Upper Thames ATWL - Round 2 Bristol Avon

 After catching a few fish on the lower Avon I got picked to fish round 2 of this league, it was on the Avon at Melksham and Chippenham. I spent Friday evening getting the prep done and was ready for Sunday. I did the prep Friday as I was off to Cheltenham Saturday to watch the Gas, and glad I went as I saw a great win! May have had a few beers too, but I was fine when I woke up 6:15 on Sunday.

I grabbed a McDonalds in Longwell Green and then drove to the draw at Spencers club Melksham. Met up with the rest of the team and paid my pool, and waited for Martin “bad news” Barrett to draw for the team. I’m no expert on this part of the river and so needed the lads to put me right on the draw. However, it was quite easy as I was given a peg that Liam Braddel had fished last week and had nearly 9lb of roach. General consensus was that we had a lot of poor draws and there were a few concerned faces.

I was at Portman Road and had a short drive to get to where I needed to park. It wasn’t too long a walk, but quite hard going. I was on peg 2, and peg 1 had Mark Kimber on it, upstream end peg and would be hard to beat. My peg as warned was very difficult to get into and fish, very steep bank, trees overhead, and a branch stuck out to my left. It was very awkward and every step I took was a careful one. In the end I got my platform in a stable place but was sat about 6 feet off the water.

There was a lovely looking tree opposite me, but the only way I could fish it was with a pole, a waggler would be better but I couldn’t strike in this peg.

I put 4 pole rigs up, 1g and 1.5g for fishing at 13m, a 1g for chopped worm by the tree and a 4 x 14 for fishing shallow. We fished 11 to 4 and I was ready in plenty of time. I kept everything as close to me as I could as I didn’t want to have to get off my box. I cupped a ball of gbait in at 6m and 3 at 13m, started at 6m and had a roach and tiny dace and that was it, so I was soon shipping out to 13m. It was better here, and I had a steady run of roach from 1oz to 4oz, plus the odd little chublet. I had a nice first hour but then it slowed and I topped up with some gbait. This kept the fish coming and I was catching as well as Mark it seemed. Topping up became a bit more regular to keep the fish coming.

Just as the second hour passed my 13m line died and I was surprised as I had expected it to slow up but not be biteless! Nothing I could do would bring back bites, meanwhile Mark carried on catching. I tried my worm line across but never had a bite, and despite numerous attempts I never managed a single bite on worm. Annoying as at least 1 perch was in the peg chasing small fish on the surface. The last two hours went past slowly, I caught a few blips shallow and probably 6 roach, and knew I had been bashed up by Mark.

My section board below shows I came third in the section, Mark had all roach and 1 perch caught on maggot over gbait, Mick Gale had 3 chub plus roach. I was ok with my 7lb and had enjoyed the experience.

Back at the results and it was clear the team had struggled, and we ended up 4th on the day and are off the pace with DGL in front with 3 points. I had a surprise getting 2nd in section money by default as Mark came 3rd overall and framed.  Apparently the same peg at Chippenham that won last week won again today, Ricky Searle with I think 26lb of chub.

Back up here next week and we will need a better draw and performance to claw back some points.

Lower Avon Teams of Four

 Back at it again after a weekend off, but a fair bit has gone on since then. I went to Benidorm with my wife for four days, we went to celebrate Simon Alders 50th birthday. I’ve known Simon since the Silver Dace juniors and although he doesn’t match fish he still loves fishing. I think there were around 16 of us all told including Shaun Townsend who  could drink for England! In the picture are the anglers in the Dorm, Tyler (Simon’s son), Towner, Simon and I’m the slim one on the right 😂.

We got back Monday and all was good, until later that evening when I started coughing. I went downhill every day and ended up in bed a lot of the time, must have been flu as I tested negative twice for covid. I still wasn’t right when I woke up Sunday morning, and had to take sinutabs to clear my head and chest. I was the last to the draw and nothing to do with alcohol! Only 5 teams of 4 as only Jack whites and Chequers were booked, and I was headed for Jack Whites for a change. 

It takes a while to get to your pegs because of the damn kissing gates making you have to unload your trolley and load it again. I was on C4 which is the new peg cut out this year, not for the faint hearted mind. A steep bank with reeds at the bottom where I put my platform in.

The bank is far too steep to allow the use of a pole, so I set up a 12BB crowquill with 18 to 0.11 accupower, a waggler and a feeder rod. I very carefully got everything down the bank and mixed up my gbait Sonubaits black river and roach. I was just forming my initial balls of gbait when the all in was shouted. Both Rob Jones below, and Derek Coles above, balled it in just before I did. That’s three matches on the trot Derek has been next peg to me!

I began on the crowquill with a caster on the hook and it was a good start seeing regular bites but they were annoyingly hard to hit. I swung in a few roach and dace and 1 perch before the caster was ignored. Maggot on the hook revived things but the roach were virtually non existent and this wasn’t a good sign. Catching Dace on a crowquill is challenging as sometimes you pull your hair out missing bites, but it pays to change things around and keep working at it. I found out my section was fishing hard and so I knew that I should keep plodding away. The wind was doing its best to ruin things and trying to get control was at times impossible for more than a few seconds, but at least it wasn’t in my face.

With 2 hours to go the swim was really hard work and I was priming a waggler line down and across with maggots. You can’t really fish that far across as there is a massive snag 2/3 over, you can see it from the top of the bank. Rob had taken a small chub and was probably in front of me with 90 mins left. I looked for a chub on the waggler but only had 1 bleak. I did manage to catch a handful more roach and dace on the crow, even though a small pike grabbed 2 I got them both out. A couple came from fishing it over the waggler line, with my best fish a 5 to 6 ounce dace.

Match over Rob told me he had caught next to nothing the last 90 minutes, and it was sounding closer than I thought. On the end peg Dean Harvey had 1lb 6oz, next Ben Matthews 2lb 12oz, Rob had 5lb 15oz, then my bag went 6lb 9oz, and Derek had 3lb. Finally a proper section win after two defaults lol. This section was the hardest on the day, but above us the top 3 pegs by the steps all had double figures.

Picture below shows the overall top 2 and the section winners. Paul Purchase returned from Australia to draw the end peg at Chequers and do what he does and bagged up on roach, nice one.

It was a bit tight on the team front with 4 teams all joint on 13 points! As my team were one of them it means we retain the lead at The halfway mark. Next match is 30th October.

Lower Avon Teams of Four

 The second round of this new league which was once again being held at chequers, Jack Whites and Crane, but as we had 2 hospital teams in Swineford was also in. I had not helped with pegging this time as I had been away on holiday for a week in Zante, and only got home just before midnight Saturday. No preparation done and was getting my bait delivered in the morning by Mat Challenger, thanks Matt!

We met at Wetherspoons in Hanham for the draw, had a nice breakfast, Mark Harper did our team draw and I was going to the Crane, second field in the bay, this peg produced chub first match but none last week on the com house. Mark was end peg at Swineford, Rob Manns at Jackies again and Towner at Chequers but not a great peg.

My peg was lovely and calm when setting up with just a very slight downstream wind. To do well I would need some chub and so set up a 4AAA waggler with 16 to 0.13 powerline and a blockend feeder. Also set up a couple of rigs for the pole at 13m, 1g pencil and 2g both with 18N10 to 0.10 accu power. I also set up a chopped worm rig but never used it.

We started at 11:15 and decided to cup 8 balls of gbait in today (Sonubaits black river and roach) to try to avoid pike problems. I fed caster and hemp over to the boats. Dropping in on the pole and it was bleak soup, I was soon pushing the Olivette nearer and nearer to the hook, eventually it was just above the hook length. Caster on the hook seemed best when it got past the bleak, catching odd dace and roach. Didn’t take long for a Jack pike to start causing me some losses, but after a while it went. I kept plugging away but was still frustrated by bleak, after an hour bites only came from bleak so I cupped in another ball and got a few more fish until another pike hit. This one was very big and I was soon bit off, a couple more fish then lumpy bit me off again. Another roach and lumpy took it, I held firm thinking it might let go this time, it didn’t, and all I ended up doing was trashing the complete rig!

It was frustrating but I decided to take a rest from unintentional pike fishing and try the waggler. I was pretty sure this was going to be bleak soup as I’d seen them boiling on my loosefeed. I was right, double or triple caster or maggots was snaffled. To make matters worse the wind had picked up and was now upstream and in my face, meaning I was struggling to get my casters and hemp by the boats. After 20 minutes of being bitted out I tried a piece of corn on the hook, nothing for a couple of casts then a 4oz roach. A few casts later the float went under again and chub on and it felt like a good un. I played it hard as there are lollies and weed in close, luckily everything held and I landed a chub close on 4lb.

With about half the match left I was sure of hooking some more chub, but despite flogging the waggler I never saw another chub. I did manage to catch a few nice roach on the waggler on casters as the bleak became less trouble, but even then I lost a couple to pike and had a few near misses. I didn’t try the pole again as I was sure I needed chub to do well.

When the match finished I was sure I had double figures but gutted not more. Steve Lovell above me had similar pike and bleak issues he said, and Derek Coles below had major pike issues! However, on the upstream end peg in the long ashtip field Ben Rendall had avoided pike and bleak and had a lovely 17lb of roach on the long rod to win my section, I ended up second to Ben with 12lb 10oz. Steve had just under 10lb and Derek and Gary Cross both had 8lb 1oz. 

Back to the Lock Keeper for the results and once again there were some good weights with team mate Mark Harper winning with over 26lb of roach! Ben was second and Lee Gregory 3rd with 16lb at Swineford.

As Ben framed I got the default £50 section win, that’s two on the bounce 😆 

Teams on the day shown below, my team were second on the day, beaten by the other Thatchers team, but we are leading at the moment.

I cannot fish this weekend and next trip out is not yet decided until team selection is done.

Lower Avon Teams of Four

 Normally I would be fishing the Commercial House League at this time of year, but the Lower Avon Teams of Four league run by Ben Rendall was more appealing to my Thatchers team. It was looking like 7 teams were fishing, but then I heard that two teams pulled out just a week or two before, shame. I don't know what it is that anglers don't want to fish the Bristol Avon around Keynsham, this time of year it is generally full of fish, I guess easy walks and pellets are more attractive?

I helped peg the match with Shaun Townsend and Ben Matthews on Saturday, we put 5 pegs at Chequers, 10 at Jack Whites and 5 up the Crane. Everyone would have lots of room and hopefully a few fish. I hoped to draw Jack Whites..

Most of the team met at Wetherspoons in Hanham where I had a large brekkie and Cranberry juice. Thatchers have two teams in, and my lot were Towner, Mark Harper and Rob Manns. The other side were Matt Challanger, Paul Isaacs, James Carty and Andy Greenham. Mark did our team draw, no Jack Whites for me... I was down Chequers on the upstream end peg round the bend from the straight, with the other 4 pegs on the straight I was not confident about a good finish. below me on the top of the straight was Derek Coles. Derek was on a peg that I used to know as the rock face, not that you can see it so well these days, but it was always a good peg for roach and chub as the flow pushes across, he would get a few I thought.

My peg has no features across, just reeds, and the flow is halfway and across, so I put the pole out of my mind today for roach.

I set up a waggler and a whip (both never used) a feeder rod (chucked out a few times) a 14BB crowquill with 0.11 accupower to 18 N10, and a 6m pole line for chopped worm with my faithful 1g rig with 0.15 to 14 N50.

There was a tide on today and so the start of the match was 11:30 which was great as the river had dropped to normal level by then and was still flowing. I threw 8 balls of gbait to the middle of the river (sonubaits black river and black roach) and then put 8 feeder fulls right across to give myself a place for bream if they fed. I went out with  the crowquill with caster on the hook and I was pleased to get a bite first run down, it felt like a good fish, but it was a foul hooked dace! I had a bite every cast and it was just a case of trying to hit them and work out what was going on, I had a few dace and a few roach. Then the dreaded hold ups, where the body of the crowquill is shown, small bleak and small dace were in the peg now. I had not loose fed the peg and all that was in was my initial groundbait balls. I had no choice but to reduce the length of hook to bulk to get passed the snots as I was sure there were more decent roach to catch. It did work to a fashion, but hitting bites was a bit tricky.

I had stuck with the float for 90 mins but then gave the feeder a line a go hoping for that quick bonus, alas no sign of bream and even double worm was ragged by bits. Back on the crowquill and I was feeding small balls of my gbait mix with hemp and caster mixed in to keep the fish in the peg, and avoided loose feeding to keep the bleak away. I was always getting bites, but hitting them was not easy as many were fast dace bites. Mid match I had a bit of a melt down, the wind got seriously a pain, blowing right in my kisser and causing the line to get behind the spool on at least 10 occasions!!!! I had to snap the line twice and tie it back together, never good to have a knot in the mainline, but I managed. To say I had tourettes a few time would be an understatement, my wife came and sat behind me and watched for a hour, and commented on my swearing lol. About 10 minutes after she went a creature appeared from the far bank and swam towards me, a creature my wife is very, very scared of! It was a grass snake of about 3 feet long and it went into the bank to my right but I never saw it again.

I took about 10 small perch on my short chopped worm line, but this was slowing up and then I hit a snag and lost the hook so this went up the bank! I focussed my attention on the crowquill, and the bits had finally gone in the last hour, bites were a lot slower but when I did connect it was always a nice roach of 3 to 4oz. I had my best fish a roach of 6oz in this last spell on a red maggot, though most of my fish came on caster. Match ended at 16:30 and I guessed I had 10 to 12lb.

Whilst packing away Derek came up and told me had really had a great day and reckoned on having 20lb! Oh dear I might be in trouble as I knew Ben Rendall had 8lb after 2 hours! I had the scales and would soon find out.

My fish were weighed first, and I was happy to weight 12lb 12oz, I think 14lb+ was possible but as it turned out that would not have made a difference. Derek took the section out with 20lb 11oz, 13lb of roach and the rest chub, all on a bolo float fished across in the flow. He lost two big chub which snapped him up! I ended up second in my section which I was relieved to get, Andy Greenham had 11lb 11oz and Ben Rendall 9lb 5oz (his peg died on him big time). 

We went back to the Lock Keeper in Keynsham for the results and I was hoping my team had done well as we had Rob Manns won his section, Mark Harper second and Towner beat one. Indeed our 15 out of 20 points was enough to win the day, so a great start. 

Derek Coles won the match (and that got me the £40 section money by default, happy days!) and ORb Manns was second with 15lb 13oz at Jackies, Ben Matthews third from Chequers with 15lb 11oz. Every section was won with double figures.

Teams on the day..

I've had an absolute nightmare with my laptop tonight, I think it is close to going in the recycle bin, taken me ages to upload photos, arrgh! Anyway I hope you had a great weekend and a few fish, and I look forward to the next round of this league in two weeks time. In the meantime the only other thing I have to say is rest in peace your majesty, and God save the King.

Turner 400 River Thames Calnfield to Kelmscott

 This blog is a week late due to, a late night home last Sunday followed by working away for 3 days. The Turner 400 was being contested by 29 teams of 4, my Thatchers team consisted of some very good river anglers, Andy Ottaway, Lee Trivett, Shaun Townsend and yours truly. The draw was being done at Clanfield football club from 7:30am, but as teams could place anglers in sections we already knew where we were going to be (we did a random draw rather than place) and I was headed for Kelmscott. Andy did the draw and let us know where we were, I was the downstream end of Kelmscott and had to walk from Grafton Lock. I wasn't to chuffed with my draw as I felt I was the wrong end of the section, and I was only about 8 pegs above above Andy who probably wrong end of his section too!

It was a nice walk past the lock, then three fields to get to my peg, I saw John Bohane who told me my peg had produced 25lb of chub recently in a match, that day the chub could be seen on the far bank, couldn't see any today. Still I was happy to know there were chub in the area and would be have a bonus fish line to go at.

As you can see from the picture there were stick ups right opposite me then a nice tree just below, lots of trees on this venue and I guess the chub find their homes under them. My biggest issue was that the wind was in my face and it was getting stronger as I set up, I could reach the tree easily with a 3.5AAA wag though which I set up with 0.13 to 16. There was hardly any flow and so I dotted the float down. I also set up a 1g chopped worm rig with 14 to 0.15, and a couple of pole rigs for 11m, a pencil float with 0.09 to 20, and a strung out rig with 0.09 to 18 for hemp. Also set the feeder up with 0.17 to 12.

I cupped a few balls of groundbait on the 11m line and fed some chopped worm at 7m down the peg a bit, picked up the waggler and cast out. I tried to feed it but the catapult only got the bait halfway, so I got a stronger catty and that got the bait not a lot further, bummer. I caught a 4oz chublet 2nd cast and a couple of bleak, but it was not any good as I simply could not get any loose feed anywhere near where I needed to and I couldn't all match, I was gutted. I dropped in on the worm line and had a few small perch, then went on the long pole line which was not great, a few tiny perch, dace and one roach.

After 90 minutes I reckoned I had 12oz at best and I was not getting any bites on my pole lines which meant I was in trouble. I guessed I needed a chub and so I picked up the feeder rod with a blockend feeder but to fish worm and caster. First cast and the wind was so bad the tip was blown around, so I put the rod rest down and put the tip by the river, Next cast I had a small bite but nothing, then next cast a proper bite and a tug of war began, with the right gear on I was able to drag the fish away from the tree and land a 2 1/2lb chub. With 3 hours to go I was feeling a lot better about things and expecting to get a few more chub. Well what happened was.. not a lot! I spent a lot of time on the tip getting stupid little pulls which I realised were crayfish, I reeled back twice with no hook, and the pole lines were dead. I did get another chublet and a perch on the feeder but that was it. Last cast and never had a bite but the hooklength came back looking like this, I assume a crayfish did this!

I thought I might have 4lb if I was lucky, and as it turned out I had 3lb 15oz. In the bottom ten pegs that were weighed in, in my section I came 3rd with that. Beaten by Gary Barclay above me who had 5lb 15oz, and John a few pegs below had 5lb+. I was happy with that and hoped I had done OK for the team. Andy in the next section had a high 5lb and was second in his 10 pegs beaten by an 18lb of chub, so looking OK.

When we got back to results Shaun said he was about middle in his section and Lee had done well with a couple of chub. However, it turned out me and Andy were indeed in the wrong part of our larger 29 peg section, with Andy only beating 4 more anglers, and myself beating 8 more anglers. As a team we ended up 10th out of 29, and the Drennan Team next to us who are a good local side had the same points as us and on weight had 12oz more. Again we had to be happy with that and took some credit from that.