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.
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