Back to the lower Avon this weekend and my first match at Newbridge this season. Last weekend the river fished really well with 80lb of bream winning but lots of good weights, the extra colour and rain made a difference. However, this time the river was going to be clearer and slower as all the rain had gone through. Not many bream probably I thought. Prep was very minimal, not very much 😂. Saturday was spent travelling to Derby to watch the Gas get battered 4-2, but it was a fun day out despite lots of train issues coming home, I was home by 9pm and in bed by 10pm.
It was nice having the extra hour in bed today, and I probably needed that, and I got to the draw in good time. My Thatchers team was the same as the first 3 rounds; myself, Mark Harper, Rob Manns and Shaun Townsend, and we had a small lead in the league. Shaun drew for us, and it looked to me like a set poor pegs for us, I was on the end of the straight about peg 40 not an amazing area, better with water on and colour usually. I drove to the river and started to get the gear on the trolley, then I heard Shaun shout out anyone got a spare keepnet and landing net.. lol. Derek Coles bailed him out.
Got to my peg and as I rightly recalled I was sat high up off the water, not that it really worries me as I’m used to it.
I could see nearly 3 feet down, and I was sure this was not gonna be a day for bream, but I still set up the obligatory feeder rod as you just never know. The only other thing I set up was a pole,, 3 gm flat float, 2gm with 0.11 to 18 N20, and 1.5g pencil float with 20 to 0.10 accupower. No running line as there was an awful wind which would mess things up. Pole and feeder it was then.
We started at 10:30, I put a few feeder fulls across the river and put 8 balls of Sonubaits black river and black roach in at 11m. Picking up the 2g rig and fishing caster on the hook I had 6 roach up to 6oz then no more bites. Onto the pencil rig, no bites on the caster so on to maggot and straight back into roach. After 20 minutes the bites virtually stopped and I was thinking surely this is not the end of the roach. After another 10 minutes bite’s suddenly came back and I continued to catch small roach for the first 90 minutes. Lee Gregory below me said he was struggling, as was Dean Harvey and Clive Feddery on the pegs below. Talking of Dean, he’s had his gnashers fixed and has a wonderful smile now!
Back to the match and my peg was now really slow and I cupped in a ball gbait, it had a very positive effect and bites resumed, it’s always a relief when this happens. About 20 minutes later I topped up again, and caught again, but on the third time it was not as good and I was now thinking the pole line might be ending. A pike then bit me off and I chucked the feeder while I put another hook on. A perch grabbed the worm, another cast and no bite so back to the pole.
I’d been loose feeding hemp, but added casters in to this, and doing this and topping up with the odd ball of gbait I kept getting runs of fish, mainly roach and odd perch. Most of the fish I caught I swung in, but I did get a nice 12oz roach which looked in perfect condition. I was told I was doing well in the section, but then Lee had a bream, skimmer and chub on the pole in quick succession! With about 40 minutes to go bites became hard to get, and all of the little changes made no difference. Part of me wanted to go on the feeder, but hardly any had been caught it seemed. I tried different pole rigs and baits without success, then in the last 25 minutes I probably had another 12oz of small fish.
I reckoned on having 12lb, Lee couldn’t decide what he had but I think at one stage said 8lb lol. Paul Purchase on peg 1 was admitting to 7 to 9lb, and nobody else much more, but what would the scales say! Well I ended with 13lb 4oz which was enough to win the sections. Lee had 11lb 13oz, Paul 11lb 10oz and Mat Challenger 8lb. I’ve got to say that I really enjoyed the day, it was a busy match but one that I had to keep working at, quite honestly I was surprised to keep the fish going on the pole virtually all match.
As it turned out the river fished really well and roach fed well at Newbridge with the odd skimmer and just a couple of bream. Ben Matthews was top weight at Newbridge with 16lb from peg 61, Mike Shellard had nearly 15lb from peg 24. However, this was nothing compared to the section in the trees where Andy Ritchings once again was on the bream… he had 131lb, next peg Lee Warden had 95lb, then Rob Jones 28lb and Rob Manns 26lb (he got the section money lol)
Bathampton did the business and not only won the day but now lead the league by 1 point from my lot. Two rounds to go, one in December and another in January.
Another enjoyable day, I’ve had a lovely run these last couple of months, is it to much to ask to land on a shoal of slabs 😂.
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