Commercial House Round 4 K&A Canal

It will come as no surprise that this match was transferred from the river at Keynsham to the canal. The river at Keynsham has overflowed the marina and is in the car park in front of Keynsham Angling. I've only seen that happen once before. I managed to get to the rugby club draw without any issues, seems as though the rain wasn't quite as bad here in Bristol as forecasted. The canal had been pegged from the ponds in the town up through to Meadow Farm, I fancied a draw from A to D section for a chance of framing. The team draw was done and I found myself in F section at Meadow Farm and not what I Wanted today. This section had 6 pegs on the bath side of the bridge and 5 pegs above, meaning 3 end pegs to contend with straight away, I was not on one of them.

My approach to this match would be similar to last week rig wise, but I expected more roach and an outside chance of skimmers. The same rigs as last week were all assembled again, but the peg today was a bit shallower than where I was last week. I started late, this was due to me not finding any pegs when I arrived and walking the wrong way! That said the anglers around me were all late in starting, Shane Caswell on end peg 7 fed and then got double boated, Dave Duggan on my right and myself waited till the water settled down. Paul Purchase on my left had a slow start and just 1 fish on the bread whilst Vic Abbot on end peg 11 had a skimmer. I took 8 small roach on the punch in the first hour but I lost a good skimmer which I didn't see, and I was a gutted as they are a real bonus.

Boat traffic was very heavy today and my far lines kept getting wiped out by badly steered boats (dare I say it seemed to be women drivers!) and at times I just sat with my head in my hands trying to not get wound up. I caught a few small roach and perch on bloodworm next to a boat on my left but if I caught 3 that would be it and I had to go somewhere else. Paul had taken an eel and Dave lost one, but my worm line and caster line only gave up 1 tiny perch and a 3oz roach all match. Shane had taken two skimmers on bread and I knew I was being beaten by the two end pegs, but I couldn't get any response from a good fish. Dave fished most of the match across on caster and never caught. In the end about an hour and a half to go the boats had really gone and with about an hour to go I started to catch small roach across on bloodworm. I wasn't going to beat the end pegs but I was enjoying getting regular bites, although a few drop ins on maggot were tried all to no avail. Vic then took a big skimmer and 2 small ones on worm to forge ahead. By the time the match finished most people were pleased as it had been difficult.

I finished with a lowly 2lb 3.5oz, and whilst that beat Dave (5oz) and Paul (I won the match last week fishing the same way 1lb 13oz) either side of me that was it! Vic won the whole section with 5lb+ and on the other side of the bridge the anglers all had 3 to 4lb, so I had 1 point in the A division!

Back at the results we had a few good results and a few like mine, and Thatchers B won the day but I was shocked when my Thatchers A came 2nd and that means we now have a 3 point lead over Bathampton Elite with two matches left in the New Year. Colin Dance won the match from the end peg at Richardsons (before it goes into the tunnel) with 14lb of skimmers on bloodworm. A high 7lb was needed to frame, and as I thought these all came from A to D section.

Some of the things that happened on the bank today... well there was a dog fight behind Liam Bradell and one of the owners nearly threw the aggressive dog over the wall at Darlington onto the railway line! A boat came loose of its moorings at one end, and the owner was not at home, so it swang out and blocked a few other boats which as you can imagine messed up a few anglers pegs, lol! Oh yes, not quite sure what happened but I heard Paul Barnfield had a barny with a boat owner that I think moored in his peg... The joys of the canal!