October 1995

A very small improvement for me this week, just in the last couple of days, trying the medication again but on a very low dosage. I am going to have a couple of days away this week to Viaduct fishery staying in one of their amazing lodges with Glenn Bailey, Mike Nicholls, Martyn Woodington, Bela Bakos and Mark Tanner. I plan to fish matches on Weds and Thursday, but I won't be in contention for prizes having "bog runner" (thanks Mike) breaks I'm sure, but that doesn't matter to me as it will  just be good to be sat next to water and other anglers again. Hopefully then next weekend I can blog on some up to date angling!

My first diary date is actually Sat 30th Sept 1995, I was to peg ATWL at Newbridge with Mark Harper, but I told Mark about the chub I caught at Jackie Whites so we had 3 hours fishing in the morning. I had 11 chub this time, but the last hour I was fishless whilst the chub swirled on the surface taking every maggot I fed! Mark even sat behind me and told me if a chub took my bait, but no good. There were some very big fish up on the surface that day. The following day at Newbridge and I found myself on peg 53. I wasn't sure bream would be caught today so started on a waggler down the middle feeding mag and hemp. Bites were very hard to come by and I was soon on a 22 to 0.08 trying pinkie on the hook. Bank runners told me the river was fishing hard and my section was dire so I carried on fishing for the very odd roach. With 90 mins to go bites had stopped and with 2 bream caught in the section I fished the gbait feeder. I had 1 gudgeon and then on the whistle the rod went round.... and a pike about 10 to 15lb soon saw me off. I had a paltry 2lb 12oz, but that was good enough for 9 points from 11, job done for the team and we won the day.

For some strange reason the following Sunday I was back at Gloucester canal on peg 108. 5 roach and 3 eels on a mixture of maggot feeder and pole was my lot, as usual no good on this rat tip! A week later and back on the Avon fishing the Amalgamation mini league (I think I was guesting). I got drawn on the high bank at Swineford. The river was low with not a lot of flow and I didn't fancy the peg for the float as what flow there was looked all wrong, so most of the match was spent on the gbait feeder. During the match I picked up 5 skimmers and 1 chublet, but I lost a skimmer at the net when Topper Haskins turned up behind me as I was about to net it and made me jump! That lost fish cost me framing, but I got 14 points out of 16 for the team.

An open on the Avon at Chippenham Town was next up for me on Sat 21st, I drew at the bottom of the line of trees. The peg gave me bad vibes, it was gin clear, hardly any flow and full of lillies / weed. As this was a practice for the next ATWL round I decided to fish it and see what was there. Casting a waggler into the gaps in the weed I caught 5 perch and a few gudgeon. I saw a few small fish in close so I set up a 3m whip and fed gbait and pinkie and had some more small gudgeon. 2lb 12oz was all I could muster, but it was info I could pass on if someone drew in this area. The following day I fished an open at Woodland View and drew peg 19 on Deans (front or back?). I didn't have a great day with my final weight being 19lb, and peg 21 catching 37lb in the margins late on maggot to win the section.

My last match of October was the ATWL at Chippenham, I didn't draw that far from the last peg I had, I was 3 pegs above the sea cadets. The river was still a tough cookie here, and I had 1 perch and gudgeon on wag and caster, 4 roach on the pole (mag and hemp) and 50 gudgeon on the whip and gbait. 3lb 6oz was a slight improvement on last week and I got 8 points from 11, so the practice did help me! The one thing I soon realised I should have tried was chopped worm, this was still something not in my armoury and I know in hindsight I let myself down by not trying to get into this method in these early days. On this day the team came 2nd but stayed in the lead overall.

Ah well so much for the rivers, sad the 16th June is upon us and I won't be out on the Avon, though  that said it can be tough unless you're on a shoal of bream. Now I need to sort pellets, meat and paste etc.... how things change!