates for the annual individual and team nationals’ event on the Calder and Hebble canal in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Each year the event is held on a different venue as the plan is to cater for all of the teams spread around the country and of course to make sure travelling fair for each of the competing regions. None of us had any previous experience of the Calder and Hebble navigation so we were heading into the event a bit blind to say the least, but with individual on the Friday and the team event on the Saturday, our visit on to Brighouse on Wednesday morning meant we were able to put in a bit of practice to try and sort out the tactics and feeding before the event kicked off.

Like Kossets was good, Pop Shop was one to avoid

Wednesday saw us on a section of the canal called Kossets which as it turned out was the best section on the whole match length of the canal. During my four hour plus practice, I put two tench in the net plus a good bag of roach and perch using big red maggot over chopped worm. I had an estimated 6lbs which we all knew was going to score big points and money in the event itself so I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would draw this section on the Friday. The following day we all lined up on another section called Pop Shop which we were told was fishing the hardest of the match sections and yes the information was correct as it fished rock hard. The canal was like tap water and as I flicked out my bait I could watch my maggots sink down at least three feet, we all knew it was going to be hard going. It was a day to forget as I managed just five perch for just 7 ½ ounces with chopped worm again producing my only bites of the session. As I was hoping to draw Kossets on the day before I was again hoping for a different reason that I would not draw Pop Shop on the team event match on the Saturday, but sadly one of the team had to.

Lack of cover but it all happened for me late

Friday came round quick, and before I knew it I was at the HQ along the canal for the individual draw and when my hand went in I pulled out F17 which put me on the last section at the Flour Mills on peg 17. I had not seen this stretch of the canal before and I walked along the towpath in the direction of my peg I could see that plenty of the pegs had some good inside weed cover. But when I got to my peg just a few strands of reed was on offer, not that encouraging especially as the canal was also clear. With it raining on and off all match and mountain bikers zooming up and down the towpath behind me, the first three hours was a non-event as I did not have a bite to cheer me up.

I stuck to my guns feeding my three lines and when my first bite did come I missed it but after quickly presenting my worm bait back where I had the bite, my float buried and I was swinging in a small perch into my hands. At last a fish, and some twenty minutes later I was repeating the process with another perch. My middle left line finally produced a bite in the shape of a bonus 10 ounce perch which was gratefully received but a few minutes after that fish the key point to my whole match turned upside down when I noticed six to seven bream swim into my peg on the far side of my peg. I added another section onto my pole and swung my rig into the middle of the shoal. I saw one of the fish flash and my first thought was that I had spooked them but when my float lifted out of the water and I struck I was into one of the bream. After a tense minute or so the fish of just over 2lbs was in my net. It was a great feeling as I knew in a space of 40 minutes I had gone from blanking to probably winning the section. At the weigh in, my 3lbs 4ozs was good enough to win the section plus the third best weight of the day with only 4lbs 1oz and 3lbs 12ozs topping me, it was a job well done.

Next time I will report on how the team match panned out the following day.

Tight lines,

Russ Evans.”