Commercial House Round 5 Bristol Avon - Swineford / Crane / Chequers

 Had a lovely week away with my wife this week, spent some time in Dorset and it was really good and the weather was pretty good and we got to visit many places on the Jurassic coast as well as inland. Having walked the best part of 30 miles Sunday to Thursday, I thought I would get some more miles in Friday, and walked by the river from Swineford to Crane, and then all the way back again. It was about halfway down that I realised it was Thatchers turn to peg the Commercial Match this weekend, AKA me! Well the walk wasn't wasted as I could see the river was up and coloured and Swineford pegs looked a bit dodgy. Saturday and I pegged the match, well 4 sections, I put one in at Swineford and 3 at Crane, I tried to put in what I thought would be good pegs, but mainly was pegging safe pegs to fish. There was more rain forecast Saturday night and it could make my pegging look silly but I hoped not. Ben Rendall had pegged Chequers and there were two sections down there.

Sunday morning arrived and I was up nice and early thanks to the clocks going back, still when I arrived at the club with plenty of time to spare it seemed I was one of the last there! As I was eating my breakfast I was asked by Mike Goodhind for the list of pegs.. umm I had wrote out 7 copies of the pegs and left that all at home doh. Luckily I knew the main pegs and wrote them down and shouted it out for all present to hear. I hoped that with only a few bad pegs in I would get lucky and have a nice steady peg, but once again the drawing gods decided to shit on me, I was going to the little wall up the crane. A great peg under normal conditions for roach and perch, but not in flood, what twat pegged this lol! Team draw seemed OK for a couple but nothing special, but in reality with a rising river, until you get to your peg and look at it you cannot tell.

Well my peg looked pretty naff, certainty better on Saturday, and all of the section was below me, so I had the cattle grid and boys hole pegs to contend with, last in section was my prediction once I saw it.

I set up two feeder rods, one with 0.16 to 16, and one with 0.17 to 12. There is a large concrete block in this peg and in clear water you can see it, and my peg was 5 feet deep on top the block and this would be one line to fish. I would also try casting downstream below the block into deeper water. That was the plan anyway. Twenty minutes before the all in I went to put my bait out, oh balls I've left it at home! I ran all the way back to my car, drove home, scared my wife somewhat, then drove back and ran back to my peg to get there a minute before the all in. 

My neighbours today were Andy Pritchard above me, on a peg that has won matches on the crane in flood, and below me was eventually Jeff Surmon, Jeff had set up in the wrong peg earlier, and was turfed out by Richard Lacey who had walked up to the wrong peg and had to come back down again! The fact Jeff and Rich were both on the wrong pegs to start was completely a coincidence!

With the bright sun shining in my face I was now sat in a T shirt, and had my first cast on a feeder in the shallow water 5 mins late. The second drop in I had a decent bite on double red maggot and landed an 8oz roach, nice start. It was how the first hour went with bites most casts from then little roach and dace, and one perch. Darren Gillman had watched me catch 3 fish before he left to walk on up further and not long after Glenn Bailey rang to ask how I was doing. As I was talking to Glenn I never had a bite, and it was to be the signal of the end of bites. I was shocked how I had gone from regular bites to nothing at all. I reluctantly left the shallow line in close and tried down the peg. but this was just a complete waste of time. I kept snagging up, and even when I did not I never had a bite here. The snags seemed to get worse and I was forced to to stick it out on the shallow spot. I did have a go with a whip for bleak (as I knew further down Rich was catching them) but they didn't want to be in the boils and I only managed about 4 or 5. The river kept rising and the boils just got worse sadly in my peg.

I spent the last few hours pretty fed up with no activity other than one little dace out of the blue, and I knew I was going to be well down the section as I initially thought. In the peg above me Andy had managed a decent chub and some roach and dace, he had a good start but kept bites going and had 5lb 6oz which was very good, and that would put him second in that section. I could only register 1lb 14oz today and that was only good enough to beat one other angler in the section. Jeff below me had 2lb 8oz. The section was won by Sam Johnson who was one above the cattle grid, and he had 23lb of bream to paralyse the section. Rich Lacey next to him took second in section with 5lb of bleak.

Sam with his two biggest bream.

I was back at the social club quite quick today, and was able to see the results coming in (as my team do the boards every match) and it was pretty obvious my team had a mare lol. Four of us were last in our A div section, and only Shaun Townsend and Mat Challenger did better, so we were clearly last on the day in A div!

Top on the day

1st Leigh Wakefield 57lb 7oz  end peg on the straight at Chequers,. Great weight!

2nd Sam Johnson 23lb 10oz

3rd Kev Dicks 13lb 13oz bream on last peg at Swineford

4th Ivan Currie and Vince Lunn 12lb 8oz

Sensas Nomads had a fabulous day, winning 5 sections and second in the other to win A div with ease, fantastic result boys.

With one round to go...

A Div overall  1st Thatchers 69,  2nd Nomads 57,  3rd Bathampton A 54

B Div overall  1st M&N 61,  Midland Spinner 60,  Bathampton B 59.

As you can see there is plenty to play for, especially in the B div! Next Match Commercial House this Sunday on the K&A, surely a decent draw in this league for me is overdue, pretty please lol.

Commercial House round 4 - Bristol Avon Newbridge

 After a weekend off last week it was back to the river for me and a match at Newbridge. The heavy rain of last weekend pushed the river up to a very high level, but during the week the river dropped nicely and anglers were catching bream and roach on the feeder mid week. I was half hoping we would have plenty more rain and it would be an out and out feeder match (I do like those now and again) but in the event the river dropped enough that you could float fish it in most pegs.

Once again the draw was at the Cadbury Heath Social club, and they laid on breakfast and you just had to sit down and remember to wear a mask if you got up. Very well done by the club and it is great to have a venue for draw and results close to home. Thatchers team today was myself, Mark Harper, Rob Manns, Paul Isaacs, Mat Challenger and Shaun Townsend. Once again I help the Goodhind's with the draw and I pulled out the peg number for the team draw, whilst Chris Hook drew a letter (these are then used for the draw matrix). Well once again I managed to get a couple of decent draws I thought, pick of them being pin up and bunghole Paul Isaacs on 59, a peg very reliable for bream. I drew myself on peg 50, a peg that often produces bream, but one I would prefer in the summer. My section though would be full of bream pegs as it ran from 46 to 56, and I knew I would be spending a lot of time on the feeder.

Got to the peg and I was where I thought, I had a pain in my shoulder which I had woke up with, and decided to not use the pole as it would be too painful. That meant just a 14BB crowquill with 0.11 to 16 N20 and a groundbait feeder with 0.15 to 14 N50. Didn't take long to set up that, but I did mix up two lots of groundbait, some Sonubait "superfeeder" for the feeder, and river and lake for the crowquill. My section had Lee Warden on 46, Rich Lacey on 48, Graham Hunt on 49, me, Nigel Wyatt on 52, Brian Melksham on 54 and Dave Lewis on 56. A lot of these guys had one feeder rod set up and that was it, couldn't blame them as it is a good bream area.

I started the match by throwing a few small balls of gbait on the crowquill line at about 13m, and 4 balls of my feeder mix down the middle. First run down on the float and very small roach, and nothing after that so onto the feeder. I was expecting to get plenty of taps and bites from small fish, but it didn't happen. I was 30 minutes into the match and it was obvious to me that it wasn't going to be great in my peg as the lack of roach bites was not a good sign. I had another couple of small roach on the float and was soon back on the feeder. Just after the hour mark I had decent indication and felt a bit of resistance, a skimmer about 1lb was in the net. Next cast and a tentative bite which did not develop, when I reeled in I saw a maggot had gone over the hook point. I then found out Graham next to me had 2 skimmers in 2 casts at the same time, then no more bites. It was dead for me after this too.

A good hour passed and I was back on the crowquill, 2 roach and perch fairly quick then nothing, back on the feeder again. I had a tiny indication, then a couple of bangs and struck but nothing, reeled in to find the worm and two maggots gone, damn! Again I was in the doldrums with no bites or signs and it was not looking good. I knew Graham had a bream and 3 skimmers, and Brian had a big bream, and I was looking at a low points results with 90 minutes left. I had no choice but to sit it out on the feeder and hope for some bream to pull me up the section.

With just over an hour to go I had a cast and just as the feeder settled I noticed the rod bent round, looked like a big leaf on the line, so I let some line out. The rod bent round again, no jagging, just bent round so I thought a leaf and struck to reel in. Well there was another skimmer on the end. very weird lol. 50 minutes to go and I get a proper drop back bite at last, it was nice to land a 4lb bream, but I knew I would probably need a few more to do any good. 40 minutes to go and a right pull round, like a carp bite, another bream on, this one landed too, and was a bit bigger than the first. Maybe a few more now.. but no, that was my lot.

I had the board for recording, and along with Rich Lacey who had the scales we started weighing at peg 1 in the section, that was Lee Warden, he had a really good day on the feeder, catching some early small chub, then skimmers then bream for 49lb 4oz. Part of Lee's catch.

Rich was next and had 8lb 11oz mainly on the pole, but he lost two bream in a bad snag in close. Graham had 13lb 8oz and I thought he had beat me (he had a 2lb skimmer late on) and indeed he had as I weighed 12lb 5oz.

Nigel Wyatt never had a single pull from a bream and had 2lb 4oz, then Brian Melksham had a 6lb 8oz bream and bits for 9lb 6oz. Nice lid for the legend that is Brian.

Dave Lewis also managed a bream and had 6lb 8oz. As the Comm house is still two divisions I was lucky enough to be beaten by two B div anglers, so I won the A div and would get my £30 section money, better to be lucky than good!

Back at the results and it was looking very good for my team, in fact it turned out Mark Harper was second in his section, but the rest of us won our A div section, so 17 out of 18 points. That meant we would win the day and are winning the A division by 18 points at present. The B division was won by Bathampton B on the day and they are currently leading the B div by 3 points, and it is very tight in the B div.

First on the day was team mate Paul Isaacs, boy can I draw him some pegs lol. He was on peg 59 and had 12 bream and some skimmers for 60lb 13oz. Picture of Paul when I got him to take his mask off.

2nd was Lee Warden 49lb 4oz

3rd Derek Coles 20lb 10oz, from the top peg at Rotork, all caught on the float.

4th Shane "Kenny" Caswell with 15lb 14oz Rotork

5th Clive Branson 15lb 2oz peg 71 (see his VLOG)

Not a bad match really, some good roach and chublet catches in some sections, bream only caught in odds and sods other than the top two. I won't be fishing next weekend, then it is the next Commercial House round on the river again, Swineford, Crane and Chequers. 

2001

 There was nothing for me to fish this weekend, Thatchers had the first ATWL round on the Thames up at Radcot area, but I was not in contention for that as my duties had taken me elsewhere and there were plenty of the lads who had been fishing the opens and matches up there. Good luck to them, shame the river would have been out of sorts after the huge deluge of rain we have had since Friday. My plans to sort the garden out were shelved so I have mostly watched cricket and the Riverfest coverage, will be interesting who ends on top of the Riverfest.

Back to 2001and the last Sunday of October saw me fishing a commercial house round on the Bristol Avon at Chippenham. The river was well up and coloured so the draw was all important, I remember walking to my peg and seeing the river widen up and I fancied that one, as I got close there was a long hedge and then I saw my peg, on the inside of a bend and hammering through, but a big slack opposite. The slack turned out to be just 2 1/2 feet deep, but it was the only place I could fish and that would be with a feeder rod held high in the air. That was all I set up a feeder, with a size 6 to 0.18, and I fished with either lobworm or double dendra on the hook. After an hour or so I had not had a single bite and things were not looking good but I just couldn't see how else I could catch or do any good. Eventually I got bites, but these all came within one short spell where I caught 4 skimmers and a perch. That was it, it seemed I caught the fish that were in the slack and had no more bites. I did try going down on small hooks for roach but that didn't work. I ended up weighing in 5lb 9oz which was worth 10 points out of 14. Those wider pegs were the place to be with more skimmers and odd bream and tench, I recall that Vince Lunn was top weight in my section, and I think the match was won with a big weight of bream 40lb+ at least. My team dipped right out lol!

Sunday 4th November and the ATWL on the Avon Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites, no shock I was drawn at Crane, but I was two pegs past "bread point" which is a long way up (not been pegged now for many years) and as far as I was concerned meant fishing for big fish as there are not usually many roach up this far. Pretty sure all I set up was one groundbait feeder with 16 to 0.14. I walked down to see who was below me just above the point and it was Bathampton arch rival Kevin Dicks. Unlike me Kev had set up the kitchen sink and was I think not impressed when I said I only had the feeder set up lol.

There was a nice willow tree opposite me and I cast my feeder fairly close to it about 3/4 way over. The positive approach was a good move as after an hour I had taken a bream and some bits for 6lb. In the next two hours 2 more bream, a chub and a few bits came along, and I also got snapped up probably by a big chub. The last 2 hours I could have read a book though as I couldn't get any bites. My total weight that day was 17lb 7oz which not only won the section but got me 3rd overall, Kev really struggled and didn't get to 2lb, he had something large in his peg that was boshing all day he told me. Team came 2nd so that was OK.

Sunday 11th November and it was the Poppy match on the Avon, the draw as always at Fys, and on this day Dave Lewis ran a super pool which I entered. I remember being in the draw queue with a couple of my then team mates, Mark Jefferies and Bob Sheppard, and they thought a draw at Chequers on the straight would be good. Well blow me, I go and draw the peg on the top of the straight opposite the cliff face, then Bob drew the peg below me! He was quite vociferous in his aggressive confidence of beating me, and Mark had enough and said he would have a fiver with Bob that I would beat him! Off to the pegs and we would see.

I had drawn this peg once before and won a match with 15lb of roach on a stick float, and looking at the river I thought that would be the best approach again. A 6 no4 stick with a 20 to 0.10 was all I had set up, but then I did put a maggot feeder up thinking if the roach didn't feed I could chuck across in the hope of a chub or two. I started on the stick feeding hemp and caster, I thought Bob would so the same but was surprised when I saw him fishing the crowquill across, he appeared to be looking for better fish early on. Fishing with a bronze maggot on the hook I was soon getting a bite a chuck from dace and roach and was soon settled down and enjoying myself. At times bleak became a problem, and I had to push the shot down into a bulk, but this wasn't as good for how the fish wanted the bait presented. Casting the stick float into different places also was a tactic to avoid the bleak.

I continued to get bites all match and Bob had no luck on the crowquill and switched to the stick float but much later than me and I knew I had a good lead over him. Bronze maggot seemed the best hookbait, but I did have a few on caster. By the end of the five hour match I knew I had just enjoyed one of my best days fishing in a big match (200 pegger back then). I hadn't a clue what I had and said I had at least 16lb but could have a lot more. The scales were for every ten pegs and they had Kev Dicks as best weight below me with 14lb of roach, Bob had 11lb+. My fish needed two weighs and was totted up at 21lb 12oz.

Back to the results and I had no thoughts of winning the match as expected some better chub or bream weights up at Swineford, but as more people came back from there nobody mentioned a weight better than mine. Soon enough I was read out by Brian Lloyd as the winner on the day, and I had become the first person to win the Poppy Match twice (I won it first in 1988 again at Chequers but with skimmers on the feeder that day). Mark got his fiver off Bob, but Mark reckoned Bob should have give him a tenner as I nearly doubled his weight lol. Then the affable Dave Lewis made my day even better giving me the super pool money, and I went home that evening with £450.

It was onto the canal the following weekend at Bathampton for the ATWL, team draw put me right on the bend, a wide peg that used to be good for skimmers but not for a while. I fished for skimmers positive on the long pole and couldn't catch anything at all. fishing bloodworm on a top set I could catch little roach but knew I was not going to catch enough of them and thought I was bound to catch skimmers at some stage. Out of desperation I chucked a feeder out to search the water, and with 15 minutes to go got a bonus 1lb perch on this. That bumped my weight up to just 3lb 11 1/2oz, 6 points from 8, and despite my team only coming 4th we remained on top spot overall for now.

My last match in November 2001 was a dire affair on a gin clear river. Commercial house up at Newbridge, I drew downstream of Kelston bridge, not a good area normally and so it proved. I was only able to conjure up 13oz, 1 roach, 1 dace, 1 perch all on the feeder. However, so bad was the river that I got 10 points out of 13 for this! 50lb of bream won on peg 211 on the straight.

Well hopefully back out fishing next weekend, hopefully the river will drop a lot and be in good nick.