Premier Angling Open - Bristol Avon Crane

It has been 3 weeks since I last got out fishing, and that was on the canal and not inspiring. I didn’t want to fish the Commercial House Xmas match on the canal as I thought it would be rubbish. I made the right decision as only 1oz won the match, the venue is devoid of fish once a frost happens.  This weekend was really my last chance to fish before Xmas, and when I saw Premier Angling advertising this match I booked in.

I travelled back from Yorkshire Saturday and getting home late meant I was going to do no prep. Sunday morning I grabbed the gear, chucked some gbait (sweet skimmer and black river) in a bucket and loaded my van. When I got to Premier Angling I picked up the bait I had ordered and paid my pools. There had been a couple of late drop outs so it was 17 fishing. A few old faces had booked on and it was good to see them, the likes of Mike Shellard, Clive Feddery, Andy Greenham, Lee Gregory, plus a very young face in Kai Hurley. I drew peg 2 which meant I was in the lane.

My peg was one I have fished probably ten years ago, the bank is reinforced by an old radiator and a big piece of metal which is right behind you. The bank is flat but it’s awkward. The river was still running fast but the colour was ok, there was no chance of me fishing a float here, so I just put one feeder up. A 60g Preston open ended feeder was my starting gambit. I went to tie a hook but realised my heavy line was still in my shed… so I walked back to the shop and bought a spool of 0.17 powerline (which I have a box of in the shed 🙈). 

I started the match casting the feeder about 2/3 over by the tree with 3 red maggots on the hook. Second cast and a nice drop back bite, landed the 6oz fish but was still blanking as it was a trout lol!

Still no need to worry as two casts later I was in again and this time it was a better fish, it was nice to land a 2 1/2lb chub so early. Next cast I had an 8oz chublet, then a few casts later a 1 1/2lb chub. By the end of the first hour I had added a roach and a skimmer and was really enjoying the unexpectedly good start. I had another skimmer about 1lb, and then Graham Hunt came for a chat, I had another skimmer and then pulled out of bream whilst he was there. Although I lost the bream in close it brought an end to my bites.

It was at least an hour later at 12:30 and exactly halfway through the match when I had my next bite. It was on treble caster and was a good chub of 3 1/2lb. That was a bite out of the blue and with no more signs I switched to a maggot feeder on the inside. That got snagged up, so I decided to cast it over the gbait line to see if I could find a chub, it’s something that works for me now and again. At 2pm I had a bite and as I played it Graham was back and said he thought it was a bream, he was right, 4lb+. This turned out to be my last fish, although I did have a bite on my last cast I didn’t see it.

I thought I had about 16lb and word on the bank was that would win it, below me Mike Jeffries on end peg had a bream and a couple of skimmers. It didn’t take long for the scales to arrive as there wasn’t lots caught it seemed, Gerry Welsh on the cattle grid was top in our section with 5lb. The guy above me Paul blanked, then my fish went 18lb 8oz. Mike below had a 10lb 8oz his bream was near 6lb. 

Back at the shop and I was announced as the winner with Mike second, so a good draw today at last. There was a couple of 6lb weights and 4’s. Other than John Osbourne getting 4lb of roach there were hardly any caught, chub and skimmers took the money today. A big thank you to Kieran and the guys at Premier for running this match, and for the tackle voucher.

Also a big thank you to my wife for my Sunday roast, what a great end to the day 😃.

Finally a good result this autumn / winter on the river, a few more days like that would be nice. That said my next match will be just after Christmas, at Acorn fishery. Which just leaves me to wish you all a Happy Christmas!🎅 

Upper Thames winter league final match

 Today was the last round and I was looking forward to playing my part on the river at Newbridge. Errr maybe not. The heavy rain of last weekend put the river up to near record levels and caused panic among some. Heavy rain was forecast again Wednesday and so the team captains decided to move the match to the Gloucester Canal. Game over for me and Shaun Townsend, and our team mates who are regular Glos canal anglers replaced us in the team. I was happy to fish the river, but many of the fields were flooded and access could have been a problem, so I couldn’t argue with the decision. We were 2 points in front of DGL and so had to do well.

There was nothing for me to fish, and I arranged to watch some friends singing at the Midland Spinner with Shaun and friends. We were keeping a close eye on our team WhatsApp for results, with fingers crossed. As the lads started to advise their respective results it was looking good, and eventually we saw we tied top on this match with 31 points with DGL but they took top by having 1 more section win. This though meant we had won the league overall by 1 point with DGL coming second.

The lads who fished today celebrating.

Myself and Shaun celebrating the win.

As you can tell we are all over the moon, and everyone contributed to the win. Our squad might be half the size of DGL but we showed we are still a capable squad. 

Well done to everyone who took part in the league, it was fished in great spirit and that’s what matters.

Hopefully I’ll get back fishing soon. Cheers 🍻 

Commercial House Final Round K&A Canal

The lead up to this match for me was one of concern for how it would fish, as everywhere seems to be fishing pretty hard on natural venues. Blanks on the river and blanks on the canal, with my team not in contention I was not feeling the slightest excitement for this match lol. 

I was the first of my team to arrive at the draw, so started filling out the team sheet and as the lads arrived took the pools money. As usual we were going to be last to draw, so young Charlie Isaacs was just going to take the last number and see what sections we got. There were four sections at Bathampton and two at Claverton, I was given F section peg 5 which was at Claverton, I was going to be 2 pegs past the Ferry Lane bridge, might be ok.

Managed to get to the parking field with no van issues this time, Dave Lewis was looking perplexed as he had left his keepnet and landing net at home! I helped him out with a landing net, and eventually he got a keepnet from Jon Tocknell. It’s a bit awkward getting to the towpath but  with 2 anglers per trolley it was easy. I finally got to my peg and couldn’t believe it when I saw Mike Kent on peg 6, that’s all 5 rounds in the same section, twice next peg and I was next peg to him in the Poppy.

Set up my std 4 x 14 bread rig with 18 PR 311 to 0.08, same size rig for bloodworm down the track. A 0.3g rig for bloodworm at top set and across. Also a positive rig for caster / chopped worm.

I started a few minutes late, plopped some liquidised bread in at top set plus two, some joker in the three lines. Twenty minutes in and I had not had a bite on the bread, neither had Mike or Dave Lewis on 7. However, on 8 Steve Skelton (who had to move up a peg due to moored boat in his peg) was getting a roach a chuck and on 9 so was Craig Pinker. The writing was very much already on the wall. Thirty minutes in and I caught a tiny perch on a top set to save the blank but no other bites. Searching my other lines I took another 2 perch, now I had an ounce lol.

After an hour Mike had a couple of bonus chublets across on caster, then Dave started to catch chublets 2/3 across over gbait and squatt. My caster and choppy lines were biteless. After three hours I had 6 tiny perch and it was clear I was off the fish, below the bridge was tough too. Word was the whole canal was fishing awful and Steve and Craig were probably first and second. Thinking I was never going to get enough little perch I gave the caster and worm lines a good chance, but it didn’t happen.

One hour to go and out of the blue three roach on bloodworm from across, ten more of them in the last hour would be brilliant I thought. Stupid idiot not another bite!! What a pile of 💩 

Andy Britt had the scales and said when he pegged the match Steve’s peg was the only one that he saw fish topping in. Craig on 9 had 4lb 10oz, Steve on 8 9lb, Dave on 7 3lb 21/2, Mike on 6 1lb 6oz and then me 8oz…. Well just to rub salt in the wound I was plumb last in the section as on the other side of the bridge Jon Tocknell had 11oz, guess I should have stuck with the bloodworm. Well that just about sums up my poor autumn, pretty pants lol!

Well done Steve an easy winner today, lots of roach, some chublets and perch.

Craig Pinker was second and young Kai Hurley was third with 3lb 3oz in E section and Dave Lewis 4th.

On the team front in A division Sensas Nomads carried on the good form and were champions, well done lads! In B division Sensas Lobby’s dominant display meant they were runaway winners, an awesome result.

My teams poor performances continued today, but I felt most sorry for Shane Robinson who was getting an odd bite from roach but his peg was infested by leaves..

The knockout winner was Andy Powell and the individual league champion was Dave Lewis. As Dave said to me he had drawn the fish every round, but you still got to catch them Dave and you did. Think he was a bit shocked by his win, though Jeff Surmon and I thought it was funny!

Some good news today was that my Thatchers team on the ATWL had a great day, they won the day and had the top 3 individuals! We are 3 points ahead of DGL with two rounds to go, one on the canal and the last one on the Avon at Keynsham. 

No fishing for me next weekend, hopefully the break will do me good 😂.

Bill Milton Memorial Poppy Match - Bristol Avon

 Pretty much the biggest match of the year, a 100 peg match if everyone turns up, and I always look forward to it.

Friday, Covid and flu jab in left arm, then out in town for nephews birthday. Saturday met at Premier Angling at 9am for pegging duty, I was putting 15 pegs in at Swineford. I pegged from the outfall to one below the beach. Boy did I fancy drawing here!!! Peg 46, the outfall.

Sunday morning and breakfast at Fry’s waiting for the draw. I was sure that with a clear river a bream or chub peg was required, so some pegs at Swineford and Newbridge were on my wish list. Well I drew a peg out up the Crane, first peg in the long ashtip field. I have won the Poppy match from this peg, but that was with water on and colour for bream. Today I wasn’t enamoured by it, but I was going positive.

Set up a 4g bolo, waggler and gbait feeder. We started at 10 and I put 12 feeder fulls down the middle of the river. Threw 6 balls at 11m and fed maggots across to the boats. It was a slow start on the bolo about 1 1/2lb in the first hour then it died. Onto the feeder for an hour for 1 dace oh dear. Onto the waggler for not a bite, oh dear oh dear!

Things were not going well and I went for a quick walk, Mike Kent above me had some small roach, but down in the little ashtip Paul Elmes was catching a few roach and chublets. My section was from me below and so I was up against it with Paul catching. I tried the bolo over the river where I was feeding maggots, I caught 2 roach and then lost 2 hook lengths. I came a bit shorter and avoided the snag, but it was just the very odd bite from a roach. I did catch a couple of chublets and a hybrid from way down the peg but it wasn’t good enough.

Bank walkers told me my section was fishing ok, so I spent the last hour in the feeder looking for a bream or two, none showed which was not a surprise lol. Match over and I tipped back about 5lb for a DNW

My section was won by Paul Elms’s with 14lb 3oz of roach and chublets on the crow quill, well done sir. Above me it was not good weights either, but Dean Harvey won that section easy with 10lb on the feeder, 2 chub, 1 bream and 3 decent perch. I followed the scales down and one below the high wall was 19lb of chub, it included a 6lb 2oz chub! Sorry I didn’t get the anglers name, but fair play! 

Back to the results and the jungle drums had already told me the winner but seriously it was brilliant weights, the bream had shoaled and fed.

1st John Fuidge                161-4  39 bream Swineford Outfall

2nd Andy Richings            106-8  peg 59 Newbridge just one peg away from where he won last week!!!

3rd Derek Cole                     90-6 Bottom of Trees

4th Tony Goodland             32-8 Chequers and included 3 pike!

5th Dave Stiff                        29-8 peg 16 Newbridge 

6th John Smith                     25-8 one below beach peg

A massive well done to John Fuidge, I walked in to the results with him. He told me he put 8 feeder fulls in then on the first cast with a hook on he had a bream, and after 90 minutes he had 18 bream and never looked back. Derek Coles in third was close to packing up as he was blanking after 3 hours, then it was a bream every cast till the all out.

It needed nearly 18lb to get in the top 10 today (last year about 4lb lol) and pretty much it was either bream or chub got you in. 

The match raised over £3000 thanks to the efforts of organisers Ray Bazeley and Paul Benson. The after match banter was great as always with lots of laughs, and you can’t beat it. My lucks still out at the moment, but as long as you can keep laughing with your mates you’ll always have a good day out.

Commercial House Round 5 - Bristol Avon Newbridge

After another dry week and the river was going to be float fishable again. After the roach fest of last week most people were expecting to catch a few again. I put some more pole rigs in the box for this match. Didn’t have much time to prep as I was going out just after midday with Wendy to see our eldest daughter and her boyfriend, then watch Rovers, then go down Gloucester Road with some friends. Very good day out, I got home at midnight lol. 

I got to the draw feeling a little tired,  and got my bait from Rich Lacey who had kindly got it for me yesterday. In no time at all the draw was being done, I really wanted to be in A to D sections and avoid the trees. But oh flip the team draw put me in E section a few pegs to the left of the arch in the trees. In my opinion this was the worst part of the whole river, and I was cheesed off, I forget what Newbridge looks like!

Despite the poor area I would still have to approach the peg in the same way, so waggler, bolo, gbait feeder and pole were all set up. Lots of rowers out today it seemed, but they usually thin out after a couple of hours.

For neighbours today I had Craig Pinker on my left and Mike Kent on my right, that’s four matches out of four that Mike and I have drawn in the same section. Last week this part of the river only produced 6lb so I was expecting less, but the danger was Ivan Currie on peg 1 who was up by the stream on a peg that had 19lb last week. We started at 10:15 and I balled it in but didn’t put much feed in it. On the third run down I had a bite and swung in a little roach. That was the only bite I had on the pole. Went onto the gbait feeder and no knocks or bites, this was not looking good.

An hour in and Rich Lacey rang me to say he was blanking on the arch peg, and I said well I’ve only got 1 roach. As we were chatting and the boats were passing I noticed the tip drop back, I struck and felt a fish on, shaking its head. It was a chub close to 2lb and was a nice little bonus. I thought I met get another now but no more bites came.

Mid match I was bored and a bit chilly so went for a walk. Ivan was well ahead with 6lb, I was next best, Rich had a little chublet but had been smashed up by a big fish. Either side of me had 3 little fish and were not getting any bites, it was grim at this stage and didn’t get any better for me. About an hour to go Rich rang me to say he had landed a 6lb bream hooked in a fin, oh jammy bugger I think I said 😂. Thirty minutes later he rang me again and now told me had a 5lb barbel!!! WTF 🤣. I was fishing the gbait feeder same as Rich, but I never had a bite after that chub at 11:15. 

Rich with his bonuses. Deserves a bit of luck does Rich.

I was quite happy to pack up today, and have not struggled like that for a long time. When the scales got to me Ivan was top with 13lb 7oz of chublets, and Rich had 11lb 12oz for his three fish. My 2 fish went 1lb 15oz, just 2oz off winning my B div section.

 There was another bream caught by Paul Purchase and he had 6lb. The board here shows the highs and lows.

The fishing up at Newbridge was ever so slightly better..

1st Andy Ritchings 88lb (bream peg 56)

2nd Jason Fearn 37lb (roach and chub peg 22)

3rd Kev Boltz 24lb (bream peg 50)

Sensas Nomads won A div and look to be favourites to win overall.

Lobby’s won B div and the only thing that will stop them winning the B div  is if they don’t turn up for the last round… and even then they could still be champions!

I certainly don’t feel like I’ve had a decent peg on the river yet this autumn, maybe I’ll get one next week on the poppy match 🤔