Open match Bristol Avon - Chippenham and Melksham

This match whist being an open was largely being run as a practise for next weekends AT Winter League, so I was here supporting my Thatchers team. The river is very low and clear and I was expecting a tough day unless I drew one of the chub flyers.

I stopped in Greggs for a breakfast baguette as the venue used for the draw was not opening in the morning. It was cold stood outside and definitely colder here than back in Bristol. I was soon stood looking at my draw, peg 24 which was the end peg at Chippenham just above the blue bridge in a peg called the copse. I had a quick word with Gary Etheridge and Mick Gale who told me I should be able to get some chublets on my peg, and whilst it wasn’t one of the best pegs there were plenty worse.

Once I found my peg I could see why it was called the copse as you’re sat surrounded by trees. As you can see I had a nice platform to sit on, it was covered in leaves as was the river.

The river was hardly moving in front of me, and I had to go to 11.5m to find a bit of flow. I set up a 1.25g pencil float for the 7 to 8 feet depth of the peg with a 18 N10 to 0.10 accu power. I didn’t set up any lighter strung out rigs as minnows can be a problem here. I put up a chop worm rig but never had a bite on it, lastly a 3AAA waggler with 18 to 0.13 powerline.

We started at 10:30 and I cupped in 6 balls of gbait with a bit of hemp and caster in at 11.5m, wasted some worms and fed maggots across and downstream which I would do regularly. I started on the pole and had bites straight away from 2 to 3oz chublets, these were straight on the bait and kept me busy for 20 minutes. As they thinned out a little I also caught the odd roach which were 2oz to 4oz. After 45 minutes it was slowing down and after trying the worm I picked up the waggler. I had a very narrow corridor to cast in due to the trees around me, and had to be careful with the distance to avoid the overhanging branches. Chublets were also obliging on this method and I had my biggest at maybe 8oz. I had a good 20 minutes on this either catching a chublet or a leaf! 

Switching back to the pole line and the rest had improved it with more chublets and roach coming steadily but it faded quickly. This is how my match panned out, switching between the pole and the waggler all match and it just got harder and harder. I didn’t get any pike trouble, only had a couple of small fish come off and caught the tree across once but got my waggler and hook back! It had been a decent day of working hard and trying different feeding and hookbaits, though maggot on the hook was best for me.

Kev Rowles had the scales and came to weigh me in first, Kev told me he might have 35lb of chub and perch! I was happy to see my fish go 9lb 14oz, especially as Kev told me it was a good weight from a peg he didn’t really like. 

I didn’t follow the scales as I didn’t want to leave my gear alone so got back to the club quite quickly. As people started to come back it was obvious it had fished hard, but there were some decent weights. Kev Rowles romped the match from a peg near the sea cadets I believe. Second was teammate Shaun Townsend who had 7 chub in the last hour on the waggler, match organiser Rob Kepner was third with chublets on the shallow peg on Prattys bend. Last in the frame was Mark Brush who had 11lb of roach at Portman Road.

I ended up 6th overall and got the section money for my troubles.  Framers and section winners and weights below.

Unfortunately neither myself or Shaun can fish the winter league next week, so we will be keeping our fingers crossed for the lads. 

Commercial House Round 3 Lower Bristol Avon

Last match on this part of the river in this league which is a shame in my opinion. After a busy work week I had not much time for prep as on Saturday it was a family wedding in Keynsham. Well it was a great wedding and plenty of booze, probably a bit too much 🤣.

I was really enjoying my sleep when the alarm went off at 7, but I was soon waking up and heading to Greggs for a couple of rolls. My pools were already paid so I had no rush, but was still in good time for the draw. Jerry Pocock was drawing and I hoped he would get me Swineford, but he drew that one himself. I was off to the crane again, but a short walk which was nice. My peg was just below the little wall, a parrot cage that was for sure, but last match there was 13lb caught on the little wall so I was happy with my peg in the section. However, there were two pegs in the lane that could be good.

A bit like last week there wasn’t much flow in close and with trees I thought I would go with bolo and waggler tactics again fished down the middle. I also set up a pole rig for fishing chop worm at 9 metres. The river was amazingly clear, and with the sun out I wondered if the fishing would be more difficult today.

I started on the bolo and again just loose fed hemp and caster and did not use gbait. First cast and I swung in a little dace and I was up and running. I was soon getting regular bites but I was missing lots of bites. I think it was dace as I had odd ones during the match. Most of my fish were coming to caster initially and I was soon shallowing up as the fish were coming up for the feed. I had a quick look on the worm for 3 small perch, had another 2 here later but that was it.

In the second hour the bites kept coming but the fish were on the small side, I had changed to maggot on the hook and also upped the feed. I tried the waggler and had bites on this and a couple of dace, but I couldn’t hit enough bites to warrant staying on it for now. I think going into the third hour I started to get the odd better roach, but they were just odd ones, then a pike grabbed one and bit me off. Over the next 10 minutes the pike tried three times to grab my fish but missed. The pike never showed again after this, but it did slow the fishing down.

Not long after this I heard some lads below chatting and laughing, I thought they were gonna go swimming, but then I heard the odd spadoosh like they were throwing big stones in. Eventually this had a detrimental effect on my peg and I was finding it hard to get bites. I decided to approach the lads and took a civil approach. Turns out they were throwing in big magnets on rope trying to find treasure lol. Thankfully they moved off below the match length, but my peg was never as good.

Another try on the waggler and more missed bites, so it was bolo all the way till 10 minutes to go when I caught a tree branch on a cast and bust the bolo rig. I deepened the waggler and caught two roach on it before the call out. I thought I had 12 to 13lb.

The scales came from peg 1 on the high wall where Sam Johnson had 8lb +, next lad had 4 1/2lb. My fish went 13lb 4oz which I was happy with though wish I could have hit more bites.  Down in the lane Sean O’Neill had 12lb and on the end peg Graham Hunt won the section with 14lb 1oz, so I ended second.

 

Back at the results news came in of a couple of outstanding weights, Jason Fearn at Newbridge about peg 28 had 38lb of chub up to 1 1/4lb on the waggler to win the match. At Swineford in the second field Warren Bates had 30lb of roach to come second, he caught on an 8m whip then on a waggler with roach up to 10oz. Section results and top overall weights are here. Although plenty of good weights again there were some areas where bites were hard to come by and a blank was recorded. To show how different it was Leigh Wakefield drew the peg I had last week. Now last week I had small fish boiling on the surface on the waggler and maggot, Leigh today had no small fish and had to fish for chub on the waggler and had some up to 4lb for 13lb 13oz. 

Right an early night needed now 😴 and no fishing next week. Next match in a couple of weeks at Chippenham.

Commercial House Round 2 Lower Bristol Avon

Had a few drinks for my birthday this weekend but was finished early Saturday after a few hours in Bath. As a result I woke up before my alarm ☺️. I decided to grab my breakfast from Greggs in Longwell Green and that was a good idea as the Crown pub was not open for the draw! This is not the first time this has happened and it’s not on when the place is booked for 6 or 7 matches. Luckily the weather was dry and the draw was done outside. This week I was off to the Crane as per normal not Swineford which I crave to draw 🤣.

I was happy enough with my peg which was the wader peg in the bay in the small ashtip field, though it hadn’t thrown up a weight last match here I believe. It was as I looked at the peg that I realised I had not brought my Preston platform 🙄, but I was saved by Lee Warden who said he had the same platform and he walked back to his van to get it for me. That’s what you call a mate, I really appreciated that and it meant a lot.

It meant my peg went from looking like this…..

To this….

I was up to nearly the top of my waders to get this far out, and still behind the reeds to my right, not great if I hooked any chub.

My set up was a 4g bolo with 18 to 0.10 accu power, and a 4 AAA waggler with 16 to 0.11 powerline. I did set up an 8m whip but the fish never came in range to use it. The flow here is better as you go across the river, hence no pole. As I had a boatload of room below me I decided on a loose feed approach and no gbait; hemp and caster 1/3 out for the bolo, maggot across for the waggler.

We started at 10:15 and I had bites straight away on the bolo but missed the first two. I was soon into small roach on the bolo and sadly soon into a pike that bit me off. I was happily building the swim and getting regular bites from small roach, but wanted bigger ones! Unfortunately when I did hook a better one a pike grabbed it and after the first hour I had 4 pike on.

The second and third hours were steady with mainly small roach and the odd dace, I had 2 perch and pike on again. I found the fish were coming off bottom and was about 18 inches off the bottom, but needed to rest it. The first look on the waggler was a bite a chuck from small dace and roach, couldn’t get a chub or chublet. Back on the bolo and had a 12oz chub and started to get more better 4oz roach in spells, but they would go as quick as they came, but it was still a bite a chuck from smaller ones. My waggler line had fish boiling for the maggots, but it was 1oz roach and I wasn’t going to do any damage with them. 

The bolo line was my main attack and I kept working it, changing depths and hook baits and hook lengths as I got up to 9 pike on. Caster took the most fish but I had spells on single and double maggot. Lee Warden above me had been telling me he had a few fish but couldn’t keep bites coming, other than that I didn’t know what was happening. My match finished as it started on the bolo catching mainly small roach with the odd better ones. I thought I might have 15lb.

I was on the board so had to record the weights, my section started in the long ashtip and on the second peg in my section first peg in the long ashtip was Dorking angler Jack Jones, he’s a great angler and a top bloke, I wasn’t surprised to see him weigh 17lb of roach and perch on the pole, well done. However, I knew that would not win the section as Nicky Johns had admitted to 20lb, he wasn’t far out, he had 23lb 4oz, that was maybe 9lb of chub and 14lb of roach from two below the long ashtip. Lee had 9lb and I had 15lb 14oz. 

My section board.

Another thoroughly enjoyable day for me even if only third in the section, a great days fishing on the Avon. As it turned out Nicky was joint top on the day with Derek Coles, Derek at Swineford had stacks or roach and a 5 1/2lb bream.

3rd was Ben Rendall with 19 lbs 12 ozs.  He was drawn in the 1st peg of the 2nd field at Swineford 

4th - Warren Bates  18 lbs 8 ozs

5th - Andy Britt 17 lbs 7 oz

6th - Jack Jones 17 lbs 4 ozs

On the team front  Lobby’s won again to extend their lead to a large 16.5 point lead. My team remain in second but tied with Bathampton.

1st - Sensas Lobby’s - 33

2nd= Mosella Bathampton - 28 

2nd= M&N Electrical - 28

4th - Midland Spinner - 26

5th - Sensas Nomads - 25

6th - Mark Paynes Leads - 14

7th - Crown Hospital team - 10

League positions

1st - Sensas Lobby’s - 71.5

2nd= Mosella Bathampton - 55

2nd= Midland Spinner - 55

4th - Sensas Nomads - 53

5th - M&N Electrical - 51.5

6th - Mark Paynes Leads - 24

7th - Crown Hospital team - 10

Back here next week, no rain forecast so the river which was slow and clear today will continue to be the same.

Commercial House Round 1 - Lower Bristol Avon

Thatchers could not get enough anglers to fish this league due mainly to clashes with other things. I always want to fish the Avon at this time of year as it’s generally the best fishing in my opinion September to Early November. I was happy to fish with Jerry Pococks team The Midland Spinner, and I can fish 4 of the 6 matches. It’s a team of legends, Jer, Kev Boltz, Shane Caswell, Dean Harvey, Jeff Surmon, Derek Coles and me.  Today’s match was spread over Jack Whites, Crane , Swineford and Newbridge.

Saturday was a great day, I went to Newport with the boys to watch the Gas win away (rare). Suffice to say I was rather inebriated and think I went to bed just after 9pm. I woke up at 6:45 not really knowing what day it was and tried to get my head straight 🙈. I actually got everything sorted and forgot nothing! The draw was at the Crown in Keynsham so not far, Kev Boltz was acting captain as Jerry was in Scotland. Kev did the draw and came back with not a great set of pegs I thought. I was peg F5 and below the cow drink at Jack Whites, and hoping not on the snag pit.

It’s a pain to get to the peg as there is a poxy kissing gate, so you have to get your trolley unloaded and reloaded, what a pain! The sky looked nasty and we had a downpour and some thunder as I walked to the peg. I checked the met office rainfall radar and it looked like there was a major thunderstorm on the way. I walked past all the top pegs and got to mine which was not one of my favourites and can be snagged. I was thinking I would struggle from here. It was a challenge getting down to the peg, and then I’m sat at least 6 foot off the water. With a tree above me and lightning around I decided no pole and no whip. 

Took these pictures before the storm came proper. The steps to my position had already washed away and I was never getting back up that way so was stuck where I was.

Nice and calm… the calm before the storm!

Looking at the peg most of the flow was close in and got slower across, that would not make for a great waggler chub approach, so my main approach was a 7 no 4 stick float with 18 to 0.12 about a third out or more. I would have fished it closer but there was a tree fallen in the water inside and it could be a problem. I set up a waggler with 16 to 0.13 and that was my lot. Couldn’t see a feeder being any use here.

We started at 10:15 and I fed hemp and caster and started on the waggler 4 feet deep. After five runs through and no bites I tried the stick float. Bite first chuck on this from a 10oz chublet. Then a couple of small roach and another chublet, then I hooked a better fish which came off, think it was a decent perch. The storm was now over head, thunder lightning and very heavy rain. I was struggling to see my float, I took a shot off but it didn’t help much. I actually hooked some fish just striking randomly. Trying the waggler which I could see was again a waste of time.

After 90 minutes of intense rain it eased, the river had risen and coloured up a bit, and the fishing improved as I could now see my float better and roach and odd dace were feeding. I had spells of catching 5 or 6 decent roach in as many casts, then back to smaller fish. Red maggot on the hook was good for a while, then caster was great. With 2 hours left bleak moved in and became a real pest, I tried to clear a few out on the waggler and also had a few dace and small chublets. Went back on the stick and had some nice roach on bronze maggot but then bleak messed it up. I had a few roach and dace on tares but was missing too many bites, so went back to maggot and caster, if a bleak didn’t get the bait I would get a roach virtually every chuck.

When the match was over I thought I had about 14lb, took my time packing up and waited for the scales. Graham Hunt and Jason Fearne came up from below with the scales, Graham had a big 13lb Jason just under 9lb. I handed my net up to the lads and let them put the fish in the weigh net. I was surprised to hear 17lb 14oz called, but I realised the fish were a nice size. Picture taken of me stuck on the bank, and soon after Alan Mapston and Lee Warden pulled me up, cheers lads!

I ended up second in the section, Dave Wild on peg 3 won it with 23lb of roach and dace on the stick float. Dave drew peg 4 in the cow drink, but before the match it was stated that a lot of young cows were in the field and the angler drawing the cow drink could fish the empty peg. It was a good move by Dave who had probably not fished a match for 40 years. Here’s my section board it’s not in order of the pegging.

Back at the pub for the results I was glad of beer and some food. It was soon evident that the roach had fed well today and every section had fished really well. Here’s the section winners (by default) and the top 6 anglers (think I was 7th). Well done Dave on the win, Andy Powell on second and Nick Coles third (Nick told me he didn’t fish the first hour as he was too scared by the lightning, and that definitely cost him at least second).

On the team front Lobby’s absolutely pissed it with five of them winning their sections, well done!!! My team managed second which was great. 😊 here’s the team points.

Well a fantastic match when the roach finally decided to go on the feed, but bream and chub did not. There were 26 double figure weights today. I definitely had enough fish on the hook to get 20lb, but conditions and a slight hangover also hampered me 🤣. I just love fishing a stick float and don’t get the chance to do it very often, so today was very enjoyable despite the conditions and I loved it! Next match in two weeks.

Bathampton and Bristol & West Pairs league - Newbridge

Final round of this well run and friendly league, hats off to Dean Harvey, Craig Pinker and Derek Coles for the great work they put in.

It was good to see that the rain we have had this week had changed the river… not! Obviously the rain is being soaked by the ground and the plants. Rich and never leading by 6 1/2 points but the way the river has been it could be wiped out.

After the last match here I would like to be drawn in A section where a lot of fish have been showing, but once again Rich drew A so I was in B (not been in A section at all). When Rich gave me peg 5 (52) I was not happy, it was last in section last time out and not been good all league. It was no surprise to see Dean Harvey on another flyer as he got peg 61 Norfolk Reeds again. Jerry Pocock was on 46 that has been consistent and so I was looking at trouble straight off as those two were on our heels. Rich was on 16 same as last match and so was pleased with that, we needed 14 points to guarantee the win.

Got to my peg in the dry, it’s normally a decent bream peg but they’ve not been caught on it so far. Chopper Amos was on 54 same as last match where he had bream.

I set up the gbait feeder, waggler, 1.5g pencil

Float and a 2g float for the pole. I also set up a 2gm whip rig. 

Standard approach gave the gbait feeder 30 mins getting some bait in and looking for a quick fish, only had 2 small perch and a roach on this. Onto my pole / whip line where I had put 6 balls of gbait, I had 2 roach a dace, a small perch and lost a decent perch on the whip. Bites tailed off so I went onto the pencil float, normally I can catch a few on caster or red maggot but it was quite tough. I tried a bronze maggot on the hook and had a dace, then a small perch. The change to bronze maggot was a good one as I had about 40 minutes catching these dace and perch (all swingers). It died and I went back on the feeder. I gave Dean a ring and he was already on 2 bream and some skimmers and double figures, another battering on the cards. My feeder line was just not working and all I could get was the odd little perch.

I had been trying to feed a waggler line with bronze maggot but storms and variable winds were making it difficult. I had tiny chublets and bleak on this but couldn’t see me getting enough of them, so I upped the feed and went back to the pole. This coincided with a big storm and I put the brolly up. I caught 3 or 4 more fish but it was dying, and then my pole sections jammed together. That was the end of the pole fishing!

I spent the remainder of the match switching between the feeder and the waggler, with no brolly it was rather wet lol. I just couldn’t get any quality fish, on the waggler I did manage a few 3oz chublets in between the tiny ones. When the match finished I was sure I had dipped out and Rich had struggled with his peg not fishing anything like last time, though he had lost a bream which might be crucial 😬.

Dean was soon along with the scales showing off his Turkey Teeth with a broad smile having had 17lb 11oz. Shaun Townsend was next best with 7lb 12oz from peg 56 where I was last match. My net of small fish went 6lb 8oz.

On upstream peg from me was Dave Lewis, he had a completely different match in that when he got a bite it was from a decent fish. Perch, skimmers and a late bream for 16lb.

Walked back pushing my trolley and got to peg 24 and thought I had forgotten to pick my metal peg up, so walked all the back to peg 52 only to find it wasn’t there, turned out Dean had picked it up! Good exercise I guess 🤣🤣

I ended up getting 6 points which was actually more than I expected, see the weigh sheets below. In A section Rich had 7lb 14oz but that was only worth 4 points as it had fished well again, sadly the bream he lost would have made a big difference. I knew then we had blown out.

On the day the two pairs close behind us had both had great days. Dean and Derek 18 1/2 points, Jerry Pocock and Nic Coles 18 points. That meant Jerry and Nic wine the league with 82 points, well done chaps.

Rich and I came 2nd with 81 points just beating Dean and Derek by 1/2 point (thanks to Mike Weston weighing the same as Derek).

A disappointing end to the league for me, but everyone has had a bad one at some point. I really don’t think I drew a fancied peg and that’s the way it can go. But it’s still a great league and great fun to fish. Maybe next year the draw will be kinder lol.