Cluckers Peg

I ain't breaking the ice! Not in 1992 either.

2012-02-05T20:19:00.004Z

I admit it, I bottled it this weekend. I hadn't been that well all week and then the wife got really ill, and I couldn't see the point of driving on ice to then break ice and all that shit! So I stayed at home and looked after the wife and watched the football. I think I made the right choice, cos I just read Tony's blankers blog, lol! Fair play to all those who did go out today.

March 1st 1992 and I found myself driving to Oxford for the Ray Carter memorial match on the River Thames. This was a big team match, 80 teams of 6 anglers (yep 480 pegs!). I was pleased to be handed a peg at Clifton Hampden that I was told had bream form. When I got to the peg I was told by a local that the bream had been hammered during the week on the pegs in my area and he didn't think they would show. Unfortunately this area was notorious for holding no small fish and so I sat on a groundbait feeder for most of the match. I used 1.5lb maxima with a 20 hook and double red maggot and cast 3/4 the way across. I had my first bite after 2 hours, a small bream, my 2nd bite exactly 1 hour later, a small bream, and my 3rd bite exactly 1 hour later, I missed! That was it! 5lb 11oz gave me 74 points out of the 80, mega points for the team and we had some good results and came 3rd overall. The bream fed well in other sections with the top individual weight being 87lb.

I next endured two poor matches, firstly 3oz on a heavily flooded Warwickshire Avon, and then 1 bream from Saltford on the Topline Tours open match at Newbridge. I had a couple of pleasure fishing sessions at Bitterwell to cheer myself up, catching 15lb of roach on the wag the first time, then next time out only 5lb and I watched Tony Rixon catch 15lb of mainly skimmers on the pole. On the last day of the season I packed up on a Docks match and then sat on a mooring for 2 hours in front of the Chequers pub at Hanham on the Avon and took 7lb on the pole including a 2lb chub.

Thursday 19th March and off on the Veals trip to Northern Ireland on the Bann. If I recall we used to arrive after a night of no sleep, dump stuff at the hotel and then on to the Bann. My first day and I bagged an impressive ..... 2lb 11oz. Well it was 4 big roach! As the trip had a decent overall payout and it was decided on weight I needed a lot of luck now to do any good. If my memory serves me correctly this was the trip where Dave Haines, Mike Kent and myself hardly slept as we had a disco in our hotel! Day 2 and we were off to a completely different place, the river Blackwater at Verners Bridge. I drew right next to the bridge itself, and on my bank the wind was in our faces but the bridge afforded me some shelter. As we were setting up a storm came out of nowhere and terrific rain and winds battered us, well not me as I stood next to the bridge along with a few others! When the storm passed the old boy below me (other side of the bridge) went back to his peg only to find his glasses had been blown in, and he had to fish the feeder as he couldn't see his float! I went all out for bream and the win on my peg, with a big Thamesly open ender, size 12 Drennan Specimen hook to 3lb maxima hook length. First cast and I hooked the bottom, but then it came towards me. Eventually the end of a plank of wood surfaced, and Mike Kent leant out and grabbed it and then we pulled it out! It is the biggest thing I have ever caught. The rest of the match thankfully was better, I started catching roach and the odd hybrid on the feeder, and then in the last 2 hours decent skimmers. I finished with 77lb 15oz and won the day, I think Andy Floyd came 2nd from 2 below the bridge with 60lb+ of roach on the pole, though he had lost a few in the field behind him as the wind blew them off the hook as he swang them in!

Day 3 was a write off, the river had risen 3ft and was chocolate and I only had 1 roach and 1 gudgeon. Still one great day, and three cracking nights was well worth it. Apologies but I do not recall who won overall as I slept through the results on the ferry (I slept for about 20 hours straight!), probably Mr Rixon won it, well that might cheer him up after his blank today.

No fishing again next weekend due to a big night out raising money for cancer charities Macmillan and Orchid.

January / Feb 1992

2012-01-29T16:25:00.004Z

No fishing for me this weekend as I had 2 parties to attend this weekend and didn't fancy getting up Sunday morning! As it turned out the weather took a turn for the worse and I had a quick walk down Frys where 7 anglers had 5 bites between them, with Leon Hubbard winning with 2 bream for 9lb, and a 6oz roach being enough for 2nd!

My first match of 1992 was an open at Conham on the Avon, I drew poor and it took me an hour to get a bite on the stick float. I took 15 dace and 1 roach in the next hour and then not another bite. The footbridge swim dominated this match with 22lb of hybrids, but 17lb of chub, and a 17lb of dace showed in other areas. The following day I was trying my luck on a Docks open match and once again managed to avoid the bream pegs by drawing Avon Street. I had a lowly 3lb 6oz of roach, dace and perch on the pole and caster. My poor start to the year got worse the following Sunday when I blanked from peg 67 at Newbridge on the ATWL, my section was won with 8oz. The river was coloured and pacey but hard frosts had killed it, and half my team blanked meaning we had a disaster and came 10th on the day!

A week later and Conham once again was not being nice to me, 2lb 6oz of dace and a sea trout on the wag was all I could muster. Sunday was the Commercial house and I had a nice walk to about 3 pegs below the New Fence up the Crane. I stuck to a waggler approach for most of the day and had 2 bites for 2 small chub which weighed 2lb 4oz. That was worth 10 points out of 14. I remember this match well as walking back down with the scales one angler in the whole section had caught a roach, in fact he had about 10 of them. I remarked "How the f*ck did you catch them?" as back then a roach above the long ashtip in winter was almost unheard of. The angler in question was a young lad about my age from Yate, a certain Des Shipp. 30b of bream at Swineford won the match and 25lb of them came off the New Fence peg.

The weather got colder during week commencing 20th Jan, down to -6C at night and another grueller on the ATWL looked likely when I drew the 1st peg in the Long Ashtip. For nearly 2 hours I never had a bite, but fishing a little maggot feeder with 22 to 0.1 I caught 7 roach and 2 gudgeon for 1lb 7oz. 8 section points was OK, and everyone who beat me had a chub, the team only came 4th on the day and were now down to 3rd overall. What a crap month Janury was, and then on the 1st Feb I blanked in a Conham open match, oh boy! Finally things perked up on the last round of the ATWL which was fished up at Limpley Stoke and Avoncliff. I drew 3 pegs below the sewer which was not normally a great area but bream were a possibility. The river was clear and I decided to start on a crowquill with punch bread feeding white crumb, this produced a dozen small fish for less than a pound. I then fished a feeder over the top of this and had two bites, both resulting in 4lb bream. I weighed 9lb 1oz which was 2nd in the section and 6th overall, I think Keith Firks won the section off the sewer I asked Keith what he had caught on and he replied "punched chittling". As a team we finished on a better note winning the day and ended up 2nd overall.

My winter of discontent continued on the following Saturday when I threw back 2 roach after 5 hours on a peg a few pegs above Saltford weir, whilst 50lb's came from Kelston point. Sunday and the Commercial House on Frys, can't say I was really looking forward to this one! I drew peg 13 and had 1 skimmer and 2 tiny roach for 1lb 10oz. However, this was pretty good, I wrote in my diary "Everbody in the bay caught skimmers, everywhere else everyone blanked, near enough!" My team Bendix A won the league and I was 3rd Individual over the whole league. As the rest of February was absolutely dire for me I will mention just one more match. The Upper Avon Champs on 23rd Feb which was won by Andy Floyd. Andy had a day that he and most others who were there will never forget. Andy drew at Scotland Road and fished a feeder to begin with, but he had no bites and noticed his hookbait and feeder was covered in gunge. So he fished the waggler over the top feeding caster with 2 red maggots on the hook he caught ......17 bream, 3 perch, 2 tench and 1 chub for 76lb. Now that is proper river fishing!

Landsend League

2012-01-22T19:12:00.004Z

I was guesting again today and as this match was a random draw I could be on any of the first 3 lakes. I arrived after the draw time (mainly to being behind a big queue of other anglers having brekkie at the fountain cafe) and there were 4 pegs left in the hat 2 good and 2 not good, I pulled out 34 which I was happy with. However, Tony Rixon reckoned I might find it tricky due to the wind.

I walked down the steps to peg 33 and immediately noticed not only the "landscaping" but also the howling wind. I set up a straight lead using a Preston 10ft mini lead rod, and 0.14 to 16 PR36. Pole rigs were limited to just two today, a 0.6g Preston PB Inter float (round bodied wire stem) which would do for most of the swims I could fish, and a 0.3g PB Inter for across if the wind dropped. I used 0.12 and 18 hooks.

I decided to feed two lines at 9mtrs, one with casters and one with soft pellet. I did the same at 13mtrs hoping the wind my drop to try here later. Over the 9mtr caster line and I hit a perch first drop in, which came off halfway back in! A couple of small roach were then followed by a 7lb carp which got me thinking there could be a few about. This line went dead so I refed it and tried the pellet line but this never produced a bite. Very quickly 90 mins had gone by and I was struggling on the 9mtr lines with no bites and strong wind. The guy on 33 had taken a few on the feeder and so I put the straight lead out, first over the 13mtr lines, and then right over and up the side of the island. All for 1 small liner!

Until about an hour to go I had not had a bite since the first 90 mins, but I then missed a bite on soft pellet at 9mtrs. I had earlier fed some more casters over to the point of the island at 14.5mtrs and tried this with no success, though I could only try it for a few minutes due to the wind. However, as Mike Duckett on peg 31 was catching across (and the wind snapped his pole) I stuck to this long line and as luck would have it the wind started to ease off. In the last 30 mins I had a perch, a double figure carp, and got snapped. I dropped the rig in after the whistle to see if they had turned up and a 8lb carp confirmed it, bugger!

It had not been a good day and my total weigh of 20lb 4oz was not good enough for an coin. Tony Rixon peg 32 won the lake just beating Mike Duckett (who had been blank after 3 hours) and read all about it on Tony's blog because there was a lot of laughter going on over there! Phil (Fabio) Harding won the silvers with 21lb from peg 38, mostly skimmers on soft pellet.

I can already feel the shoulders and back aching, bloody wind!

Commercial House Rnd 6 K&A Canal

2012-01-15T19:47:00.009Z

Final round of the Commercial House today and the canal was my destination once more. Two sections were from the George to up past Bathampton bend (as normal) but the next 4 sections were Claverton and then Diggers out to Warleigh. These last 4 sections had not been fished much but are not as good as they used to be. Team draw done and I was on the last section from Warleigh bridge back towards Diggers, yuk! I got away fairly early from the draw and managed to get a parking space in the lay by, I think I would have been better parking in Diggers as that hill was a test coming back!

As I walked the section and arrived at my peg I was really pleased, I had some really good cover over in the form of brambles which helps as this part of the canal has no far bank depth. I pulled out the same rigs as last week, no surprise there then! With the 4x14 roach for use on the punch, the 0.4 grm and 0.2grm for bloodworm. A caster rig and a chopped worm rig were also put up, but as I never had a bite on these two rigs there is no more to say!

The angler to my right was Richard Lacey, he was fishing for Bathampton Red and as his team were in 2nd place I had to beat him, on my left was Thatchers young star Nathaniel Johnson. We were soon all feeding our liquidized bread, jokers, casters, etc and I fed heavily with my licky as I was hoping for a few bonus skimmers. Then the moment of truth as I slipped on a 4mm punch of bread, and then for 5 minutes nothing. Then a bite and a 3oz hybrid, next chuck roach and the next and the next. It was going to plan for me, the float was burying very quickly and I was catching a nice stamp of roach. 40 mins in and I was thinking a really good weight could be on the cards, and then I had a cast without a bite, and then not another bite! It was madness, I'd gone from getting bites on the drop to dead stop, it never showed any sign of slowing up. I just didn't get another bite on the punch from a roach, although a silly perch did prove the roach had gone. I reckoned I had taken 2lb on the punch, whilst my neighbours had struggled for ounces.

Although the punch had ended abruptly I assumed the roach would be pigging out on my joker, ummm wrong! It was a real hard task to raise a bite even on a bloodworm, and all my lines against the brambles were useless bar one which gave up 5 tiny fish all day. A line at 11mtrs to my left produced a dozen or so fish during the day but that was it, I can't say anything very interesting about the last 4 hours!

I had gone for a walk during the match and I could see I had been winning the section early doors, but I was concerned about my lack of fish after the initial burst. However, everyone in my section had endured a very tough day and my lowly 2lb 15oz was enough to the win section, with Rich Lacey coming second with 1lb 14oz. Nathaniel was trying to look on the bright side having only caught 11oz! I was obviously on a few roach, but I wonder if my positive feeding helped me make the most of the feeding spell?

Back to the results at the rugby club and the team sheet was looking good, we had all done well and were joint top on the day with Bathampton, and so of course that meant we won the league, yay! My team consisted of Martin Barrett, Mark Brennan, Liam Braddell. Gary O'Shea and Andy Power, although today the Power went to Viaduct and his flyer went to super sub Mick Hurst who just missed out on the frame.

On the day Nathan Hawke left the baby at home and caught some chub up at Ferry Lane for 7lb+, just a few ounces behind him at Diggers was Liam Braddell who had 3 big perch (and lost 2), and then came Gary O'Shea with a big 6lb which included a big skimmer, perch and chub from next to Nathan. The legend that is Roy Carter was 4th with 5lb 12oz just past Bathmpton bend, and last in the money was Kev Dicks.

The B division was paralysed by Dave Tippets team, they had already won the league before the day started, no surprise that Kev Boltz featured in their team. Well done lads.

The knockout winner was Paul Purchase, runner up Andy Ottoway.

Biggest fish with a 6lb 2oz Barbel was me!

Individual champion was a bloke who drew some half decent pegs, that'll be me again! Before the piss taking starts I should say I won't pick up any money for this. That's because when the league started I never expected to fish all the matches as I have been waiting for an operation since September, and so I never entered the individual pool money. So in 2nd place taking the money was Thatchers A leg end Leigh Trivett. Well done Lee, or is it Leigh, any chance of a pint mate?

Well done to Mike Goodhind, Vinny Lunn and Mark Harper for running a smooth league, I look forward to fishing it again next year.

Commercial House Rnd 5 K&A Canal

2012-01-08T20:01:00.005Z

I spent most of the Bank Holiday Monday making up canal rigs, tying hooks and changing elastics as I had not fished a canal since a year ago. When you spend a lot of time preparing for a match you really hope the draw makes it worth while, would it though?

I got to the Rugby club at Saltford with plenty of time to spare and sorted out the team sheet and pools so we would get a fairly early draw. There were a few ringers out today including Des Shipp and Calum Dicks, oh and Paul Dicks was there too, I know cos I stood on his foot and he got me back! As Gary O'Shea did the team draw the last round (when we won) we decided he should draw again. Gary came back with peg 3, and we had what looked like 2 flyers, Gary in Darlington bay, and Martin Barrett the bay at Malthouse. My section was D and this is the section on the Bath side of Meadow Farm bridge. When I got to the canal I was somewhat deflated, peg 9 was the flyer between the bridge and the wires and Dave Haines was sat on that, and the next peg on the recycle tree was Nick Chedzoy. Peg 7 was Darren Gilman, and he said to me in all honesty the further down you went the worse he thought it would be.

Setting up I couldn't see how I could beat those top 3 pegs, and maybe a couple next to them, unless the fish had moved home of course. I debated my tactics in my head, and decided that I would go for a mainly small fish approach as I didn't expect bonus fish. First rig set up was for bread punch, I used a Drennan 4x14 Roach, it has a fairly thick tip compared to most canal floats, but it will support a piece of punch fished off bottom without sinking. I had a 18 PR311 to 0.07 at the business end. A 0.4gm and a 0.2grm PB Silvers (forgot the number!) for bloodworm were assembled with a 20 PR311 to 0.07. A caster rig on another PB silvers float with 0.08 to a 18 B511 finished things off. I never went with any worm rigs!

I started by feeding liqqy at 5mtrs and went straight over it (I also fed joker at 11 mtrs in 2 places and some caster and joker right over), it took me about 5 mins to get a bite and then gradually bites came a bit faster. I only caught roach here and they were mainly 1/2oz but I did pick up a few 2oz fish. I managed to stick on this for the first hour but it was now to slow and I fed a bit more liqqy, it didn't really improve things that much and so I was going to have to look on the joker line. I picked up the 0.4 grm rig to start as the wind had got up and from one swim I took 3 tiny fish, but swapping over to the other 11mtr spot and I had 3 net roach! At this stage I thought I was ahead of my neighbours.

Though I never had anymore net roach I plodded on with the joker lines until 3 hours of the match had elapsed but now needed to rest them and so I tried the caster across. I was just thinking of giving it up when I had a bite and landed a lovely 6oz roach, next chuck same result! Of course I went on to bag...not, I never had another bite on the caster. In fact the last two hours just got more and more difficult for everyone, I had fed some joker in closer but all that produced was a few wasps. I just kept rotating swims trying to get a bite, but it was almost impossible, should I have put some worm in? Well in the end there were no bonus perch caught and my bag of fish had the best quality roach in the section. I weighed 4lb 7oz beating Steve Priddle to my left who had 2lb 10oz and Mark Lloyd to my right with 1lb. Steve spent a long time on worm for just 3 small perch. In the end I was 4th in the section, beaten by Hainer 7lb, Darren 6lb 2oz and Chedz 6lb. So I feel I did the best I could for the team and I enjoyed the fishing to boot.

Overall the match was paralysed by Martin Barrett who had 16lb at the Malthouse, he had 7lb of roach on punch, then 7lb of dace on the wag plus some bleak and bits. Eddie Wynne was 2nd next peg to Martin with 11lb.

In the A div Thatchers A and Bathampton Red tied for 1st, with my lot Thatchers B in 3rd. With 1 round left my team are in first but we only have a 1.5 point lead over Bathampton Red, so we still have it all to do. The last match is next Sunday.

On the 22nd January there is a memorial match on the canal for Bob Warden, with money raised going to the Emphysema charity. Nicola Goodhind has tickets.

Plantation Main Lake / 2011 sum up

2011-12-31T09:52:00.007Z

I got out fishing Thursday with Warren Bates, we had hoped to fish the Viaduct cost cutter but the silvers two dayer prevented that. So with nothing on we decided to pleasure fish Plantation. My thoughts were this was a mixed fishery guaranteeing bites, and the pegs opposite the car park should be sheltered from the strong winds. Luckily I was pretty much right on both accounts.

I think I sat on peg 26, which was facing the middle of an island, Warren sat on 27 opposite the end of the island. however, I had no intention of fishing to the island and was quite content to set up the pole and 1 top set, my laziness comes to the fore when pleasure fishing! With the wind still gusting even in this area I opted to fish no further than 11.5 mtrs, picking two spots to fish, one straight in front, and one at 2 o'clock. The rig I used today was a 0.5grm Preston PB Inter (wire stem) which due to the wind and tow was heavier than what I would use normally use. A strung bulk of no 8 stotz, with 2 no 10 stotz below to 0.10 to an 18 PR490. Warren set up a wag as well as a pole rig.

I fed a small amount of micro and dead maggots in front, and about 100 to 150 casters at 2 o'clock. I started on the micro line wanting to give the caster swim time to settle. I had a much slower start than expected, and was just getting the odd bite from tiny roach, although I did bump what I suspect was a skimmer after about 20 mins. Warren was catching small roach a chuck on the wag and I was questioning my choice of set up! However, I was not trying to catch roach, I wanted some bettter fish, and I felt my heavier set up would give me the best presentation for them and so I stuck with it. After an hour I tried the caster line, after about 15 mins of roach I then landed a 2lb skimmer, but then it was back to roach.

It was obvious the roach were feeding well and so I fed another 100 casters in an attempt to get some bait down for the better fish. The maggot line was still poor but I did take a 1.5lb fouled skimmer from here and a few roach when resting the caster line. Thirty minutes after the skimmer and 15 feet of no 8 elastic shot out, a nice 2lb carp was the culprit. I had taken the skimmer on double red maggot, but the carp on single caster, and during the day I continually changed hookbaits, catching mainly on single red maggot or caster, I never had a bite on double caster. I ended up with 5 small carp, a 1.5lb perch, 3 skimmers and lots of roach for 20lb to 25lb. Warren could not get past roach on either the wag or pole but had lots of them in his 10lb bag. The biggest difference was that I potted bait where as Warren used the catty, and even if you up the feed on the catty I doubt many casters get past the roach. My only dissapointment was that I pulled out of 4 fish, skimmers and maybe another perch, but that's winter fishing.

Well 2011 is coming to an end and to be honest on a personal level I'm glad to see the back of it (never said that before). However, the fishing wasn't too bad! I only managed to fish a couple of matches in January before my operation, and that meant I could not fish at all in Feb and March. In April with the help of people like Glenn Bailey, Tony Rixon, Dean Malin, Phil Harding, Jason Radford and many more I was able to get back on the bank. I could not lift my gear into my car, or to my peg, or even lift my nets out! The way people helped me is something I was very thankful for and will never forget. To win my section (by default) at Shiplate on my first match back was a real tonic. I know this will sound corny, but I really had (and have) a different attitude to match fishing when I came back. Quite simply I was happy to be fishing and decided to enjoy it more, not getting my hair off after a bad day. Well it seemed to work as I went on a bit of a run and nearly won 3 matches on the trot, the Gimp preventing that winning at Shiplate with carp!!!

I don't keep lots of facts and figures, I don't care how much fishing costs me, I just hope to win some dosh back to cover some costs and keep my good lady happy! My highlights of this year (other than nearly doing the treble) were winning my first match post op at the sedges with 120lb (although I paid for that for days). Never catching less than 100lb at the six matches I fished at Viaduct fishery, that might be normal for the regulars but a first for me! Catching roach on the Bristol Avon with a light 1grm pencil float, the river though fished best when clear and once the rain came it went downhill, strange. After a run of average river draws I finally drew a flyer in November and won the Commercial House match on the stick float with 21lb including 2 barbel. What was truly memorable though was how the dace came on the feed with 90 mins to go, it was the proverbial "like someone flicked a switch".

Mostly in 2011, I enjoyed being back on the bank and fishing amongst team mates and friends and enjoying (and engaging) the banter. I look forward to 2012 being a better year for my health, and as far as fishing goes I'll try hard to win, but take what comes my way. Let's all support and encourage the young anglers (not many I know) who are the future of our sport, we need more of them and we need them to stay fishing matches.

Happy New Year!

Absence!

2011-12-20T19:02:00.003Z

Sorry about no blog this weekend just gone, as Frank Spencer used to say "I had a bit a trouble".

I awoke early Dec 16th Friday morning (just past midnight actually) with severe stomach pains, and after some discussions with Frendoc I ended up in A&E at the BRI. It turned out I had a blockage of some sort (fairly obvious as my bag was doing nothing!) and was pumped full of morphine to get rid of the pain, and also it made me feel very light headed. Anyway, to cut a very long story short I ended up in a ward and didn't get home till Monday afternoon. Thankfully the blockage cleared but things have yet to settle down properly, but nearly there. The consultant reckoned I had a kink in my intestine somewhere. Just glad it happened last weekend and not right on top of Christmas!

I'm not fishing now until after Xmas, and even then not sure when, so it will be a tad quiet, though I may do an end of year summary which I haven't done before. Though the fishing for me this year has been kind to be honest I will be glad to see the back of 2011.

Just to say well done to Dave Haines for winning the Bathampton Xmas match with 50lb of bream at Newbridge. Also to Thyers for winning the ATWL just pipping my lot on match wins, well done lads. Kev Boltz continued his amazing form by winning the last round on the canal, I bet even he can't believe how well he's doing!

Happy Christmas everyone, have a good un, and if you do get out on the bank I wish you the best of luck.

November / December 1991

2011-12-09T16:08:00.006Z

I've had man flu most of this week and have decided to give fishing a miss this Sunday, especially as the weather forecast looks very wet!

Back in Nov 1991 Bathampton used to run matches that also included Kelston Straight, and whenever there was water on this was a good place to draw, but bream always dominated. Today the river was clear after two consecutive frosts, but had some pace after the recent floods. I drew peg 224 which was in the middle of the straight and back then not really where the bream were. Fishing my then favourite waggler tactics and feeding lots of bronze maggots I had 9lb of mainly hybrids, a nice day but no dosh as bream came from the point and just below. The following day was a Commercial House match on Frys (we'd get 80+ pegs on Frys 20 years ago!) and everyone expected a tough day. I drew a few pegs above the National Peg and could only see me catching lumps so it was a feeder day. I started on a maggot feeder casting tight across using a single maggot on a 20 to 1.5lb maxima. I had two chub on this after 2 hours but no more bites, and so I switched to the groundbait feeder down the middle of the river hoping for bream. I had two bites but only connected with one and it was another chub, this time on double caster hook bait. Four bites in five hours was my lot! The 3 chub weighed 5lb 8oz and that was enough for 2nd in the 14 peg section.

The following weekend saw me try my luck on a Conham open, but I never seemed to do well in these matches although I always bagged up when pleasure fishing Conham. I struggled for 4 hours for a few bits, then threw in handfuls of maggots over the stick float and caught 4 chub in the last hour, too little too late. Sunday and back at Newbridge this time for the ATWL, back then the river was pegged out with letters and numbers (A1 etc), so you were never quite sure of the exact peg you were on till you got to it. However, I knew I was in the trees and that meant a difficult day was likely on a cold clear river. I put a 22 hook and 0.09 hook length on every rig; pole, straight lead, feeder and crowquill. I started on the pole feeding a little hemp and caster, meanwhile the Thornbury angler below me proceeded to thrown in 5 or 6 balls of white groundbait! Just as I stopped laughing at what he did I nearly fell in as I saw him land a roach, and then another! He only had 2 more, but looking back that was the first time I saw someone ball it in, well sort of! Back to my swim and I managed to extract 6 roach from the pole line, and 1 gudgeon on the feeder. I snared a 1lb chub fishing the straight lead over the pole line late on, and other than 1 missed bite on the pole that was it. My lowly 2lb 14oz was enough to win the section by about 1oz from Robbie Greenham the Bathampton angler. My team came 2nd on the day and were now league leaders, the next ATWL match was in the new year.

I had a pleasure fishing session at Bitterwell lake on the road bank that yielded 20lb of roach and skimmers on waggler and caster, a 20 on 2lb Tectan hook length. The skimmers came to double caster, but you wouldn't always get a bite on this. I had roach to over a 1lb plus a few big rudd. I never used to get bitted out at Bitterwell back then. That brought Nov to a close

Into Dec and the weather took a turn for the worse, with hard frosts every night and temperatures as low as -8C in the first two weeks. I cannot say much about the first 3 matches in Dec as I blanked in all of them! First one at Frys, where 9 people caught out of 55 and my section completely blanked, but I got 2nd in section money pulled out of the hat, who said I was lucky! On the Bathampton Xmas match I drew the trees again, peg 107 and blanked (Rotork won it, oh how times have changed!). I then blanked on Chequers from basically the peg opposite where I had been on Frys the week before! Eventually on the 15th Dec I fished the Silverdace Xmas match and was not to blank. I drew a peg up past the top of the Long Ashtip after the S bend (the peg Shaun Townsend had in the Commercial House a few weeks ago). I caught 6 small chub on the crowquill, feeding caster and using red maggot on the hook with a 22 and 0.08 Smart. I had one 2lb chub on the maggot feeder across, and in total weighed 9lb 1oz coming 8th out of field of 79 anglers, of which 47 blanked!

The second half of Dec saw mild weather return, including heavy rain and gale force winds. I fished the Docks Xmas match and drew Avon Street, 15 dace was all I could manage, and I nearly shit myself climbing down to the pegs! After that it was Xmas and I pleasured fished at the Crane and Chequers for similar results, 6 to 7lb of bits on stick float or waggler. I did fish a match on the 29th, the Silstar 1000. I drew up at Rotork and had a bite a chuck on the wag from tiny roach, that was until I saw a perch by my feet picking up the maggots dropped there. I got my rig and hand lined the maggot up and down until the line went tight, bingo a 1.5lb perch! Alas 6lb was only good enough for 2nd in the section, and it was a day when the bream fed in 54, the 60's and Kelston point.

The last pleasure session to really talk about in 1991 was at Bath in the town, just upstream of Windsor Bridge. I used to love (well still do) this part of the river as being deep it was a real challenge. I had a really fab day catching chublets from 2oz to 8oz, plus the odd dace and roach for a total of 14lb. I fished a waggler 2/3 the way over, just 7ft deep (in 14ft of water) with 2 no6, 1 no8 and 1 no9 down the line, finishing with a 20 to 2lb Smart. I fed 3 pints of maggots over 5 hours and gradually had to fish tighter and tighter to the far bank to keep bites coming. I actually went back the next day on new Years Eve for a few hours and only had 6lb+ and could only catch at full depth!

Roll on 1992!

Landsend Individual League

2011-12-04T19:17:00.003Z

I put my name down as a reserve for this match a couple of weeks ago and managed to get in on speci lake. After reading Mr Rixon's blog and talking to a few people they all said you need to draw 1 of 4 pegs. I travelled down to the match with Paul Elms and Craig Edmunds. Trig was rather upset as he had woken up from his heavy night out to find someone had clamped his car....PMSL!

After another good brekkie at the Fountain cafe we were on our way. There were some good anglers on Speci Lake, and some equally good drawbags so I thought I would try to get in early for the draw. My plan worked well in that I was in early and some of the flyers were left in, but I drew peg 29 and this is just a bit too far down the lake. All the carp apparently are up further from me with pegs 31 round to 34 expected to dominate. Trig did his usual drawbag stuff and got 31, Ron Crandon was on 32, Kev Moulton 33 and Bob Gullick on 34. With only the top 3 and 1 in silvers paid out on each lake I thought silvers would be a good target but with a chance of carp late on.

I set up a few rigs today, but in the end just two caught me fish, a 0.3gm Preston PB Inter 4 with 0.12 to a 16 for caster / soft pellet in the deep water. The other was a 4x10 bristle jobby that took 1 no8 and 1 no10 stotz, also with 0.12 to 16, and this was for fishing across into about 20" of water.

To start the match I fed casters at 6mtrs, and also right over, soft pellet at 13mtr to my right and 13 mtr straight out. The first hour was dire with no bites at all on the pellet, and 2 tiny roach at 6mtrs. I went across on caster and that was no good as roach were grabbing the bait. I kept potting caster in hoping I could feed off the roach and get some perch or chub, after about 90 mins I hooked a carp from right over, it was about 7lb and at least a start! By this stage Trig was losing about 7-2 to the carp, Kev Moulton was bagging and so was Bob. I tried to make the 6mtr caster line work but after a run of small roach it died so I cupped more casters in! To be honest at this stage the writing was well and truly on the wall, but I just wanted to catch a few fish so kept going.

After about 3 hours I hooked a carp on the 6mtr line and it was on for all of 3 seconds, but then 10 minutes later I hooked another. After a nervy battle I netted a 9lb fish, unfortunately that was it for the 6mtr line! However, the far bank caster line had at least settled down in that I wasn't getting pestered by roach and I could sit there and jig double caster. After the umpteenth lift and drop it went under and I was into a proper lump that must have been 12lb. In the last 90 mins I hooked another 5 carp across landing 4 (pulled out of a ghosty), I also had a small chub and then just before the whistle I had a big perch on. Just as it got to the net the hook pulled and I lunged for the fish and netted it and at the same time the landing net handle snapped! Bye bye perch! I should say I tried the margin and so did Trig but neither of us caught there.

My match had at least been entertaining in the second half, and I had some lovely big commons. In fact my 7 carp went 69lb (last two on the scales went 24lb) and with the bits I had 71lb+ so really not bad. As feared the flyers took the money, with Kev Moulton having 112lb on peg 33, Trig 99lb on 31 and Bob 93lb on 34. Tom Thick was also on this lake, his usual mad self, but struggled off peg 38, and Martin Pettifer won the silvers with 21lb of peg 25. Paul Elms to my left on 27 had 16lb and struggled all day.

I only lost two carp, and when you consider that Trig lost as many as he caught it is easy to see where the carp are happy to live at the moment. Maybe a few came my way late due to the commotion of the ones he lost? On the other side of the lake the carp hardly went past Bob, and Rod Wooten and Mark Poppleton just had 20lb weights.

One last thing, if you were there you would know, but today at times it absolutely hammered down with rain and the temp dropped quickly. I was last to pack up as I had helped with the board, and I could hardly see where to fix my bungees as it was so dark and the rain was that heavy.

Commercial House Rnd 4 Bristol Avon

2011-11-27T19:49:00.005Z

This match was fished from Swineford to Crane and Jack Whites, in fact myself and Any Ottoway pegged the match on Saturday. We did not see a fish top all day except for the very top end of Jack Whites, so thought it might be hard, but with the river being clear chub might have a go.

The team draw was done by Gary O'Shea, and when he came back with peg F1 for me I could have kissed him! This was the top peg at Jack Whites, on the fence above the steps, I couldn't help saying that at last I'd drawn a really good peg on the river and was looking forward to a days dace bashing.

I was in for a shock when I saw the river, there was a big tide on, but thankfully it was at its peak, but it must have been all of 3ft. I have drawn this peg once before and I had 22lb of dace on the stick, I fancied more of the same today. The stick float really is my favourite style of fishing, but if I get to use it once a year I'm lucky. The plan was 6 no4 stick on a 15ft rod, and waggler on a 13ft rod, with a maggot feeder for just in case. Shite! I left my feeder rods at home, all I had was my 10ft mini carp, oh well that will do, 0.17 to 16 B90. Shite! I could not get the reel seat to shift on the 15ft rod, so I had to put the stick on my Titan with 0.11 to 18 B611 and that was it! Not a very good start to the day.

Starting on the stick feeding maggot I was expecting bites, but no, it was deadly quiet, maybe the tide had put the dace down. 15 mins in and my first bite resulted in my hooking something decent for 5 seconds before the hook pulled. I went another 20 mins before my next bite and hooked what I thought was a big chub which tore off and snapped me. Oh dear.... OK so no dace bites, time to fish for chub, onto 0.14 and a 16 forged hook. Exactly 1 hour into the match I had my next bite, and this fish nearly took the line off my reel! Eventually I landed a 6lb 2oz barbel. Exactly 1 hour later I had my 4th bite on the stick and after another healthy scrap landed a 5lb 4oz barbel! OK that's enough of maggots, I lashed in 10 handfuls of hemp and caster on the stick float and went for the barbel!

I couldn't get another bite on the stick, I also tried the feeder but nothing, perhaps I had fed to much? I had seen 3 people by now, Paul Barnfield, Jerry Pocock and Kev Dicks, all were below me and had been struggling, only Nathaniel Johnson had caught well, with 5 chub, so I needed to catch another barbel. I had noticed though that Dace had been topping upstream of me for an hour and then at 2pm a couple topped in my swim. This lead me to pick up the stick again and I had a dace first cast out, and the next, and the next..... I was still on the heavy gear, but the dace and odd roach did not care and were grabbing my single maggot every chuck whilst I carried on throwing in hemp and casters, and I swung every fish out. When the whistle went I had caught fish for 90 mins on the stick, and it turned out I had caught 9lb 14oz in that time, bagging!

It was going to be close in the section as Nathaniel had ended with 9 chub, but my weight of 21lb 4oz was just to good for his 19lb 11oz. As it turned out we were 1st and 2nd overall, result! At Jackies every peg came alive late on, at the bottom end, anglers blanking even caught a fish, Nicky Johns and Barny saw at least 9 salmon / sea trout jump clear of the water.

Back at the results it was clear the river had been tough in places, but it still needed over 13lb to frame. Mark Brennan (in my team) came 3rd from the Crane with 16lb, including a 2lb 14oz perch. In fact my team had a good day all bar one and we were clear winners on the day and are now winning the A div by 3 points. I am leading the league individually, but the next two matches are on the canal in the New year and I'm not sure if I will be able to fish them, but we will see.

I have to end by saying that today was a day I will never forget. If I could fish a stick float every day I would be a happy man. Hooking some lumps early and then catching so fast late on was a special experience for me. It was the last w/l river match today.

One final note, pegging the match was more difficult than I thought, and we did put a couple of dodgy pegs in. Shawn Townsend drew the worst one, and caught one 13oz chub 10 mins to go! When he came back he had calmed down, but he did say the match that was not pegged previously (when we did it from memory) was pegged better. PMSL, a top comment!

Viaduct Open Campbell

2011-11-20T19:07:00.004Z

You may be surprised by the title of this post with the winter league being on the canal this weekend. I had decided not to fish the canals this year as they are so busy with people I just don't think I can take the "toilet breaks" I need. I was not going to fish at all this weekend, but then rang on Friday and booked in to the open, whilst the other lakes were taken up by the teams of 4 league.

I had tried to gather a bit of info leading up to the match and went with an open mind to fish for either silvers or carp depending on the peg, and Mat Toomes was very helpful. When I pulled peg 130 I didn't get very good vibes, in fact Tony Rixon said in his opinion it was no good for carp or silvers! Still fish can swim and peg 132 had produced 100lb the day before so the fish were in the area. When I rolled up on my peg I had a look at the anglers on my bank and it was not too bad, Phil Cardwell peg 132, Lee Wherret 129, then Dick Bull, Ray Haywood and Andy Neal...... I've been in easier sections lol!

I set up a waggler for use with 8mm meat, with 18 PR36 to 0.14. A straight lead with 18 PR36 to 0.,and 2 pole rigs; one was a 6x10 pencil jobby with 0.14 to 16 B911 for meat, and the other had the same float with 16 Drennan Carp to 0.12 for caster. I was feeling a bit more confident about things as 30 mins before the start carp were showing in my peg and the empty peg 131. So come the the whistle I fed some meat and caster at 16 mtrs 2 0'oclock, some caster down the edge and then cast out the wag and meat. It wasn't long before I had my first carp, in fact I had 5 casts and hooked and landed 4 carp! Phil Cardwell was also catching on the wag. At this stage I had fed nothing, the carp were clearly in my peg and I just hoped they would stay.

After the first hour I reckoned to have 28lb, it then went very quiet and the wind picked up in my face and I was not able to feed meat as far as I would have liked. I cast the lead out and had a pull round first chuck but the fish came off halfway in. Next chuck on the lead produced a couple of small liners and I had enough of that and went back on the wag. First cast and fish on, and it was a good 8lb fish. Up until the start of the third hour I stayed with the wag, getting indications on most casts, some were liners as I lost a few foulers and landed one that was hooked in the tail. I knew the carp were there, but they seemed to have gone off the feed a bit. Time to try the pole and so I shipped out a piece of meat to 16 mtrs and within 30 seconds I was into a carp! Lee Wherret who was fishing for silvers said he was glad he was not fishing for carp today! Cupping in 4 pieces of meat and some casters after each fish I took another 4 carp here in no time at all, and they were big up to 10lb, and also had a tench. The pole died and so it was back to the wag for a few more. I then had 2 more carp on the pole but no more bite,s and for the last 30 mins of the match I didn't catch but missed 2 bites on the wag. I had really struggled to fish the last hour as my right shoulder blade area was really cramping up for some reason.

I could see I had beaten those around me, but Ray Haywood up on peg 126 had 20 carp which was more than I though I had. I was right but it was close! My carp weighed 122lb and I had 2 tench for 4lb+

1st Ray Haywood 130lb
2nd ME 126lb 13oz
I actually don't know what was 3rd cos the results weren't given out, I was just handed my winnings, but I know Phil Cardwell had 80lb on 132.

Paul Faires on peg 110 won the silvers with 18lb 8oz, and Lee next to me was 2nd with 18lb 2oz. Paul caught on wag feeding casters, Lee caught on pole over gbait!

Well I must say I had much better day than I thought I would have done, and was chuffed with the result as well as the fishing. It does help to draw on them at this time of the year of course! I was a bit rusty I know, and I missed too many bites on the wag I feel, but I'm not worried about that at all. Now have to change all the gear back over for the the Avon on Sunday lol!

Poppy Match

2011-11-13T19:46:00.004Z

I won't go on about wanting to draw at Swineford this week cos you and I know that it wasn't going to happen. I got to the draw nice and early and was soon greeting a number of faces that I only seem to see on this match, Topper Haskins, Jeff Surmon, Julian Pinkett, Mark Haskins, Mike Shellard, I could go on! I was very shocked when I saw commercial expert Chris Davis come in though. It's good to see all these people support this match, but it is a shame that there are just no young anglers coming through. Bill Milton lead the 2 minute silence and then it was on with the draw. So with 120 pegs in the bucket I somehow drew the same bloody peg as last week, peg 20 at Newbridge, oh dear, how sad, never mind!

It didn't take me long to set up as the pole rigs were obviously all the same as last week, I set up a feeder rod with 16 to 0.13 but that was it. The river was now a nice colour, on the clear side, and I thought the roach would show today. I was going to set up a waggler for over but the wind was very bad and with the amount of boaters and leaves on the water I gave it a miss. I balled it at the start but with only 10 balls today and little grub in it, and then cast a big gbait feeder across 7 times. Onto the pole and it was hard work with a vicious downstream wind, and I could hardly get a bite! After an hour I had a 4oz roach, 7 blades and 1 small perch, not really match winning potential! Onto the feeder and first chuck I missed a whacking bite, the maggots were smashed and it must have been a chub. An hour later on and the tip had yielded 1 perch and something which was taken by a pike.

Time for a walk. It was fishing very hard, and my section was being won at the time with about 2lb, so my 10oz was really shite. I gave the pole one more go and picked up 4 more blades and a perch and that was the end of that. Feeder all the way now. I had a couple of bites which I missed and I knew it was from chub so I shortened the hook length down as I was pretty sure I wasn't going to see any bream action on this peg. I took two chublets soon after and thought I should change over to a maggot feeder, it took me 30 minutes to get another bite but then for the last hour (bar the last 15 mins) it went bonkers with chublets hitting the bait sometimes before the line had tightened up. Normally I use bronze maggot on the hook, but fluro maggot was much better today. I was lucky that this period of activity came when the wind had dropped and the leaves had lessened, meaning I could see the bites a lot better. It was a nice end to what had been a poor 4 hours before. I weighed 7lb 8oz which won the section as the next weight was only 3lb 12oz. It seemed the river had once again been a tough nut to crack when it looked in fine fettle.

Winning on the day was Paul Haines with 32lb of bream from about 2 pegs below the outfall at Swineford (I said I wanted to be there lol). Well done Paul a great result. 2nd and the hottest bream angler on the river at the moment was Kev Boltz with 21lb from peg 10 at Newbridge. 3rd was Leon Hubbard with a lovely net of roach on the stick float from peg 29 at Swineford that went 20lb. Dave Haines made a good day for the Haines, catching 3 big bream for 18lb.

4th Andy Ottoway 16lb
5th / 6th Shawn Townsend, Andy Power with 14lb weights

An angler at Jack Whites had a barbel 8lb on the stick float, but lost two others, one he managed to get the head in his landing net but it fell out, wonder how big that was!!!!!

The results were a lot of fun with Bill Milton and Ray Bazely on fine piss taking form. Despite the tough fishing there were lots of happy faces, good laughs and everyone had contributed to the poppy fund. It should be noted that Bristol and West and Bathampton do not charge peg fees for this match allowing for more money to go to the fund, so well done them and well done to all the sponsors. Roll on next year, please keep attending!

November 1991

2011-11-12T19:29:00.003Z

I'm not into dancing or singing so time for a blog on a Saturday night!

November 3rd 1991 was the date for the middle Avon champs, unfortunately a lot of rain in the previous days had brought the river up and the peg I drew was going to be very important in the outcome. Peg 1 at Warleigh was a chub flyer but not in today's conditions. I managed 1 chub and a bullhead on a maggot feeder before the river further and made the peg unfishable. I always remember this match as Bill Milton was a few pegs above me where the river was wider and he was getting regular bites on the feeder. I spent most of the last 2 hours watching Bill and he reckoned on having 15lb, but his keepnet got snagged and he ripped a big hole in it. When he pulled out just 4lb he was gutted, even more so as he would have won. I think on the same match there was a thunderstorm further up river and Warren Bates narrowly avoided being struck by lightning.

I pleasure fished the Crane stretch of the Avon on the Wednesday, starting on the stick float I was bagging and had 6lb in an hour before the peg was covered in leaves. I packed up and walked to the New Fence peg and fished the feeder for a couple of bream but missed bites that I couldn't see due to the bloody leaves! Come Saturday I was fishing an open at Newbridge and the leaves had washed through. I drew peg 3 in the little field which I was really pleased about for a days fishing but doubted I could frame as I thought the bream pegs would dominate. With a lovely pace on the river the peg screamed stick float but I did also set up the pole but that was it for tackle. Using a 20 to 0.1 and feeding bronze maggot I caught roach, chublets, dace and perch all day, but I did have to alter my shotting and depth to keep catching. I ended a lovely day with 15lb 2oz and I sneaked into 4th place!

Sunday and it was the Poppy match (topical!) and I got drawn at Swineford, the last peg in the first field in amongst the reeds. The river being pacey was obviously very fast in this shallow peg, and I took a feeder approach from start to finish. I had a poor start though and only 1 chub and a couple of bits after 3 hours, but then things improved and 4 skimmers and another chub gave me a reasonable 12lb 4oz. I'd caught fishing two lines, down the middle and right over, and worm and caster was the best hookbait on the day. My weight was 9th overall and a few quid dropped in my palm for the 2nd day running.

Wednesday and I was on the last round of the Veals classic league at Newbridge. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I pulled peg 3 out again! However, the river was once again different as more rain had added colour and flow, but I thought the stick would still work and set this and the gbait feeder up. As the match started it soon became evident I had misjudged the pace and the stick float was not right today. Switching to the feeder about 1/4 of the way across the river I proceeded to have a very enjoyable day despite heavy rain falling for most of the match. I really noticed on this day how the hook bait affected the species I caught, bronze maggot brought quick bites from decent roach and hybrids, red maggots took me longer to get a bite but if I got one it was a skimmer. If I tell you I had 7 skimmers, 2 chublets, hybrids and roach for 26lb you can see I had a lot of bites on the feeder and a lovely looking net of fish. Bob Ingram of Diawa Gordon League had the next highest weight in my section, 19lb of skimmers on the stick float from opposite marina. I got back to the results to get my section money only to find out the bream had not fed well elsewhere and I had won the match! I ended the league with 47 points out of a possible 55, and first one out of the overall payouts, those 2 early poor matches cost me, as you only dropped one result, but in retrospect it was a good result for a spotty young un like me!

Winter League Round 4

2011-11-06T19:51:00.003Z

Back on Newbridge today and this match would be OK for pegging as it is permanently pegged! The river had taken on a hell of a lot of colour from the previous 24 hours although it was not pacey at all. Talking to Leon Hubbard we both thought it would either be a bagging match or crap. Well I drew peg 20 just before the pump house, a good peg generally but the area had been poor in recent weeks. On peg 22 below me was once again Kev Boltz, I hoped for revenge, but hope was all I had!

I was convinced this would be a bream match, and on this peg most fish are caught on the bream line so I set up two pole rigs; a 3grm with 0.12 to 16, and a 3grm flat float with the same gear. I also set up two feeder rods, one with a 16 and 0.14 and the other with 11 to 0.16 for lobworm. No point in setting up a float today, plus there were lots of leaves on the surface. At the start I threw in 18 bombs of gbait, thinking this would help hold any bream later on. I started by trying the normal 3grm float, and it took me about 10 mins to get a bite and a little 4oz hybrid. Next chuck a roach, two chucks later another 4oz hybrid. I expected hybrids as they normally feed in coloured water, and then I hit a decent fish. What it was I don't know as I pulled out of it just as it came near the surface leaving a boil. A few runs through later and I had a nice 12oz hybrid now this was more like the stamp I wanted! I thought these fish would come better to a static bait so I went out with the flat float...and never had a bite!

Back on the normal float and it was dead until out of the blue a bite and a skimmer of nearly a pound and a half. I couldn't get another bite, I tried the flat float and the feeder over this line but it was shot. Resting it I cast the feeder across a few times and settled in on this for an hour for 1 perch! It was evident the river was fishing hard, with some anglers still only having ounces, but I still couldn't work out why my bites had died. I did reball the pole line, that gave me 2 small roach and a foul hooked an eel. So I stayed on the feeder but only had 2 bites on this, hitting one which was a 8oz roach. I tried various hookbaits during the day, and only had one bite on a worm which surprised me, red maggot was best for me when I had the fish early on.

Once again Kev Boltz had given me a lesson, he lassoed 3 bream for 12lb whilst my net went 4lb 8oz only 3rd in the section. When I say lassoed, he actually caught one by hooking a lost feeder from ealier in the day and a bream was on the end of that old rig! OK I give up Kev! Shaun Townsend was 2nd in the section from peg 14 with 6lb.

The pegs below Kev in the next two sections nearly all had bream, with Thyers anglers Paul Purchase landing 3 for 18lb (I heard 2 were fouled!) and Paul Bromsgrove having the same weight including a foul hooked slab, they tied for 1st overall. Thyers won on the day with 40 points, Thatchers 2nd with 38 points and Bathampton 3rd with 28 points. League is now -
Thyers, Bathampton, Thatchers, Wilts Angling, Amalgamation.

Quite a number of anglers got out of jail with late bream, none more so than team mate Leigh Trivett who had a last cast bream of 7lb 14oz in his 8lb 10oz! Meanwhile Darren Gillman was last in section for the 2nd week running, that shows how tough the river is at present as Darren is one of the most consistent river anglers around.

Next week is the Poppy match, and I hear that many tickets are sold and it should be well over a 100 pegger. I wonder if my luck will come back next week, cos at present I seem to be wearing something that the bream don't like, lol!

Winter League Round 3

2011-10-30T19:51:00.005Z

This match was to be fished on Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites and I had spent all week holding onto a lucky rabbits foot and planted some lucky heather in the garden all to try to help me get a peg at Swineford! Let's just say the foot and heather didn't work. To begin with I couldn't believe it when I found out that the match had not been pegged out, and so myself, Kev Dicks and Lee Trivett did our best to come up with the pegging on paper! What we had to do to make it easier was put two sections in at Newbridge and that is where I drew, peg 66. To be honest this has been a good area recently for roach, skimmers and bream so I wasn't to worried about not being at Swineford.

After the long walk I arrived at my peg to find Steve Hutchinson below me on 67 and Kev Boltz above on 63. I went positive, two pole rigs the usual 1 grm and 2.5grm, and a groundbait feeder. I couldn't see anything else being needed here as I thought I would need bream. At the beginning of the match I threw in 12 jaffas of gbait and caster and emptied 8 big feeder fulls across the river. I then spent 25 mins without a bite on the pole and was just thinking it was going to be pants when a 12oz roach obliged. Next chuck and another roach and as I netted it there was quite a splash, as I pulled up the landing net I saw there was a 3lb pike in with the roach, it must have literally jumped in the net after the roach! Pike don't count!

I had quite a few roach over the next hour, not many but many were 6oz to 8oz fish so worth catching, Kev had been catching the same stamp but then had a bream and 2 skimmers on the pole to move ahead. I managed to sneak out a 3lb bream and a 1.5lb skimmer soon after and thought things were going well, but then my bites slowed right up. Then I hooked a lump, I wasn't sure if it was a big bream or a pike so I took my time with it and after about 5 mins I saw it was a 4lb bream foul hooked. Of course once I got it in close the hooked pulled out, bugger! This really killed the peg and the gbait feeder line was not giving me any bites, meanwhile Kev hit 6 skimmers / bream on the pole in as many casts. I decided to re ball the pole line and hope. It worked to a degree as I started to catch the odd roach again, and had another 1.5lb skimmer out of the blue. Then Kev chucked the feeder out over his pole line and had 7 more skimmers / bream in 7 casts!!!!! The last 45 mins for me was poor, a double figure pike had moved in and did both my rigs in and the feeder didn't produce either across or over the pole line.

I had the scales so had the joy of weighing Kev in first, and he had a fantastic 45lb 11oz and won the match. I weighed 19lb 1oz and that only beat Steve Hutch's 9lb, as the two other anglers in my section below Newton St Loe Bridge beat me! Andy Britt on the same peg he had last week snared 4 good chub to go with his roach for 21lb, and on the end peg which won the match last week (does this guy ever draw a bad peg?) was Shawn Kitteridge. Shawn had a couple of bream and a lot of roach for 23lb and 4th in the match. As it turned out the lost foul hooked bream cost me framing, but such is life, I had a nice days fishing!

Swineford threw up a few bream weights, Robbie Manns was 2nd overall with 30lb from the last peg in the first field, and on the peg below him Nick Chedzoy had 22lb on the feeder. Paul Barnfield was 3rd from the little ashtip with a couple of big chub to go with a good net of roach.

Thyers won on the day and they are now tied in first place with Bathampton overall, with Thatchers 2 points behind.

Next week is back up at Newbridge (assuming it is pegged) and we could with some more rain as the other section up by the pumphouse was only won with 5lb.

Commercial House Rnd 3 Bristol Avon

2011-10-23T19:42:00.003+01:00

I had not prepared to well for this match at Newbridge because I spent 3 days working in Munich (and me bag leaked causing a right mess!) then had visitors from Hong Kong and went to a 60th birthday party on Sat. I did however manage to mix some groundbait for balling! It was not looking good based on lack on rain!

I can honestly say I really did not have a clue where I wanted to draw as the river is so low and clear it would just be a case of drawing on shedful. Well blow me, I was handed peg 33 on the straight (the peg I wrote about last week with the chub!) and I was pretty sure this would be dog shite. On the peg below me (36) was river ace Kevin Dicks and we both know these pegs are better with water in and are proper winter pegs. With Mark Harper on peg 20 (1st peg in my section) where 18lb of roach was had last week I reckoned I was going to be the wrong end of the section. I had a plan (as ever) and that was if I couldn't catch roach on the pole I was going to try to catch better fish, bream! That said I did set up a wag shallow for bleak (no more on this), a gbait feeder with 16 B611 to 0.14, 2 pole rigs for the balling line, 1gm pencil with 22 to 0.08 and 3gm PB Silvers with 20 to 0.1. Last rig was 1.25 gm with 0.14 to 13 B711 for chopped worm down the side.

At the start in went 10 balls of gbait with little food, I went straight over it with the pencil rig and in 30 mins managed 2 roach and a perch that might have weighed 2oz in total! I tried the 3 grm rig with a static bait but no joy and was soon on the gbait feeder feeding the far side. An hour and 30 mins in and I tried the chopped worm swim, you could have knocked me down with a feather when the float buried! A 6oz perch was soon followed by a 1lb perch and a 12oz perch, of course that line then went dead. At this stage Kev Dicks had walked down to see me and hadn't had anything as yet! Word had it the whole match was fishing terrible.

I wanted to go back in on the worm line after resting it but a huge narrow boat tried to turn around in the river, and due to the downstream wind could not. With his engine on full and rudder hard astern he went through about 7 pegs churning up the inside, twat! I went for a walk, and other than Colin Dance on peg 22 everyone else was really struggling.

I spent the rest of the match swapping between the feeder and the chop worm swim and having the briefest of looks in on the balling line. The feeder gave me 1 bite and a small perch, the balling line nothing. Another 4 small perch came from the worm line, so as you can tell it wasn't exactly frantic. The scales duly arrived after weighing Kev Dicks last in section 6.5oz (not often that happens) and I weighed 3lb 4oz which was enough for 2nd in section. Colin Dance won the section and framed wth 9lb 2oz (giving me section by default hee hee) of roach to 1lb. Meanwhile on the peg above Mark Harper had 12oz, and below Eddie Wynne 1lb+. A tight shoal!

There were some very poor weights and sections, but I won't dwell on those. Winning on the day with 30lb was ....wait for it.... Dave Haines ! I think it was the biggest cheer I have heard in a long time when they called Dave's name out. I heard a rumour that Nicola Lunn had stolen Dave's whips, and instead Dave fished waggler then feeder for a few chub then bream on caster. Next peg to Dave was the Karaoke kid Andy Britt and he had 26lb of skimmers on the pole. Andy Ottoway had yet another nice day with 17lb from peg 67.

On the team front the rivers form meant all teams suffered bad results, and somehow my team has now taken the lead in the A div by 1/2 a point!

I was pleased to see Nick Chedzoy starting to show a bit of proper river angler form, Chedz had 2 bites and one was a 3lb+ chub for 2nd in section. Scratching for lumps takes a bit of bottle! Meanwhile his travelling partner Nick Ewers is searching for the Samaritans phone number. As is Sean Townsend who after 24 years drew the end peg in the trees and said he would be dissapointed if he only had 10lb. He weighed 1lb 3oz (pmsl) and we all laughed as did Sean.

Crane next week, thank f%ck!

October 1991

2011-10-15T19:20:00.003+01:00

As mentioned last week I am missing the 2nd round of the winter league at Newbridge Sunday due to family commitments (nothing to do with a gin clear river not flowing).

Back on October 12th 1991 I was fishing a Saturday open at ....Newbridge. I drew peg 65, and as I had pleasure fished a few pegs away in the week and caught plenty of roach was happy with the peg. In the first hour and a half I caught a roach nearly every cast on the pole and maggot, then the river coloured up badly and the bites stopped completely. I hadn't balled it (we didn't do that back then!) and not catching anymore was all down to the colour and extra flow and me feeding maggot. I didn't think bream were in the peg so I went out on a maggot feeder and struggled for a couple of puppies and eels, though I did lose one big chub. My 6lb 12oz was no good, and the bream hole pegs had 40 and 50lb, wish I had chucked out the gbait feeder!

The following day I found myself in an awful peg at Jack Whites, 2 above the cow drink opposite the concrete and as everyone thought bream would go I was expecting to be right down the section. I tried the feeder for a bit but continually lost hooks and feeders, so in the end I fished a waggler 3ft deep with maggot, 20 to 0.1 and took bleak, dace and the odd small roach. When I weighed 4lb 12oz I expected the worst, but the bream did not feed and I ended with 9 points, good enough.

Wednesday was another round of the Veals Classic League at Newbridge and if you recall I had not done very well in the previous 3 rounds. Today I drew peg 22 (behind the pumphouse) and whilst the river was clear again it had a nice flow. I started on the pole fishing 6 mtrs to hand feeding maggot, whilst also feeding casters out to the middle for the waggler later on. The pole line responded well and I was catching good quality roach on the drop, but alas this died and I had to change to the wag earlier than hoped. There were fish out there and I took the odd good roach and 2 decent hybrids all on caster. I fished a 20 to 0.1 on both rigs, and ended with 10lb 8oz of good stamp fish for 5th on the day and a nice little confidence booster. To give you some idea of the anglers fishing this league here are the ones I remember, Vic Bush, Ian Parsons, Steve Long, Mark Harper, Kevin Dicks, Clive Branson, Jeff Reasons, Gary Ethridge, Derek Coles and many many more.

On the Sunday I was back at Newbridge for the Commercial House, just a few pegs along on peg 28 and thought there might be a few chub about (odd ones caught on the Weds). With this in mind I started out on a wag but with a 22 to to 0.1 going from 3 to 6ft deep and with just 2 no 10's down the line. The wind was vicious upstream and made things difficult but I took 3 chub in the first 40 mins and missed one bite. That was the best bit!!!! After that all I had was a few gudgeon on the pole, and I managed to lose a chub on the feeder (I was good at that, still am lol). It was a tough match and I came 2nd in the section with 6lb 1oz.

Two matches left to report on in October, and both involve chub and differing emotions! 27th Oct and the ATWL, I was 5 pegs above the sewer at Limpley Stoke and told it would be rock hard where I was. I fished a wag set at depth (about 11ft) with very light shotting and (stupidly) a 22 to 0.08. After about half the match all I had was a couple of pounds of bits, then I lost a chub under my feet. So I stepped up to 0.10 (idiot) and lost another 2 chub. I then went direct on my reel line which was 2lb maxima, and lost another chub!!! The last two fish I had lost upstream and I got up and looking through the glare realised there was a big weed bed above me. I hooked one more chub and got that one out now I knew what was in the peg. My 5lb 6oz was still worth 10 points but losing 4 chub had cost me the section and a frame place. I was sick as a parrot!

So the last match of Oct was back on the Veals League at Newbridge, it turned out to be a memorable day. Drawing a few pegs further downstream again I was on peg 33. With similar conditions as on the CH match I reckoned the wag for chub would be best, and when I got to my peg and saw about 10 chub on the far bank my mind was made up! The wag was set up with a 20 to 0.1, with 1 no9 and 1 no10 and 4ft deep was best. The angler above me (on 30 I think) was Pete Sivell and he will not forget this day. After the first hour Pete shouted out to ask what I had, "7 chub" I replied. "Don't be effing stupid tell me what you've got Clucker" says Pete. "7 chub Pete!" says I. "Alright eff off then Cluck if you won't be sensible" steamed Pete. Well as you can probably imagine I was pissing myself by the fact Pete thought I was lying! By the end of the 3rd hour I had 16 chub and then the rowers came out and the chub went and I never had another bite on the wag or the feeder. Not long before the end of the match Topper Haskins walked up and asked me what I had, then he walked on up to Pete... "Clucker I thought you was f&cking lying!!!" PMSL! I weighed in 29lb and won the section but only came 5th overall as lots of bream came out from the end of the straight and the bream holes. I don't think chub ever showed in peg 33 again, they must have shoaled for winter or something then went elsewhere? Oh and Pete, I think he had a hard earned 8lb of roach.

I Really Should Stick to Rivers!

2011-10-09T20:03:00.003+01:00

I had no plans to fish this Sunday as there was nothing on the river that I fancied fishing plus I had a bad bout of man flu. However, a text From Tony Rixon saying he was running a match at Avalon got me juices flowing and this would definitely be my last commercial fishery match this year (surely!).

I did feel a tad better today but since I have come home have got blocked up and feel crap again (well being in the fresh helped when I was in it). With most of the lake going to be used I fancied a draw in the middle of the lake, the car park end was flat calm whilst the other end was very windy. Well I pulled out end peg 1 (yes Chris another corner) and that at least meant a nice short walk. However, my planned day of skimmer fishing was now on the back burner as I got lots of advice how to fish for carp.

As this match was any method I set up a method feeder with 0.21 powerline hook length to 16 PR38, a pellet wag (these were to fish about 25 metres up the end bank) a 4x10 Durafloat 10 for corn to the end bank at 16mtr (0.16 to 16 B911) and a skimmer rig on 0.5grm but this was a non starter.

On the whistle I cupped micros and corn to 16 mtrs up the edge, and cast the method further up the edge! It was a slow start but I was not to worried thinking this peg would get better in the last half of the match. I took a couple of small stockies on the method with 3 red maggs before I lost the whole rig when I think a carp must have hit a snag on the line. A change to banded 8mm pellet brought a few more stockies and after about 2 hours I had 7 of these small chaps. I was thinking about going on the pole and turned round to get it and heard a splash, looking back round my rod and reel were in the lake waving goodbye. Oh shit, there's a Diawa TDR reel on there I can't afford to lose that! The rod got to about 20 metres out when it stopped and after a few attempts I managed to snag it with my pellet wag rig. Trouble was the end tackle of the feeder was now well and truly snagged and I was having to pull for a break...but my pellet wag was somehow attached around the feeder rod tip section. I had no choice but to pull for the break and SNAP, back came the rod and reel, but gone was an inch off the end of the feeder rod. Well I hope that makes you laugh as much as it did when I told Mr Rixon!!!!

I went for a quick stroll to see how things were going and I was up with the anglers below me on fish numbers but I had all babies. I stuck another tip in the method and tried it again, but the peg was never the same. The 16 mtr edge line gave up 2 pasties in two chucks with 2 hours to go and after that just two chublets. The method brought me 1 more carp and that was it. A very bad day for me as my 10 carp and bits went 26lb+ which I would imagine would have been close to last. Howard Webb on peg 3 also had 10 carp but his went 39lb.

I didn't hang about for the results as I wanted to forget all about today and get home and have a Sunday Roast. I heard that Martin Mahon won it with 70lb on the method, and that Shane Caswell won the silvers with 17lb. All the details will be on Tony's blog of course. Def weekend of for me next week, so I'll stick a 1991 (hopefully it will be a good memory!) story on for that.

Winter League Round 1

2011-10-02T20:22:00.004+01:00

This was the first round of the formerly sponsored Angling Times winter league, and it was at Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites. I had gone to bed the night before dreaming of a peg at Swineford or Jack Whites as I expected the crane to be tough with lots of pike. Breakfast in the rugby club and a chat with Kev Boltz and Shane Caswell before the draw was done. Oh fer fecks sake, the Crane again, only this time on the little wall just past the gantry. This area has been poor so far this year with 5lb being a good weight, my peg produced 2lb for Dave Haines the week before.

This is a shallow peg, and I think that this is the problem, the roach are there but the bright sunshine is penetrating the peg and putting the roach off. Still you have to make do and try to enjoy a day in the sun! Below me was Bathampton's and and good friend Darren Gillman, above me was the son of a millionaire Andy Bush. (Andy had to borrow some float rubbers from me for his topper float, don't Mosella do them lol!)

So what to do today then... First the boring bit, 1grm pencil rig, 4x16 strung out rig as usual. Then a waggler shallow (possible chublets I hoped by the boats) and a 4mtr whip (borrowed off team mate Andy Ottaway). The whip was set up as I had seen a few small fish swimming in close and I thought I would start on this whilst feeding caster and hemp at 13 mtr, no balling in today for me! On the whip I think I had about 1lb 12oz in the first hour, small roach and perch mainly and I was happy with this start. I picked up the pencil rig and started to get bites straight away but they were off the bottom and I bumped a couple so went onto the strung out rig. I picked up the odd roach but the bites were very iffy and when I did get one I often missed it. So far no pike trouble (in fact none all match) but then bleak appeared and they were mopping up every caster I fed and I couldn't get a bait to the bottom.

Onto the wag from id match and I caught bleak and the odd small dace on maggot, I hoped could draw the bleak away from the pole line but despite feeding maggot right across they stayed on the pole line. I got a bit cheesed off with this and went mad and cupped in a pot of caster and a pot of hemp on the pole line to get some bait down. Eventually the bleak left the wag line and disappeared altogether. Onto the pole line and no bleak and no bites, shit I think I messed this up! I set up a maggot feeder but to be honest I doubted it would work as opposite me the boat owners were building a new walkway and patio and I had a headache from them using pick axe, sledgehammers etc. Oh yeah and I could hear a baby crying all day from the boat down by Darren, add to this all the boaters and walkers enjoying the sun and it was truly wonderful. With 20 mins to go I had a roach on the pole and then 5 more, my first roach for 2 1/2 hours. Usual late arrivals!

Darren below me had struggled for 3lb and last in the section, I don't know why, maybe it was the people fishing for pike opposite him, or the boat turning round in his peg, or the two lumps he hooked on the roach rig that snapped him, or the pike he lost..... you get the picture! My section was won by Gary Cross off the high wall with 10lb of roach (it must have been solid) and my 6lb 11oz was 2nd in the section. Young (!) Andy had 4lb+ above me.

On the day Bathampton did very well and won, and also had the top 3 individuals, Graham Hunt 18lb of roach from peg above railway bridge, Martin Rayett 18lb of chub from peg 18, and Sean Townsend 14lb of dace from Jack Whites steps. Good pegs but they did the biz. Wiltshire angling came 2nd with Thatchers (ahem) 3rd, Thyers 4th and Amalgamation last.

Sorry if there are a few grammar issues in my two posts, but I'm to knackered to bother to check! Time for bed!

Angling Times County Champs Final

2011-10-02T19:56:00.003+01:00

Welli have to write 2 blogs tonight and I can honestly say I am absolutely fecked after two days fishing in such hot weather!

Alarm goes off at 5:30am and I am outside putting my gear on the pavement in the pitch dark waiting for Sean Townsend to pick me up, it was weird listening to Tawny owls calling as I waited! Sean was bang on time despite having a bit of a hangover and a bad cold, but he's a tough cookie. We finally at Barston for the draw what an amazing place, fantastic set up, but you pay for it, brekkie was £7+. The Avon team consisted of Steve Mayo (superstar), Sean Townsend (legend), Martin Pettifer (bird scarer) Leighton Palmer (shareholder in Natch) and myself (Baggy). Steve did the draw and it seemed I had a good peg as did Sean being in a corner on his lake.

Off to Gearys lake at Packington Somers for me and peg 10, arriving at the peg carp were boshing everywhere, at about 80 metres out next to some pipes. So first rod set up was the method, a Preston in line 45grm job with 0.21 powerline to various hooks for different bait options. A straight lead and pellet wag were made up on standard Viaduct gear, then it was the pole with two 0.3grm Preston Inters for CW&C at 13 mtrs and soft pellet at 14.5 to 2 o'clock. Plus a caster rig at 5 mtrs and a margin rig next to a tree.

On the whistle I fed the pole lines and then launched the method, it seemed to land very nearly where I wanted it to, whereas the guy next door cracked off then fished it short (not enough line methinks!). 30 mins in and the method was up the bank as I had only had 1 skimmer and nobody else that I could see had caught on it. On the CW&C line I fouled a skimmer first drop and then started catching small skimmers (6oz) on either worm head or red maggot on a 16 to 0.12. I did take a couple of 2lb fish and a 12oz tench and at this stage I was ahead of my neighbours. It went funny after 2 hours and I tried the pellet line on the pole and not a bite, took a few bits at 5 mtrs and then tried the straight lead for nothing. The rest had helped and I had another run of small skimmers and a fantail before I hooked a proper lump! I played for about 10 mins, got it out of 1 snag and then whith me holding 14.5 mtrs of pole it did me in a tree down the edge, it was a big lad!

Loosing that carp seemed to really put the peg down and I struggled to the end of the match, despite seeing the odd carp boshing out I never had so much as a liner on the method or the lead. The margin produced a perch to my double dendra hookbait and that was it, all over. A few lads walked around waiting for the scales and it soon became obvious to me that the fish were shoaled up, I beat the two guys to my left and right and just missed out on my 6 peg section £50 as the angler on the end peg had 3 carp for 26lb. My weight of 19lb 14oz was probably about 30th in the 46 peg section. The lad 3 pegs to my right had 50lb on the method, and he told me he had a bite a chuck, to his right Pete Rice had just into double figures thanks to 2 late carp. Back at the results and Steve Mayo had come 3rd in his section with 46lb, Sean won his lake but with 3 lakes in his section we weren't sure how he did but must have been top 10. Leighton had 3lb and Martin 1 carp for 7lb so we had done good, but we came 15th out of 46 teams, so not to bad I suppose. I enjoyed the day out and it was nice rubbing shoulders with lots of famous faces, including £50K Andy Power who only went and won this match with 61 at Barston fishing boilies on the method, what a star!
Just to say as we were driving back to Barston for the results, all these top anglers were going home (shit out) like Steve Ringer, Kieran Rich etc, and they were waving out at us, Sean said "What the feck is going on here all these stars waving out us?" well I simply said "They recognise me of course Sean!". PMSL!

Commercial House Rnd 2 Bristol Avon

2011-09-25T20:00:00.004+01:00

Back on the river today and not a pellet in sight! I had walked up the Crane on Friday watching Paul Staite and Alan Jones catching the odd fish but having a lot of pike problems. As far as I was concerned I wanted to draw at Swineford, but once again I was up the Crane! It was difficult to know exactly where I was as the pegging was ass about face and it didn't look right. I ended up on peg 81 in the Long Ashtip Field with my 9 peg section starting 1 below the high wall and ending up towards the end of the long ashtip, yep they were very well spread out! I don't mind admitting I was a tad annoyed with my peg after walking past lots of unpegged good pegs.

Time was short for setting up and I did something today I have never done before on a river match just set up a pole. I reckoned that I was only going to catch roach and perch and with a nasty downstream in your face wind and very little flow a pole would be the only way to present a bait. I went for the standard 1grm pencil rig with 0.08 to 18 B611, 2 grm 0.1 to to 16 B611 (never used) a chopped worm rig (to weed to use it!) and I also got out my little used 4x16 PB15 float with spread shot again with 0.08 to an 18. Just setting up these rigs (and getting my box and gear into the river and silt) only gave me a few minutes rest before the start.

On the whistle in went 12 jaffas at 11 metres, that was far enough out today as there was some flow there and it would make shipping back a bit easier. It was my usual slow start (why can't I catch to start!) with just the odd dace and small perch in the first hour and I lost 3 fish to pike. Into the 2nd hour and I was now picking up the odd roach but still losing some to the pike and I was getting pretty cheesed off especially as was it raining heavily! The middle of the match was very difficult indeed and I reckon I would get 1 bite in about 7 runs through, and if i did hit the bite I then had to hope the pike didn't snaffle the fish or the fish didn't weed itself, I had realised there was a weedbed out to 9 metres!

I got up and went for a walk to try and clear my thoughts, Nathan Hawke below was struggling like me but above me Steve Priddle said he 80 small roach. Glenn Bailey on peg 1 in my section was also finding it tough, so I went back to my peg and tried to winkle out some more roach. I kept swapping between the 1 grm and 4x16 rigs (although this one was unusable at times of high wind) and maggot was the best hookbait up till now. With 45 mins to go I was contemplating reballing it (well it worked last match!) when I suddenly started getting a bite every cast on the 1grm rig from 4oz roach. Then I lost the rig to Mr Pike and went out with the 4x16 rig with caster and took a roach evey chuck to the end. Why had the fish switched on, I don't know, but those roach were obviously there all day and once they went on the feed it was easy. Nathan also had a good last 45 mins.

I weighed in 10lb 8oz which was 2nd in the whole section but 1st in the A div so job done for the team. The section money will come in handy replacing all the hooklengths I lost to the pike! I think I took nearly 5lb in the last 45 mins, and that took me right up the section. Barny had top weight with 11lb, this was from the peg that had 40lb of bream the previous match, and Steve Priddle's tiddlers weighed 9lb 10oz. Nathan ended with 8lb+ so as you can see it was a tight section.

Liam Braddell won the match from up in the Cornfield with 31lb, he had some bream and skimmers and about 7lb of roach all on the pole / feeder over the pole line. There was a 28lb of bream at Swineford and Lee Trivett had a nice 22lb from peg 17 on the waggler. Overall good weights again but pike caused havoc for most anglers. I don't know the team result so far but I do know my team won on the day.

A double header next week with the County Champs final on Saturday and the first Winter League round on Sunday.

Sept / Oct 1991

2011-09-18T12:24:00.005+01:00

Back again on the memory trip, as I really needed a weekend off as have felt really tired last couple of weeks.

My last match in Sept 1991 was a Bristol & West open that took in Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites. The day before had been very wet and windy and the river was up just a little with nice colour and I was sure bream would feed. I drew a peg in the cornfield it was on the end of an S bend opposite a willow tree (I think it is the split willow, but never sure) and I had Silver Dace bagger Mike Ainger on the peg upstream. Mike said we could catch some bream, I didn't know as I had very rarely drawn in this area. So it was an easy decision for me when setting up, 1 feeder rod with a 16 to 1.5lb maxima for the gbait feeder of course. Chatting to Mike before hand I told him I would whistle out if I caught a bream, I could, still can, do this stupid sort of warbling whistle which can annoy others ears! (That whistle is now perfected by Andy Bush, and I believe he has over the years driven his Dad Vic and his mates mad with it lol!)

It was a nice easy cast here and I chucked 3/4 the way across using 2 or 3 red maggots on the hook. I think it was about 20 mins when I first whistled out to Mike after netting a slab. I lost a chub under my rod end not long after but then never lost another fish all day. By mid match Mike was getting more and more frustrated at my whistles and had to come and see me at one point just to make sure I wasn't winding him up! By the end of the match I had taken 13 bream and 2 chub for a total of 43lb 14oz. Walking back everyone was saying you'll win it etc, but I did not win it, that honour was bestowed upon Andy Floyd. Andy was in the 2nd field at Swineford and had a brilliant 54lb on the crowquill and bread, although I expect he admitted to 10lb! I came 2nd, but only just as there were 2 other 40lb weights I recall. It was a brilliant match with loads of weights.

Wednesday 2nd of Oct and back on the Veals Classic league looking for continued improvement at Newbridge. Oh no not again, I struggled for 3lb 2oz on peg 28 with the waggler, so any chances of doing good in the league were well and truly over.

Saturday and a trip to the Oxford Canal for the final Drennan super league round. The team had no chance of winning or relegation so we didn't practise. The draw was in a pub on a village green, it looked a cracking place to live. At the bar we ordered bacon butties and then Paul Lumbard cheekily asked for a pint of Guiness and the Landlord said OK (this was before the existing licencing rules remember) and all of a sudden the whole team had a pint of Guinness and then another. My team already had a bit of a reputation of being animals and this just enforced it with quite a few choice comments from other more serious teams! What a good laugh it was and I went to my peg feeling rather merry. As for the actual fishing, well my 2lb 7oz (all caught on rod and lime) was worth 7 points and a good enough return for the team, we came 5th on the day and ended the league 7th.

No time to rest though, I would have had a load of beer Sat night I'm sure, then up for the Commercial house on Sunday at Laycock. This venue was peggy as hell of course, but you just had to make the most of what was in front of you and hope the odd bonus would show up. Now there is a certain angler who will remember this match very well and I hope he reads this and reminds me exactly what and how he caught, Martyn "Woody" Woodington. I got drawn on a peg just below the telegraph pole peg in the Abbey field, below me I remember was John Dursley. I didn't know what to expect here but went with my standard approach for the upper river, stick float and caster. I was on a 20 hook and 2lb breaking strain Smart. For a couple of hours I took the odd dace, roach and perch and then a weird thing happened that is hard to explain but it is the truth. I ran the float down and it went through the swim a bit different for some reason and I knew something was going to happen, bite, clunk, I landed a bream. Next chuck the float goes down the river the same way and I knew the float would go under in the same spot, and clunk bream on, John Dursley is now a bit miffed as he heard the clunks! Next chuck the same spot, clunk, now lots of f%cks from John and I was getting very excited. Sadly for me that was the end of the action, but it was a real adrenaline boost. My end weight of 11lb 11oz got me 3rd in the section and 5th overall. Winner of my section was Woody with I think 48lb of mainly barbel on the float, his biggest was nearly 10lb. We heard about his catch for a few weeks after that! Amazing that all this was 20 years ago now, but still remember some stuff like yesterday.

Hope you've all had a good Sunday fishing, looking foward to a good draw on the river next Sunday. I had a bad run at the drawbag last autumn on the river (made me feel shit as I was having to put up with the head f*ck that having cancer was giving me) but after a summer this year of good draws, well who knows. One thing for sure, no more corner pegs!

Windy Chilton Trinity

2011-09-11T20:10:00.002+01:00

This was probably gonna be my last commercial fishery match for quite a while and I wanted to give it my best. With bad weather forecast I mixed up some gbait for the method and cut a couple of tins of meat, and also made a few rigs and tied some hooks, all on Sat evening!

I was one of the last to arrive at the venue and heard tales of multiple 100lb+ bags coming out in recent matches, that sounded alright to me! Into the draw net and I pulled peg 17, in a corner again (I actually prefer open water, honest) and with the wind smack in my face. Dean Malin and Tony Rixon said it was a good draw and so I decided to fish for carp and go for the win. I set up the method feeder (but I was hoping not to have to use it) and two pole rigs, a 0.75gm for 5 mtrs with 0.16 to 16 PR36 for banded pellet, and a 4x16 for the margin which was about 4 ft deep, I couldn't find anything shallower.

I fed a cup of 6mm pellets out at 5 mtrs, some meat and pellets into my right margin, and corn and caster to the left. I started at 5mtrs with an 8mm pellet and did not have a bite despite a few blows coming up. I changed to a 6mm pellet and snared a hand sized skimmer and then a 1lb skimmer and that was all the action I had in the first hour! In the 2nd hour I caught 1 small carp from the right margin, and pulled out of a fouler. In the third hour I lost a carp in the margin that got under the pallet on peg 16 (forcing me to walk round and free the rig) and I lost a carp at 5 mtrs.

In the fourth hour I had an eel from the left hand margin, and 1 carp from the right. I changed my 5mtr rig to 0.14 and 16B911 with soft pellet. This brought another skimmer and a carp. I tried the method in desperation and this did yield one carp, but nothing else. The fifth hour saw 2 carp from the margin landed and more lost (foulers). The sixth hour saw 1 carp from the right hand margin, and 2 carp and a tench from the 5 mtr line. All in all it was shite and I lost as many carp as I hooked.

As you can probably tell I didn't have to good a day, but I did have a good laugh. Shane Caswell was next to me on peg 15 and he had a very bad day, landing just two carp for 8lb. He also had a few run ins with a problematic bramble and went hedge trimming to retrieve a rig. This after he told me he had fished the Doncaster canal last week and blanked, lol!

My 5lb of silvers and 31lb of small carp was 20lb short of taking any coin, and Rich Coles on peg 19 showed me how to do it coming 3rd with 59lb. Rich caught on paste next to the reeds for the first 4 hours, and then lost 10 and landed 1 in the last 2 hours, I did hear him cussing! Trig won the match, he has been very consistent this year, and unlike Samson losing his hair doesn't seem to make him weak! Tony was 2nd with 66lb.

Chris Fox won the silvers with just 10lb, bugger I should have used the worms I had decided to leave in the car.

Just a note about the Angling Times Winter League Final today, Dorking have won it, and I believe off the next peg Bathampton came last, sorry lads must try harder!

Commercial House Rnd 1 Bristol Avon

2011-09-04T20:02:00.004+01:00

It's winter league time again! Sunday and back on the lower Avon for the Commercial House winter league fishing for Thatchers, in this case the B team. We had 2 subs (OAPs) in the team today as 2 of the team were on holiday, so I hoped they didn't get long walks! It was great to see the lads again, and there was a fair bit of anticipation as to how the river would fish.

I was adopted as captain for the day (PC Barrett will take that duty back next time) and had the drawbag at my mercy, I fancied Swineford today for framing and wanted to avoid Jack Whites. Well I pulled neither, I ended up in the boys hole up the crane which should be OK for some roach. The OAPs had the pegs at Swineford and one of them was on the beach and lost all his colour when I told him how far it was! Well there were no mugs in my section today, other than Gary Cross that is (lol), Graham Hunt was by the cattle Grid, Mark Harper was on the peg 10 yds below me, and Sean Townsend was above me. I fancied my peg more than those either side, but thought the 4 pegs above the gantry would be the best.

I had a pretty good idea how to approach this peg, and the pole would be the main attack for roach. I plumbed my 1grm pencil rig and it was 4 inches off the bottom (not a bad guess) so that would do for starters, I went fine today on this, a 20 to 0.08 as I thought it would be tough. A 2grm rig with 0.1 to an 18 would do for overdepth, and a 1.5gm rig with 0.16 to 12 for chopped worm in close. I also set up a wag (not used) and a gbait feeder with 0.12 to 16. Glad we had plenty of time to set up!

On the whistle I fed worms and casters at 5 mtrs, then threw in 12 jaffas out to 13 mtrs. Out with the 1grm rig and I had 2 roach in 2 casts, then on the third cast the roach was taken by a pike, new hook required! Back out and I couldn't get a bite, in the next 20 mins all I had was 1 small perch and it looked bleak as both Mark and Sean were catching. I tried the heavy rig but it was also no good. I then ran the pencil rig all the way down the peg and had a bite! For the next hour and a half I caught odd roach way down the peg and out of the blue two 8oz skimmers. I also lost a couple more fish to pike including a better skimmer. It was a very difficult day, the wind was strong upstream affecting presentation, but still the lighter rig was best. If I could catch 3 roach in 3 chucks that was it, then it was dead for 10 mins, I had to change depths and try different places in the peg all the time, but caster was the best hook bait. During the middle of the match I lost a decent skimmer which I foul hooked and the peg went right off and so I decided to give the feeder a go for 30 mins or so while resting the pole line. The feeder didn't produce a fish, but I then had 6 roach in 6 casts on the pole before it was back to working hard again and trying to avoid the damn pike.

With half an hour to go the peg was properly dead, so I decided to reball it and hope! It was a good move as a few more roach up to 8oz came my way before the whistle went. I knew I had beaten Sean and Mark but Graham had been catching all day so I thought he would piss the section. Graham did win the section with 11lb 15oz, but I wasn't so far away on 11lb and came 2nd, I had fewer fish than Garahm but better quality. Mark had 7lb and Sean 4lb and so it proved they had worse pegs than me.

Overall it was:-

1st Leon Hubbard 80lb (!) 31 bream from a peg in the cornfield, not bad I suppose!!!!
2nd Jonny Atkins 46lb bream on the pole in the little ashtip (that's a first!)
3rd Leigh Trivett 16lb+ last peg on the beach

There were quite a few double figure weights and considering the clarity of the water it fished well. Although Nick Ewers on the first peg into the little ashtip might disagree as he only had 3lb+, not a peg I would have liked!

The two Bathampton teams tied for first place, and my team was 3rd, unfortunately the two OAPs only managed 3 points between them, but at least they gave it a go.

Well that's enough typing, my shoulders are aching after two days of pole fishing, and today was busier than yesterday, shame I have to wait another 3 weeks to fish the river.

Avon County Champs Final Landsend

2011-09-03T20:27:00.004+01:00

It was a bit strange waking up on a Saturday morning to go fishing, and my body clock took a little adjusting! I was travelling on my own today since my normal partner Glenn Bailey did not want to fish this match, and as it turned out so did quite few others. So in the end only 10 people were fishing for 5 places. I am surprised that so many people didn't want to fish (don't want to go to the final?), but I guess some people don't like going out of their comfort zone, and I can understand that but I have never minded travelling.

Anyway back to today and as I put my hand in the bucket a ticket flew up and I grabbed it, peg 19 was looking back at me. This was the peg that Mike Nicholls had lost 25 carp from on Monday, and venue expert Rod Wootton said to me "it's foul hook city". Oh well at least plenty of interest for the day then. The pegging was generous and on 21 was Martin Pettifer, and on 17 was Eddie Wynne, for some it was even more generous, Sean Townsend on 11 had his next anglers on 7 and 15! A quick call to Tony Rixon confirmed the peg should be approached shallow at 13 mtr to avoid foulers for as long as possible. So I set up a 4x10 Durafoat with 0.16 to 16 PR36 for this line (it cocks with 1 no8 stotz and either a 6mm or 8mm pellet). A similar float for down the edge to my right, a dibber for 6" deep if they came right up or I needed to go in tight. Finally a 0.3 gm Inter float with 0.16 to 16B911 for the deck at 7 mtrs and 13 mtrs.

On the whistle a pot 6mms went in at 13 mtr, a pot at 2'o'clock at 7mtrs, casters and corn down the edge and at 10 o'clock 7 mtr (but nothing on this at all). I started on 7 mtrs with soft pellet and lost a fouler (here we go I thought) first dob but no more carp activity, I took a near 3lb bream and a F1 here and the first hour was gone! I had been feeding 6mm pellets by catty to 13 mtrs and decided to take a look over on the shallow rig first to avoid foulers..... um it never it went under and after 15 mins I was on the deck. This was slow, no liners or foulers, another flying skimmer and a couple of babies obliged but it was tough going. I kept going on this line and started to toss pot a bit of bait in as well as the catty, it seem to help as I took another 2 F1s, a chub and 4 carp by the halfway mark. This wasn't great but no one was really bagging, although Martin and Rod had a lot of carp in their pegs they were fouling a few and landing some. Martin then went and took 5 carp next to some marginal lillies in 5 chucks to storm ahead, he hadn't even fed it they were just there! My margin line was dead, the carp seemed to be the other side of the pallet today!

My next 2 hours were rock hard with just a decent ide and a few roach and I knew I was out of it. I tried in tight to the far bank, but never had anything other than the occasional liner. I decided to up the feed in the catty significantly and blow me the peg started blowing and I caught a carp on the deck then fouled one, so out with the shallow rig. I then caught 4 more carp and lost one fouler all up in the water before the whistle. I was left wondering if I should have fed heavier earlier, or was it just the usual last hour improvement? I knew I had been beaten by Martin (who lost 20 odd carp) and by Rod and by Steve Mayo on peg 1, so chances of being in the top were slim. As the scales went round I wandered up to see Eddie (who had chucked back) and my team mate Leigh Trivett. Leigh had gone round to watch Sean Townsend weigh in and had left his nets unattached on the pallet with the fish in. I couldn't resist it! I grabbed his carp keepnet and hid with it in peg 16. When they came round to weigh Leigh he was a tad upset that his tough day had now gotten worse as he proclaimed the carp had dragged in his net (lol). I then appeared in Leigh's peg with his net just as he was up to his armpit in the lake looking for the net. Yes I nearly did PMSL !!!!!

I weighed 51lb 11oz, which included 13lb 11oz of silvers, this was enough to take the consolation prize of the top silvers weight. I was 6 overall but in the final as Rod Wootton announced he did not want to go. I asked Rod what had I done wrong on this flyer, in his opinion the fish were not there as there was not enough pressure on the lake to push them into the gap, but I also feel I could have done better fishing longer to the point, hey ho.

1st Sean Townsend 86lb (19 carp) peg 11
2nd Rod Wotton 72lb+ peg 22
3rd Steve Mayo (3 ounces less than Rod) peg 1
4th Martin Pettifer 62lb
5th Leighton Palmer 53lb
6th Tim Ford 51lb 11oz

So it is off to Barston and Packing Summers on Oct 1st.
Came home tonight and spent over an hour mixing gbait and changing the gear around for the river tomorrow, hope it is worth it!

Tony Rixon's Float Only Viaduct

2011-08-28T20:32:00.006+01:00

I was guesting in the league today and was travelling once again with Glenn Bailey. We were a little jaded after spending most of the previous day drinking beer (Cider for Glenn) whilst watching the T20 cricket finals at Edgbaston. I really enjoyed the day and the semis were both tied leading to a cracking 1 over smash off!

I was really hoping for a draw on campbell and despite being near the back end of the queue managed to pick out 119. I have had this peg once before about 6 years ago, then I had 50lb of tench, but today I thought would be all about carp. Glen had drawn corner peg 73 on Lodge and was also going to have hopefully a carp day. For company today I had Dave Evans on peg 118 and Gary Etheridge on peg 121, so no pretty faces but good anglers lol! I saw two main options, paste at 9mtrs using a 0.2grm Hill Billy float with 0.18 Exceed to a size 10 Drennan Carp hook, and banded pellet to the end bank with two rigs one for 6" deep on a dibber and 4x10 Durafloat 10 for on the deck. A rather positive approach but I just thought that would be best.

On the whistle I cupped a pot of 6mm pellets out at 9 mtrs and another pot of the same at 16mtr to the end bank. I was feeding against the little point trying to stay away from the tree in the corner which looked like trouble! Out on the paste and it was a slow start for me, Dave next door had 5 carp in as many casts to my 1 but then he suffered foulers and it slowed. I think I had 3 carp after the first hour, and had lost 3 foulers, which whilst not great I wasn't worried about. I took another couple on paste and then went to the end bank with the deck rig. On my first 6 drops the float went under and I missed all of them, lucky 7 worked and out came a fouled 1lb carp. So out went the shallow rig but this never produced a bite, and I took the deck rig and shallowed this up a tad and then hooked a carp and lost it in the tree! A couple of carp later and the indications stopped, and in truth I stayed on this too long.

Back on the paste and it was still very slow and I just seemed to get a bite out of the blue, I had mainly fed Mike Nicholls style (through a pot) but started to up the feed to try to improve things, it made no difference. Two hours to go I had a decent run of fish off the end bank but also lost a couple in the reeds / tree. I wasn't having the best of days, losing to many and having foulers, but the last hour saw me land 5 carp all 6lb to 8lb on the paste. However, and I do not know why I did this, but I landed a carp of approx 7lb after the whistle and put it in my silvers net!!! So I then tried to retrieve the carp and put in one of my other nets, this all went well until the carp decided to flip and go back in the lake, what a twat! Still Neil Mercer made me laugh out loud when he decided to jump into the lake. Neil hadn't decided to take a dip for the fun of it, his keepnet had fallen in and the only way he could retrieve it was to jump in after it. I gave him 6.8 for the dive.

I knew Gary Etheridge had soundly beaten me from peg 121 (he had 153lb) but thought it would be close between the rest of the section. I weighed 117lb and Dave next door had 107lb after a good late run of margin fish.As Gary would frame there was a chance of the default section coin, but that went to Bob Gullick who had 124lb on peg 126, so the lost carp could have cost me, double twat! Tom Magnol next to Bob had a fantastic start to the match catching carp shallow, but they drifted off and he was 3rd with 155lb. Anton Page must have fished a very good match to win from Carey peg 77, he had 191lb of carp shallow on the pole and pellet, fishing 16 to 17mtrs out. Timmy Clarke on peg 112 was 2nd with 169lb and in the process gave a lesson to Tony Rixon in the art of paste fishing (see Tony's blog!) lol!

I sum today up as a missed opportunity, I think the peg was worth 150lb, although Andy Lloyd did say to me the peg is never as good as it can be when they peg 121. I think I needed to swap between my two lines more regularly, when instead I was trying to get one line working well. A good days fishing though and the ability to learn from it makes it always worthwhile. Got the county champs on Saturday next week at Landsend, let's see who turns up, and then the Commercial House on the Avon at Keynsham on Sunday, need to make some rigs!

Sept 1991

2011-08-19T10:00:00.003+01:00

Not fishing this weekend so here's a very quick step back in time again.

Sept 1991 saw the beginning of a Wed league called the Veals Classic League which was to be fished at Newbridge. I was lucky enough to have enough holidays at work to be able to book off the necessary Wednesdays, wouldn't be able to do that with my job now though! Round 1 saw me on peg 37 which is on the straight, I wrote in my diary "Fished like a prat, didn't do it right!". 3lb 12oz wasn't good with most anglers weighing 8lb+, I did though decide to watch Clive Branson next door catching on the pole and I had my eyes opened. Clive is a big bloke and he stood up fishing 11 mtrs of pole (they were heavy poles back then!) for 5 hours. I had to make up some new pole rigs as I was using all the wrong floats etc.

Saturday 7th saw me on an open match at Shearwater lake, I drew peg 1 on the roadside and once again showed my lack of ability on the pole weighing 16lb 4oz. I fed gbait for skimmers but only caught carp. The following day by contrast I fished the Bristol Docks at St Augustines, fishing gbait and caster I caught 9lb of roach to win my section! An 18 to 2lb was the only tackle I recorded using.

The next round of the Veals League saw me on peg 3 in the little field, a peg I knew little about but was told there were plenty of roach to be caught. I was drawn next to Jeff Reasons and we started the match differently, Jeff on the pole, me on the waggler. I only had a few bits on the wag but did lose a good chub. However, when I came in on the pole, with my new pole rigs, I bagged up feeding bronze maggot for roach at 11 mtrs. I managed 2nd in the section and a much improved performance from last time. I beat Jeff by a few ounces by the way!

Saturday saw me on another different venue, Durleigh reservoir, this was how it was years ago you didn't fish one commercial continually! I drew end peg 60 a massive walk for me and it was in the teeth of a gale! I set up a 4AAA waggler for 3.5 ft deep peg and fed balls of gbait and maggot by hand for 3 hours catching skimmers. The wind got so bad I chucked the feeder out which was a good move as I caught 5 bream! My total weight of 22lb 8oz was 3rd overall giving me £60. The following day was the first round of the Commercial House on the Avon and I drew Swineford, just a short walk to the gas pipe in the 3rd field. I will always remember this match! I was drawn actually on the gas pipe in amongst all the reeds and wasn't that happy, my girlfriend came to watch me for the first time, although she brought a book! After struggling for 2lb of bits on a wag in the fast water I tried fishing 4 mtrs to hand in the dead water behind the reeds. I had been feeding bronze maggot here and it was solid with eels, I could get a bite every chuck, then on one cast the whip bent over double and I shit myself! After about 2 minutes I saw the culprit, a bream of at least 5lb, and then it came off! I shouted every swear word I knew and my girlfriend was shocked, and a couple of pegs away Tony Rixon was pissing himself. A little later though I hooked another bream on the whip, this one about 3.5lbs and I felt a lot happier! When the scales came along I remember anglers being shocked at the amount of eels I had, my total weight was 12lb 5oz, I won the section and was 4th overall! I never expected to do any good from the peg before hand, it shows we never know what can happen. It was the practice for previous Nationals catching eels that helped me bag up on them. September was turning out to be a very good month for me and there was one weekend left, I'll save that enjoyable match for next time though!

Super League Round 5

2011-08-14T20:17:00.003+01:00

Today I was pleased to meet an old friend whom I haven't seen for a long time, THE RIVER!

Mark Harper had rang me mid week to ask if I could fish for the team at Newbridge. I had stayed away from rivers due to having a small hernia after my op, as it is hard graft carrying all your kit and tonnes of gbait for long walks! However, the team were short, and with the promise of a short walk and pre mixed gbait I couldn't refuse! So it was I found myself (eventually, after a long wait for brekkie at Wetherspoons) at the Rugby club in Salford with the Super League clan, lots of talented anglers and Glenn Bailey's new Bathampton team mates, only joking lads!

Thanks to the generosity of the organisers I was allowed to swap pegs to have a short walk, thank goodness for that as peg 65 would have been a right sweat! My home for the day was peg 107 right in front of the arch, it did mean a bit of abseiling to get into the water but once in it was fine. I was going to ball it on the pole at 13 mtrs (no shit Sherlock!) and assembled a 1grm pencil float with 18 B611 to 0.11 exceed, a 2.5grm Preston Silvers thingy (rugby ball shape) with 16 B611 to 0.12 exceed. A 1.5gm rig for chopped worm (no more about this), a waggler (no more about this) and a gbait feeder with 0.14 to 14 B611. I must say at this stage I was very humbled by the many anglers who enquired as to my well being, it was nice that so many people were pleased to see me again.

I was just about ready for the start, and on the whistle I made 10 casts with the feeder across to get some bait in, then threw in 10 big balls of gbait containing some caster and hemp. Picking up the 1grm rig to begin I was soon thinking maybe it was too light a float as the upstream wind was getting up, and it got worse during the match. After an hour I think I may have had 1.5lb of small roach and small perch, this was way behind the anglers either side of me. I tried the heavier rig but caught the same small fish and bumped more as I was on a double bait. Back in on the pencil float and things started to improve, with caster on the hook I was now catching roach of 4oz steadily. This kept up for the 2nd hour before it went iffy and so I started to loose feed hemp and caster. The bites in the 3rd and 4th hour were much less frequent but the quality was good, and I had 2 roach over 12oz. Most of the time I was getting bites as soon as the float settled (on the drop), and it was almost impossible to get a bite with the rig just running through. I kept changing depths and the way I laid the rig in to try to fool the roach, and fishing off bottom for me was best. I did catch a few on maggot when bites went quiet but in all honesty caster was best.

The last hour was not so good and I even had a few casts on the feeder which produced a perch and a roach, so I stuck to the pole where I was catching now smaller roach but at least I was putting something in the net! When the match finished I thought I had 10lb, Dave Haines, who had watched me for a bit, thought I had more than this. I was indebted to Dave as he helped me get my gear up the bank afterwards. As the scales approached Dave Wride below me was leading with 11lb 3oz (a net of big roach) thankfully my net of more but slightly smaller roach went 13lb 1oz and was enough to win the section. That was a good thing as it is £70 for winning a section in this league! I was 5th overall to so not a bad return on my first visit back I guess? Interestingly the guys either side of me caught well in the first and last hour, whilst I caught best in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, you work it out!

Back at the results and the word was peg 140 had won, 15lb of bream and 20lb of roach, there was a 16lb of roach on peg 16, and team mate Ian Pauley had 15lb 7oz of roach from peg 49. It had certainly been a day when the roach had fed fairly consistently, and the skimmers were conspicuous by there absence! The team had a few bad results, but at the end of the day still hold an 18 point lead going into the last match (next week) on the same venue. Unfortunately I cannot fish as I am away with the family, so for many of the lads next weekend will be a double header, as they have the Div 2 national on the Basingstoke Canal on Sat.

I must just finish by saying this, I really enjoyed being back on the river today and it was lovely to be fishing flowing water. I enjoy both commercials and rivers (and canals) but to be honest 13lb of roach today was great fun and I was in my element.

Chilton Trinity - Wildmarsh Lake

2011-08-07T21:02:00.003+01:00

I got back home on Saturday from a very nice holiday in Jersey (hence no fishing last weekend) but had picked up man flu. I rang to speak to Glenn Bailey and he had done me proud by getting all my bait and gbait (mixed) ready for Tony Rixon's float only match at Trinity. To be honest I felt awful and had thought of cancelling, then I had a bad night being unable to sleep due to blocked sinuses. Come Sunday morning I over dosed on some tablets (accidental) and picked up Glenn. We had a very good breakfast in the Hill Top cafe and I caught up on the previous weeks news with Matty Toomes!

Although Glenn had been a tremendous help I really didn't feel mentally prepared for this match, and when I drew peg 62 and Tony just laughed at me making me think I really should have cancelled! I got to my peg to find Glenn pegged opposite me on the island, so we both had poor pegs (and so did Bela Bakos who foolishly asked Glenn to draw for him lol). I had a chat with the anglers nearby and it seemed many had been in this area in the previous match, Mike Nicholls was on 64 and said it was crap, and the best I could get was to aim for 8 to 10lb of silvers. With that in mind I set up a 4AAA waggler with 2 no 8 and 1 no 10 down the line with an 18 to 0.11 for fishing out about 20 metres+ where I would feed caster. On th pole at 14.5m I would feed gbait, worm and caster and set up a 0.8 gm rig and 0.4gm rig, both with 18 to 0.11. I had a bulk down and 2 no8 droppers on the 0.8 rig, spread shot on the other. I also set up a paste rig for a line against the lily pads (never had a touch here).

So to start I cupped in 6 balls of my gbait and cw&c, and went over it with the 0.8gm rig, it was solid with blips! I tried various hook baits but bits of worms were best to avoid the blips and attract the odd 1oz to 2oz roach! I was soon behind my neighbour Kev Moulten when he landed a 5lb carp (after it had gone through my peg and into next doors!) and after 90 mins I might have had just about a 1lb. I picked up the waggler and hoped it would be ready for action after I had fed it with caster regularly. Um no, 1 roach and 1 eel in about 30 mins. This was going the way my last match went here!

Not much else happened for me in the next 2 hours except for getting wet from an enormous thunderstorm. I held onto my brolly to take shelter, but then as the rain eased I dropped the brolly onto my pole smashing the no 5 section. There was a moment as I got off my box when I thought about packing up, especially as Glenn had said a little earlier "I'm ready to go when you are", but I had seen Mike Nicholls catch a couple of carp on the pole and paste, and so I set up a new rig for 13 mtr at 11 o'clock, fed a big cup of 6mm pellet and dropped the paste in. Twenty minutes later I had a 6lb common, and 10 mins after that a fish around 11lb. This got Craig Edmunds worried who up until then was winning my section, and got me excited. However, the carp drifted away and I tried lots of feeding variations to get them back, then finally with 10 mins to go I had 3 bites but connected with none. Ten minutes after the whistle the peg was a mass of fizzing, oh how I laughed.....

The two carp weighed 17lb and and my bits 3lb, and my 20lb was 2nd in the section to Trig who had 25lb (including 6 carp on paste and some skimmers.) Mike Nicholls ended up top weight on the bank after a good last two hours on the paste (see his blog) and the match was won by Tony (see his blog!).

Would I have caught more if I had fished the paste for longer / fed the pellet earlier? Well I think so and I was to negative today, but we will never know for sure I guess. Sorry if this isn't as in depth as usual, still feeling lousy!

August 1991

2011-07-27T20:02:00.003+01:00

Time for a look back (alright Andy).

I had a day pleasure fishing at the end of July, I fished the bay in the little ashtip on the Crane stretch of the Avon. I simply took hemp and tares to try and catch something on these baits and improve my confidence. I fished a size 10 Gamakatsu hook to 2lb smart on a 4mtr whip, and had a good session ending with 17lb of mostly roach and dace plus a 1.5lb chub. Have to try that again some time.

Saturday 3rd August saw me fishing a Drennan Superleague round on the Huntspill. I can't recall where I drew, but I only had 2lb 9oz comprised mainly of 4 eels and 1 skimmer. I fished the wag blitzing it with maggot for long spells, this was wrong as I had measely 5 points and everyone who beat me had 1 bream! Sunday was Skanderborg challenge round 2, and I found myself on the K&A near Seend Lock which was all new to me! Based upon a bit of practice info I threw in 5 balls of gbait containing squatt and caster and loosefed pinkie over the top. I had a decent match landing 2 small tench, loads of bottle tops and 2 small skimmers for a total of 4lb 12oz. That was worth 9 points out of 11 which I was really happy with having not fished this part of the canal before, unfortunately the canal fished poorly and our positive team approach failed for most and we bombed out!

A few days later my bags were packed and it was off for three days Div 4 practice on the river Welland. However, it didn't start very well when on the first afternoons practice we could only catch blades on the whip just out past the marginal cover. Luckily for us there was also a section or two on the Coronation Channel and so we practised on there the following day, I was on peg 88. We fished for 3 hours and I ended with 3lb of eels, all taken on the pole with a 22 barbless hook (they were clever them eels!). It was then back to the Welland for another bash, this time in the 300's. I persevered on wag / long pole feeding maggots to try to catch better fish, 2 eels and 2 roach for 1lb 9oz was hardly bagging! Last day of practise was pretty much another Welland struggle, just 2lb 4oz on the wag and mag in 2 hours, but 5lb on the national would be great we were told. I could get a few bites but missed loads, even when going 2 feet over depth!

A week later and I was fishing the national, I was drawn on the Welland and it didn't look good, my part of the section had not been fished before and we all had to hack down the reeds to get to the waters edge. To cut a long story short I had my worst points return in a National ever, 18 points out of 83 for my 475 grammes! What made it worse was that the team was 30 points off of promotion, had I had a reasonable day we would have gone up. The match was won with 50lb, Martyn Woodington had our best weight of 20lb, and one section of 83 was won with just 14oz, I think John Amatto was in that section and came 3rd with 8oz!!!!!!

A couple more pleasure sessions on the Avon at Newbridge were in order and produced double figure weights of mainly roach to wag and mag, but on the match scene it was still shite! I fished the embassy pairs on the T&B canal, didn't have a clue what I was doing and had just under a kilo of roach on punch. Money finally came my way on the August bank holiday fishing the Docks at St Augustines Parade. I stuck to a gbait feeder with an 18 to 1.5lb maxima, caster in the gbait and maggot on the hook. I came 5th with 14lb 10oz and won a massive £12! I think I recall being pegged next to Clayton Hudson on this match, he was on my right (not a bad memory for nearly 20 years ago!).

All of my practice at Newbridge was put to the test on the last day of August for the NFA South West Champs on the river. I drew peg 135 in the trees and endured a very dire match as I had just 1 roach in the first 3 hours. I did manage 3 chublets and 1 eel on the maggot feeder later but lost 2 proper chub in an unseen snag. My 2lb 3oz was 3rd in the 11 peg section (told you it was dire) and 2lb 11oz won it, bloody chub and snags they've cost me over the years lol. The team had a mare as the river had switched off and we came a disappointing seventh. I was glad to see the back of August and I hoped September would be kinder to me.

Shiplate Fishery

2011-07-24T20:38:00.007+01:00

Another Sunday, another match kindly organised by Tony Rixon, this time at Shiplate fishing both the canals (25 pegs). Travelling down with Glenn we both thought that Hawthorne lake would be the best one to draw today as it has recently had an injection of carp, and there had been some reasonable weights. After the usual cracking Fountain Cafe brekkie we arrived nice and early at Shiplate and took a wander around. Hawthorne was very quiet, we only saw one fish move, but West Lake had lots of fizzing and fishing moving, perhaps West lake would be better? I was getting a bit of stick from a certain angler for being on for a hat trick of wins, no pressure then!

The draw was made and I came away with end peg 1 on Hawthorne, effectively my 3rd corner peg in 3 weeks, although you cannot actually fish into the corner here as a rope runs across the surface. Similar to last week I was given mixed feelings about the peg (last match the bloke packed up on this peg, Pete Sivell had 35lb on it recently.....) but I thought it had to be worth a few fish as it gives you a bit of room. I found myself in the company of 2 carp slayers, Dean Malin on peg 2 and Rod Wotton on peg 3 so it was going to be hard work.

Rig wise I went for a dibber for banded pellet (for tight across) 0.16 to 16PR36, a 4x10 durafloat on 0.16 to 16PR36 (this did my RH margin and also a line across) and a 4x12 Durafloat same stuff, for fishing on the bottom of the shelf at 13mtr. The LH margin looked good above water, but I could not find a decent depth / flat bottom and it was not really targeted. I opened the match by feeding corn into the RH margin and a half a small Preston cup of 4mm pellets and a few grains of corn at 13mtr 11 o'clock and that was it. I went out with a 8mm banded pellet on my 4x12 rig and luckily did not have to wait long for my first bite and a nice 4lb carp. I took a few carp around the 1lb mark and a couple of 2lb fish in the first hour and was toss potting in 4mm pellets. It then went very iffy on this line and I caught a couple of 2oz skimmers, I tried to put some more bait in but this only worked for 1 more carp. Dean then had a good run on corn and I fell behind.

It was time to go across, but rather than feed with the catty just yet I tried toss potting across using the dibber rig. Boils soon showed that the carp were present but I could only hook 1 in about 20 mins of frustration, so I picked up the catty. I still could not catch tight over (it is only a few inches deep) but did catch 2 carp on the dibber just off the far bank up in the water. I dropped in on the margin while I had a think about things and took 2 carp here on hair rigged corn and then nothing (I took 5 all told from the margin all day). Taking the margin rig at the depth it was at, I plumbed across to find where that depth was on the slope, then stuck on an 8mm pellet and the float went under. I started to catch a few here but it was still what I regarded as slow (still feeding by catty) and so I tried feeding a new line in the deep water next to the rope, but never had a bite there. I kept trying the dibber on and off but never caught on it, and then with 2 1/2 hours to go I tried a piece of corn on the margin rig across line and all of a sudden I got bites much quicker and enjoyed a purple patch when both Dean and Rod were not doing so well.

With an hour and a quarter to go the peg shut down completely, I could not get a bite anywhere, in fact Dean and Rod also had the same experience. I did manage to catch 2 carp in the last hour on my 4x12 rig on the originally fed line at 13mtr, the last one with 15 mins to go was my biggest fish of the day at 5lb.

Tony came past to get the scales and I said I had 60lb, he said it would be close between me and Andy Bryant on our lake (but he was miles out on that one). I was first to weigh and I totalled 61lb 13oz. Dean weighed 49lb 9oz, and Rod weighed 2oz more than Dean! Dean said something rather unpleasant when I pointed out he'd been beaten both sides lol! As it turned out I was top weight on Hawthorne, but alas the hat trick was not to be as John the Gimp Bradford slayed the carp on peg 10 on West Lake to win with 70lb 4oz, at the results John said it was the first match he had won for 3 years, so well done and fair play John. I did manage to sneak 2nd overall, just beating Adrian Jeffery by 2oz (told you I'd put that on my blog!) Adrian was next to the Gimp and also had mainly carp plus a few skimmers.

Lastly, my next door neighbour for the previous 2 weeks, Chris Fox, won the silvers (see his blog for how!). The full result is shown on Tony's blog.

Superleague was fished on the river today, I hear that a 30lb+ weight of bream came from peg 14 at Swineford, and team mate Steve Tucker had 27lb on hemp and tares from the mouth of the marina, nice! No fishing for me next weekend but good luck to everyone fishing the big money river match at Newbridge.

Hunters Rest

2011-07-22T15:01:00.005+01:00

A friend I recently bumped into asked me if I would like to accompany him on a day out to Hunters Rest. As I understand it this lake is run by Alcove AC and as he is a member I could go as a guest on a day ticket. I have never fished this lake before and as ever with a new venue was looking forward to fishing it.

Arriving in the car park the sun was shining and I was impressed by the view of the countryside. Unfortunately I had forgotten part of my trolley so I had to carry my gear across the field, it was worth it though, what a wonderful looking lake! The intended pegs to fish were behind the island, but alas the one angler already at the lake was already fishing there, it turned out he'd been there since 4:30am so I was never going to get on that peg! I was undecided as where to fish as I had little knowledge of the venue, in the end I went for peg 8 as it has a nice long margin full of reeds.

The lake was very calm and I set up a pellet wag, a paste rig for the margin (nearly 3ft deep) using 0.18 to size 10 B911 (The Nu hooks are running out!), A deep rig for 13 mtr for banded pellet 0.18 16 PR38 and a paste rig for 13 mtr again 0.18 to size 10 B911. I started on the pellet wag feeding 8mms, but after an hour I had not had one bite. I dropped in on the 13 mtr swim with an 8mm pellet, but I was not getting any indications, no bubbles, no liners and no bites! An hour and a half on this finally yielded 2 skimmers and I took a break to apply some suntan lotion as the sun was very hot! Suitably protected from the sun's rays I took my first look down the margin (6 mtrs) where I had been feeding 6mm pellets regularly. I cupped in my piece of paste with a few pellets and within 5 seconds the float buried and finally I was playing a carp. I had two more fairly quickly but the indications stopped and I came off this line to give it more time. It was about this time that the numerous House Martins feeding over the lake starting making a strange call, I recognised it as an alarm call and looked up to see them chasing a Hobby (a fairly uncommon bird of prey that looks similar to a peregrine falcon).

The 13 mtr line was still not working, so I started just cupping in regular decent amounts of 6 and 8mm pellets and eventually the carp arrived showing themselves with lots of bubbles. Hooking them was not easy, they were feeding off the bottom but you couldn't get a bite off the bottom (old Viaduct troubles!) but at least I had fish in the swim at last. It then started to rain and I decided to try the margin again, and now it was solid! I must have taken 10 carp in as many drops on paste and they were big fish, between 6lb and 12lb. The rain was torrential during this period of catching but when the rain eased off the bites in the margin stopped. Back out at 13mtr and now this was solid on the paste rig, and just getting the hook bait to the bottom avoiding a liner was a challenge! I had some big fish to end the day on a very satisfying but very wet note!

I don't think I have ever fished a venue, or had a day on a lake where it was devoid of fish life for 3 hours and then changed to be solid. The only method that did not work all day was the pellet wag. Certainly the margins were where most other anglers fished and caught their fish, but I feel that giving it a long time before I fished it helped me catch for longer down there. For example, a carper turned up and fed and fished his margins only, within an hour he had a 13lb fish followed by another 3, he then went 3 hours without a run.

What a cracking venue, if I had time on my hands I would certainly be a member and spend some pleasure days there. If you're looking to join a club for pleasure sessions and the odd club match I would check out Alcove AC as they have this and a couple of other gems on their tab.

Viaduct Match Lake

2011-07-17T19:51:00.004+01:00

I awoke before the alarm thanks to the relentless heavy rain, seemed to wake me up on and off all night. At least the poor weather should keep the wasps away from me, I managed to get stung again mid week would you believe! I was travelling with Glenn today, but we were fishing different matches, Glenn was on the CARPS Viaduct league (Campbell and Carey) whilst I was fishing an open run by Tony Rixon on the Match Lake. I have not fished this lake for many years and was looking forward to a days skimmer fishing, I took my pole and a feeder rod assuming it would be too windy for the waggler (wrong!).

The first part of my plan (to fish the feeder to the island) was screwed up when I drew corner peg 46 and no island chuck! I was told it had not been a good peg, in fact Tony said it had been the kiss of death! So I walked to the peg on a bit of downer and no one cheered me up until I saw on peg 47 Chris Fox, next peg again! Chris had fished my peg a few weeks back and caught on the wag, he did give me some stick during the match for me not taking a waggler rod! Anyway back to my peg, I had a nice long margin and although Chris had not caught down there last time it had a few reeds 15 metres away which looked inviting. I set up a straight lead in case the wind got bad (never used) a 0.3 PB Inter float with 0.12 to 16 PR490 for skimmers and plumbed two lines, one at 13 mtr and one at 16mtr. For the margin I rigged up a 4x10 Durafloat with 0.14 to 14 PR456, and that was it for today!

On the whistle I fed a handful of casters and micros at 13mtr, half a big pot of casters and micro and a bit of corn at 16mtr. Down the margin I fed the same half big pot but with a bit more corn in it. As I shipped out Dean Malin was already landing a fish on the feeder from peg 42, it took me 25 minutes to get a bite at 13mtr and a nice skimmer. I then took two more in consecutive casts, all on a red maggot and a caster, and topped up with small amounts of caster and micro with a toss pot. I took another 3 skimmers in the next hour all at 13mtr but then they went and I just had the odd tiny roach bite. A try out 16mtr was a waste of time, and I was surprised by this. At this stage I had a few more skimmers than Chris Fox, and Clayton Hudson on 45 only had a couple of carp on the wag to the island.

I struggled on both skimmer lines and so had to go down the margin but I was not confident. However, first 3 three drops on a piece of corn gave me three F1s. I fed after every fish with half a toss pot of caster, micro and a few bits of corn, this was probably too much for the F1s as I then took a few small carp. Inevitably the margin slowed and so I pushed the rig closer to the reeds but kept snagging on underwater branches, so I fed a decent amount of bait in the original margin spot and rested it. First drop back in at 13mtr gave me a skimmer, but that was it, and again all attempts at 16mtr failed. It looked like I had to keep the fish coming from the margin, but I took only one F1 on my next look down there and so I had a rethink. I found a fairly clear spot next to the reeds and fed micros and corn there, and I fed a new line next to a little patch of Lily pads at 13mtrs with dead maggot, caster, micro, corn everything! I did manage to nick a few more small carp from against the reeds and one from the lilies that was nearly 4lb, and then I lost my first fish of the day which did me in the reeds. Then with 10 mins to go I pulled out of a carp and the rig was trashed. I shipped out to 16mtr as I could see a few bubbles and took one more skimmer and that was it.

I have to say that I thought Dean Malin had easily won the match, but thought I would be OK for 2nd (from what I could see and hear). It turned out Dean had 27lb of mainly small fish and my carp went 23lb and the skimmers 12lb for a total of 35lb 7oz and blimey first overall for the 2nd week running! Chris Fox won the silvers with 25lb nearly all skimmers and he had a good run on the waggler at the end, I like drawing next to Chris at the moment!

Both Chris and Tony will have the full result shown on their blogs, I didn't get time to get it as Glenn wanted to get home with his £50 triple default section win!

There was a match fished on the Avon today, and it fished pretty well, with Swineford the best with a fair few bream weights, 30lb+ was top.

Tony Rixon's League Landsend Fishery

2011-07-10T20:51:00.006+01:00

Unfortunately this year I could not commit to Tony's float only league as I knew I would miss two of them. So when he asked if I wanted to be a guest at Landsend I was up for it as it meant I could travel with Glenn. When we arrived at the venue the weather was nice, the talk though was of how hard match lake had fished the day before. We've had a lot of rain and I think Mike Duckett had also put some water in the lakes so that extra water probably unsettled the fish. I pushed my way to the front of the draw so I could at least have a bit of time to get to my peg, it's a bit of a trek if you draw lake 4! As luck would have it I drew the nearest peg to the hut, peg 33 on Speci for only my second draw on this lake. I got plenty of encouragement from other anglers that it was a good peg, and Matty Toomes passed on some good advice.

As I started to set up it looked like Blogger alley, with Chris Fox on peg 34, and Mike Nicholls on 36. Opposite me on peg 32 was Chris Davis (who kept us amused with jokes and the odd outburst due to foulers) and Paul Elmes was on 31. As I began to get my rigs out a bloody wasp stung me on the neck, it then stung me again on my back before I managed to find it and kill it. I did wonder whether this would be an omen for the day. Onto the rigs and I set up a paste float (nothing on this) a 4x12 Durafloat 10 for hard pellet deep, and a 4x10 Durafloat 10 for 9" deep with about 2.5 ft of line above it. All rigs were on 0.18 Exceed to 16 PR38 for banded 8mm pellet.

I knew there were a few fish about as I had seen some swirls, but even with my sunglasses I could not see fish to have a go at mugging. So on the whistle I shipped out to 14.5 mtr on the shallow rig in front of the aerator and started feeding 6mm pellets here and also down to the end bank. It was a good start and a carp first chuck was followed by another next drop in. I then had a couple of rudd and an F1, so the carp had moved out and I upped the feed. I took another couple of carp and reckoned to have 20lb at the end of the first hour. I was swinging the rig out past the pole or left/right and most bites came on the drop, but the carp were not giving themselves up easily. I had an early look down the edge long on the same rig and had a carp here.

The pattern was set for the rest of the match and I would catch one or two carp at most off one line and then have to switch. I did have some very quiet periods in the middle of the match and especially in the fifth hour when I nowt! I did try the depth rig and caught 3 carp on it but also fouled a few. On the shallow rig I tried going a bit deeper but again all that would do was get a fouler, so I persevered with 9" even though it was a long wait between bites. I fed about 7 pints of 6mm pellets during the match, not big pouchfulls just regular feeding. The end bank was the best line for the last half of the match, but as the willow trees have grown out a lot I was not fishing near the bank, I tried to gently swing the rig under the branches to get as close as I could in, and I caught the branches a few times but never lost a rig (lucky day!). I really wanted to push the rig further up the bank the last 2 hours as the fish had backed off I'm sure,(co-inciding with Chris Davis having his best spell) but the branches were to long to go any further.

By the end of the match I was aching from holding 16 metres of pole all day, something I have not done for a long time. Still it was worth it, and to my 6lb of silvers I added 120lb of carp for a total of 126lb 12oz. I had heard that Dean Malin and Tony Rixon were on for tons, so wasn't sure if I had them beat, but it turned out I had and so I had the match win I've wanted for so long at Landsend! Speci Lake had fished well mostly, with Mike Nicholls winning the silvers with 32lb and in total he had 90lb, Chris Davis and Paul Elmes had a good battle with Paul edging it by 12oz!

The full result will be on both Tony's and Mike Nicholl's blogs, and as I am knackered and have to get up at 4:30am tomorrow I'm going to stop typing now and hit the pillow.

Just one more thing though, there is a big match on the Avon at Newbridge on 31st July with big money prizes being put up by the EA. I can't fish it (gutted!) but it has attracted a lot of interest, and don't faint but Tony Rixon has bought a ticket!!!!!!

Viaduct Saturday Open

2011-07-02T20:26:00.005+01:00

Due to family commitments on Sunday I had to pick a venue for Saturday, not too difficult as Viaduct is a cracking venue! When I arrived at the car park two other Bristol lads were unloading gear, Paul Elms and Craig "Trig" Edmunds. Paul said he would have given me a lift had he known I was fishing, trouble is neither of us are psychic. A glance at Lodge lake took my breath away, as there were carp sunbathing in very large numbers.

I somehow (chatting) ended up very nearly at the end of the draw queue, and I could see most of the pegs I fancied had gone, but 110 was still in, instead though I pulled 129 on the spit. Trig was behind me and did his usual drawing act pulling 110! I was told by Paul Greenwood and John Green that peg 129 had been good for silvers, in this case tench, although I was given differing opinions on how they have been caught, meat and corn, paste, in close, 11mtr.... Anyway, as it was thought that the corner pegs were going to dominate the carp weights I made up my mind to go for silvers but have carp options just in case. I set up a pellet wag for the carp, no lead rod (Tony would be proud), a paste rig with 0.16 to size 10 B911 for 5mtr, a pellet rig for the same line, and a rig for the margin in the corner on 0.18 where I would feed meat and corn for the tench. At the start I fed a full pot of meat and corn in the corner, and half a pot of 6mm pellets and some paste at 5mtr. Starting on the paste I had small fizzes and was getting indications but few bites, I did net a couple of skimmers but after an hour things were slow. I'd been feeding a few 8mm pellets by catty so picked up the wag to see if the carp would play. A carp first chuck was followed by a couple more before all signs of fish disappeared.

I then spent the next 2 hours swapping between the pellet rig and paste rig at 5mtrs, I caught the odd skimmer and a couple of carp. Halfway through and I went into the margin on meat looking for the tench, and caught 2 carp and got snapped! I did manage to catch 4 tench in the margin and 1 skimmer, but also had a few more carp that did the silvers in. Back on the paste for the last hour and this line was now solid.... with carp! So I took what fish I could knowing that my chances for any coin were long gone as I could see the guy on 132 had bagged on carp as had Lewis Greenwood on 112.

My silvers weighed 34lb and the carp 66lb for a total of 100lb 11oz. So I had a good days fishing which was nice! It hadn't really fished that well on my side of the lake(bar pegs 123 and 132) the guy to my right fished the lead all day and beat me by 4oz, on the other side of the spit there was a 80lb and Chris Fox had 70lb+.

Trig won the silvers on 110 with 66lb of mainly skimmers and tench (plus 2 nice perch) on meat. He went home happy as he also won the section meaning he went home with more money than the individual winner! So it was a case of being beaten by the lead yet again, and not getting enough silvers. In hindsight I think I may have been able to do a weight of carp on the pole, but we will never know now and I don't let these things wind me up these days. I'm going to have to work on this meat fishing, I need to catch a few on it to get the confidence in the method though.

June / July 1991

2011-06-26T10:33:00.004+01:00

I was booked in to fish Tony Rixon's open at Viaduct Match lake, but both me and the wife were feeling unwell and I cancelled, plus I have to travel to the Houses of Parliament Monday so the rest was best.

After a a few skimmers and eels for 5lb 5oz and 4th in the Flowerpot evening match at Frys I was preparing for a practice with the rest of the team on the river Axe. I fished to my strengths (with no other info) which was the wag and maggot, and had a nice 7lb bag of roach, plus a few eels on the pole. On the Sunday I was back on the Avon at Newbridge in the Skanderborg challenge and found myself drawn towards the bottom of the trees and not a good area (back then). Twenty one teams fished this event and I think the top 10 went through to the next round. The river was very poor (although quite normal for Newbridge early season) and I only managed 1 small chub a handful of roach and 2 eels for 2lb 2.5oz. Wag, pole and maggot feeder were all tried, but my efforts only gave me 8 points. However, the team came 8th and we progressed to the next round. I noted in my diary that 55lb of bream won from peg 53, and those bream still live there don't they!

A bad draw on the next round of the Flowerpot series at Jack Whites messed my head up, I had about 10 yards trot and 2lb 2oz was pathetic. A pleasure session at Jack Whites (to get my head sorted) on the bread and crowquill produced a 3lb chub, roach and hybrids, and 8lb of skimmers. Sunday I was back on the River Axe for the Sundridge Super League match (my practice weight having gotten me into the team) and I left the house in brilliant sunshine wearing shorts and a T Shirt. By the time we got to Bleadon the sun was gone and I spent the whole day shivering in drizzle. To make matters worse I could not catch on any method and I weighed 2lb 2oz (see a pattern forming on this weight?) for 3 points out of 11. I was feeling rather down about things, I could go pleasure fishing and catch but in matches I was struggling. Guess what, a 4lb 4oz (oh well double the usual!) on the Flowerpot match at Chequers for no where was then followed by 16lb of hybrids pleasure fishing at Jack Whites after a tide. Always fish after a tide for bream, I think it disturbs the bottom and the bream seize upon the moment to eat some freebies.

My run of appalling results in July was to continue, in the next round of the superleague, on the K&A at Whaddon, I weighed a huge 1lb 11oz thanks mainly to 1 tench! Still it was worth 8 points so not a complete disaster. Then it was onto Castle Ashby Game Fair in Northampton. At the time the team I fished for was known as Bristol Sensas, and Sensas Supremo Trev Tomlin asked my captain Andy Floyd if we would go and fish this invitation match. The guest house we had booked was run by Albinos who kept giving us funny looks and seemed to by eyeing up our car, but once we put a tray of maggots under it they screamed and took no further interest! The rooms were less than adequate but we were stuck in Northampton now. Andy and I headed off out to find a pub, and after what seem like an age we finally found one. I think we were in there for about an hour before we clocked it was a gay bar for both sexes! Andy wanted to leave, but as there were no other pubs about I said as long as we sit together we'll be safe, plus it was rather fun to watch a couple of lesbos kissing and canoodling! Onto the match and there were many angling starts present, including the one and only Ivan Marks, and I only went and drew next to him! He told me this part of the lake was poor and I could see why, it was 18" deep and after about 10m was solid with weed. I fished next to the weed for tench and managed to lose one foul hooked, I then came in on a closer line on maggot for 2lb of bits until I hooked and lost a monster that I couldn't prevent from getting into the weed! Ivan just beat me fishing for bits all day with bloodworm, but it wasn't about the result more about the chance for the visitors to see fish being caught. For some reason Ivan attracted a bigger crowd than me (lol), and it was a day I will never forget.

Landsend Match Lake

2011-06-19T20:09:00.004+01:00

Leighton Palmer was running an open match on Match Lake and I fancied this rather than take a place at Chilton Trinity. I'm wondering if I was right?

I arrived early and took the opportunity to walk around the lake, the first third of the lake had the wind blowing into it, the further up you went the flatter it got, so I fancied a draw from pegs 1 to 5 or 19 to 24. When the draw finally started (Leighton and crew arrived after the 9:30 draw time) Anton Page drew for Leighton and handed him peg 19, whilst Anton could only pull peg 10, not good. I pulled out corner peg 12 as far away from the wind as possible. I did not fancy it but I have seen it produce both silvers and carp in the past so wasn't giving up. Anton mentioned that we keep drawing next to each other, and that he hadn't yet beaten me off the next peg!

With peg 11 not in I had a bit of room, and I decided to have a soft pellet swim at 11.5 mtr at 10 o'clock in the open water (0.3 grm PB inter 0.14 to 16 B911), meat at 6mtr with the same rig as above, a pellet rig for the aerator at 14.5 mtr, and a margin rig both with 0.16 to 16 PR36. Oh and a caster rig for 3 mtrs. A lot of rigs and swims but not all fed to begin with!

On the whistle I was not quite ready, and by the time I filled my pot with meat Anton was already into a carp! I fed the meat and pellet lines with a pot and threw some casters in. I started on the pellet at 11.5 mtr and missed a bite first drop but then had no signs for 15 mins, I saw a few bubbles in the meat swim so dropped in with an 8mm cube, I hooked a decent bream but it came off as I reached for the landing net. It took me another 10 mins to get a bite here and I landed a carp of 2lb. An hour and half into the match I added a skimmer, but my two banker lines were not showing any signs of fish. Anton was miles in front of me as had taken 4 carp in the first 30 mins but he was now struggling. I came in on the caster line and caught a few perch from 1oz to 10oz, but this line died quickly and I only took another 3 perch of this line all day!

I was really struggling and I tried the margin, early than planned, where I had been loose feeding pellets, I didn't get a bite here, but did clear the swim of snags! I managed to foul hook a couple of skimmers, one each from the meat and pellet swims and that was the extent of the middle of my match. I had been feeding to the aerator with the catty and 6mm pellets all day and with 90 mins to go it started to bubble. I couldn't catch on the banded pellet rig, so I swapped to the soft pellet and caught a couple of skimmers and a carp. Then in the last hour I had 3 more carp and ide on this line and that was it. Although this last spell was better I was still waiting a long time for bites and I don't think the fish were there in numbers.

Anton threw back around 20lb (and so his jinx with me on the next peg continues) and I weighed 20lb of carp and 12lb of silvers for no where. As I thought the bottom pegs were much better than my end, and the match was all over at the draw today.

1st Leighton Palmer 98lb 70z peg 19 meat, mainly down the edge.
2nd Martin Rayett 87lb 3oz peg 3 meat across in 1ft of water.
3rd Rich.... 76lb 4oz peg 21
4th Alan Oram 55lb 14oz peg 24. Won the silvers with 19lb.

Only peg 1 down that end of the lake did not weigh, that was old Plip Plop, not sure what the Keynsham Angling boss did to avoid them lol!

R.I.P. Eddie Perkins

2011-06-11T21:10:00.004+01:00

I have heard the news tonight that Bitton's finest angler Eddie Perkins has passed away after a long illness. Eddie was one of those guys that I looked up to as young angler making my way into river fishing. Eddie was simply deadly on running line tactics, especially the float. I've lost count of the number of times he pulled out his keepnet full of roach or chub when those around him struggled.

We have lost a gentleman, and an angler from a generation quite different to ours when anglers fished rivers, and the float ruled the river, and the cream rose to the top. With his passing much knowledge is lost.

I hope your at rest now Eddie, sitting on your favourite peg with hemp and tares, RIP.

Viaduct Saturday Open

2011-06-11T20:20:00.005+01:00

I was booked into my nephew's christening on Sunday, and so it was off for a Sat match at Viaduct. Having not fished there for a year I guessed I was likely to be pools fodder to the locals unless I had a good draw. I had gleaned as much info as I could from Glenn Bailey, Tony Rixon and Mike Nicholls who have fished Viaduct a fair bit lately. I had an open mind as to fish for carp or silvers depending on where I drew. My home for the day was to be 111. I was told to forget silvers where I was as with both 110 and 112 in I would not have much room, so carp it was then!

Arriving at the peg I could see the odd carp moving / cruising and a few fizzes here and there, I was pleased with this after all the rain we had yesterday. I don't like to set up loads of gear, normally I like to fish positive on just a couple of methods, but as I had heard the carp were not giving themselves up easily I decided to cover many bases. A straight lead and shallow wag for out by the aerator, a 4x12 durafloat with 0.16 to 16 PR36 for banded pellet at 13mtr, a paste rig for the same line 0.18 direct to size 12 B911, another 4x12 for meat (not a bite again!!) and a paste rig for the margin same as above but shallower! No shallow rig for the pole was set up as I had a plan!

At the start of the match I cupped in about 40 8mm pellets at 13 mtrs, a cupful of 4mms in the margin to my right, and started feeding a few 8mm pellets out by the aerator. I started on the pole with 8mm pellet and I had a great first hour and 15 mins, I think I may have had 40lb in this time mainly carp and the odd skimmer. This line then went funny and it was just the odd fouler. I shallowed the rig up and slapped in the pellet (my plan) and I had 1 skimmer (my plan failed). Back on the deck and I couldn't catch so I thought the aerator would be solid and out went the shallow wag, after 20 mins I was on the lead! I had 2 carp in the first two casts and then nothing for 40 mins. By now Martin Preston on 115 was catching well on the lead, as were the anglers on pegs 128 and 132.

The middle of my match was a torrid affair, just picking up a couple of carp here and there, but I did get a few skimmers. I had tried the paste long for just one carp and also one tench and a carp in the margin, but with 90 mins to go I stuck to the paste rigs for the remainder of the match. By feeding about 8 pellets and a couple of pieces of paste at 13 mtr I had a few carp, but they would back off and so I went into the margin. I caught one or two in the margin and then had to go back to the 13 mtr swim. They wouldn't settle and it was a case of picking them off. I did lose what I think was a fouled double figure fish on the 13 mtr line, it was in the bay between me and 112 in a flash and I thought my pole ws going snap, I hung on for about 2 minutes until the hook pulled, I was kind of relieved!

When the match had finished I though I was not going to get any coin as the guy on 110 had taken more carp than me (on the lead) but they turned out to be smaller than mine. Terry Leney on 112 DNW as he had struggled all day. My silvers went 20lb and the carp 105lb for a total of 125lb 13oz, although I went over the 70lb limit by about 8lb in my first net, when I genuinely thought I had no more than 60lb in it...... I hoped it wouldn't cost me!!!

Martin Preston did win the match with 154lb, on the lead with mainly bread. However, the guy on 132 had 7lb to much in one net and that meant he only weighed 151lb to come 2nd. Third place was another 151lb off peg 128 which was just a tad more than Steve Jackson on 127 who had 63lb (lol). I think I finished 4th and got my section money which I was very happy with. Silvers was won by Nigel Barlett off peg 114 with 40lb of skimmers and roach, Dick Bull had 35lb of tench for 2nd off peg 119.

My thoughts after the match were that I had a chance to do 150lb today, I think I should have swapped about a bit more as that might have kept fish coming a bit steadier, I think the first hour gave me a false dawn. The fish certainly don't seem to want a lot of feed, I only fed 3 pints of 8mm and maybe 1.5 pints of 4mm all day. Anyway, it was a very enjoyable day and looking at the weather forecast for Sunday I'm glad I went today! Viaduct are running a charity match next Saturday 18th June, so if you can fish it get down there.

May / June 1991

2011-06-08T19:55:00.004+01:00

No fishing last Sunday, and PC blew up so hence no blog!

May 1991 was memorable for me, it was when I met my wife for the first time, at a fishing club do!

From the fishing point of view I made one trip in May to Tiverton to fish on the canal, this was the nearest bit of coarse fishing available in the close season. I drew near Old Tivvy Bridge and I never had a bite! Not good when you've got up at 3:30 in the morning. However, I was not put off and the 9th of June saw me back on the canal again. I couldn't believe it when I drew the same area and blanked again, in the 25 pegs around me there was one 2oz fish caught. I didn't go there again for a very long time!

June 16th was a Sunday and so my first day on the river was a Bristol & West match, and I drew at Swineford one below the gas pipe. This was a chub peg so not the best place to be early in the season, but you make the best of it don't you? I started on a crowquill with bread and no feed and had 4 chub in 4 casts, and no more. After a few pups on the wag and mag the peg died and I weighed 8lb. Bream dominated the frame with 55lb from between the bridges, and 30lb at Jack Whites.

Tues 18th I fished the first of the Flowerpot evening series, I had a short walk as I drew peg 3 just below the outfall. I went all out for bream on the gbait feeder but only managed 1 plus a few other small fish for 7lb 3oz and no good. I wanted to get some practice in on the crowquill and bread so I went to Jack Whites on Thursday night. I fished for just 2 hours and it was solid, a hybrid or a small skimmer every cast and 3 bream in between. It was the best 2 hours I ever had on that method and I estimated I had 25lb. I only packed up cos it was ro dark to see the float.

Saturday saw me visiting Durleigh reservoir for the first time, I had little idea of how to fish it but had heard it was roach on the wag. I drew peg 33 and the wind (strong) was off my back so I could cast a 4AAA wag miles! I fed maggots and for the first couple of hours it was rock hard with some anglers blanking at this stage. I kept going and started to get the odd small skimmer, by increasing the amount of feed things improved and by sticking to double maggot on an 18 my catch rate improved all the time. By the end of the match I had a little audience as my bank had fished very bad, I weighed 14lb 3.5oz and the next weight was 6lb. On the opposite bank there were two better weights on the feeder, but I was really happy to come 3rd and win a weeks wages (those were the days!). The following day I was back on home territory, Jack Whites, and a peg in the middle of the length that didn't inspire me. We'd had a lot of rain overnight and the river was picking up pace and colour and that all added up to me fishing for bream! A medium Drennan gbait feeder with a 16 to 1.5lb maxima was the tackle, and 3 red maggots was the hook bait. After 3 hours I had 6 big skimmers and one eel, and after 5 hours I had exactly the same! The river really coloured up and it went stone dead, still my early catch went 15lb 5oz and that was 4th on the day.

As things go that was a good start to the season for me, and I hoped it would continue, but would it?

Summerhayes Longs Match Lake

2011-05-30T10:39:00.004+01:00

Another new venue for me this Sunday, and following on from Trinity I think I may be sticking to venues I know! I gave a lift to Warren Bates and he and I both had a lot of bait and rigs made up to cover all eventualities. This lake is a snake lake, and you can see it when travelling north on the M5. Mind you getting to and from the venue once off the motorway is hilarious. My journey involved (not in order) travelling down various windy pot hole lanes, driving over the canal, going through a tunnel just bigger than my car, driving directly under the M5 through a fly tipping area and crossing a railway. A Land Rover would be better!

At the draw I spotted some faces that I had not seen since last summer, old Cider Farm regulars, including Steve Howells and so I knew one flyer would be gone! Steve advised the lake contained small carp, skimmers, a few tench and the usual roach and rudd. With 23 fishing there was £100 for the winner today! When I drew peg 39 I tried desperately to get some info, all I got were upturned noses. The best I got from one local was that peg is either all or nothing, and you'll know soon enough.....

I had lots of room as I was in a corner and the other side of the corner (peg 1) had been left out to help me. I set up a 0.3gm inter 4 with 0.10 to 18 for use with soft pellet initially used at 7 sections at 10 o'clock. Across I found 18" of water and set up a 4x10 durafloat with 0.12 to 16 B911 for soft pellet. A 4x12 durafloat was set up for 14 mtrs next to some reeds with 0.14 to 16 B911. At the start I cupped small amounts of micros across in 2 spots and on the 7 section line, half a cup of 4mms were fed next to the reeds. Let me now jump ahead to one hour gone, I've got one roach and have bumped one skimmer and I was thinking of lots of plan B's! I had some worms with me so introduced some CW&C in the open water, and I tried this on and off all day long for 1 roach!!!! I finally managed to pick up 3 small carp and a tench from the far bank but that died, and you had to feed another line and look elsewhere. The wind was awful though and the far bank was pulling like a river and fishing was difficult.

Halfway through and it was like pulling hens teeth, Lewis Jones on 37 had hardly any wind in his peg and had caught far more than me by fishing next to an aerator. With 3 hours to go I went down to the reeds at 14 mtrs for another look and the float buried, I managed to catch a few small carp here over the next hour and a half. It then went a bit iffy and I foul hooked a few and it went very quiet. Despite trying all of the swims I fed I could only manage 1 small skimmer and a carp away from the reed swim, and so had to stay there and wait for the very odd bite. I did catch one small carp down the edge, and I thought for a while that there were a fair view carp in the margins. I later realised it was actually the now rare water vole, and there were a few about. Lovely to see them again as when I was a kid I saw them all the time on the Avon, then the bastard mink wiped the lot out.

I was quite pleased when the whistle went I can tell you! My total weight of 19lb 14oz was never going to trouble the others, and Lewis gave me a lesson weighing 25lb, I weighed more carp than him but he had lots of skimmers. Warren had not had a single carp and caught 9lb of roach and rudd by fishing caster across. 32lb won the match and Lewis was 3rd beaten by 8oz for 2nd by Steve Howells. Steve told me he had 15lb of skimmers in his net and had them fizzing, so they are in there!

All the locals said the venue had not fished this bad for a long time, in fact one local who regularly picks up had not had a bite after two hours fishing for carp and went and fished on another lake! I think on the day I messed up as there were carp against the reeds, I should have stuck to feeding with a toss pot but the catty came out as I thought the noise would help. However, other than that the rest of the peg seemed devoid of fish. I won't draw too much from this one match, but suffice to say I won't be going back until the weights are much more consistent!

Chilton Trinity Wildmarsh Lake

2011-05-22T20:37:00.003+01:00

I have never fished this particular lake before, and I won't be rushing back. I was travelling with Glenn Bailey for the first time in many weeks, and we both had little idea of how this place would fish except for info from Tony Rixon and Bob Gullick. Even when we drew our pegs we had no idea of the actual where abouts of them! Peg 51 was my station for the day and Glenn's was 12. I didn't fancy my peg, Charlie Barnes said it was not a good area, and despite all the wind it was flat calm!

I set up a 1gm rig with 0.1 to 18, a 2gm rig with 0.12 to 16 these were for out at 14.5 mtrs where I would feed gbait,caster and worm on one line and micro pellet on an angle. A 4x14 with 0.1 to 18 was for caster at 5mtrs and 4x10 0.18 to 16 for the margins. I fed 5 balls gbait with a good helping of worm and caster, and half a pot of micros at the start. I left the margins alone to see what would happen. Straight out on the gbait line and it was a bite a chuck but only from very small roach, increasing the hookbait size made no difference either, but I did push the bulk down and pushed the droppers together. Fishing single caster I could get 2oz roach, not great but I thought I would go with the flow hoping the skimmers would turn up. I did get 2 skimmers after 90 mins, but they were only 8oz fish and I had no more. I had already topped up with the odd ball of gbait but things were very slow so I fed 2 decent balls and dropped in on the micro pellet line. Despite trying all sorts of hookbaits I never had one bite on this line all match!

I caught some roach at 5mtr on caster (I had been feeding it from the start) but if I caught 5 fish I was lucky and they would not stay. The gbait line would only yield small roach and despite refeeding the skimmers never showed. A couple of people had already been for a walk and I could see in my area it was tough, however on island peg 2 Dave Roper had a couple of decent carp as had Steve Preece just down from the bridge. A few bonus fish appeared on the road bank, Charlie Barnes had 4 barbel, Steve Hutchinson a bream and a couple of carp had been lost. With just over two hours to go I fed 2 pints of pellet in the right hand margin and 1/2 pt caster and some worms in the left hand margin. I went for a quick walk and decided to fish the margins for the rest of the match to try to have a chance of some coin. However, I never had a fish, and so I chucked back around 8lb of fish to end a fairly miserable day for me, cos I also found out my pride and joy plant at home had snapped in the wind, pissing wind!

It appeared that where I was pegged on the day was not good, Turkey to my left DNW and said he had about 7lb of bits and Johnny Baker to my right reckoned he had 5lb. However, there were some fish caught, with Dave Roper winning with a last cast carp taking him to 46lb, Paul Elmes had 45lb on the paste from peg 9 (after he went to McDonalds during the match as he was so fed up!!!) and Glenn Bailey was 3rd with 43lb. Glenn had 15lb of silvers and 28lb of carp, he was an end peg and this must have helped a bit. Glenn could have won the match as he lost a 5lb carp and a 15lb carp both at the net! Steve Kedge won the silvers from next to Dave Roper with 20lb.

Not a good day for me, but then I've had my fair share of good pegs lately and you gotta take the rough with the smooth!

Fishing like a Gnome at Landsend

2011-05-18T21:02:00.003+01:00

A few weeks ago at the Sedges I saw a match run on Tile lake which was a pole top set match only. I thought it was a silly thing to do and a waste of a day out. However, I realised I was a tad hasty, after all you shouldn't knock it till you try it. Therefore when Tony Rixon said he was going to run a top set plus 1 match at Landsend I thought well let's see.

I was very lucky to be driven to the venue by Lord Nicholls of Silverfox, though we were stuck behind Tonys van so the view wasn't so special. Anyway onto the draw and I wondered where would I want to draw on a match fished with just my top set and a number 4? It was kind of funny when I drew peg 7, as this was the same peg I drew last time at Match Lake. For the umpteenth time I had John Bradford on the next peg (5) and on the next peg to my right (10) was Mike West, having a moan. So what to set up.... I decided on two main lines as far as I could go, 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock. One line I would feed with caster and the other with soft pellet. I thought the silvers would be the main species to oblige and so I set up a 0.3gm PB Inter float with a 16 to 0.12, same float but with a 16 to 0.14, and a 4x12 Durafloat for 8mm banded pellet on the usual 16 PR36 and 0.16. The latter rig could be used for the margin (thought it was a no bite job) and with a little depth change my main pellet line.

On the whistle I deposited around 50 casters at 10 o'clock, and a small amount of micro and soften 4mms at 2 o'clock. I thought I would feed it steady to begin as I had nowhere else to go! Going straight in on the caster line with the 0.12 rig I could catch small perch and roach with the odd better stamp. A quick look on the soft pellet brought a few better quality roach. I swapped between the lines to try not to spook the fish and it worked well for the first hour and a bit with a nice ide, 2 big F1's and plenty of roach and perch. I pulled out of two carp which I think were fouled. These lines then began to slow right down and I had to work hard for bites, with a run of little skimmers and another F1. Going into the 3rd hour it was now getting boring as I could only get the odd bottle top! I did lose a carp out of the blue on the caster line, it swam straight to the margin and I broke the 0.12 trying to prevent it snagging me. I managed one small carp on the pellet line and lost a decent skimmer.

The 4th hour was just dead and I decided silvers time was now over and it was carp or bust, I put a couple of pots of caster in and a potful of micros and 4mms. I found I could catch some roach into my right margin on pellet, but I didn't see them building my weight quick enough. However back out on the main lines and the extra feed had worked and I hit 2 decent skimmers (off of each line) and then caught a carp on pellet amongst the fizzes that had appeared. Then it went silly, I foulhooked a big skimmer and it came off near the net, then pulled out of two carp on the pellet line and one on the caster line, flipping eck! Then I hooked and landed 3 carp in three put ins on the pellet and I'd done nothing different! I took another 3 carp and an ide in the last hour but missed 4 bites pulled out of another carp and lost a ghost carp after the whistle which finally woke up and with me hanginging onto my number 4 it snapped the line. As it turned out everyone had lost lots of foulers, I think it was the fact (at least in my peg) that I had to feed a lot of bait to get them there.

My silvers went 27lb 2oz and my carp 28lb 1oz, and the total of 55lb 30z was just enough to scrape in 3rd place overall. Dan White was miles ahead of everyone else with 80lb on meat from peg 22. Tony Rixon was 2nd with 60lb (including a carp landed after the whistle, humph!) and John Bradford won the silvers with 27lb 14oz, only just though as Alan Oram had 27lb 10oz of skimmers from peg 12. I should have won the silvers if I had used a slightly lighter elastic (used 11 hollo) I reckon I lost 8lb of the hook (those 2 skimmers and some roach swinging them off.) Still it was a good match with lots of close weights and plenty of silvers. Yes, I think I might fish a top set plus 1 again in the future, but not to often eh!

Commercial House Dates and Venues

2011-05-17T20:13:00.003+01:00

Please find dates and venues for the 2011/2012 Commercial House. Back to 4 rivers and 2 canals this year, lovely jubbly! Reckon I'm due some good draws this year.

4th Sept Jack Whites, Crane, Swineford.

25th Sept Jack Whites, Crane, Swineford.

23rd Oct Newbridge.

27th Nov Jack Whites, Crane, Swineford.

8th Jan Canal

15th Jan Canal

(Xmas Match on canal is 17th Dec)

Avon Angling open at Avalon

2011-05-15T20:37:00.008+01:00

I was back to renew my acquaintance with Avalon, I hadn't been there since Jan when there was ice on the lake! I gave a lift to Warren Bates and he was impressed with the first part of the day (not me being on time) his first breakfast at the Fountain cafe. We arrived at the fishery with plenty of time to spare and so walked around the lake with Nigel Bartlett, straight away we saw a problem. The lake was clay grey in colour and whenever this is the case it usually means the fishing is hard. With the whole of the match lake being used I really wanted a draw on the left hand side (shop side) which had a favourable wind, but no, I go and draw peg 26. This peg is two up from the corner and I have seen many an angler struggle off it, then Warren comes and tells me he has drawn the corner peg 24!!!

When I arrived I was pleased that Tony has given me an empty peg either side, whereas many of the better areas had every peg in, I hoped this could help me. At this stage the wind was not to bad and so I set up a 4 swan pellet wag with 0.18 to 16 PR38, and a method feeder for the island chucks. I settled on 13mtrs for the pole as the wind could become a problem, a paste rig, a banded pellet rig on 0.6gm PB Inter 2 with 0.16 to PR36, and a soft pellet for skimmers in case I had to fish for them (but it never got me a bite)! I discounted the margins as I never seem to catch in them, but I did feed at 5mtr for paste which I didn't catch on!

I was not quite ready for the start as I needed the toilet, but then cupped in half a small Preston pot of 6mm pellets at 13mtr and started feeding 8mms to the island. I always start on the pole here hoping for an early carp and I started on paste, on my first drop I had what I thought was a liner and lifted into a foulhooked skimmer. Twenty minutes later I had my one and only bite on paste from a near 3lb bream. About this time Warren snapped his no4 section on his Tournament. One hour in and I had not had any other signs on the pole so I picked up the wag. The wind was a problem and I didn't land many casts on the money and after 45 mins I had not had a bite on it! Generally if there are a few fish feeding you do get indications, so I had to come off this, but what next? The wind was worsening and so I thought the method would be the best bet, I had to soak some micros first though and so I went back in on the pole. Just as Glenn Bailey rang me for an update I had a 2lb skimmer on 8mm pellet, but no more bites came.

Onto the method and I was pepped up when it went round first cast, the culprit a small carp of no more than 3lb. It then went quiet, and I was not sure the method was right as you cannot use short hooklengths or tuck the bait. After about 30 mins the tip went round again and after a very brief tussle the fish swam into a snag and I lost the lot. I set it all up again but it did not work. I was now fairly hacked off with my lot and the wind was now horrendous blowing all over the place. I thought I would stick to the pole in the hope of some more skimmers and have a chance of the silvers money. It wasn't pretty trying to hang onto 13mtrs of carbon, I had to lay quite a bit of line on the bottom to keep the rig still. Then with 2 hours to go I caught a skimmer, and then not long after a carp. Then the wind eased for a while and I could feed more accurately with the catty, now the swim started fizzing! I then had 2 more skimmers and 4 carp up to 10lb. Then at 5:05 I hooked another near 10lb fish, I landed it with 2 mins to go, dropped the rig back in and it went under within seconds, carp on "All out". It was about 5lb and a nice way to end the match.

Picture of my carp net courtesy of Roy Garland at toppeg.co.uk

Tony Rixon walked round from the other side and asked what I had, I guessed 55lb and he said that might win it! As it turned out I weighed 12lb of skimmers and 49lb of carp and my 61lb was enough to win. I only just beat Phil (Fabio) Harding who weighed 59lb 9oz and so the last carp I caught was crucial. Tom Magnol was 3rd with 53lb 8oz from peg 20 just beat Dave Roper by 1oz. John Bradford had by far the best silvers weight with 23lb on the worm. (I was actually 2nd in silvers today too)

I'll be very honest and say that I could have packed up with two hours to go, the wind was really getting me down and there were quite a few swear words around. However, Warren had had a few in the corner and I know that the carp can turn up late but I wasn't confident. Just goes to show you should never give up.

New Blog

2011-05-11T19:31:00.002+01:00

I've recently added blogs to my list of blogs I like to read. The latest addition is that of Chris Tellings, it was Chris who I battered (his words not mine) at Todber on Sunday. Good to read how anglers further afield are fishing other venues, and hopefully can pick up some tips!

MFS website match Todber Manor

2011-05-08T20:35:00.010+01:00

Mark Poppleton organised another website match at Todber and I was given a lift to the venue by fellow blogger Ken Rayner. We were slightly concerned at the gusty wind which was blowing and arriving at the lake other than the right hand end (pegs 20 to 25) it was blowing very hard. I drew peg 13 which put me on another flyer (I was told) the oak tree peg. I could see why it was good the far bank to the left has slipped in creating a recess to fish into, trouble was it was 14.5 metres away.

I set up a dibber rig for shallow with banded pellet, 0.16 to 18 PR36, a 4x10 Durafloat 10 for on top the far shelf where it was about 18" deep, also for banded pellet. A 4x14 Preston PB14 for meat at 5 metres with 0.16 to 14 PR47. The margin was very deep and I couldn't get into shallow water so a 4x12 Durafloat was set up for this in about 3.5ft of water. Lastly I decided to set up a small 15g Preston method feeder, I used my 10ft Preston mini carp rod for the first time with 0.20 and a 16 PR38 to take an 8mm boilie. I mixed up some gbait for this, Thatchers original.

To my right was a lad called Chris from Gloucester, and to my left was Garbolino BMV angler Johnny Atkins, when the whistle went we all started differently! I fed corn and pellet in the margin, and a pot of 6mm pellets across into the recess, and some meat at 5mtrs. I went straight over into the recess with the 18" rig with 8mm pellet and had 2 small carp in the first 2 chucks, followed by a couple of F1's. I was trying to feed with a catty but it was hard to hold the pole and feed, within 20 mins I was struggling to hold the rig in position and as a result fouled a couple. I tried the shallow rig but it was no good and the wind forced me to change. So i picked up the method and cast it under armed into the recess. It was obvious there were a lot of fish there as the tip was moving all the time! I was catching F1's and some small carp on this and still feeding pellet over the top. I had a good first couple of hours and then Guy Manton turned up and I couldn't catch well, he did advise me to feed even more pellet across and this worked after a while.

I had some really good spells on the method when I would get 5 or 6 carp in as many chucks, then it would be funny bites from F1's. I tried the pole and had a couple on the meat but was missing lots of bites, the margin never produced a bite all day! I had to keep persevering with method, and from what I could see I seemed to be doing better than most and I had taken three carp around 5lb and an 8lb fish which is a lot of those F1's! With 45 mins to go things went wrong, the method dried up (but I still had liners) and I could not hit the bites on the meat line, and I probably only had 3 fish in this last spell and I knew it would cost me.

The scales came down from peg 1, there had already been three tons, with peg 7 having 133lb 9oz, John weighed 71lb and I weighed next with 134lb 5oz which was just enough to win the section. Chris next to me was in the next section and had 95lb which was not good enough for any coin. Ken Rayner will show the full result on his blog (he had the sheets) but it was something like this :-

1st Will Bohne 171lb ( a lot of F1's shallow at 11mtr, then carp on meat in the margin)
2nd Mark Poppleton 151lb
3rd Mark Brennan 151lb (ounces in it)
4th Missed the name sorry 144lb

So I was 10lb off the frame and the last 45 mins had cost me as expected, I must try and sort out the meat on this place! Despite the terrible wind the venue had fished well again, I would say the opposite side of the lake to me was better for some reason , in fact I was top weight from peg 1 to peg 20 although Mark Poppleton on 21 with no wind caught at 5mtr with paste. Ken Rayner had 66lb a lot of F1's in his peg.

Amazing place really when people weighing in around 100lb get nowhere, so many fish in this lake it amazes me. Shame I cannot fish the next match here.

Sedges Brick lake Open

2011-05-01T20:14:00.003+01:00

I was chauffeured to the venue today by Paul Elmes and sat squeezed into my seat by Bela Bakos. A very nice ride down, but for some reason we started talking about car accidents and very quickly all seat belts were on the conversation was changed!

No early draw for me today, as I can pull my trolley along now, and so into the scrum for a peg. Tony Rixon reckoned pegs 1 to 10 would be the best (wind into them) and I pulled out 16, but I thought it would be OK as it is in the middle of the lake. On my right was Ron Hardiman and to my left the Gimp John Bradford. I've had some good weights on this lake over the years, but Ron had fished the week before and said it was hard. With the wind blowing and no signs of spawning I thought the fishing wouldn't be that bad this week. I set up a pellet wag which I was going to start on in the hope of mugging a few early carp, a 4x18 rig with 16 B911 to 0.14, a 4x18 with 16 PR36 to 0.16 a margin rig and a shallow rig. I decided against paste due to the wind.

On the whistle I cupped in a pot of 4mms out to 13 mtrs and began loose feeding 8mm pellets on the wag. I did't get a sign on the wag and after 15 mins the pole line was fizzing so I went out on soft pellet. In my first three casts I had three 1.5lb skimmers and as I have done here before I fed some 4mms with a catty over the top. I caught a few more smaller skimmers but things slowed right down and I could see Tom Thick bagging on skimmers on peg 14. I tried altering how I fed and how much but nothing got them lined up, I got the odd bite but was missing as many as I was hitting and also losing a few which I'm sure were fouled. I went on the wag to rest the pole completely and lost one fouled carp on this, and I never had another bite on the wag all day!

It was a bit frustrating, I knew I had fed far too much bait at the start for skimmers and no car responded, I had cocked the peg up. Eventually I managed to get the odd skimmer by feeding a few 4mm pellets in a toss pot (like winter feeding) and by opening up another line. Ron had taken 2 carp and some good skimmers on the straight lead, and I was wishing I had set one up! I knew I was miles behind Tom in the silvers stakes but was hoping I could reach the 2nd prize. However, despite my frugal feeding (in the last few hours) with 45 mins to go both my pole lines produced 1 carp each and the skimmers vanished. My skimmers weighed 26lb+ and the 2 carp went 9lb+ (I think). Tom Thick won the silvers with 45lb but only admitted to 25lb (no comment) and I was edged out of 2nd place by Steve Hutchinson who did well to hang onto to his pole on the far bank and had 28lb of skimmers. My chance of coin was gone, and Tony took the section by default with 42lb. So I ended betwixt and between and a straight lead may have done me better than the wag, but my feeding was wrong and I lost enough skimmers to easily had 30lb+, damn things were flying everywhere!!!

Chris Davis won the match from peg 18 with 7 carp and some skimmers for 72lb. Taking fish from various lines and depths and the margin. See Tony's blog for the full and detailed result. Either side of my the gimp DNW and Ron's lead tactics beat me by 5oz, well done Ron.

I did manage to pick up £2 from the van sweep, Paul really struggled opposite me and DNW, Bela had a creditable 21lb of skimmers. The skimmers I caught were very rough and had sores on them, sure signs of the ravages of spawning, perhaps they need a bit of R&R before they feed properly again? Anyway, as Bela rightly said we caught plenty of fish, and if we had that weight on the river we'd been chuffed, keeps things in perspective.

Royal Wedding Open Rood Ashton

2011-04-30T09:55:00.004+01:00

It wasn't a hard decision to make, fishing or a day in front of the TV, I let the wife and kids have the remote fir the day. Initially myself and travelling partner Warren Bates had booked into Viaduct, but the late start meant it would encroach on our evening plans of beer and food, so I cancelled and booked Rood Ashton instead. I had not fished the venue for around 4 years, and then only twice ever and so I needed some expert advice which I got from Andy Pritchard. He said it was method feeder and pole with pellet job, easy enough then! for those that don't know Rood, it is a shallow venue, with 2ft max depth.

After a nice brekkie in the Waney Edge cafe we arrived to see the farmer had put a post in the middle of the gateway to the lake, only cars could just squeeze through. That was a problem as we'd brought no trolleys and Warren's van would not get through the gap, short walk please! Into the drawbag and I pull out 6 and Warren gets 13 right around the other side. The lad on peg 2 kindly gave Warren his car and organiser Leighton Palmer took my gear in his van. Leighton had peg 1 and was going to be hard to beat as was Shaun Townsend on last peg 14 with space to his left. On peg 5 was none other than my old work buddy and team mate Darren Gillman, so we were sure to have a laugh.

I set up a 30grm large Preston in line method feeder (Rixon will love this) with 0.20 to a PR38. I mixed gbait and 2mm pellets for the feed. For the pole I set up a paste rig, a pellet rig for the deck (4x12) and one for up in the water. On the whistle I launched the method and it went a bloody long way! I haven't done much of this fishing and so it was going to be a change for me and a learning curve. After clipping up I set about landing the feeder in the same place, and failed! Still my bad casting was still yielding fish and after an hour and 30 mins I had 10 small carp, mainly on 8mm white boilie. All the time I had been on the method I had been feeding 6mm pellets at 13 mtrs, Darren had started on the pole and had taken a couple of fish less than me but had lost a few too. So when I dropped in on the pole line I was expecting instant action, but it was devoid of fish and after 20 mins I'd lost one fouler. Reluctantly (as I had hoped to have a nice day on the pole) I went back on the method and had 3 carp in 3 chucks, then nothing. I soon worked out that as soon as I didn't get a pull on the method I had to rest it and try the pole line, every time I went back to the method I caught 2 or 3. I would say that my casting accuary improved during the day, and I also got the gbait and pellet mix correct, cos it does help when it stays on!

I could see that Shaun and Warren Bates were catching and I knew Leighton had a lot of fish on peg 1, and I was gutted I could not get the pole working. Then with 10 mins to go the method died and blow me I had 3 bigger carp on the pole on the pellet deck rig. These fish turned out to be crucial as you will see below, I weighed 86lb 11oz for 2nd overall. Darren next to me had struggled as his pole line died, but he had a few on the conker on the straight lead and had 60lb. The match was won by Shaun Townsend, he had 140lb on long pole and caught most of his fish on soft pellet. A good result by a very good angler.

1st Shaun Townsend 140lb (peg 14)
2nd Tim Ford 86lb 11oz (peg 6)
3rd Warren Bates 86lb 5oz (peg 13) oh I did laugh lol!!!!
4th Leighton Palmer 85lb 13oz (peg 1) Leighton got a tad frustrated loosing fish in the reedbed.

I definitely need to sort out how to catch on the pole at this place, as if I could have kept fish coming off both lines I could have taken a big weight.

Back in the carp park and Leighton did the result, Martin Rayett had kindly carried some of my gear back to the van and then I politely reminded him of the £1 side bet we had, the air was blue and full of laughter! Lady luck was on my side again, and I really had a fun day. Sedges on Sunday, Brick lake, not fished there for a few years either!

Todber Manor Park Lake

2011-04-24T20:56:00.003+01:00

Tony Rixon asked me last week if I was interested in fishing a match at Todber, I had never fished the venue before and in the end I took up the offer. I spoke to a couple of my Thatchers team mates who fish this lake regularly; Steve Tucker told me to fish meat not very far out, and Mark Harper said fish the method feeder across. I could see a plan forming around this, start on the method and go on the meat after a few hours.

I had the pleasure of transporting Fabio to the venue, he gets a bit worried about being late, but we arrived 45 mins before the draw time. I used to fish with Phil back in the old Silver Dace days on the Avon, he's switched to carp full on these days. Mark Poppleton had organised this match on the Matchfishing Scene website and he kindly let me draw early. I pulled out peg 25 which meant nothing to me but when I got to the peg it looked great, a point of an island just to my left and a long margin to fish. Steve Tucker rang me to confirm it was a flyer and that it should be good for 150lb, no pressure then! Ten minutes later and Fabio comes and sits next to me (how often do people travelling together draw next to each other!) and carp slayer Tony Rixon was the other side of Fabsi.

I set up a 15g small in line method feeder with 0.20 to a 16 PR38. Two 4x10 Durafloats on 0.16 one with a hair rig and one with a PR478 for meat, these were for across and the margin. I also so set up a 0.3gm Inter float on 0.16 for use at 6 metres for meat. I started the match by under arming the method (packed with gbait) to the far bank grasses and I had liners from the off. I had 3 small carp in about 6 casts but I didn't feel it was right (and it's not something I've done a lot of) and I started feeding 6mm pellet across instead. Fishing with a banded 8mm I got bites but only took the odd roach and F1, I came off this line and I decided to "Go Large" so I began to (badly) loosefeed 8mm pellets across! I tried the meat line at 6 metres and had more roach trouble and after 35 minutes I dropped in on the margin and caught 1 small carp and more roach! There was no silvers prize today so I had to catch carp. Going back across on 8mm pellet I was now getting a lot of indications and hooked a few fish but I reckoned they were up shallow, so I took the defunct meat rig off and replaced it with a dibber rig. I eventually found that 8" deep was about right although I still fouled a few. I had a good few hours on this line catching mainly carp from 2 to 3lb, and I was not being bothered by F1's (except missed bites might have been them?).

I could see Tony had caught a lot of fish across but Phil was struggling catching mainly F1's. I tried the margin on and off but was disappointed most of the time, although it was alive with carp eating spawn or themselves spawning. However, with just under 2 hours to go I finally got the fish going here, but I had to fish off the bottom to stop the foulers. I had fed meat, 6mm pellet and 8mm pellet here, I was doing this to get a quantity of bait in although I would have probably just fed 8mm pellet only but I didn't have a lot with me as they hadn't been in the main plan! The margin did slow in but I stayed with it because I had a sore elbow and didn't fancy going across unless I really had to.

When the match finished Steve Seagar who was across from me reckoned I had 110lb, I thought I had 130lb and Tony was saying he had 120lb but we both had not got much of an idea. I guess I had about 70 fish and they weighed 164lb, this was just enough to beat Tony who had 151lb, in between us Fabio was a chip shop sausage having weighed 54lb. My weight was good enough for 2nd overall, beaten by organiser Mark Poppleton who was on the pre match favourite peg 38 (which Fabsi drew for him!) and weighed 177lb. Mark told me he could see carp boiling at 3 metres whilst he was setting up, and after 30 minutes of feeding them he started to bag, fair play. Tony came 3rd, and he took away the full result to put on his blog.

Well I must say I was really impressed with Park Lake, there are obviously stacks of fish in there and it is my sort of venue where you get lots of bites from small carp. I never heard any noise from cars etc, and it was a really lovely day out in the countryside, I hope I can go back there again sometime soon.

Landsend Fishery Open

2011-04-17T20:25:00.003+01:00

Travelled down to Landsend with Glenn Bailey today, and after a good breakfast we arrived very early. Twenty minutes before the draw time Tony Rixon approached me with the draw bag and said get on and draw you might draw lake 3 and have a long walk! After Ade Crawley sold me a £1 (for my 74p) for the £21 pools I drew peg 66 on yep the far lake. Immediately all thoughts of framing were gone and it was a case of go for silvers or the section win. I felt sorry for Glenn who pulled my trolley to my peg, and then went and drew the same lake on peg 42, nice bit of exercise though!

As I set up I wasn't happy with the signs, I could not see any fish topping or feeding but once the sun came out there was the odd cruiser, I didn't expect the lake to fish well but you never know! You are at the end of an island on peg 66 so a chance to draw some fish I thought, and peg 67 was left out so I had a margin to my left. I set up a 4x12 rig with 0.12 to 18 B911 for soft pellet at 10m, another 4x12 but with 0.14 to 16 PR36 for across in 2.5ft of water (and one non hair rig for soft pellet), a 4x10 with 0.16 and 16 PR36 for up in the water and a 4x10 margin rig with 0.16 to PR478 for meat. Plumbing up I found the corner itself was very shallow at 8", but a few feet along the island it dropped to 2.5ft all the way along.

To start the match I fed a small amount of micros at 10m and across in the 2.5ft swim. I fed 4mms by catty to the corner hoping to see if the carp would come out to play! In at 10m and all I had in the first 15 mins were 2 tiny skimmers, so I fed a little more bait here and that got rid of the snotty skimmers and I had no more bites here ALL DAY! I went across and I started to get bites from small F1's on soft pellet, I also caught a couple on banded 6mm pellet when roach took a liking to the soft pellet. The odd carp had shown itself on the corner and I had a look in there after an hour, but the fish would not stay in the peg and all I had was a F1 and pulled out of an ide.

I concentrated back on the 2.ft swim and hooked a 6lb carp here and after this the swim never recovered, with just the very odd F1 showing. Two hours in and bites were very hard to come by, where as Andy France on 68 was catching carp and odd F1 against the corner of the island, although he had more than 3ft depth on his corner. I tried the margin (which I was feeding with caster, corn and meat) but it was lifeless and my whole peg switched off with no fish showing except for cruisers. In the last 3 hours I foul hooked 3 carp and had not landed a single fish, until with 1 minute to go I had my first bite in the margin, after the whistle I landed the culprit a 9lb carp.

That was a very, very tough match and there was nothing I could do for most of the time but rotate swims, and I even went down to 0.10 but it didn't work. My weight was 24lb 7oz with the F1s going 8lb+. Nigel Barlett won the silvers on my lake with 21lb, despite getting vermined out with 42lb of carp. Alan Healy was best weight on the lake with a very good 89lb, 13 carp on paste. Speci and Match lakes fished much better with Dean Malin easily winning with 192lb and Tony Rixon coming 2nd with 162lb, from flyers on speci!

See Tony's blog for more info, I can't write much more about this shite day, other than to say Glenn only had 21lb from peg 42, and as an Arsenal fan his day was complete when Liverpool equalised in the last minute, ouch!

A message to Mark P

2011-04-11T20:16:00.002+01:00

Hi Mark P,

I just found your message that you left on my blog back in February. for some reason it went into the blog SPAM which I didn't even know existed! So I have now published your comment and just wanted to put this post up so (if you are still following my blog) you could see I was not hiding your message.

I hope your Dad is doing well, and the fact that you took something positive from what I have written is exactly what I had hoped may happen.

Tight Lines.

The Sun, a Ton, I'm done!

2011-04-10T20:13:00.004+01:00

I had a funny start to Sunday morning, I was awoken at 7.15am by the sound of a van outside my house, it was Paul Elmes and Mike Nicholls. Unfortunately I had not been able to confirm if I could get a lift with Paul so I decided to lie in, and so I had to let them go on without me while I got ready. The match that we were all going to was a Tony Rixon open at Sedges Tile lake. A lake I have only match fished once before and that was 2 years ago. Had my first breakfast today at Fountain Cafe, and it was a really good one too.

Once again I was allowed first dip in the drawbag, and I pulled out corner peg 40, I had been told 21 (opposite 40) was a flyer and then I was told so was 40! Seem to be doing well at the drawbag this last week! It was only a very short walk for me and my bag carriers, and behind me on brick lake peg 1 was John Dursley who was fishing a silvers match (his peg was solid with carp he he!). John told me it would be worth starting on a method feeder, and lent me his made up rod, which was nice! I also set up the pellet wag and 3 pole rigs for the margins to my left which I was told would be solid, but there's no point talking rigs because the margins never produced a bite. The pellet wag was 4 swan, and I used 0.16 Exceed to a 16 PR36.

On the whistle I launched the method feeder as far as I could and it landed nowhere near the island. I started feeding 8mm pellets as far as I could (no where near the island!) and also fed them to the end bank past some trees. I had 3 chucks on the method and got bored, and as Tom Magnol next to me had taken a carp and was getting bites on the wag and pellet I followed suit. I could not get my feed anywhere near the island, and decided to feed it where I could do so comfortably (Tom was feeding 10mm pellets and getting to the island). I started by fishing about 2ft deep and whilst I was not getting as many bites as Tom I was on a par with him on fish. I was getting mainly 1lb to 1.5lb carp, although I did have an 8lb fish in the first hour. I didn't feel I was emptying it because the fish came in bursts with long gaps with nothing. I tried upping the feed and changing depths all without any real difference, so I just kept going as I seemed to be doing well.

3 hours in and I decided to try the end bank with the wag as I had seen fish moving there, I was into carp straight away but after a few 3lb fish it was back to the smaller fish. I had a really good run here, and started to hit a fish nearly every cast, inevitably it slowed and I rested it and went back in the open water. However, I was soon forced back down the end bank as it was dead out in front. I put a 2nd keepnet in with just under 2 hours left, and to give you some idea of my catch rate that net eventually weighed 42lb. I did catch the willow tree 3 times, and the grass once, but I always got the float back (my lucky day!). I did re set the wag up twice during the match though, this was because the line around the weights was damaged and I have learnt by experience that not doing this means you will crack off eventually!

By the end of the match my arms and shoulders were aching, and I was pleased that my workout yielded 119lb 9oz and that was enough to win. Tom Magnol was 2nd with 99lb of carp (in one net when the limit is 100lb!) and Tony Rixon was 3rd with 92lb from peg 23. Steve Hutchinson won the silvers with about 40lb+ he had 5 big slabs and skimmers and crucians. Tony's blog will have all the details.

It was nice to get my first win this year, quicker than I thought if I'm honest, but a very good peg does help. A lot of casting, a lot of bites, a lot of carp, a lot of sun and I love it!

Landsend Midweek Open

2011-04-06T19:58:00.003+01:00

I decided to fish this match because I thought I could catch silvers within reasonable distance and ignore the carp. When I drew peg 7 on match lake everyone said you'll catch carp, hmmmm.

I had 2 pints of caster with me, hard pellet, soft pellet and meat. I decided to leave the casters in the bag, which I think was a poor decision in the end. I was told this peg was shallower then most and so it proved, the very same rig I used at Shiplate on Sunday (0.3grm 4ft 0.14 to 16B911) was at the exact depth for 11mtr line and to fish just off the pallet on vacant peg 8. I used a 4x10 Preston PB4 for across at 14.5 mtrs and had a 0.16 to PR36 for banded pellet, I had just about a foot of water next to a tump of grass. I didn't set up anything else as I felt that would do it! I had a good chat with Tom Thick who was on peg 5 (he likes this peg, as he keeps drawing it!) and he gave me a lot of pointers about what to feed for skimmers and F1's. So on the whistle I potted in about 200 micros and some soften 4mm pellets at 11mtr in front, and at 13 mtrs at 2 o'clock (but this line never produced a bite), I then put some meat down by the pallet and started firing 4mm pellets to the island.

I started on soft pellet on the 11mtr line and within a few minutes had my first bite and a decent skimmer, a couple more followed and then I landed an F1. I could now only get bites from F1's and it seemed they had pushed the skimmers out, but on the hour mark things slowed considerably. I had been feeding some micros and 4mm pellets and tried feeding a bit more, bit less and nothing really got them going. It was taking too long now for bites and so after 2 hours I went across on a 6mm pellet. This looked good as 2 F1's and a carp came straight away, but then nothing!

For the middle two hours it was a struggle for me, I kept trying all my swims with limited success, a tench came from across and a couple of skimmers and 2 carp back at 11mtrs. I was ahead of Tom, but then his peg came alive and he started catching F1's regularly only interrupted by carp across to the island. Tom was potting bait whereas I was using the catty. I tried potting but it didn't help and I went back to the catty. Al of sudden the island swim came alive, another tench, an ide, a skimmer and then 6 carp in the last 40 minutes. I'd had a good end to the match but was frustrated that I could not catch by the pallet and that I had not fed a caster line which could have been useful mid match (still a bit rusty, or just crap lol). I knew Tom had beaten me, but it turned out not by as much as I thought, he weighed 83lb to my 75lb. Tom had 40lb of silvers, I had 32lb, and Tom ended up 2nd overall. I had lost 3 carp, one did me under the platform (argh) and 2 were fouled but I had them near the net a couple of times......

Dean Malin won the match with 103lb and I ended 5th out of 10, if you read Tony's blog you'll see how close the weights were. I always seem to fall short at Landsend, and I learnt a lot today about the F1's, I have never caught them before! Overall a lovely day out fishing in glorious sunshine, but I am knackered now due to fishing 14.5mtrs for so long, thanks again lads for the help carrying my gear.

Back in the saddle at Shiplate Fishery

2011-04-03T20:20:00.006+01:00

For the first time since January I awoke on a Sunday morning knowing I was going fishing! I was thankful to Glenn Bailey for not only picking me up but also lifting my tackle to his car. We stopped at a burger van on the A38 and bumped into Rod Wootten, who I haven't seen for some time, and we briefly discussed the demise of Cider Farm. As for Shiplate I had never heard of the place before and found out all I could. There are 3 lakes one large speci lake (bream into doubles as well as all the carp) and two "sausage" canal type lakes. The match was on the two canals with one containing lots of bream and skimmers and some carp, the other being very new having lots of small carp and silvers (this lake is still going to have more fish put in).

As we pulled in Dean Malin was stood by my door waiting for a viewing of my bag! Anyway onto the draw, due to my current issues Tony Rixon let me draw 15 mins before everyone else and I pulled peg 5 on West Lake, a peg where Dean Malin recently had 97lb off when pleasure fishing. Bela Bakos, Dean and Paul Elms then carried my gear to my peg, thank you lads I would never have got there without your help! To my left Anton Page was setting up (with my old pole) but he had two speci anglers opposite him which was not going to help.

The peg was 16 metres wide, and whilst the far bank would be the best bet for carp I was not going to fish that long. I plumbed a line at 5mtrs to my left (but never had a bite) a line at 8 mtrs where it was about 4ft deep and a line at 14 mtrs where the depth was a few inches less than the middle. I used 0.3g PB Inter 1 floats, with 0.16 to 0.14 Exceed line and a 16 B911 hook on both lines. I decided that I would feed positive as you need a fair bit of bait to hold 100lb of bream (perhaps a tad ambitious for my first match for ages!) and I put 150ml of micros and 4mm pellets in at 8 mtrs and nearly 250ml of the same at 14 mtrs. My plan was to fish the 8 mtr line for as long as possible and to let the big slabs settle in across.

As the match began the odd carp was hooked, and mainly lost, by those fishing across but it was quiet for most except Russ Peck on peg 3 who had a few skimmers. I had a 1lb skimmer on a 4mm soft pellet after about 15 mins but then no other bites despite trying various hookbaits. I then tried my old river bream hook bait 3 red maggots and this induced some sport. I took a few more skimmers on this but it was a long wait between bites and not long after the hour I went to 14 mtrs and had not a bite! I was not too worried at this stage as it can take a while for bream to get on the feed, and back on the 8 mtr line I had a 5lb slab but again no bites. Going across again I had a couple of 2lb skimmers and maggot seemed best on the hook, and I did lose a foul hooked carp. There was no pattern to the bites and feeding any bait seemed to put them off.

Halfway through and it was hard for all except Martin Alexander who started to catch skimmers regularly and did so for 2 hours. I had another 5lb slab and a 5lb carp across in two casts and then not a bite for an hour. Russ Peck was now catching carp and so I went and put a big pots of pellets on my two lines. It was a gamble and it sort of paid off in that I had a couple more skimmers (lost two more foulers) and took a bream of 6lb. Anton had been bashed up for 5 hours (and Alan Oram let him know it!) but then the carp anglers went and he caught some skimmers and carp to finish strongly.

My bream and skimmers (and 1 ruffe) weighed 28lb 11oz and the lonely carp 5lb 10oz, 34lb was 3rd on my lake behind Russ Peck 58lb (winner) and Martin Alexander 42lb. As I was in Russ's section I got the section by default, which was more than I thought I would get, I was just happy to be there. In hindsight I fed way to much and both Anton and myself felt casters would have been a good bait. I should mention on the lake I was on the two ends were a struggle and it was definitely a case of draw in the middle of the lake. For full result see Tony's blog, and as he was drawn on the other lake I'd be interested to see how he approached it, even if he didn't catch much. My thoughts on the fishery were it has a lot of potential, and the fish seem to be very healthy, a bit of tweaking may help. I would love to fish the main lake, might give it a go pleasure fishing later in the year. Thanks to Jason Radford who carried my box and carryall back (I think the weight may have shrunk him) and to Glenn for taking my holdall and Alan Oram my nets!

I wonder if I am eligible for the coffin dodgers matches?

CARPS AC series Viaduct Fishery

2011-03-27T20:07:00.002+01:00

Glenn Bailey had booked into the last match of this series as a guest, and he asked if I wanted to tag along. I was up for a bit of that, so out came the deck chair!

The day before on the venue had been the Paul Garrett memorial and several 100lb+ weights had been taken which suggested today would be just as good. Glenn was no slouch at the drawbag pulling out 128 on Campbell which has been a very consistent peg for carp. Three anglers were in with a chance of being the series winner overall and they all drew in a line; Andy Lloyd on peg 113, Chris Davis peg 114 and Tim Pallant on 115. As I wandered around Campbell I could see that most anglers had set up a straight lead, deep wag and pole for long and margin, there were also a few pellet wags on show. Pellet and meat were by far the dominant baits on the anglers trays, no surprise there.

The match started with a NE breeze that was blowing into and across the bank that Glenn was on. Within a short time odd carp were coming out, and many were also being lost. Stu Foale on peg 129 had lost 3 on the deep wag (foulers) and was forced to join the lead chuckers, but it was a good move as he started to catch. Chris on 115 mugged some early carp on the long pole and Andy Lloyd was catching on lead or wag on pellet. Glenn had a slow start but was not to far behind after the first hour.

Two hours in and I was hungry but Paul Greenwood was not in the shop and so I went to see what was happening on Carey (it took me another hour to get nourishment!). Three anglers in a row were fishing for silvers (Rich Coles, John Green and Dave Roper) pegs 98, 97 and 96 respectively. They were catching small skimmers with the odd better one thrown in but were complaining the bites were iffy. There were some carp on pegs 86, 94 and 100 at this stage. Back to Campbell on the guy on 119 was now doing well on the wag to the end bank, as was Lewis Greenwood on 110. I thought Stu Foale, Chris Davis and Andy Lloyd were the leading contenders, but with 2 hours to go things changed. Andy Lloyd really got the carp going on the wag shallow and he motored ahead of the rest.

The final top 3 weights were :-

Andy Lloyd 217lb peg 113
Chris Davis 170lb peg 114
Dick Bull 148lb peg 94

(Not sure who won the series, Andy or Chris?)

There were also ton weights recorded on pegs, 86, 129 (Stu), 124 (Steve Skelton), 119, 116 (Tim Pallant). Lewis may have had a ton but Glenn had to get home for a music concert so I didn't see him weigh.

On the silvers front those three anglers on Carey dominated..

Dave Roper 50lb peg 96
John Green 39lb peg 97
Rich Coles 35lb peg 98 (top silvers on Campbell 27lb 1oz from peg 132)

Well as you can see the warm weather really helped lift the weights today, although Glenn could only manage 70lb (!), and I really wanted to have a chuck. I must say I was impressed with Andy Lloyd, I already knew he was a good angler but he made the wag work and got the carp lined up, a slick performance and he didn't mind me watching. From a purists point of view it was also nice to see the the float beat the lead chuckers, a sign maybe winter is past?

April 1991 - Irish Madness!

2011-03-18T12:31:00.008Z

Time to go back in time, well I've got to do something!

What with the complete close season to contend with back in 1991, fishing was limited to trips to Devon or Cornwall (to the original commercial fisheries) or of course Ireland. If I wasn't fishing on a weekend I was probably in the pub!

On the 21st April I travelled to Devon to fish a match at Hogsbrook lake, this match was on the smaller bottom lake. It was a bloody long way to go to catch just 2lb 12oz, but that was enough for 3rd place, as it fished crap! I had 6 roach and 6 skimmers on either pinkie or maggot hookbaits, fishing a light waggler with 2 no8 and 1 no10 down the line. I fished double baits in the hope the fish would find them easier in the dark red coloured water.

I spent the next week preparing for a trip to southern Ireland, this was not a festival but just pleasure with a group of mates. Not sure if I can recall everyone who went but here goes.. Greg Harvey, Paul Benson, Martyn Woodington, Martin Leonard, Andy Leonard, Nigel Brookes, Andy Floyd. Sorry if I forgot someone, memory is not so good after the anaesthetic. The trip was booked via Ray Bazeley's company Top Line Tours, and we were going to a place called Bailieboro. This trip had many hilarious moments, and the first was when we arrived and couldn't find the guesthouse, Nigel stopped a local and asked for directions and got no where, so he asked if he new Topline Tours? "Ah to be sure, I never heard of Topline Tours!" he replied, no I don't think he would Nige and we just pissed ourselves. The guest house was great, but we were disappointed to find the nearest pub was a fair distance away, and with a policeman (Garda) being the owner we couldn't risk drink driving (which was common in Ireland back then) and faced a long walk there and back.

The group split into two immediately, this was because a few wanted to get a few hours fishing in while the rest of us went to the pub! Our first proper days fishing was on Monday 29th April, on Drumkeary lake. The weather was awful, with driving rain, and I along with most others had a handful of bits. We found a great pub on the night (where a kid about 10 served when his dad was having tea or a snooze) which had a pool and snooker table. I played pool once against Nigel, he broke off and potted the lot, so I never bothered again! We got a late drink in this place, and the owner would let us out the back way which meant walking through into his living room and out his front door! The following day we tried our luck at Castle lake, the weather was better but the fishing worse as I managed just 3 small fish. Still we were having a great craic in the pubs! Some of us went home early and went to a pub to watch Ireland play a footbal world cup qualifier. The pub was heaving, and the policeman was also in there. When it was finished the owner said "come on fellas dinner will be on the table soon". He then proceeded to get in his car after 6 pints and drive home....

Day three and Benz got us to lake Eonish, but because of the high water levels he could not recognise the pegs! You could wade out a long way and cast as far as you could and still not find more than 3 feet of water. Once again the weather was even better and yep the fishing worse, 1 perch for me! This was not what I had expected of Ireland, where were all the bream? Truth was the lakes were all full to overflowing after weeks of cold rain, we needed to find a venue where the fish would be in range of our casting and quick! As luck would have it on our drive back we bumped into some Brummies going home, they had been catching up to 50lb bags of bream on a local lake and gave us directions. Despite Benz, Greg and myself providing this info later the rest of the guys wanted to stick with one of the other lakes we had fished.

So it was on day four just the three of us lined the banks of Church Lake. This place was deep, at 30 yards out it took nearly 30 seconds for a large Drennan feeder to hit bottom! I fired out 12 balls of gbait and caster and chucked the feeder over the top. Slowly I started to get bites from hybrids, skimmers and late on a couple of bream. I had 15lb, which whilst not a lot felt good after all the previous shite! We all fired some more gbait into our pegs before we left. After another heavy session on the Guinness I returned to the guest house for some reason alone. When I got back I couldn't open the door to my room, then I heard a shout from within asking who it was, "It's Tim, let me in my fecking room!". Inside a number of the lads were up to something, and it transpired that Woody was sabotaging Benz's feeder reel. He pulled off some line, bit it off, and then wound it back on, biting it again and winding the remainder back on. So Benz was going to have a few problems when he started fishing!

Next day and we're all at the lake in anticipation! I got ready super fast and was already into a bream before Benz (next to me) had tackled up, he was a bit hungover! Of course Benz was now really excited and rushing to get ready at the sight of bream coming out. He was ready to cast, and I shouted the signal "Benz is going for the bream now!" he said something like "Come on then you effing Irish slabs you're having some!" and WHOOSH out went the feeder... off to the horizon! "I don't believe it I've cracked off!" and he did swear quite a lot and we were all laughing our heads off! As Benz set up again I had another bream and so did some others which only made Benz even more traumatised. He was now set up again and ready for action, I shouted out again, and once again his feeder zoomed out to the horizon no longer attached to his rod again. "Effing Rixon, this line is shit!!!!" he said and he threw his rod behind him up a tree. We were all in fits, in fact Greg laughed so much he fell off his box into the margin of the lake, I could have been close to really pissing myself! Benz went for a walk and calmed down enough to retrieve his rod, and later in the day we told him the truth! As it turned out Woody was sat on the bream shoal just to my left, and then to my right the fishing got worse. Woody was making quite a lot of "easy" or "not another bream" type comments when Martin Leonard shouted "Woody, there are two things wrong with you; you breathe in and you breathe out!". Whoops! I ended with 45lb of hybrids to a 1lb and bream to 3.5lbs. I used a 16 to 2lb maxima hook length with either triple red maggot or worm and maggot.

On the last day, Greg, Benz Andy L, and myself did not fish, we had a lie in before the long journey home later, the rest of the lads went back to the lake. We visited them and tried to sabotage Woody's reel, but messed it up and he caught us! I was driving the other 3 lads home in Greg's car, and we found our way into a Dublin pub. We met a nice bunch of blokes who were working for a television show in the church across the road, they invited us over after they had finished 6 pints and went back to work! We went into the directors room, and he showed us the microphone from which he could talk to everyone on set, Andy L grabbed it and started to sing "tie a yellow ribbon.." and across the bank of TV screens we could see many puzzled faces!

When we finally got on the ferry, my 3 passengers kept on the beer while I tried to get a few hours kip. When I returned the three of them were in a mess, and Greg threw up just as we got off the ferry! I had to drive home through North Wales in the middle of the night with them fast asleep. I did have one scare, I farted and I was convinced I had followed through, so I stopped the car and dropped my trousers in front of the headlights to check, but phew I was all clear! The lads remained snoozing and so it was my secret, but about 20 mins down the road Andy L opened one eye and said "Don't think I didn't see you drop your trousers, you thought you shit yourself". Boy was I glad when I finally got home and went to bed for about 2 days!

That isn't quite the end of the story though, because just before the start of the river season that year I pulled out my tube full of peacock wagglers only to find they had turned red and soggy! Woody had taken his revenge by stuffing a load of red maggots in the tube when we were back in Ireland, the floats were ruined!

Last Chance Open

2011-03-14T10:05:00.002Z

For a number of years Kevin Dicks has run an open match at Newbridge on the last Sunday of the river season, think it might be known as the Lower Avon Champs. This match has in the past thrown up some exceptional weights of bream, and depending on the conditions it can be fun for many, or fun for few! This year with the river clear it was most likely to be fun for just a few!

As I can now drive again I decided to watch the end of the match, and as I knew Darren Gillman was pegged on Rotork 24 I thought I would see him first. I already knew the going was tough and when I sat behind Dar he had just 2 perch in the net, though I did see him quickly catch a bleak and a chublet on the feeder, and 3 fish topped in close. After a nice chat with Dar I drove on to Newbridge to park behind peg 14. Steve Hutchinson was "resting" in this peg, I think I may have woken him up! Steve hadn't had a bite, though he said he had been happy with the draw as on the previous years match he had taken 100lb+ from peg 16. Whilst chatting to Steve we saw a fish top, that was the first fish Steve had seen! Glenn Bailey then rang me and said his 2 bream were not going to beat pegs 51 and 54 that had caught 25 bream each, I didn't want to walk that far to watch and so I trundled up into the little field. This area was devoid of bream with mainly just the odd roach and chublet taken, although Andy Britt on peg 10 had lost a lump which snagged him. The person doing the best in the little field was Graham Hunt on peg 3, he ended up with 7lb which was 3 chub of 1lb each, a very few roach and lots of bleak all of which were caught on the crowquill. I won't mention that Graham was bemoaning his rod for him cracking off on a chub on the strike!

It was surprising that from peg 14 to peg 32 only 10oz and 8oz was weighed, in previous years, and indeed this season, there have been plenty of bream and skimmers somewhere in this area. The rest of the 30's (the straight) was better in that the anglers there had 2 to 3 bream each although they varied greatly in size, Lee Trivett weighed 3 for 8lb+ whilst Rich Lacey weighed 3 for 20lb+. Rich won £50 for the biggest fish, his largest bream weighing 8lb 7oz, just beating another anglers fish by 1oz! The angler on 51 had caught over 30 bream fishing standard groundbait feeder tactics with dendrabenas, he cast about 3/4 over, and his weight of 145lb was just enough to win the match. This is because the angler on peg 54 (weird how 52 was not pegged, can you imagine what that peg would have caught?) had also had over 30 bream but his "only" weighed 140lb. This angler also fished the feeder, but I am advised that he fished a very large feeder, and put in more than 1 kilo of micro pellets, lots of worms and caught on 4 red maggots with paste wrapped round the hook. Richard Lacey was a distant 3rd and in the end only 10lb was required for 6th place.

It was certainly a typical clear river end of season match, roach not wanting to feed (despite topping in the little field in some pegs), and the bream either ludicrously easy or hard to catch. Once again I am sure the river will be in perfect condition within the month when we can't fish it!

The Sun is Shining!

2011-03-07T14:36:00.002Z

I was interested to know some results from the weekend just gone (trying to keep in touch with what's going on); Thatchers and Bathampton in ATWL semis and the "Help for Heroes" match on the Avon. Whilst being sat at home it does get rather boring, so anything fishy interests me!

Thatchers were fishing at Gold Valley Lakes (Surrey) the venue famous for having England International Will Raison running it. I have fished this venue many years ago, and back then it was full of carp, roach and skimmers and not much seems to have changed except there are some very big carp in there now. The team had had some good individual results leading up to the semi and were fairly confident, but their draw on the semi was described as the 2nd worse of the lot and the local helping them said they would be heroes to qualify! In the end they missed out on qualifying for the final by I think three points, coming 4th (top 3 go through). They had 6 good results and 4 poor ones. Lee (or is it Leigh?) Trivett won his section and was 2nd overall catching 45lb of skimmers and 20lb of carp on long pole and soft pellet. Andy Power and Matt Parsons also won their sections. Unluckiest angler was Nick Chedzoy who was in a very bad area where few fish were present, and with 2 hours to go he sat it out for a carp. He hooked and played a double figure fish only for it to pull out at the net, that fish would have seen the team qualify, instead Nick was last in section.

I know very little about the Bathampton antics, but I do know they came 3rd on the canal semi and so will be in the final. Through the grapevine I hear they did not bother with any practice sessions, got boozed up until 4am the night before the match and then to a man fished chopped worm! It's nice for them to have done well this time after some poor semi results on their own bit of the K&A. Good luck in the final lads do us locals proud, I would try the same tactics again!

After the recent rain I was hoping the Avon would show some form for the visiting anglers in the help the Heroes match which was pegged at Newbridge, Swineford and Crane. The river had fished well in pleasure sessions a week earlier when there was a lot more colour. I tried to keep in contact with Glenn Bailey and Warren Bates and they told me the river had gone much clearer and it did not bode well. Glenn was pegged on 52 at Newbridge and was still biteless after 90 mins (when I had watched England's amazing win over South Africa in the cricket!) as was virtually everyone else at Newbridge. Warren had managed a pound of bits from the top of the cow drink at the Crane. I did not want to bother guys again as it could be I would ring them when they had a rare bite, but with about an hour to go I had a call from one of the match organisers Ray Bazeley. Ray said there were a few roach being caught at the crane, odd fish at Swineford and that Newbridge was dire with 2 or 3 anglers having bream. In the end Mark Harper won the match with 20lb on the pole from the last peg in the first field of the Crane, he had 13lb of a roach and a CHUB OF 6lb 14oz what a lump, and landed on 0.09!!!!!! A lad on peg 18 at Newbridge was 2nd with 4 bream (same peg that won the Bathampton Xmas match), professional gurner Kevin Rowles had 4 bream from the Norfolk reeds, and someone had 15 small chub from swineford. Glenn ended up catching 3 bream for 13lb and sneaking 6th place and last in the coin. Warren won his section with 6lb. There were some other large specimens landed, Paul Benson framed thanks to a couple of bream, one of which weighed 8lb 12oz, huge! There was also another chub of over 5lb landed down at the Crane by Alan Jones and I heard Eddie Wynne landed a pike which counted.

There is an end of season match at Newbridge this Sunday, normally it is a bream fest, but it will need some rain to put colour in the river and cloudy skies on the day to make things better. I would guarantee that soon after the season ends the conditions will be perfect, I hate the close season!

As for me, well I had my catheter removed last Thursday but I then had a lot of pain when having a pee, and after a visit to Frenchay I got given some antibiotics. I was not good Friday and Saturday, but today (Monday) I feel the best I have since my op, and I managed a 20 min walk in the sun. Thanks again for the kind comments and best wishes I have received on here and elsewhere, much appreciated.

Cluckers Back Home

2011-02-18T11:01:00.002Z

Isn't it funny how time flies when you're having fun, not! I thought I'd put something on my blog as I have had a few phone calls and a couple of people have asked if I would put something on my blog.

Things all kicked off for me on Jan 27th when I was operated on, the operation took over 4 hours and involved removing the tumour, lymph nodes, reconnecting the colon and creating a stoma (bag). When I first came round all I could see was loads of tubes, wires and bottles / bags of fluid going into me, I reckon you could have picked up radio 1 on me. I was not allowed to eat food for 3 days and so I was just sipping water, but as I couldn't sit up I had to always ask a nurse to fill up the cup for me. I was amazed when on Friday a physio came in and asked me to get out of bed, my stomach was swollen and all the muscles shot through being cut in half, but she was serious! I was helped to a sitting position and just managed to get my legs over the edge of the bed, then using my hands pushed myself up to stand. This was all very painful! I was then asked to walk, so holding onto the drip stand and the nurse on the other side I took some steps, my left leg was not working properly due to being numb from the pain relief, so I kind of dragged it. I had to repeat this twice a day, and it did gradually get easier.

On Tuesday 1st Feb I was doing so well that the docs said I could probably go home on Thurs, that was the kiss of death! I got an infection and was put on antibiotics, it wasn't until the following Monday I was allowed to go home. I met some nice people on the ward, Pete an ex copper was next to me and we kept each others spirits up, he had a 12 hour op! It was sad to see a couple of older guys who were taken off to homes because they didn't have much time left in the world. The nurses on this ward were fantastic, all of them were great and we had some laughs. I was also cheered up by family and friends who visited, among them Glenn Bailey, Ade Crawley, Andy Curry and Warren Bates, thanks to them all because you really do look forward to the visits.

D Day for me was Friday 4th of Feb, this was when I was visited by a support nurse to be told about the outcome of the surgery. I was rather nervous as she sat on my bed, but then she said "I've got good news!", the tissue they removed either side of the tumour had no cancer cells, my blood samples had no cancer cells, and of 11 lymph nodes removed only one had some cancer cells in it. As a result it had been decided that I do not need any further treatment, best news I could have hoped for!!!! It was great that on the day three of us all got the same result, so we could all celebrate by watching England win the rugby!

After I came home I started to get serious pain in the back passage, and on Tuesday 14th Feb I had to see the Stoma nurses at the BRI. They took one look at me and said you're not right and I was readmitted to hospital. An abscess had formed and I was full of pus, I have a catheter fitted where the sun don't shine to get rid of the pus and it won't come out till next Tues. Well I got a pair of catheters cos my bladder ain't right so I got one coming out of the old man too!

So now I am home (for good I hope) and it is just a case of taking it easy and steadily building myself up, which could take 2 to 3 months they say, we'll see. Then it will be a visit to the BRI every 6 months for 5 years to see if the cancer has stayed away or come back. Of course at some stage it is hoped that I can be reconnected internally and the bag removed, but that may not be for a couple of years. So when I get back on the bank you might not want to be down wind of me when I empty my bag cos it stinks!

Thanks again to everyone who called me or text me whilst I was in hospital, it really makes you feel a lot better. Oh and one last thing, hospital food is shite! See you on the bank when it's warmer!

RIP Paul Garrett, you've gone far to early. Thank you for all the advice you gave me at Viaduct, you were a very nice bloke. Thinking of Josh and the rest of the family.

Chilton Trinity delayed Xmas Match

2011-01-23T19:10:00.003Z

I'll tell you now that you will find more to read about fish being caught on Tony's and Mike's blogs since they were at the same place and both caught more than me!

I could have fished the canal today, it was the last ATWL round, but decided to fish CT as it would be my first visit. (As it turned out the canal fished pants and so I would have probably blanked! Thatchers won the league comfortably, well done lads!) So it was that I came to be picked up at 6:30 by Mike Nicholls for the journey to Hill Tops. We bumped into Les Williams in the cafe, he had not been very well he advised, after having a nasty bang on the head when his car bonnet fell on him, ouch!

I had some idea of the pegs to draw after reading about Wednesday's match and from talking to a few of the regulars. Unfortunately I drew peg 31, and Rich Coles said this area was rubbish Weds, in fact Nick Davidson (Keynsham Angling) had struggled on it. Never mind, got to make the most of it! I set up two rigs for the deep water out at 14.5 and 16 mtrs a 0.75gm Desque float, and 1gm pencil float. These had 0.1 and 18 Drennan silver fish hooks. A 4x14 Chianti would do for the carp margin line (on 0.12 to a 18 pellet hook) at 7 mtrs to my left. I fed some micros and dead maggots out to 16mtr, gbait to an angle at 14mtr and settled in to see what happened. It was very cold as the wind was Right in my face, and it made presentation tricky at times. After the first hour I had taken two skimmers and a couple of roach, but it just went rock hard for an hour before a carp took a liking to my double dead maggot hook bait. I played it carefully for 10 mins, it was a heavy plodding fish and I just took it really easy. The bulk shot surfaced once or twice and a large boil was created on the surface proving this was a good un, but how big I shall never know because it found a snag about 6 mtrs out....f£%%ing thing!!!!

The rest of the match was spent catching the odd roach, and it was obvious no carp were present in my peg, although to my left Martin Legahan (I think that is how his name was called out at the results lol) had taken carp 16 mtrs down the peg to the corner which was a long way away. To my right Jason Radford had 2 roach and went for walk, the next angler packed up early and so did Rich Coles, it was shite in my area! The margin never produced a bite and I was very happy when the all out came as I was feeling the chill Northerly wind.

I weighed 3lb 8oz, but as Fabio said, I had well over 4lb as the scales were not to good, still it was the same for everyone so no moaning from me. Tony walked the match from peg 24 (see his blog) you don't get roach trouble when you have the carp in your peg lol! Dean Malin won the silvers with 7lb, and 2nd in the silvers was next to him, am I sounding bitter about my peg yet! Martin Legahan sneaked into the frame beating Mike Nicholls by 1oz!

During the match we were looked after by the lake owners who provided us free (as a treat) cup of tea, soup and a roll, sausage rolls and a mince pie! That made up for the lack of bites. I will go back, but when it's a bit warmer I think.

Well ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this will be my last post for a while as I go into hospital on the 27th for an operation to remove my tumour. Hopefully it will go well and they find no surprises (though the list of risks from the surgery is as long as your arm!), the op is supposed to take about 5 hours and I will be in hospital for 7 to 10 days. Once they've opened me up they will have a good idea of what will happen next, so I'm keeping everything crossed. I'll be looking forward to getting back out fishing, but it will be at least 6 to 8 weeks away, I suppose it might be a bit warmer by then, which would be nice! Tight lines.

Commercial House Final Round

2011-01-16T19:48:00.003Z

The K&A in Bath was once again the venue for the final round of the Commercial House. I thought that I might be in for a good draw today and in all fairness I probably did get one of the better pegs that our team had drawn, trouble was we had a bad draw. I found myself two pegs away from where I had drawn last week, I was on the brambles up from the George, at least the peg had been rested last week as Martyn Reyatt only managed 2lb+ from it (he he)!

I won't bore you with the rigs I set up because they were the same ones as I used last week. In fact before I had set up a rig I could see Graham Hunt 2 pegs up playing a fish! A pike of about 3lb took his plummet, Graham landed it and then took it back down the canal off the match length to return it alive. Vinny Lunn was to my left and he had no pike trouble, but did have a dog in his peg, his new puppy! I reckoned this match was going to be much better than last week, and so I went positive with my feeding. I put a big Preston pot of liquidized bread in at 4 metres, a decent amount of chopped worm and caster across left and a big ball of joker and caster across right. Onto the punch and I had 3 small roach and then a 6oz hybrid but the wind was really bad and trying to present the bait correctly and read the float was very difficult. A 10oz skimmer then graced my net but after this it was just small roach.

45 mins in and the bread line was going nowhere and as Graham had taken a decent perch I looked across myself. I put a lobworm on and shipped across, I had 2 quick bites from perch but they were only a few ounces each. No more bites so I tried the caster rig over this line with red maggot on the hook. This was good for 10 mins, with a 6oz hybrid and a 3 or 4 2oz roach, but then it was tiny perch so I thought I'd have an early look on the caster line (after I fed some joker right and left of my bread line). I caught 3 small roach and stuck a caster on, the float buried straight away and and I had a roach around 3 or 4 oz, followed by a couple more. I then spent the next two hours swapping between taking the odd caster roach up to 6oz, and catching small fish on bloodworm at 4 mtrs. Things were going well until a large barge came through and, I don't know why, after this my far bank never provided another bite.

When the scales arrived Graham Hunt had 6lb 1oz of predators (and he had another pike that of course didn't count lol), Vinny had 5lb, I weighed 6lb 11oz which was top (just beating Anfy Ottoway's 6lb 7oz) until the last 3 pegs down by the school and bay. Here Andy Power won the section with 9lb 4oz and either side of him had 7lb weights. So no dosh again, but I had really enjoyed today as I had put more time into the caster after realising my error the week before. The walk back to the car was fun as the rain became monsoon like and everything was thoroughly soaked as it was chucked into the car.

The match was won by legend Shaun Townsend (and he was top individual in the league and the knockout winner, and I had to mention this because he bought me a pint) from 1st peg past the swing bridge with 14lb. He had skimmers, perch and some big roach. Kev Dicks was joint 2nd, with 12lb+ from the turning bay (perch on the feeder) with Des Shipp managing the same weight from the bay at the Malthouse. There were quite a few weights today of 8lb+ but once again there were some very tough areas.

Thatchers A won the A div on the day and won overall, Town and Country A were relegated to the the B div, which was quite funny because Town and Country B were promoted from the B div! So that's the end of that for another season, well done to the winners, and well done to the organisers Mark Harper, Vinny Lunn and Mike Goodhind (although Mike is useless at reading out the results lol!). One more match for me next Sunday at Chilton Trinity before I go under the knife.

Commercial House Round 5

2011-01-09T19:24:00.004Z

Back to the canal today, first time for a while for me and so I spent most of Saturday tying rigs, hooks and putting some sensible elastic in my match top kits. The match was pegged from Darlington to Bathampton bend, so there were plenty of decent pegs in the draw. When captain Martin Barrett came back with peg 1 I was looking forward to being on an end peg. However, I was to face 5 hours on peg F1, this was the barren area just before the brambles with the bay in my section (get the excuses in now!). To my left was Gary O'Shea on the start of the brambles and to my right on E9 was Andy Britt. The canal was ice free, except for my section, and the ice started on my peg. I managed to break up a fair bit of ice with my pole and cupping kit, and so did Gary until his cupping kit came off (lol), but fair play he managed to reconnect it and got it back!

Rigs for today were a 4x14 Drennan Roach with 20 B511 to 0.07 for punch, a 0.4grm wire bristle job with 0.06 to 20 PR333 for bloodworm deep, and a 0.3grm for up the shelf with same gear. A 4x12 Preston Chianti for caster on 0.08 to 18 PR334 and a 4x12 Drennan choppa for my worm rig with a 15 B711 to 0.13.

I started on the punch at 4 metres, all I could get was very timid bites from roach of less than an ounce, but the ice (which had been broken up by a boat) kept floating over where I was fishing. Meanwhile Andy Britt had a couple of decent skimmers and a 12oz roach, oh well at least he's in the next section! Both Gary and myself struggled for the first hour on the punch, we were moving ice and catching eyes. I tried my chopped worm line but this only gave up a couple of perch no bigger than the hook bait, onto the bloodworm and I could catch a small roach every chuck at 10 metres. I stuck with this for quite a while, but it was tricky, the ice had gone only to be replaced by lots of debris on the surface which blew and stayed in mine and Gary's pegs for the rest of the match. You had to ship out keeping the hook off the water, not easy when your shipping at an angle and trying to avoid the M25 behind you (it was solid today, ramblers, kids, bikes, dogs the lot). Andy Britt had a dog pee on his rod holdall, I didn't laugh to much!

Rumour had it with an hour to go about 3lb was winning the section and I thought I had close to that. As I could not catch on caster or worm I stuck to the small roach ob bloodworm, but then Gary started catching caster roach more regularly and I had to try and catch these better samples. In the last 20 mins I took 5 roach on caster, incredibly these came over my chopped worm line, not my caster line! I guessed I had 4lb and my guess was close for a change as I weighed 4lb 4oz. This was enough to win the B div, only trouble I'm in the A div and I only beat one of them (cheers Eddie Wynne)! Graham Hunt, (on the end peg in the bay) won the section and the match with 7lb+ mainly 4 perch on the wag. Shaun Townsend a couple of pegs away from Graham snared a 2.5lb perch and with his bits and weighed 6lb+ for 2nd in match. Gary's caster fish did me and he weighed 5lb 5oz, and Andy's bonus bread fish did me as he weighed 5lb 7oz, bitter and twisted....

The canal was a tough nut today, with many people pestered by pairs of eyes and some very good canal anglers struggled for a 1lb, but I enjoyed myself and kept busy all day. Bathampton won the A div and with one round left they are tied on points with Thatchers A.

Avalon Open

2011-01-02T18:37:00.002Z

First time up and about early for a while, but I was looking forward to getting out on the bank. I ate my brekkie at Shipham quickly to avoid being late for the draw, and it was very nice.

When I arrived at Avalon carp park I could see a fair bit of ice on the left hand side of the lake, and as this was being broken up by a boat I hoped to avoid this side. I was therefore quite content when I drew peg 37 on the right hand side in a ice free peg. My neighbours for the day were commercial regulars Paul Elms (peg 38) and Alan Oram (peg 35). I have never fished Avalon in the winter, come to think of it I've only ever fished the place in late spring / summer so I based my attack around what I had gleaned from Tony Rixon and Vic Bush. I set up a feeder rod with a small gbait feeder with 0.16 to an 18 B911, I intended to put gbait and micros in the feeder and use either red maggot or corn on the hook. I also set up a 3.5 AAA wag with 0.12 to an 18 Drennan silverfish pellet hook to use with maggot / caster. I opted for just one rig on the pole, a 0.6 grm Preston float with wire stem and fine fibre bristle, with 0.1 to 18 silverfish.

I wasn't quite ready for the start, so chucked out the tip but with a straight lead on. After 10 mins I was ready to go and the tip hadn't moved but then I hadn't really expected it to! I fed two lines on the pole at 14.5 mtrs left and right, one with micros and red maggs and the other gbait with a few casters. I then fished the feeder for the first hour but only managed 2 very small roach on this. Onto the pole, and first drop in over the micros with dead red maggot on the hook I got a 10oz perch (!). Now I will admit to a dumb ass moment, I hadn't set up my landing net, I forgot! So I was very thankful to a sporting Paul Elms who lent me his net for this perch. I took a couple of very small roach over the micro line but couldn't get a bite over the gbait. I decided to loose fed a very small amount of caster at about 16 mtr+, I thought that maybe I could get a few roach on caster here later.

In the middle of the match the micro line died but I started to get bites over the gbait. A perch of 6oz, a 10oz roach and a small skimmer were all nice fish, but I pulled out of 1lb skimmer as I unshipped the top set. Double dead red maggot was best for me on the day. I had tried the wag but had no bites, and as the odd small carp had been caught I tried the feeder again. I did have what I thought were a couple of line bites (perhaps real bites, should I have struck?) but it wasn't my idea of fun. Even though Paul Elms took his one and only carp on the feeder during this time I went back on the pole and took a roach first bung and then nothing. I picked up the wag more in hope than expectation and slipped on a single caster, I managed 3 small roach and a 6oz skimmer before it died. With about 40 mins to go I thought I'd cast the wag over to the island with double red maggot, it was a good move as the float buried on the drop and I was attached to a carp! I played it very carefully to the net when it woke up, eventually I landed it, which was nice! I took a few more roach here and that was that.

The scales were round promptly as Vic and Leigh did the weigh in, I had 7lb 7oz in total, and the carp had weighed 3lb 15oz. I was aware that Martin McMahon had caught lots of small carp (and he won with 21lb) and with Alan Healey weighing in 9lb+ I was hoping for section by default, but when I got back to the results I arrived just as Tony announced I was third and a pick up!

Poor Paul Elms, he lost a lovely waggler first cast (before the match started) and did hook the reeds a few times. The reeds in his peg started to move at the end of the match and he fished on a bit until he lost another waggler, he he! Alan next to me had some skimmers and small carp for 5lb 5oz. Tony won the silvers with 4lb 12oz, you can see the full result on his blog. I enjoyed the day, it was hard work and a day to keep trying, other then the lost skimmer I think things went well for me.

There was a match on the canal today in Bath, Andy Powers won (again) from Richardsons with 14lb, and a big 6lb was only 6th so it fished OK. Gonna take a while for the water temperature to rise and wake the fish out of their slumber.

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T14:58:00.003Z

Just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Personally, I am of course hoping to get over the cancer but realise there is a long road ahead. I have been "violated" (if you ever saw the Dr Dolittle film with Eddie Murphy in you'll understand!) so many times in 2010 that I don't remember them all!

I have been to the hospital again this week, had a general anaesthetic so the Doc could examine the tumour (by hand and so another violation!) and make a final decision on the severity of operation I will have. I'm waiting for him to call me to advise, but he did say before he examined me that the worst case scenario is that I will be like some of the supermarkets and have a "bag for life". I should be operated on on the 27th Jan, so I can fish a few more matches (weather permitting) before then, but will have to rest for quite some time after the op. Once the tumour and surrounding tissues and lymph nodes are removed they will then examine them under a microscope looking for cancer cells. What happens next depends on what they find.

My highlights of 2010 are chalking up two consecutive weights of 170lb+ one at Cider Farm and one at Viaduct. Coming 3rd in Tony Rixons float only series behind Tony and Fred Roberts, and generally doing better at commercials then ever before. My time on rivers was cut short and was also my worst ever as I feel the drawbag was unkind to me. By the way, after all this cold weather and if it goes mild in Feb I reckon the river fishing could go mental for the last few weeks of the season.

Finally I have drummed up the enthusiasm to go fishing this Sunday. I was torn between the canal or a commercial, in the end went for Avalon as I will be on the canal for another couple of weeks. It could be shite, but I will enjoy being out with good blokes and good banter.

Again, Happy New Year to you and may your nets and wallets be bulging in 2011.

March 1991

2010-12-21T19:43:00.004Z

I'm so fed up with this weather I have not even considered going fishing over Xmas, time to reminisce.

Back in the 90's there were frequent open matches on Saturdays, and on the 2nd March I fished a Bathampton open at Newbridge. I drew peg 27 and as the river looked good for bream I decided on a groundbait feeder approach. Fishing 2/3 the way over with an 18 hook to 2lb Smart I caught most fish on double caster. I took 4 chub, 2 skimmers and a nice 1.5lb roach during the day (not so good for bream then!) for 12lb 11oz which was enough to win the section. The match was won by Kevin Rowles who took 25lb of mainly roach on the waggler from behind the pumphouse, and it was the first time I'd ever witnessed Gurning! The following day was the annual trip to the Thames on the Ray Carter memorial match. I drew a section named Godstow and I was pegged right next to a flyover bridge. It was noisy as hell and the peg looked horrible and I was not at all confident when a few locals walked past laughing! Five hours later and 1lb 5oz was all I could muster, 1 perch and some roach on the wag / maggot feeder. There were however a lot of blanks and I gained 46 points out of 80 for such a miserly weight! The day was one I shall remember though, as Paul Benson won the match overall (and it was a 480 pegger) and helped his team, Silver Dace, to win the team event, a great achievement against so many crack sides.

The following weekend and the Avon was in flood, but as I was going to fish at Newbridge again it wasn't so bad. This match was arranged by Ray Bazeley for his holiday company back then known as Topline Tours. I drew the first peg below Saltford weir and was told I would catch bream, but 4 hours and 55 minutes in all I had was 3 eels!!! On the very last cast I had a drop back, hooked a slab and landed the bugger. My weight of 5lb 1.5oz I thought that weight would not bring me any money and I was right, but I came 12th overall and picked up a decent prize. My season ended (on the 14th back then of course) with a match on the Bristol Docks. I was drawn 3 pegs up from Princes Bridge (down below squash courts back then) and had a steady day catching 17 skimmers and the odd roach on the feeder. I put pinkies and casters in the gbait but caught mainly on single or double bronze maggot (weird) and matched the baits to a 20 hook and 1.1lb bottom. I came no where and 32lb won the match.

I did actually go fishing again at the end of March (Easter) and went for 3 days to Upham Farm Carp Lakes. I really loved this place back then, it was the nearest place I could fish due to the close season and was rammed with carp, ahead of its time. Even though the weather was still cool you could get the carp up shallow by constantly feeding maggots by hand. On the second day I took 41 carp shallow and the best fish was around 4lb in size. It was though only pleasure fishing with mates, and we did have some great nights out at the Cat and Fiddle pub just up the road. One year (can't recall if it was this one) I was sick all over Mike Kent's car, but the next day I didn't remember doing it, even when Mike told me so and asked me to clean his car! OOOPS!

Bathampton Xmas Match - Newbridge

2010-12-12T19:41:00.003Z

It is getting boring now waking up to everything outside being frozen, I even had my boiler pack up in the week due the condensate drain pipe freezing up, and it's lagged! There were 47 hopefuls in attendance today, with a good contingent from Gloucester such as Brian Pollard and Derek Jarman. I had heard that Kelston had been fishing really well and I was greeted by a confident Gary O'Shea who had taken 24lb of mainly roach the day before at Saltford Shallows. Unfortunately I was not going to draw at Kelston because it was not pegged, apparently Bathampton have given up this stretch. I really had no idea where to draw, but guessed bream were going to win so a bream peg please. Peg 67 is not a great bream swim (65 up to 61 better I feel) but they do show here every now and again. Another long walk with loads of layers on meant I arrived at my peg steaming like a you know what!

I can tell you that I set up a 12BB crowquill with 0.1 to a 16 B511 and a groundbait feeder with a 16 B611 to 0.12, lighter than I would normally use but I wasn't expecting any chub from here. The plan was to start on the crowquill and bread in the hope of a bite or two and then try the feeder across with groundbait. The plan was fool proof, but not fish proof and I never had a bite all day on any method, and I sat fishing the peg all day. At one stage I chucked a lobworm to the far bank and twitched it back across the river hoping to make a perch take it but not a bite. So there's my match!

What of the other 46 anglers, well 40 of them also blanked! The winner Terry Ellis on peg 18 had 14 bream for 50lb+. He fished gbait feeder with liquidized bread and worms on the hook, but he never went in the pools. In 2nd place was Bristol's finest window fitter Paul Haines, Paul had 2 bream on his last two casts (!) for 10lb+. Brian Pollard had 1 chub on maggot feeder from peg 77, it weighed 4lb 6oz so a nice fish. The next two anglers to catch were either side the winner, Derek Jarman had a 3lb bream in the last 10 minutes on peg 16 and Dave (top set) Haines had a 2lb skimmer last cast. A 4oz perch came to the last peg in the match and that was it for fish! So if you think about, until the last 10 mins only 3 anglers had caught! I do not know why this part of the river was so bad, the crane is fishing OK and so is Kelston. As far as I can remember this was the worst Avon river match I have ever fished.

Back at the draw my section was the only one to have completely blanked and so was drawn for, but alas I was not the jammy git to win it! Kev Dicks who had run the match then proceeded to pull names out of a box to dish the prizes out, I guess my name came out about 5th and I picked 10 cans of Guinness for my effort. Richard Lacey was the last name out of the box and won a bag of boilies, perfect bait for this time of year Rich! Mind you Shane Caswell couldn't find his draw ticket to put his name on and never went in the draw, he found it as the last prize went lol!

Of my team mates, well not one Thatchers angler caught a fish today, but then again neither did any Bathampton lads, god were shit! I think that's my lot now until after Xmas, can't fish next weekend and if the weather is going freezing again then I might take up bird watching again. I'll have to get the diary out again and put some old match tales on here, cos that is the only way I might remember how to catch some fish!

Sunday 5th Dec

2010-12-05T17:33:00.003Z

I didn't go fishing today, not because I'm a faggot but because I was at a Wedding on Saturday with lots of drinks. I made this decision last week and was quite pleased with it when I awoke this morning with a headache and the sight of, well nothing just freezing fog! I had a chat with Warren Bates and we decided to have a walk up the Crane, for me mainly it was a chance to blow the cobwebs off if you know what I mean!

With so many matches called off there were a few anglers out pleasure fishing and also quite a few pike anglers who were mainly Polish (walking with one rod made up and no other gear in sight). The one English Pike angler whom I spoke to told me he had chinned a Polish angler a few weeks ago as he saw him carrying a pike in a carrier bag. Worse still, he said he'd witnessed a boat going up and down the river at Newbridge and this boat had a net hanging off the back, bloody trawling the river! This angler alleged that he reported this to Bathampton who in turn contacted the EA but nothing was done. I only have the guys word for this, but the thought of nets being dragged up the river......

Anyway, back to the Crane and with the fog being very dense it meant rod rings were freezing up and playing havoc with casting and not many fish were being caught. However, as the day wore on and the sun broke through I saw a definite improvement in people getting bites. The bottom end of the Crane was not to clever, although one angler around the boys hole had 2 bream on the groundbait feeder. The bay in the little ashtip was solid for the one angler there Shaun Townsend, and he had over 30lb of roach on the crowquill. Shaun told me he had put in some groundbait to start and then loose fed hemp and caster.

Lee Trivett was fishing in the last peg of the first field, a peg which until 6 weeks ago both he and I thought was awful. Lee had 2 of the resident chub (about 4lb each) and a perch getting near 2lb, plus a few roach, when I watched Lee he was on the stick float feeding maggot and hemp.

Another angler who I did not know had some roach and chub on a small gbait feeder just below the high wall, and there were a few chublets in the area.

Overall the crowquill seemed to be the best method on the day as there was a decent bit of flow for it to work. Some anglers catching roach had pike trouble, not sure though the pike anglers did as the pike here seem to prefer roach to spinners lol!

Bathampton Xmas match next Sunday on the river. With more freezing temperatures forecasted I can't see Newbridge fishing anywhere near as good as the crane did today, but I could be wrong of course.

Commercial House Round 4

2010-11-28T19:35:00.003Z

I was back on the river today after quite an absence, and what a day to return with -5C greeting me on the car dashboard. The car park at the rugby club was very quiet and it seemed there were a few anglers short, obviously some don't like the cold. Captain Martin Barrett drew team peg 4, and this gave us 3 dodgy pegs and 3 OK, I drew one of the dodgy ones with an effing long walk. I was 3 pegs below the New Fence peg, that's a walk of 3 1/2 fields..... When I did arrive at my peg it gave me hope as there was a very large tree across laying in the water, my expectations raised and I thought I might scrape a chub or two. Lee Trivett drew probably the worst peg in the match (peg 8 Swineford) and did well in the end to catch 10oz off it, I thought I should say something nice cos he bought me a beer!

I set up 2 feeder rods, both on 0.16 one with a size 17 B711 hook and the other an 11 B711 for bread / lobworm. I also set up a crowquill with 0.12 to a 18 B611. I started the match on the big hook and a lump of bread chucked just above the tree so the bait would be resting under it. I was amazed when on my 3rd chuck the tip trembled and then tapped, the result was a 6oz chublet, whoopee! A couple more casts on the bread were unproductive so I swapped to an open feeder with crushed hemp groundbait and casters. After about 6 casts I had a proper rap but nothing was hooked and the maggots were untouched. A couple of casts later and a 10oz chublet was in the net before all went quiet. I had been feeding maggots down the middle and tried the float to give the feeder a bit of a rest. Despite my best efforts I could not raise a bite on the float, in fact despite feeding it all day I never had a bite on the float.

Back on the feeder and I had two unseen bites (it's annoying when you reel in to find two smashed maggots!) so I shortened the hook length. This produced me a third chublet of around 10oz but then it went very quiet again. It really was very cold on the bank with the rod rings continually freezing up and the maggots hardly moving! I tried lobworm and bread on the big hook without any joy and decided to switch to a maggot feeder for the remainder of the match. Unfortunately this did not help, and although I did have a good rap on one cast the hook bait was again untouched. That was the end of my action.

My 3 fish went 1lb 9 1/2oz, this was joint with 2 other anglers and 1oz less than another, so it was a bit tight! Nigel Evans below me did well to catch 7 chublets for 4lb, he had all his fish on the float and not a bite on the feeder. I was actually joint 2nd in the A division, but on the end peg in my section B div angler Kev Boltz weighed 11lb of Roach. From Kevin down to the bottom of the crane everyone caught roach and the odd chub, it was like a different river. I was fed up after a long walk to just a few fish when I saw people complaining they had only caught 6lb of roach! To coin a phrase, bitter and twisted I was! My drawing of pegs in this w/l has been shite and I need to forget it now and move on.

The match was won by Nicky Johns from Bitton Brook with 12 chub for 23lb on the waggler, in 2nd place was reborn match angler Andy Bush with 4 bream for 20lb from one below the outfall. Third place was an angler who was having a little moan about his peg before the match (one below Kev Boltz), but ended up with 17lb 4oz of roach on the pole... well done Glenn Bailey. Nigel Barlett had 17lb of roach from the little ashtip and Shaun (or is it Sean) Townsend had 15lb from the cattle grid (a peg he thinks ain't that good!). To give you some idea how good the bottom of the Crane fished Martin Barrett was last but one in section with 9lb+.

Swineford fished very hard today for most, the cornfield produced roach (very strange) and it was strange how my section was devoid of roach although Andy Ottoway had 3 in the last 30 mins which was in fact all he had.

On the team front 1st Thatchers A, 2nd Karaoke nights (1 man short), 3rd Thatchers B. I did not get the overall standings. Funny thing about Karoke Nights is that team Captain Andy Britt was a tad upset by the no show of Leon Hubbard. Apparently Andy tried calling Leon about 20 times, and was still trying to call him during the match! Eventually Leon answered and advised Andy he was not fishing cos he was in NEW YORK! Communications let me down.....

Teams of 4 Viaduct

2010-11-23T18:08:00.006Z

Sorry for the late post, I was very tired Sunday and out with work mates last night. I will try to be on time next week Mr Ewers!

I was helping out Tony Rixon's Avon Angling team at Viaduct on Sunday, and I do not know why but we were the last team to draw! I was all ready to go in some nice new shiny Preston Drifish 10 waterproofs and was hoping for a decent draw. I felt my day would be decided by the peg I drew and so this was going to be very important. I have always wanted to draw peg 85 or 86 on Carey, but as you will know by now that pleasure went to Mike Nicholls and Des Shipp, instead I was stuck on 10 on Spring. I reckon that it is now 3 times I have drawn this peg and it's nothing special for carp or skimmers and has no island chuck. For company on peg 9 was venue and all round carp bagger Andy Lloyd and to my left was the Gimp and next to him was Vince Shipp. I did tell the Gimp that virtually every time I was pegged next to him he managed to break a pole section, perhaps he would be OK today.

The info I could glean from regulars was that as I was effectively fishing to win I should try corn on the wag, but gbait on the pole could add a few pounds if some skimmers turned up. So I set up a 4AAA wag with 0.12 to 18B611, a straight lead with 0.15 to 16 PR36 for hair rigged corn, and the pole line had a 0.3grm Inter float with 0.9 to a 20. On the whistle I cupped in 6 balls of gbait on the pole and then went out on the wag with corn. It was a slow start but after about 40 minutes and a couple of dips on the float I netted a 2lb skimmer. That was nearly the best around me at this stage, but I was already playing catch up to Vince who had caught one carp on the pole which later was to weigh 20lb 3oz, lump or what! I spooked off a carp on the wag and so I shallowed up a tad and this stopped the indications! I decided to try the lead and did get a couple of liners to prove something was out there, so I cast short of my feed. As I waited and nothing happened I decided to tie up a spare hook length and it did the trick as the reel handle was soon spinning round. A brief bit of playing the carp around the back of the Monk Drain was a concern but soon a pretty 7lb common was in the net. The carp was landed at 12 O'clock, 3.5 hours to go..... but just like on the Poppy match the rest of the match was pants!

The carp that were in my peg must have spooked, because not long after I caught my carp Andy Lloyd had his one (and only) carp and I could get no liners! I dropped onto the pole line to rack up the skimmers, and caught two roach and then hooked a carp which went left, right, and then off towards Middle lake as the 0.9 easily snapped. The Gimp who had being slaying the silvers (1 roach!) then lost a carp on the pole and that signalled the end of carp action as neither Andy or myself had a liner or indication for the rest of the day. The Gimp did manage to catch 14oz in the end with a late flurry of roach, but my 9lb 10oz was once again enough to duff him up. Oh yes, the Gimp did manage to negotiate the match without breaking his pole, but when he was putting it away he some managed to break about 2 inches off a butt section, PMSL or what!!!!! Andy had just the one carp and weighed a bit less than me, but Vince had manage to add 12oz of bits to his "twenty"! The normal pegs produced, but not that many fish, Neil "when ever I see him he's on a flyer" Mercer took 5 carp and some perch from lily pad peg 8 for 62lb and 2nd overall. Ryan Shipp had some carp and lost some lumps from peg 14 (down the edge by the bushes) and peg 18 had 50lb+ on the wag.

As you will know Des Shipp won (a common phrase it seems to me) and the Westerleigh team took home the spoils, well done lads you've got carp fishing sorted. The full results are on Tony's blog which you've probably already seen!

Right, one last thing which requires your feedback please! A friend of mine who mainly fishes carp venues has asked me what decent 16 metre pole he should buy. Currently he uses a Maver and it's not good at 16m and the no4 /5 section keeps breaking (another common phrase lol). Now I can extol the virtues of the Preston Poles but he would like to have a broad view, so could you please post a comment on here as to what you think is the best 16m pole (especially if you use it you can say why). Forget the Tournament because the budget is £1500 max.

Feck me it's getting cold out there, could be tricky for all on Sunday if the snow turns up!

Landsend Midweek Open

2010-11-17T19:23:00.006Z

I was really tired upon waking up this morning and was very slow getting myself ready. In fact I didn't get to the Shipham cafe until 8:45am when the draw was at 9am! I made a quick call to Tony Rixon to inform him of my late arrival and asked that he let me know what peg I was going to be on. He duly rang me back to advise I was on peg 35 on Speci lake, the very first time I have drawn on this lake!

As I rolled into the car park Tony and Dean Malin were still unloading the van, and I quickly picked their brains as they both do very well here. Dean won the silvers from peg 35 in a recent match and so I was heartened by that. When I saw Chris Davis on peg 31, Adrian Clarke on peg 32 and carp rolling in Alvin Jones's peg 33 I couldn't see me beating them on carp and so silvers it was! I set up a 0.4 grm Preston Magic 6 with 0.12 to 18 B911 (for 5m and 11m), a 4x12 slim mosella job with 0.12 to 18 B911 (for bottom of the far shelf next to bushes) and a 4x10 Preston job with 0.14 to 18 B911 for up the shelf. It took me a time to get set up, mainly due to the wind and rain hampering me (feet stuck in the clay lol) and I started 10 mins after the all in.

I have to say now that I was unsure how much to feed, after a few frosts I imagined the fish would be lethargic, so I fed about 30 casters as initial feed at 5m, two 11m lines and two 14m lines, and fed by hand to the brambles to my right all day. Dropping in at 5m I had an 8oz chub straight away, but never had another bite here. Onto the 11m lines, the one at 2 o'clock was biteless (all day) but at 10'oclock I took 4 chub and a perch fairly quickly. This died so I cupped 10 casters in here and went across. I'll say now that I never had another bite at 11m again!

The rest of the day was spent fishing the bottom of the far shelf at about 14m to 14.5m, to begin with straight in front and to a big bush to my left. In front of me was by far the best spot, and after a couple of early chub on red maggot I was onto a caster hook bait. A few more chub were taken before they seem to back off and I caught the occasional perch. Two and half hours in and I hooked a carp, fouled for sure and it soon snapped the hook length in about peg 38! This seem to set me back and the fishing became very hard for the next hour with just one perch and another fouled carp. I continued to kinder pot in the odd small amount of caster but I couldn't get any pattern going, I did take a couple of fish up the shelf but for the most part it was a waste of time up shallow.

With about an hour and a half left I was catching just the odd perch, bites were very few but the fish were all 12oz and upwards so worth waiting for. The wind and rain started to ease off and I started to loose feed a few casters next to a bush at 16mtrs towards peg 36, I was going to try this swim after 30 mins. When I dropped in here I didn't get a bite first and thought I had fed too much, but in the last 30 mins I had 1 chub and 2 perch here. As well as those fish I did hook a carp here, and it might have been hooked properly, but I just shipped back to the top set and hung on until the line parted. I thought I was better off trying to catch the silvers, and as it turned out it wasn't a bad idea as I won the silvers with 25lb 12oz (despite thinking I had about 16lb!!!!) beating a certain Mr Rixon into 2nd place.
The venue had fished hard and Chris Davis and Adrian Clarke were 1st and 2nd respectively, although as I was only 10lb behind Adrian had I landed a couple of carp....Nah I really enjoyed my day and had a cracking net of fish. See Tony's blog for full detailed result.

When leaving the car park I did a very bad thing, I interrupted Mike Duckett who was talking to Tony Rixon. I wound my window down and said "Sorry Tony I forgot to say, LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU!" Naughty but nice, cos it doesn't happen very often lol!

Poppy Match

2010-11-14T19:44:00.005Z

Fishing the Poppy Match is a great experience for me, every year you get to see faces from the past. There are many anglers who I only see once a year at this match, Topper Haskins being one of them. After a couple of bacon rolls I was off to the front of the draw queue, I took the risk of drawing any peg and was hoping for a short walk. I actually drew peg 56 at Newbridge which is a fair old walk but a peg with a very good chance of bream. As I got myself to peg 101 I was indebted to Phil Fabio Harding who proceeded (without being asked) to pull my trolley all the way to peg 56, I owe you a pint Phil (he didn't go back to results).

It wasn't going to take me to long to set up as I had only taken two feeder rods to keep the holdall light. On one I attached a 15 B711 to 0.13 and on the other a 11 B711 to 0.16. The river had colour and everyone was thinking big weights of bream, I wasn't so sure, I've seen the river a number of times like this and on the Poppy match 20lb+ is usually a good weight. I mixed red magic and brown crumb, chopped some worms and was ready. On the bream hole peg 54 was last years runner up and organiser Ray Bazeley, and he was in feeder only mode like me.

I started the match by having 12 quick chucks with a big feeder to get some bait in, and then settled down with 3 red maggots on the hook. In the next half hour I caught 2 roach and a hybrid and missed a couple of bites before it went quiet. I noticed that my hook had become blunt for some reason, so I decided to try half a lobworm on the big hook while I changed hooks. First cast on the lobby and I noticed that I had a small rattle on the rod tip which looked like an eel bite. I left this to develop but for about 30 seconds there was just the odd tiny rattle. A rowing boat approached and so I dropped the rod tip to the surface to keep the line clear and hope the eel would engulf the lob. When the boat had cleared I struck, and wound in a 3lb bream! That was a first for me, such a tiny bite on a lob, amazing. The next 15 mins were biteless, so I went back on the smaller hook with three red maggots and had an instant bite and a bream of about 3 1/2lb. It was now 12:20 and there were just over 3 hours to go and I was feeling like my luck in this match was going to continue!

Well there is not much more I can write about my tactics etc, because I never caught another fish! I tried all sorts of hook baits, I even tried scaling down and did have a couple of small bites. I struck at every indication, but never connected, and in all honesty I think the only bites I had were from roach because I only had bites on maggots and one was often nicked. I did have 2 drop backs but each time the bait was not touched, maybe liners?

By the end of the match I knew I would do no good as Nathan Hawke in the Norfolk Reeds had bream and so did Kev Dicks below him. Nathan won my section and framed with 14lb 10oz, and as there are no defaults in this match I didn't get a pick up. I did managed two bottles of plonk on the raffle though! Thank to Paul Haines for dragging my trolley back at least halfway for me, again I asked for no help but Paul just came up and did it, cheers mate.

The winner on the day was none other than my team captain Mark Harper. Mark took 5 bream (2 were 7lbers) on the feeder from peg 24. Mark did pull out of 2 so could have been a very convincing winner. In second place was another team mate Lee Trivett. Lee was drawn a couple of pegs below the New Fence (Crane) and after a very slow start (and having a walk, which is always a good trick) he ended up taking 4 bream, some skimmers and roach, oh and a 5lb pike! Third was Kev Dicks from peg 63 at Newbridge, Kev had bream to over 7lb on the feeder, including one right on the all out.

As ever the real winner was the British Legion with around £840 being raised for them. There were a lot of thank yous given out to all the sponsors who help make this match so well attended (I imagine there was nearly 100 fishing). However, I would like to give my thanks here to the two organisers Ray Bazeley and Paul Benson and to the stalwart of this match Bill Milton who always reads the remeberance prayer before the match and presents the prizes. Bill has had a very rough year since the last poppy match, but he is a fighter and I sincerely hope to see him on the next Poppy match. See photo below of the three amigos!

FISHING AT LAST!

2010-11-10T19:31:00.005Z

After many false starts I finally booked in and fished a match! I joined the Tony Rixon mid week brigade for a bash at Acorn. We were on the "dog bone" lake, and as it was my first time on this lake I had no idea where to draw. Fair play to Tony, he was kind enough to tell me earlier in the week about the depth and the best baits etc, and I made a few rigs up at home on Tuesday in prep.

I drew peg 11 (which was permanent peg 4) and this put me in the wide part of a bowl. To my right John "The Gimp" Bradford was sat on grass and not a platform peg, and I was told that this would upset my margin line which is normally brilliant! On the opposite bank and to my left was Dean Malin, the only angler on that bank, he was soon plumbing up mid lake. I picked a spot at 11mtrs straight in front, and another at 2 o'clock. The rig used here was a 4x12 carbon stem, fibre bristle slim job, coupled with 0.12 to 18 B911. I shotted it with 3no 8 stotz bulk and 2 no10 stotz droppers. I had 2 margin swims left and right and had a 4x10 rig for this, but I never had any bites in the margins!

To start the match I fed about 50 micros and 12 maggots on both far lines. Starting in front of me I had no bites or indications and after 15 mins dropped in at 2 o'clock and caught a 6oz perch. A couple of minutes later and a 1lb carp was netted. During the next 90 mins I took 6 carp, with 2 of them coming from straight in front. I was using double maggot on the hook, and one red and one white was what I used most. At this stage I was beating those around me, but then the peg went completely dead! I reckon I never had another fish for 2 hours.

With 2 hours to go I had a carp from the 2 o'clock swim, I had stopped feeding micros here and was just potting in around 12 to 16 maggots every now and then. From here on the peg just got better and the carp settled in on my maggots and I had a bite every drop in until the end of the match. I lost only 3 or 4 fish, foulers, and missed very few bites and the last two hours were very nearly perfect for me. I resisted upping the feed and just kept the same amount of maggots going in after every fish. I did try the swim straight in front of me occasionally for a couple of mins but it was no good.

My final tally was around 26 carp and they weighed 80lb 6oz good enough for 2nd overall. Martin Lenaghan was the winner off the opposite end peg with 89lb 3oz, he told me he had a lot of small carp (and some 5lb fish) and caught steady all day. For the full result please Tony's blog, save me typing too much more!

During the day my left elbow became sore and was very painful at the end, not sure if the stitches have got infected but will find out tomorrow as they are supposed to be taken out. Just another thing to cope with, hey ho! It was great to get back out on the bank, and coming 2nd was a bonus, I cannot believe how knackered I feel right now so I've got to go fishing some more to build my strength up I reckon!

ATWL Round 4 Newbridge

2010-11-07T19:06:00.003Z

Plan "A" this weekend was to fish the teams of 4 w/l at Bullocks Farm, should be nice and easy minimal gear and effort required. That went out the window when I was sent to the BRI on Thursday due to rashes and blisters that the Doc could not help with. I was advised not to fish in case I infected the blisters in my hand. Plan "B" was to go to Bullocks and watch Master Rixon empty the place. This was knocked on the head when he drew peg 12 on North Pool as I didn't feel it would be appropriate to sit / walk about on this section. Plan "C" was drive to Matty's cafe in Bath and then watch the W/L on Newbridge. Breakfast was great but I somehow managed to bite my tongue (what the f%ck is going on) and then I drove to the trees section.

This area was good last time round, but today it was hard and other than the usual end peg catching roach everyone was struggling. I got fed up watching so little being caught and walked up the river but it didn't get much better at all! Leon Hubbard was on about peg 76 and with 2 skimmers was winning this section with 4lb, and it wasn't until I got to Martyn Reyatt on peg 49 that I found some fish. Martyn had taken roach and hybrids on the pole and 5 bream, this had then died and when he later cast a feeder over the pole line he quickly took 4 bream and a couple of skimmers before it died. Martyn was to be an easy winner with 42lb, following up his win last week on the outfall, well done mate, made up for the bad run you had in last years w/l.

In 2nd place overall was Paul (butler in the buff) Isaacs with 14lb of mainly roach from the first peg above the bridge in the weir field. Paul caught on pole and later caught well on a crowquill with caster. Chris Parr had 13lb of bream from the peg opposite the marina in the little field (I heard he had 6lb bream foul hooked on the pole that took 20 mins to land), and Andy Ottoway took 13lb of skimmers from about peg 30. Chris Derrick had 13lb of roach off the end peg in the trees on the pole. So as you can see the weights were quite a bit down on recent times.

Thyers won very convincingly on the day (although if their anglers weighed what they told me they had caught they would have come last, i.e. told me 2lb weighed 8lb!!!!)

Bathampton were 2nd and Thatchers 3rd.

Teams overall: 1st Thatchers 7 points, 2nd Thyers 8 points, 3rd Bathampton 11 points. Just two rounds left now both on the canal.

I must pass comment on one angler who I have now seen on my walks a number of times, this is Dave Haines. Every time I have walked past Dave he has been fishing with no more than 4 metres of pole, perhaps that is why he managed just last in section this time, the fish are quite safe in Dave's pegs......

I hope to have an uneventful week now, and I have bought a Poppy match ticket and I will fish this match even if I have to wear marigolds!

ATWL Round 3 Swineford / Crane Jack Whites

2010-10-31T19:46:00.004Z

I had a couple of beers with my old pal Martyn "Woody" Woodington Sat night and having not really seen each other for about 15 years we couldn't fit everything that has happened to us in that time! However, he did tell me he had tried to catch a pike most of Saturday on lures etc, down at Conham and up the Crane, he never had a single take!

Those beers seemed to have perked me up and I felt well enough to take a stroll up the Crane. The river was fishing its head off! Other than the lane from the cattle grid up to the top of the long ashtip double figure weights of roach were numerous. It was hard for me to get the truth or in some cases any info out of some people, so hard to really know what was going on exactly. What I saw was that balling in and running line were both catching fish. Here are the top weights from the Crane I recall :-

Robbie Manns 24lb (big roach) first peg into long ashtip
Lance Tucker 23lb (hybrids and roach) high wall
Lee Trivett 22lb (roach) last peg in little ashtip
Paul Barnfield 18lb (roach) 1st peg by Marina
There were at least three 17lb weights, and loads more doubles, Andy Floyd had 9lb 9oz from above Lance Tucker for last in his section!

Andy Power won Jack Whites with 28lb of dace and bleak from the peg on the fence. 24lb of chub was second Shaun Townsend.

Swineford was not to bad either.... Martyn Reyatt had 70lb+ of Bream from the outfall and on peg 2 Liam Bradell had 55lb of Bream. Steve Priddle had 30lb of bream on the pole from about peg 20, and Nick Ewers had 20lb of bomber chub from the Beach. There was also a 17lb of roach from peg 29 and 10lb was halfway in most sections. Oh and loads of people had pike problems, so Woody you should have chucked in some gbait to catch your pike!

Thatchers won on the day and I think only one member of the team did not manage double figures, Bathampton were 3rd and Thyers slipped up into 4th. (Sorry didn't know who came 2nd!)

League to date

Thatchers 4 points
Thyers 7 points
Bathampton 10 points

The next round is this Sunday at Newbridge, and for this part of the river they could do with some rain or it will be very peggy.

Chapter 1 Ends

2010-10-25T20:15:00.004+01:00

Sunday evening was celebrated with a pint of Guinness, not due to anything fishy but because my 5 week cancer treatment had ended; 25 radiotherapy sessions and 210 chemo tablets were endured. All of the nurses I met were fantastic, and certainly made me feel like an individual who they knew well despite the large number of patients they have to see. I made a few friends with other patients, one in particular Ken from Weston-Super-Mare was is a pleasure angler and mostly fishes Cider Farm. We made a promise to keep in touch and go fishing together when we've both got ourselves sorted.

It's not possible for me to fish at present because the radiotherapy has not only made my bottom sore, but given me the squirts. I get anything between 20 seconds and 2 minutes notice of toilet trouble, and so have to be near a loo. Quite funny last week I had a real humdinger of a belly ache and I did my best to run to the loo (which cut my ass cheeks to pieces) and arrived at the pan with an ever increasing urge! As I pulled the laces on my tracksuit bottoms the laces knotted and I was struck by blind panic of the impending earthquake in my pants!!!!!! Somehow I managed to undo the knot and sit down just as Elvis left the building at the speed of sound....phew! Mind you the process of going to the toilet is as appealing as fishing the Exeter Canal after breaking the ice and only having luncheon meat as bait, so painful is passing any "motion" that I cannot help but shout out, the neighbours probably think I'm having some sort of sexual punishment lol!

I spoke briefly to Martin Barrett about how the Commercial House fished on Sunday. It was at Newbridge again and the bit of rain we had but some extra pace and a bit of colour into it. Once again some areas were good and some hard, peg 22A this time was the match winner with 25lb of Hybrids (swam down from peg 20?) I don't know all the results but I do know that Steve Tucker had 20lb of Roach from the bottom of the trees (lovely) and Martin Barret had 17lb of hybrids from peg 12 in the little field, this was the peg that came last in the section week before, fish swimming again!

I'm building myself up to fish the Poppy Match, maybe the next Commercial House we'll see.

ATWL Round 2 Newbridge

2010-10-18T10:03:00.003+01:00

I did not fish this match but got to have a look at the first two sections in the "Little Field" and down to the Pumphouse. What did surprise me was that there was still a nice tinge of colour in the water, I had expected it to be much clearer. In the "Little Field" Lee Trivett was on peg 3 and had a good start on the pole over gbait taking nice size roach and some hybrids, his pole line died 2 hours in as did everyone elses in this section (some earlier) except for Richard Laceys that is. He was on form peg 7 and his float was burying ever drop in. This laid the foundation for the result with Richard winning the section with 15lb 15oz and Lee coming 2nd with 14lb 14oz. Surprisingly no one else broke double figures here, with Dave Micklewright really struggling off peg 12 for 4lb+ and last in section.

Below the road bridge pegs 14 and 16 were struggling (Jerry Pocock must have been last in the match with 14oz) but then the next pegs down stream were a different world! Nicky Johns on peg 18 weighed 16lb 2oz (last in the frame) which included a 6lb bream on the pole, Andy Power won the match from peg 20 with 32lb 3oz of pole caught skimmers and hybrids, next peg Chris Higgins had 13lb of skimmers and Nathan Hawke last peg behind the Pumphouse (22A I think) had 16lb 8oz of pole caught hybrids for 4th overall. Andy Power had just returned from 2 weeks at Whiteacres in festivals, and if you didn't know he came 3rd in the Preston Festival picking up a grand. Andy had a lovely net of fish today and caught virtually all of them in the first half of the match on pole over gbait with either red maggot or caster on the hook. He fished with an 18 PR333 to 0.11 and simply ran the float at them.

Parts of the river had fished harder, but there were still fish to be caught, the last two pegs in the trees both netted 18lb of roach, and Eddie Wynne took a rare 3lb chub from just below Newton St Loe bridge to help him win his section. Nicky Ewers won Rotork with 10lb of roach and said he was not pestered by carp like he was in the Viaduct silvers final the day before!

On the team front it was something like this..

1st Thatchers (see they do better without me!)
2nd Thyers
3rd Maver Veals
4th Bathampton (ahem!)
not sure of Sensas Veals and Amalgamation, so I won't guess who was last.

After 2 rounds the top 3 are

Joint 1st Thyers and Thatchers 3 points
2nd Bathampton 7 points

Round 3 in 2 weeks time at Swineford / Crane.

Should anyone reading this want to fish the Commercial House at Newbridge this Sunday coming let me know as there may be a couple of spaces.

February 1991

2010-10-14T18:55:00.004+01:00

Got a bit of time on my hands at the moment, the cancer treatment side effects are really kicking in now and I can see the next 3 or 4 weeks being a bit nasty. My treatment comes to an end next week so at least that means I won't have to visit the BRI every day, anyway I think every nurse in the radiotherapy department has seen my bottom by now!

Back in 1991 (as a healthy 21 year old!) I was itching to go fishing after the big freeze, and I was told of an open match being held on the Wednesday on the Avon in Bath around Windsor Bridge. I drew below the donkey field and just round the bend on the straight before the trees started. I knew nothing of this part of the river and with the temperature now +5C at best decided the wag would be the best way to catch and keep me warm! I set up for the expected 13 foot deep swim with 1 no4, 1no6, 2no 8 and 1 no9 down the line with a 22 to 1.8lb tectan. I started by loose feeding maggot and hemp and after 6 runs through without a bite or the float dragging under I added a foot of depth, then 6 chucks later I added another foot of depth! At 15 feet I started to get bites, but it was an effort to cast this out on a 13ft rod. I later heard the angler below me reckoned he had got 18ft of water in front of him, back then I never plumbed up, I just looked for the fish. I caught a steady procession of roach and chublets, nothing bigger than 8oz, nothing smaller than 2oz. This was a really enjoyable day and after feeding 1/2 pt of mag and 1/2 pt of hemp I ended with 16lb 11oz which was only good enough for 3rd. As I recall Pete Sivell won with chub from just below Windsor Bridge and John Bradford came 2nd with a big chub and bream to go with roach from just above the railway bridge. This day proved to me how fish react to an increase in water temp even when it is still bloody cold.

On the following Saturday I was booked in for the Bathampton open at Newbridge, I drew peg 72 which was the first peg above Newton St Loe railway bridge. Confident from Wednesday I set up a waggler again with the same shotting pattern, but the hook size went up to a 20. This peg was only 13 feet deep and so easy to cope with casting! I started by feeding lightly with mag and hemp but for the first two hours I was struggling. As the match went on I fed more and more maggot and cut out the hemp all together and the fish responded well. Fishing double maggot on the hook I was getting bigger roach and more chublets, and in the last 15 mins I reckoned I put 3lb in the net! This late burst was crucial and I ended up 4th overall (behind 3 bream weights) weighing 13lb 12oz.

Those two enjoyable matches were followed by junk, 1 bream the following day in Bath for nowt and 2.5lb in the Upper Avon Champs the following weekend again for nowt! February was completed with a pleasure session at Bitterwell where in four hours I amassed 16lb+ which included 3 tench, 3 skimmers, rudd and roach to 12oz, again on wag but with caster....I might try that again sometime soon.

Commercial House Round 2 K&A Canal

2010-10-10T20:13:00.002+01:00

My preparation for this match was zero, I was struck down with a heavy cold on Thursday and it was all I could do to collect some bait from Avon Angling on Saturday. I told my wife "I won't do any good tomorrow but I'm just going to try to enjoy myself". Glenn Bailey was giving me a lift and as I waited for him I heard and saw my first winter redwing of this year, it's a bird that migrates to the UK from Scandinavia for the winter. I was goinfg to be fishing A section by default (short walk) but then promptly drew A7 so no swapping was required! Incredibly Glenn drew A6 and so he was next to me, we were both at Darlington but going to be up against the bay etc.

I was glad of the shortish walk as my backside is now basically red raw from radiation burn, it will get worse so it's not something I'm looking forward to! As I reached my peg a moored boat next to it was just leaving, and as this left a lot of space I guessed a boat would try to moor up in there later, and one did during the match! I decided to fish positive (here we go again) and set up some skimmer traps! I had a 4x12 Drennan Roach with 20 B511 to 0.08 for 5 mtrs, this would be fished over gbait and squatt (I had decided against bread). I set up 2 rigs for across, both 4x14 as the canal was towing a lot, one was a Preston Magic (6 I think) slim bristle with 18 B611 to 0.10, and the other was a J range job with thicker bristle and 0.14 to 15 B711 (for any rogue carp or eels).

On the whistle I fed 3 balls of gbait at 5mtr, chopped worm and caster right across and some micro pellet across and down to my right. Onto the short line with big red maggot but it was slow and I was soon on a fluro pinkie. I took small roach, skimmers, perch and bleak here, but only about 1.5lb in the first hour and a half. Probably something to with being double boated before the match, and then 20 mins in being double boated again but this time the boats hit each other head on! Glenn and myself were not amused.... OK time for a look across, I went in on the heavy rig, just in case of a carp being around, with three dead red maggots. After about 5 mins over the worm line the float went under and I soon had a 1lb 8oz skimmer in the net. Next chuck and a 12oz fish, and then nothing and it was time to put on the sensible rig. I dropped it in with double red maggot and had an 8oz skimmer but then nothing else so I refed some more worm. I tried the pellet line with varying hookbaits but had no bites and as Paul Purchase above me had taken two 3lb fish over gbait I decided to try that myself. So in went 3 balls containing squatts, worm, caster and some red maggs right over up to my left towards to Paul.

It was then a very slow 30 mins for me, but when I went in over the gbait across I had three 8oz skimmers and lost one when a biker pushed my pole out the way. I kept trying all three swims across and topped them up but to no avail, that was until 3 mins to go when I had another skimmer. During the match it was reckoned about 25 boats had gone through, with Glenn and myself being double boated 4 times and the boat moored to my right also moved off during the match. I was wondering if I had over fed the peg and forced the skimmers out, but Pauls peg had died way before mine and Gary O'Shea further down had put far more bait in than me and had 14lb, so perhaps I should have fed more?

I weighed 7lb 1oz which beat 3 people, Glenn beat me by 1oz (he had lots of small fish and just a few skimmers) and got the section by default. Nigel Evans had a great day on peg A1 with nearly 20lb made up of about 40 skimmers, Nathan Hawke in the bay had 14lb 10oz to tie with Gary. Some sections of the canal fished hard but overall there were lots of fish and it needed 13lb to make the frame.

I have decided not to fish the next round of the W/L at Newbridge, I cannot deal with all the prep and lugging all the gear that is needed to do a proper job (be alright if it was flooded though!). Plus I am looking for a seat box that has a rubber ring built in to it but Preston don't do one!

ATWL Round 1 Swineford / Crane / Jack Whites

2010-10-04T09:50:00.007+01:00

After all the rain we had on Friday I was surprised to see the river looking in perfect trim on Saturday. However, the deluge on Sat evening / Sun morning was bound to worsen things during the match. I reckoned you'd need to catch well early on. 6 teams of 10 are fishing the league this year, so the pegging was pretty much the same as last week, except a group of anglers had been out swim clearing and did a fantastic job.

Team draw was made and I was handed F4 which I hoped would put me on the first peg in the long ash tip, but it was not to be and I was one past the peg as Andy Britt was sitting on it for the 2nd week in succession. I doubted I could beat Andy as his peg holds resident bream and skimmers. With the colour in the water I knew bream were going to feed and said to my upstream neighbour Jerry Pocock that 20lb+ would be needed to win our section. With this in mind I decided I was going to ball in plenty of groundbait with casters and worms in. A 4 grm flat float was set up along with 2 feeder rods, one with a 13B711 and one with a 11 B711. Plumbing up on the pole I found nearly 10ft of water (peg below is 14ft deep) but would have liked more. It was also a bit snaggy and I had to change my position to find what seemed to be a snag free area.

Unfortunately I was late starting because the walk had knackered me out (I am fit but have no energy at the mo) and then when I did drop the flat float in, disaster, I snagged up and snapped the hooklength. I chucked the feeder out with 3 red maggs on while I attached another hooklength, the tip never moved. I picked the rod up and was snagged up and lost the lot! I now needed to set this feeder rod up again because I expected this set up to be the best, so I cast out the feeder on the other rod (with the tail of a lob on) this time a bit further downstream to hopefully avoid the snag. As I was just finishing setting up the first rod I saw the tip bang round twice on the lobworm and I thought that's a bream! I lifted the rod and felt something and then it all went solid, bollocks another feeder set up trashed. To say I was now a tad cheesed off would be an understatement.......

I realised I now had no choice, I had to fish further out past where I had balled it, I cast the feeder about 1.5 to 2 metres furthert and crossed my fingers. A bite resulted and an 8oz roach was netted, at last a fish, but I was now 40 mins into the match and others had already taken the odd bream or skimmers.

Up until the middle of the match I had the odd bite, and took 3 skimmers, a few roach and 2 perch. However, I definitely had liners as the rod tip took off and dropped back but the hook bait was untouched, most likely this was from the fish feeding over my balls of gbait next to the snag! The 2nd half of the match never produced a fish for me, despite trying various baits, as the river rose and coloured heavily, and it seemed the river switched off for lots of people. I reckoned to have 6lb and weighed 6lb 8oz which only beat 2 people, I was soundly beaten by Paul Faires with 27lb, Andy Britt 25lb and Jerry Pocock 17lb. I would have put money on me being up with those weights, but seems at the moment things aren't going my way and I'm making mistakes.

The river had fished really well with 28 double figure weights (would have been 40 if we'd fished the river as it was on Saturday) and Paul Isaacs had a great match to weigh 70lb of bream, half on the pole, half on the feeder. I heard that Paul fed 28 balls of gbait to start! Steve Tucker was 2nd (next peg to Paul) with 30lb+ and Thyers anglers filled the next 3 places. On the team front Thyers won by a single point from Thatchers, whilst Bathampton came 3rd.

I was very tired afterwards and realised that at present I cannot cope with the chance of long walks and I was going to pack in the leagues. Thankfully the captains have agreed that in future I can take the section with the shortest walk (organiser determines the section not me), so they obviously know I can't catch anything at the moment and it doesn't matter where I draw lol! Seriously I am chuffed to be able to carry on, but do need to catch some fish for my own sanity.

1991 Begins

2010-10-01T14:01:00.003+01:00

I realise I've left off writing about the past for some time, that's mainly due to me being rather busy, but today sat at home and not watching the Ryder Cup cos of the weather is a good time to catch up.

January 1991 started with a proper winter storm, very heavy rain and wind speeds recorded up to 100mph. The river was in a terrible state, and then on the Friday before the next round of the ATWL we had a hard frost, and then on Sat it was -5C. I was filled with dread on the Sunday at Newbridge despite drawing peg 39 (always a good area) as the river looked awful. I imagine I set up just one feeder rod back then, and my result was just one hybrid which weighed 9oz. This was enough for 8 points and I recorded that just 15oz was needed for 2nd in the section. The match was won with 6lb and most importantly the team won on the day, and with Silstar coming 2nd that meant we held a 2 point lead with two matches to go.

The weather did its worse the following Friday and it rained all day and night, not a problem for my Saturday match which was on the K&A canal at Darlington. I only caught about 1.5lb of fish on the punch and wandered off to watch Mike Stone do it properly using a plain crowquill to catch 256 fish for nearly 8lb. Sunday and the river awaited for the Commercial House, I drew in the long ashtip and managed just one roach for 1.5oz.

As ever in January if it didn't rain it went cold and the following week was all frosts, lovely! The river was now sensible in terms of colour and pace but the fish were going to be shoaled up, so good draws required. Saturday was an open at Conham, I took 30 fish for just 1lb 13oz which was enough to win the section, I fished a stick float in 12 feet of water and fed about 6 maggots every chuck. Sunday was the 5th round of the ATWL, and I got a peg on the 2nd high wall up the crane (no peg there now). I had a bad match, unable to catch on the float I chucked the maggot feeder across hoping for chub. Unfortunately I was only able to pick up the odd dace and my 1lb 9oz only beat 2 people in the section (which was won with 5lb). My result was mirrored by many others in the team and we came a disastrous 7th on the day. From being 2 points in front of Silstar we were now 3 behind, and with one match left we had blown it.

On the 31st Jan we had very heavy snow, I couldn't get my car up the lane from where I lived and wondered if the ATWL match would go ahead. However, as can often happen the snow went as quick as it came and on Saturday I snuck in two hours on the stick float on the cattle grid peg at the Crane. I quickly caught 7lb including 2 roach of over a pound, all I fed was 4 to 6 maggots every cast. This set me up nicely for Sunday and I didn't really mind the long walk I had drawn, I was in the 2nd field below the railway bridge at Avoncliffe! The peg looked lovely, if a tad fast, and I remember that Bela Bakos was below me and his peg was wider and slower. I had a big slice of luck on this day..... I had no idea of the depth, but thought to myself it looks about 10ft and so set up a big waggler at this depth with 3 no6 and 3 no8 spread down the line. I cast it out to check the shotting and the float eventually settled perfectly, which was nice! I quickly set up a crowquill (without checking the depth or shotting) and a lead rod as I had little time to get ready. I started the match on the wag with a 20 to 1.7lb and fed 10 maggs a chuck. I was getting the odd roach but not as many as Bela, so I upped the feed a bit to try to improve things and put two maggs on the hook. I was soon rewarded with a chub, but then hooked and lost another under my feet. I felt there were more chub in the peg and decided to try the crowquill for a different presentation. I had this float set at the same depth as my wag, so I was surprised when it lay flat on the surface! It turned out the peg was 6ft deep, and on my wag I was dragging most of the shot on the bottom, this obviously slowed the floats passage through and improved presentation, jammy git eh! I ended the match with about 6lb of roach and 3 chub for a total of 13lb 6oz, this was 2nd in the section, beaten by the late great Ian "Bloke" Pulsford on the railway bridge who had 14lb of chub. However, I had the consolation of coming 5th overall, and the team duly finished 2nd in the league behind Silstar.

More snow was to come and my 2nd weekend of Feb 1991 was spent at home!

Commercial House Round 1

2010-09-26T20:31:00.002+01:00

I guess you could say my match started on Saturday as I pegged the venue out along with a lot of help from Lee Trivett. When I say pegged thanks to Lee we bashed some pegs out, and 5 hours later we finally finished. Come Sunday morning I was hoping for a good peg and was happy with peg 15 up at Swineford. This peg has been fished a lot lately and there actually was an angler in the peg Saturday so I was just hoping there were still some hungry fish in there! For the 2nd week running I was pegged next to Callum Dicks, he was on 17 which is where I won the Poppy Match from a few years ago.

I set up a 2.5AAA wag with 0.14 to 16 B520, a Crowquill with same terminal tackle, and a feeder rod was set up with 0.16 to 15 B711. My plan was to feed caster and maggot down the middle of the river and hope to catch everything that swims on the float, but with a view to getting some decent chub and maybe some skimmers. I felt I would need 20lb+ because this section (from outfall to peg 19) usually throws up good weights. Feeding my first bit of bait the peg erupted with small fish, and I was catching little size dace and roach, very little! I immediately filled the pouch to the brim and tried to feed the little buggers off. By swapping between the wag and Crowquill I could get the occasional 1oz to 2oz roach, not enough quality by a long way. I had scaled down to 0.12 and a 20 in case I was putting off the more "wise" larger roach, but it made no difference.

Mid match and I was surprised to have not hooked a single chub or chublet, and I had a look on the gbait feeder over. The feeder was dire with only 2 pissers giving me a bite and they were both consumed by a pike. Mr Pike never took a fish from my mid river line, so he was obviously over the far bank. Back on the wag and despite constant feeding it was the same small stuff and so I upped the feed to two pouchfuls every run through! This heavy feeding finally got rid of the bits, but it also stopped all my bites and so I reluctantly tried the feeder again for absolutely nowt! Picking up the wag for the last 15 mins I had 6 roach all about 3oz to 4oz.

I knew I was on for a hiding as soon as Andy Floyd approached me with the weigh board (I had the scales) and told me of the various bream that had been caught. Callum had managed 6lb+ above me (only 3lb above him was caught) and I weighed 8lb 1oz, only beating 3 anglers in my section. Glenn Bailey had taken 11 bream for 49lb from the peg before the reeds (to win the match, fair play!) and Jerry Pocock had 2 bream in the last 20 mins (one was 6lb 14oz) with some bits for 18lb, Andy had one bream in the last 10 mins and a lot of bits for 14lb. So for whatever reason it seems I was at the wrong end of the section today, perhaps the peg has been hammered or perhaps I'm losing my touch! Glenn was told his peg is crap, but I have seen Bream come off it lots of times, and he fished well to only bump two and lose one lol!

The river did fish generally well, with Nick Chedzoy having 46lb of chub from Bitton Brook, Rich Lacey having 23lb of bream / skimmers from one below the New Fence. There were two 20lb's of roach and lots of high double figures of roach from the Crane. Jack Whites was a bit harder but still needed doubles to do well.

I forgot what teams did well sorry! To be honest the walking yesterday and thrashing the peg today knackered me out. I've had 5 radiotherapy treatments during the week and am taking 6 chemo tablets every day. I have to go to hospital every weekday for the radiotherapy treatment and tiredness is one of the early side effects, the later ones (should they happen) ain't so pleasant so I'm not worried about feeling like a zombie! Could do with a peg full of feeding fish this Sunday to make feel a tad better though!

Superleague final round Newbridge

2010-09-19T19:10:00.002+01:00

Well they say things come in threes and that is now three crap matches on the trot for me, I won't be writing too much today.

I drew peg 26 and didn't mind the draw although peg 24 has a lot more form. As I was fishing for Cardiff again I decided to go positive putting worms and casters in gbait and I balled in plenty to start. A small roach first chuck was followed by a small perch which a pike quickly snaffled. The next 4 fish were all snaffled by pike and that was my hook lengths gone (I'll tie more up from now on!). After this chaos all I managed was 9 or 10 tiny roach and perch. Trying worm or big hook baits never produced over the pole line, despite me putting more worm and more gbait in.

I took two perch on chopped worm just past some lily pads but no more bites, so I fed some more worm then when I tried it again I hooked a snag and lost the whole rig. Last chance was a maggot feeder over to the bush. It took a while but I did manage to get 4 chublets, but unfortunately I lost a 1lb chub to the bloody pike. After this the peg was dead and I caught nothing else, I went for a quick walk and then reballed the pole. That produced absolutely nothing.

Finally I'd had enough, it was my birthday today and I thought I'm packing up and going home to see the family as they hadn't yet seen me today. Sorry Cardiff for "nil point" but I decided there's no place like home. Tomorrow I start my chemo and radio therapy treatments, happy days....

County Champs Regional Final

2010-09-18T20:30:00.004+01:00

I was afforded the luxury of a lift to Cider Farm by Warren Bates, for company we had his son Olly who spent the whole journey naming car models..... After a minor detour for a road closure we arrived in good time and I tucked into two breakfast rolls, little did I know this would be the best part of the day!

Fishery owner Mark asked me to hold the bag of pegs and then I was forced to draw first, out comes peg 7 oh dear. Tony had said the day before this was a peg not to draw, and when Glenn Bailey rang me to ask where I had drawn I asked him which peg would you not want to be on.... and yes he said peg 7! Anyway, you never know the fish could be there so I would go with a positive intent. Warren had drawn peg 25 (one I fancied) and I thought the anglers who could do well were; Callum Dicks on peg 4 (where it was won from on Wednesday), Des Shipp peg 32, Tony Rixon peg 51 (he won from it a week ago) and Chris Davis on peg 46. Rod Wootten on 56 was always going to be a threat.

The trouble with peg 7 is there is no area free of reeds, and the reeds opposite fall right out over the water meaning you can't get tight. I set up a paste rig (waste of time), a banded pellet rig for deep 4x14 0.16 to 16 and a shallow 4x10 rig same line and hook and a margin rig same again. On the whistle I fed some 6mm to point of the reeds at 11.5m and some at the same distance up the inside. I also fed a big potful at 16 mtrs which was near some bare bank but about 1/2 mtr short. It took me an hour to catch a 3lb carp on banded pellet on the deep rig on the point. I never had another fish on this rig all day but did have a couple of digs on the float during the day. I tried the shallow rig over this line for nothing, the margin was also dead!

Halfway through I caught 2 carp on the 16 mtr line in 15 mins and pulled out of 2 foul hookers, I managed one more bite from this spot for the rest of the day. My day was made a bit more interesting by watching Callum catching, and breaking a top set and 2 no4 sections.

I tried fishing shallow and the margin line but all to no avail and with an hour to go and I went for a walk as I just could not catch. I returned to my peg and was going to pack up but thought I'll just drop in shallow again on the point, I had a 3lb carp without feeding and then missed a bite, and that was that. 4 carp for 10lb 9oz (yes I did weigh to try to win a £1 but even that failed by 1lb!) is my worst weight at the venue in the 5 years I've fished the place, why did that have to hapen today!!!

After the match two things happened to cheer me up; 1) Callum dived into the lake to retrieve a lost top 4, nice shorts mate! 2) A few nameless anglers had an apple throwing fight and one of them manged to hit Mark on the head!

Des Shipp showed his world class by catching 90lb, 2nd was Rod Wootten, 3rd Mark Leader, 4th Callum Dicks and 5th Kev Moulton. These 5 will go to the final in search of £10K and I wish them the very best of luck and hope they win for our county!

I've just taken out all the carp gear, again, put all the river gear back in and mixed some gbait for the superleague tomorrow at Newbridge, will this turn into a nightmare weekend for me? I hope not!

AT winter League Final - River Nene

2010-09-13T20:00:00.004+01:00

The long journey to Peterborough was to be made with Andy Power, so that would be quiet then lol. Andy arrived Sat morning with his Fiesta overflowing with tackle, even with my large estate car we only just got everything in! We arrived in Peterborough in good time and along with Tucks, Gary O'Shea, Mark Harper, Guy Manton and Mark Brennan walked some of the sections. The river was like tap water and on some pegs you could see the bottom in the middle. Much groundbait mixing later and finally at 5:30pm I was sat having my first beer. Goodness knows how many beers I had but after a fantastic Chinese meal and great night on the town I went to bed at 2:30pm, room mate Andy getting in at 3:30pm though I never heard him!

Sunday morning 7am alarm, and it took me a little while to get the brain engaged and remember what was happening! Surprisingly I didn't feel ill, just tired, and after a quick brekkie and plenty of water I was sorted. Arriving at the tacklefest car park the bloodworm and joker was sorted as was the mixing of leam. Then Mark Harper gave us our draw and I was pegged on 563 at Railworld, the peg below me was a flyer and had produced 20lb of roach already this year and had framed last year. I hoped the roach would be happier in my peg today!

When I arrived at my peg I was disappointed to see that I was in a bit of bay, which meant I had to wade in and get the box in the water which was not easy as there was about a foot of silt. My section wasn't going to be to hard for me to win, what with Sean Ashby (on a flyer), Joe Carass, Callum Dicks oh and Stuart Conroy on the flyer below me! Shit I hope the roach eat hemp today! I managed to get sorted and set up 4 pole rigs on top 4's. A 2 grm rig for bloodworm with a 20 PR334 (I think) to 0.07. A 0.8 grm (bulk and droppers) for hemp with a 18 B511 to 0.07, a 0.4gm (spread shot) for hemp same hook and line, and finally a 1.5 grm for chopped worm with a 11 B711 to 0.18. Setting up anything else seemed pointless as basically your fishing in a weed free area of the peg. Ten minutes before the start a very friendly local angler told me I was on a flyer for bream... when the river has a foot on! He said not one bream had been caught off the peg all season and that they were probably sat in the weed only coming out at night.

On the whistle in went the best part of 4 kilos of groundbait and 3 balls of leam stuffed with joker to 13 metres. Chopped worm was bait droppered in at 10 metres at an angle downstream. On with a pinkie and the 2grm float and first chuck the float buried, a nice "ten to the ounce" size roach had obliged! Fifteen mins in and the writing was on the wall, the pinkie wouldn't attract anymore bites and bloodworm only attracted these tiny fish. I was feeding hemp all the time and remained positive that an hour or two catching roach later on this would see me bag up!

An hour in and I had one 4oz roach and 12 fry, so onto the lobworm. I missed a bite, but redeemed myself by hitting the next bite and a 6oz perch was netted. No more bites from here, so I put another bait dropper in. By now more and more weed was floating down the river and it was no fun with many attempts at dropping the rig in resulting in weed on the line or bait. When I did get the bait in all I got was a ragged out bloodworm from a fry! Half way through and I tried the heavy hemp rig (the downstream wind was now awful and the light rig would be useless) and bugger me I had a bite! In 15 mins I managed 3 roach between 2oz and 4oz, missed 3 bites and I thought here we go, but then it just died! I was now being hammered in the section and decided to put in a good dump of joker in leam for those bream! I then had a 6oz eel on the lobby but again no more bites so I fed two more bait droppers of worm!

With an hour to go I was fu$ked, the joker line was still full of fry and the hemp line was dead. I sat on the chop for ages hoping for a lump, I did manage another eel about 10oz but that was it and so with 20 mins to go went on the hemp, 3 more roach obliged straight away then nothing and then the whistle went. I weighed 2lb 12oz, to only beat 3 people in the section (although one of them was Callum and Joe Carrass only did me by 2oz). I was embarrassed to see Stu Conroy weigh 11lb of roach on bloodworm below me and the next 5 or 6 anglers below him all had between 6lb and 13lb. Had I been just off the roach, or had I got it totally wrong? I'd like to think both because I know I can catch roach on hemp (and there were plenty caught below Stu on it) Stu showed me his bloodworm rig and it was the same as mine so it must be the feeding, I think I fed it all wrong with the amount of groundbait. It was soon clear that I had not been alone in letting the team down (made me feel a bit better!) and many others had done as bad, but Gary O'Shea did well with 2nd in section. The team finished 13th out of 15, perhaps what we expected as we had not practiced and the team plan was to have a great night out Saturday and fill the river in Sunday! Kamasan Starlets won the match and the guy who won my section with 13lb of roach on hemp was 1st overall.

Andy and myself went straight to the nearest MacDonald's where we found Nigel Evans, Nick Ewers and Chedz consoling themselves with food! Nick Ewers nearly made me choke on my food as he recalled his day and I pissed myself laughing. His match was basically just like mine except he did chuck the feeder out, but only twice because each chuck saw it stuck in unseen cabbages! I know you'll probably be reading this thinking what a load of shite, but I actually enjoyed the weekend and the experience of rubbing shoulders with anglers who are in tune with bloodworm. We don't do enough of that sort of fishing and once the river fished hard the team we were out of it. I wish they would put this final on a decent venue and stop practising the week before, because the fish are hammered until Weds before and it doesn't help. Oh well there's always next year!

Back to the River!

2010-09-06T19:21:00.008+01:00

Round 5 of the South West Superleague at Newbridge was my destination this Sunday. I had a major task on Saturday trying to get my kit ready for rivers and if I'm honest I wasn't 100% prepared! This was my first outing on the Superleague and I was guesting for Cardiff Nomads would you believe.

I met my Thatchers team mates in Matty's cafe in Bath, this place has certainly gone in up everyones estimation and the service is excellent (see for yourself). Good to see the lads again, and along with me both Liam Braddell and Leigh Trivett were guesting for Nomads. Rich Candy did the draw and handed me peg 97, about 10 pegs up from the arch in the trees and not an area I've really drawn before. Liam drew peg 74 just below Newton St Loe bridge, this after Leigh and myself had said it would be a good peg to draw! I was glad of the short walk as my arms were aching from assembling furniture the day before, and you do seem to carry a lot more gear to the river than to commercials. I needed to a little bit of pruning of some overhead branches but it was minimal effort and other than that the peg was fine, although I would be sat about 3ft above the water.

The river was clear, as expected, but I had nice tree cover inside and across and thought it might hold a few fish. I set up a 2grm Desque float with a bulk and 3 no10 droppers, a 20 to 0.10 for starters. A 3grm flat float (tried but never caught owt) and a 1.5grm with a 13 B711 to 0.168 for chopped worm (also caught nowt). I also set up a groundbait feeder with 0.14 to a 14 B611, I clipped this up to fish a few metres short of the far bank willow tree.

On the whistle I made about 8 casts on the gbait feeder then threw in 14 balls of gbait at 13 mtrs. Picking up the 2grm Desque float my first cast with single caster was rewarded with a 4oz roach, as were the next 3 casts. Unfortunately the run stopped and I was forced to alter depths and hook baits to try and sneak out the odd small roach and perch as well as going down to an 0.08 to 22 hook. Just as I was giving up on the pole I hooked a perch of about 12oz, but this also signalled the end of the pole line after an hour and a half. I decided to try the feeder and started positively with 3 red maggots on the hook. The tip remained motionless for 5 mins then slowly pulled round, my reward was a 10oz skimmer foul hooked! Forty more minutes on the feeder only provided 2 small perch and so reluctantly I came off this. I then tried all 3 pole rigs without any sign of a fish. I was now very concerned as Andy Britt had walked up the bank earlier and told me all bar one other angler in my section was admitting to 5lb, so I was guessing I was now well behind in the section.

I rang my next peg neighbour Guy Manton and he had taken 5lb on the pole and a bream on the feeder and then Steve Hutchinson told me that other bream had been caught further down. That settled things for me and I was going to fish the gbait feeder until the end. I couldn't believe it when my first 6 casts on the feeder gave me 6 bream! No just dreaming... but I did get 6 chublets which were all welcome! The feeder was now providing some interest with the odd perch to 8oz and a 1.5lb skimmer, maggot was best on the hook as worm only got me small perch. With 40 mins to go I had a proper pull round and just managed to fit a 5/6lb slab in the landing net, which was nice! One more chublet and small perch was all that came my way afer that bream and now it was wait for the scales. I had a long wait as I was the end peg in the section and it turned out that the first 3 pegs had weighed 32lb, 41lb and 27lb of bream! My weight of 15lb 12oz was the best of the rest, beating Thatchers team mate Guy by 3lb, all bar one person in the section had double figures.

Back at the results and the river had fished well, Liam Braddell won the match with 61lb of decent skimmers on the pole, he reckoned he had 45lb in the first two hours and fish were rolling all over the place. Every section was won with double figures and I must say even I was surprised by the good catches on such a clear river. Thyers won on the day with 35 points, and it was a close affair as three teams tied for last place (Maver Veals, Thatchers and Cardiff) on 30 points!

Well I have to try to find the time to prepare for the Angling Times Winter League final on the Nene this Sunday. The venue has moved slightly this year, and the North Bank is out with Orton in, apparently last week in an open there were five 20lb catches of roach! With no practice I will be relying on my river skills to see me through, and I hope we get lots more rain this week to colour it up so I can chuck the feeder out, lol!

BRI Visits

2010-09-03T16:54:00.005+01:00

I have been to the hospital twice this week, already getting to know my way around now and recognising fellow patients!

My first visit was to see my consultant Dr Falk, apparently he's the top man, and a very nice bloke he is. He told me the size of the tumour is small and not a problem, but the position of the tumour being so close to my arse makes things more tricky (not much room inside the pelvis). So they want to shrink the tumour as much as possible before trying to remove it, and this means I will have to have 5 weeks of chemo and radio therapy. Dr Falk proceeded to explain the likely side effects and that these wouldn't likely kick in until the last week of treatment and then for a number of weeks after. It is the radiation, it gets at you once it has built up over time. Most of the likely side effects are going to be feeling sick, tiredness, the shits and few more that I won't mention here! Oh, and I'll be infertile but that's not a problem because I already had the snip! They measured my height and weight and took blood (my arms like a pepper pot) all of which is used to determine the dosage level of treatments.

On Wednesday I was in having another CT scan, this time they were "measuring" me up for the radio therapy. So I now have two crosses on my thighs and a small tattoo dot on my arse. I have to this done all over again on the 17th Sept when they check the measurements are all correct. Then on the 20th Sept (would you believe the day after my birthday) I start the treatment, and it ends on the 22nd Oct. Five weeks after the treatment ends I will be scanned again to see if the tumour has shrunk enough, and if it has then 3 to 5 weeks later I would be operated on.... hmmm that's around Christmas!

Well the above means that I should be fishing the river well into October, and will battle the side effects best I can to carry on fishing. I am going to fish the Super league this Sun at Newbridge (that will be a shock after all the carping!) the Winter league Final on the Nene and then the Avon county champs top 20 fish off at Cider Farm and so on.

I have to say so far my experience at the BRI has been great, all the staff I have come into contact with have been superb and explained everything perfectly. The only problem is parking!

I hope people do not find me writing this up in any way sick, I am doing it because 1) It helps me and 2) I have been much bettered prepared for my trips to the BRI thanks to info from other people who have gone through this process, and whilst I certainly do not want anyone reading this to go through it if you do this might just help.

Above all I am totally positive of the outcome (if you've met me recently you will know this) and not worried in the slightest. See you on the bank!

Tony Rixon Float Only Series - Final Match

2010-08-30T10:38:00.006+01:00

As I placed my gear on the pavement waiting for Glenn to pick me up I noticed the wind was picking up but nothing serious. We soon had the car loaded (well Glenn did) and arrived at Viaduct Fishery with plenty of time to spare, but the car park was already very busy! I was in with a chance of making the top six overall, although I had to get a good result whereas others at the top already had most of their points in the bag, and as I have said in previous posts felt I would need a bit of luck today.

Into the drawbag and out comes a ticket with one stuck in it, which one to take? I decided to take the one I had my fingers on, and it revealed 116 a good peg on Campbell. Actually the other ticket I put back was corner peg 53, I know because Mat Dark took it! Glenn was not so happy when he drew peg 57 on Lodge (the disabled peg in the corner) although I have won off that peg before it can be hit or miss. I was interested to see where the other top anglers in the league had drawn, and with Tony getting 59, and Fred Roberts 94 I couldn't see them messing up.

When I arrived at 116 it soon became evident how strong the wind was, and it was to get worse during the day. Although this gave me cause for concern it would make life hard for nearly all in my section which went from 110 to 118. I had to win my section today to keep my chance of coming at least 3rd overall, and whilst not meaning to dis anyone, I thought Alan Oram 114 and Clint Wojtyla 110 would be my biggest rivals to this. Having done so well on paste recently I was keen to start on this method, but with the wind being so strong I couldn't see a float with no shot working, so instead I had a 0.5 grm Preston Tyson set up shotted to just below the top of the body, 0.18 to size 12 Drennan Nu hook. I set up a 4x14 Preston PB4 for fishing meat at 5 metres, 0.16 to a 14 PR28 and a margin rig for meat / corn (but only had one tiny carp on this). I was in two minds whether or not to set up a wag, but I decided to set up a Drake bodied wag, with 4 no8 down the line and a 16B960 to 0.185. The reason I set this up was just in case the wind dropped, or if the fish would not come in close.

On the whistle in went half a big pot of 6mm pellets at 12mtrs, some 30 pcs of meat at 5 mtrs and a big potful down the margin. Out went the paste and the float went under and never came up, but this was not a bite it was the force of the wind / tow not allowing the float to come back up! I lifted the float gently and the paste came off! I added a bit more depth and went out again this time with a stiffer paste, same result float would not come up, so I struck in disgust and hooked a carp just outside the mouth! Next chuck in and I had one proper, but then I couldn't get a bite and the wind was making it all wrong so at this early stage I abandoned the paste line. Onto the meat at 5 mtrs and it was very slow, I did manage 2 carp here in 30 mins but no signs in between bites. I was in trouble in I though, and reluctantly I started to feed 8mm pellets onto a wag line, it was a big wag line though as it was impossible to feed in the same place!

An hour and a half in and I had 5 carp in total, to my right had 2 and my left 1, but opposite on pegs 126 and 127 Andy Lloyd and Chris Davies were bagging. I was now feeling very cold and I took a walk down the bank to warm up, Alan on peg 114 had 4 carp on meat and so had Steve Evans on 111. Clint was struggling and was kind enough to leave his peg and go to his van and provide me with a fleece, thanks mate. As I returned to the peg it started to rain, straight into my face, lovely! It was now becoming me against the elements rather than the fish, and it reminded of a match earlier this year at Acorn. At one stage three top kits were blown behind me, my hat took off and my catapult and towel blew in the lake. Thankfully I started to get some bites on the deep wag, and whilst most were liners I at least knew there were fish so just got to work out how to catch them. I went more over depth to try to keep the bait still for as long as possible (about 2 minutes at best) and it helped.

After the first 4 hours I reckon I had 50lb, and I caught the odd carp on meat, I'd get one first chuck and then nothing, so I had just tried it now and then in between the wag. One thing that worked on the wag a few times today was to cast out and then try to bring the hook bait back to where the wag landed, this caught me a few on the drop, probably carp that investigated the splash and only found my pellet! The last 2 hours were much better (although the wind wasn't and it even brought down a 80ft tree behind Gary Etheridge on 121) and I spent the last 40 mins on the meat taking some skimmers, tench and carp.

I knew I had not won the section as Alan Oram had emptied it on meat at 4 mtrs, he ended with 183lb to be the clear top performer on my bank, an excellent match for Alan. Thankfully for me I was not beat by anyone else and I weighed 112lb which included 13lb of silvers. 2nd in the section was good enough to keep me in 3rd overall in the league behind overall winner Tony Rixon and Fred Roberts in second. With a section win by default I pocketed £285, a big pick up for me these days! I'm very happy to come 3rd behind 2 commercial experts.

Full result can be see on Tony's blog. Congratulations to Tony for winning and also for running a great competition along with Steve Evans.

Viaduct cost cutter 26/8/2010

2010-08-26T20:33:00.007+01:00

As you may have read previously I have the last round of Tony's float only series at Viaduct this Sunday, and when Glenn mentioned this match I was up for it! Warren Bates was the man in the van today, and picked both myself and Glenn up, which was nice!

I viewed this match more as a practice session and to see what is going on and how the place is fishing, after all it only costs £10 to enter this match and that's only a few quid more than a day ticket but with the chance of getting your dosh back! There was a good turnout of 30 people, and some had fished the day before when there had been two 200lb weights, I just wondered how the rain would have affected the fish. I drew peg 131 on Campbell which is in a good area, Barry Fitchew had my peg the day before and told me it was solid but he did not weigh in. In the corner peg 132 was Ray Haywood, Ray had taken 160lb from the same peg on Wednesday and it didn't take him long to set up! On my left was the fishery manager Paul Greenwood's daughter Maisie, no pressure then! Glenn and Warren were both on Carey, but the talk was that Carey wouldn't be so good today.

I didn't set a lot of gear up, a paste rig as normal for 13 metres, a shallow rig for banded pellet (never used) and a deep waggler for banded pellet. 0.18 to 16 B960 were used for pellet. I did not set up the lead as I would get no benefit from using it. I didn't set up a pellet wag because Ray and others didn't think the carp would come shallow. On the hooter I fed half a large pot of mainly 6mms plus a few 8mms at 13 metres, and stated firing out 6 to 8 8mms on the wag line. Starting on the paste I had a bite first chuck and missed it, next cast I had a carp, but Ray was already on 3 and Maisie 2! The first hour was though good for me and I reckon I had 35lb to 40lb on the paste, but then it went iffy and it was a struggle to catch so I picked up the wag. I had bites straight away at depth but 4 out of 5 were liners, so after 3 or 4 fish I was back on the pole. The pole only gave up a couple of fish and so I had to go back to the wag as there were fish there.

I took another couple of carp on the wag but it was wrong and halfway through the match I took the wag off and put on a 3 swan Corby pellet wag instead. I was a mile behind Ray at this stage who had bagged fishing down to the tree in the water, but I tried to block him out of mind! The carp were very wary of the pellet wag and I had been warned they don't like it anymore. It was frustrating as the fish were there but it was hard to get them totake my hook bait. I tried a long tail and this caught a couple but I fouled too many, in the end I settled upon about 12" and just worked hard to try to trick a fish to take the bait. The last hour and a half the peg was fizzing, fish were swirling and the water went black! I had some good spells, and when it went quiet once a look back in on the pole caught me two more carp. I finished the match landing a carp on the wag after the whistle. Frustrating today, I lost at least 12 foulers on the wag, and pulled out of 4 at the net (think I pulled too hard).

Ray had taken 249lb and I was only just behind him (lol) on 175lb, but I had lost 13lb by going over the 80lb net limit twice! Either the fish were heavier than I thought or I lost count, hmmm probably both. Congratulations to Maisie who caught 103lb next me, absolutely brilliant!

My weight was good enough for 3rd overall, and it was my second consecutive 170lb weight, what's going on! Carey had not fished so well, with Glenn being third best weight with 91lb off peg 86, and Warren struggled for 2 carp on peg 76.
I was a tad tired after the match, cos they are hard fish to get in on the wag (much easier on the pole) and was glad Warren was going to be driving home!

1st Ray Haywood 249lb
2nd Mash 195lb (peg 123 and included 73lb of tench)
3rd Tim Ford 175lb

Silvers were won by John Green on peg 126 he had 79lb 14oz of skimmers on corn!

So I learned a few things today, and it will be interesting to see how it fishes Sunday, it would be nice to draw Campbell again, please! Need to draw a section without the Viaduct regulars in though, they're bloody hard to beat!

Cider Farm Open 22/8/2010

2010-08-22T19:52:00.002+01:00

Obviously with my holiday cancelled it was back on the commercials (well I've got lots of pellets left!) and I was booked in at Cider Farm. A good turnout meant that both Yarlington and Dabinett were going to be used today. Maybe my luck has changed because I pulled peg 7 on Dabinett, one of the flyers on this lake. If you haven't been here before it is basically a peg on a gap in between the 2 long islands. For company I had venue regular Derek Culip on peg 6 (another flyer) and Bristol's finest builder and window fitter Paul Haines on peg 8 (no where as good a peg as mine). Opposite me on 21 was Steve Howells, and the other danger men were John Paige on peg 12 and worst of all Pete Sivell on peg 28. Pete has drawn this peg 3 times now, and has the match record off it.

I was pleased to know a 100lb had come off my peg the day before in a match, and I decided to attack the peg full on with paste at 7 metres, what I thought was a very comfortable distance and one the fish would be happy to come to. The usual 0.18 to size 12 Drennan Nu Hook and Big H float would do for this. I set up a 4x10 PB4 at 12" for pellet shallow and the same float at 2 feet for the margin to my left which I would feed with hemp and corn.

To start the match I fed half a big cup of pellets (4mm, 6mm and 8mm!) at 7mtr and a full big pot of hemp and corn in the margin. I did not feed any pellet across at this stage as I did not want to split the fish, I wanted them all on the paste line! I had a massive fizz over my feed and thought I had fed too much bait, but after the first hour I had taken 15 carp! I was getting a bite or a liner within seconds of the float settling, it was awesome! This put me way ahead of my neighbours and gave me a nice buffer. The second hour and 12 carp graced the net (I think 12 cos I started to lose count and gave up) and just after 2 hours Glenn Bailey rang me from Newcastle and was shocked when I told him how many I had! I had tried mainly topping up with a full Preston cad pot of pellet, but I didn't do this after every fish as it seemed to cause liners and missed bites. I also put in a bigger amount in the big pot occasionally when things slowed, this caused the fizz to return and after a while I'd get a good run of fish.

Half way through the match I decided to put two more keepnets in, this way I could see what I caught in the two halves of the match. This had the usual effect of stopping me catching! In the next 30 mins I managed 2 carp whilst Derek took 10! I managed to get a few more on the paste but I was not catching anywhere near the amount I was earlier. In hindsight I stayed on paste probably 45 mins too long, but this was because I was still getting the float go under but not hitting them or getting the odd fouler and I thought it would come good again. Eventually about just under 2 hours to go I started feeding 6mms at 13 mtrs and went out with a banded 8mm. Within 15 mins I was into carp and by regularly feeding and slapping the rig in I was catching well. However, I did have the odd mishap, as about 5 fish did me in the reeds even though I was a way from them. I thought about going to a heavier elastic but when fishing shallow I don't like heavy elastic and so I just tried to yank the pole behind me quicker. I finished the match by landing a fish after the whistle and should say I took 2 fish from the margin on corn to give the shallow line a rest for 15 mins when it went iffy once, they wouldn't stay on the inside.

Dabinett had fished well and there was talk of the fishery match record being broken, I did not do that, but my 172lb 5oz was my best ever weight at the venue by some way, I guess I had around 60 carp, I did not see the bigger stamp fish that are in this lake and to be fair most people had the same stamp. My nets showed that I caught 98lb in the first 3 hours and 74lb in the last 3. The match was won by Pete Sivell with a new record of 195lb, fair play to Pete he has increased his catch off this peg every time. I had to give him a pound too, but luckily I passed him the one I gained from Andy Curry! As for my neighbours well Derek had 126lb and Paul 88lb so a good days fishing!

1st Pete Sivell 195lb peg 28 again pellet and paste
2nd Tim Ford 172lb
3rd John Paige 131lb peg 12 Dabinett pellet
4th Derek Culip 126lb
The next two weights were also over 100lb, with veteran Rich Coles having 102lb from peg 1. The average weight was 96lb on Dabinett, and I did say that if Gary Cross had tried harder and weighed in more than 47lb we could have hit the 100lb average!

On Yarlington 92lb was top and there was and 88lb and 75lb. Pellet shallow was best but paste had the 75lb weight.

Well that was a nice day, and it was great to be back on the bank again. Next week I have the last round of Tony Rixon's float only series, Tony has told me that if I get a section win on this match then I will be in top 3 for sure. However, my last time at Viaduct in the series saw me have a disaster and that was my only match there this year, gonna need a lot of luck then! Hope you enjoyed your weekend.

Thank F*** It's Friday!

2010-08-20T16:13:00.003+01:00

I have taken the phone call from the BRI today, and they have told me the best possible news. The cancer has not spread from the rectum, phew, do I feel relieved about that.

As the cancer itself is rather bulky and very low down I have been advised they cannot operate to remove it just yet. So I now have to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy to shrink the little bastard!

Not sure how the treatment will affect my fishing, but hopefully I'll be able to get out and about as much as possible. As I said to couple of people this experience puts things into perspective, so perhaps I won't be that bothered by messing up pegs from now on!

Thanks to everyone for the positive vibes and support, I really cannot put into words how it has helped me over the last week or two.

Shit Happens

2010-08-17T13:30:00.003+01:00

I think I ought to put on my blog what most people will already know, that is that I have cancer. There, I've said it because I have no issue talking about it with anyone.

I have actually seen the little bastard lump of cancer which resides in my arse, saw it on camera yesterday in the BRI hospital. Wednesday 18th Aug I have a CT scan, Thursday an MRI scan and after these I will know if the cancer is just in the one place or spread further. Until then I remain positive.

I don't mind admitting that when I was first told by the Doctor I was bricking it, and going home to tell the wife and kids was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do and I was in floods of tears. I also felt sorry for the kids because I had to cancel our two week holiday to Kos (my planned RnR). Since that day (Mon 9th August) I have felt better and better every day in my mind and am just getting on with life as normal. If I see you on the bank I want to have a laugh and joke, wind ups as normal, because fishing is the one thing that has always taken me to a different place for a few hours, switching the rest of the world off so to speak. I do not want sympathy or people to fear the worse, because I am not!

I don't intend to turn this blog into a cancer site, but I will advise what I am up to as it may help people in the future who have to face the same thing. Up until now the hospital staff have been superb, support from friends and family has been amazing, in fact blown me away and put me in the right frame of mind.

I've booked in for the open at Cider Farm this Sunday and hopefully I'll get in amongst the carp and rain or shine bag up!

December 1990

2010-08-14T20:11:00.004+01:00

Dec 1st saw me on the banks of the Avon at Frys for the Commercial House Xmas match. I was drawn up in the 50's, what I call opposite the lily pad pegs on Jackies, an area that could through up bream. However, on this day the river was clear and I wasn't sure they would feed and so I settled on a crowquill approach. Using a 22 to 1.8lb Tectan I loosefed maggot and hemp I caught dace, roach, perch and small skimmers for 6lb 5oz and a section win. However, bream had fed in many pegs and I should have spent some time on the feeder, but the trouble is I love catching on the float!

The following day and it was back on the Avon for the Portcullis Xmas match at Crane and Swineford. I had one of the shortest walks when I pulled out the boys hole! I decided to fish exactly the same method as the day before (since bream had disappeared from this ares by now) and ended with an improved 7lb 15oz. Whilst that got me a prize it was not good enough for any coin, as the pegs by the cattle grid produced 12lb and 14lb of roach on the stick with caster. If I recall correctly the heavier weight was caught by Mark Harper, and it was a lesson in the quality caster could produce. But did I learn the lesson, no, I put it down to the pegs and would stick to maggots and hemp for a while longer!

1990 must have been a very dry year, because I have recorded on the 3rd Dec that a hose pipe ban was still enforced in Bristol, and that Chew Valley lake was only half full. On Saturday 8th December I fished the Silver Dace Xmas match, again this was from Crane to Swineford, and I drew 2 pegs into the cornfield (walking upstream). It was a cold day and it snowed all day, but it didn't pitch, and my match was awful with just a solitary 1lb 7oz chub to show for my efforts, although I did lose 2 chub to a 10lb+ pike! I walked a bit that day, and saw Leigh Nutland catch 30lb of chub of the "beach" peg on the waggler, and an angler had 40lb of bream in the middle of the cornfield. My next day on the Bathampton Xmas was even worse, I could only manage 2 roach and 1 gudgeon from peg 217 at Kelston straight.

I had only 2 Xmas matches left now to try to put some decent fish in the net, and next up was the Bristol Sensas Xmas match fished from Chequers to Jack Whites. I drew at Chequers, opposite the concrete outflow on Frys. I was not happy with this draw as I wanted to be at Jack Whites on a big fish peg. It was freezing on this morning and for the first 2 hours of the match the rod rings were freezing. Fishing once again with crowquill hemp and maggot I was amazed to catch 7lb 4oz of all roach, virtually unheard of in such conditions. Although this won me the section the river had fished well at Jackies, with bream weights of up to 30lb, chub weights of up to 18lb and there was even a 12lb carp caught. Looking back I never gave myself a chance of big fish in these matches by not fishing the feeder, but perhaps I benefited in the long run by working at catching on the float.

The last Xmas match was at Bristol docks and I drew at "halfpenny Bridge" OK where the f%ck that I asked! After finding someone to follow I was told it was only worth fishing for dace. I imagine I put together a rig on the day for this but I don't know what sort, but I used a 20 to 1.1lb bayer. I fished at 7 metres but went to 10 metres of pole to control the float. By loose feeding just maggot I caught for 3 1/2 hours, but then the flow picked up tremendously and the fish went with it. I'm guessing I framed as I picked up £41 but I did not record my position. On the day 30lb of roach won the match from the then famous lightship.

I did not fish the following weekend, as I went to Nottingham for a Xmas piss up with Paul Benson, Kev Winstone and Nick Tutty. I remember regretting wearing a white shirt one night when drinking Murphys, as I spilt loads down me! It was also rather funny on Xmas eve when the B&B owner came into our room to fix a blocked sink, unfortunately for him this was about 2 minutes after Nick Tutty had taken a dump. He came out of the bathroom glassy eyed and struggling for breath, but he was a good spirit and saw the funny side!

Float only series round 6 Avalon

2010-08-08T20:50:00.003+01:00

A sound breakfast in the Shipham cafe to start the day and I wondered if it would be the highlight of the day. I had read on the talk angling forum match results that a few fisheries had not fished so well on Saturday, strong winds and rain showers were sure to have cooled things down. As I was waiting for the draw I noticed Craig Edmunds, Shaun Townsend and Martin Reyatt wearing shiny new Bathampton T shirts with Maver on them. Seems Bathampton have also got a Maver sponsorship along with the Veals team, and after last weeks Superleague on the Huntspill Veals have the bragging rights as Bathampton came plumb last and Maver are scratching their heads "what have we done!"

Finally I pulled a peg on the Top lake and it was peg 10 which meant nothing to me, Tony explained it was a flyer with a tree and corner to fish in, then he said no it isn't that's peg 11! Still this peg had produced 50lb+ last float only series and so I was fairly buoyant, unlike Glenn who had pulled peg 25 where he struggled from before. When I got to my peg I found Brian Shanks on peg 11 and he was going to be hard to beat off this peg, Timmy Clarke was on peg 12 in the opposite corner to Brian, and I had both of these pegs in my section just to make things harder! I decided to set up one shallow pellet wag, and one deep wag, both with 0.20mm to 16 PR38. On the pole I just set up a paste rig to fish at 14.5 metres, with 0.18 to my usual size 10 Drennan Nu Hook.

On the whistle I potted in a mixture of 6 and 8mm pellets at 14.5 metres and loose fed 8mms to the island. As with last week I hoped for an early fish or two on the pole while letting the wag swim develop. This was the wrong thing today, as after 25 minutes I had not had one bubble or indication, whilst Brian had taken 2 carp on the wag and a couple of other carp on the wag had been caught. I changed to the wag and about 4th chuck I hit a carp for all of 3 seconds and then was left with nothing on the line. Strange one this, the hook length had parted, but the float and shot had also come off for some reason? Another 20 mins on the wag brought nothing, and then I noticed some fizzing on the pole and dropped back in on it with paste. First chuck back in and an 8oz skimmer and then the fizzing had subsided. After 10 mins I thought I might have to go back to the wag, but then a proper bite resulted in a 10lb common, off the mark! Next drop in and after a short wait I had a 3lb common, and then next chuck a 7lb common. Of course the fish then disappeared and in the next 3 hours all I did was loose one more carp on the wag which again snapped 0.20 immeadiately!

The middle of the match was dire for all except Timmy Clarke, I resorted to trying to hit the water boatman with the end of my pole, while Brian said he was trying to fire a pellet into his toss pot! Glenn had rang to tell me he was on one skimmer and that it was rock hard! Chris Fox 2 up from me was having a rant, justifiably, because he had yards of line in the water opposite him and he was losing loads of gear. I'll say it again, the middle of the match really was a bore, but we all did our best to keep a bit of banter up, Timmy Clarke helped most of all by losing more than he was landing, even Anton tried to help him but said it was like watching Benny Hill!

I had kept trying different feeding patterns on both pole and wag to no avail, but with an hour to go there was a bit of a fizz on the pole line again. I got a few liners on this but then had what looked like a proper bite, but when I struck I connected with the fish about a foot below the surface, fouler? Well it didn't charge off, it just plodded forcefully around and I soon realised I was attached a lump. After about 15 mins of me pulling as hard as I could (even Anton Page opposite thought I was gonna break my no 4 section) I landed what turned out to be a 16lb 4oz common, hooked just outside the mouth. As I pulled the lump out of the water my old faithful Drennan Team England landing net pole snapped at the ferrule, sad to see that pole go. Thankfully Adrian Bishop at the next peg kindly lent me a pole and next put in I was into another carp about 5lb. The pole line went dead then and for the last 10 mins I chucked the pellet wag, and last cast it went under and this time I landed a 7lb fish after the whistle.

Unfortunately I was not going to get any dosh as Brian had taken several carp in the last hour fishing to the bottom bank margin and he won the section (and framed) with 60lb, Timmy Clarke had 52lb (for section default) and my six carp weighed 48lb. We were the top 3 on the lake by some way and the rest of it was tripe. Hard to say I enjoyed today, and once again I was annoyingly just 1 fish away from picking up, still the 16lb fish was a highlight and the biggest fish I have landed on my Preston 2G10 pole. The other lake was also hard but it produced first and second overall in Dean Malin and Josh Garrett. See Tony's blog for the full result as I decided to leave before the results to get home before 8pm for a change!

That's my lot for Commercials this year, when I look back it's been the best set of results I've had in Spring and Summer on commercials. I've had some good draws and caught, but also messed some pegs up, so still plenty more to learn. I've caught more fish than ever before on paste, and whilst nowhere near an expert I would like to think I have added this tactic to my armoury and have some confidence in it. A few weeks R n R now I think, and time to get the gear ready for the river, so my next post will probably be in September, in the mean time I wish you tight lines.

Avalon Open

2010-08-02T19:29:00.003+01:00

As it is round 5 of the float only next week at Avalon I decided Tony's open at the venue would be a good idea, I'll blame Glenn for giving me that idea. I've been having a few "bottom" problems of late and I found myself having to use the toilets at Avalon. They are very pleasant, but it is not a good idea to go into one to soon after Dean Malin, nuff said. Luckily for me I did not draw a shite peg and was happy with peg 7 which has won a match recently (but it was Gary Wall on paste and he is the master and I am just giving it a go so I could mess this up!).

The wind was not so bad on my side of the lake, but across where Glen had drawn on 39 it was a bit more vicious. I had a plan today, pole and paste early doors and then over to the island for the wag or the feeder depending on the wind. The paste rig was the same as that previously used at Cider Farm, a 3 swan Corby was more than enough to chuck to the island with 0.20 to a 16 PR36. The feeder was a grip mesh type and I would fill it with softened 6mms, same hook and line as wag. I also set up a margin rig but never had a bite (as usual) on that.

On the whistle I cupped in half a big pot of 6mms at 13 metres (I know a lot of people fish out further but I'm happy with that distance) and then fed 8mms by catty to the island regularly. Within about 15 mins bubbles appeared and I had a classic "dip dip" on the float before it buried and a carp of around 5lb was landed. An hour and a half in and I had taken 2 more carp, 2 skimmers and a bream but despite refeeding it had gone really quiet. With visual signs of carp across I had to throw the wag out, and I was expecting some instant action. However, it was not that responsive and I had to get exceptionally tight to get a bite. Four carp graced my net in the next hour and a half and so half way through I was fairly happy with my catch.

I'd like to say I carried on catching steadily, but thinks went pete tong and before I knew it time was running out. First the wag line went dead so I tried the pole for 10 mins, but with no bites and with the carp still on the island I tried the wag again. First chuck and a bite but the fish was in a tree to my right before I could blink, bye bye float. A couple of hook lengths were lost in the vegetation and then I pulled out of fish and another did me in the tree before the swim went quiet. Phil Harding seemed to be catching regularly on the lead so I decided to try the feeder, this produced 3 tiny carp and a 3lb fish, but also I got snapped twice on 0.20! Another try on the wag (because it was obvious to me the big fish in my peg were shallow) and I managed to drop the float (eventually) into the one spot where I seemed to be able to get a bite. I did get a bite and hooked a carp which somehow snagged me immediately, I lost the lot and chucked the rod up the bank. Although there was only the odd bubble showing on the pole line from what I thought were skimmers I decided it was pole and paste for the last 45 mins. I stuck on a big piece of paste to avoid the skimmers but I don't think there were any there because the float went straight under and I landed a 9lb common which I was convinced was foul hooked but wasn't! I had 2 more carp about 8lb and then it was end of match.

As I waited for the scales I knew I was unlikely to coin up, I weighed 9lb 15oz of silvers and with the carp the total went 70lb 14oz, and yes I picked up nowt as Phil won the section with 79lb. With 80lb taking 4th I was just 2 fish off framing, and those lost fish were very costly indeed, as was my decision to not try the pole earlier. Oh well you live and learn, and next week it could be totally different, but I hope the wind doesn't blow to much!

Well done to Gary Wall who once again showed his paste prowess to win convincingly with 165lb from a different peg again. Tony Rixon was 2nd on peg 12 and even he has found the power of the paste to be irresistible, could next years float only become pole and paste only? Well there is more to this paste than meets the eye me thinks, but next week will be the last time I use it this year as that will be the end of my commercial action.