Little n often

And that's not just referring to the feeding regime.
Last weekend saw us back in Kildare and heading for a repeat visit to last weeks venue.
On arrival we were greeted by a horrible wind blowing waves up the canal in the opposite direction to the flow and a quick look had us deciding on a change of venue to somewhere we hoped would be a bit more sheltered. A couple of miles back to the town, a quick phone call for the access code and we were soon setting up just one swim,  in what we hoped would be a good and more sheltered spot for a few bites.
The venue is well known for it's winter fishing and regularly throws up good bags of good silvers.
Everything we're doing for now is based around 4 hour sessions to CIPS rules and that's for Rob to get used to fishing that time frame.
We took a swim on the far side which was empty and got the pole set up to fish at 9M.
Four balls of Sensas Black Roach and Lake mixed 50 / 50 had a few handfulls of caster mixed in and were cupped in to kick it off. The wind was harder than we thought so a .75gr Tubertini float was chosen and sorted to a top 3 with no 4 elastic fitted. The first 20 minutes didn't see and awful lot happen so we made a few changes as one of the lads right opposite was catching well and we figured if he was we should be too.
A slightly heavier 1gr rig with the same float pattern was introduced, we shallowed up by a couple of inches
and the bites started coming. As soon as we started getting bites we began to feed one handed small balls after every fish and boy did that get them going. Very finicky but regular bites became the norm and allthough we were only getting small roach and dace they were regular and quick enough to keep us busy and happy.
If ever there was a demonstration of the importance of making changes there it was.

Tidy

The bites were coming on every put in at this stage but no sign of any decent stamp fish, perhaps we should have upped the feed and cupped in some more bigger balls but with everything going so well decided not to.
On a blustery day that occaisionally saw the pole being blown hard to the left and pulling the float out of position, it was enough to be getting bites and be able to keep things together.
At some stage we were joined by Ollie and The Carlow Mafia who elected not to fish but to sit and
discuss all matters fishing related. As ever we sorted out all angling problems while Rob kept swinging
roach and dace to hand.

And the crowd cheered on...

With a half hour to go he was on 70 fish and it was a case of ship out, feed one handed ball at the float,
bite, lift and ship back and swing to hand. Credit where it's due it was all very tidy and a decent four hour
practise session on a cold and blustery day ended with 81 fish in the keepnet, good job.
Quote of the day from amongst a load of possible winners goes to Rob, who in an instant answer to a
general question that was something like "whats the problem with match angling" answered "to many auld fellahs standing round talking shite and not actually fishing". nuff said........................

Back on the bank,

The last few months has seen very little happening on the fishing front for Team Kavo but we resolved to put that right this weekend and despite being short on some kit, i.e. we've only got one
pole between us we headed for The Barrow. We're slap bang in the middle of upgrading a lot of our kit, boxes, poles all being upgraded, so I was the designated driver and kit carrier for the day while Rob got to kick off our new year on his new (ish) Rive D36 of all things.
A call to one of the locals had us on the main river at 09.00 but after a biteless couple of hours we
opted for a move and that turned out to be a good call. We gave it a go with various rigs up to and including a 15gr Sensas Flat Float but there was nothing to show for it and happily we've learned to know when things aren't going to happen so we moved.
A couple of miles out the road and we're on one of the overflow canal stretches with time to see
what we could do. The last few weekends had seen a couple of knock ups with some decent winter weights so we were hopefull of getting amongst them.

Didn't take to long to get re set and a .75 comfortable top 3 was soon being plumbed up to the far bank. Bit of inside info was that all the fish were coming off the far bank with nothing getting caught down the track or on an inside line. Theres quite a flow on these canals so am assuming they are staying in the slightly calmer water. Three balls of grounbait were cupped in and from the off decent roach were happily taking 3 pinkies on an 18 hook. It's fair to say were well out of practise and our kit needs some attention but we stumbled along, thrashed a couple of rigs, adapted a couple more, and cursed not having heavier hooks / hooklengths. That said we were getting bites regularly enough and hardly a swinger amongst them, only one in fact, a wee dace.

Another netter,

The few hours flew past, I had a quick dabble myself but in the main it was Robs day and when we packed it in 35 fish, weighed 15lbs 10 ozs. Mainly roach but a couple of dace, skimmers and hybrids were also tempted.

Great Winter fishing,

Good to be back on the bank, all hail The Barrow system,

Getting Close now,

With just a week before the Junior Inter Provincial match and Rob on the Leinster team, we decided on a trip to the venue for a days practise. Inniscarra is a long haul for us, three and a half hours each way so a very early start was called for. That was the first problem we had, I overslept and it was 05.30 before we were on the road. 09.00 and we're parking the car hoping we've got the right place.
Down the hill through the field with the gear and a couple of hours later we're good to go/

Clean comfortable banks, pleanty of room behind and you could almost be on a commercial but we're not. It's the wild open expanse of the Inniscarra waterway. A beautifull spot with some superb fishing and we're there, giving it a go.

We had a plan leaving the house that we'd fish a four hour "match" to CIPS rules and then for a bit of extra enjoyment we'd get the feeder rods out and see what might happen. That was the plan but as is often the case it didn't quite happen.