South West Disabled and over 50’s - Acorn Fishery

Happy New Year.

The last couple of weeks have been frustrating on the fishing front. First a match on the Crane was cancelled due to flooding, and then Saturday morning Dean Harvey messaged me to say he had cancelled a match at Newbridge due to flooding. All plans messed up, but I really wanted to get on the bank, I saw Eddie Wynne had posted on Facebook that his club were looking for guests on their match at Acorn. I got a place in the match and then did a bit of last minute gear sorting and changing!

Sunday morning was very dark, dull and damp a complete change from Saturday. I grabbed a breakfast roll at the H&H cafe and was soon at fishery. Great to see some old faces like Bob Feltham and Alan Jones, still braving the elements to have a fish. Acorn is great for these guys with no walks and safe pegs, they also get to draw first to avoid the island pegs. The pegs to draw at the moment are 5, 7, 9 with 10 and 12 also holding a few carp. I got peg 23 which didn’t give me good vibes, and venue expert Gary Bowden said he’d fish for silvers on my peg, and he would on his peg 4.

Rig wise I set up a 4x10 with 18 to 0.10 for fishing across to the boards with pinkies. A 4x14 rig with same hook etc for fishing in the deep water.  I started the match tapping pinkies in by the boards whist feeding gbait and pinkies in a couple of spots in the deep water. In the first 30 minutes I lost 2 foul hooked carp, I was hoping to get among the ide across as these are fairly reliable feeders. Unfortunately I had no signs across from ide or anything else all match!

It was 2 hours into the match when I finally caught a roach from my deep line at 10m. On bridge peg 21 Mark Britton had 1 ide, but on my left on 25 Mark Bromsgrove had a couple of carp, a tench and skimmer. I finally found a skimmer which perked me up a bit. Sadly my peg never showed any signs of fish being there, or willing to feed. I managed 2 more skimmers and another roach for a DNW. Can’t really say much more about it lol. Mark Britton also DNW after a couple of skimmers joined his lonely ide.  Mark Bromsgrove had a decent day getting 14lb silvers and 17lb of carp.

The framers were…

Result of the Southwest over 50's and Disabled match fished on the Paddock at Acorn Fishery today.

1. Mike Wilson                   69-09 p5

2. Mark Walsh                    51-14 p9

3. Eddie Wynne                  46-09 p7

4. Alan Smith                      42-15 p12

5. Mark Broomsgrove       31-10 p25

6.  Gary Bowden                27-09 p4

Silver's 

1. Gary Bowden                 18-10 p4

2. Eddie Wynne & Mark Broomsgrove    

14-00      pegs 7&25

Well done Mike on the win, and GB on the silvers win with ide. 

Not sure what is up next, let’s see what the weather does!

Jerry Pocock Christmas Match Newbridge

I sincerely hope that you had a great Christmas. Sadly my step dad passed away on Christmas Eve, he was at home on the farm where he wanted to be. A difficult time for the family but we are sure he suffered no pain.

I was booked on this match and decided to go, the river was going to be clearer with a bit of pace but I thought it would be tough after the cold easterly wind. We met in the Midland Spinner for breakfast and the draw. I think there were 21 people fishing and I danced drawing the first 7 pegs and the last 6, but I managed to pull peg 12 and that was middle of the straight peg 36, not going to be good I reckoned.

I got to my peg and with the vicious easterly wind blowing downstream and the conditions I could not see setting a float up was worth it. A one rod job for me, using a Supera 12 foot feeder rod with a 2oz tip. A 45g open end feeder would just hold 2/3 over with 14 to 0.15. I didn’t set up a block ended feeder as I reckoned I would catch any around on gbait feeder and that would give me the chance of a bream.

After 15 minutes of the match I had a nice bite and was pleased to net a 12oz chublet, not blanking was a major achievement for me today.  Ten minutes later a similar bite and this resulted in a 6oz chublet. An hour later and no more bites and as it was so cold I went for a quick walk and the peg upstream of me Warren Bates was blanking. Downstream Jan Mazyk was also blanking. During the match a number of people were walking the bank and mid match just a few anglers had 1 bream and there was an odd chublet. As the match progressed I never had another bite so it was a bit of a bind, but I gave it my best.

My wanting to be in the first 7 pegs was a bit off, as 1 angler had 2 bream and another one chublet, I expected a few chub to come out. But the other end the match bream did show and the top 3 came from here.

1st Derek Coles 25lb (Norfolk Reeds)

2nd Kev Boltz 15lb 15oz

3rd Nick Coles 12lb 13oz

My section was won by Jerry Pocock with 3 chublets for 2lb 15oz. My two went 1lb 2oz, which was 9th in the match beating two other catchers and 10 blanks. Not a single roach was caught.

Actually I did have some luck in the end, I picked up a bottle of whisky for my prize and three prizes on the raffle 😊 

Must say thank you to Jerry and Dean Harvey for running the match.

Potentially I may be fishing next Sunday but with another cold week forecast it’s probably going to be another draw bag job.

Wishing you a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

There’s was no fishing for me this weekend after a busy week working away in North Yorkshire. Don’t mind going to work when you see a beautiful sky like this in the morning.

I’m hoping to fish a match at Newbridge the day after Boxing Day it might be a tough affair. However, my

Plans are all a little fluid at the moment as my step Dad (I call him Dad as he brought me up from 2 years old) has terminal cancer and not long left sadly.

Here’s hoping you have a Merry Christmas. 🎅 

Ridgeway Xmas Match - Bristol Avon Crane

I can’t believe that the last time I went fishing was on the Poppy match. A number of other things have been more important to me, and then last week the commercial house Xmas match was cancelled. I was gutted it was cancelled as I do like the challenge of a flooded river.

This match with Ridgeway was a small friendly affair where the entry money went towards prizes entirely and no pools money. I was pleased to be back out, but my bait was a bit pongy as it was what I had bought last week! Still I was expecting, rather hoping, that it would be a chub match on the feeder so smelly bait is not a problem.

I got drawn on the peg below the high wall, so not such a long walk and my new 4 wheel Preston shuttle got me there in no time.

It’s an easy peg to get in to but it’s not been great in the winter leagues. It was bombing through fast and boily till halfway. After this the river was smoother and a little slower. I did think it was chub or bust.

I had 2 pints of casters, 1/2 pint dead red maggots, dendra’s, lobworms and a few live maggots. It meant I was going win an open ended feeder approach, normally I’d of gone on a maggot feeder, but as I said I was using last weeks bait which was for a flooded river. It seemed I needed a very heavy weight to hold 3/4 across the river of 60g.  A size 12 N60 to 0.17 powerline completed the set up. 

We started at 10am and I had a few 2 minute casts to get a bit of bait in, no bites on a bunch of maggots so tried double dendra and at 10:20 I had my first drop back bite and landed a 12oz chublet. It was 25 minutes later that I had my next bite this time on half a lobworm, a very similar size chublet. After this I started to get a bit of a problem with a snag, I didn’t get a bite for an hour but I reeled in once with no bait left. Then at about 11:30 whilst on the phone to Glenn Bailey I had a bite that banged the tip but no drop back. I thought that was odd but when I picked up the rod I was snagged up, the feeder was stuck. Eventually I got it free and saw the hook was opened out, I reckon the chub hooked itself but as the feeder was stuck it buggered the hook. 

Not long after I lost a hook in the snag, and I realised I needed to fish a different spot. I don’t like doing this but had no choice, so I came shorter to just past middle. This was better though still an odd snag but not bad ones. It took me till about 1pm to get my next bite, a brilliant drop back with tip straight and slack line…. But no fish on the hook 🙈. The lobworm was ripped to pieces and I was gutted to not have hooked the fish. Worse was to follow when another bite was missed. I changed the feeder to a lighter 50g size and it would just about hold on this shorter line. But I missed another big drop back WTF was going on I thought. I then had another chublet in the net which was welcome. After this fish and the previous quick flurry of bites I had no signs again. 

At 2:15 another bite came and this was on and I had to give line initially, it was a powerful fish but it didn’t find any snags and I got it in the net, definitely over 4lb. Next cast another bite and a 8oz chublet. Sadly that was to be the last action of the match.

As it didn’t take me long to pack away I wandered upstream to meet the scales. Craig Pinker was top weight with 11lb made up of 3 nice chub and a 1lb of bits, he was on the last but one peg in the little ashtip which is one of the best chub pegs at the crane this year. However, his weight was only going to be good enough for 2nd as Ali Gibbs had a catch of a lifetime on the Avon. He was on the last peg in the first field which in normal conditions is left out. Today it had a nice slack and some perch decided to reside in it. Ali had 3 perch and a small chub on a maggot feeder, then he added 4 more perch on a lobworm on a float. 7 perch and a chub doesn’t sound amazing I know, but they weighed 18lb 12oz and the biggest perch was 3lb exactly! What an awesome catch, well done Ali.

My 5 fish weighed 7lb 8oz and so the big chub had to be 4 1/2lb we thought. My weight was enough to get me third and I picked up a nice set of 4 bottles of wine. Many thanks to Steve Dumbleton for running this match and getting a great array of prizes. 

I was glad to get back in the warm as I had the wind in my face all day and I did start feeling a bit chilly as the sun went behind the clouds late on. Not sure what is happening on the fishing front next weekend we will see.

Poppy Match Bristol Avon

It’s that time of year again when nigh on 100 anglers fish to raise money for the Poppy Appeal. Due to high tides this match was pegged 60 pegs newbridge and the trees, 15 pegs at Swineford and 25 pegs at the Crane. I pegged out Swineford and thought the river looked lovely here. Various people were asking me where I wanted to draw the next day, my reply was the three pegs by the pumphouse at Newbridge and Swineford. There have been chub showing by the pumphouse and that’s why I fancied it.

After an early night I woke up before my alarm on Sunday and was soon at Fry’s pavilion for the draw. Pools paid I caught up with a few people who I hadn’t seen for ages; Mike Shellard, Harry Muir, Nigel Wyatt, to name just a few. After the citation and 2 minutes silence Ray Bazeley got the draw underway. I was probably only about six or seventh to draw and pulled peg 9, this was I realised the first peg behind the pumphouse and one of the pegs I wanted. Wow that was lucky, but now everyone was saying I would win it, Shaun Townsend said if no bream fed I would win it. Well we would see, but I was excited.

No long walk for me as I could park by the pumphouse, but I needed some time to get my platform and box into the water, I wanted to get out as far as possible to keep any hooked chub away from the reeds (Rich Lacey had told me he had lost 5 in them on the last match here).

I set up a 4AAA waggler with 0.13 powerline to a 16, a 12BB crowquill with same line and hook, also a maggot feeder. My neighbours for the day were last years winner John Fuidge below me another great chub peg, and Jack Jones above me on 20, no chub here but Jacks a class angler and I expected him to catch a few.

We started at 10am and I began on the waggler fished about 5 feet deep as far as I could feed maggots and casters. It was a slow start with no bites and then I had a small roach and dace, not the target species. Paul Benson came along for a walk and at 10:20 I hooked a chub and got it out it was maybe 1 1/2lb. That steadied the nerves as I was hooking a lot of leaves which were a pain, and having to let lots of rowing boats keep me out of the water!

Ten minutes later and its brother was in the net. I then hooked another chub that felt a little bit bigger, but the hook pulled out right at the net. Paul carried on down the river and left me to it. Probably took another 20 minutes to get one of 2lb and then I pulled out of another at the net!! Disaster this time as the waggler went up in a tree and I snapped it. I had to put another waggler in the adapter and replace some shot, and I upped the hook length to 0.15.  This was a good move as my next two chub were close to 3lb. But I was fishing 3 or 4 maggots on the hook trying to avoid small roach which were a pain and still taking the bait! I tried corn on the hook but no bites. 

I think I had 7 chub halfway through the match, but was stepping up the feed to try and get the roach to bugger off, but it proved futile. I foul hooked a chub in the tail and eventually pulled out of it, this was the end of chub action and I flogged the waggler hard for just small roach, even going back to 0.13 but it made no difference.

I had tried the crowquill in close and over the waggler line, no chub on this but I found a number of roach were now feeding in close. I decided to take these fish and put something in the net and had a good 45 minutes on them. Back on the wag it was still difficult but I spent the last 15 minutes on it, and with 7 minutes left I had another 2lb chub to get to 8 chub

The match was over, I had a nice day but was disappointed that the last two and a bit hours were poor for chub. However, it seemed that the chub had not really been feeding as John below me only had 2 and didn’t weigh in. I hoped that the two I pulled out of would not cost me.  The scales soon arrived and Jack was top with 12lb of small roach, my net needed two weighs and came to 23lb 8oz. I knew that I was not going to win as talk was of some bream coming out in the trees, but felt I would do ok.

Back at Fry’s and it was time for Ray to get the raffle going and then onto the results.

1st was Liam Reynolds with 37lb 8oz of bream and skimmers from the trees. Liam didn’t even have a ticket but just turned up and got one as a few people did not turn up.

2nd Steve Cox 27lb 5oz he had 7 bream in the trees, nice to see him do well even if he does wind me up about the Rovers when I see him 🤣

3rd was me and I was pleased to get a nice pick up.

4th Jon Tocknell had some bream in the trees.

You can see the top 11 weights here, a couple of them were assisted by pike which count, but some nice roach and perch to over 2lb were caught. Mostly the river fished well.

Thanks as ever to Ray and Paul and the other helpers for running the match, also thanks to Ant Milton (son of Bill) who sponsors this match and is pictured here with the top three. 

Well I can’t complain about my drawing skills today, the win was possible but those pesky bream decided to feed in a couple of pegs and fair play to Liam and Steve. No fishing next week but hopefully get out after that.