Philtone Team Match - Hillview Fishery

 This time last year Neil Mercer, who runs the Philtone Printing company, ran a team match and I got an invite as a customer of his, and once again this year I was invited again. After my practice on the open on Monday, and having a chat with Martin Rayet I was happy my rigs were right and just needed to tie up some more hooklengths. It was lovely and sunny at home on Tuesday morning and I got all my kit out in the sun to get it dried off from the wet snow.

There was some weather warnings about for Wednesday but according to my weather app it looked OK for Tewksbury. When I arrived at 8am there was still plenty of snow lying on the ground and the lakes had frozen over, not really a surprise. My team Captain was Tony Rixon, and he was soon gathering our pools money and then letting us draw pegs from our allotted envelope that had been pre drawn. Other team members were Martin Reyat, Ron Hardiman, Dave Lewis, Jamie Brown, and finally Clint Wojtyla who was moaning like a bitch about having to fish and break the ice, it was funny as fook. I grabbed a peg and saw 56 looking back at me, that was on canal 2 but I wasn't sure where and then I finally worked out it was on the right hand end peg of the canal, the very same peg I had on this match last year! Back then I came 4th on the day with about 68lb I think, I was only able to catch fishing 14m down to the end bank that day and it was hard work.

I got to my peg and set about breaking the ice with my landing pole and net, the ice wasn't thick and I was able to break all around the peg to my left and in front, and then Neil Mercer who was on the peg behind me on canal 3 came down and threw his ice breaker in a few times to break up the ice in the middle. Cheers Neil, in return I lent him my spare landing net lol.

As I said before, last year on this peg I never had bite on anything bar bread, and all bites were right down to my left as you can see in the picture.

However, in front of me on the far bank was a little reed bed jutting out, and I simply had to try to catch some fish by this I thought, well I hoped as fishing 10m would be nice and easy. You can just see it in the top right of this picture

After I cleared the platform of the excess snow (now ice) I got my box set up and put it at 45 degress to the left in readiness for fishing long that way. I had a 4x12 rig for dobbing bread with 0.13 powerline to 16 GPM-B. A 4x12 F1 float for fishing at 5m, and another for fishing by the reeds if I went on maggots, a 0.11 accu power to 18 GPM-B on both those rigs. That was all I needed today I felt. On my right my neighbour was Martin McMahon, who was sat bang opposite his son Joe. There were some good anglers on my canal, with team captain Tony in the middle, team mate Martin Reyat on the opposite end peg, and also Anton Page,  Paul Elms and Phil Mercer, plenty of carp slayers lol.

We ended up starting at about 10:20 and my opening gambit was to dob bread across to the reeds, here there was a nice depth, not much different to what I had at 5m, and I discounted the far bank as being to shallow. At 10m I was a long way off the far bank, and as I dropped the rig bang in front the reeds the float soon buried, yay, oh a 2oz rudd. Back out and another rudd, hmmm no carp here then maybe? Well I went in again and waited a bit longer and this time the elastic came out when I struck, a carp of 2lb, soon followed next drop by an F1. This was looking good I thought, but then I couldn't get a bite here, I tried pushing the rig along the right side of the reeds and never had a sign. I then tried moving the rig to the left, nothing was doing and then as I went past the reeds more left I had another bite and a carp.  By dropping the rig in about 2 to 3 feet to the left of the reeds I got another bite and a carp, and to be perfectly honest I had found a decent ball of fish and slayed them here for about 90 minutes, F1's and carp, mostly 1lb to 2lb with a couple maybe 3lb. It was a brilliant start, and the sort of start I've always been jealous of others having, but today it happened to me, I was fishing 9 inches off bottom.

The line across inevitably slowed right up, and when I caught two very small carp on this after waiting a long time I knew I had to change. Rather than feed some bait here I thought I would now dob bread long down my left hand margin looking for the resident carp. I went down to 10m to begin but had no signs, put another section on and had 2 carp and a F1. Went 1/2 metre further and had a few more but then started getting roach which was bad news. I stuck on the 14.5m section and started to explore the bottom bank, and I had a couple next to some brambles but felt the fish were higher up in the water, so I went 1 feet 3 inches off bottom and had a couple more including a ghostie which I saw and semi mugged as I lifted the rig and dropped it by it. Further explorations along the bank were fruitless which surprised me as this was my banker last time. However, by coming back into the left bank before the brambles and getting as close to the bank as I dare I found a few more fish on a 10mm  piece of punch bread. The sun had come out, it was really nice and I felt warm, but the sun was blinding me, and I had to fish holding the pole with one arm whilst the other was blocking the sun and reflection. It was hard work and I lost sight of the float a few times, and missed a few bites, but it was worth sticking with I thought.

With an hour to go I had to give up the margin as I was getting a headache and not getting indications. I tried my 5m line where I had been feeding maggots, I had a quick 4 f1's and 3 small carp before this died. I then fed maggots over to the reeds, and dumped some down my left margin. The reed swim was transformed and I could get bites from 4 to 6oz carp, but I'd catch a few and then have to re feed and try the other lines, I did manage 1 carp in the margin but that was it. The match was over and I had been lucky to have a great day, only probably the last 90 minutes were tough, but I could have caught more of those little carp I guess, but wanted to catch bigger fish. Most people were telling me I had won, and I admitted to having 100lb, with 110lb in my mind what I might have.

Neil started the weigh in on his peg as he had the scales, and he had 26lb 2oz, canal 3 had been tough today, and I think Neil might have been the top weight as it got worse as you went down the canal. My turn and after a couple of weighs 109lb 8oz was my final tally, chuffed indeed as never thought about catching a ton in those conditions. Martin Reyat was second on my canal with 74lb.

1st Me 109lb 8oz

2nd Martin Reyat 74lb

3rd Dave Lewis 58lb (peg 49 first canal)

4th Dave Wilmott 55lb 8oz (peg 47)

With my team having the top three on the day it will come as no surprise that we were the winning team by some margin (it was done on weight) and so I had a nice little pick up and a nice way to end my fishing in 2020. 

After such a nice day it was a quick drive home, and when I found out South Glos stayed in Tier 3 this was also as good as I thought we could get. My father-in-law has been having chemo for a couple of months now, sadly he has terminal cancer which has been rather stressful for the family and not helped by covid. However, his consultant is pleased with how things are going and is going to let him carry on with the chemo which is again as good as it can be. All in all a good day considering, and my wife thought so to, so she opened me a bottle of red wine which she had bought me for Christmas, so I will enjoy this tonight and toast all those friends and family I am lucky to know. Happy New Year (it has to be) and cheers everyone, good health!

Hillview Fishery open

 If you are reading this then I hope you have had a merry Christmas and enjoyed the time with family as best you could. I can say that I had a great couple of days and the weather was nice for a couple of walks too. I have a little match to fish at Hillview on Wednesday, and when I found out that there was an open on the bank holiday Monday I decided to fish that as a little practice. Though the match on Wednesday is on canals 1, 2 and 3, the match day was put on the 2 lakes and canals 3 and 4. 

I got up Monday morning and saw that it had snowed and was snowing further up country and around Gloucester, I rang Neil Mercer and he was on his way, and suggested he would give it a couple of hours and if no bites go home. As I drove up all was clear, and then as I passed Gloucester the snow began to appear and I was soon down to 40 mph on the motorway. When I puled in at the fishery the snow was already thick on the ground and it was still falling quite heavy.

I wanted to draw on the canal to have a practice, and was glad I got my wish when peg 93 was pulled out for me, on canal 4. It was a bit of a yomp pushing the trolley in the snow and mud, and I was very warm when I got to the peg. I was gutted to see that the snow was actually settling on the water and a slush / ice was formed all over my peg yet it seemed most of my canal was free from this. I scooped out what I could from my bank and then the far bank, it was weird stuff, like soft ice. I was wondering how the hell the fish would feed in such cold water. I took a photo and a video of the conditions but after this the phoned pretty much stayed in my pocket.

Suffice to say I have not fished in conditions like this since I don't know when, and as you can imagine it was very cold, about 1C, and I had to put my brolly up to keep the snow off me. I had team mate Shaun Townsend on my right, he was on the end peg 95 or 96. I didn't know the angler to my left, and to be fair what with masks and then snoods / scarves it was hard to tell who anyone was! At the opposite end of my canal was Martin Reyat who has being doing well up here, he was 84. I wasn't going to set up lots of rigs as I could only see maggots and bread being worthwhile hook baits. A 4x12 Des Shipp F1 for 5m, and the same for 10m, both had 0.10 accu power to 18 GPM. My dobbing rig set up with 0.12 accu to 16 GPM. 

I'm not sure if the match started a bit early or I was just last getting ready but both myself and Shaun started late. The guy to my left had a fish straight away, and the guy on peg 70 on canal 3 was getting one a bung. The snow slush ice had reformed across and I could not start there dobbing so began at 10m on maggots. I was happy to get off the mark with a 2lb carp from my first bite, and was soon playing another smaller fish which was an F1. I probably had 7 or 8 fish here when it began to slow right up, but this coincided with the slush moving down with a little breeze, and both my 5m and 10m swims were covered. I cleared what I could with a pole cup but the rig wouldn't get through, so I picked up the dobbing rig as the far bank was clear now. Shaun had struggled to start but into the second hour he had a good run of carp dobbing, I managed to find a few small ones and a couple of F1's but it was slow and I think the carp were there but really not feeding as I fouled a few, some I landed. The snow was settling on my pole, and when I shipped in or out the snow went through my hands which really chilled them.

After about 2 1/2 hours the snow had turned to rain and the breeze was stronger, this cleared the slush away as it melted, but it seemed to make the fishing hard and I caught virtually nothing for an hour. My hands were absolutely froze now, and I had to cover them to warm them so I could hook my bait, and I snapped a couple of hook lengths when unhooking fish as I could not feel my fingers. The last 90 minutes I managed to get a few fish back at 10m and also at 5m finally, but I couldn't line up more than 2 or 3 fish, whereas other anglers had managed to plunder a line it seemed at times, though Shaun had struggled after his one good hour, and was catching odd small fish.

When the match was over I grabbed some food and hot coffee that I had with me, then attempted to pack up and not get everything covered in snow and mud. I wasn't going to win anything today but quite honestly I was more than happy to get some bites and fish given the conditions, and I think I learned a little to, we will see lol. I weighed in 45lb which meant I got beat both sides, Shaun having 50lb, and the guy on my left had 68lb which won the canal as it turned out, he said he had 20lb in the first hour at 5m, then he caught more fishing up against an aerator. On the opposite canal the guy on 70 won the match I think with 82lb, again a mix of maggot and bread.

I must admit I was amazed at the weights that came out on the canals today, I can think of lots of venues that would be a struggle to get a bite. I enjoyed fishing in the snow (except for the cold lol) and was glad I made the effort, I'll need to up my game on Wednesday to do any good, some more prep needed I feel, as well as cleaning the gear!

Avalon Fishery - Heather Bush Memorial Match

 Where to start this blog this week then.... Tier 3 stays as tier 3 for South Glos, then Christmas gets shrunk to just Christmas day with others. Weather is pretty crap, lots of rain and wind river is completely wrecked and will be flooded for a while I guess. However, I will not get down, after all some people are a lot worse off than I am. Which brings me to the sad point of the passing of Lance Tucker. Lance has been known to me for many years and I always liked him, he had a great sense of humour and was a very good angler. I remember one time him being on a match at Newbridge with Des Shipp one side and Steve Mayo the other, Lance admitted to 3lb after the match, with Des and Steve admitting to 5 or 6lb. Lance weighed in 9lb to beat them both, I recall him getting berated by the pair of them and he just stood there smiling and laughing. I will miss seeing Lance on the bank, and I feel sad for his family and friends, and I'm sure his team mates are absolutely gutted. RIP Lance, it was nice that you got to win your last match.

 I got myself booked into this match as Vic is an old friend of mine now and I wanted to be able to participate and remember his wife Heather who sadly passed away earlier this year. I spent a few hours on Saturday swapping out my river gear, getting some rigs and hook tying done. I felt I was prepped for either carp or silvers and settled down to watch local lad Bill Bailey win Strictly, nice to see an over 50 win it, I'm still getting to the gym to keep fit and think I can take some inspiration from Bill.

I was up at 6am Sunday morning and on the road by 7am to get to the fishery in plenty of time for the 8:30am draw, and partake in a bacon and sausage roll which had been provided for free by I think Andy Gurd (it is tricky sometimes when everyone is wearing masks to know who is who lol). The draw was done by Vic's grandson, he pulled out the peg numbers for everyone, and he gave me peg 6. Can be OK for carp I was told, but I felt I was the wrong end of the lake with the wind blowing down to the other end. I tried to take a photo of the peg but the sun was blinding..

I set up a little Preston cage feeder today with 0.17 to 16 GPM, and a couple of pole rigs, one for fishing for silvers with 0.12 to 16 SFL, and the other 0.15 to 16 GPM, both were on 4x18 floats. That was it for me. On my right on peg 6 was an older guy called Graham, nice chap, and on my left on peg 7 another old mucker of mine Ade Crawley. The match seem to start a little before the 10am time on my phone, but hey ho, I fed 3 balls of gbait at 13m off to the left, and some micro at 13m off to the right. Then out with the gbait feeder with a piece of corn on the hook, it wasn't long before a carp was being played, but not by me. Ian Stainer on peg 9 had a 9lb carp. My first hour on the tip was unfortunately uneventful, not even a liner, Ade and Graham were also fishless on the tip. I tried my gbait pole line and took a couple of small fish here and a 6oz skimmer but that was it, the micro line was a waste of bait is all I will say. Back on to the feeder but still not a sign and I had gone from trying the deeper water to against the reeds with both unsuccessful. I decided to stick to going close to the reeds, but did catch a couple that were under water, but once I had pulled them out had not trouble.

Opposite Graham on the other side of the gap (planks of wood) were carp topping regularly but it took the guy there a couple of hours before he got one, then had three on the trot. I had changed on the feeder to maggots on the hook and there were lots of small fish by the island as I had a bite a chuck which kind of told me there were no carp there. I had a couple of small roach, missed quite a few bites and then had a decent pull round which turned out to be a 2lb skimmer and I had this with about 90 mins to go I guess, so 3lb in the net. Ade and Graham had about a pound or so. I did my best to have a chuckle and laugh with the lads either side, helped pass the time lol.

I had been feeding maggots at 6m by hand and decided to try this again and there were some roach here now, I wasn't really geared up for them but caught what I could here as the float was going under. I was hoping for a carp late on, but one never came. However, I did get another 2lb skimmer on the long pole line, but it was a one off. It had been a tough day for most in my area, except Ian it seemed, and a couple of anglers opposite had a few carp (and they were still boshing after the match).

Mark Cooke on peg 1 had 2 carp and a bream, then Graham had 3lb 2oz, my silvers went 8lb 4oz, and then Ade had 2lb 9oz. Fair to say it was a tough area I had drawn. Ian had 13lb of silvers to go with his one carp and had done well. As the scales went further (I didn't follow) there were more carp caught it seemed, and on peg 21 Jamie Cook had a nice day on the gbait feeder to win the match with 83lb. The silvers was won by Steve Kedge with just 14lb. Apparently the lake was a foot up on the previous day and the locals said they had a tremendous amount of rain and hailstones yesterday which obviously upset the fish. I ended up in 20th place, and still managed to pick up a nice prize a litre bottle of spiced rum. The prizes Vic had were great, as was the free stew, mince pies and glass of prosecco we had to toast Heather. It was then on to the raffle, which seemed to take forever as there were so many prizes! It was looking like the Mike West and Pete Neate show as they won a lot, meanwhile myself and Neil Mercer were looking at dipping out, but right near the end one of my tickets got drawn out and a £10 tackle voucher was mine yay. Neil blew out lol.

Although the fishing was tough it was lovely to be at Avalon, a great looking place in the middle of the levels. I also got to see some anglers that I had not seen for a very long time, and good to catch up with them. There's a lack of photos today as I didn't want to encroach on anglers or pass phones around.

Well that is my last post before Christmas, I do have a match after Christmas at Hillview which I am looking forward to, but I will need to draw better than today. Despite whatever life chucks at us at the moment we've got to get through it, and I hope you can celebrate Christmas the best way you can and make the most of it, smile and laugh, and think of others. Merry Christmas everyone.

Chequers Angling open - Bristol Avon Chequers

 After a couple of weeks of no fishing I was keen to get out, though the river was still a bit too high and more rain was making it look a little difficult, not to mention the frosts we had lol. I was glad to hear from Ben Rendall that he was running a match at Chequers, it would only be a friendly affair without about 10 people. As the weekend approached the forecast for Sunday was grim, rain and wind but with temperatures rising a little. The day before the match Ben rang to say it was all rather muddy and he would peg it on the morning trying to peg the safest pegs.

Sunday morning and awoke a little tired after staying up to listen to the boxing fight, though I fell asleep for rounds 4 to 9 lol. It was dark and wet when I left home for the 8am draw in the Chequers car park, tricky to pick out who was actually fishing if I'm honest. Peg 1 has been a good one this season and I would have loved to have been on that one, but Lee Gregory had that one. I got asked to pull a peg for Ben and pulled him 3 two thirds up the straight, I got 5 which I was told was on the bend and I really didn't want that...

The next 15 minutes were fun as I and everyone else plotted their way across what was a very muddy field and I had to drag my trolley backwards to be able to get some traction. I passed Andy Britt who was on peg 4, he had slack water in front as he was on the point of the bend. My peg looked quite pacey, I was opposite the stream on Frys, and I know this is not a good area when the river has a bit of pace, and I was thinking about going back home. However, I felt I at least needed to give it a go and in any case I couldn't face the muddy field again until I had my breath back lol.

All I set up was a grounbait feeder with a 14 N50 to 0.15. I was sure big fish would win today and it was my best hope here I thought, maybe a chub or two or a skimmer. However, to start I fed very little bait in the feeder and put just two maggots on the hook looking for a small fish to avoid a blank. On about my 4th or 5th cast I had a bite but missed it, and when I wound in both maggots were gone. Part of me worried that would be my only bite, and it was looking like it when 3 hours later I had not had another sign. Andy came up and said he hadn't had a bite at all and Ben had missed a bite. Mike Goodhind on peg 2 had a bream and an eel. Also on peg 7 Rich Lacey had a chub and on 8 Kev Dicks had 2 skimmers. Lee Gregory on peg 1 had lost a bream and had a couple of roach. I found this out as I went for a walk.

I decided to give the peg one more go and then pack up, I put a lot of chop worm in to see if I could get some reaction, and I did get a tremble on the tip which didn't develop, when I wound in the the end of the worm was nipped off. A few more casts then I had enough of watching leaves hit the tip and packed up, I wasn't worried about leaving with nothing in the net. I somehow managed to get everything back on top the bank without falling over, and Andy was also packing up after he said he snared a roach. The walk back didn't seem quite so bad as I plotted a better way through the mud.

I text Ben to find out the top 3 weights, and it seems from the outfall up was the place to be..

1st peg 9 Warren Bates 24lb 8oz of bream on the feeder

2nd peg 8 Kev Dicks 20lb 8oz bream on the feeder

3rd peg 7 Rich Lacey 18lb 7oz couple of big chub and 2 bream mostly in the last hour.

Well done lads done well there, I just cannot seem to get a decent peg on the day at Chequers, but I shall not dwell on that. Probably my last match on the river for a while now, I am planning to fish lakes for a while now, it seems fishing outside of your tier is OK, or not OK depending on who runs the match. I have not gone out of my tier but am waiting to see what happens this week with the announcements, and then will consider my options.

2002

 I begin this post today with an admission, I was planning to fish on Sunday but in the end I just couldn't be arsed. I live in South Gloucester which has been placed in tier 3, which as everyone will know by now puts some strong restrictions in place, and this left me feeling like I was going nowhere fast after the last lockdown had ended. My Thatchers team had an Angling Trust winter league date on the river up at Chippenham and we had some debate about who should and could fish, but in the end it was all Academic as the Angling Trust decided to put all of their matches on hold for a few months, so no team match. Of course other matches will continue and that's a good thing, and I have seen more stringent rules in place to keep social distancing which I agree with. I was going to fish the Avon, and I knew 4 or 5 others were going to pleasure fish it too, I fancied Swineford for some chub. Unfortunately the rain Saturday morning was to ruin the river yet again and I knew that was now not an option. With it being so cold I just thought the fishing would be hard on most venues and I decided to not bother, instead I booked to go to the gym Sunday morning (at least I can do that again) and have a Nandos take away in the afternoon whilst watching the copius sport on TV. Hopefully the weather, or the river, or a local match will come my way and I'll get the gear out again.

Onto a new diary now, 2002 and January began with most lakes being frozen and I got a sick bu so no fishing ensued until the 20th January when the weather turned wild and windy. I was back at Hill View fishery for their winter league, and team draw put my on the furthest canal (number 4) and I was pegged in the corner, I didn't record the peg number but I think it was 96. With the wind being very bad I was glad I had a corner to fish into now and again, and 8 metres into the corner helped presentation a lot. Just feeding a few maggots by toss pot I had to wait ages for a bite but then had a few small carp. The fish backed off and when the wind dropped I pushed my 4x12 float down to 10 mtrs and caught a few small carp there. When I went across I had 3 in 3 drops and then struggled to hold the pole. All of these carp were between 2oz and 1lb, and a 20 to 0.10 was strong enough tackle. I ended up with just 12lb 11oz but I was surprisingly top weight on the canal and won the section, in this league they paid out first and second in the section.

On January 27th I entered an open match on the K&A canal up past Horton, this was a little practice for our future ATWL semi final on the canal. It was the first time I had ever seen this part of the canal, and just fished bread punch down the middle to begin as I was told this was the banker method. It wasn't prolific by any means but I put odd small roach in the net, I did have one bonus on caster, a roach of 12oz, My 3lb 9oz was 3rd in the 10 peg section and I was happy enough for my first visit. With the semi not till mid march I thought we would practice hard, but when we got star angler Kev Rowles to help us out he advised waiting to practice till nearer the semi itself.

On Sunday 3rd February it was the final match of the Commercial House winter league, it was on the canal and I got drawn at the George section. I didn't start on bread punch (don't know why) but fished 3m to hand feeding groundbait and squatts. I caught gudgeon and small roach on this and had a couple of perch and roach on caster over, I lost a big perch was costly. I had 4lb 12oz and that was 11 points out of 14. My team tied on points for the league, but lost out on weight doh!

Another Hill View league match for the team and once again I was on the back canal. I got it wrong on this day as it fished a bit better and I feel I didn't feed enough maggot when the fish were in the peg, and a number of anglers caught 2 to 3lb carp on corn. My 19lb 12oz was only 4th in the section. Two weeks later and I was back up again for the next round, this time I was on canal 4. I went straight across on maggots and had some little carp straight away. But the wind got up and the canal started towing badly and I couldn't sort it out and struggled to get any decent presentation. Just a few fish came at 10 metres as well as across but I could see the canal was fishing hard and plugged on feeding next to nothing. 13lb 4oz was my final tally and that was 2nd in the section. I remember I used to mainly fish single red maggot on a 20 barbless hook, and occasionally try double maggot. Of course I didn't know about dobbing back then, and I do remember team mate Tony Rixon catching well one match on sweetcorn skins, a slow falling bait of course, always one step ahead was Tony. Hill View is such a different venue now with the many F1's in there, and I would say in general more anglers have a good day than bad.

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.

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.

Commercial House - King Sedgemoor Drain - Round 3

 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.

Viaduct Holiday Day 5

 Up a bit earlier for breakfast today which as ever was at M&M cafe in Somerton, and then a short drive to Avalon Fishery where it was good to see old friend and previous team mate Vic Bush. I do like this fishery, it can be a challenge some days, but there are some great fish in here, it is also in an area near to shapwick heath nature reserve and some wonderful wildlife.

My job today to record the draw, and Vic pulled all the pegs out, he pulled one for me first and gave me 13... unlucky for some? As I walked to my peg and went past Mike Nicholls I thought he had fallen in, but it turned out he was literally in the lake clearing his margin!

For the third time this week I was next to Glenn who was on peg 12 and he said we needed to be further down he thought, our match ran from peg 5 to peg 23. My other neighbour was venue regular Mike West, I've not seen Mike for ages, but he really is a very nice bloke and we had a good chat whilst setting up. It was funny when he cast out lead out, and I said it is a float only Mike, he didn't know. Funnier still when Vic arrived on 16 and chucked the lead out and Woody told him it is float only Vic, lol!

As I set up (and forgot to take a photo) I remembered winning a match on this peg many years ago on a pellet wag, but now there is a tree which would prevent me casting into the bay where I had caught before, I did set the wag up but wasn't sure it would work. A 4x16 rig was set up for banded pellet, and a float with no shot on the line for paste, I use a size 12 PR456 which I have lots left of but are discontinued. I was going to feed one line at 11.5m to fish these rigs over, the wind was getting up and I didn't want to fight it further out. I also set up a rig for the margins but never had a sniff here.

I knew I was going to have my work cut out today, both Mike and Glenn are paste anglers and so I was going to be up against it to not be a chip shop sausage, especially as they were both going out to 13m, but I was positive after my good run. In went half a pot of 6mm pellets on the all in and out went the paste rig, the wind was a pain and after two attempts I had the paste come off and picked up the pellet rig. The 8mm pellet was soon picked up and I was the first to land a carp of the three of us. I missed a couple of indications and then had a fouler, so back on the paste and got it sorted. I had two fish on this and lost two foulers. Three fish for about 25lb, but Glenn then had two for about 30lb one of those was a real lump and snapped his top set. Mike had one carp.

We all struggled after this initial hour and became quite motionless I tried the waggler and may have had one bite but the wind was making it impossible really. After an hour of nothing I then had two carp in fairly quick succession, and halfway through I was once again leading the match as it seemed the venue was showing its tough side. As we moved into the second half of the match Mike and Glenn and myself would all seem to get a very odd fish, and Mark Tanner on 11 was catching on the pellet wag. I saw fish over by the island and when the wind dropped I said I'm catching that carp that keeps showing itself. I cast to it, landed 3 feet away, within 8 seconds I had a bite and fish on, but after a few seconds it was off and I reeled in 2 scales. Not long after I put the waggler up the poxy tree, and decided to concentrate on the paste.

Mike started to get more signs of fish in his peg in the last 2 hours, and he was now catching better than myself and Glenn. But then we would get the odd carp, and I had a tench, it always felt close between us as we approached the end. 10 mins to go Mike lands one and Glenn does too, damn, then 5 mins to go I hook one (please stay on!). Just before the all out Mike hooks another and we both land our fish after the whistle. I had Mike down as the winner, as he seemed to have bigger fish than myself. Although a tough match it had certainly gone down to the wire when just one fish could make the difference.

Vic began weighing from peg 5, Mark Tanner on 11 had a great 47lb 8oz all on the pellet wag, then Glenn just pipped him with 49lb 12oz with some big boys!

I was next to weigh in and my fish went 55lb 8oz and so I went into the lead, but that didn't last long as Mike West won with 66lb 6oz, well done Mike you fished a great match and never gave up.

That meant I was second and Glenn third, so I ended up framing in every match this week which honestly I never even dreamed of.

Full results on the sheet below, silvers won by John Fuidge with 20lb of skimmers and tench on corn.

End of holiday, well not quite. We stopped in Street to have a meal in Wetherspoons, we all had masks with us so no issues and sat in our lodge bubbles. Had a few cans as it was the last night.

Next morning I had a breakfast and packed everything up, some people shot off but some were staying to fish the pegs behind the lodge. I went for a walk, quickly looked in the other lodge and took a photo of their table, glad I was in the other lodge!

Walking round the lake I spied some big fish in the corner of middle lake, as Lee, Martin and Mark were having a little knock up I told Chris Ollis to come with me and catch one of these carp. I showed Chris where they were, he kept back from the edge, I grabbed his topset as he held the rest of the pole and I swung the rig just off the end of a pipe. The meat was grabbed before it was out of sight and I said "strike!" Fish on. After a good battle Chris landed a lovely common of about 18lb, Martin saw it as well and said had to be at least that.

After I left the guys behind I found out Lee Masey had an eel on the pole, it weighed 4lb 14oz, bloody big that! Shame no photo, but sure Lee won't forget that one!

Well I reflect on a great week, after all the lockdown restrictions it was nice to be with friends and even with the rules we managed to have some great fishing and plenty of belly laughs. Certainly my most successful holiday from a results perspective, but that is only part of the bigger picture. A big thanks to Glenn who organized the matched and the bookings, and thanks to Steve, Matt and Helen Long for their every friendly welcome and support.

Tomorrow I'm on the KSD, any carp in there PMSL!