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.

Bathampton & Bristol and West pairs League - Newbridge

Another early alarm call and must admit to feeling a bit tired after the previous long day of the National. However, this was round 5 and the penultimate round and I was keen to try and keep myself and Rich Lacey on top of the league. 

I got to the river at 7:15 and as I paid my pools had to endure another ear bashing about the Gas, can’t argue with anything in that respect at the moment 🙈🙉. As ever I wanted to be in the first 4 pegs in A section, but as ever Rich pulled me B section. I think that’s every match this and last season I have been in B lol. Rich got A1 peg 16 and I got B9 peg 56. I would have been on peg 61 but moored boats had messed up the pegging.

A decent walk from peg 16 to 56, and when I got there I had a rest and looked at the last results here, my peg had 3lb and beat 1, hmmm. Dean Harvey was on peg 10 and I expected him to do well as it has been good for roach and perch.

Much like yesterday I had a steep peg, but no steps. But at least I could get my box in the water and all comfortable.

56 is a great peg with a bit of water on as the flow is mostly across the river. It meant my pole line was a bit slower and shallower than the pegs around me. A 1g pencil float would do for 11m and I went with a 20 and 0.10. I did set up a heavier rig and worm rig but neither worked. The obligatory gbait feeder was readied as was a waggler with 18 to 0.12 and a bolo rig.

Started on the feeder getting some bait in and looking for early signs, just a small roach and a perch so it was onto the pole where 8 balls of black roach / black river had been fed. I got a 1oz roach first drop and a few more this size which was concerning, then I started getting a few bleak problems but not so bad. I was catching but not great quality, but carried on taking what was on offer. I was loose feeding hemp and caster over the pole line and after an hour had a few 3oz roach. 

Halfway through the match the pole died and I gave the feeder another 30 minutes. Never had a touch and was surprised, especially as on peg 8 (54) Chopper had a bream and 2 skimmers and quite a few perch. With Dean catching on the float I was getting a battering! Just to make my lot better a paddle boarder fell in right in my peg, then after getting back on the board proceeded to drop her house and car keys in the river….. Her husband decided to dive in after them (a pointless exercise) and then said they’re gone. I had a drink and a bite to eat to let things settle down.

I tried the waggler which was awkward as the wind was a nightmare, but I picked up a few bleak and 4 small chublets and then nothing, not a bite on the bolo. Tried the pole and feeder but no bites. I had to make a decision sit it out for a bream or try and add some extra fish on the waggler. I went with the wag and picked up odd chublets and bleak to end the match.

I reckoned I had about 8lb or so but no idea how that would do. Rich on A1 thought he had over 10lb but for a few hours was battered by bleak. Well I ended up getting 8 points out of 10 with 9lb 2oz which I was relieved with, but I was beat both sides lol. Well done Chopper winning the section after struggling in the league, see you can catch them! My board below.

A section fished well as you can see, and Warren Bates won the match from unfancied middle of the straight. He had roach on the whip early, but when it died he had a couple of bream and a skimmer on the whip, nothing on the feeder. Another great performance by Warren in the league.

Rich ended up with 6 points which was good enough as 14 points is usually decent each round. 

With one round left to go we are still winning but just 6 1/2 points ahead of Jer Pocock and Nick Coles. This  means we need to get 14 points on the last round to guarantee the win, but anything can happen. The next round is back at Newbridge in 2 weeks. 

The end of a long weekend (week actually but that’s another story) and despite not picking up any dosh I had enjoyed the fishing both days. No fishing this weekend so tight lines if you’re going.

Better quality today than yesterday.

Division 1 National - Warwickshire Avon

I’ve not fished a national for a few years as primarily the venues haven’t suited me and Thatchers have plenty of canal anglers. However, I was definitely up for fishing this one even though I know the Warwickshire Avon can be very hard. Around 14 miles of river was to be used to host the 45 teams of 10. With so many sections we elected not to practice and just get some info. The section draw was done on Wednesday evening and I was in H which meant I would either be at Pershore or Pensham.

Saturday morning and met up with Lee Trivitt and Rob Jones at Wetherspoons in Tewkesbury just before 7:30. We ate our breakfast and waited for Martin Barrett to do the team draw and share the pegs we had on our WhatsApp group. Secretly I was hoping to be at Pensham as it sounded a bit like Newbridge and some bream to be caught, but I was going to Peg 1 at Pershore and was quite excited about being an end peg. I drove to the river and spoke to a local who thought I was first peg through the gate, but turned out I was before the gate and on permanent peg 4.

There was a set of steps and small platform to fish from, so comfy. But the far bank was boat moorings and full of weed and cabbages. Pegs below me had mostly natural cover across.

As I was setting up a boat arrived, but it stayed all day.

Now the advice I had was fish for an early bream, something I would be happy to do and I set up the gbait feeder. But as I set up I noticed hordes of tiny fish topping off the edge of the bush  to to my left. Set up 4 / 5m whips with 0.4g floats and 16 to 0.12 for fishing shallow bleak rigs. Set up a 0.5g float for fishing on the bottom under the bleak on a pole. Lastly a 7 no 4 stick float for fishing hemp down the peg. I did also set up a waggler and worm rig but these were not used.

There were a number of top anglers in my bit, Simon Willsmore was on 2 and further down Leigh Gardner, Darren Cox and Rob Hewison. No pressure!

We started at 11 and I began on the 5m whips, threw in some bronze maggots and the water erupted so I didn’t pick the feeder up. I was soon getting bites but was missing more than I expected. The culprits were tiny dace, chublets and bleak. But there were better fish there as I could tell from the swirls. After probably 30 mins of thrashing the fish were still swirling but I was struggling to get a bite. I decided to change to a 20 to 0.9 and this got me bites again. The river is like tap water and even these small fish are finicky. I came into 4m to hand as the fish were happy to be there, I upped the feed and was trying different depths and hook baits to improve the size of fish, but it was hard to get through the miniatures. Stewards and bank runners said I was doing well and me Simon were catching the same, 3 bream was best further down. So I ploughed on all the time feeding hemp further down and out.

I had a dodgy spell and picked up the deep rig, I caught some more small fish on the drop but did get a few 2oz perch, odd better dace and even a couple of roach. I had to go back shallow again and kept on thrashing. With 90 minutes to go I tried the hemp on the stick, first cast roach, 3rd cast roach and then a long wait for number 3. I rested it and went back on the bits changing between deep and shallow. I had another 2 roach on hemp but it was clearly not right and went back to 5m to hand as the fish were petering out in the last 30 minutes.

Match over and I had a very busy day, hard to say what weight, no idea how many fish as I can’t count them. I was going to be the last to weigh in so when the scales arrived I was all packed up. 17kilo was winning, Simon had just weighed 4 kilo 100g,  my fish went 4 kilo 50g, close but no cigar. Still I was dead happy, parked by my peg and bites all day is not something that often happens in a national! Bad pic as catch shots were not allowed in some sections.

I was 5th at Pershore as you can see from the board and I found out later that only one person at Pensham had beat me so I was 6th out of 45, dead happy.

The messages started to come in from the other lads, a few had been on dreadful pegs, but had done all they could. Top performer was Rob Jones with 3 bream and second in section, bit good is Rob. He got the section money be default too.

I went back to the results and saw a few nervous faces as some top teams were trying to work out their points. We were hoping for a top 10 finish and we got that coming 9th, and I was about 32nd best weight overall, so a decent day. 

Tackle & Baits won the day, Dorking 2nd and Starlets 3rd. Well done all.

The guy who won my section with 17 kilo actually won the match by about 250g. After his early 3 bream he had lost 5 and a barbel (must of been gutted) but then in the last 30 minutes he had 6 more bream. Also a special mention for Shaun Bryan who won the national last year, he won his section this time thanks to landing a 9lb carp on a worm rig. Well done Shaun.

After a long day I got home at 9pm, then had to sort out a bit of gear for the following day fishing the pairs match at Newbridge.

Pairs League Saltford Trees / Swineford

After a great day out Thursday at Acorn I was looking forward to getting back on the river Avon. The weekend was slightly soured by the Gas losing their opening match but still remain hopeful for a better season than last.

I got to the rugby club car park at 7:15am and as I paid my pools to Dean Harvey I had to listen to a lot of comments aimed at me about the Gas. Well you’ve got to take it haven’t you lol. My partner Rich Lacey and I were up to second in the league, just a couple of points behind Dean and Derek, this was the 4th match of the league. I let Rich draw again as at least that way I can moan at him, I fancied pegs 6 to 10 in each section. Rich drew out Swineford for himself the first peg in the second field (I’d prefer this later in the year, and he got me peg 2 in the trees one below the arch. Last match this end of the section had been poor but Jan Macyzk did get 3 bream late I was told.

Got to the peg and as Frank Barlow used to say it was a right parrot cage! I was only going to be able to fish the pole and the feeder, even then I had some issues. 

I set up two pole rigs; a 1.25g pencil float with 20 to 0.10 and a 2g round float with 16 to 0.12. The gbait feeder had a 14 to 0.15. Gbait for the pole was Sonubaits black roach and black river, for the feeder it was Thatchers green and sweet skimmer.

I starred in the feeder to get some bait in, but on my third quick cast I had a bite and was into a decent fish. I was chuffed to net a skimmer of 1 1/2lb to 2lb, a great start. I carried on with some quick casts but was getting quick bites from small roach and perch. After 40 minutes I wanted to try the pole, so in went 8 balls of gbait and caster and I went straight over it looking for an immediate response. A couple of tiny roach then bleak were a real problem, they grabbed everything on both rigs even with the bulk pushed down. I went back on the feeder and bugger me but bleak were grabbing the hookbait when I cast in. I put a whole dendra on and even had a bleak take this. With 2 hours gone I wasn’t going anywhere fast, stacks of small fish smashed into the bait on the feeder and bleak on the pole. I went for a walk, Toby on peg 1 was struggling and had pike trouble, Dave Lewis on 3 had some roach on the pole early, Mike Weston on 4 was getting a bite a chuck on the feeder after catching roach early on the whip, no bleak problems.

Back to my peg and chucked the feeder out again with whole dendra, I rang Rich to see how he was doing, and as I did I had a good bite and another decent skimmer, then a 10oz chublet then a 1lb skimmer all while talking to Rich! I then lost a small skimmer at the net and was now just getting fast bites I could not hit. The pole was tried but still rubbish, so I fed a ball of gbait with worms thinking I might get some skimmers here. Back in the feeder and I had another couple of chublets and 2 hand size skimmers. Tried the pole again just 2 perch, fed another ball. Back on the feeder and a proper bite and bream on! Fifteen seconds later it came off 😫 when I reeled in the worm was in an o shape and had doubled over the hook, gutted.

With an hour to go I tried the pole again, another small perch on the worm so decided to try the pencil float with maggot on the hook. The float settled and went straight under, roach. Next drop roach, and the next…. I had a bite every drop and kept catching roach, but also thought I need to try the feeder again. Well 10 minutes left to go I picked the feeder up and put a worm on again. Lots of taps and jags as before, I left these and then had a pull round and struck on this and had another 1 1/2lb to 2lb skimmer. Missed a bite last cast and match over. I hoped I had 14lb but really wasn’t sure. 

The scales were coming up from peg 10 and when they got to me Nick Coles was top with 14lb 3oz, I was surprised and happy that my fish went 16lb 14oz and was enough to be top weight in the trees.

Here’s the board for the trees, decent weights made up mainly of roach and odd skimmers. No bream caught but 3 were lost.

We had the results at the Swan pub in Swineford, and top angler there was the consistent Warren Bates with 16lb 2oz of roach and 1 bream on the whip from peg 4. Rich had done brilliant again to nick 2nd in section with 12lb 10oz catching roach and perch on the whip till he snapped it late on ooops! I’d won the day which was a bonus, but a great result for us as a pair. Here’s the Swineford board.

Not sure how all the pairs points are, will have to work them out, but Rich and I are now in first place. Two more matches left in the league.

My next match is in two weeks fishing the division 1 national on the Warwickshire Avon, it will be a case of feast or famine, definitely need a good peg!