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.
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