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.

Mike Martin

 This blog post is dedicated to Welsh angler Mike Martin, who has sadly died today. I know Mike had contracted Covid from reading his blog (26 year itch) but it appeared he had recovered from it and he was writing on his blog about his early days in match fishing. However, whilst I do not know the facts first hand it seems his immune system became very low and he passed away from pneumonia. I was very shocked and saddened when I read the sad news on Facebook, and I really didn't want to write a blog at all today. However, I decided to say a few words about Mike as I feel my fellow angler and blogger should at the very least be remembered in my blog.

I first got to know Mike when he returned to match fishing after a long break, I began to see him fishing a few matches on the Bristol Avon, and he got in to our local winter leagues. He was a very decent man, a gentleman, and I liked his dry sense of humour. We often discussed our matches and what we wrote on our respective blogs, Mike especially liked telling me he couldn't bring himself to read my carp match blogs as he was a natural angler at heart and didn't like carp.

I drew next to him a few times and after I had given him a couple of batterings I came up against him in the little field at Newbridge on the Bristol Avon. He was on on peg 5 and I was on 7, at the time peg 7 was the best roach peg on the length but on this day the river was up and coloured. Cut a long story short and Mike had winkled out about 5lb of roach and was well pleased with his efforts until I told him I had 13 bream, and I think I had 50+ of bream and won the match. When he wrote his blog about the match he had me in stitches, as he started it out by saying basically he was in a "home" making baskets and the nice nurse told him he could go home as long as that nasty Timothy Ford would not smash him up off the next peg again. He wrote it much better than that, and it was just so funny to me.  He soon got his own back and beat me off the next peg on a Commercial House on the canal at Darlington, and he was well chuffed. I said it didn't really count as we were in different sections, I can't repeat what he replied to this, lol!

There will be plenty of anglers who can write a lot more about him, such as his team mates of course and his long term buddies at Cardiff Nomads. I will remember him with only good thoughts, of our time on the bank, in the bar and online socialising, and his amazing achievement of winning three Angling Trust Tide Fest competitions on the Thames for which he was quite rightly very proud.

My thoughts go out to his family, especially his dear daughter Fflur who he mentioned frequently.

My day in hospital tomorrow was cancelled after I had my pre-op assessment on Wednesday, I never bothered to ask why it was cancelled, and although they could not tell me a new date would I kindly continue to self isolate. Covid has an awful lot to answer for, but my current inconvenience pales into insignificance when compared to those poor people who are losing loved ones.

RIP Mike, I hope you have found a nice peg on the Wye with a big shoal of big roach (and no pike) to fish on into the sunset forever more....

Lockdown - River thoughts

 If you read the title of this post then you will have probably gathered that I have once again not gone fishing this week. Had the river not risen greatly then I may have been tempted to have given it a few hours today (Sunday) for some chub fishing. However, that was never going to happen as the river was very dirty again sadly. I have received a few messages asking me for some advice of where and how to fish on the river during lockdown (as many lakes are closed) so in this post I will put a bit of info best I can on. I think fishing the river is a good idea as it keeps you away as much as possible from others when you are at your peg fishing, and keeping your distance from others is simply paramount. (Note all my suggestions are made not knowing where you are reading this and are Bristol / Bath areas, so remember to stay local as instructed and make sure you have a club ticket and check if the club is still allowing fishing.) I have also chucked in a couple of alternatives to the river.

1) Very high / coloured river conditions. I've put this first since it seems to be what we are faced with so often and will be for a week or so again it seems. If the river is bank high and you really want to go on the river then you are really going to struggle and will be looking to fish groundbait feeder with lobworms picking a place with a bit of slack / eddy. Just below the locks at Keynsham is one place where you can fish, but it can be popular with pleasure anglers and a busy spot. Fishing with a pole in the canal cut itself would be a better idea, plenty of dace and bleak get in there, roach too, and occasionally odd bream and I once had a 3lb chub there. In Bath the Western Cut is somewhere I used to go and catch on whips and pole but I haven't been there for years. The other option is to forget the river and get on the canal at Bath and fish good old bread punch at 5m on a pole or whip. Again the only issue here maybe a busy towpath, so think before you choose. If you are lucky enough to live in Bristol then the Bristol Docks is a great place to go. Already in 2021 there have been good bags of bream and skimmers from there. I haven't fished it for years so cannot advise precise details of where to fish, but from reports I have seen on Facebook it is fishing well in most places using groundbait feeder.

2) Coloured pacey river. A fast but coloured river where you can fish a groundbait feeder sensibly out to say 13m is what I am suggesting here. I would look to fish the Bathampton AA Newbridge water as it holds plenty of roach, skimmers, bream and odd eels. Many pegs are worth fishing here, but I will pick out some of my favourites. Above the bridge peg 10 and peg 12 are decent, below the bridge 16 and 18. Peg 24 is off the bend and a steady peg, and hese are all short walks. Further on 36 and 39 on the straight are usually good for bream, as are any pegs in the 50's. Further down river Chequers angling club have the river from below jack whites to field next to Chequers pub car park. There are a lot bream down here and they can be caught on the first pegs on the straight and then once round the bend they can show anywhere. Gbait feeder, with worms, casters, dead maggots in the feeder, use a heavyish gbait as you don't want it to wash away, but if you reel in and the bait is still in the feeder after 5 mins then it is too heavy, or don't plug it so hard. When you cast the feeder a gentle under arm swing is all that is needed, and look to drop the feeder in downstream a bit. Getting the right quiver tip is something that comes with practice, but assuming you are fishing into the flow then you want a curve in the tip, but it should not be bent right around, and neither should it be poker straight. 2oz or 3oz are usually my most used tips unless you are lucky enough to have a big slack then maybe 1.5oz. Don't fish light, I would fish at least 0.15 powerline hook lengths with size 14 or 12 hooks as big bream in a fast current pull hard, and if you get some eels in your peg they can be good fighters and small teeth will bite your line! Your choice of worms, casters, and maggots on the hook, bunches, coocktails, as big baits in coloured water are best and somedays one combination is better than the other.

3) Clear pacey river. After so much rain our river can lose the colour and go clear but still be a bit pacey. On these days only a handful of pegs may be float fishable, but Saltford straight is one of the first places I would head for, but at present you cannot park behind your peg so bear this in mind. You can still catch on the feeder at Newbridge and some days the bream shoal up and this is when you can catch a big bag, I had 90lb on peg 18 in conditions like this. If you want to catch some chub then probably Swineford is a good shout, if too fast for the float try feeder or lead and get some bait into them. I have caught chub on most baits but maggots are good at this time of the year, if you get pestered by small fish or want to be selective then try lobworms, luncheon meat, pellet, bread or maybe even a bit of smelly cheese. Don't fish light as chub are hard fighters and will head for any snags. 0.15 minimum on the feeder. In these conditions on a feeder cast it straight in front of you, you want to put a bow in the line and keep the rod high in the air on a rod rest, as you are looking for drop back bites (where the tip is bent round normally but then springs back as a fish hooks itself and moves the feeder down stream due to the bow). Casting down stream will not make the bites so obvious. It can be a fun way of fishing as the bites are out of the blue and quite dramatic, resist striking hard as the fish should be hooked and you don't want to snap on the bite.

4) Steady river float fishing. Options are now much wider of course, and you can run a float down any part of the river. However, as we head towards the end of the season roach (the main stay of what we expect to catch on the float) can be shoaled up, meaning lots of pegs with no fish in, so location is really important and this can change! I remember one year when there was a good shoal of roach in Bath town, but there were only 4 pegs where these fish were. Another time I saw Kev Boltz catch 100lb of chub in Bath town but nobody else caught. Down at Conham park there have been great dace and roach catches in 2020, so this could be a good end of season bet, but there are limited pegs and I would not go at the weekend as you will be surrounded by walkers, this is free fishing. Back up at Chequers you should get some nice dace and roach and there is a good chance of the odd chub too. Jack Whites hasn't had a mention so far, but the top end of this stretch is shallow and fast, and then it deepens off after the big cow drink to about 12 feet deep. There are some nice chub and dace to be caught through here and you have the choice to go for the shallow or deep pegs, but be warned the banks are steep in a lot of pegs and you should take a rope. The Crane stretch above Jack Whites is an excellent stretch for float fishing for roach, I have had 20lb+ bags in matches and I once saw Shaun Townsend catch 31lb of them. Once you have gone over the cattle grid the first two pegs before the tree can be good, but then I would normally prefer to fish the pegs from past the gantry structure all the way up into the next two fields. Swineford again can be great for a days float fishing and some big bags of chub can come out. Saltford straight, and Newbridge can also be good. Tactics are varied, and each method can work. Fishing a pole at 10 to 13 metres is a great way to present your bait and have good control over your float. Throwing 6 to 10 balls of gbait with casters and hemp in at the start is common way in matches, then feeding casters and hemp over the top. However, fishing with a 13BB crowquill or a 6 no4 to 10 no4 stick float in the shallower pegs if the pace is right, will work and I like these methods when pleasure fishing. fishing from 10 metres to mid river and just loose feeding hemp and casters or maggots will get bites. For those days when the river is in good nick a waggler fished past mid river feeding lots of maggots can bring chub. If you intend fishing for roach then fish fairly light, 0.12 to 18 is a good start, but you might have to go to 0.10 to a 20. If fishing for chub then 0.14 to a strong 18 or 16 hook. 

All of the above is a very general guide and it helps if the fish want to feed of course! If you haven't fished a river before then make sure to tread carefully, if the banks are wet they can be slippery, do not get into the river at this time of year. Always cast your float down stream to get best control of it, and feed in front of you or down stream slightly. If you are interested in pike, then take a lure rod or similar as when the river drops if you are catching roach on the float you may well get a visit from Mr Pike, and on some occasions I have had multiple pike in my swim (I once caught three in a match but they did not count).

I will not be able to fish next weekend as I have to self isolate for a week now prior to going into hospital for a minor op. I also have to have a covid test before I can go in, and have been told of the appointment today, I have to go to Ashton Gate of all places and have something shoved up my nose lol, might wear my rovers shirt then.

Stay safe.

Happy New Year

 Welcome to my first blog post of 2021. New Year but nothing to write home about just yet is it. Covid cases are at a level not seen before, and for a few days it looked like there would be no fishing allowed during this latest lockdown. I have been involved with a number of debates / discussions over "to fish or not to fish", and it has been noticeable that many commercial fisheries have decided to stay closed at the moment. These owners each have their own reasons I am sure, and most importantly they have their own safety to consider, I for one have no issue if they choose to shut down. The recent cold and icy weather hasn't done anything to motivate me to go out and fish, instead I have gone for walks with my family, pulled up the last of my winter vegetables and prepared the ground for spring time planting. If I do get out fishing in the lockdown it will probably just be a simple trip to the river at Swineford, Crane or maybe Conham, but we will see.

I am going to go back to my diary again now, and I was writing about February 2002 last time, but just before I do I want to share a few photos that came my way from a 1966 Frys company magazine. It talks about an inter departmental fishing match which was won by Colin Goulding with 6lb 11oz. Bob Warren is also mentioned, but he and Colin are the only two names I personally remember, perhaps some of the more old readers of this blog may recall a few more names? There is also a couple of other match results mentioned. 

Back in 2002 my last match of February was at Plantations, on the carp lake. It was a mid week match ran by Tony Rixon. On the journey to the venue the weather was atrocious gale force wind, hail, sleet and snow, but I got there as did plenty of others. I drew at the far end bank of the lake, and the wind was not at all bad where I drew and I could fish a pole at 11 metres fine. I thought the fishing would be rubbish so just went down a maggot approach, using a 4x16 float with 0.12 to 18 for double maggot. By feeding just 15 maggots every time I shipped out I was soon into small carp (up to 3lb) and was catching steady and better than those around me. After about 3 hours I was probably winning the match easily, but then the wind just dropped and I lost all the ripple on the water, and with that the fish just went and I struggled to catch anything after this. I weighed in 58lb and came 3rd in the match, the winner I believe was Dave Lewis, he was at the opposite end to me and he caught steady all day, he fished corn and had some bigger fish, I'm pretty sure Tony Rixon was second.

On Sunday 3rd March my Avon Angling team went up to the K&A canal at Marlborough for a practice for the ATWL semi final. We had engaged the help of Kev Rowles and he was going to be invaluable to us as we really didn't have much clue of the approach. Kev told us to fish bread punch at about 5m and then to feed groundbait further over, you were looking to catch roach mainly, with of course the chance of odd skimmers or hybrids. Kev had previously taken us to a tough section as he said this would be what a lot of the canal would be like, we watched him for a bit and he showed us what floats to use. On this day we went and fished another part of the canal and, as you do, we all chucked a fiver in made it a little interesting. That said we never had a draw, and Kev Winstone sat on the first peg (well nobody would argue with him) and we all just fell into place after. I remember I had Sean Glover to my left and Shay Gillman to my right. I didn't buy any new pole floats as I had similar floats (wire stemmed, wire tips) from bloodworm fishing in the past. The practice went well for me and I learned loads from Mr Rowles, I ended being top weight with 2lb 14oz so with a few quid in my pocket I went home full of confidence.

The big day came the following Saturday, and Kev Rowles was going to help us on the day, he had walked some of the sections the evening before and told us what peg number had the renowned tench peg in the team draw. Mark Jefferies was the Avon Angling team captain, and he was a tad nervous and asked me to accompany him to the draw. As I watched him he only went and pulled out the set of pegs with the flyer in! Straight away I ran back to tell the rest of the team that one of us was on it! Podge came back looking a little glum (he wasn't on the flyer lol) and then told me I was a jammy "so and so" as I was on the flyer. Yikes, all of a sudden I went from elation to the fear and pressure of expectation. Kev told all of the team what to do on the pegs they had drawn, and then spoke to me last of all, his information was out of this world, and made me feel much better, well there was no brown stuff going down my leg anymore lol.

I got to the peg and the wind was really an issue today, it was forecast to get up to 70mph, and there were times when I thought a tree opposite was going to blow over. I put my brolly up, staked down, and tried to secure everything in place under the brolly and close to hand. A mini disaster occurred when a severe gust of wind blew my bait boxes off the bait tray and onto the bank. I was scrabbling around trying to grab casters, maggots and pinkies of the grass. Whilst setting up two tench had rolled in front of a tree right opposite me, but Kev had said not to fish here and to go to the right by some reeds. There was though a big problem, the canal was towing like a river, and my light rigs were simply not going to be heavy enough to slow or hold a bait in place, and I had nothing heavier. I was praying that the tow was going to slow up at some stage. I plumbed my 5m line and then ran the rig through, I pulled the float up and had a snag, it came up, a lot of brambles and the rig broke. I replumbed up at 6m and it was clear here. I think you can tell I was having a very tricky pre match time!

Onto the match and I fed my ball of liquidized at 6m and didn't feed anything over by the reeds as I thought the bait would wash into the reeds where I couldn't actually put a rig. The rig was flying through on the bread at 6m, but putting the rig in different ways I finally managed to get a bite after a painful 30 minutes. I had 4 roach and 2 hybrids, one of which was 12oz on the bread line. I had the Angling Press cameras flashing as I landed the 12oz hybrid (the press were here with the expectation of me doing well, one of the reporters was my previous Thatchers team mate Brian Gay who worked for the Anglers Mail). Having those fish made me feel a little better, and after an hour the canal was slowing and I thought I could now feed my tench spot with a little worm and caster. Just before I did the angler to my right had a tench himself and had 2 more quickly after, so I was playing catch up. However, my patience was rewarded and as the canal continued to slow down my 4x12 float fished next to the reeds in a slight cutback began to go under, the tench were there. I caught odd fish on and off and topped up with little bits of worm and caster. I had 7 tench and 4 perch from across and was pleased I had manage to battle the elements and put some fish in the net. The guy to my right had no more tench after his quick three.

My fish weighed 17lb 14 1/2oz and when I got back to the results I found out this was just enough to take the individual win, with team mate Sean Glover having just 7oz less than me and he had done brilliant. The icing on the cake though was that my team got announced in 3rd place and we had made the final! For a bunch of mainly river anglers this was a big result, but the canal had warmed up and that meant our positive approach in good areas was the right one. Kev was a bit emotional at our success, and I can tell you that there is absolutely no way our team would have qualified without his help, and no way I would have won off that flyer either. I still owe Kev more beer for my biggest ever pay day. 

Some photos below of press cuttings I kept. 

That was a good day to write about and reflect on, doesn't seem like it was that long ago but time flies by so fast it seems. I think at the time I was the only person who had ever won an ATWL semi final and final, and I always thought that was one of my best achievements when those were large matches with top anglers fishing, but you need your slice of luck.

I intend to keep my blog going every week through lockdown, and whether you chose to go fishing or not please stay safe and look after yourself.