This weekend the Sunday open at Hillview was split over canals 2, 3 and 4. I wanted anywhere but canal 2 as this pool has a reputation for switching off in the latter half of the match. So into the draw bag my hand went and I pulled out peg 56, On the 2nd canal!!

But all was not lost. Even though it was going to be tough to beat the other canals 3 and 4, peg 56 was an end peg on canal 2 and a peg I have done well off it in the past. The only problem was this was the shallow end of the pool and with the weather now turning as we were coming into winter, would the fish still be at this end of the pool and not in the deeper other end of the pool? I’d caught well on banded hard pellets off a top kit plus one to my left before so I set that up again but also a soft pellet rig at 2+2 to my right and with temperatures dropping over the last couple of weeks I thought hard pellets may not work and I opted to start on a soft pellet line, feeding micro’s from a cad pot. This line produced straight away with a nice chunky F1 first put in and during the next hour I caught around 20lb of F1’s and Ide with either a 4mm or 6mm Sonubaits Pro Expander before it began to slow down and it was time to move to the hard pellet line where I’d been loose feeding a few hard 6mm’s. Would it still work I thought as the float dipped down and I caught nice 3lb F1. Great I thought hard pellets are still working and I began to catch more F1’s a few small Carp and more Ide and stockie F1’s. I was getting bites all the time but these bites were very slight and I had to be very quick on the strike in complete difference to the soft pellet fishing where you to have to strike very slightly to avoid striking the pellet off the hook on missed bites. This continued for the next 2 hours and at times I was bagging catching some nice fish and I was now building a good weight. Looking down the pool I could see the other anglers were catching but they seemed to be catching the smaller fish over to the far bank and moving around their pegs, Always a good sign I thought as it appeared none of them were getting into a good rhythm.

The switch off

I’d had a good 3 hours catching fish and if it continued there was a good chance of actually winning the match even though the other canals are the place to be. I’d caught well but it needed to continue. Then the big switch off came.

Canal 2 at Hillview is renowned for this and just this canal. You can go from bagging to scratching around for bites and this happened around 2 o’clock. I had anticipated this and I had been feeding the left margin down to the next pallet with 4mm’s and I went there next with soft pellets and micro’s but I only caught one small F1 during a 20 minute spell and having rested the hard pellet line I tried it again but nothing happening. I was on scratching mode now and returned to the soft pellet line hoping to add to my weight. I was happy to catch anything now, even Ide which I did catch a few and some small stockie F1’s. I did add two more decent F1’s until the end of the match though.

Winning the match wasn’t on the cards now but I hoped to pick up the section/pool win and I was first to weigh on canal two. I estimated around 85-90lb in my nets which I hoped may be enough for the section. I actually weighed in 100lb 8oz which was better than a lot of the weights from the other two canals but 150lb was winning and 112lb was 2nd best weight. I was happy to break the tonne anyway and the next best weight on canal 2 was 82lb as I followed the scales down the pool. So I’d won the section and actually ended up 4th overall.

Best rig of the day

This was the hard pellet rig where I caught the bulk of my weight. This was a 4×12 Preston F1 Maggot in 3.5ft of water set up on 0.17mm mainline with strung no. 9’s above a 4 inch cut down size 18 GPM (0.11mm) Preston banded ready rig. Set up on green Preston 11 Dura Slip though a Short kit. 6mm hard pellet hook bait and loose fed 6mm’s over the top.