Thankfully I was fit for round 2 of the CH, but it was no lie in this Sunday. I was in Matty's cafe in Bath at 7am for an excellent brekkie. It was a popular place with many of the Thatchers lads present, as well as Bathampton anglers. For those who get up late with 10am draws it was rather foggy Sunday morning!
I was looking forward to this match, but hoping to avoid Jack Whites which I had heard was fishing hard. When the draw was made it was very difficult to know what pegs we had drawn as the pegger had made no list of the main pegs! Take a bow Jerry Pocock, of the three pegs I asked you about none of them were no where near where you said! I actually drew on the Crane section, 1st peg past the cow drink in the bay. For company I had Phil (Fabio) Harding upstream and Bath stalwart Chris Ollis in the cow drink, both pegs I have fished before with some success. Pegging was tight here with Andy Floyd and Sean Townsend between Chris and the style, I didn't fancy their chances at all. The section started up in the long ash tip field, and last year the best weights came from here with skimmers and roach. My peg was out and out roach and I set myself a target of 10lb to 12lb of Roach and hope the skimmers didn't show!
I set up my gear very simply, a wag 4 ft deep for across by the boats, a 2grm bulk and a 4x16 strung out rig for for the pole line. I ran the line through my feeder rod but did not attach anything to it as I hoped not to have to use it. I cannot tell you why, because it was just gut feeling, but I decided not to ball it and instead loose feed hemp and caster on the pole line. I set up nothing else as I was going all out for roach! I had to remove a pike bung that Chris had pointed out was holding mid river, I snagged it 2nd chuck and out it came trebles and all! Sean said there were a lot of pike anglers out the day before, and this looked like their gear as it was clean as a whistle.
At the start of the match I began on the wag, all the time loose feeding the pole line which I expected to take a while to get going. However, I was onto the pole after only 10 casts on the wag because 1) I had no bites and 2) a very crazy old boat owner decided he needed to fix an engine on his dingy! I kid you not, every word he said was a swear word, he cursed his boat, the engine, his dog and I think he would have cursed me if any maggots had got that far! He eventually tried to siphon some fuel out and got a mouthful of diesel, he swore a lot more after this and then decided to completely take out the engine..... Anyway, onto the pole with the 2grm rig to start, it was slow, 4 small roach and 2 perch were all I had in the first hour. But things started to improve and I started to get a bite most casts from 1oz to 2oz roach. Then inexplicably after about 20 mins of catching the swim died and I had no bites at all for 15 mins. I decided to have a quick chat to the three lads below me, Chris was doing well reckoned to have 5lb after 2 hours, Andy and Sean only 2lb. I returned to my peg after just a couple of minutes and tried the pole again, I was on the strung out rig looking for bites anywhere, but it was still dead. Then out of the blue I had a bite and hit a big fish, it slowly moved off to the far side and the hook pulled out, damn! Amazingly only 5 minutes later I was back getting a bite a chuck from roach, I think that maybe a big perch had come into my swim taking the casters and had put the roach right off, maybe that was what I had lost?
The swim improved in the 2nd half of the match, dropping the light rig in I would feed hemp and caster drop the catapult and sometimes the float was already under! By now the grumpy old man had disappeared and so I fired the odd pouch of maggots across when ever I had the chance to do so! The roach were now bigger and I was netting every third fish, then 20 mins to go I trashed the rig. I tried the bulk rig but it wouldn't work so out went the wag, I had 4 chublets and a roach and then the whistle went!
I weighed 14lb 11oz and had thoroughly enjoyed the day. I think I would have caught more if I could have caught on the wag in the first hour, however, my weight was enough to win the section and bag £30. Tony Goodland came 2nd with 13lb (including a 6lb pike) and Chris Ollis was 3rd with 10lb. Sean Townsend had a mare with only 3lb, he lost 2 pike on the worm which bit him off, and they were both less than a pound! Fabio had only 2lb and was last seen nursing his blisters on his feet, whilst Tony Rixon has put a "For Sale" sign on Fabio's river gear in Avon Angling.
Swineford fished really well, with bream, skimmers, chub and roach showing. Jerry Pocock won off peg 5 with both bream and skimmers on feeder, Andy Pritchard had about 24lb of chub from below Bitton brook. Steve Hutchinson had skimmers on the wag from peg 18 and Guy Manton had about 21lb of roach from the peg in the reeds. Plus there were lots of other double figure weights here except for Eddie Wynne and Darren Gillman that is. Jack whites was good in the shallows with Martin Barret and Graham Hunt both recording 13lb+ of dace, but it was hard in the deep water.
Team wise Avon Aquatics beat my Thatchers A team by a single point on the day and lead the A division. I think Maver Veals were joint last on the day, missing their new lucky mascot Bob Sheppard who is in China, apparently Bob has had a Chinese every night, but not food, if you know what I mean!
Matt Parsons in the Thatchers B team was in my section and caught Paul Daniels (not a lot!), to be fair he was distracted all day by a couple of lezzers on the boat opposite him who kept indulging in kissing and discussing battery powered toys! You don't get views like that down at Viaduct Matt.
First round of the Angling Times Winter League this weekend, and it's exactly the same stretch of river. With no sign or rain in the forecast it should be a similar match.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Monday, 21 September 2009
Final Super League Match Newbridge
A nice leisurely start on Sunday, 9am draw and only 3 miles from home, great! I was up ready and into the rugby club with plenty of time to spare. I found out that my place at last weeks commercial house had been taken by Garbolinos John Atkinson, he drew Whaddon and failed to break a 1lb, so that's another crap peg I would have had!
It was good to see Andy Floyd back in the Maver team, and when I saw Bob Sheppard and Glen Bailey with him the team started to look like an old Avon Angling side! The talk in the club was how tough this match was going to be with a low, clear river and bright sunshine. I wanted to be drawn at Rotork or close to Newton St Loe Bridge, but instead was handed peg 130 in the trees. Straight away I knew it was virtually impossible to win the section as the end peg wins it every time, Andy Ottaway had the pleasure of this peg. Still I had a few tricks up my sleeve for fishing tight over to the cover. Unfortunately I found peg 130 to be unfished and opposite the biggest cow drink on the Bristol Avon, thanks Kevin Dicks! After much bank digging and reed bashing (the peg looked to me as it had not been fished) I finally got into a position where I could fish! I don't mind all the gardening bit, it's just that it takes time away from setting up! Thanks again to another Thyers angler, Paul Purchase, for lending me boots to get into the water, yep I never took them again as I was told every peg was fished from the top of the bank! Not long after this Andy Ottaway came running past me and in his haste nearly snapped one of my top sets, he had left his hemp at home and was off to get it!
I set up a 2 grm pole float, as I felt anything heavier would only cause fish to drop the bait, a 3grm flat float and chopped worm rig for 5 mtrs. I also set up the feeder (but never used it) and a waggler just the same as in Bath on Friday. As I felt I was in a poor area (5lb was 2nd in the section last time) I used 0.09 and 20 and 22 hooks, light for me I can tell you! Since the last match I had thought a lot about the balling in mix, and I decided to mix mine exceedingly black although I had still pre mixed 3 kilos. I approached this swim with just 9 balls that only had a pinch of bait in them, this is a negative approach but I felt it was justified given the peg. There were also a tremendous amount of rowers out, and judging by the skill level it was the annual intake of new Bath University students. There's nowt you can do but try to make sure you don't get a rig trashed by them, and for this reason and because all the cover was on my bank I only balled it at 11.5 mtrs. First chuck on a caster and a 3oz roach was my best fish of the day! After a few more runs through on the caster without a bite it was onto the maggot, this brought instant bites but they were hard to hit and I bumped a couple off. I think this was mainly because they were very small roach, I adjusted the depth and dropper shot and things improved. It was hard going though because the boats often went right over the line I was fishing and the disturbance meant the float wouldn't run through properly until the water calmed down.
After about an hour I reckon I'd had a pound and a half, Jerry Pocock wandered down and told me it was dire. When Jerry came back from the end of my section he said Andy had not had one roach, but he did have some perch and an eel on the worm. My gbait line was now giving up, so I tried a top up ball which only brought a couple of bites so it was onto the worm rigs. I should say that during this time I had wanted to feed the wag line, but I had hardly been able to do this due to the number of rowers. The 5mtr worm line was biteless but I took 3 small perch from the gbait line. At this point a motor boat decided to moor in the cow drink opposite and 5 young uns had a picnic with music, and tried to fish a bit (they later moved off pretty sharpish when the cows turned up for a drink!). The rowers had now reduced greatly so I picked up the waggler, it was solid, with bleak! I put a few in the net and was thinking of giving it up when Andy Ottaway came walking up, he said he had 2lb and that 3lb was best. That made up my mind to get my head down on the wag and get as many bleak as I could. I had 2 hours on them (with one break to look on the worm again for just 1 perch) but with 30 mins to go the river came alive with ocean liners and the bleak disappeared, I sat out on the worm but never had a bite.
The section was won by Andy (I've only got 2lb) who had 7lb of mainly perch, and a lad had 5lb 15oz of mainly roach on the pole, the only person to do so. I weighed 5lb 6oz for 3rd in the section, gutted I think I could have gone close to 2nd if the bleak had stayed for the last 30 mins. The guys either side weighed 3lb 2oz and 2lb 3oz and most of their fish came to the feeder chucked across to the trees.
Titch Bernstein won the match I think off peg 36, he had 30lb+ of bream on the pole on a pencil float! Bob sheppard had a successful comeback with 2 bream in two cast on the feeder for 2nd. Steve Tucker showed me how it should be done by framing with nearly 11lb from peg 56, Steve had a bream on the feeder (first cast) and lots of perch, he said he set a whip up but I think it was just the feeder! In 3rd place were Callum Dicks and his dad (joined at the hip are they?) from consistent peg 24.
Thatchers had a few poor results again and so we ended the league in 3rd place behind winners Garbolino and 2nd place Bathampton, Well Done lads!
After the match I heard that Guy Manton is back in the Thatchers side, so I guess that was his last match for Maver. He told me that a lady rower stopped right in front of him, and as he gave her the "evils" she asked what he was looking at "The ugliest woman rower I've ever seen!" was his retort, and she went!
After giving Nick Chedzoy a tidy sum of money for team fees he still couldn't help but moan at me "excuses on my blog" (mind you he did only beat one angler in his section), god I don't know how Nicky Ewers puts up with him travelling with him to every match, he must be a Samaritan!
Lastly if ever you've been to Avon Angling you'll know it can smell a bit. Well I noticed the budgie spent the weekend in Avon Angling, this was because its owner, Fabio, was on holiday. However, I believe that Tony has employed the old miners trick of having a bird in a cage to test the air. When Tony opens up on a morning and the bird is dead I think he will be keeping the doors open for a bit!
It was good to see Andy Floyd back in the Maver team, and when I saw Bob Sheppard and Glen Bailey with him the team started to look like an old Avon Angling side! The talk in the club was how tough this match was going to be with a low, clear river and bright sunshine. I wanted to be drawn at Rotork or close to Newton St Loe Bridge, but instead was handed peg 130 in the trees. Straight away I knew it was virtually impossible to win the section as the end peg wins it every time, Andy Ottaway had the pleasure of this peg. Still I had a few tricks up my sleeve for fishing tight over to the cover. Unfortunately I found peg 130 to be unfished and opposite the biggest cow drink on the Bristol Avon, thanks Kevin Dicks! After much bank digging and reed bashing (the peg looked to me as it had not been fished) I finally got into a position where I could fish! I don't mind all the gardening bit, it's just that it takes time away from setting up! Thanks again to another Thyers angler, Paul Purchase, for lending me boots to get into the water, yep I never took them again as I was told every peg was fished from the top of the bank! Not long after this Andy Ottaway came running past me and in his haste nearly snapped one of my top sets, he had left his hemp at home and was off to get it!
I set up a 2 grm pole float, as I felt anything heavier would only cause fish to drop the bait, a 3grm flat float and chopped worm rig for 5 mtrs. I also set up the feeder (but never used it) and a waggler just the same as in Bath on Friday. As I felt I was in a poor area (5lb was 2nd in the section last time) I used 0.09 and 20 and 22 hooks, light for me I can tell you! Since the last match I had thought a lot about the balling in mix, and I decided to mix mine exceedingly black although I had still pre mixed 3 kilos. I approached this swim with just 9 balls that only had a pinch of bait in them, this is a negative approach but I felt it was justified given the peg. There were also a tremendous amount of rowers out, and judging by the skill level it was the annual intake of new Bath University students. There's nowt you can do but try to make sure you don't get a rig trashed by them, and for this reason and because all the cover was on my bank I only balled it at 11.5 mtrs. First chuck on a caster and a 3oz roach was my best fish of the day! After a few more runs through on the caster without a bite it was onto the maggot, this brought instant bites but they were hard to hit and I bumped a couple off. I think this was mainly because they were very small roach, I adjusted the depth and dropper shot and things improved. It was hard going though because the boats often went right over the line I was fishing and the disturbance meant the float wouldn't run through properly until the water calmed down.
After about an hour I reckon I'd had a pound and a half, Jerry Pocock wandered down and told me it was dire. When Jerry came back from the end of my section he said Andy had not had one roach, but he did have some perch and an eel on the worm. My gbait line was now giving up, so I tried a top up ball which only brought a couple of bites so it was onto the worm rigs. I should say that during this time I had wanted to feed the wag line, but I had hardly been able to do this due to the number of rowers. The 5mtr worm line was biteless but I took 3 small perch from the gbait line. At this point a motor boat decided to moor in the cow drink opposite and 5 young uns had a picnic with music, and tried to fish a bit (they later moved off pretty sharpish when the cows turned up for a drink!). The rowers had now reduced greatly so I picked up the waggler, it was solid, with bleak! I put a few in the net and was thinking of giving it up when Andy Ottaway came walking up, he said he had 2lb and that 3lb was best. That made up my mind to get my head down on the wag and get as many bleak as I could. I had 2 hours on them (with one break to look on the worm again for just 1 perch) but with 30 mins to go the river came alive with ocean liners and the bleak disappeared, I sat out on the worm but never had a bite.
The section was won by Andy (I've only got 2lb) who had 7lb of mainly perch, and a lad had 5lb 15oz of mainly roach on the pole, the only person to do so. I weighed 5lb 6oz for 3rd in the section, gutted I think I could have gone close to 2nd if the bleak had stayed for the last 30 mins. The guys either side weighed 3lb 2oz and 2lb 3oz and most of their fish came to the feeder chucked across to the trees.
Titch Bernstein won the match I think off peg 36, he had 30lb+ of bream on the pole on a pencil float! Bob sheppard had a successful comeback with 2 bream in two cast on the feeder for 2nd. Steve Tucker showed me how it should be done by framing with nearly 11lb from peg 56, Steve had a bream on the feeder (first cast) and lots of perch, he said he set a whip up but I think it was just the feeder! In 3rd place were Callum Dicks and his dad (joined at the hip are they?) from consistent peg 24.
Thatchers had a few poor results again and so we ended the league in 3rd place behind winners Garbolino and 2nd place Bathampton, Well Done lads!
After the match I heard that Guy Manton is back in the Thatchers side, so I guess that was his last match for Maver. He told me that a lady rower stopped right in front of him, and as he gave her the "evils" she asked what he was looking at "The ugliest woman rower I've ever seen!" was his retort, and she went!
After giving Nick Chedzoy a tidy sum of money for team fees he still couldn't help but moan at me "excuses on my blog" (mind you he did only beat one angler in his section), god I don't know how Nicky Ewers puts up with him travelling with him to every match, he must be a Samaritan!
Lastly if ever you've been to Avon Angling you'll know it can smell a bit. Well I noticed the budgie spent the weekend in Avon Angling, this was because its owner, Fabio, was on holiday. However, I believe that Tony has employed the old miners trick of having a bird in a cage to test the air. When Tony opens up on a morning and the bird is dead I think he will be keeping the doors open for a bit!
Saturday, 19 September 2009
Bristol Avon Bath Town
I decided late on Thursday to go fishing Friday, the main reason was to fine tune the new rigs I had made up at home and then do a bit of fishing, I was also keen to fish a waggler and get some bites! I had a quick chat with Keynsham legend Warren Bates and we decided to try Bath Town. We've fished this stretch about 3 times in the last 3 years and always had lots of roach and occasional big perch.
As is usual Warren took the downstream peg (first peg above the Windsor Bridge) and went a few yards above him. Chatting to some locals they advised they rarely saw any anglers here. As I was going to be doing my rigs I had no plans to ball it in with gbait, instead my plan was loose feed hemp and caster at 9mtrs and then simply maggot 2/3 across for the wag. THE PLAN WENT T!TS UP, I had forgotten all my pole rigs! Oh bugger... Warren lent me a 2.5 grm rig to which I tied a 18 B611 to 0.1 hooklength, using no6 Preston fluro elastic in the pole. I set up a 3.5AAA waggler 6ft deep with 1 no8 and 2 no10 down the line, with same hook but 0.12 hooklength, this was because I was hoping to nail a few chub.
I was concerned about bleak being a problem so I chucked a few big handfuls of bait on the pole line to get some down, but as it turned out although there were a few in the peg they never had a go (there were hundreds of bleak below the bridge). I started on the wag as my expectation was the pole line would take a while to come to life. Warren balled it in next to me and then proceeded to run the rig through without getting a bite, it took him 20 minutes to get a bite and he had a decent 6oz roach. On the wag I had no bites at all, and I had deepened it to 9ft and added a couple more no8 shot, still no bites. A look on the pole produced no bites either! I was now getting a bit miffed, no rigs to sort out and no bites meanwhile Warren was getting the odd roach that were all 6oz.
I should say that the river was very clear, hardly flowing and we had a down stream wind to contend with, not conducive to good sport, plus they were taking down the gas towers opposite which did make a bit of noise now and again! Eventually after 1 1/2 hours I had a bite on the wag ( I was now down to a 22 B611 and 0.1 line) and missed it, next chuck in the same place the float goes down again fish on! Get it in close and it snags me and I lose it.... oh lordy! It didn't feel like a big fish so I reckon a pike took whatever it was under my feet. I kept on deepening the wag to try to find the fish, about 20 mins later I get 2 6oz roach in 2 chucks then nothing. Eventually I started to get a few bites, mainly from perch and again they were decent fish all 6oz to 1lb, I even had a 12oz roach on the wag. Then it went dead so I tried the pole again, and I was suprised when I had a bite first chuck and a 8oz perch, 2 more perch in consecutive casts and then a lull before a roach then nothing.
Back onto the wag and I had a good spell getting a few bites, again mainly perch on single maggot. As I took a phone call from Glen Bailey I hit into a good fish, it held steady and then just came off. I reeled in to find the hook was gone and as I had no excessive pressure on the line I can only assume I had been bit off. I also hit a decent fish on the pole which felt like a perch as it bounced around under the pole for a while but then suddenly it went across the river and the hooked pulled out, either a very big perch pr a pike took it.
I ended with around 10lb of fish, all quality fish that had never been caught before! If I had had my rigs with me I would have given the worm a try and am sure would have had even more perch. Warren had more than me thanks to a 6lb pike he landed. This fish had killed his peg earlier, and after a biteless hour he reballed it, eventually the roach came back but so did the pike and I saw a huge fish follow in one of his roach. Had it not been for the pike I'm sure he would have caught more.
We both agreed to come back here again when there is some colour in the water as a really good net of big roach could be on the cards. Plus you can play spot the English, as we had Polish, Americans, Australians and many other nationalities pass us by on the day!
As is usual Warren took the downstream peg (first peg above the Windsor Bridge) and went a few yards above him. Chatting to some locals they advised they rarely saw any anglers here. As I was going to be doing my rigs I had no plans to ball it in with gbait, instead my plan was loose feed hemp and caster at 9mtrs and then simply maggot 2/3 across for the wag. THE PLAN WENT T!TS UP, I had forgotten all my pole rigs! Oh bugger... Warren lent me a 2.5 grm rig to which I tied a 18 B611 to 0.1 hooklength, using no6 Preston fluro elastic in the pole. I set up a 3.5AAA waggler 6ft deep with 1 no8 and 2 no10 down the line, with same hook but 0.12 hooklength, this was because I was hoping to nail a few chub.
I was concerned about bleak being a problem so I chucked a few big handfuls of bait on the pole line to get some down, but as it turned out although there were a few in the peg they never had a go (there were hundreds of bleak below the bridge). I started on the wag as my expectation was the pole line would take a while to come to life. Warren balled it in next to me and then proceeded to run the rig through without getting a bite, it took him 20 minutes to get a bite and he had a decent 6oz roach. On the wag I had no bites at all, and I had deepened it to 9ft and added a couple more no8 shot, still no bites. A look on the pole produced no bites either! I was now getting a bit miffed, no rigs to sort out and no bites meanwhile Warren was getting the odd roach that were all 6oz.
I should say that the river was very clear, hardly flowing and we had a down stream wind to contend with, not conducive to good sport, plus they were taking down the gas towers opposite which did make a bit of noise now and again! Eventually after 1 1/2 hours I had a bite on the wag ( I was now down to a 22 B611 and 0.1 line) and missed it, next chuck in the same place the float goes down again fish on! Get it in close and it snags me and I lose it.... oh lordy! It didn't feel like a big fish so I reckon a pike took whatever it was under my feet. I kept on deepening the wag to try to find the fish, about 20 mins later I get 2 6oz roach in 2 chucks then nothing. Eventually I started to get a few bites, mainly from perch and again they were decent fish all 6oz to 1lb, I even had a 12oz roach on the wag. Then it went dead so I tried the pole again, and I was suprised when I had a bite first chuck and a 8oz perch, 2 more perch in consecutive casts and then a lull before a roach then nothing.
Back onto the wag and I had a good spell getting a few bites, again mainly perch on single maggot. As I took a phone call from Glen Bailey I hit into a good fish, it held steady and then just came off. I reeled in to find the hook was gone and as I had no excessive pressure on the line I can only assume I had been bit off. I also hit a decent fish on the pole which felt like a perch as it bounced around under the pole for a while but then suddenly it went across the river and the hooked pulled out, either a very big perch pr a pike took it.
I ended with around 10lb of fish, all quality fish that had never been caught before! If I had had my rigs with me I would have given the worm a try and am sure would have had even more perch. Warren had more than me thanks to a 6lb pike he landed. This fish had killed his peg earlier, and after a biteless hour he reballed it, eventually the roach came back but so did the pike and I saw a huge fish follow in one of his roach. Had it not been for the pike I'm sure he would have caught more.
We both agreed to come back here again when there is some colour in the water as a really good net of big roach could be on the cards. Plus you can play spot the English, as we had Polish, Americans, Australians and many other nationalities pass us by on the day!
Sunday, 13 September 2009
I've had a guts full!
What a gutter, Friday night I get taken ill with a fever and stomach ache. Saturday sees the fever gone but Stomach ache was the worst I've ever had. I couldn't stand or sit up as I was in so much pain. I really did not want to miss the first round of the commercial house because that would mean my chances of individual and knockout glory would be gone. However, I was feeling so bad I did not know if I would be right for Sunday and in the end let Mark Harper know I could not make it. I could have waited longer, but then it would have made Marks job of finding a replacement harder. As it was I made the right call as I could not do a thing Saturday and am still not right today. I cancelled my casters with Tony Rixon who text me a sympathetic "ha ha ha", I did not expect anything less! So that's that, I was looking forward to Melksham as I don't get to fish the upper Avon as much as I used to.
Having spoken to Glenn Bailey I've found out it has fished pretty much how I thought it would in the conditions, good in places hard in others. Somewhat of a surprise is how well the Forest sections have fished, apparently Paul Issacs had 18lb of roach, Bob Sheppard 14lb on the wag, and Martin Reyatt last in the section with 9lb! Glenn drew at Scotland Road where he managed 3lb 8oz for only 2 points! He drew away from the fish and also managed to break a no5 section... In his own words "I wish I'd had bad guts like you!" Thatchers legend Steve Tucker has bagged a pair of last in sections, after a 1 point last week at Newbridge he equalled the feat this weekend. That's the story on clear rivers, fish shoal up and you need to draw like Rolf Harris! What a difference to last year when the Melksham match was called off the river due to flooding and put on the canal!!!
Warren Bates was practising on the Avon at Frys on Sunday (he didn't fancy the Frys match at the Kenn)and he had some nice roach and dace on the pole after balling it in. Caster was the best hookbait as is the norm with this method. On the peg just above the lone tree there were half a dozen decent chub cruising around a snag and lots of small chub in the shallows on the barge swim.
Can't say I'm really looking forward to Newbridge next week with conditions as they are, but you have to take the rough with the smooth in this game and prepare the best you can. Off to the docs so hopefully can get things sorted and avoid another alcohol and fishing free weekend!
Having spoken to Glenn Bailey I've found out it has fished pretty much how I thought it would in the conditions, good in places hard in others. Somewhat of a surprise is how well the Forest sections have fished, apparently Paul Issacs had 18lb of roach, Bob Sheppard 14lb on the wag, and Martin Reyatt last in the section with 9lb! Glenn drew at Scotland Road where he managed 3lb 8oz for only 2 points! He drew away from the fish and also managed to break a no5 section... In his own words "I wish I'd had bad guts like you!" Thatchers legend Steve Tucker has bagged a pair of last in sections, after a 1 point last week at Newbridge he equalled the feat this weekend. That's the story on clear rivers, fish shoal up and you need to draw like Rolf Harris! What a difference to last year when the Melksham match was called off the river due to flooding and put on the canal!!!
Warren Bates was practising on the Avon at Frys on Sunday (he didn't fancy the Frys match at the Kenn)and he had some nice roach and dace on the pole after balling it in. Caster was the best hookbait as is the norm with this method. On the peg just above the lone tree there were half a dozen decent chub cruising around a snag and lots of small chub in the shallows on the barge swim.
Can't say I'm really looking forward to Newbridge next week with conditions as they are, but you have to take the rough with the smooth in this game and prepare the best you can. Off to the docs so hopefully can get things sorted and avoid another alcohol and fishing free weekend!
Monday, 7 September 2009
Things can only get better?
Let me start by saying I had an excellent night out Friday at the Queens Head where Landlord Martin Rayet was celebrating his 40th birthday. Mike Nicholls was there but couldn't take the pace and was off early. There was a great mix of people there (including the police twice...) and I stayed until around 1am. My walk home was interrupted when I found a friend passed out half way up Willsbridge Hill, despite my best efforts I could not revive him so I dragged him into the hedge for safe keeping. He has since informed me never drink Cheddar Valley cider and Sambucca!
The 5th round of the super league was at Newbridge and due to my River prowess I was put into the real Thatchers side. Mark Harper did the draw and handed me peg 56, oh great the longest bloody walk and not a good peg this time of year. Thankfully I am fairly fit and so the walk to 56 was not to arduous (don't see that word on Tony Rixons blog) for me, but I was greeted with a peg which was just a slope. I cut some steps out but then realised I'd left me boots in the car and was in for some wet feet. Luckily Brian Slipper had some boots on and didn't need them so we swapped footwear (must be something in his name!).
Once again despite all my preparation I was not able to get ready on time for the start. I decided to chuck a big feeder out 10 times to get some bait in across in the vain hope the bream might show, Bream 3000 and brown crumb is my favourite mix for this. I then balled in 14 jaffas of gros gardons, noire and crumb containing caster, hemp and some worm. Now as most of you will know you expect the float to go under first chuck with this, but my 3 gram float sailed through swim a dozen times before I had a bite! Actually there was hardly any flow where I was as it all goes across the far bank and I was at 14.5 metres on the pole to get passed the uneven bottom and try to get a bit of flow. I managed 4 roach and 2 perch here mainly on either a caster or worm. Oh well onto the feeder for a quick look and a small roach first chuck on a worm then no bites at all. Back onto the pole in the hope some fish had settled there but no, so I tried a flat float with a worm and had a perch 1st chuck... but then no more!
I was now very worried and set up the waggler which I had not had time to do before the start. I had been loose feeding some maggot down the peg, but that was tricky as the wind was in my face, meaning I could get bait just about to the middle. Half hour on the wag produced 1 bleak, and now I was having some concerns. Time for a look on the worm line ( I had bait droppered in worm at 6 mtrs ) not a bite here! I bait droppered in some worm on the long pole line and then had a go on the feeder again. I took a perch and then had a rap round bite which I thought I missed, but I came back with no hook 0.14 snapped / bit off, bugger!
I spent the last 2 hours swapping between flat float and feeder hoping for a bream or decent perch, but all I managed were 6 small perch. I knew I had done bad as Andy Britt had run the bank and told me others were catching, Andy cheered me up by saying he hated my peg and in his opinion it was one of the worst on the length. I weighed in a paltry 3lb 1/2oz, avoiding being last in the section by the 1/2oz. There were two other anglers with 3lb 6oz (one being Dave Micklewright who usually always catches a few) and the top 2 anglers had 7lb+. Guy Manton won the section and next peg to him on 46 Gary Etheridge was 2nd in the section, these 2 pegs are narrower and there's a bit more flow, Gary caught all his fish on wag against the willow tree, bleak dace and the odd chublet.
The match was won by Bob Gullick, he had 38lb of bream on the feeder in the 60's I think, Mark Harper was 2nd with 22lb from peg 77, he had skimmers and roach on the pole. The river had fished very well in places but hard in others, waggler caught a few fish up in the water where there was cover, but in some pegs there were hordes of bleak (not my peg) which were a pain / had to be fished for. On the team front Garbolino won again (yawn) and Maver had a good day too. Thatchers bombed out but so did Bathampton, and going into the last match Bathampton are in 2nd place but only 1 point in front of Thatchers.
Personally I'll be glad when this super league is over as I have caught nowt and cannot get a decent draw, hope my luck changes soon or it rains a lot so I can chuck the feeder out and catch something! First round of the Commercial House this weekend at Melksham, if the drawbag isn't kind to me here then it could be deja vu or worse!
Oh yes, venues for next years super league are 2 at Newbridge, 2 at Hunstpill and hopefully 2 at Viaduct. Yes, Goodbye Porth!
The 5th round of the super league was at Newbridge and due to my River prowess I was put into the real Thatchers side. Mark Harper did the draw and handed me peg 56, oh great the longest bloody walk and not a good peg this time of year. Thankfully I am fairly fit and so the walk to 56 was not to arduous (don't see that word on Tony Rixons blog) for me, but I was greeted with a peg which was just a slope. I cut some steps out but then realised I'd left me boots in the car and was in for some wet feet. Luckily Brian Slipper had some boots on and didn't need them so we swapped footwear (must be something in his name!).
Once again despite all my preparation I was not able to get ready on time for the start. I decided to chuck a big feeder out 10 times to get some bait in across in the vain hope the bream might show, Bream 3000 and brown crumb is my favourite mix for this. I then balled in 14 jaffas of gros gardons, noire and crumb containing caster, hemp and some worm. Now as most of you will know you expect the float to go under first chuck with this, but my 3 gram float sailed through swim a dozen times before I had a bite! Actually there was hardly any flow where I was as it all goes across the far bank and I was at 14.5 metres on the pole to get passed the uneven bottom and try to get a bit of flow. I managed 4 roach and 2 perch here mainly on either a caster or worm. Oh well onto the feeder for a quick look and a small roach first chuck on a worm then no bites at all. Back onto the pole in the hope some fish had settled there but no, so I tried a flat float with a worm and had a perch 1st chuck... but then no more!
I was now very worried and set up the waggler which I had not had time to do before the start. I had been loose feeding some maggot down the peg, but that was tricky as the wind was in my face, meaning I could get bait just about to the middle. Half hour on the wag produced 1 bleak, and now I was having some concerns. Time for a look on the worm line ( I had bait droppered in worm at 6 mtrs ) not a bite here! I bait droppered in some worm on the long pole line and then had a go on the feeder again. I took a perch and then had a rap round bite which I thought I missed, but I came back with no hook 0.14 snapped / bit off, bugger!
I spent the last 2 hours swapping between flat float and feeder hoping for a bream or decent perch, but all I managed were 6 small perch. I knew I had done bad as Andy Britt had run the bank and told me others were catching, Andy cheered me up by saying he hated my peg and in his opinion it was one of the worst on the length. I weighed in a paltry 3lb 1/2oz, avoiding being last in the section by the 1/2oz. There were two other anglers with 3lb 6oz (one being Dave Micklewright who usually always catches a few) and the top 2 anglers had 7lb+. Guy Manton won the section and next peg to him on 46 Gary Etheridge was 2nd in the section, these 2 pegs are narrower and there's a bit more flow, Gary caught all his fish on wag against the willow tree, bleak dace and the odd chublet.
The match was won by Bob Gullick, he had 38lb of bream on the feeder in the 60's I think, Mark Harper was 2nd with 22lb from peg 77, he had skimmers and roach on the pole. The river had fished very well in places but hard in others, waggler caught a few fish up in the water where there was cover, but in some pegs there were hordes of bleak (not my peg) which were a pain / had to be fished for. On the team front Garbolino won again (yawn) and Maver had a good day too. Thatchers bombed out but so did Bathampton, and going into the last match Bathampton are in 2nd place but only 1 point in front of Thatchers.
Personally I'll be glad when this super league is over as I have caught nowt and cannot get a decent draw, hope my luck changes soon or it rains a lot so I can chuck the feeder out and catch something! First round of the Commercial House this weekend at Melksham, if the drawbag isn't kind to me here then it could be deja vu or worse!
Oh yes, venues for next years super league are 2 at Newbridge, 2 at Hunstpill and hopefully 2 at Viaduct. Yes, Goodbye Porth!
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Sound Sound Portadown!
In Nov 1989 I travelled to Northern Ireland and the River Bann in the back of Tony Rixons van sat on a foam pad on a Shakespeare box! I don't think I could do that these days, but with Tony and Pat Donahue in the front seats I couldn't argue!
By the way, you may recall I recently wrote that I had entered 15 suggestions for the Match Fishing Caption Competition featuring a certain Mr Rixon. I got an email from Dave Harrell yesterday telling me I had won, very satisfying to win a prize at the expense of Tony, lol!
Anyway, this trip to the Bann had been set up by Charlie Barnes, who provided us with loads of bait and put a large percentage of the takings back in as prize money. Charlie had to drop out at the last minute and Ron Gaulton (RIP) and Tony did most of the organising. I recall on the way over on the Ferry Pete Sivell and Dave Lewis got into some serious card games, they gambled more money than I had for the whole weekend! I always enjoyed the Ferry crossing in the middle of the night, you had to drink to pass the time!
Arriving at the Boathouse section of the river we were greeted with gin clear water, not ideal bagging conditions. This match was dreadful with many anglers packing up and trying other stretches. I had about 5 roach, and watched Ron Gaulton weigh in on the end peg some bream to easily win. I caught a 5lb bream on Ron's gear waiting for the weigh in, then Mr rixon had a go and struck so hard on a bite he snapped the main line and lost everything! Back at the hotel at dinner it was decided to fish Hoys Meadow the following day as some of the lads who packed up in the match caught well here. But as it wasn't clear how well the roach were spread it was decided to put in extra pegs; so the drawbag would only contain pegs 1 to 16 but if any angler was blanking after an hour they could move to peg 17 and so on. Can't remember much about that night, I think I passed out...
Day 2 and I draw downstream end peg 1 (done that a few times over the years!) and on peg 2 for company is Sean Glover (excellent match angler now turned barbel head). Guess what after an hour I'm blanking! I walked every peg and squared it with every angler that I was going to fish peg 17, no problem. By the time I got all my gear up to the peg and was ready to fish at least 1.5 hours had now passed. For company I had a curly haired Tony Rixon on peg 16 (he likes drawing end pegs too). I should say that most of the anglers had been adopting the usual Bann tactics of long pole to hand using a 6grm float, 6lb main line with 3lb hooklength, feeding balls of groundbait with maggot and caster. I had also set up a big Nene waggler with a bulk of 8 no6 shot 1 foot from the hook, this was on 2.5lb bluefin line direct to a 14 hook. Tony said he had a few but it was mot manic, and as I started on the pole I had some roach but I was not catching fast enough. So I picked up the wag and started loosefeeding pouches of maggot and caster, something nobody else was doing. All of a sudden I started to get roach and it got better and better. I was swinging everything, and eventually snapped the line swinging one to many 1lb roach! About an hour to go I saw Tony was stood up on the bank straining to see me, "your catching on that aren't you!" he said and he hastily tried the waggler. At the end as the scales made there way up there was a 60lb and a couple of 50lbs, I weighed in 46lb and beat Tony who had fished for 1.5 hours more than me! I think he had a bit of ear bashing! Can't remember much about that night, I think I passed out... But, according to Tony Rixon I was drinking whisky crawling around on my knees and wanted a fight with Graham Beevor, but I do not recall any of it!
Day 3 I now knew I had the wag sorted and prayed for a draw in the middle of the match length, I got just that and was drawn next to Ron. Ron would only fish the pole so I thought that could make the wag even better for me. Fishing 4lb to 3lb maxima to a 14 superspade hook with 3 red maggots I was winching them in! During this day I fed 10 pints of bait, mainly maggot and some caster. I would cast out, feed 2 pouches and then pick up the rod to strike, if I missed the bite I put the rod down and fed another pouch and then I would get another bite to strike at! I won the match with 87lb, all roach 95% on the wag, Ron was 2nd with 60lb. That days fishing will go down as one of my most enjoyable. Here's a piccy, it's not to good because it was nearly dark when the weigh in was done, but you can see how big some of the roach were by comparing to the ring of the keepnet.
That night I went to the house of an Irish friend of Sean's and they got the Vodka out, I was so tired I fell asleep and only remember coming round when being lead / carried out of the house with someone elses shoes on! I don't know if it was the bagging or the Vodka that made me so tired....
Day 4 To do any good overall I needed to win, but I drew end peg 1 again. I was next to John "Gimp" Bradford, and he like me knew we had no chance. I had 26lb for nowhere but watching John snag up on the pole and break a section was quite funny!
I don't remember who won the weekend overall, because as soon as we got on the Ferry I fell asleep and slept through the presentation, late night drinking and fishing for 4 days had taken its toll (perhaps Tony can remember who won?)
I do actually have some pictures of the nights out in the hotel (Graham Beevor / his wife took them) but luckily they are all in my possession and won't been seen on here!
By the way, you may recall I recently wrote that I had entered 15 suggestions for the Match Fishing Caption Competition featuring a certain Mr Rixon. I got an email from Dave Harrell yesterday telling me I had won, very satisfying to win a prize at the expense of Tony, lol!
Anyway, this trip to the Bann had been set up by Charlie Barnes, who provided us with loads of bait and put a large percentage of the takings back in as prize money. Charlie had to drop out at the last minute and Ron Gaulton (RIP) and Tony did most of the organising. I recall on the way over on the Ferry Pete Sivell and Dave Lewis got into some serious card games, they gambled more money than I had for the whole weekend! I always enjoyed the Ferry crossing in the middle of the night, you had to drink to pass the time!
Arriving at the Boathouse section of the river we were greeted with gin clear water, not ideal bagging conditions. This match was dreadful with many anglers packing up and trying other stretches. I had about 5 roach, and watched Ron Gaulton weigh in on the end peg some bream to easily win. I caught a 5lb bream on Ron's gear waiting for the weigh in, then Mr rixon had a go and struck so hard on a bite he snapped the main line and lost everything! Back at the hotel at dinner it was decided to fish Hoys Meadow the following day as some of the lads who packed up in the match caught well here. But as it wasn't clear how well the roach were spread it was decided to put in extra pegs; so the drawbag would only contain pegs 1 to 16 but if any angler was blanking after an hour they could move to peg 17 and so on. Can't remember much about that night, I think I passed out...
Day 2 and I draw downstream end peg 1 (done that a few times over the years!) and on peg 2 for company is Sean Glover (excellent match angler now turned barbel head). Guess what after an hour I'm blanking! I walked every peg and squared it with every angler that I was going to fish peg 17, no problem. By the time I got all my gear up to the peg and was ready to fish at least 1.5 hours had now passed. For company I had a curly haired Tony Rixon on peg 16 (he likes drawing end pegs too). I should say that most of the anglers had been adopting the usual Bann tactics of long pole to hand using a 6grm float, 6lb main line with 3lb hooklength, feeding balls of groundbait with maggot and caster. I had also set up a big Nene waggler with a bulk of 8 no6 shot 1 foot from the hook, this was on 2.5lb bluefin line direct to a 14 hook. Tony said he had a few but it was mot manic, and as I started on the pole I had some roach but I was not catching fast enough. So I picked up the wag and started loosefeeding pouches of maggot and caster, something nobody else was doing. All of a sudden I started to get roach and it got better and better. I was swinging everything, and eventually snapped the line swinging one to many 1lb roach! About an hour to go I saw Tony was stood up on the bank straining to see me, "your catching on that aren't you!" he said and he hastily tried the waggler. At the end as the scales made there way up there was a 60lb and a couple of 50lbs, I weighed in 46lb and beat Tony who had fished for 1.5 hours more than me! I think he had a bit of ear bashing! Can't remember much about that night, I think I passed out... But, according to Tony Rixon I was drinking whisky crawling around on my knees and wanted a fight with Graham Beevor, but I do not recall any of it!
Day 3 I now knew I had the wag sorted and prayed for a draw in the middle of the match length, I got just that and was drawn next to Ron. Ron would only fish the pole so I thought that could make the wag even better for me. Fishing 4lb to 3lb maxima to a 14 superspade hook with 3 red maggots I was winching them in! During this day I fed 10 pints of bait, mainly maggot and some caster. I would cast out, feed 2 pouches and then pick up the rod to strike, if I missed the bite I put the rod down and fed another pouch and then I would get another bite to strike at! I won the match with 87lb, all roach 95% on the wag, Ron was 2nd with 60lb. That days fishing will go down as one of my most enjoyable. Here's a piccy, it's not to good because it was nearly dark when the weigh in was done, but you can see how big some of the roach were by comparing to the ring of the keepnet.
That night I went to the house of an Irish friend of Sean's and they got the Vodka out, I was so tired I fell asleep and only remember coming round when being lead / carried out of the house with someone elses shoes on! I don't know if it was the bagging or the Vodka that made me so tired....
Day 4 To do any good overall I needed to win, but I drew end peg 1 again. I was next to John "Gimp" Bradford, and he like me knew we had no chance. I had 26lb for nowhere but watching John snag up on the pole and break a section was quite funny!
I don't remember who won the weekend overall, because as soon as we got on the Ferry I fell asleep and slept through the presentation, late night drinking and fishing for 4 days had taken its toll (perhaps Tony can remember who won?)
I do actually have some pictures of the nights out in the hotel (Graham Beevor / his wife took them) but luckily they are all in my possession and won't been seen on here!