ATWL Round 4 Bristol Avon Newbridge

There was no blog last weekend as I had a week away with the wife in Cape Verde, and what a great week it was. It came at the best time as I was feeling quite stressed and a tad unwell after a lot of work and other issues, a week on a sunbed or drinking or eating sorted me out and I really felt great. The place is lovely and I would go again. Nice sunsets too, but I'm no David Bailey lol!

Back to this Sunday and the match, and after not a lot of sleep after a late return I was woken up by one of my cats that had shit on the door mat, nice start to the day. Got to the rugby club and grabbed a bacon and egg roll and caught up with the lads and Lee Trivett gave me my bait which was handy. Lucky Liam was doing the draw again, but I had kept away from him as I always seem to get dross pegs from him. Not today though! Liam came back with the pegs, which in the main I didn't think were that great, but I was on B2 which meant peg 16. Three weeks ago on the commercial house Andrew Trudgian had 26lb of big roach, skimmers and hybrids off this peg to win the match. I had to be happy, but in the back of mind I was worried that the fish had a) moved or b) not taken kindly to being caught. I have seen this before up Newbridge where one week these fish show then disappear.

I got to the river and parked behind my peg, nice, on peg 14 was long time friend Darren Gillman, this peg had 19lb last time out. On peg 18 was Steve Hutchinson who had forgotten his bait and scrounged what he could from all of us in section. Lee Warden on 20 and Alan Jones on 22 made up my section. The river looked very clear and had little flow, but it was also covered in leaves and whilst I did set up a crowquill I couldn't see much else other than a pole approach working today. This picture shows what leaves there were, and believe me it was at times a lot worse than this.

I set up a 1g pencil rig with a 22 to 0.09, a 2g rig with 18 to 0.10 and both were to be used at 13m (11m line had a snag on it). I set up a perch rig for fishing in against a tree but I never had a bite on this. A feeder rod was put up but never used.

The team had bloodworm and joker this week, and although I did not realise we had this and didn't really want it, but I decided to put some joker into my original balling in mix as it might help. Twelve balls went in, and I decided to start on the 2g rig straight away. Not quite sure how but I managed to tangle to hook length badly on the first cast, so I put that up the bank and picked up the pencil rig and stuck a caster on the 22! The float settled and buried, roach on! Pike on! FFS!!! New hook length required already and not the start I wanted. Back out on the pencil and two 4oz roach in two drops had me upbeat, but after these the fish no bites, on maggot it was 1oz specimens. I could get a bite every chuck on a single maggot from roach or hybrids but I was not going to do a big weight with these. For ninety minutes I had caught these fish and despite trying the 2g rig over depth I could not change the size of fish. The pike then came back and after following a few fish in struck again and did me. Bites then went right off, and I cupped 2 balls of gbait in to try to revive things. It wasn't any better but then on the pencil I had a 8oz hybrid and I thought time to go positive. I went on the 2g with double caster and lowered the rig in and held it still, after no more than 5 seconds the float buried and elastic came out a fair way. It was a skimmer of about 1lb, next chuck a 12oz hybrid, next a 14oz roach and then a 1 1/2lb hybrid, oooherrrr! Of course after 4 in 4 drops the fish backed off, but I stayed positive and 10 minutes later another 12oz hybrid graced the net before the bites stopped so I fed  couple more balls of feed.

The peg didn't respond to the feed as I hoped it would, and so I went back on to the pencil with a caster, it was a bite a chuck but only from the 1oz roach. I decided I had to go back to the 2g rig, trying with double red maggot this time I had a 12oz skimmer but then just a couple of small perch and a roach which a pike grabbed. I spent most of the remaining match on the 2g rig thinking that I was doing well in the section and that catching the odd better fish was better than a 1oz fish every few runs down. It was the right thing as I did get the odd hybrid but also hooked a large fish which I pulled out of after it tore off. About thirty mins from the end in almost the same place I hooked another big fish which stayed deep until I had it in close, I was thinking bream, then all of a sudden the float shot out and the rig went horizontal as a big fish jumped clear of the water and shed the hook. I am convinced it was a sea trout about 4lb, and that seemed to kill the peg. I finished the match on the pencil rig and took two 6oz hybrids on the drop and a 2oz roach on the whistle.  I had a busy day, some lovely stamp fish which I think would have had a proper munch had there been some flow and a bit of colour. I enjoyed it and had to work at feeding and presentation as the fish did not give themselves up easily. I thought I had 15lb.

I had the scales and Darren the board, so we set off to Alan and he weighed 4lb 1oz. Lee Warden had 5lb 1oz (but had bumped two decent fish on the tip), Steve below me had 4lb 14oz and all tight between them guys. My fish took the scales round to over 17lb, and Darren called it at 17lb 7 1/2oz. That's 9lb less than Andrew had 3 weeks ago, a nice net none the less,.

Just Darren left to weigh in my section who was admitting to "6lb and I've looked at them possibly 7lb" (PMSL) Darren had a nice net of roach for 10lb 8oz, that's also 9lb less than Shaun Townsend had off this peg 3 weeks ago!

Section win bagged for the team I was keeping fingers crossed I would make the frame, there were two 17lb+ weights up in the little field but I was told less than me. However, one of the weights was exactly the same as mine, and it was caught by Ivan Currie on consistently good peg 7.

Back at the rugby club and it was soon apparent the river had fished tougher than last time but there were still some decent nets.

1st on the day Ivan Currie and myself with 17lb 7 1/2oz
3rd Tony Gilbert 17lb 1oz peg 3 little field
4th Nigel Evans 14lb+ peg 82 (man of the match award from me as he had 10lb of perch)

Bathampton did amazingly well on the day and had 35 points out of 40 to win the day, my Thatchers came 2nd. After 4 matches Thatchers and Bathampton are tied on 6 points and only 1 section win seperates us!

Pike were once again a problem for many anglers (unless your name is Glenn Bailey and he seems to draw pegs with no pike all the time lol!) and today my heart goes out to Shane "Kenny" Caswell. Shane was on peg 56, and whilst Glenn on 54 caught small fish regularly and Mark Harper on 52 caught nice roach Shane had 1 perch after an hour and had lost every other fish to pike. By the end of the match Shane had landed 12 pike!!!!!! To rub salt in the wounds Shane hooked a 6lb bream on the feeder with 30 mins left, but this fish shed the hook before he could land it. Gutted for you mate, but your luck simply has to change, but it might be helped if you stop putting chopped herring in your gbait lol!

I'm dropped for next match which is on the canal, so they can shove it, only joking lads! I need to get the garden tided up so no fishing for me week. Next match for me the newly named "Bill Milton Memorial" for the Poppy fund, otherwise known as the Poppy Match, would be nice to get my name on the new trophy, but I may have used my luck up on that match.

Commercial House Swineford, Crane Jack Whites & Frys

We all have days and times when we think this is not going well, time to give up and go home. Not just in fishing but I've seen it in many sports where people's head go down. However, time again those who keep going till the end might just get reward for their effort.....

I was eligible to fish the Viaduct Silvers Final Saturday, but with me working very long days at present I was really in no position to get my gear and bait together for that match, so I bowed out. Instead after some other activity that needed doing Saturday am, I then went to watch Rovers in the afternoon with the wife, daughter Lucy as well as Benz, Glenn and Podge. It was a poor game and we let in a soft goal and with 10 mins left it really didn't look like being our day. This group pf players though are used to coming back from a goal down, and in the last 8 minutes scored twice to win 2-1. Never give in attitude and superior fitness told, UTG.

Sunday morning and I was feeling OK even if a few Jamesons whiskeys still lingered in my head somewhere. I got to the rugby club about 5 mins before the draw, a couple of sausage and egg baps were quickly devoured as we discussed the pegging. I wanted to avoid the two sections up the crane, but Luck Liam Braddell did the team draw and put me back up in the long ash tip field in Pike Alley.

I walked up the river with Nathan Hawke who was going to be a couple of pegs above me, and Mike Kent who was end peg in the section, just above the bay in the Little Ashtip. It was a refreshing walk, at least it was dry after the early rain, just two bloody stiles to contend with. As I walked to my peg I found I had Andy Britt on the peg below me, and above me was Glenn. I went to have a walk down my peg to see if I would be in or off the water when my feet went from under me and I slipped all the way down the bank and into the river above my waders. I grabbed handfuls of stinging nettles and tried to keep my waist above water whilst shouting out to Glenn to help me. After about the 4th shout he realised and came to my aid and pulled me out, thanks very much mate I was stuck! Didn't look that bad but the top of the earth was wet and slippery and I should have known better.

Recovered from my fall I set about making the bank safe and getting my gear in place, my hands and arms were numb from the nettles, but it was just annoying rather than causing any problems. The river had a bit of flow but was still clear and also had a a few leaves on it, a sign of things to come over the next month for sure. I was opposite a blue boat and everything looked quite nice. That is except for the tree branches above me which were a pain all day and I hit them every time I swung a fish or struck on the rod and line, how I did not break anything is amazing.

With plenty of time to set up I gave myself plenty of options, a 1gm pencil rig, 2gm rig, 4gm, a 1gm rig for chopped worm, plus a crowquill, waggler and a feeder. This area is usually OK for roach and dace, but with a bit of colour in it there is a chance of bream and skimmers. I couldn't see any of the latter being caught here today. I was ready bang on time and on the all in I let fly with 12 balls of gbait at 13m which contained plenty of hemp and caster. Out with the 2g rig and bites straight away from 2oz roach and dace, but after 5 fish a pike took a definite better roach and bit me off. Picked up the pencil rig and this went under but the fish were a lot smaller, then I hit a better roach and the pike took that one. I put new hooks on both rigs and went out again in the 2g rig but it was much slower and I missed a few bites, so back to the pencil rig but it was tricky with odd bites from small dace and roach but I was missing a lot of bites. I tried the crowquill and this worked as I hit a few more fish until a pike snapped me up on this too.

In the second hour I mainly caught on the crowquill, but the wind was now getting up, and with the sun out it made seeing my float very hard. Then all of a sudden it was very quiet, I tried the 4g rig and held back looking for a bonus. I hooked what I think was a decent roach but I'll never know as the pike took that one too..... I was feeding hemp and caster over the pole line and thought things might get better as the day went on, but after a reasonable second hour the pole got very hard. I tried the worm line and had 4 perch here for about 12oz and that was all I had here. The waggler was a no no at this stage as there were too many leaves on the water. The light was really bad now and seeing any of my floats was a miracle, the wind was also blowing my loose feed all over the place. I was also having a lot of fish coming off the hook both on pole and crowquill, no idea why as it is not something I've suffered with for a while. To be honest I was not really enjoying my day at all, fishing in wet trousers, hitting branches, the bad light and pike doing my head in too!

I had spoken to Glenn and Andy and both of them had more than me, and both had not had pike trouble, jammy buggers lol! I took the odd fish by alternating pole and crowquill, but the peg was getting worse, and with 90 mins to go I took the decision to reball it. It didn't work for me initially but I could catch the odd small fish on the crowquill a few metres past the gbait. Until of course a pike turned up again. Darren Gillman walked along and he saw me pull out of a fish on the waggler, and I may have told him I was cheesed off lol. In the time he was gone I think I caught one little roach and he turned back up behind me with about 5 mins to go. I tried the pencil rig which I had on a 22 to 0.09 and bugger me if it didn't go under and I had a 3oz roach. Next tun through and I missed a bite, and then I hooked another bite which then went heavy, pike grrrr... Hang on though, not so sure, Darren and myself wondered if it might not be a pike. As the fish came in close I tried to get it off the bottom as I knew there were lots of snags in close, but with only 0.09 on it was tough. As the fish came up I just could not see what it was because of the damn light, but then it swam into my bank and I saw it was a chub. Before I could do anything it was under my bank and out of sight, I went to gran the landing net which then slipped into the river, FFS! I had no choice but to put my pole down and grab the net, as I got things together I just prayed the chub had not snagged me solid. I gingerly pushed the pole out from the bank a little further and saw the water move, and then the chub kindly swam out from the bank. I dropped the net in close to it and as I hoped it would it swam straight into it thinking it was a snag. Lucky last fish about 2lb right on the whistle, never give up right till the end!

When the scales came down from peg 1 I wasn't the only one to suffer with pike trouble, Luke Sorokin lost close to 30 hooks on peg 1. Glenn did well with his small fish and had 8lb 11oz, which was more than I thought I had. However, the last gasp chub swung the needle in my favour and I had 9lb 1 1/2oz, not really a good way to thank him for pulling me out of the drink! My weight got me 2nd in the section beaten off the next peg by Andy who had 10lb 5oz. Andy had no trees to hamper him and fished an 8m whip. Ivan Currie was once again in my section and kindly took a photo of my fish again.

The section fished quite fairly really with quite a few 6 and 7lb weights. Of course in the overall stakes the crane never made the frame...

1st Dean Harvey with 40lb of Bream from about peg 6 at Swineford on the feeder, well done Deano!

2nd Nick Coles with 18lb from the Beach at Swineford, he had 4 or 5 skimmers plus roach

3rd Graham Hunt with 17lb of roach and dace from the Steps at Jack Whites, that twice he's drawn this in two matches.

4th Tom Moretti 16lb including two 5lb bream on the pole from Frys.

Thatchers B won the day toed with Bathampton, but the B team lead the league now. Lucky Liam was next to the winner, but he blew out today. As I reflected on my day I was very frustrated and had not really enjoyed it that much. However, there is always someone worse of than you, and today there were a few... 1) Shaun Townsend, threw his net back in and had no landing let or keepnet, had to wait till 35 mins in the match for replacements. 2) Mike Davies, drew the deep peg at the crane and managed to snap two rods, 3) Rich Candy walked up the ccyle track but went a bit wrong, he got back after the money had been paid out, nice walk then lol!

Finally courtesy of Darren Gillman, a shot of Dean landing a bream. Weekend of next week see you soon.

ATWL Round 2 Bristol Avon Newbridge

Another very hectic week at work meant I was looking forward to the weekend. I had to wave goodbye to the wife Friday as she headed up to Manchester to spend the weekend with my eldest daughter Lucy. Ian Pauley did me a big favour by picking up my bait from Thatchers on Friday, I was feeling pretty ill again so was glad I could rest up. Had a few ciders Saturday afternoon with Glenn, Mike Nicholls and Geoff Francis, we had a good laugh and I wobbled home.

I woke Sunday morning feeling a tad dry, and a couple of pints of water were downed and helped immensely. Onto the rugby club for a nice breakfast and talk was of how hard the match would be with a a low clear river and bright sunshine forecast. Lucky Liam Braddell did the team draw for us, he came back with a decent draw I thought. I was on peg 24 which is a few below the block house and a peg which I've had before and has options depending on the river condition. It is a bit of a cow drink so you can get in the peg nice and easy and set up close to the water. I was the first peg in C section and I was happy with that as I thought the pegs below would be tricky. The river was very slow, and on this peg more of the flow is across the peg and there is a chance of chub. Ivan Currie had this peg a while back and had some chub, and I was confident of catching a few. I set up a 2 1/2 swan waggler with a 20 to 0.12, a maggot feeder with 17 B711 to 0.148 exceed for the chub. I only set up two pole rigs, a 1grm pencil float with 0.09 to 20 and a 1grm float with 13B711 to 0.16 for chopped worm. I didn't see the point of other rigs as the river was so slow I could hold back on the pencil float!

In the section above me on the next peg was Nigel Wyatt, and below me was his travelling partner Geoff Surman, two avid river anglers and top men. I began the match balling in with gbait, 12 balls went in today with just a little bit of hemp, caster, pinkie and worm as I didn't want to over feed the peg. I fed maggots to the far side with a catapult and kept that up all day. Out with the pencil float and with a single red maggot on the float buried as son as it settled, a 1oz roach was the culprit. Next drop in I had a bite I thought but hit nothing, but I was really struggling to see the float due to bad light. I did get another little roach, and then another was on but a pike grabbed it, I held tight and eventually the pike let go. A couple of small dace followed and then another pike grabbed a fish and bit me off. New hook length on and out again for a little perch and a dace and then a pike again. Another hook on and then a few more little fish before the 5th pike hit on the hour and this killed the pole line. Nigel Evans called me and spookily he had also been hit 5 times by pike, but he was still getting bites. My pole line was dead not a sign. I was thinking about the waggler / feeder across, but on the boat just below the tree a couple turned up and started up a generator and began working on it, great! A little later as the relaxed they started to get a little lovey dovey, which Darren Gillman spotted, but it came to nothing lol!

Time to try the waggler which I had set at 5ft deep, I had a 30 minute spell on it which yielded 2 bleak and a few missed bites from tiny bleak. I fed a chopped worm line down the peg on the pole and then tried the maggot feeder. I tried this for about an hour and had a few little knocks which resulted in a 2oz perch and a roach which a pike grabbed but let go of. Then I had a little rattle on the tip followed by a massive wrap round, got to be a chub, it felt like a very good fish but halfway back it came off, but as I wound the feeder in I saw I had a roach, well 3/4 of a roach, another bloody pike had struck! I thought I'd give the feeder one last chuck but had nothing, until I wound it back in and the poxy pike grabbed it, but I gave it some severe tooth ache as I pulled the feeder free! Ian Pauley was on peg 22 and he rang me to say he had taken 5lb of roach early but his peg had gone stone dead, as he put the phone down on me I had a pike take another fish and he told me after I heard you say "effing pike". However, in the top pegs in his section they were catching big roach, hybrids and skimmers,

The middle of my match was woeful, and the pole was dead, 1 tiny perch from the worm line, and a few bleak and a bonus 4oz chublet on the wag were all I managed. I thought I had 2lb in the net and was probably last in the section and I just didn't know what to do. With 90 mins to go I tried the pole with the pencil float again, I was now on a 22 to 0.09 (hook changed earlier after a few pike strikes) and had a couple of dips on the float but nothing was hooked, I took the maggot off and put a pinkie on....Bingo! The float went under properly and a 3/4oz roach was swung out, next drop in the same result, and the next and the next. Basically for the last 90 mins I had a small roach every cast, I even managed to get a few on the maggot and although the biggest was no more than 2oz I was flying and amazingly I had no pike! I did try the waggler quickly as I thought I might have fed the bleak off, but as soon as a bleak took the bait I gave it up and went back to the pole to carry on catching the little roach.

When the match ended I was left thinking what could I have caught if it hadn't been for the pike, I reckoned I had to have now 5 to 6lb but wasn't to sure as the fish were small. Only Warren Bates in my section was admitting to 4lb so it looked like I was going to do OK today. Ivan Currie and Derek Coles weighed me in and I was quite surprised when they called 7lb 6oz. Ivan took this picture for me.

As it turned out I did win the section comfortably as Warren was 2nd with 4lb 14oz. I think he may have said something to me as I told him I only had 4lb, well it was another wind up after my wind up about him on my blog last week lol! The section above me was much better and it saw some proper quality fish caught in a couple of pegs with first and second in the match coming from there.

1st Andrew Trudgian 26lb of skimmers, hybrids and roach to 1 1/2lb on the pole from peg 16. Well done and well deserved as Andrew has put a lot of effort in the last few years to get to grips with the river.
2nd Shaun Townsend 19lb of quality roach on the crowquill on peg 14. You can't put this bloke on fish as he will always do well, though he did get his ass cut by Andrew!

3rd Liam Braddell 15lb of mainly skimmers and bream from peg 107 on pole and feeder.

On the team front Bathampton won the day beating Thatchers by 1 point, so we are tied at the top after two matches.

I was pleased picking up £50 for winning the section and pleased that Liam bought the beers! It turned out that I was in the lowest weight section today, with I think all other sections being won with double figures of mainly roach. Glenn was on 78 and he had a perch of close to 3lb today, a bonus on the day. We really need to get some rain I feel to get the bigger fish to have a go, but you cannot complain getting plenty of bites from small roach, and other than the bloody pike the river goes from strength to strength. Did I mention Ian Pauley in my blog today, he did ask that I mention him as he said he is an avid reader of it. I had to mention Ian as he and Nigel both endured severe pike trouble, I thought I had it bad but they both went through 20 hooks, and Nige had pike swimming around his swim just under the surface. bad luck chaps!

ATWL Bristol Avon Swineford, Crane & Jack Whites

After catching nothing last weekend a torrid week at work was the last thing I needed, our new computer system was not working well in all areas and very long days ensued, by the last day of the month we'd not been able to invoice all our sales and I reckon £400K+ was stuck. I needed a a break and a good weekend. Got bait from Thatchers on Saturday, sorted a few bits and bobs out and then pegged out Jack Whites, and I wrote in Polish as well as English on the signs to say water closed. I was chuffed later that the Gas won away from home and a nice bottle of red to celebrate set me up and the first part of the weekend was good.

I woke up Sunday and the heating had kicked in, it was a proper autumn morning cold misty and the sun shining through, no matter how tired I feel on days like this I just feel alive. Had to take a picture later when on the bank.

This year we have 5 teams of 8, and that makes pegging fairly easy, with 15 at Swineford, 15 at the Crane and 10 at Jackies. Liam was drawing for our team and I hoped he'd do me a favour and keep me away from the Crane for a change. Fair play he did, and I was end peg at Swineford, one below the beach where Paul Purchase had taken 25lb on the Commercial House. Paul told me he had a lot of fish but caught 3 bream in the last 3 run throughs on the pole that day. I drove to Saltford and met up with Glenn Bailey and Shaun Townsend who were also in my section. We took the long, but flat walk along the cycle track and after getting across the bridge and kissing gate I had a few more hundred yards to go. Glenn was on the famous Bitton Brook, a peg known for chub normally, Shaun was on on the Beach peg and I was below him. Later we were also joined by Craig Fletcher below Glenn and then Mark Williams was below Craig. This is how my peg looked.

The river had a tinge of colour from the storms of yesterday, and with bream coming from here before I was going to make sure I gave myself a chance of catching one. I set up a gbait feeder first, then two pole rigs, a 2g with 20 to 0.10, and a 4g with 18 to 0.12. That was it today. The water in front of me was dead and I had to go 11m to find a bit of flow, and I opted to fish 13m. It was not straight forward as the flow goes slightly away from you and the river got slightly deeper the further you went down. For that reason I decided I would ball it and probably not loose feed but just top up with gbait. On the whistle I threw in 14 balls containing plenty of caster, hemp and a small amount of worm. Starting on the 2g rig with caster I had about 8 trots without a bite, onto a single maggot and started to get the odd small dace, fish which were at the most an ounce. After an hour I might have had 1 1/2lb of these little dace, I was certainly not bagging and when Glenn told me had had 5lb of dace I was already well behind. I topped up with the odd ball of gbit packed with hemp, caster and worm and the second hour produced a few more dace, plus a few roach and little perch but again the fish were small. After a few top ups the peg just went really hard and I chucked the feeder out for a bit, but the tip never moved.

Back on the pole and the rest had done no good, it was dead. It was now 2 hours to go and I was well down the section. Time for a gamble, and I reballed the peg and put plenty of caster and worm in the balls in the hope of some bream. Straight out over them with the pole looking for some early small fish,  but nothing no bites, I shouted to Shaun I've blown this big time! I tried the tip again and as before it was no good, so I decided to drop it in over the pole line. I had a couple of small raps indicating small fish, so I went out with the 2g rig and as soon as the float settled it went under, a 3/4 oz roach. For the the next hour I had a bite every chuck from small roach, dace and the odd better roach. It was my best catching spell of the match by far. It then started to go iffy, and I tried my 4g rig again fishing over depth with double red. I had a few small roach and perch on this, and then with 15 mins left I finally had a better fish on, turned out to be a hard fighting 2lb skimmer. With 5 mins left the float went under again and 1lb skimmer was my last fish of the match. Shame they turned up so late, but a nice way to end and I thought I had 12lb.

I had the board and we weighed from Glenn first, he had a busy day on the pole with just an ounce under 18lb which was 200 dace. Craig Fletcher had 2 nice chub on the waggler and with his bits had 14lb+, Mark 8lb and then Shaun next to me had 13lb 9oz. I was last of course to weigh, and was happy that my net went 13lb 10oz, although it would be fair to say that Shaun wasn't lol! Alas only 3 points from 5 and I needed the skimmers to show up earlier. Everyone in this section had a hell of a lot of fish, but they were very small. I guess after we get a bit colder weather this small fish will disappear, but it is fair to say that the river is full of small dace at present.

Another nice long walk back, by the end I was a ball of sweat and had drunk all my drink, I couldn't wait to get back to the rugby club and grab a cider, which Glenn kindly bought. Lots of small fish had come out and very few better fish it transpired, there were plenty of good weights though.

1st Graham Hunt with 18lb 14oz, dace on the whip from the steps at Jackies
2nd Glenn Bailey 17lb 15oz, dace on the pole.
3rd Liam Braddell 16lb+ dace on the whip below Graham (Liam is still drawing his wotsits off)
4th Andy Ottaway 16lb 4oz dace and some roach on the pole peg 18 Swineford.
5th Warren Bates 16lb 1oz next peg to Andy on 17 (with no one on 15 as he told Mike Withey he was on 14 the wrong peg to fish on!)

Thatchers won the day, with Bathampton second. Swineford and Jackies fished well again, but the Crane was a bit of a struggle again it seems. Oh and pike were a problem for a lot of anglers today, I had 3 fish grabbed but got them all out.

Foot note, Shane Caswell is having a very consistent time on the winter leagues, and he has been last in section in three matches now, I'm sure his luck will change as he can catch fish if they're in front of him.