The 3rd match of the seaseon was on the Grand Union Canal at Marsworth, a day ticket stretch.

21 entries for this match and a late start/finish was being tried out to hopefully have a bit less traffic on and off the water to contend with so the draw was at 2pm and fishing 3 - 8pm.

There were a few surprises in this match.

This stretch is known for its quality carp, chub and some bream as well as roach, a bad surprise for many of us was that bites were hard to come by and an amazing surprise for Nick who was 2 pegs from me in the shape of a 16lb 15oz CATFISH! which he hooked at 13m in the channel on a 4mm expander pellet, after 15 minutes thinking he was attached to a very large ponderous carp (which perhaps did not know it was hooked yet) he saw the fish and took a further 10 minutes to land it, this was on the pole using 0.16 line and black hydro. Nick had already caught a chub before this and went on to catch another chub and a carp so he caught enough to win the match without the catfish.

My match was awful, bites were scarce and I only managed a couple of little ruff on chopped worm intended for something rather larger.

Then to top off the day we all got absolutely soaked when the heavens opened at 7.30 and it continued raining hard until I was half way home.

So, not a good afternoon for me but thats fishing!

Heres Nick with his moggy

..and video of it here!

Official Match Report HERE