Time for something different

After a coupe of awful matches it was time for Team Kavo to get back out and enjoy some
pleasure fishing. We decided to head to Athy to fish a well known canal stretch and I was planning on fishing rod and reel for the day. I've never really fished a running float and I know it's one part of my fishng that
I'd like to be better at.
Rob was on his trusty pole and started off in the usual way down there and balled it in, big time.
After an hour and only a couple of fish to show for it, it just wasn't happening. He tried a couple of different
rigs and floats but nothng seemed to make any difference.
I wasn't having much luck either and was struggling a bit with the stick float but I was figuring it out slowly.
It's become a very very popular venue this and no wonder with some great bags being the norm,
By mid morning it was like O'Connell street in the rush hour. Cars all over the place, anglers every few yards
and then an oile delivery truck turns up and has to get passed us all. Time to go we said so off to the river
a bit further down the road to Carlow.
On the way we decided we'd just have a couple of hours of Rob on rod and reel. We havn't given this
enough time to date but this year is the year for him to leave the pole at home and get going
with some different skills. We settled in a lovely spot, just sat on the bank and had cast after cast
with a stck float and let it run down the river. It was a lovely sunny day so everything was looking spring like.
Thats great but it does nothing for the fishing and with a wind constantly blowing the float towards the
near bank it wasn;t the best scenario. We stuck at it for a couple of hours and by the end of it Rob's
casting was getting better and better. Each cast was followed with a pouchfull of mags and all though we
wanted to practise more than we wanted to catch we still tried to make sure that whatever we did would improve his chances of getting a fish. Changes of depth, upping and lowering the number of freebies that went in with each run through didn't seem to make much of a difference.
We'd been at it for a while when eventually on one of the runs down the swim. the float finally went under.
He struck and after a few short seconds had his first fish on a stick float, well pleased for him.

Lord it ain't easy.........

After a few really good weeks when things had been going quite well. It was time for a couple of matches
and I was feeling good about my fishing. The first was on The Boyle Canal, a venue I knew very little about.
As it goes I still know very little about it as I had so little action. It was so bad I actually packed up with 45 mins to go and went to talk to the other lads. That was a first for me and something I'd never felt like doing before. Gary on my right and Shane on my left had had very little aswell and it seemed they just weren't
in front of us. The three lads on pegs 1,2, & 3 had a slow start, so slow Shane Dunne was up for a walk around after 30 minutes. The second half of the match saw things improve down that end and the three
of them finished 1st, 2nd & 3rd. I was delighted to see the end of this one.

The following week saw me on the road again but this time closer to home and to a venue I know
quite well. Yes it's an Enfield Club match so off down to the carpark for the usual pre match banter.
I really enjoy fishing there, more often than not the fishing isn't great but there is a good atmosphere
before, during and after their matches.
The section used was where I'd had some success in the Winter league so as we drove over to it
I was happy enough, even with a duff draw slap bang in the midde.
This one turned out to be a complete disaster for 15 of the 16 competitors. We've all fished matches
where theres been a few dry nets but 15 out of 16 !!!!
Brian O Donoghue winkled out a roach that was smaller than my little finger and took the honours.
It was another one of those days that reminds you how dodgy it can be fishing on canals.
Theres no doubt that there just wasn't any fish there. We all couldn't have got things that wrong.
To add insult, 10 mins before the all in was called. the wind which was pushing hard from right to left all
day caught hold of my pole and I ended up with a no 4 section snapped clean in two.
At 122 sterling for a replacement, it's time to send a few sections to the UK for repair.

The Marina

Last Saturday saw us head off to a place that Rob had wanted to fish for ages. I think it was a picture
of a decent perch that I had from it early last year that put the idea in his head. Now personally I hate
catching Perch slower to unhook, allways having to change hooklengths. With my match anglers hat

on they slow me down and I hate that.

Recent reports were good, with good bags being taken in matches the previous couple of weeks so it's fair to say we were both looking forward to it. The night before we got news that the river had dropped significantly and therefore the marina had too, so it wasn't going to be great. We toyed with the idea of going somewhere else but decided to stay with the plan, the marina it is.
An early start has us in Carlow at 09.00 hrs, if were after perch we needed worm and lots of it so
Carlow Coarse Angling Supplies was the first stop. A kilo of worm quickly sorted and we're back in the
direction of the venue,
We were lucky enough to get two swims beside each other and set about getting set up.
We both went for two lines, 1 for roach and 1 for perch. These were fed accordingly, the roach line
got fed with groundbait, hemp, caster and mags. The perch lines got chopped worm and caster with no groundbait. Both of us plumbed up at about 10m to find harldy 3 feet of depth, not great.
As the hours passed it became apparent that the "silvers" had in fact moved back in to the main river as all we could get were perch. Fair enough on the specific perch lines but even on what should have been
a roach line we were getting perch.
It was a wee bit slower than we'd both have liked but the sun was shining and it was all
very nice really, mucky but nice. At about 15.00 hrs it was getting very dark and ominous looking clouds
were gathering. We were going to get a soaking but we had said we'd fsh till 16.00 so we kept at it, eejits.
At about 15.40 the heavens opened and we got a 15 minute soaking, all the kit drenched and huridly
packed away in bits. We realised on the way down that we had no scales so agreed we'd use counters
at the end of the day to decide on who had done best, Rob had 29 on his and I had 37 on mine.

Perch...........



And theres more !!!!