After a week of fishing for carp it was back to natural fishing, and that meant quite a bit of changing over gear, rigs and hook length preparation. It is a bit of a slog to do this but I do get a lot of enjoyment out of many venues and as they say, you only get out what you put in.
Alarm was set for 5:45am Sunday and I had no problems getting up and was at the 37 Club in Puriton by 7:30 am. Need to follow the Covid rules, so mask on, scan code with the NHS app, get to my teams table and mask off. The 37 club were very attentive and soon I had a nice breakfast and cup of tea. My Thatchers team today comprised of Rob Jones, Luke Sorokin, Paul Isaacs, Matt Challenger and Rob Manns. With the team winning the first two rounds I was keen to do well after a poor first round (I missed the second round which fished well at Swineford and Crane). Mike Goodhind (Bristol City supporter who likes reminding me I'm a Rovers supporter, I can't think why!) asked me to pull out the peg numbers for the draw, and when it was my teams turn I pulled 1 out. We have a matrix so not everyone is on peg 1, but we still had two end pegs, but they were not given to me. Rob Jones on A1 at Parchey, could win the match there with bream, and Rob Manns on F7 at Bradney. I was off to E3 at Bradney.
I recognised the area as soon as I got to my peg, and realised I was one peg away from where I drew back in the summer on the super league practice open. I struggled back then for a high 3lb, but Tony Goodland told me there should be a lot more fish in this part of the river now as they move up from the shallower Parchey. Thanks to Paul Purchase for pegging the match out and giving everyone plenty of room, sure it helps, and the pegs themselves were very comfortable.
Rigs today were going to be waggler, feeder, pole rigs for a chopped worm line, and gbait and worm line, and a whip. Setting up was rushed and I was not looking like being ready, the whip can be the best method here if you are on the small fish, though in the past I've never been lucky enough to sit on a pile of fish. Was sorting out the whip, my Preston 8m system whip, when I managed to drop the 5m part into the KSD and watched it disappear into the depths.... 4m to hand here would not be enough so the whip was now off as I knew the bottom was all over the place until 9m as I had plumed around on the pole. I put together a 1.5g rig with 18 N10 to 0.10 for the 9m line, and a 2g rig for the much deeper 13m line. To be honest mentioning what else I set up is just a waste of time.
On my right today was Andy Britt, he was one off the end peg and would be hard to beat as he does very well at whip fishing. on my left was an empty peg, and then Graham Hunt, so I was the meat in a Bathampton sandwich.
We started at 10am, and I cupped 3 balls of gbait on the 9m line containing pinkie, hemp and casters. Also cupped some bait out to 13m. Shipped out to 9m with a red maggot on the hook and not long after the float cocked it went under, I hooked something that felt reasonable, felt like a skimmer, but it weeded me up and came off, not going too well this day so far. After this I had bites but from very small 1/2 ounce pommies, I kept going as I was getting bites and this was a better start than in previous visits here. I had an early try with caster on the hook and had a 4oz rudd and a 2oz perch, but that was it. Back on the maggot and still getting bites and occasionally the stamp would be better with 2oz pommies, but still no roach. I was throwing a ball of gbait in regularly with hemp and caster in and still getting a bite every drop after an hour. Andy was going well too, but I was concerned I was going to be catching slower than him even though I was shipping in and out like the six million dollar man.
The second hour was pretty much the same and I was still getting a bite a chuck, I experimented with hookbaits, caster not good, fluro maggot not good, but red and bronze maggot were the best with bites on the drop on these. I started to get the odd roach but they were still few and far between, it was mainly these little pommies and odd little perch, and odd rudd.
The third hour and still a bite a chuck on the 9m line, and I couldn't contemplate leaving this line and trying for a better fish, but I really needed better quality, so I started loose feeding hemp and caster as well as throwing the gbait in. After a while this did seem to bring the roach in, but they would not stay for long, but they were 2oz plus so I kept the loose feed going in. However, I had to alter how to feed it, and it was always interesting. The fourth and fifth hour were really just more of the same, and I fished the whole match on this line, not very often you can say that. What a busy match, not had a day like that for some time, must have had getting on for 200 fish. Less than Andy who had 256.
The weights in the section were good, and Andy fished a great match with 256 fish for 19lb 2oz to win the section and teach me a lesson. I had 14lb 11oz for second in the section. Rest of the weights in my section are on the sheet.
Back to the results and my team mates had enjoyed their day all bar Matt, and that meant we won this round. Rob jones did win the match from A1, he had 12 bream and 1 tench for 56lb, all in the first hours! Paul had 12lb, Luke 12lb, Rob Manns 8lb and Matt 4lb.
Top individuals
1st Rob Jones 56lb
2nd Ben Rendall 36lb (2 away from Rob)
3rd Andy Britt 19lb 2oz
4th Paul Purchase 17lb 6oz (same section as Rob and Ben so more bream)
5th Tim Ford 14lb 11oz.
Another little pick up £40 for me, and that really brings to the end a week of lovely fishing for me, finally got my draw on small fish on the KSD, even if I did lose my whip lol.
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