I'd got myself sorted by basically going with a one tracked mind on bream as I was sure these would be needed to pick up money, and after the rain we had in the early hours of Sunday morning this was only going to add more colour and pace to the river as the day would progress. I got to the field by the river where the draw was to be held, and Ben Rendall and Ben Matthews were taking the pools and doing the draw. Social distancing was in place and the draw was done by the Ben's and all fair and above board. 13 was the fancied draw on the outfall, but end pegs 1 and 20 were also on my list of preferred pegs. In the event peg 13 went to Ben Matthews, and I was given peg 15 which was nothing special but we would see.
Got to the peg and was a bit shocked to find the bank to resemble a ski slope. This was because I knew the guys had been down the day before doing some work on the swims, but it turned out someone had fished my peg the day before so they couldn't do any work on it. I dug a few steps out and went to the right as there were willow tree branches overhead and I would have to cast underhand anyway.
It didn't take long to set up my 12'6" Supera with a 1.5oz in it, gbait feeder with a 14 to 0.15. The water was coloured but not chocolate as when I had fished on Friday, but it did look good for bream I thought. I set up a 5g bolo float also with a 16 to 0.12 but this was only for passing the time or resting the swim in my head. The anglers either side of me were on my left on the upstream side Andrew Cranston, and on my right Shaun Townsend. I was a little disappointed that I had a very short swim, about 15 paces, whereas Andy was more than double that and Shaun had even more water.
The match began at 10am, and I launched 16 balls of gbait, caster and worm in about a third out where I could easily cast a feeder. I fed some casters in closer for the float line just in case. I started on a worm hookbait tipped with maggot, not a tremor on the first two casts, so I put the ever faithful 3 red maggots on which brought a few small taps on the tip and just one maggot nipped, a small fish. A couple more casts and the same result, so to try to put something in the net I put just two maggots on the hook, a couple more taps and the same 1 maggot nipped. Waste of time so back onto the bigger baits, but they were a waste of time too as after the hour mark I had nothing in my net! Andy had caught a 3 1/2lb chub on the feeder and a few small fish on the pole, Shaun had 2 dace, it was obviously fishing hard.
After 90 mins I tried the float, I didn't have a bite on this fishing on or near the bottom, but in order to catch something I shallowed up and caught a bleak, blank avoided. Back on the feeder now and as I had heard Rich Lacey on peg 19 had 2 bream and 2 skimmers. Graham Hunt came along for a walk and we had a chat, he told me that he had his bes on the Avon on the peg Shaun was on many years ago, bream on the feeder. It was good to chat as not much was happening and unfortunately the day only got worse for me, and I can't really get many words down on this post today... I never had a single fish on the feeder nor on the float. I went for a couple of walks to see most anglers struggling, but enjoyed watching the great wildlife that is here, many butterflies including my first large skipper for a long time, and some great birds. I spent the last 45 mins with the feeder out and I made some rigs up for later use on the river, I did swing a couple of these out shallow and nailed another 3 bleak lol! There was a loud cheer from a few when the match ended at 3pm.
The weigh in was done from end peg 20 where the angler there had some late bream including a 5lb fish 10 minutes before the end to weigh 14lb+. On the next peg Rich Lacey gave a little fist pump when his bream and skimmers went just over 15lb, and that was enough for him to win.
Jack Jones had a bream on the next peg but not much else, then Kev Dicks had 2lb. Andy Cranston had 6lb which would be enough for him to pick up the section by default. I was a DNW,as was Shaun and the next three anglers at least. Louis Townsend was 3rd from peg 9 he had 6 skimmers for about 10lb, and Paul Purchase was the section winner with a bream and bits for 6lb.
The roach never showed today, and that can happen early season, but there was not much else feeding and so it was a case of need to catch some bream / skimmers. Shaun did have a go at catching some bleak and dace shallow, and he had a few but nothing quick enough, but he did have 2 or 3 really huge bleak, and he wanted to weigh them in to see if he could have a record breaker, but then didn't bother lol. Overall disappointing but that's the way it can go, still good to see some of the lads and have a bit of a chat, even if it was at a bit of a distance.
Next week I'm off to fish an open on the King Sedgemoor Drain, apparently there are 70 anglers booked in for this match, I really need a decent draw to do well and an end peg will be nice.
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