Well it seems the meteorological summer is now over now that the first winter league is upon us. It is a little league these days with just 6 teams of 6, and a hospital team, so 42 anglers fishing each round. Normally we would all be at Newbridge today, but there is work being done to clear the railway line embankment by the trees and so pegs and parking missing. Hence 7 pegs down at Chequers.
I couldn't wait to fish this match as we had an actual HQ for the draw and results, the Cadbury Heath Social club. They had it sorted with sanitizers, well spaced tables and chairs etc. a breakfast and a tea for a £5 note also was good value I thought. I was asked to help with the draw and pull out the section letter for each team for the matrix draw, and it just meant nobody was touching each others balls.. lol. My team draw was OK I thought, Geraint Powell up at Rotork, me on peg 5 in the little field, Shaun Townsend on 26, Nick Ewers on 36, Rob Manns on end peg at Newbridge 63, and Paul Isaacs down at Chequers. Paul was on his Thatchers debut ans I hoped he would do well.
Peg 5 is a peg I have already had this year, though it is not my favourite in the little field as I would always prefer 3, 7 and 10. However, I was going to the peg happy.
Unfortunately no pictures today as it seems my laptop / iphone are not being friends tonight. There was still a nice colour in the river, more than I though there would be, and a little bit of flow it seemed. I set up the pole for 13m which just got me into the flow, a 1gm pencil, 2g bodied, and 3g flat float were all put up for the pole line. Also a waggler, crowquill and feeder rod. Quite a few things today as I was unsure what might be needed. in my section I had Kev Dicks above me on peg 3, Steve Skelton on 7, Dave Lewis on 10, Dean Harvey on 12, Si Greening on 13, and below the bridge on 16 Ivan Currie. all anglers who can catch fish on rivers.
I started the match bu throwing in 12 balls of gbait, caster, hemp and pinkie on the 13m line, and thought I would start straight on this and not feed anything else but see how it went. The first four runs through on the 2g rig with caster were biteless, so I put a maggot on and missed a bite, then caught a 1oz roach not a good sign at all. I was struggling on the pole straight away, I had a small dace, three tiny roach, and then some bleak trouble. A pike then took a fish and bit me off., and a little perch and a 4oz chublet were all I had added after an hour, and I was just not able to get any roach at all. I tried the flat float with worm, and had two perch of 2 or 3 oz, and then the next one was taken by a pike. The pike hung on, I pulled hard as I was on 0.13, and I got it very close to the net and it looked about 8lb, then everything went twang and the rig went up the tree, but somehow the rig came off the connector and I never saw the float again!
Replacement rig on and back out again for another little perch, not looking good at all. I tried the waggler where I had been feeding maggots, it was just very tiny bleak, and trying 2 or 3 maggots didn't help as I just missed bites. I kept feeding it hoping some chublets would show, but I went onto the crowquill for nothing, then back onto the pole. I tried my roach rigs, nothing, but on the pencil with a slow drop I could catch a five to the ounce bleak, great not doing that. Mat Challenger had walked up and told me Dean had a bream, Steve was getting chublets on the waggler and he saw Kev catch a few roach. I went through my rigs and rods and couldn't find anything to work at, other than sitting on the flat float for the very odd small perch but even then another even bigger pike grabbed one of my few fish.
The match for me was much like my last few outings, disappointing for me and unable to make something happen that would make a difference and just not getting any bites other than from the very odd tiny fish. I spent the last 90 minutes mostly on the feeder / flat float for not much really, but I did get soaked as it rained heavily for the last hour lol. Quite happy today when the match ended.
I packed up in the rain and removed multiple large orange slugs from my luggage, couldn't get the damn slime of my fingers for ages lol. I knew I was going to be pretty much last, I thought I might have 3lb at most. Kev above me had 6lb 10oz, lots of small roach on the whip and pole. I had just 3lb 6oz, then below on 7 Steve Skelton was top weight in our section with 11lb 1 of chublets on the waggler, the very fish I couldn't catch, well done Steve. Dave Lewis in 10 snared a bream with some early roach for 8lb 4oz, but Den below him had 1oz more with a similar net. Si Greening let me off last as he had 3lb 1oz, and Ivan on 16 had 7lb 12oz, a fair few small fish on a mixture of pole and maggot feeder.
That's my last two matches up here at Newbridge being a disaster, and I am slight perturbed by this since I really cannot say what it is I have done wrong. I can usually make something work, but these last two matches have been tough and I have been battered both sides both times yikes! Ah well, just gotta keep going and hope to draw on a pile of fish lol.
Winner on the day was team mate Geraint Powell with 19lb 14oz. Geraint was at Rotork, he balled the pole line & had 5lb roach & perch in the 1st hour, followed by 3 Bream.
2nd Sam Johnson of Sensas Nomads 18lb 14ozs, he was also at Rotork , and had a few Bream plus bits.
3rd Graham Hunt of Bathampton B, 18lb 4oz
4th Rob Mann’s Preston Innovations Thatchers 14lb 14oz.
5th Warren Bates 11lb 12oz
6th Stephen Skelton 11lb 1oz.
Teams on the day
A Div
Preston Innovations Thatchers 14
Sensas Nomads 12
Moselle Bathampton A 10
B Div
Midland Spinner 14
M & N Electrical Services 13
Moselle Bathampton B 9
Good start for the team despite my performance. So happy with that of course.
I am not sure what I will do next weekend, Saturday I am helping some juniors out at Bitterwell lake again, will see if I go Sunday or not during the week. After that it is the postponed holiday at Viaduct, so I need to sort some gear out for carp and silvers on lakes. It seems a long time ago since I did that, will have to sort some gear, bait and drinking head out!
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