Unusually for me I’ll start with a rant
Just who the crappity smack pegged this one out ??????????
Oh just remembered…………. it was me and Heinzer………
well I say me, I really just plodded along side him and Dead Peg cussing and chuntering at the possible long work for anyone drawing a high no as he spaced ‘em out a bit. 
There was going to be no chance today of leaning over and pinching a sarnie out of someone’s carryall 
Back at the bridge for the draw and for a minute we had to do a head count to check that we’d got sufficient pegs in as a couple of suspected potential casualties had put in an appearance
- but we were aok with a final tally of 18 of us.Whilst pegging out I’d indicated that pegs 9 & 10 would do me as the ‘limit’ that my legs would take me - why oh why didn’t I feign dicky knee syndrome
and take one of the 6 ‘short walk’ pegs put in for the wounded walking? The draw came and went and true to form I found myself on peg 19 
Now to be honest I’ve never fished that far up the cut - apart from years ago in my youth when I probably either didn’t carry half as much swag or I’d got the carrying capabilities of a pack hoss. Always fancied it - apart from that walk that is.
So I wasn’t a happy bunny…………but fortune always favours the brave, or is it the sun shines on the righteous - might be both but looking down on the draw sheet I found I’d got Bullah for company on end peg 20.
Bullah was all geared up for a walk, but I managed to convince him it would be quicker for him to dismantle his box and trolly, reload his car and drive to the next bridge…………..with me in tow of course. 
With that little ‘task’ successfully completed, off I headed with Bullah - ta mate
Arriving at my peg from the opposite end, all were already at their pegs setting up. It didn’t take me too long to set up the customary 4 rigs I tend to use and out with the camera for a snap or two (ps - click on em to blow em up in size)
Here’s my peg - and nope I never caught against that nice looking folliage
To my right looking ‘back’ at the gang’
And end peg Bullah to my left
Right 5 mins to go let’s have a nicotine injection. Disaster - no lighter.
A plea down the bank for someone to come forth with a box of matches or a spare lighter didn’t prove to work - I was in trouble, now I can manage (just about) a five hour flight provided I have a kip on the way without a f*g, but just couldn’t envisage lasting 5 hours, plus packing up/weighing in time without one. I must have left it in Bullah’s car. It was almost the off, but sod the match, the nicotine withdrawal symptoms were far more pressing than any desire to put that opening salvo of feed in or the match itself.
So off I traipsed, relieved Bullah of his car keys and traipsed off to recover the said missing lighter.
Only I couldn’t find it in the car
………….so a sad lonely forlorn figure traipsed back to his peg - I’d have to ring the nipper up to drop me a lighter off.Bored yet?
Yep?
Ok, I’ll get on with it
I sat down to put that opening cup of Bill Yards bait in and low and behold - the sun shone on the righteous again - the lighter was on the tray under the white stuff
So a good cup went in, along with 3 other lines fed with differing concoctions - cant say too much as Larry Teepot might be reading this before this Saturdays TA v Harrisons annual sortie.
First look on my usual starting stuff and after a few minutes the float dips away………..the dreaded DNW is gratefully avoided as I slip the net under a 4oz skimmer
I’m repeating the exercise on a fairly regular basis
and own up to 2lb when first visitor of the day - The Hunter - strolls along. We exchange pleasantries as he checks I’ve set up the statutory 4 rigs and I have another couple before he bids me farewell with a wince as he see’s me swing in a 2 ouncer That first hour and half was nice steady fishing - I could see I’d got the better of the pegs either side of me - well I didn’t actually have to see nowt, I knew I’d got my nose in front of Big Baz as he moaned for England.
Bullah to my left might be a danger though
I could see him picking a few silvers up, that despite him having a pike (that I’d bought back from the Trent and slipped into his peg when he wasn’t looking) strike on an occasion or two.Back to that hour and half mark - a boat is heading along the cut. Initially he looks like he’s ploughing through the foliage on the far bank,
probably wiping a few pegs out in the process, but a few calls for him to move to the middle or headed as he moves into the track.In fact whilst he’s coming I pick up a slightly better skimmer.
Have I got time for another look in before he gets to me?
Yep…………go for it…………………and another 6 ouncer graces the net as he goes past
I wait a moment or two for the cut to ‘settle’ and go back to that productive line………………only it proves to be no longer productive.
Where have those fish gone? Up the shelf? Nope. Down the track? Nope. 
So I feed a little bit more snowie stuff, looking to regroup the fish………………..but that plan doesn’t work!
After 20 mins and no bite - there’s only one thing for it - a good potful and a stretch of the legs to let it settle whilst I take a snap or two
Here’s Big Baz - a study in concentration - or just working himself up for another cuss and chunter?
Cotti - was his Wharburton working?
Heinzer after the skimmers - he’d had a netful the week before in practice - was he sacking again?
Yamo evidently was………………..
Whilst he was on a seemingly ‘featureless’ peg - that he readily admitted having a gripe or two about - when I asked ‘Got 5lb?’ he confided ‘Easy - got a couple of proper uns ’ as he netted that 12 ouncer. Just goes to show - them features aint always all on the ‘bank’ - sometimes the most important ones are under the water……..
Playing catch up, Dead Peg was dragging a worm about after a tinca or two
Traipsing back Dead Peg pointed out to me a lovely scene - father and son out together on the bank
Here’s Cotti with Cotti junior in tow
And finally that bullah - the man himself, Bullah owning up to a lb
Right - if you’ve bother to plod through these meanderings so far you must be getting really bored by know so I’ll wrap up the remaining 3.5hrs in a sentence or two
The only excitement of note that I know to was Bullah playing that Essox Lucius I slipped into his peg for 5 mins on no3 lackie as it finally snaffled one of his roach
Despite Tricast62 on a trip down to see us trying to inspire me to catch a fish, all I mustered in that last 3.5 hours was a diddy rudd, two even diddier roach, two small perch and a two ounce skimmer with a minute or two to go……………..so here’s the tale of the scales
PEG
1 BRAMBLES 0.4.7
2 MICK KENN 0.4.12
3 TOMMY COOPER DNW
4 HARRY THE HITMAN 0.15.10
5 PHIL B 1.2.8
6 MANCUB 1.12.0
7 MILLIE 1.10.10
8 KOD 2.6.0
9 JOSH 3.7.11
10 ZORRO 3.12.0
11
12 HAHA DNW
13
14 DEAD PEG DNW
15 YAMO 13.4.0
16 HEINZER 0.13.10
17 COTTI 1.6.0
18 BIG BAZ DNW
19 TK 7.15.7
20 BULLAH 2.15.0
I’m not sure as whether there was actually a dry net as BB, Dead Peg and HaHa all did catch (aint sure about Tommy the magician Cooper) - but as Big Kevin Ashurst once said (but I cant do his accent) ‘If thee aint troubled the scalesman thee aint catched owt’……………or summat like that
Finally arriving back ‘at base’ to do the payout, poor young Josh had learnt a valuable lesson regarding the use of softer lower graded elastics as he admitted he should have framed losing a number a soft mouthed skimmers due to his no14
(well I think he said no14) and non of us could live with cut crack and bagging machine YamoLessons learnt in anticipation of this Saturdays match against Larry Teepots crew?
None. The canal continues to be an enigma and continues to confound me with its differing moods every time I fish it………………….. mind the last time was in the winter
