Riverfest Qualifier Bristol Avon Newbridge

There hasn't been amything from me for a while as I just have not been out fishing, and have had some quality time with the family. I spent a lovely weekend at Babbacombe when it was baking hot, and I got to swim in the sea a couple of times which is rare for me in this country. It was a wonderful break for myself and the wife.

Over the last couple of years I have found my opportunities to fish these qualifiers restricted to my local stretch of river, and going into one match means you do need that bit of luck at the draw and fish well. I have seemed to draw the trees section a few times and that's always a bit peggy so hoped to avoid that. It was a bit like pre covid times for me, I had a breakfast in Hanham Wetherspoons before rocking up to the draw and a good chat with many anglers queuing for the peg draw. The pegging was shown on the sheet as so...

The spare pegs were in case any boats had moored up overnight, luckily none hadn't I believe. There was though a great peg left out, 61 Norfolk Reeds, as a boat was in there when it was pegged and I fancied 59 and 63 to do well. I pulled out peg 32 ticket, which was 65, so close but yet so far I thought. It is right in the middle of the stretch and so was going to be a long walk, but since I am back to the gym these walks (on dry ground) don't faze me. It took me a time to get away from the draw as many anglers approached me to ask how to approach their peg and what were their chances.

When I got to my peg it was clear the heavy storms from the day before had put a little colour and flow into the river, making many anglers believe this would be a bream fest, but these things are rarely so clear cut in my experience, and I advised most anglers to take a pole to the pegs not just a feeder rod. That said I was in the middle zone and traditionally this is the highest weight zone and bream were expected to win it. My peg is wide and deep (about 14 feet) and used to be OK, but for many years now it is rare for the bream to drop down below 63.

From experience this area throws up bream on the pole line, and so I was going down the one line route, 13m for pole and feeder. I set up a grm float with 16 N20 to 0.12, a 4g flat float with 16 N30 to 0.13, and a gbait feeder with 14 N30 to 0.15. That was all I was going to go with and to be honest the 3g rig was only for catching some early small fish in my mind. My groundbait mix was done on the bank and I went with a mix of natural and a bit of fishmeal to encourage skimmers and bream. So Natural Lake and River, and Super Feeder. I split this up to allow for a heavy mix for balling / cupping and a drier version for the feeder.

There were some good anglers on good pegs and I was sure a decent weight would be needed today, 30 to 40lb. Had the river been clear then a bigger weight might win as the bream may be shoaled up. I began by balling in 16 balls today, plenty of casters, dead pinkie and chopped worms in there. The angler on 63 also gave it a few balls but not so much, would I pull some fish down past I wondered? I started on the 3g and had a dace first run down, then a chublet and then a small roach. I had regular bites was missing a few as I was fishing double maggot or caster trying to get the bigger fish, but the quality wasn't nothing special and the landing net was used once for a roach. As the quality did not improve I went out on the flat float trying worm and triple maggot but this accounted for small fish too. I tried a double caster and had a 4oz hybrid, then nearly an hour in I hit a very good fish that pulled a lot of 11 hollo red elastic out. It took a while to get this fish up and I was beginning to think it might be a pike, but finally glimpsed a bream, it was a good one around 6lb I think. A good start. Sadly no more followed this and I could only catch small perch or chublets. The guy above then had 2 big bream in the next hour to go ahead. I cupped in a couple of rich balls of feed, back on a worm hookbait and a few perch and then hooked a 1lb+ perch, but I lost it when shipping back some walkers wanted to get passed and I let the line go slack and it was gone.

My match petered away after the first hours with an almost blank third hour and it seemed the same for most people, with bankside talk of 2 bream being good. Try as I might I coud not coax anymore bream from my swim, the lad above had 2 skimmers and that was all. I nicked a few roach here and there and then sat out for the last hour for slabs to no avail. I knew I was beaten by the angler above and also James Carty on 56 had 3 bream, and then we heard that Andy Power on 77 had 4 late bream. I was still going to weigh in as you never know what the section money will be won with. However, after waiting a good hour and no scales and chatting to a few anglers I decided to chuck back as I was well overdue to getting to a 60th birthday party. Andy Cranston and Paul Purchase witnessed my fish, maybe 10lb.

I found out later that Powers won with 32lb, and my team captain Mark Harper was second with some bream and skimmers on the feeder from peg 7 with 27lb, the other qualfier from the bottom zone was Nick Chezoy who had the best day's catch in my opinion with 18lb+ of roach and chublets on the pole.

My only pic was my bream in the net. Not great I know and doesn't do it justice.

Well done to the three qualifiers and good luck in the final. I needed about 12lb to get the section money I think, so the lost perch and a few more bits would have been good enough, but I was there to qualify so it matters not.

That's it for another week, I am not fishing again this weekend, but will be back in two weeks fishing the superleague final round at Newbridge.

Update and 2002

 What is it they say, best laid plans and all that... I was not going fishing this weekend or the next, I was off to watch England v Sri Lanka ODI cricket this Sunday, and off for a long weekend next weekend. However, one of my daughters got a positive Covid test result this week and that meant the rest of us family were all going ot have to stay in our house and garden and self isolate. The good news is my daughter never got seriously ill and is now fine, and rest of us had all negative tests. Gutted to have to self isolate and miss some long looked forward to plans, but such is life. It now looks like I will be fishing next Sunday on the Superleague at Staverton / Bradford-on-Avon.

I have certainly enjoyed watching the England football team in the Euros, especially against Germany and Ukraine. My eldest daughter would definitely have been out watching with her friends, but we've ended up watching it together. 25 years we first watched the Euros together, although she was only a few weeks old back then, my wife is convinced it was me watching Euro 96 with the baby in my arms that got her into football lol. I'm looking forward to the game against the Danes, but even with such good England performances I am still nervous, but I give Southgate his due, he has these boys going really well. 

On the Superleague today I have found out that the match was won by Dan Squires off end peg A1 with 28lb, I assume some bream in that. Top team on the day was the Thachers Blue team, and with 28 out of 32 points they were able to go top of the league after two rounds. Sadly my Thatchers Green team had two lasts in section and finished nearly last, oops.

It has been quite a while since I looked back in one of my diaries and it was October 2002 when I last was looking. On Sunday 13th October I fished the Commercial House at Frys, I was on old peg 74. We had some rain and not being too far below Siston Brook I knew the river was going to colour up. I fished a gbait feeder 3/4 of the way over to begin with, I had 2 chub from here and then I couldn't fish here as the river coloured up too much. I switched to fishing down the middle where I had 10 eels and hooked another chub but I lost that one. 6lb 8oz was enough for 12 out of 14 points.

The following week and it was the ATWL at Newbridge, I was pegged down in the tree on 133. I remember this day as the river was just a little to pacey for the float I thought, and I reckoned on needing some bigger fish. I only set up the gbait feeder and fished it down the middle, but it wasn't quite as I expected. I had 2 skimmers and some hybrids, but no bream, but the roach were feeding. I basically had bites most casts but was struggling to hook them, double caster was the best hookbait. I had 9lb which got me third in the section, missing out on second by ounces. Team came 2nd so all good so far.

Sunday 27th October Commercial House was cancelled due to 90mph winds, in fact I drove to the draw at Bitton, only to find out that a few minutes after I got there a large oak tree was blown down into the road, makes you think how close that could have been. I had a rare day off mid week and went pleasure fishing at Conham on the Bristol Avon, Just set up a 6 no4 stick float with 18 to .10. I fed casters only and had a few roach, but the dace really came on the feed and came up in the water, I ended up with over 20lb. Would you believe it the following Sunday and the ATWL at Swineford / Crane was cancelled as the river was bank high. I did fish up at Newbridge for a while, never had a bite for 2 hours, then had 12 eels on lobworm.

The 2002 Poppy match was put onto the K&A canal and I was not really impressed by my draw on the first peg at Darlington Wharf by the bridge. I had a bit of a struggle all day, catching a few small skimmers and roach over gbait, and a few perch across on casters. I did hook a large fish on a pinkie which after a couple of minutes of playing I pulled out. Not 100% sure but think this match was won by Andy Ottoway. The ATWL was also put on the canal as the river continued to be flooded, I was just past Bathampton bend. The canal fished hard, there was no bloodworm and joker allowed back then. I caught small roach on pinkie over gbait at 3m and 10m for 3lb 2oz which was worth 5 points out of 8.

For my last match in November 2002 I had a complete change of scenery and went to Viaduct fishery and fished a match on Campbell lake. I was peg 124 and set up for the day was a waggler and a straight lead with 0.14 to a 16. I fished sweetcorn and fed 1 tin through the day, starting on the waggler but changing over to the lead as the wind made life tricky. Back then the carp were much smaller and biggest was 3lb, I finished with 72lb which was enough to win the match.