Philtone Teams of 4 Acorn Fishery

 Hope everyone reading this has had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the new year. Neil Mercer has run this match for a number of years now albeit on different venues. There were 20 anglers split into five teams of four anglers, my team was captain Mark Bromsgrove, Ricky Mills, Jamie Brown and myself. Mark was the only angler who fishes Acorn regularly, and I was next after my few matches back here in the summer fishing for silvers. 

I picked up my Thatchers team mate Andy Ottaway who was in one of the other teams, this would be his first visit to Acorn. We all met up at 8am at the Bridge Inn for breakfast and a good chat. The draw was soon done and from my teams envelope I pulled peg 40 a bridge peg, Mark was the other side of the bridge on 6, Ricky on 25 and Jamie on 15. My section ran from me back to peg 29.

It was cold and low cloud meant there was a tiny bit of drizzle now and then. However, I could still easily see the anglers on the island including Martin Reyat on fancied peg 5.

It wouldn’t take long setting up and based upon what my captain said I had 3 rigs. A 4x16 for fishing at 9m in the deepest water, a couple of 4x12 rigs one for 12m and one for against the bridge, both at around 3 1/2 to 4 feet deep. I had 18 GPM to 0.11 powerline on all rigs. I was going with maggot as my feed today but did have some corn and micro ready to try.

We started at 10:15 and it was really slow it seemed, my 12m opening gambit spot didn’t yield a single indication. I moved to 9m in the deep water straight in front, but nothing doing here either, so tried the 9m line next to the bridge which was my banker. This time I had a bite and hooked a decent fish, but I soon realised it was fouled and after playing it for a good 5 minutes plus I pulled out of it. Back to the bridge and liner, then another bite, hooked it and this fish charged off under the bridge. After a few minutes everything went slack, line had snapped just below the bulk so clearly the fish had found the underwater stanchion, think it was fouled too. Third time lucky I hoped, and indeed I was hooked up again to a smaller carp that was hooked in the mouth, but it came off as I was about to net it.  Not the best of starts then!

At this stage Mark in 6 had netted a few fish, Freddie Harper-Wojtyla had missed 1 bite on 38, but Steve Spencer on 36 had a few carp from fishing down his margin. By the bridge had gone quiet and so tried back in front of me, I had my one and only bite here, lost another fouler. Finally just after the hour I had my first carp in the net at 5lb, soon followed by a 4lber, both from the bridge. 

Had to rest it and go round my swims for nothing at all. Then about 2 hours in hooked a good carp than swam away from the bridge and up to Freddie. Luckily I just managed to turn it and get it under control, a nice 8lb common hooked in the mouth. It was a one off and I was really struggling, so went round the swims again. Three hours in and get my first bite at 12m, fish hooked and took off under the bridge, this was really pulling and I was just waiting for the line to snap when I saw the fish boil nearly in peg 7. Somehow the line held, after pulling the fish a long way from the bridge I finally thought it was safe to break down to the top set. Eventually got the net under the carp, it had been hooked in the pectoral fin and was a double figure common.

With 2 hours to go Freddie got his first carp, but mine and Marks pegs really switched off, Mark had double what I had but he couldn’t get a sign now. I managed to catch just two more fish, both tench about 3lb each. Freddie had a couple more carp and tench to end better.

Scales were coming to me last and it was getting quite dark so no pictures today. My section was being won by Steve Spencer with 52lb, my fish went 33lb 11oz which was just enough to get me second in the section, my biggest carp was weighed at 11lb 5oz. 

Back at the Bridge Inn Neil did the results. 

1st on the day Martin Reyat 104lb peg 5

2nd Neil Mercer 103lb peg 9

3rd Jamie Brown 93lb peg 15

On the team front my team had tied for first with Neil’s team, but we lost out on weight by 9lb. My consolation was taking the biggest fish prize and a tenner lol.

There was a match at Newbridge today and I expected it to fish well for bream, it did with 56lb, 54lb, 47lb and 44lb.

Next fishing for me is I don’t know just yet, will see in a couple of weeks.

Happy New Year!

Premier Angling Open - Bristol Avon Crane

It has been 3 weeks since I last got out fishing, and that was on the canal and not inspiring. I didn’t want to fish the Commercial House Xmas match on the canal as I thought it would be rubbish. I made the right decision as only 1oz won the match, the venue is devoid of fish once a frost happens.  This weekend was really my last chance to fish before Xmas, and when I saw Premier Angling advertising this match I booked in.

I travelled back from Yorkshire Saturday and getting home late meant I was going to do no prep. Sunday morning I grabbed the gear, chucked some gbait (sweet skimmer and black river) in a bucket and loaded my van. When I got to Premier Angling I picked up the bait I had ordered and paid my pools. There had been a couple of late drop outs so it was 17 fishing. A few old faces had booked on and it was good to see them, the likes of Mike Shellard, Clive Feddery, Andy Greenham, Lee Gregory, plus a very young face in Kai Hurley. I drew peg 2 which meant I was in the lane.

My peg was one I have fished probably ten years ago, the bank is reinforced by an old radiator and a big piece of metal which is right behind you. The bank is flat but it’s awkward. The river was still running fast but the colour was ok, there was no chance of me fishing a float here, so I just put one feeder up. A 60g Preston open ended feeder was my starting gambit. I went to tie a hook but realised my heavy line was still in my shed… so I walked back to the shop and bought a spool of 0.17 powerline (which I have a box of in the shed 🙈). 

I started the match casting the feeder about 2/3 over by the tree with 3 red maggots on the hook. Second cast and a nice drop back bite, landed the 6oz fish but was still blanking as it was a trout lol!

Still no need to worry as two casts later I was in again and this time it was a better fish, it was nice to land a 2 1/2lb chub so early. Next cast I had an 8oz chublet, then a few casts later a 1 1/2lb chub. By the end of the first hour I had added a roach and a skimmer and was really enjoying the unexpectedly good start. I had another skimmer about 1lb, and then Graham Hunt came for a chat, I had another skimmer and then pulled out of bream whilst he was there. Although I lost the bream in close it brought an end to my bites.

It was at least an hour later at 12:30 and exactly halfway through the match when I had my next bite. It was on treble caster and was a good chub of 3 1/2lb. That was a bite out of the blue and with no more signs I switched to a maggot feeder on the inside. That got snagged up, so I decided to cast it over the gbait line to see if I could find a chub, it’s something that works for me now and again. At 2pm I had a bite and as I played it Graham was back and said he thought it was a bream, he was right, 4lb+. This turned out to be my last fish, although I did have a bite on my last cast I didn’t see it.

I thought I had about 16lb and word on the bank was that would win it, below me Mike Jeffries on end peg had a bream and a couple of skimmers. It didn’t take long for the scales to arrive as there wasn’t lots caught it seemed, Gerry Welsh on the cattle grid was top in our section with 5lb. The guy above me Paul blanked, then my fish went 18lb 8oz. Mike below had a 10lb 8oz his bream was near 6lb. 

Back at the shop and I was announced as the winner with Mike second, so a good draw today at last. There was a couple of 6lb weights and 4’s. Other than John Osbourne getting 4lb of roach there were hardly any caught, chub and skimmers took the money today. A big thank you to Kieran and the guys at Premier for running this match, and for the tackle voucher.

Also a big thank you to my wife for my Sunday roast, what a great end to the day 😃.

Finally a good result this autumn / winter on the river, a few more days like that would be nice. That said my next match will be just after Christmas, at Acorn fishery. Which just leaves me to wish you all a Happy Christmas!🎅 

Upper Thames winter league final match

 Today was the last round and I was looking forward to playing my part on the river at Newbridge. Errr maybe not. The heavy rain of last weekend put the river up to near record levels and caused panic among some. Heavy rain was forecast again Wednesday and so the team captains decided to move the match to the Gloucester Canal. Game over for me and Shaun Townsend, and our team mates who are regular Glos canal anglers replaced us in the team. I was happy to fish the river, but many of the fields were flooded and access could have been a problem, so I couldn’t argue with the decision. We were 2 points in front of DGL and so had to do well.

There was nothing for me to fish, and I arranged to watch some friends singing at the Midland Spinner with Shaun and friends. We were keeping a close eye on our team WhatsApp for results, with fingers crossed. As the lads started to advise their respective results it was looking good, and eventually we saw we tied top on this match with 31 points with DGL but they took top by having 1 more section win. This though meant we had won the league overall by 1 point with DGL coming second.

The lads who fished today celebrating.

Myself and Shaun celebrating the win.

As you can tell we are all over the moon, and everyone contributed to the win. Our squad might be half the size of DGL but we showed we are still a capable squad. 

Well done to everyone who took part in the league, it was fished in great spirit and that’s what matters.

Hopefully I’ll get back fishing soon. Cheers 🍻 

Commercial House Final Round K&A Canal

The lead up to this match for me was one of concern for how it would fish, as everywhere seems to be fishing pretty hard on natural venues. Blanks on the river and blanks on the canal, with my team not in contention I was not feeling the slightest excitement for this match lol. 

I was the first of my team to arrive at the draw, so started filling out the team sheet and as the lads arrived took the pools money. As usual we were going to be last to draw, so young Charlie Isaacs was just going to take the last number and see what sections we got. There were four sections at Bathampton and two at Claverton, I was given F section peg 5 which was at Claverton, I was going to be 2 pegs past the Ferry Lane bridge, might be ok.

Managed to get to the parking field with no van issues this time, Dave Lewis was looking perplexed as he had left his keepnet and landing net at home! I helped him out with a landing net, and eventually he got a keepnet from Jon Tocknell. It’s a bit awkward getting to the towpath but  with 2 anglers per trolley it was easy. I finally got to my peg and couldn’t believe it when I saw Mike Kent on peg 6, that’s all 5 rounds in the same section, twice next peg and I was next peg to him in the Poppy.

Set up my std 4 x 14 bread rig with 18 PR 311 to 0.08, same size rig for bloodworm down the track. A 0.3g rig for bloodworm at top set and across. Also a positive rig for caster / chopped worm.

I started a few minutes late, plopped some liquidised bread in at top set plus two, some joker in the three lines. Twenty minutes in and I had not had a bite on the bread, neither had Mike or Dave Lewis on 7. However, on 8 Steve Skelton (who had to move up a peg due to moored boat in his peg) was getting a roach a chuck and on 9 so was Craig Pinker. The writing was very much already on the wall. Thirty minutes in and I caught a tiny perch on a top set to save the blank but no other bites. Searching my other lines I took another 2 perch, now I had an ounce lol.

After an hour Mike had a couple of bonus chublets across on caster, then Dave started to catch chublets 2/3 across over gbait and squatt. My caster and choppy lines were biteless. After three hours I had 6 tiny perch and it was clear I was off the fish, below the bridge was tough too. Word was the whole canal was fishing awful and Steve and Craig were probably first and second. Thinking I was never going to get enough little perch I gave the caster and worm lines a good chance, but it didn’t happen.

One hour to go and out of the blue three roach on bloodworm from across, ten more of them in the last hour would be brilliant I thought. Stupid idiot not another bite!! What a pile of 💩 

Andy Britt had the scales and said when he pegged the match Steve’s peg was the only one that he saw fish topping in. Craig on 9 had 4lb 10oz, Steve on 8 9lb, Dave on 7 3lb 21/2, Mike on 6 1lb 6oz and then me 8oz…. Well just to rub salt in the wound I was plumb last in the section as on the other side of the bridge Jon Tocknell had 11oz, guess I should have stuck with the bloodworm. Well that just about sums up my poor autumn, pretty pants lol!

Well done Steve an easy winner today, lots of roach, some chublets and perch.

Craig Pinker was second and young Kai Hurley was third with 3lb 3oz in E section and Dave Lewis 4th.

On the team front in A division Sensas Nomads carried on the good form and were champions, well done lads! In B division Sensas Lobby’s dominant display meant they were runaway winners, an awesome result.

My teams poor performances continued today, but I felt most sorry for Shane Robinson who was getting an odd bite from roach but his peg was infested by leaves..

The knockout winner was Andy Powell and the individual league champion was Dave Lewis. As Dave said to me he had drawn the fish every round, but you still got to catch them Dave and you did. Think he was a bit shocked by his win, though Jeff Surmon and I thought it was funny!

Some good news today was that my Thatchers team on the ATWL had a great day, they won the day and had the top 3 individuals! We are 3 points ahead of DGL with two rounds to go, one on the canal and the last one on the Avon at Keynsham. 

No fishing for me next weekend, hopefully the break will do me good 😂.

Bill Milton Memorial Poppy Match - Bristol Avon

 Pretty much the biggest match of the year, a 100 peg match if everyone turns up, and I always look forward to it.

Friday, Covid and flu jab in left arm, then out in town for nephews birthday. Saturday met at Premier Angling at 9am for pegging duty, I was putting 15 pegs in at Swineford. I pegged from the outfall to one below the beach. Boy did I fancy drawing here!!! Peg 46, the outfall.

Sunday morning and breakfast at Fry’s waiting for the draw. I was sure that with a clear river a bream or chub peg was required, so some pegs at Swineford and Newbridge were on my wish list. Well I drew a peg out up the Crane, first peg in the long ashtip field. I have won the Poppy match from this peg, but that was with water on and colour for bream. Today I wasn’t enamoured by it, but I was going positive.

Set up a 4g bolo, waggler and gbait feeder. We started at 10 and I put 12 feeder fulls down the middle of the river. Threw 6 balls at 11m and fed maggots across to the boats. It was a slow start on the bolo about 1 1/2lb in the first hour then it died. Onto the feeder for an hour for 1 dace oh dear. Onto the waggler for not a bite, oh dear oh dear!

Things were not going well and I went for a quick walk, Mike Kent above me had some small roach, but down in the little ashtip Paul Elmes was catching a few roach and chublets. My section was from me below and so I was up against it with Paul catching. I tried the bolo over the river where I was feeding maggots, I caught 2 roach and then lost 2 hook lengths. I came a bit shorter and avoided the snag, but it was just the very odd bite from a roach. I did catch a couple of chublets and a hybrid from way down the peg but it wasn’t good enough.

Bank walkers told me my section was fishing ok, so I spent the last hour in the feeder looking for a bream or two, none showed which was not a surprise lol. Match over and I tipped back about 5lb for a DNW

My section was won by Paul Elms’s with 14lb 3oz of roach and chublets on the crow quill, well done sir. Above me it was not good weights either, but Dean Harvey won that section easy with 10lb on the feeder, 2 chub, 1 bream and 3 decent perch. I followed the scales down and one below the high wall was 19lb of chub, it included a 6lb 2oz chub! Sorry I didn’t get the anglers name, but fair play! 

Back to the results and the jungle drums had already told me the winner but seriously it was brilliant weights, the bream had shoaled and fed.

1st John Fuidge                161-4  39 bream Swineford Outfall

2nd Andy Richings            106-8  peg 59 Newbridge just one peg away from where he won last week!!!

3rd Derek Cole                     90-6 Bottom of Trees

4th Tony Goodland             32-8 Chequers and included 3 pike!

5th Dave Stiff                        29-8 peg 16 Newbridge 

6th John Smith                     25-8 one below beach peg

A massive well done to John Fuidge, I walked in to the results with him. He told me he put 8 feeder fulls in then on the first cast with a hook on he had a bream, and after 90 minutes he had 18 bream and never looked back. Derek Coles in third was close to packing up as he was blanking after 3 hours, then it was a bream every cast till the all out.

It needed nearly 18lb to get in the top 10 today (last year about 4lb lol) and pretty much it was either bream or chub got you in. 

The match raised over £3000 thanks to the efforts of organisers Ray Bazeley and Paul Benson. The after match banter was great as always with lots of laughs, and you can’t beat it. My lucks still out at the moment, but as long as you can keep laughing with your mates you’ll always have a good day out.