2002

 Another week of lockdown passes by, I try to remain positive, active and get on with my job and spend time with my family. Fishing is definitely on hold at present as far as I am concerned, and I have a few changes to contend with which will keep it that way for a while. This week I give back my company car, I have had one in the jobs I have done since 1998, but it is just not right for me anymore, so the search has begun for a used small van and I until have one I won't be fishing. Looking for a van is quite challenging, price is more that I thought, unless you get a high mileage van, so I am taking my time to look at the market. Actually I could walk to the river Avon to fish, going with just one rod and a few bits and bobs, it will take me about 45 minutes to get to the Crane or Swineford on foot. However, I won't be doing that until the river drops considerably. Hopefully I will be all sorted well in time for when matches start again / the water warms up. I spent some of today putting some shelves up in my shed, boy was it cold out there, put a couple up and then decided to come back in the warm, 3 more shelves to put up next weekend.

Picking up the 2002 diary from where I left off last time, it is March 17th and being the close season it was a trip to a commercial fishery, Hill View in Tewkesbury for an open match. I was drawn on peg 66 which I believe is on the second canal. I can't recall this particular match (the memory tends to remember the best and the worst now lol) but in my diary I wrote this was a very difficult day with very few fish caught on any of the canals. I only caught 8 small carp, 5 on corn at the bottom of the far shelf, and 3 on maggots fished tight over in the shallowest water. I fed hardly anything, and fished 0.14 to an 18. My small carp only went 13lb 7oz but that was enough for 4th and last in the frame. It was a good practice and confidence booster ahead of fishing here again the following week in the league match. I was drawn on the third canal (peg not recorded) and decided to approach in the same way as before, corn in the deeper water maggot right over by reeds. It was another tricky match, but as can happen it fished slightly differently. I never had a bite on corn, in fact the only place I could get bites was right across on maggots. The first half of the match was really poor for me, there were fish there but I was losing a lot of foul hookers. In the last hour things improved and I managed to put a few fish in the net. I ended with 18lb 4oz and got second in the section to help keep the team in a decent position.

My first time out in April 2002 was a pleasure fishing session at Keynsham AA Century Ponds. I began on the old lake catching some of the new stockie carp no more than a pound each, then moved on to the new lake and had seven up to 7lb. I just took a tin of corn with me and fished the pole with 16 to 0.14.

April 14th and the penultimate Hill View league match. Pretty much de ja vu with the canals all being a tough nut to crack! Canal 2 for me this time, and it was even tougher than the last two matches, after 4 hours all I had was 2 carp! In the last hour I caught 3 carp by fishing pellets and feeding a bit more positive (it was shit or bust time) and I was 2nd in the section again with just 11lb 11oz. The following week and the final match of the league, the team had a chance to get in the top three places so pressure was on. It was canal 2 once again for me, and I caught carp to 2lb on pellets fished across to end with 16lb 14oz. The section was won with 17lb 14oz, and I came 4th in the section! Gutted, one fish really made all the difference in the this league, but I had been lucky it fell right for me many times but a shame karma got me back on the final match. The good news was the team got that third place and so we picked up a nice bit of a dosh for our troubles. I enjoyed fishing the league, though it was tough it was always 5 hours of working hard and concentrating. Of course it is a much different venue these days, and fishes so much better.

My last match of April 2002 was at Viaduct Fishery at Somerton. This was a one off open match called the "Ted Brown Memorial". Ted was a Bristol angler who if I recall correctly was linked to the anglers that used Bristol Angling Centre, and I knew Ted from some coach trips to Devon in years gone by where he was a right laugh. I got drawn on Campbell lake which was a very new lake then, and it might have been the first time I ever fished it. I think I was on about peg 135, and was told we were fishing for small carp and tench. I know I was pretty clueless, I had some pellet I had tried to soak the night before which was a soup, and I poured some of that in the peg on the pole, lol. I would have fished soft pellet on the hook back then. I recorded in my diary that I caught for 90 minutes well (perhaps the soup was a good move) and then it was a slow rest of the match catching odd carp on waggler with soft pellet. I finished weighing in 33lb 11oz, I got beat for the section by just 8oz, so another week of just one more fish needed. 

I will end today with a match that I really used to enjoy fishing, the annual Bristol Rovers v Bristol City fans match at Viaduct (in later years  Yeovil joined in too). Of course I was there representing Rovers, and this was one match where I really wanted the team to do well. It was May 19th and I do remember this day as it was a nice warm day. I got drawn on peg 28 on Middle lake, the last peg in the narrow arm I recall, today it is by the Lodges and looks a bit crab tree. Rovers captain Tony Rixon advised me to fish against the far bank reeds and that was it. I fed pellets and used cat food on the hook, using a size 12 to 0.18 line. I caught 5 carp in the first hour, and then I was biteless for ages, right until the last hour in fact, then I had 4 more carp. My 9 carp were all beasts to me (they were back then!) and they weighed 51lb 3oz. That won my section and the icing on the cake was the Gas won (can't say that very much about the football team at the moment, cough). I don't know why this match ended some years later, would be good if it could start up again, I believe the trophy is with Tony Rixon as the Gas won the last time it was fished.

In case you hadn't noticed already Mike Nicholls has been writing a few things on his blog about the past, most recently the National Championships he fished in the 1990's. I was in a few of those matches in the same team as Mike, brought me back some good memories, including winning a bronze medal in the Div 2 on the Trent. We beat "The Team" by 2 points to get the medal. "The Team" included some of the Trent greats like Frank Barlow who was in my section. Get to Mike's blog to see more about that.

Stay safe.