ATWL Round 4 - Bristol Avon Chippenham and Melksham

 It was good to know exactly what I fishing this week, that was because Martin Barrett kept the team the same as last week. The weather forecast was dry all week and that would mean the river would drop down and with a couple of frosts clear out a bit I guessed. Everything was pointing to the river being good for chub, so a chub peg would be very nice! Of course I would have to take plenty of tackle to the river for many different scenarios, and roach were likely to be important in many pegs. I did a bit of prep Saturday, and knocked up my groundbait, just two bags, one Sonubaits Black Roach and the other Black River. I did take a bag of sweet skimmer with me just in case I drew a peg which was noted for bream / skimmers, I must say I do like this groundbait, it mixes up really well and smells lovely.

Up at 6am Sunday morning and everything was put in the van correctly, I stopped in Chippenham Maccy D's for brekky and got to the draw by 7:35. Shaun Townsend was already there, so he must have had a quiet Saturday night I guess. Liam Braddell did our team draw today, and it seemed we only had one well known peg, that went to Ian Paulley who was right at the top of Chippenham on a 2 feet deep peg that should throw up chub. I was in the bottom section of Chippenham park, just above a wooden footbridge I was told, should be OK for roach but some good pegs lower down the section.

Got to my peg and it had steep bank and low tree cover so I had to get into the water,

I was fairly close to the footbridge but not on top of it, I guessed it would be busy with people as the weather was looking good. I set up 3 pole rigs, a 0.8g with 20 to 0.09, a 1.5g with 18 to 0.10, and a chopped worm rig which I never had a bite on! A 4g bolo with 18 to 0.12 and a feeder was it. I was going to set up a waggler, but I would have had to cast it sideways, and leaves were building up on the far side and so I didn't bother. Sat in the water I was aware of a putrid smell, clearly it was "weed" and where ever it was being smoked it was strong and lasted most of the day, I was sick of the smell I can tell you. I was just about ready for the 10:30 start, and cupped in 4 balls of gbait containing caster, hemp and pinkie. I began on the heavy rig with a caster and I had one roach on the caster, and then 3 on a maggot and then lost a better fish which I thought was a perch, but it was a much slower start than I had expected. Bites were hard to come by and I was soon picking up the 0.8g rig which was a little bit better with maggot on the hook and a few more roach graced the net. Then as happens here the flow just slowed right up and before I knew it I had no flow on my pole line at all and could not get a bite! I picked up the bolo as there was more flow further across, I had been feeding maggots across here and began with double maggot. It was not brilliant, it was one bite every 5 runs down, but I had a couple of chublets a dace and roach before this died. I will say the light was a nightmare, and trying to see my pole float was increasingly difficult as the day went on.

It wasn't until the river started to flow again that I was able to get bites, when it flowed it was really pacey and the pole line seemed to me the right place to be. All of a sudden I was able to get a few roach on caster on the light rig, catching them off the bottom was best. Sadly as soon as the flow went so did the roach, I just couldn't find a way to make bites on the pole after the flow dropped. Back to the bolo and much the same as before, not many bites at all but the odd fish and then it would die. I did hook another good fish on the pole, and this time it stayed on, and after a bit of a fight I netted a decent 12oz perch. I wanted to fish the bolo more, but at times the far third of the river was solid with leaves and it was almost impossible to get a bait in.

The pattern of my match for about 3 1/2 hours as catch on the pole when fast flow, scratch on the bolo when slow. Bank walkers gave me the impression that the rest of my section (all below the bridge) were catching roach very regularly and I thought I must be way behind. My peg went dead at this point, nothing on the pole on caster, and maggot only caught a tiny roach or minnow, maybe I had fed to much bait (I had been loose feeding hemp & caster) here I don't know, but it was shot and never  came back to life. The bolo was also really poor now and I hardly put a fish in the net for an hour, a couple of tiny gudgeon and then I hooked a roach but a jack pike grabbed it and I lost the hook. I kept feeding pouches of maggot hoping for a bonus chub that I thought I needed, it never came sadly, but I did catch two nice 6oz roach out of the blue on the last 15 mins.

When the match was finished I got everything out of the water and took a look at my fish, 6lb I thought. The anglers just below me were saying they had more than that. The scales started at the end peg which Nicky Johns was on, he had 8lb 13oz, a couple of weights lower than that and then the next two anglers who were the first two below the footbridge, both had 10lb, with Mick Gale being best with 10lb 13oz. What I noticed about these nets was that the anglers had lots of small roach, they had been busy, whereas I had caught a lot less fish then them but better quality. I was certainly out on my estimation, as my fish went 8lb 3oz, better than I thought, but still only good enough for 3 out of 6 points. Had I not had the poor last 90 minutes I could have challenged the best weights, but I didn't and that's that.

I must admit, I was keeping my eye on whatsapp Thatchers chat, and it wasn't looking very good with a lot of struggles, but back to the result to find out. We had two section winners in our team, Andy Ottoway with 11lb and Ian Paulley with 12lb, nobody else picked up money. Scotland Road fished well, Liam had 13lb and only beat 1 person, but 15lb -12 won the section so it was close. Shaun had a mare, plagued by minnows and lost a chub which spat the hook out at the net, and had to watch Gary Etheridge above him net 8 chub all in quick succession late on. Certainly this part of the river is peggy and whilst you need to make the most of your peg there do seem to be some better pegs than others at Chippenham, but that makes for a leveller and it certainly through up some different results today.

Overall individuals

1st Elvis 34lb 8oz chub on the waggler

2nd Gary Etheridge 21lb 14oz 

3rd Rob Randall 15lb 12oz

4th Mark Brush 15lb 3oz

Teams on the day 

1st GBMV and Talisman 34 points

3rd DGL 32

4th Thatchers 28

5th Lobbys 21

6 Devises 20

League to date

1st Thatchers 10

2nd DGL 12

3rd GBMV 14

4th Talisman 15

5th Devises 16

6th Lobbys 17

As a team we were very lucky today, we got a bashing, but the results went out way and DGL only pulled one point, and teams who had previously done poor had a good day. The next two rounds are on the canal out by Malborough way I think, I will not be fishing those as we have better canal anglers who fish that more than I ever have, so I'm crossing my fingers for the team now, and hoping we can stay in pole position.

Next week I will be fishing the Poppy Match, the river will be clear and steady by then I think, makes a change from the last few years flooded events. Hopefully there will be some good catches for the anglers fishing, I just need to have a clear head, as I am out the day before on hospitality for Rovers, so chances are I won't have a clear head PMSL!