Mossela NW League, round 2 :)

And so it came to pass that we found ourselves a bit further up the Rufford Arm for today's second round of the Mossela 'Little Red Men' league. The day kicked off with one of Graham's top brekkies at the Slipway in Burscough, for four quid it must be the best around 'ere. The draw was done and off we trudged to our pegs. Considering how cold it had been for two nights on the trot, surprisingly there was no lid on t'cut and as the day wore on the sun bobbed in and out and a breeze got up so I doubt there'll be any ice breakin' to be done just yet. I nipped up to Lock Lane to drop off the Warrior then I headed back to Spark Bridge to suss out C section where I would be for the next few hours. The picture below was taken a couple of years back in the summer months but the canal never changes and I was on C3 which was past the boat and beyond the wires.

A mountain goat would have struggled to get down to the tow path but I managed it unscathed and trolley intact then walked towards my peg. I passed End-peg, El Nino and George Doors, all of whom were happy with their draw. The canal looked sock on but as I walked on the features became less and less and the canal opened up a bit but still looked as though we would be in for a good day. You can't fail to catch with the little red men can you?
When I got to my peg I had Damo on my right then Mark 'Grizzly' Adams on the end peg. I set up half a dozen rigs to cater for bloodworm, bread, shell and wazzum, the 'all-in' sounded and we're off.
That was at 10.00 am and at 1.15 pm I hadn't had a sniff. Grizzly had somehow snaffled one small roach and Damo hadn't had a bite either. Leesy on my left had caught one or two see-through roach. Yep, it was harder than a herd of billy goats knees :)
Well, what can you do? I just kept going round my lines in the hope that eventually summat would happen and lo and behold at bang on 1.15 my float dipped and I was into a fish. It was a roach of about an ounce and it fell for a single tiny bloodworm. For the next five or six chucks I bagged. I managed five of the little blighters, then as soon as they'd arrived they'd gone again. I have to admit I gave Damo a bit of stick, hehe :) It was lookin' like I wouldn't be last in section after all. After that few minutes of action I ran a single red man over my far line and would you believe it the old quill went under again. This time however I'm attached to a zoo creature. Up and down the cut it swam, never really coming up off the bottom, it bottomed out my 3's lacky and I wondered how long my tiny hook and pound bottom would last. Was it a pit-bull-billy, was it a pike or could it be a big bream or hybrid. Oh dear me, I cried, the line went slack and I'll never know what it was 'cos it had broke me. 'Bother' I said quietly :) I think it was probably a pike 'cos Leesy had landed one earlier and I know there are lots about in the whole of the Rufford arm. I would have been pig sick had I seen it and it had been a big billy or something else other than a pike, but as I said, I'll never know.
So that was that, Mark weighed 3 oz odd and just drammed Damo who miraculously winkled out two little roach at the death. I weighed 0-5-10 to just do Leesy who had 0-5-4 so I rescued a plumb last in section to finish with seven points. We simply drew at the wrong end, every body up the other end bagged and the section was won by George Doors with a good 4 lb plus. Funny 'cos the Warrior weighed almost 4 lb in his section and ended up with 7 points same as me so you can see how well that section fished too. Twirler was up in that section and won it and the match with 7-10-0 with Dave Wells in second with 5-7-0. There were a couple more 5's then lots of 4's and 3's. Overall it fished really well, unless you were at the back end of C section!
Team wise our Standish Black did the biz once again and stormed it with 12 points and now sit firmly on top of the league. I've not got last weeks' result yet but when I do I'll put the league table up. I won't mention Standish Red this week, hehe :)
Just finally before I sign off there was quite a bit of chat going on today about winter leagues and stuff for next year. As we know the canal leagues are dwindling but the commercial leagues round our area aren't really taking off as expected either. There are loads of good teams in the NW so someone suggested we all get together and think about having one big league and stage three matches on t'cut and three on a commercial. Now that's something to consider which may appeal to all? What do you think? I'll put a poll up.
So 'till next time .... tight lines :)