IT'S COMING HOME

 Sorry the blog has been a bit quiet, but July has been a busy time for me and family stuff. However, fishing will be returning with a vengeance in August, I have been selected to fish the Feeder National, and the Divison 1 National which are both being held on the river Trent non tidal sections. The feeder national is fished to international FIPS rules and that means bait limits, as well as minimum hooklengths and shock leaders, so I have to make sure that I know those well.

One thing that will most likely be needed will be a sturdy platform, and I recently invested in the new Preston Innovations Absolute Platform. I got it out at home and put it together just so I knew what I was doing on the bank lol, but actually it is a doddle to put together and looks very sturdy.

Anyway lots of prep to do this and next week, and hopefully draw a peg where I can get a few bites and the team do well, we will need a fair bit of luck.

Today fishing was off the agenda, and I took my eldest daughter and her friend to Parkway station as they were off to Wembley for the final of the Womens Euros. Well what can you say, they have had a great day, full of emotion, and they are so lucky to see England win a tournament. Finally "IT CAME HOME!"

Well done Ladies, super proud of you, beating the Germans is never easy and was biting my nails a few times, but you did it!

King Billy & Avon AC Bristol Avon Lacock

 It seems like a long time since I have wetted a line, and of course even longer since I have fished on the river. Since my holiday at Viaduct a number of family activities have taken priority and this weekend was supposed to be the same, but a change of plan and all of a sudden I had a free Sunday. I was going to find somewhere fish the river and then found out about this match ay Lacock. Any chance to fish this bit of river is always taken, and it is far to infrequent.

I had company today with my wife Wendy joining me for the day, and she had kindly made bacon rolls to start the day off well. The draw was in the National Trust car park, and it was good to see some Bristol boys, Ben Rendall, Steve Skelton, Dereck Coles, Mike Weston and Jerry Pocock who I think had booked the water along with Sean O'Neil from Avon AC. A few other local lads were present and although only a small affair it meant the walks were not going to be excessive and only pegs without the chance for swimmers being in front of you were pegged. I pulled out peg 8 which I found out was above the cattle drink on what they call the stumps. I have drawn this many years ago and won off it when in flood, but now it does not look the same at all.

I was going to have to climb down a steep bank and then wade in the water (which was nice on a hot day) to fish the peg properly. The flow comes down the inside about 4 to 5m out, then past this is all dead water, but it was in the dead water I was told that I may catch chub.

I set up on top the bank just two things, a 6 no4 stick float and a 2AAA waggler, both had 0.15 powerline to strong 16 hooks, no messing about as it would be hook and hold, and I would not hesitate to go up to 0.17. The trot was very limited due to a fallen tree in the water, so the stick would be limited I thought, but I had to feed it. I took a photo of my set up, using the box for bait trays, and a little video to help show what the peg looked like.

I was ready in plenty of time for the 10:15 start and as the match began Wendy went off for a walk and left me be. I had a plan to feed caster and hemp into the dead water, and maggots in the flow. I had 2 pints each of everything and was going to attack the peg with heavy feed. Starting on the stick float where it was 4 feet deep it didn't take long to get bites, only trouble was it from the inevitable minnows, even with 3 or 4 maggots on the minnows were a pain, but I did get the odd bleak and dace. I tried a piece of corn and got 1 dace and then as the float just got to the fallen tree I hooked a better fish, thought it my be a chub but turned out to be a 12oz perch! No more on corn.

I had wanted to feed the deep water for a fair while to get any chub that may be there a bit confident, but after 45 minutes I went on to this and using double caster I cast out, the float did not get knocked about with minnows, good sign. It took a while to get a bite but when I got one it was a 3 to 4oz chublet, had a few of these and a dace then all went quiet. With the river being so clear I had to rest it and go back on the stick. Throwing in a decent handful of maggots I could see the hoardes of minnows piling in on the bait, and at this stage this line was really not great and I wasn't getting much in the net of any size or speed. A jack pike appeared and grabbed a chublet, but it was only about 2 1/2lb and I soon pulled the fish off the pike, and never saw it again

Quite a few people started walking the bank and setting up picnics and paddling or swimming in the river, it added a little colour about halfway through and I hoped it might help. I had some swimmers come up but not so close, and they turned around when they saw me, not long after this I had three 10 to 12oz chub in as many casts and thought this might be it... Alas no, they went again. I actually caught those chub on the stick float in the dead water, fishing it on the bottom in the slightly deeper water than in close. I kept trying the waggler at 2 1/2 feet and would get the odd fish here, did get a few minnow problems and tried corn, had a couple of chublets and again no more.

With about 90 minutes left the river had got more colour in it from the swimmers and I took a chub of maybe just over 1lb on the waggler, another one off. On the close line dace and bleak were now fighting with the minnows and I took a few of them here, but it had to be on single caster, double caster just lead to missed bites. I tried it on the waggler and stick in the dead water, and it was better than doulble caster and I caught a few net roach, chublets and decent dace. But I still kept thinking I needed those big chub and kept feeding heavy and trying double caster and corn, but other than chublets no decent chub showed unfortunately. 

I felt I had a steady match, never bagging, and maybe had I fined down I might have had a few more pounds, but to be honest I really was expecting some chub battles. By the end of the match I reckon I had fed 4 1/2 pints of bait and half a tin of corn. 

I packed up and was that I had been standing deep in water as it kept me cool, I had the scales and had to weigh from peg 11 back to me. Sean O'Neil on the end peg had hooked 14 large fish and landed 5 chub and a barbel, the other 8 busting him on 0.19 in the rushes and snags on his narrow 3 1/2 feet deep swim. he weighed 17lb 9oz, and it did include a barbel of about 2oz, nice to see.

The next angler had 7 1/2lb a decent chub and bits but said he lost the biggest perch he had ever seen, the next guy had just under 3lb but had been smashed up twice! My turn to weigh and I was pleased to see the needle settle on 13lb 7oz, a nice net of small fish just lacking some lumps.

When everyone was finally back I found out that Jerry Pocock had won the match, I had spoken to him about halfway through and he had about 4lb. However, he hooked 4 barbel after this and landed 2 which gave him top weight with 19lb. No other weights beat me up that end so I ended up third and last in the money, yay.

Most people it seemed had lost big fish, Dereck got done twice, Ben four times, and there were others too. I think I might have been the only one not to hook or lose a lump lol. Still a lovely day out fishing traditional running line, and Wendy enjoyed going into village and the Abbey and bought a little bottle lacock gin which we will have to try soon. All in all a good day, lovely weather too.

Not sure what is happening next weekend, will have to see, but it looks like this hot sunny weather is here to stay for a while.

VIADUCT HOLIDAY - DAY 6 TODBER MANOR FISHERY

 A longer trip offsite today to Todber, though Geoff Francis and Chris Ollis had both decided not fish this match late on as they didn't fancy the fast fishing on offer. We were headed to Ash Lake which some said would not be such high weights as seen on Homeground and Hillview, but 250lb needed apparently.

The drive to the fishery was no bother (unlike last year which was a nightmare) and it was nice to arrive in good time. Tony Rixon and Jason Radford were joining us for this match, and Tony kindly had some scales but requested help with the weighing in at the end as it is too much for one person. Martin Rayet was the main source of info as he fishes it a fair bit, he also did the pegging which was spot on. I got peg 62 which is the first end of the lake you come to, I was told by Guy Manton that the peg was worth 200lb all day long. 

I was told a feeder was a good bet to start on, so I set up a method feeder with a mix of micros and Thatchers gbait to mould to it. Before the start I cast the feeder to get clipped up, first attempted when, ahem, a bit too far and it was stuck. I walked around to the far side and managed to get it free and throw into the lake. Whilst here I spotted that a bot of the bank had been cleared before and just a few loose bits and bobs needed removing, glad I walked round now. I was soon clipped up proper and happy with it. I set up a rig for fishing hard pellets at top set plus two, and two margin rigs, one for meat and one for hard pellet.

We started at 11am and I cast the feeder out and it landed well, so much so that after 30 seconds a carp was pulling the rod in. Next cast same result, and for the first hour I was having a decent time of it, a couple of casts went a bit long and hit the reeds, but the feeder always came back and sometimes dropped in nicely lol. I then had a cast that went well into the reeds and was a bit shocked, I looked down and saw the line had come out of the clip, bugger. Had to happen just as guy came up to watch me on his lunch break lol. Luckily a couple of casts and I was back sorted. Then a carp got in the reeds for the first time and although I got it out the hook was straighten so had to change. Guy told me to feed more pellet up to a little bush to my left and soon a few carp were mooching here, I was loathed to come off the method though as I was doing well. Woody on 64 was struggling with about 20lb, I had 65lb on the clicker, but Martin R had 90lb on his short pellet line. When I heard Glenn had over 70lb I thought I had better try short to speed things up as the method was not as effective I thought.

I had fed meat in the RH margin, pellet left (both on top set, and the pellet up to the bush. I saw a carp in the meat margin so went in there and did 7 or 8 carp quite quickly, these were similar size to those on the tip, 1 to 2lb mostly. Woody was trying to sort his margin out after he had tried fishing shallow, and was just starting to get a few lined up. My meat margin died, and it never came back to life, even when I tried to change it to pellet. Over to the LH bush, there were carp there but they were very shallow, and I pushed my float down to the hook length and even then I still fouled some, I wasn't catching anywhere near fast enough and was in danger of losing the plot as you know at this venue a bad hour is bad news. Woody was now flying but I was sure I was on par with him, and I started to get carp on pellet in the close RH margin. I stayed here for the last couple of hours but knew I wasn't catching as well as Woody.

When the match finished I had 225lb on my clicker, Woody said he had 250lb which I guessed was about right.  Here though are the results...

1st Woody 309lb 7oz (on meat over micros and meat, much bigger average stamp of fish)

2nd Tony Rixon 304lb 14oz (all shallow on long pole)

3rd Martin Rayet 272lb 8oz 

4th Gary Bowden 242lb 15oz

5th Glenn Bailey 239lb 8oz

6th Me 222lb 15oz (only 2lb out on my clicker, that's a win for me PMSL!)

7th Gordon Cannings 176lb 3oz

8th Mark Tanner 69lb 1oz

Jason DNW

A little clip here of Mr Rixon trying to educate Mark Tanner on the art of bringing your fish to the weigh net lol.

Pictured is the star of the week, Martyn "Woody" Woodington. He smashed it out of the park every match, and on many different methods too, man of the week, some results that, think he had a free holiday on us lol. We might have to call him Dick Turpin from now on, seriously though well done mate, brilliant.

On Friday a few stayed and pleasure fished. Martin helped Chris with how to mug fish on lodge lake, Chris had a strange way of playing the carp, we didn't laugh. Here he is striking a pose with a lump on.

I had a lovely week, got my pools money back and a little more, which is always nice. But that's just an aside. Out with your mates fishing (in lovely weather), enjoying the wonderful scenery and wildlife, and having a few beers and putting the world to right and laughing, laughing so much, it is simply fantastic. Spending a week in a wonderful lodge at Viaduct with good friends is something I look forward to every year.

Off for a couple of weeks due to Dad and work duties, hopefully will get a chance to see a bit of river fishing soon.

VIADUCT HOLIDAY - DAY 5 CAMPBELL SHORT POLE

Wednesday on holiday always means the short pole match, top set and 3 sections of pole is the maximum you can use, no shipping on sections, and no line longer than the top set. Some people question why limit yourself, but I guess it is a tradition and if you don't like it don't fish it lol. Anyway we had 18 anglers on the bank today including some heavy hitters, it would be interesting.

I always prefer a peg on the near bank, so 110 to 119, so was really happy when I pulled out 115. We were all amazed though when Woody did not get peg 110 lol!

115 platform is out a little further than the other pegs so an advantage on the distance front. Normally I would fish for carp, but the day before 60lb of skimmers came off the peg and so I quite fancied going for the silvers again even though I had an ace silvers angler Mat Rowe next to me on 114 and Ryan Jordan on 111 who was going for the skimmers and Paul Faires on 126. I had Glenn Bailey on next peg 115 today, so fishing the paste against him would be a challenge hence going for silvers. I only set up silvers rigs to start a couple of 4x12 one strung shotted and one bulked for soft pellet, and another for fishing corn in the margin. The silvers anglers have been catching big weights in close, so I started at top set plus one, but after only 2 small skimmers it all seemed wrong. I went out to full length and fed a line to the left with pellet and a line to the right with meat. Today I fed some micros with my baits as I had picked up this was working for the skimmers.

After an hour I had about 10lb of skimmers, but Ryan and Ben Haag on 112 were catching skimmers faster than me, Ryan on worm, Ben on meat. Mat Rowe was catching steady. On the carp front Dan White on 121 was mugging carp from the off and it was already game over on that we all thought.

I guess after 3 hours I had about 20lb of skimmers, but I was sure I was well behind the three to my left, and Glenn who had not had one carp but some good skimmers on paste. It seemed Dan was the runaway winner, and the only other person in my section with some carp was Woody on peg 127. I made a tactical decision, even though it appeared there were virtually no carp in front of 114 to 116 (I had lost one, Mat had lost one) I wanted to go for carp and try and win the section money, hoping that Woody being on fire might frame. I got off my box and got new rigs out, paste and a margin rig (mugging was not an option as the light was awful). 

As seems to happen here, a few carp started to appear coming in range, and with about 2 hours to go I got my first carp on paste. I had an odd skimmer on the paste but after a wait would get a carp. Meanwhile Glenn could only catch skimmers on paste where ever he fished! I kept my eye on Woody and was willing him to keep catching carp shallow and frame, but Vic Bush on 129, Gary B on 130 and Ben Haag all had some fish. I managed one carp from the margin on double corn to go with my paste fish. I only lost one carp on the paste a fouler just before the all out, so not to bad on that front. When the match ended I thought I had a 100lb in total, Glenn never had a carp and only hooked 2 which both came off.

As normal the scales started the weigh on on 110, Mat Long flexing his muscles on the weigh sling today. Ben Haag was admitting to 140lb, Woody a bit less and When Vic had 142lb I was thinking my plan had failed. However, Ben took a look at his silvers net and was concerned he had more than 50lb, which would mean that his net would be disqualified, but the scales would decide that! Woody did well to catch 157lb 8oz (he's good at underestimating) but was well beaten by Dan White who had 279lb 5oz. My skimmers went 26lb and with my carp I had in total 102lb 11oz. 

As it turned out Ben did have to many silvers in one net, so he lost that, and he chucked his carp back too, oops. With no other weights to beat Woody I knew I had got the section money, so the change was worth it and worked.

1st Dan White 279lb

2nd Woody 157lb

3rd Vic Bush 142lb

4th Gary Bowden 133lb

Mat Rowe won the silvers next to me with a lovely 62lb 4oz of simmers on corn, with Ryan Jordan 2nd with 55lb 3oz. Glenn eneded 3rd but no money with nearly 39lb of accidental skimmers on paste lol!

For some reason I had no pictures today, I think the sun got me or something, though to be fair I was in the shade most of the day. It was nice getting back to the Lodge though and having a cool can of Thatchers.

We went to the curry house which has never let us down, the portion size is large (too big for me) and food tasty, but you need to take your own drinks, so bottle of Malbec for me.

We retired back to the Lodge (most of us) and chatted for ages, though the endurance test was all too much for some, sorry Gary lol.

VIADUCT ANNUAL HOLIDAY - DAY 4 AVALON FISHERY

 Breakfast was in the M&M cafe in Somerton (went in here Monday to Friday) with the good lady Mandy making sure we were well fed, and breakfast was always ready within a few minutes. It isn't a long drive to Avalon, and I do like driving in this part of the world as there is so much wildlife around. When I got to the fishery I could already hear and see some carp were spawning, that wasn't going to help the fishing I thought.

Vic Bush had given us both banks nearest the car park, with peg 1 having recently won a match it might be OK, I also thought the opposite end pegs would be good as would 44 which had carp showing all the time in the gap. I drew peg 46, not on my list of what I wanted. We had 13 anglers fishing today in total, and once again Gordon was next to me on 48 on the end bank, on 44 was Mark Tanner. I did my best to convince Mark to fish in the gap with his favoured pellet wag but he was having none of it and fished to the right of the gap.

It was a hot and sunny day with no wind where I was, I thought it would be a tough match and with no maggots or casters it would be carp or nothing as I thought the bream would be off eating carp spawn. I had an island I could chuck to, the point looked inviting and so I set up the lead and pellet wag to fish here, also a paste rig, a shallow rig, mugging rig and a margin rig. A lot of options covered today.

Vic had told me that shallow fishing had been the best of late and with the weather the way it was it was likely to be the same, so I started fishing shallow with pellet, even though there were no signs of carp in the peg. I gave it an hour shallow and had just the one 2oz roach, a look deep on the paste was a waste and I never had an indication. I saw a ghost carp come through and tried to mug it, hooked it and it went off and sanpped 0.19. Onto the pellet wag and I nailed a carp second chuck so was off the mark after about 90 minutes, but any thoughts of a decent run were wrong and after I got snapped by a carp I never had anything else for ages. I chucked the lead as I had seen a couple of carp caught on it, but again this was no good. I was going nowhere and there appeared to be no fish in the peg. Gordon only had 1 carp, but Jon Darby on peg 1 had landed a number of carp from the end bank. Mark Tanner had about 5 carp on the pellet wag.

I got bored and went for a walk, Mark was getting plenty of indications on his pellet wag and the carp were still showing themselves in the gap. Glenn on 42 had not caught on his paste but had had a couple of carp on lead and wag. Chris Ollis was catching whitebait and Gary B had a couple of carp shallow. I went back to my peg and tried hard for another hour and not a sign, went for another walk. Glenn was playing a large carp caught on paste but hooked in the tail, he played it for a long time until eventually his top set exploded, oh dear. Gary B had a few other carp. It seemed the only other anglers catching were Jon and that man Woody again who was on peg 11 catching on the pellet wag.

Back to my peg and I noticed the the bay I had opposite me was now going into the shade and a decent number of carp were appearing in the peg, I think they were the ones that had been spawning earlier and were now moving back out into the lake. It wasn't easy casting into the arc of the bay but there were odd fish there. I fished with renewed enthusiasm just to try to get a bit of sport, I got a few carp, and even mugged a brute off the rod end lol. It was never enough but I ended up with 56lb 6oz. That actually overtook Mark on 44 who slowed up and had 52lb 14oz. The only angler who beat me on my bank was Gary who got second with 74lb 8oz.

Winner was... yep Woody with 131lb 3oz all on pellet wag, Jon Darby was third with 70lb 11oz. A bit gutted I missed out on a pick up, I think had I fished in the bay for the first 4 hours I may have had a few more carp, but we will never know. Chris Ollis bag of whitebait weighed 9lb and that was all that was needed to win the silvers.

A picture of my best two carp here. Whilst it was a tough day I was able to listen to lots of birds I hardly get to hear these days, cuckoo and willow warbler are much more scarce than they used to be. Thankfully this area has been well looked after and managed to encourage many birds to breed here, and I hope they return year after year.

The plan for the evening changed completely, and I got confused, I ended up back at the Lodge on my own, everyone else had driven straight to the pub lol. I jogged up the footpath and into town to get a cool pint of Thatchers and another decent meal in the White Swan.