Pleasure fishing on the lower Bristol Avon

I was watching the river level carefully through the week, it was dropping nicely until we had a bit more rain midweek and then it stalled and stayed a little on the high side. Still it would be a fishable river with a nice colour for a change. The only question now was where to go... I ordered some bait mid week keeping an open mind on where I might fish and what species I might fish for. When I picked my bait up on Saturday I had a little drive around to look at the river. It looked nice up at Rotork, could fish a float easily in that and so decided to go there, though I did consider going to Kelston Straight but you cannot park your car on the side of the river now so it is very awkward

Got to Rotork and as I was setting up along came Mark Harper and Rob Manns who had also thought Rotork would be a good place to fish (Rob had drawn this section in a Commercial House round). The three of us were well spread out as the pegs are well spread these days, so hopefully some fish for us all. I set up a 12BB crowquill with a 18N40 to 0.11, threw in 3 small balls of gbait well downstream and loose fed some caster and hemp. After about 10 mins I caught a 1oz roach, then a few runs down later I had two in two casts. No more bites over the gbait so I let the float go a long way downstream, I had one bite soing this and hooked a proper fish, I don't know what it was as after about 15 seconds it came off, the dreaded maggot over the point of the hook, bah. I had a 3oz roach and then nothing. Lee Trevitt was walking the bank and stopped to watch me for a while, I only managed to hook a couple of leaves and then skillfully I caught a swan mussel lol.

Well that was my lot, I never had a bite after, and 90 mins gone I found Mark and he had not had a bite at all, Rob had 1 dace. No fish here, so I decided to pack up and go somewhere else, as did Rob and Mark. I suggested them to go to Saltford drop the gear off and park up whilst one looks after the gear. I went to Swineford where I knew a few lads were catching chub and roach. However, when I got to Swineford parking was difficult, so I had to carry my gear 100 yards to the kissing gate, then get it over that before putting it all on the trolley in the field. Never let it be said that I don't give up, lol!

Dereck Coles was fishing in the outfall, he had a couple of bream and some 1lb chub on the feeder. the next swims were far too fast as I knew they would be, and I ended up getting to the end of the 1st field and the peg here was empty, it didn't look great, boily for a 1/3 out then very pacey. The peg the other side of fence looked a bit better but a pike angler was in there, as I knew the pegs after that were taken I stayed in the peg at the end of the first field. I quickly set up a groundbait feeder with a 14 N50 to 0.15, and underarmed it into the middle of the river into the pacey water. Second cast and three maggots on the hook got me a decent rattle, a roach of maybe 10oz. A few casts later I missed a bite, then had another and it was a 6oz chublet. It then was quiet for about 30 minutes, until a classic viscous bite and I had a chub on I was sure. It was a chub, about 2lb, I caught it on 2 casters and a bronze maggot. I thought maybe I would get a few more now, but sadly it wasn't to be. The swim never came to life really, but I did get a 2lb skimmer another big roach and a couple of smaller ones. A huge pike came up right in close by the bank at the end of the day, it made such a noise and swirl it shocked me, must have been a biggy! The anglers pleasure fishing on the flyers came down just before I packed up, best of the bunch was Shaun Townsend who had over 30lb of chub and roach on a stick float. Very nice.

Rob Manns then rang me to say he had nearly 14lb of roach at Saltford, so I am glad I was able to put them on some fish.

Looks like I did well to avoid the fish today, lol. But I still enjoyed being out, and it felt like a proper winter day, Robins feeding on my maggots, Grey wagtail and Kingfisher feverishly trying to find food, as well as meadow pipits and redwing flying overhead.

A couple of pictures of my swim and my poor attempt to get a photo of my fish.

As I was putting my gear back in the car a cyclist stopped to talk to me, it was former angler Andy Greenham, used to fish for Bathampton. Andy told me he was thinking about getting his rods out again and asked me where he could buy bait and tackle. He also said his brother Robbie had been out fishing again for the first time in many years. Back in the day if you had either of these two brothers in your section you knew you were up against it, and when I beat one of them it was definitely a good day!

December 2001

 I didn't write anything on my blog last weekend (the first of the most recent lockdown) as I was quite busy and didn't really feel in the mood in the end. I was hoping to get out fishing somewhere this weekend as my appetite had been wetted by seeing a few nice catches of roach on the river. However, by midweek, when I thought I would need to order some bait, the weather forecast looked quite poor and I really couldn't see any fun in fishing the river. As it turned out the forecast was pretty much right, with some heavy downpours that put the river back up high, coloured and full of leaves. In fact I set up two 200 litre water butts for the run off my shed downpipe on Saturday morning, and by Sunday morning the first was at least two thirds full. I had a phone call from team mate Rob Manns who wanted to fish Newbridge on Sunday, I said are you sure it will be filthy. But he did go, and he along with Jack Stamp were fishing just of the the end of the rod with groundbait feeders. I watched them for a couple of hours, they had lots of leaves, only a few bites, but interesting that Rob had mainly roach, whilst Jack had mainly eels. I was able to pass on a little advice to Jack which seemed to help him turn a few more bites into fish. Jack is probably best known for his commercial fishery exploits, he holds the match record at both Viaduct and Todber, with the latter being just under 500lb, absolutely mid blowing weight lol! I was kind of glad I hadn't bothered fishing and enjoyed chatting and watching, but it did wet my appetite for definitely getting out somewhere next weekend!

Going back to December 2001 the first match in the diary was Sunday 2nd, Bristol and West Xmas match fished from Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites. My peg was downstream of Jack Whites stream in an area that could throw up bream, but today the river was much like today, high, coloured, full of leaves and we had a hard frost the night before. It was a very tough day with many blanks or just the odd eel for many. I managed to sneak out 7 small eels and 1 dace for 1lb 8 1/2oz, but I did lose one very big eel that eventually snapped me. I won my section and picked up a prize, I don't recall who won the match, but have wrote in my diary that a foul hooked bream was what won the match!

The following Sunday was the Bathampton Xmas match on the river at Newbridge which was still a pacey river but not flooded and a bream peg would be needed. I drew peg 4 in the little field (a peg that doesn't exist anymore) and wasn't expecting a great result from here. I fished a groundbait feeder down the middle of the river giving myself a chance for bream, but it wasn't to be today. A few small roach early then biteless for a long time, then a good drop back bite and fish on. It was though a stray chub and that made up the bulk of my 3lb 6oz weight, which was worth nothing bar a tin of biscuits lol.

A break from the Christmas matches, and back to the serious ATWL. This was round 5 and was on the K&A canal just going out of Bath. I had a nice walk up the canal from the George to just past Bathampton bend. If I remember this match the canal had a very nasty dirty colour and I wasn't sure how it was going to fish. Well when you don't get a bite on the bread that tells you all you need to know, and a tough day ensued. The only place I could catch anything was at 2 to 3 metres out with bloodworm & joker, ruffe, tiny gudgeon and perch. I never had a bite anywhere else in the peg even on other places fed with joker. I weighed exactly 1lb and that amazingly got me second in the section so I was well happy, and even more so when I found out the team had won the day and we were still winning the league with one match to go.

Sunday 23rd December, and a change of scenery for me fishing the first match of the Hillview Fishery (Teweksbury) Teams of 5 league. It was minus 6C the night before and the canals were frozen over, but I think the sons owner went out in a boat breaking the ice up before the draw. I was placed on peg 64 on the second canal, the water was very clear as expected. At this time the fishery contained no F1's (did they exist then) so it was carp and silvers in them. I plumbed up a line at 9m which was just going out of the deepest water, and started here using a 4x12 with 20 to 0.10. Cupping in just 4 maggots every 15 mins or after every other fish got me 9 small carp in the first 3 1/2 hours. I then went to 10m and shallowed up a tad, and had 10 carp in the last 90 minutes. My weight was recorded at 21lb 14oz and I won my canal, was 2nd overall and my team won. Great start to the league! 

Sunday 30th December, final round of the ATWL. There was a lot riding on this match for me. I was in the final of the knockout, was either top or close to the top of the individuals and my team was in first place. The river was now clear and a bit pacey, a good draw was important. I got given peg 22 at Swineford, this is one below the gas pipe and from time to time threw up chub, but was not much good for anything else, so I was happy as I was sure it was a chub river. I also found out the other person in the knockout final wasn't fishing and all I needed to do was catch a fish to win that. At the peg and I wanted to fish across to the willow tree, a waggler would be best but it was too fast I reckoned, so I went with my favourite gbait feeder approach with casters and hemp, with a 16 to 0.16. I began the match though on the straight lead with a piece of bread flake just to see what would happen. A 6oz chublet first cast won me the knockout, and I rang team mate Glenn Bailey to tell him lol. After this no more bites on the bread so onto the feeder, and to be fair it was a typical big fish day, waiting for the odd bite and hoping for that little golden spell when you get 3 or 4 fish on the bounce. I had chub up to 3lb and the only negative was losing two chub to a bloody big pike! I ended up weighing in 21lb 14oz to win my section. At the results Ray Bazeley was the organiser and when he read my name out he said I was going to need security to take me home, lol. I came second on the day, won the knockout, was top individual and the team won the league. Days don't really get much better than that, and it is why we match fish, the feeling of being a winner is something special and makes up for all the tough days.

Hopefully some actual fishing to report on next week as I can't go through this lockdown without going.

Commercial House Final Round - K&A Canal Claverton and Limpley

 Well it could rain and rain as much as it liked in the week and on Saturday, and I didn't care personally as I was fishing the canal lol. However, I was concerned for my team mates on the ATWL up on the Avon around Chippenham / Melksham, and boy did we get some short sharp torrential rain on Saturday morning! Got some bad news from Mark Harper that our bloodworm and joker order was messed up and we weren't going to have any, oh dear.

I was preparing for the last round of the Commercial House League on Saturday, some lighter elastics needed in the top sets, remake rigs, and tie a few hook lengths, oh and not forgetting the liquidizing of bread and selecting some nice slices for hook bait. Time well spent I hoped, could I get that elusive end peg draw the next day which was sure to be worth extra fish? Well we would see, but I had to endure Boris tell us we are going back into lockdown for a month (at least I guess) and so this match would be the last one for a while then..

Sunday morning the very short drive to Cadbury Heath Social Club, a bit of grub, and chat with the team and onto the draw. A section was at Claverton going down to Bath, E section was the end section going out of the town. F section was up at Limpley and I fancied that. We managed to get a little bit of spare bloodworm and joker on the morning, I had an apple sized ball and about 30 bloodworm, so not much but might be handy. Draw done and I was on A2, booger, one off the end peg, and so close yet so far I expected. We didn't spend any time discussing our draw today and just got on with it. I parked up in the field at Claverton and then set off on the nice walk to my peg, about 10 mins of trolley pushing. As I got to my peg I saw Andy Britt on A1, one of the best canal anglers in this area on the end peg and I was already looking at a next peg bashing lol. This part of the canal has not been fished for quite a while, and so nobody knew how it would fish but I hoped quite well. After a little bit of bankside foliage gardening I got to the canal edge, the water was a bit dirty but not surprising after the rain.

The peg had a nice depth at top set plus two, and I set this as my bread line, two rigs for this, a positive 4x16 with 16 N40 to 0.10 and 4X14 with 18 N10 to 0.08. A 4x12 for fishing a squatt line at 11.5m, a 4x12 with 0.08 to 22 N10 for across, and a caster rig and a chopped worm rig. There was no cover across in front. but if I went 14m left and 14.5m right I could get to some brambles.

The match started at 10:15 and I fed my bread at top set plus two and nothing else, I wanted to get a feel for how many fish were in the peg / feeding. The bread was not hectic for the first 5 minutes, as I was on the positive rig hoping for an early skimmer, nothing happened but I missed two bites and felt the lighter rig was needed. Onto that and this improved matters, with a little more slow fall for the hook bait the roach took the bread punch positively with bites coming as the float cocked on the last dropper. The roach I caught were a nice size for the canal, 1oz with a few 3oz fish. I was enjoying myself, but was soon behind Andy on the end peg who landed a roach of 12oz and another of 10oz. Still blinkers on for me as I could not worry about him really, and for 45 minutes I caught roach and then from a bite a chuck it just stopped, not a bite! Very strange, no sign of slowing, just from catching well to stopped, but other than Andy it turned out it was the same for the lads above me, Steve Skelton, Andy Cranston and Ivan Currie.. some caught for a little longer but when it died it died.

I put dome gbait and squatts at 11.5m and fed squatt over the top, put a small ball of joker and casters across at 11pm, and worm and casters well off to my right across. I tried to revive the bread, but it was a lost cause, onto the squatt line with a pinkie on the hook where I had two roach in two drops, size wise like the bread fish, but the bites ended on pinkie, a couple more smaller fish on squatt and same again bites ended. Dropped in over over the worm and caster with a caster, missed a bite then nothing, on with a worm, nothing, tried red maggot and had a couple of small perch, then nothing. Pattern forming here, so no surprise when I went over my joker / caster line and caught 3 fish and that was that! After this was really rock hard, and Andy on the end peg was struggling now to get a bite, he even went for walk to see how the section was fishing, and it seemed he was winning it with Ivan Currie maybe in second as he had a few small skimmers early.

I chopped and changed for a couple of hours without much going in the net, in my mind I needed to catch a lot more fish as Ivan and Andy were both in my division, so with no small fish showing I tried to catch a lump on the worm or caster, but I only had 3 or 4 perch that were 2oz at best. I fed the rest of the little joker I had across again, and hoped I might get a few late fish, trying bloodworm over this resulted in a few five to the ounce perch, waste of time, so back on bigger baits. Nothing was happening, then about 15 mins to go after trying all the lines I had a roach over the joker line on maggot, and then another, then nothing, put a pinkie on and had 2 or 3 more. Match over.

We weighed he section from peg 1 where Shane Caswell had 1lb 8oz, then Cam Mallin had 2lb 3oz, Ivan Currie did well with 4lb 2oz, and then Andy Cranston had 4lb 8oz of roach, Steve Skelton put 2lb 8oz on the weigh sheet, then my turm, and 4lb 11oz. Andy was last and no surprise he took the section out with 7lb 12oz, nicely done. I ended up second so had to be be happy with that, and very happy to beat Andy Cranston who is a great angler.

We then walked back up the canal and helped each other up the steep slope over the bridge, everyone was helping each other. It is then a up hill walk to the car park, and Andy Cranston decided to run with his trolley, so I did too. As we approached the cattle grid Andy started to slow and I powered on and over took him and was first past the line, lol, well my gym time seems to be working it seems.

Back at the club and team had done pretty well it seemed, team sheet below. Shaun and Paul wining their sections.

Winner on the day today with an amazing 32lb 12oz was Mike Withey. Mike was the other end peg at Claverton, and I heard he caught bream and skimmers next to a barge on his own bank, amazing!

2nd Jerry Pocock 13lb 11oz, lots of hybrids

3rd Darren (out of retirement) Gillman 11lb 14oz (end peg at Limpley)

4th Ben Mathews 11lb 8oz

5th Mark Harper 9lb 10oz

On the team front Thatchers won the day with 14 points, and that meant we won the league.

A div, 1st Thatchers 87,  2nd Bathampton A 67,  3rd Sensas Nomads 65

B div 1st M&N electrical 73,  Midland Spinner 72,  Bathampton B 70

Individual Champion Paul Isaacs (Thatchcers)

Knockout winner Kev Boltz

Well done everyone who fished, and thank you to league organisers Mike and Nicola Goodhind, Andy Britt and Vince Lunn. The league went well and despite the covid restrictions we managed well. It looks like this is the last match I will fish now for a while until this lockdown is over again. I hope everyone can stay safe and still wet a line if you fancy it.