August 1992

Maybe, just maybe I can get out fishing next Sunday... but I am going to have sweet talk the nurses, well we will see. Long pole and carp bagging though will not be on the menu as just cutting my grass this week left me feeling awful.

August the 1st 1992 and I found myself on the banks of the Cardiff East Dock for a practice. One side of the Dock had railings which you had to fish through (or come up with a Heath Robinson contraption to sit past them) and the other side was clear, so we fished the easy side. Mind you the fishing was far from easy, using bloodworm and joker on 4x12 rigs you could only catch a few small perch and roach, and on this day I had just 17 fish! I was quite pleased to be back on the Avon the next day on a King Billy match at Laycock as this stretch had lots of fish in it. Unfortunately I drew a horrid deep peg which only gave me 3lb of bits after 3 hours. As the pegging was well spread I walked up the bank with my stick float set up and fished a peg that had been left out, in 30 minutes I had fish boiling and landed 2 bream of 4 to 5lb, and then lost the lot on a beast and packed up and went home!

The following Saturday I was fishing for my team in the NFA knockout, we'd been drawn at home against Radcot AC. We took the away side to the Avon at Chequers where we all fished regularly, ahem! For some reason the river switched off totally and fishing for the usual bream and skimmers was a mistake as only 1 skimmer was caught. I had a lowly 1lb 5oz when I switched to a wag and mag, but it was far too late, Radcot fished maggot and beat us fair and square. After such a poor day it wasn't exactly going to be better on Sunday back at Cardiff East Dock for the Super League. I'm pretty sure I drew near where we'd practiced and this time I caught a few more small roach by feeding joker in balls of gbait at 4 mtrs in 3ft of water. When this died I went out to 8 mtrs with bloodworm and took a few more small fish but I could see I was not catching as well as some. I weighed 2lb 15oz for 8 points, talking to the anglers who'd done better some of them had caught on maggots on the long pole, oops! The team held on to our overall position of 2nd place though, so not a bad result.

The following weekend and another practice on a venue that was a tough nut to crack, the Gloucester canal (blimey we were tough back then, I'd need therapy to fish those venues again!). We fished somewhere near Slimbridge and I had most of my 3lb+ on a gbait feeder with pinkie hookbait, with just bits on the pole, this is a venue that I never got to grips with really. Back on the Avon on Sunday for a Bristol & West open and I drew peg 122 at Jack Whites (no longer a peg). The river was up a little and had a nice colour and I fancied it for bream, so it was a 1 rod job gbait feeder 18 to 1.5lb maxima. Casting across as is normal I lost feeders and 10 hooks until I finally found a snag free area down the middle and slightly upstream. I had some nice bites on either double red mag or double caster, but not from bream, from chub. I landed 6 and lost 4 in the snags to weigh 11lb 10oz which won the section by default, but I was gutted as only 16lb won the match and 13lb was 2nd, the lost fish cost me. I know now that I should have fished heavier gear but also I needed a more powerful rod than the stupid Drennan light feeder rod I used!!!

I had a little pleasure fishing on the evening of Tuesday 18th in the 1st peg above the fence at Jack Whites (not sure that is a peg now either!). I had 3 bream and plenty of roach on bread flake on the crowquill, then switched to tares down the inside carried on catching roach, nice! A new venue on the following Saturday for me, Sabre lake at Quemerford, and I'd gone with a plan to fish wag and mag for carp on the drop. Drawing a peg with the wind in my kisser messed my plan up, but I soldiered on with it anyway and ended up in a right state. I some how managed to catapult a maggot into my eye and the ammonia reacted with my eye and it swelled right up! That was no excuse for only catching 4 carp though.......

The Superleague followed the next day on the Gloucester and I drew a peg at Hempstead. I balled in gbait with squatt, caster and bloodworm at 11 mtr and left that to settle. Onto the feeder for an hour for nothing, and then the gbait line and that was dead too! I winkled out some bits on a whip with bloodworm to avoid a blank and then sat on the pole for the rest of the match and took 11 small skimmers using a 22 to 0.08. 3lb 12oz was good enough for another 8 points for the team, and goodness me we won on the day and remained in 2nd place overall. Not a fantastic month for me, but would September be any better?