Knockup at Chequers on the Bristol Avon

 It was looking like another difficult week trying to get booked in on a match, in the end Ben Rendall messaged me that he was going to have a little 8 peg match at Chequers. I thought I might as well fish that, close to home and an early start to avoid any public swimming, though the weather put paid to that lol.

After the heavy rain in the week it was obvious the river would come up, and it was high and coloured on Friday but it was dropping nicely after that and everyone fishing thought it would be a bream match. But we've said that before!

The draw was in the field at 7am, which I just managed to get to on time and in attendance were a number of seasoned river anglers. On the last match here (Superleague) the bream mainly were caught on the top pegs, but some of the guys fishing mentioned they had caught bream from the lower pegs in the last couple of weeks. I drew peg 3 which was one below the big concrete culvert on Frys, with Kevin Dicks on the culvert itself, and below me was Mike Weston. Ben Rendall was on end peg 1, and on the upstream end peg 8 was Ben Matthews which was where the bream came from last match.

My peg, you can see the colour in the water.

The match was starting at 8:15 so once I got myself set up in the peg and put together a feeder rod the start was called. I needed a 30g feeder to hold with a bow in the line, F1, Thatchers and brown crumb were in my gbait mix. I didn't ball it as last time that killed the bream fishing, so began on a big feeder to get some bait in. Kev did the same, but Mike threw some in. I began with my usual 3 red maggots on the hook looking to catch anything, and had bites straight away but I could not hook them. Soon found out the culprits, dace. I tried a worm after 30 minutes and was still getting bites on this from dace, and after the first hour I had 1 roach, 1 perch and 2 dace. I kept on ploughing the bait in, and went up to a size 12 to 0.15 and putting two worms on slowed the bites, but not a sign of a skimmer or a bream. The second hour was poor as I did all I could to avoid the dace by fishing big baits, in the end I went to see my neighbours who were both struggling, but not getting many bites. I decided to set up a crowquill, wouldn't take long, 13BB crowquill already on a winder, with 18 N20 to 0.11. Unfortunately this wasn't the answer and it seemed the dace didn't want a moving bait, and I only had a couple of fish on the float, though the wind was a nasty down streamer and wasn't helping.

I then heard Ben Matthews had 6 bream, and another angler had one, so I was highly unlikely to get into the top 2. I decided to fish for the dace, put on a 50g feeder shortened the hook length and fished a single maggot. I hit more bites on this, but still missed too many. I was throwing the odd small ball in and trying the crowquill in between, and then my wife and eldest daughter turned up to watch me, and sneaked a photo of me.

Not sure what happened but in the last hour the float started to go under more. I could only catch on the float over the feeder line which was two thirds over in the main flow. I had tried (earlier) feeding some bait at 13m but never had a bite in this slower water. It was a fair chuck with a crowquill, and if the wind blew hard downstream I would struggle. I enjoyed this period of fishing, I do like catching on the float, and some of the dace were spewing out bait showing they were ravenous. Match ended at 13:15, and hearing that Ben now had 10 bream, and Derek Coles had double figures I wasn't going to trouble the scales today. Lucy took a photo of my fish, maybe 5lb.

I'm sure there was 10lb of dace to be caught on that peg today, but once again the bream blinded me and they avoided my net again lol!. Turned out Ben Matthews was a runaway winner with 41lb in the end, and second was Derek Coles, but he only had 6lb 12oz. Derek had some roach on the float but then fished for bream for the last 90 minutes (as he was next to Ben) but never had any. There wasn't much else caught, a couple of 4lb's. The bream curse had struck again. Second place was definitely there for me today had I fished the float all match, but we'd all be winners in hindsight.

Commercial House begins next weekend, Newbridge for the first round, not much rain in the forecast it seems, so probably going to be a bit clearer next week, hope the pike don't feed!

Back to 2001

 There was no blog last week as I had a nice restful weekend, and as it happens I couldn't find a match to get my juices flowing this weekend and so it was another weekend spending quality time with my family. I have also been able to return to the gym and have managed to get in 10 times over the last 14 days, got a long way to go to get back to where I was prior to lockdown but I really enjoy going. Looking for a match next weekend, but again not sure what is on or where to go. Just a short blog today.

Back in 2001 I also had a break from fishing for a few weeks and my first match was on May 20th at Viaduct, I think it might have been the "Bristol Rovers v Bristol City" match but could be wrong. I was drawn on peg 18 on Spring Lake, a peg which has a long chuck to the island. I fished an 8gm scud waggler to cast as tight to the island as I could, using 4lb maxima direct to a 16. Using 3 red maggots as hook bait and fishing between 12 and 18 inches deep it was busy fishing as after the float being in 15 seconds you had to reel in and cast again. I never lost a fish all day and had 40lb 6oz which won my section.

A week later I was without a match and pleasure fished at Bridge Pool on Bathamptons water. I didn't record in my diary what peg I fished, but I fished up towards an island, down the shelf at bit fishing at 12.5m. I fed small amounts of gbait, with meat and corn mixed in, using a 16 to 0.14. I had 4 tench, 1 bream, 1 chub, 8 small carp and one carp of just over 10lb. It was a nice mixed fishery back then. The following week I was fishing an open at Viaduct on Match Lake. I fished peg 39 this time, and as was the method at the time, fished 6mm cubes of meat, feed with a few 4mm pellets. I caught on the pole at 13m but it was slow going, just 6 carp and 12lb of skimmers for a total of 32lb 15oz. However, this was enough to come second on the day, I'm sure that Graham Beevor won this match.

In June 2001 we had some hot weather up to 30C and my couple of outings were a complete waste of time and there were no matches on the team front until we got to Sunday 22nd July. We had a Superleague round on a Welsh venue, think it was called "Willows" it was a new place with a fair few lakes. We didn't know much about the venue, heard there were small skimmers in there, so I set up to fish a small gbait feeder with a 20 to 0.10 as the pole line was all over the place. It was a very difficult match for many, I plugged away with a small feeder and tiny amounts of feed to end up with 5lb 3oz. That was worth 9 points out of 12, unfortunately I didn't record how the team did, so probably average lol. The next round was on the K&A canal at Horton, we had a practice match where I chucked back about 1lb, and when I drew in what was a barren section knew it would be a tough match again. I fished the pole to start 1m off the far bank feeding odd little balls of black gbait with squatt in, once this died I had to fish tight to the far bank to get any bites with a pinkie or a squatt on the 24 hook. My princely sum of 1lb 10oz got me 10 points from 12.

Not a lot to say more about 2001 today, it was a tough year until the autumn / winter, but will save that for another time.

It won't be long now before the first Commercial House and then winter league matches, but I also have a week away planned with the lads in September. The usual week away at Viaduct in June was of course cancelled due to Covid, but with restrictions lifted and social distancing in place a number of us can get down there for the week. It means I will have to somehow find the time to get my gear sorted for commercials at a time when I would usually be fishing rivers. But to be very honest I am really looking forward to going, as I will know exactly where we are fishing, and have some well over due social distancing beers with lads.

Hopefully a blog about some fishing next Sunday!

Superleague Round 5 (final round) - Bristol Avon Newbridge and Chequers

 Well here I am again, tapping the keyboard to write up my blog, time flies when you are having fun it seems. I say this as today was a personal milestone for myself, as it was 10 years ago that I got told I had bowel cancer. I was writing my blog before that day, and in some ways having the blog was a good way to focus and share my problem. Unfortunately I have lost quite a few friends to cancer, but then also I have some mates who like me beat it and are still here enjoying life (they know who they are and I have much respect for them), and right now I sadly have a couple of friends who are fighting this shitty disease and I am really hoping they get through it. That's enough about cancer, I live with the physical effects of beating it every day, but mentally I have been good for many years, enjoy yourself when you can.

The last round of the changed superleague today, and I was in D section on permanent peg 22A at Newbridge which is behind the blockhouse. Most of the team met briefly in the layby by Newbridge bridge, and it was good to see some of the lads again, I had two of my squad in my section Martin Barrett and Lee Trivett both seriously good river anglers. I wasn't actually that happy with my peg at all, I'd prefer to be from 22 up to peg 5 in the little field, but at least I was not down on the straight where all the anglers who were going there were having a good moan (it is normally rock hard in summer). I didn't need my trolley to get to the peg it was that close, so a few trips and all was good. For neighbours today I had Andy Pollard on 22, and Steve Stretch Saunders on 24, no mugs there! With the team in second place it was imperative that we had a good finish to stay in this position.

As you can see I had to get down into the water here, but the bottom is pretty sold and no problem at all, though that scaffold tube is a bit of a pain. The boat opposite is a permanent feature and I spoke to the owner quite often during the day, he does a little bit of fishing and mentioned he had caught not a lot last night but pike had taken a couple of fish... hmmmm. He was nice bloke and was kind enough to feed against the boat for me a few times with scraps lol. Time to set up, it is an awkward peg for shipping back, so 11m pole was all I limited myself to. The peg just keeps getting deeper here so no point trying to find a flat spot at 16m. Three rigs, a 1.5g pencil float with 20 N40 to 0.10, a 2g job with 18 N20 to 0.11, and finally a 3g rig for fishing worms. A gbait feeder, and  two wagglers one deep and one shallow. The flow on this peg is more across and I was expecting to spend most of the match on the waggler (7lb off it last match on that). In my my mind I had to try to get 10 points out of 17, and 9lb was needed for that last time, but I thought today would be tougher.

The match began and I threw 10 balls of gbait out on the pole containing worms, casters, hemp and pinkie. I went out with the 2g rig with a caster on the hook, had a 1oz roach straight away and that was the last bite on that rig. Out on the pencil and four missed bites on a maggot, uh oh... put a pinkie on and finally hooked a roach, hmm this was not a good sign. I persevered with a pinkie and with the slow flow I was still missing bites on this but I got to 4 roach and then Mr Pike took a fish. He was well hooked and I pulled him downstream and with 11m of pole up in the air he was getting some tooth ache. I had him on the surface a few times, looked about 7lb, amazing how strong 0.10 is, then finally the line broke. This seemed to improve matters and I had more regular bites from the little roach and then had a 12oz roach out of the blue. I wasn't bagging at all, it was hard work, and another pike grabbed a roach, this was a smaller pike and after a tussle he let go, the roach went about 30 feet up in the air.

Not long after the hour mark Stretch shouted out, thought he had a pike, turned out a dog had run through his tackle and snapped a rod, oh dear. He asked the owner to provide her details, she did, but the lying cow gave a false number etc as Stretch rang it straight away. Fair play to him, he grabbed the dog and pulled the ID tag of its collar, so he now had the owners real details lol. Just before this he had 2 bream in 2 casts.

After 1 hour and 15 mins the pole line just stopped dead. Out with the worm rig in case it was a big fish but nothing happened and didn't even have a perch. I fed some more worm here and went on the feeder for a while, this was a disaster, as the area I had picked was a snagpit (despite chucking a lead and not finding a snag). I had to start a new feeder line up and so put some more feeders of bait in across by the boat and went onto the waggler. I had the usual small bleak and tiny chublets and a couple of less than 1/2 oz roach! I thought this might get better so kept flogging it and feeding it but it was just the odd bite that I couldn't hit, and if I did it was a tiny fish. The pole line was completely dead, no roach, no perch and no bream! I then heard that other people had odd bream too in the section, and with me struggling to catch anything I had no choice but fish all out for them, so the last two hours I sat it out on the gbait feeder. Sadly for me all I had was one tiny perch, and my recent bream catching form eluded me.

I was pretty sure I was looking at last in the 17 peg section, I guessed I had 3 1/2lb which let's face it is not going to do well. I was though nice and cool as I had been in the shade all day, can't moan at that! Well my worst fears were not confirmed as I managed to beat two people in the section with my 3lb 14oz ;-)  so 3 points and by far my worst effort in this league. Stretch won the section and kicked my ass with 17lb mainly 3 bream and bits, and there was a 16lb in the little field. Those guys on the straight, well nearly all of them had a bream or 2, and there were a number of bream caught all the way up to peg 67. I at least know I did the right thing fishing for a bream for the last two hours, as another pound of bits would have only got me  or 2 more points. It was a calculated gamble though as I knew team mates Andy Power and Rob Jones were both winning their sections so I could go for it. Andy Power won the match from peg 61 with 7 bream for 37lb, Derek Coles was 2nd with 36lb from peg 48, Derek Jarman had 29lb at Chequers and Mike Bernstein next to him was 4th wth 25lb.

Team mate  Rob Jones had 21lb to win the trees section. Guy had just under 8lb for mid section at Chequers, so we were looking OK as a team with 46 points. Actually Chequers fished well today with a 29, 25, 20, 17, and lots of other decent weights, bream, roach and dace fed.

Picture of a happy Steve despite the broken rod.

Just had the results in and it is congratulations to Daiwa Gordon League Black who with league with 240 points, Thatchers Sonubaits, my team, were second with 225 points, and in third were Garbolino Blackmore Vale Marine 3rd with 209 points. A good result for my team and a few quid to go into the team funds, well done lads.

Once again the river was heaving with people out having fun, and I think this contraption took the biscuit. Looks like a pub "table & chairs" which has had a couple of barrels tied to it, I did laugh when I saw this go through my peg, and I only just managed a photo of it. Sadly swimmers in pegs seems the norm now, summer fishing on the river in hot weather seems to now be a test of patience, a shame as the river still fished well. "I'm an angler, get me out of here!" lol.

I will take a rest next weekend, I did tell my wife yesterday I would not go fishing next weekend, so will see what I do next. Tight lines everyone.

Open match Newbridge Thursday / Superleague Round 4 Newbridge

Two blog posts in one today as I didn't get round to doing one from a match on Thursday.

Thursday match at Newbridge this week which was run by Kev Dicks, we drew at 1pm in the field and were fishing from 2:30pm to 7:30pm. As you may recall it was very hot on Thursday and I was wondering how the river would react to that. I got drawn peg 5 up in the little field, not a favourite of mine as normally lots of pike in this peg, but I hoped they might have moved off. 

Ten of us fishing today, with Neil Richards drawing peg 20 again, which he won from last week, and my neighbours were Nigel Evans on peg 3 and Kev Dicks on peg 7. I was only going to set up a few rigs today, a couple of pole rigs, one 2g with 18 N20 to 0.11 and a 3g flat float with 16 N20 to 0.13. I also set up a waggler, 4AAA with 18 to 0.12. That was it, no feeder this afternoon for a change. The peg has little flow in close so I had to go out to 13m to get to what I thought was a reasonable part of the river. However, I didn't consider how the light would change later on which became a pain. View of my peg, boats opposite had inhabitants but were largely OK, bar chucking all scraps etc into the river.

I began the match a little differently from the usual balling barrage, I cupped in 6 balls with caster and worm in really hoping to attract some skimmers / bream which I thought I would need to catch to compete with other pegs in tonight. I dropped in with the 2g rig and as ever it was a few problems with little bleak and tiny chublets to start. I fed maggots down the middle for trying the waggler later on, and half hoped this might draw the little fish away. The pole line wasn't great, and I only had 1 roach and a perch other than the bits after 30 mins, then I had a pike do me. Not long after this I hooked the pike again, I tried to give it toothache and actually landed it, about 4lb so that would keep it out of my peg! Cupping in didn't seem to be working to keep the pike away or get the fish in the peg.

I took the pike up to show Nigel and I told him I was really struggling, Nigel had balled it in but he was also struggling, so I couldn't draw any conclusion that cupping was wrong. I went back to the peg and dropped in again with the 2g rig and the float buried, a little roach, and one the next drop in too. The pike being removed seem to have improved things and I was able to catch little roach for 20 mins before they buggered off. There was a down stream wind and the ripple on the water combined with the light meant I was really struggling to see my pole float now. Ben Rendall came up for watch and said to me that everyone seemed to be struggling to catch to start, and that Kev below me was also struggling to see the float. I tried the waggler but the fish which I caught were very small chublets and bleak and not worth catching, so I upped the feed on the waggler and went back on the pole.

I caught the odd small roach after resting the pole, but the light was making it so hard to see the float that I was striking at false bites, if the wind dropped I could see the float just about OK. I think I had a few small perch and my best fish on the pole so far a 6oz chublet after feeding a couple more balls of gbait, but again it was not happening.

I think it was about two hours in and the pole appeared to be dead now, though I wondered if a bigger fish or pike was back in the swim. Just as I was about to change I had a little dip on the float and I thought I had hooked bottom, then it moved. A lot of no 6 elastic came out as this fish moved across the river, and the line went slack, pike? Well no it wasn't, as would you believe the single red maggot had doubled over the 18 hook somehow and with a tiny bit of slime on the line I knew I had just lost a bream, balls. I picked up the flat float and went out with a worm on it, almost instantly I had a great bite, but it was a roach of nearly 8oz. Next drop a perch, then next drop nothing, I waited about 15 mins and then noticed the float was very very slowly going down but stopped with the bristle literally on the surface. After a couple of seconds with the float like that I struck, wallop the number 8 elastic set the hook into what had to be a bream. I shipped back carefully, and then as I broke down and lifted the pole the float never moved, was I snagged now? No it appeared not, just the bream was a decent fish and I had to pull a bit harder lol. All of a sudden a nice slab appeared side on and was panned, had to be 5 1/2lb. Sadly despite my best efforts that was the only bream I caught and the pole line really went off with just a few small perch on worm after this. 

I stepped up the feed again on the waggler and flogged this for the last 90 minutes catching bleak and  chublets, but I did get the occasional chublet about 4-6oz.

Match over and I thought I had 11lb, how this would do I didn't know. I soon saw the scales and they began on peg 1 where Andy Pollard had a great 13lb of all small fish. Nigel on 3 had 6lb 7oz, then my turn and Kev Dicks said before I had even got my net out that I had 12lb 2oz..... I weighed in 12lb 2oz!

Kev had 6lb 5oz and Derek Coles below him had 6lb 3oz. Not much was caught below the bridge at all except for Neil, who won the match with 15lb 5oz of roach on the pole. I ended up 3rd and took home £40 for my troubles.

Saturday I went up to Bitterwell Lake and helped Paul Isaacs who had a little junior match running, 16 kids were there with their familes. It was fun helping them getting the floats shotted right, advising on feeding, and hooking maggots. I managed to help one young lad who was blanking catch a couple of roach on a waggler and he was relieved and chuffed, his Dad was shocked by the little changes that made a difference. I hope they enjoyed the day and go again.

Sunday Superleague and I couldn't believe it when I found myself pegged on 107 in the trees, 1 peg downstream of where I was last week on the Riverfest! This wasn't a great area as you may recall, and further down the trees was better, so as I had 14 pegs below and 2 above me I was fearful of bad result, so would hope the pole would be more obliging today. Pole rigs today same as Thursday but also a finesse 1.5g pencil rig with 20 to 0.10. I could get in the water here and so I only had to fish 11m and I was a long way out into the river. I don't have a photo today as I had a slight problem part way through the match when I dropped my phone in the river and a few things went funny on it, but it still appears to be working. I also set up a waggler again and a gbait feeder.

I started this match by going back to balling it in, as did Paul Purchase above me and Shaun Townsend below me. I could see both of their poles but Shaun's was easier to see looking downstream. He didn't seem to be shipping in and out very much, I was but only pesky bleak again! It was another poor start for me with only 2 roach in the first 45 mins to go with a small perch and bleak and chublets. When the little blighters moved off it was hard to get a bite, but then I had 3 roach in the run throughs, then nothing again. I looked up to see Paul's pole bending and I thought he had a pike on, but it turned out it was a 4lb+ bream. A lot of people were about bank walking and I soon heard not long after the hour mark that Derek Coles below Shaun had 2 or 3 bream. I struggled on to catch an odd little roach but it was so bad that I tried the flat float but had nothing on this today.

Out on the feeder where I had put some bait out earlier, I gave it an hour and had 2 gudgeon and a roach. Shaun was struggling like me, and we heard it was hard for many other than a couple of anglers towards the bottom of the section. I had tried the waggler but it was only good for very tiny fish, although they were there on mass with a bite every cast. Back on the feeder hoping for a pull round, had a decent bite and felt something for a second then off, maggot over the hook again FFS. It wasn't a bream though, decent chublet or perch I reckon. Whilst sat on the tip I thought this is too much of a gamble on a team match, so went back on the waggler to give the last 2 hours to bit bashing with the vain hope of a chub. Well it was a very busy time with lots of casting striking and swinging in little bleak and chublets, and then as time moved on I caught the odd roach. Most fish were under an ounce but occasionally I might get a 2oz fish, nothing ever bigger. I flogged it till the end and probably had 60 to 70 fish on it. 

I had to wait for the scales to come up from the end peg and those bottom 5 pegs had caught a few again with Simon Hebditch doing by far the best with 14lb 11oz on the pole (skimmers, chub and roach). Simon though had to take second in the section as Derek Coles 6 bream and bits went 34lb to come 2nd in the whole match. Shaun had 4lb 11oz, then I weighed 6lb 3oz. Paul Purchase did well to catch 10lb 14oz, he had a skimmer to go with the bream, lost a bream too, to go with some roach and perch. Paul said he only had 6 fish in the last 3 1/2 hours.

I ended up 7th in the section so 11 points which I was pleased with as other than the two bream weights I was the best weight after peg 5. Going on the waggler turned out to be a good choice for the team points rather than the bream gamble. Guy Manton, Andy Cranston and Andy Power all did well in their sections and we won the day with 51 points just beating DGL black by 5 points. However, DGL black were leading and still are, they have 193 points, my team 179 points, and GBMV Marine and Lobbys Green are tied 3rd on 166 points. I do not think DGL will slip up, but I hope we can keep ourselves up in second keeping the pressure on, it is certainly nice to be challenging for the top. Final round is next week.

One sad note to end on, the river was teeming today with other water users, rowers, paddle boarders, boats, canoes etc. A couple of anglers had boats in their pegs which wouldn't move. Some Eastern European people wanted to fish and tried casting lures next to match anglers, with Ian Pauley having a pole section broken by them. It was frustrating at times...