Hillview Fishery - Philtone Teams of Three

 Hope you all had a good Christmas and enjoyed some good times, I had a very nice time and received some very nice gifts. On Monday 27th the only gift I wanted was a good draw at Hillview lol.

It was a tad tricky waking up early on Monday as I had finished work on the 22nd so have had a few late wake up calls, I didn't drink a lot on Boxing Day as I didn't want to have any issues the next day driving. I was at the fishery just after 8am and my pools paid and breakfast consumed all in good time. The captain of my team Joe McMahon selected an envelope and got set of pegs "C", and this meant I could not be on the same peg I have drawn on this match the last 2 years (peg 56). Unfortunately my team was a man down, as Dave Haines had a problem with his van on the motorway and had to drive home in limp mode. The organiser of the match Neil Mercer said that as the match is decided on weight each of the other 2 teams would drop their worst weight, that was very fair. My team and pegs were:-

Joe McMahon canal 2 peg 60

Shaun Townsend canal 2 peg 66

Me - canal 3 peg 75

John Fuidge canal 1 peg 45

Ron Hardiman canal 3 peg 70

Lee Massey canal 3 peg 81

With three of the team on canal 3 we needed it to fish well, last year it was not good. The team I was in last year won of f set of pegs B and that was Tony Rixon's team who had 3 anglers on lake 2.

It was a bit muddy getting to the peg as there has been some work going on to landscape the venue it seemed and wooden platforms had been replaced with tough plastic bases. The bases are certainly sturdy, but mine was not built level, and I had to adjust my box legs a fair bit to get myself level and not looking at the sky. My peg is right in the middle of the canal, and the last match on here the right hand end was the best (where team mate Lee was). There were no mugs on my canal, Ron was on end peg 70, Martin Rayet peg 71, Tony Rixon 73, Leon Hubbard 77, Neil Mercer 79 and then Lee on 81. It was not going to be easy.

I didn't get the phone out today as it was raining most of the day and so I have no pictures to brighted this blog sorry, well just one of Tony Rixon on my left, a picture of him looking at his best.

Setting up is never a long affair here, and all I needed was 3 rigs, a dobbing rig with 16 GPM to 0.13 powerline, a 4x12 rig with 0.11 to 18 SFL for fishing maggots down the track and across to a aerator, and a similar rig bit shallower for fishing right across and in the margins.

We started at at 10am and I along with everyone else went searching the far bank with bread on our dobbing rigs. After 30 minutes only Ron had caught a fish, I had not had a liner and thought this was not going to be good! I changed rigs, fed a few maggots by the aerator, and a small amount of micros across. No bites or indications for me at all, but Tony managed to catch an F1 and a small carp. Finally 1 hour and 15 minutes in and my float went under fishing a soft pellet right across, but I never connected. Back out, this one and after a little wait another bite and this time I was in, but I soon realised it was fouled. Well I really took my time and finally I landed a small carp hooked in the anal fin. Back out and after a bit of time had another carp on, this one was bigger but also fouled, unfortunately it managed to swim into the reeds in close and that led to the hook pulling out.

Sadly there is not much more I can report on after this, as everyone on our canal just could not get any indications, even the slayers were sat there motionless and pretty hacked off. Leon waited 3 1/2 hours for his first fish then had another straight away and no more. I had my next indication on maggots down the track 15 minutes to go, hooked the fish which went off towards Tony and then the hook pulled out. A shite end to a shite day for me, and I have never known the canal fish so bad! It was very different behind me on canal 2 where the guys there had a fish a bung for 3 hours!

My 1 carp weighed 2lb 9oz, which beat Neil and Lee, Leon's 2 fish went 3lb 2oz, and Tony battered me with 5lb 6oz lol. In fact Ron won the canal with just 12lb, my only hope of coin was on the team front now, and it was looking very close on that front, and the top individuals would decide it probably:-

1st Joe McMahon 81lb 11oz

2nd Shaun Townsend 76lb 11oz

3rd Clint Wjotyla  60lb 3oz

4th Ricky Mills 58lb 2oz

All of those guys were on canal 2.

In the end my team weight came from 1st and 2nd and John Fuidge who did well to win canal 1 with 42lb. We just had enough to overcome Tony's team (despite them having 3 pegs on canal 2 lol) and so I had a pick up to cover the day out, a little consolation for the poor days fishing that we on canal 3 endured. After the match slices of bread were thrown over the 4 canals, and all bar canal 3 had fishing slurping on them, many felt there were simply no fish in our canal, but maybe there was another reason the fish refused to feed, or even move about?

Not sure if there is any matches on Sunday 2nd January, I'd like to have a fish if I can and try and get a better draw. Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

2003

 As I wrote last week, no fishing for me this weekend and my next trip out assuming the rules don't change will be just after Boxing Day. Had a few beers and a curry with some of the lads Saturday night, as expected the pubs and the Indian restaurant weren't that busy as some folk are avoiding social contact before Xmas, quite understandable. We had a great time, and some got in rather late. I managed to leave my glasses at the Indian, so I ran back to get them before the place closed. Got there in time, but running was a bad idea, as after that I basically had heartburn an couldn't drink my pint. A couple of Gaviscon tablets at home sorted it.

Back to 2003 and it was a Superleague double header fishing Saturday and Sunday at Porth reservoir for my team at the time Avon Angling. Digs in Newquay of course and a couple of good nights out were had. My first day saw me on the deep section on peg 67, and I made a very bad mistake that was to cost me big time. I fished a groundbait feeder and had 6 skimmers in the first 2 hours, after this I struggled, and either missed bites or didn't see the bites. My mistake was the set up on the feeder rig, I was using my old trusted loop to loops and clearly this was creating a bad angle on the line, but I didn't suss it till after the match. What a disaster, 1lb 10oz and only beat 1 person the section. The rest of the team didn't do that well and we had quite a debate about what we should do the following day, in the end we decided to feed positive with worm if we drew the pegs where skimmers showed well, but feed very little on the poor areas to start.

Day 2 and I was much further up the venue on peg 94, this had fished hard the day before so I was going with the negative approach. I cast a small gbait feeder out 30 yards, with a 20 to 0.10 and fished a single maggot as hookbait. In the feeder all I put in were 10 squatts and 3 casters every cast. The bites were tiny, and a marker was a necessity (I used a bank stick) to see the little taps. I knew I was doing OK in the section as there were a few bank runners, and I remember Eddie Wynne sitting behind me for a while telling me I had it sussed and was doing well as many were struggling for bites. In the end I had 1 perch, 2 roach and 22 skimmers for 6lb 5oz, this was 2nd in the section and worth a little pick up. I was delighted that after the previous disaster I had turned things around and got it right.

Two weeks later on June 7th I was at Viaduct Fishery for an open match, this was actually being used as a practice match for the following weeks Superleague round at the venue. I drew out peg 62 on Lodge lake, and noses were turned up when I asked for info on the peg. My then team mate Tony Rixon had already given me tips on the pellet approach here, feed 4mm's on pole and 6mm on waggler and have deep and shallow rigs set up. There was really no need for the waggler on 62, not enough room I thought, so I went down the pole route. I had a very slow start, but everyone around me did, but eventually I started to get bites from skimmers and carp. It was a case of mixing up the feed, cupping or catapulting, and trying both deep and shallow. Then joint fishery owner Ian Parsons came for a walk round and watched me, he said the lakes were having an off day and as a result it was a bit of a leveller, he said I was doing well and could spring a surprise. He was right, as I my 63lb 12oz was good enough to come second overall. It was a good positive result to take me into the Superleague.

The following week and the team draw done put Tony Rixon on about 115 on Campbell I think and people were saying he would break the match record again! I was given 126 on Campbell which I was happy with as I wanted to have a crack at Campbell again. I caught a few early carp and couple of skimmers on the pole but the fish just went. I had been feeding 6mm pellets on the waggler line all the time and switched to this, it wasn't good though and I was not getting many indications but Tony had told me to keep the feed going in! Tony was bagging on the pole and the fish seemed to more that side of the lake as my bank was really struggling. Eventually the carp came into my waggler line and it just got better and better, I started on 0.14 to a 14, and ended up fishing my 4lb reel line direct. If you wonder how did I band the pellet like this, I didn't, back then we were super gluing rubber bands to the pellets and hooking the rubber band. Team captain Mark Jefferies was running the bank on this day, and he commented that myself and Tony were the only 2 anglers on the whole lake feeding decent amounts of bait, and he couldn't believe others had not cottoned on. I had a nice day ending with 87lb 3oz which was 3rd and a good payout, beaten by Tony (who did break the record, and the guy next to him). Can't remember how the team did as I didn't write it in my diary.

At the end of June I went pleasure fishing to Plantation Carp Lake with Warren Bates. I wanted to use this as a practice at fishing pellets on the pole shallow and in the margins. It was stuffed with fish and I had 45 carp. I think this might have been the day when I went to pick up one of my rigs with a pellet on only to find the rig line was going into a hole and the pellet had been take off down there I guess by a mouse! It was stuck solid and I had to pull for a break lol!

The next match I fished (and last to mention today) was a Wednesday afternoon / evening match at Hillview Fishery in Tewksbury. Mark Jefferies had suggested we fish this as we could go to work and just take a half days holiday. The match was going to be on the lakes, and after my recent success of feeding heavy I was still in the same zone. I bought 3 bags of 4mm pellets from Keith who asked / joked if I was buying bait for another couple of matches? Well I got peg 17 on Moorhen so should be just right for fishing shallow, Mark told me to feed it at 13m for an hour before going in on it. However, 40 minutes into the match all I had short was a couple of silvers and I was getting battered by the local to my left. It was a bit windy so a chop on the water, and when I looked up once when I fed I saw a fish "porpoise". I saw the same again soon after and thought time to try this. I went shallow and never looked back as I my peg got better and the locals dried up. I am sure this was down to my heavy feeding. After the match the local moaned to me that I had fed way too much bait and it was not the right thing to do.. hmmm, well I weighed in 88lb and won the match lol! The grumpy local was soon to become more grumpy! At the result Keith paid me out and then said there was the draw for the golden peg, Keith held the bag up to the grumpy local who proceeded to pull my peg out!! An extra £250 thank you very much. You could have heard a pin drop, and Mark said he thought we ought to get in the car and get away pretty quick lol, we did laugh. Of course that feeding method didn't work for me again up there, but it was right on that day. It was a day I'll always remember.

All it remains is for me to  do now is wish those of you reading this a Happy Christmas. I hope you can have a very merry Christmas however you want to spend it, and fingers crossed we can all enjoy it.

2002 / 2003

 I was, as I often am without team matches, debating about if to fish this weekend and if so where. Well that decision became an easy one when I started to feel ill on Wednesday and got progressively worse till Friday, it wasn't covid (according to the LF tests) but I had a sore throat, sinuses blocked, chesty cough and my back muscles ached terribly. Feeling better today thankfully just the "tubes" need clearing now and again. That now means I won't be fishing before Christmas as I was not planning to go next weekend, and my next match will be Monday 27th December.

It's been a while that I have looked back on my diaries, and to be honest I took a while finding where I had put them, and when I last written about. It is now 1st December 2002, nothing to say other than fished a Bristol & West Xmas match and got drawn on a peg at Jack Whites where I think a tree or two reside on the bottom, snag pit and DNW...

My next match was Dec 15th, an ATWL round on the K&A Canal outside Bath, I was drawn at Diggers Yard (a stretch we don't really fish now due to lack of access). I really struggled to start with on the bread and was thinking this was going to be poor match, but luckily for me I caught small roach later on bloodworm & joker. I had two areas that I caught from, one next to a boat on the inside, and at 10m going up the shelf. I weighed in 3lb 12oz and that was enough to bag me a section win for the team.

29th December and the next ATWL again on the K&A canal but my draw this time placed me at Darlington which is just on the edge of Bath itself. I didn't have a problem getting bites on punch bread on this match, but they were all small roach taken from 10m out. I had 2 hours on this, and when it died I went onto my bonus fish lines (1 worm, 1 caster) and had nothing at all. In fact after I scraped a few more small fish out on bloodworm at 5m my peg died and I caught nothing the last hour or so. I was surprised to find I had won the section with just 3lb 3oz. It was a nice end to 2002 and November and December had been pretty good for me, was 2003 going to be the same or a different matter?

I don't have any pictures of back then, so here's a random picture of me and some carp a few years ago.

The last round of the ATWL on the 5th Jan 2003 was moved from the river to the canal due to the fact the river had flooded badly, burst its banks and in Keynsham was in the marina car park, that's high! Just to make the fishing on the canal harder the temperatures dropped and minus 6 degrees greeted us Sunday, yuk! I was drawn at the George section, and the writing was on the wall when I had no bites on anything for 2 hours! I finally found a tiny pocket of tiny ruffe / perch and scratched out 12 of them for just 6oz. I beat the guys either side but the other end of the section had 3 and 4lb weights so I was well down the section. This was though a good day as my team won the day and we won the league overall, I got a bit of extra coin as I was runner up in the knockout and 6th individual overall.

I had my next match 26th Jan (snow and cold weather kept me off the bank in between) at Hill View in a team league where I had peg 75 on the 3rd canal handed to me. Feeding just 4 maggots at a time I had 18lb 13oz of small carp, 4th in section but somehow I recorded that I piced up some money, probably went halves with someone lol. Two weeks later the same result but this time on Heron lake with just 14lb, not going well here.

The last Commercial House round was held on Feb 16th (must have been postponed a few times) and was on the Bristol Avon at Chippenham. I was told I was pegged next to the Blue Bridge, that meant nothing as I had no experience of this part of the river. When I got to the Blue Bridge I could not find my peg, I had Kev Boltz above me and Pete Philips below me, and I said "they've left my peg out!" What I soon found out was that my peg was on the opposite bank to everyone else, hmmm that was a first for me lol. I was trepidatious setting up, being pegged right next to footbridge was bound to bring lots of pedestrians and who knows what. In the event I had a few idiots as you would expect, and a dog that nearly broke my rod, the owner threatened to fill me when I had a moan..... I set up a 6 no4 stick float to fish down the middle of the river and a maggot feeder. I had 2 hours of bites on the stick but only caught tiny fish, all went dead and the feeder was no good. I continued to run the float through, wearing a grove in the river bed, with 20 mins to go I struck into a bite and thought I had the bottom till it moved. With a 22 hook to 0.09 bottom on I had to let the fish run and it went off downstream, I grabbed my landing net and followed by walking along the bank under the bridge and out the other side. This was much to the annoyance / shock of Pete, but as I pointed out I was still well upstream of his peg. After a very nervy time my luck held out and I netted a lovely looking tench of near 4lb. Pete said well done or something not quite as nice lol. That fish was a real bonus and it got me a section win by a few ounces. My team ended up coming second overall in the league.

There's really not much point me writing about anything else until May in 2003, as I didn't fish that much (I had a young family to look after) and when I did fish I had an absolutely torrid time in the Hill View league getting an arse smacking and really being out of my depth with the place that year.

Some more diary memories next week then, with thankfully some better times ahead in 2003.

I cleaned out the bait fridge today, though in truth it was pretty clean as it only recently came into my possession, anyway it now serves a different purpose from Christmas until the New Year..

Commercial House Xmas Match - K&A Canal Out of Bath

 I don't seem to get the opportunity to fish as many Xmas matches as I did years ago, and this one was on my radar but I only committed to fish on Monday. I didn't think I would have any bloodworm and joker, but I had a call from Andy Pritchard who had ordered a pack and was happy to split it with me, thanks Andy. I had plenty of rigs already made up and just needed to tie some hooks to replace old ones and have some spares.

I had my booster vaccination on Saturday and I woke up a few times in the night with a sore left arm, it was still feeling sore when I got up but I was not feeling any other side affects. Got to the Crown in Keynsham for a brekky and paid mine and Glenn Bailey's pools and ticket money. Glenn wanted to avoid driving through Bath and getting a bill for entering the clean zone, luckily my van is cleaner and doesn't get charged. There was a good turnout of 30 people, including a lot of "pellet heads" such as Dave Willmott, Dave Haines, Neil Mercer, Andy Gard to name a few lol. It was nice to see these guys back on a natural venue. Pegging today.

 The draw began and I drew and announced to those around me my peg (11), and then Glenn's, I couldn't believe it when I drew Glenn peg 19 at Claverton with the scales. Obviously I couldn't get the scales to Glenn as he was already driving around Bath, and I had drawn at the George. I got a another angler at Claverton to take the scales instead.

I got to the George pub and parked in their car park, chatted to Chris Parr (not Gappy) and Paul Purchase who were on good pegs either side of the wires past Bathampton bend. I was on the start of the bend on a wide peg, and not one I would run to as a lack of featured to fish to. As I walked along the canal Nigel Wyatt and Dave Haines both told me they had pleasure fished the canal and caught 3 or 4 fish only! As I got nearer to my peg I saw Neil Mercer, and looked at his peg, it was then I saw for the first time the water properly. The canal was gin clear and I could see leaves on the bottom of the canal a couple of metres out. Oh dear, this is not how I expected the canal to look at all and it meant only one thing to me that the match would be incredibly hard.

Got to my peg and found I had Dave Haines on 10 and Darren Gilman on the other end of the bend on peg 12.  I took this picture later on after a few boats had gone through and added a tinge of colour.

I set up one 4x14 rig for breadpunch with 18 PR311 to 0.07, a positive rig for bloodworm with 18 to 0.08, a negative 4x12 rig for bloodworm with 22 PR311 to 0.07, and a chopped worm rig.

Whilst setting up Dave Haines came along to have a look at my bloodworm and joker (he didn't have any) and when he returned to his peg he realised some of his pole sections had blown into the canal. As the canal was clear we could see the sections and got them out, lucky boy.

I began the match fishing breadpunch at top set plus 3 sections. After 10 minutes I had not had a bite and the writing was on the wall already. Time to feed some other baits, a small ball of leamed up joker just to my right by a little boat, a big ball of joker at 10m off to the left and some minced worms 10m straight out. I gave the bread another 10 mins to let the other areas settle, but had nothing. Onto the chopped worm looking for an early perch, no bites here at all. Came down to the close line by the boat and with a single bloodworm on the float shot under, a very small perch saved the blank, and was soon followed by another 5 before bites ended. Back to the worm and again nothing at all, back to the boat nothing this time, out to the 10m joker line and fishing overdepth for a bonus I had a long wait for nothing, but when I lifted the rig up I had a tiny ruffe on. I shallowed the positive rig up and caught another 3 ruffe and a tiny perch here then nothing again. A pattern was clearly forming.

During the day a boat came up regularly and turned round in the bay, it was some bloke dressed as Santa, with a few decorations on the boat playing Xmas music. Not sure what the familes paid to go on it, but it looked a bit shite to me lol.

With no bites by the boat I refed some joker here, and then fed another ball of joker on a new line top set plus 4 sections just off to my right. I had a little run of ruffe again out long before an odd little perch by the boat. The new joker line also produced 5 or 6 fish quickly then nothing. With about 90 minutes to go I decided to feed a bit of joker over the chopped worm as this line was a waste. It did sort of work, it produced my best perch (about 1 1/2oz lol) and a few other tiny fish. My peg just got really really hard and I had just 4 tiny ruffe I think in the last hour. I had counted 29 fish, but what would they weigh, 12oz to 14oz I hoped. Dave had 10 fish and Darren 12, everyone had struggled from what we could tell, so I was hoping to win the section if possible.

Steve Skelton had the scales and started weighing from Darren, here's my section weights as I recall them..

Darren G 2 1/2oz

Me 11oz (those fish were smaller than I thought)

Hainer 5oz

Rich Scholar 4oz

Neil Mercer 7oz

Steve S 5 1/2oz

Yes that was a very hard section, but not the hardest of the match!

The top 3 were all in a line at Claverton (not the end Glenn was at) with Andy Britt winning with 3lb, he did get a few roach on bread, then perch on bloodworm. I've put the full weight sheet on here so you can see the weights, I was 6th overall with 11oz, so a decent prize! Shaun Townsend won the section at Dundas with 9oz, a flyer of an end peg potentially, but it was ruined by a boat that got stuck in the bottom twice. 23 anglers out of the 30 caught a fish.

Despite the shocking fishing everyone back at the pub had a good laugh, Dave Willmott made the most of his end peg at the George to come 4th, but got 3rd place money as one angler did not go in the main pool. He also won three prizes on the raffle, including one when he pulled his own ticket out, now that's magic!  Not sure when I will fish next or where, one thing for sure the fishing is proving tricky on many venues at present.

Pairs Match Bristol Avon - Swineford and Crane

A few weeks ago I had noted on Facebook that Ben Rendall was running a pairs match at Chequers, I didn't really fancy it as Chequers hasn't been great of late, I personally believe the shoals of dace and roach migrate down to Conham. However, after the Poppy match last week I found out that the match had been changed to Swineford and Crane, great news, but I couldn't find a partner as they had all been taken it seemed. Craig Fletcher (who now lives in Salisbury) was keen to fish with me, but then realised a couple of days later he couldn't. Then Ben found me a partner, but the next thing I knew I was partnered with Jerry Pocock who lives less than a mile from me. Jerry's original partner Kev Boltz decided to go sea fishing.

The deal was one angler would be at Swineford and their partner at Crane. I saw the pegging Saturday evening and sent a message to Jer asking if he wanted to fish Crane as there were some very long walks at Swineford, he agreed. I went to bed dreaming of drawing Bitton Brook and catching 40lb of chub on a waggler. I woke up the next day in good time and grabbed a Maccy D's before driving to the Crane for the draw at 8am. As I drove along Keynsham Road I got a call from Ben, the draw had been done as everyone else was there, and Jer had drawn me peg 1 which was on the outfall. Oh that wasn't on my choice of pegs I thought or something similar, used to be a brill peg but not consistent these days. I turned around and headed for Swineford.

Unloading my gear I got the usual abuse from Dean Harvey on the flyers I draw and how I moan about them. I must say Dean was looking very healthy, he told me he  had been to Centre Parcs the week before, he said he had been swimming most days, but I think he was really having spa treatments as his skin was glowing. I loaded the gear on the trolley and walked to the river with the legend Jeff Surmon, it was cold with a frost on the grass. Jeff was on the next peg (blimey we draw next peg a lot) where last week on the Poppy fellow Gashead John Smith had a brilliant 38lb, I thought he would be hard to beat today.

The outfall peg has a large pipe that brings the treated effluent into the river from Saltford sewage treatment works, over the years it has produced big bags of bream as well as small fish. My plan today was around bream and chub, so a gbait feeder with 14 N50 to 0.15 Powerline, and a 5g bolo float with 16 to 0.13. I mixed up Sonubaits sweet skimmer and brown crumb for the feeder, I know fishmeal is used a lot here, but I thought it's going cold and give them something different. I started on the feeder with red maggots on the hook, I didn't chuck in any bait, just had casts of about 5 minutes each to build it steadily and see what was happening. No bites confirmed my suspicion of no small fish feeding, and so I was sure my approach was the right one. I was casting the feeder towards the tree in the picture, but not right up against it. After about 15 minutes the 28g feeder finally got dislodged on bite, I missed it, Next cast another bite and I landed a 10oz chub. About 25 mins in and I had 2 1/2lb skimmer which was a welcome sign. A couple more casts with no signs and I changed the hook bait to triple caster, this was a good move as a decent bite brought heavy resistance as a bream kited across the river in the flow, a nice 4lb+ fish. Next cast another bite, but I am sure it was a liner as the casters were not touched, and the very next cast a 5lb bream netted. Next cast another dropback but this time after a few turns a bream came off, bugger... I then had casts then without a bite and was thinking with the river being so clear I had spooked the shoal off already. Luckily the bream came back to me, and I had another 4 or 5 bream this time all on red maggots. 30lb in the net after 1hour 30 mins....

I was thinking this was going to be my chance to get a ton on the river, but that was a false dawn as I then went two hours without an indication! The float never produced a bite, but to be fair I never ran it down the peg lots as I just used it to rest the feeder. Andy Britt had been up for a walk and told me that other than me 5lb was best at Swineford and it was fishing terrible. I plugged away with the feeder and kept trying different baits, I had to switch to a heavier feeder due to the river getting faster and lots of leaves on the river which had been blown in by the cold Northerly wind. I actually lost two complete set ups today on a terrible snag just downstream, so a heavier feeder was important. I changed to a lobworm hookbait and out of the blue I had a bite and missed that, but next cast I had a really good bite, it was a 3lb chub. Next cast I had another bite but it was a bream again. No more bites on lobworm, so tried dendras, casters, maggots, and eventually had a 1 1/2lb perch on 3 maggots. I took another 2 chub about 2lb each on the feeder, but had nothing else in the last 30 minutes.

I wandered down to see Jeff who I thought may have had some bream (they may have dropped down to him), but he had really struggled with just the 1 perch, he asked me what I had and I said I thought I had 40lb. We had to wait for the scales to come down from the gas pipe, Ryan Couch had the pleasure of weighing us all in, but it was easier than normal as Swineford was rock hard, 8lb by Mat Challenger was best before I weighed in. My fish had 3 weighs, and totaled 44lb 10oz, so for once I was quite close with my estimation.

The results were back at the Crown pub in Keynsham, my partner Jerry had been chip shop sausage, with 17lb of roach either side, but his near 9lb of roach was 5th at the Crane, so we had 20 points together, but it wasn't enough to win. Ben was paying out two pairs overall so I was biting my finger nails...

Top Pair - Mat Challenger and Rob Manns with 23 out of 24 points. Great performance lads!

Second - myself and Jerry 20 points.

Third - Derek Coles and Dean Harvey also 20 points, but lost out on weight. I didn't gloat.

Great crack back in the pub, Dean picked up the section money by double default and he beat his mate Shaun Townsend off the next peg and took the 50p bet. Shaun said he ran his float through the peg hundreds of time to get his 1 chub, I said I reckon a Robin could have perched on his float it was above water so long.

I have drawn the outfall peg before over my many years of fishing the river, but  third was my best off it, so today was nice to get that result off the peg. All the fish were in really good condition too.

Here's the weigh sheets below, well done to Rob Manns and Rich Lacey who both had 17lb of roach at the Crane, but as you can see winter does seem to be having an affect on the fishing at present. Oh yes, Bitton Brook where I really wanted to draw, Steve Cox had 1 roach off it and the pegs below him either blanked or had 1 fish. Well for once I was glad my dream did not come true lol!

Bill Milton Memorial Poppy Appeal Open Match

 After an absence due to covid last year the Poppy Match was back, and for a change the river was going to be flowing nicely and not coloured, that meant all methods could be needed depending on the peg you drew, with Chequers, Jack Whites, Crane, Swineford, and Newbridge and the Trees pegged. However, before the match day I had an event on the Saturday, watching Bristol Rovers from the posh seats, in one of the executive boxes. There were 20 of there, including my wife and eldest daughter, as well as my regular football mates and wives, and Bill Foord who was 90. I was the only person getting up the next day to go fishing, but Paul Benson was helping run the Poppy Match so he would also have an early start. It was going to be a challenge for sure, first cider at midday, and last about 9pm I think.

Sunday morning, the alarm woke me up and I was feeling a little woozy, or maybe a lot woozy, lol. I was extra careful loading the van, and amazingly everything was loaded, I think I am getting the hang of this now. Just one problem, could not find the ticket for the match, my wife later found it when I was fishing! Got to the draw at Frys with about 15 mins to spare and ordered a sausage bap and a cup of tea. After catching up with Benz (who'd set his alarm one hour late lol) and many of the competitors it was time for the 2 minutes silence (very well observed) and then the draw, my thoughts were get 15 or 17 at Swineford. Well peg 15 went to the first angler to draw, Kev Dicks, and then I went and drew the Crane, the end peg just up from the cattle grid. Not a peg you can win from I thought, but if I can get among the roach, and may be a skimmer or chub then 15lb might get me in the frame, but then again what do I know!

The peg is under a tree, but I could cast a crowquill underam to the middle, and a feeder across to the far bank by the tree in the water. With a bit of water on this a good peg in close, but today I had to get to the middle to find the flow. Initially I had a gbait feeder set up with 0.17 to 14 N50, and the 14BB crowquill had 0.12 to 18 N20. I couldn't see anything else being used today, it wasn't a team match so just go for it. I had team mate and Scott Tackle owner Mat Challenger above me (on a peg that recently won a Com House round with bream) and just above the boys hole was Simon Alder, and then Steve Hutchinson, wasn't sure after that, but all good river anglers.

We started at 10am and I cast 6 feeder fulls of worm and caster in sonubaits sweet skimmer and lake. I did have one cast with three red maggots on to see if there was any quick response, but not a touch. Onto the crowquill, out went 8 balls of black roach, lake and river with some hemp and caster in and I fished double maggot to start. After 30 minutes on the float I had not had a bite, erm what s going on, try the feeder again and had 1 tiny tremble, and hour gone and blanking. Whilst on the feeder I changed the terminal tackle on the float to a 20 to 0.10, and after 90 minutes I tried the float again. Simon came down for a walk, he had a 1lb+ chub his only bite, and the rest of the guys were blanking! I then finally got a bite on the float but missed it, then I had a 2oz dace to save the blank. In the next 20 minutes I had another 3 dace, 1 roach, and an 8oz chublet, so about a pound, but that was the end of the bites on the float it seemed.

Back on the feeder and I had tried various hookbaits already but this time went out with 2 worms, I had a proper bite but didn't connect, it looked like a chub bite and the bait was gone, so I shortened the hook length. Out again with two worms, and quite quickly a proper bite which I connected with, whatever it was it was big, I tried to stop it from going into any snags and I was struggling to do that but didn't backwind, then the line bust, bugger. Gutted. A couple of casts later I had a 4oz perch but that was my lot. The float was tried again whilst I rested the feeder, but to no avail and I never had another bite on the float.

The gbait feeder I had used to keep my options open on the bream / chub front, but with Mat still blanking I felt the bream were not going to feed, so I switched to a blockend feeder filled with bronze maggots and put three on the hook. I think there was just over 2 hours left when I did this and I had some quick casts to get plenty of maggots in. About 1:15pm I had a big drop back, and with a few people watching I landed a chub of just over a 1lb. Around 15 minutes later another bite, a better fish this time at around 2 1/2lb to 3lb.  With 90 minutes still left of the match I was thinking another 5 or 6 chub could  get me to my target weight, but those thoughts were "pie in the sky", I never had another bite! I was mist surprised as to how hard the peg had fished, I was sure I was going to draw fish up the river, but it just didn't happen. As it turned out my 5 pegs were really poor, with Simon having the 1 chub for 1lb 6oz, the rest blanked, my fish went 6lb so I would at least get the £30 section money.

Back to the Frys club for the results and banter, and what I began to hear was quite unbelievable, that there had been a catch of 40+ bream from the trees, and as it turned out it was quite true. As you can see by the top 8 weights overall. Chris "Gappy" Parr (no longer gappy) had the day of his life catching bream for 4 hours. He told me that halfway through he walked down to the next peg to see his mate Tony Goodland, and asked him if he had a spare keepnet. Tony said why do you need one, Chris responded "I've got 24 bream already and why are you not fishing for them dopey!" Well Chris chucked the feeder out and found the bream were also in his peg, and caught 90lb in two hours! Derek Coles was a few pegs away from these guys and also had bream. Well done to those three, especially Chris on becoming Poppy Champion with a monster weight, might even be a river 5 hour record. How wrong was I in my thoughts of how the river would fish and what weight would be needed to frame. 

The top three bream baggers! All top blokes too so couldn't be happier for them.

Bream and chub made up the rest of the frame weights bar Paul Purchase who had 26lb of roach and two pike (which count) in his net. Paul was up in the long ashtip and this is where the roach were shoaled up as other anglers had them in this field. In fact the crane fished pretty well apart from where I was lol, Craig Fletcher was in the bay and had chub, and my team mate Kev Bennett on the high wall had 15lb of chub, including an absolutely huge chub that weighed 7lb 12oz! That he landed on 0.09 and a 20 hook!!!! Amazing.

This match truly was an outstanding event, with weights coming from all sections apart from Chequers which was dire again. Yes the fish have shoaled up, so it's a bit of feat or famine, but that's fishing and if you were lucky enough to draw on some fish then good luck to you. As ever Ray Bazeley, Paul Benson and Colin Ellaway ran the match superbly, and we had plenty of laughs thanks to Ray's patter. A lot of money was raised for the Poppy Appeal, I believe over £2,000 so that's the icing on the cake really. I feel honoured to have been part of this match over many years, and today was just another special match on what is a special river, well done to all who fished and helped out. I was well hapy when I got home and saw this, it was good to refuel up after a long day out. (That's orange squash in the glass by the way, lol)

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!

Angling Trust Winter League - Bristol Avon Bradford-on-Avon / Chippenham / Melksham - Round 3

 Another week passed by and I watched avidly the weather forecast, as the week went on it seemed heavy rain was coming our way. The Wye Champs got cancelled as they had lots of rain, but it wasn't until Saturday that we had a proper deluge here in Bristol. The Avon at Keynsham was a big mess by the afternoon, but it seemed the upper Avon was fairing OK. I awoke early Sunday morning (the extra hour helped) and immediately heard the heavy rain which had been going for a couple of hours. The drive to the draw at Melksham was a steady one as their were many huge puddles and I had to be very careful. The heavy rain persisted as we got to the draw at 8am when I was told I was off to Barton Farm. It was still hammering down until about 9am I think, and the river was already coloured and showing signs of rubbish coming down.

I set up a feeder rod with 14N40 to 0.15, a 5g flat float, 3g pole rig, and 2 bleak whips. I was well aware the river was going to get nasty and so did not want to fish that far out and lose the ability to fish there. I plumbed around with a 3g pole float and settled on 8m out. I ran the rig through and also dropped the lead in here and all seemed ok. As we got to 10:30 when the match started the river had already got a lot worse and my 3g rig didn't seem right anymore. I cupped 6 balls of gbait in at 8m to keep everything tight and went in with the flat float. I gave this about 10 mins but this was not working well, and flow was now disturbed and causing the float to move in and out an up and down. A bigger flat float may have helped but probably not for long. I cast a straight lead out over this line (no need for a feeder as plenty of grub in the gbait)  hoping to pick up some early roach. Sadly I had a mare with a snag for about 5 casts. A slightly different cast and with a worm and 2 maggots on I had a definite tremble, I left it to tremble some more and when I could resist no more I struck, it was an eel of about 10oz, saved the blank.

Next cast no bite and no snag, next cast another trembler resulted in an eel of almost the same size as the first. A couple more casts with no bites saw me changing to the feeder to get some more worms and casters in the peg. Well nothing showed itself other than more snags and I was cheesed off putting on new hooks, so I decided to try the whips for bleak, I guess this was just over an hour in. No bites at all from bleak. Back to the feeder which was more snags and no fish, and I was frustrated as I wanted to give this a good go but was being bad

ly hindered, I even tried fishing further out and whilst I did snag up a lot less I never had a sign. Trying my 4m whip into the flow I had no signs of bleak. Coming in shorter I finally caught a tiny bleak, at least  I think it was a bleak. I could now catch these small 3 or 4 to the ounce bleak, it wasn't one a bung but I was just happy to put something in the net. I kept on these for just over an hour I guess and then they vanished. To be fair the river was now boiling a lot and I am sure the bleak moved off somewhere off (found after that Mark Treasure above me in A section started to catch bleak in the last half of the match and it just got better for him).

The last couple of hours for me were poor and whilst I did have looks for the bleak it was never long as they did not come back. In fact I had my third bite on the feeder 5 minutes before the end when I had a 4oz roach out of the blue. I had no idea what had been caught in my section, but didn't think my 2 1/2lb estimate would be very good. I packed up and dropped down to the last peg in the section as I had the weighing in board. The last peg in the section had a massive slack, and the angler on there Kev Morris won our section with 4lb 2oz of small roach on a 4m whip. I weighed in 2lb 12oz for 3 points out of 6.  My board below, Paul below me had the same trouble as me, snagging up mostly.

I was of course disappointed with that result, and I think I made a mistake of actually fishing to close in, and maybe 11m would have been less snaggy. However, chatting to many locals they all said it wasn't a great peg in the conditions. Very few bleak were caught in my section, more upstream, and the section below was even worse. The river we were fishing at the end was rancid and full of weed and not much fun for most. There were of course a few anglers who had some fish in front of them and did the business...

Kev Rowles was the winner today with 15lb of mainly roach and a few big perch all caught close in on the pole on his peg at the top end of Barton Farm. 

Derek Jarman was 2nd from a peg in Chippenham Park, he had 3 bream for 10lb 13oz

Mark Brush was 3rd with 10lb 2oz of bleak from end peg at Scotland Road.

On the team front DGL won the day with 35 points, my Thatchers came second with 31 (that's the same place every match so far), and Devises were third with 30 points.

Overall Thatchers have 6 points and DGL are second with 9 points. Three rounds to go and all still to play for. The 4th round is back up here next Sunday, except Barton Farm shouldn't be in this time. The current weather forecast is for no rain this week, and so hopefully a much better river for all to fish... fingers crossed!

Some pics from last week that I couldn't upload before are below...

My bag

The pegging clowns Shaun and Dean

Crayfish caught by Kev Boltz,  bad sign

Commercial House Round 5 - Bristol Avon Swineford, Crane & Chequers

After a weekend off fishing I was waiting to hear from the team Captain as to what I would be fishing, either the Bristol Avon at Chippenham / Melksham or down by me at Keynsham. I was happy to fish either venue but was asked to fish the lower Avon on the Commercial House. As the team was down to peg the match I offered to do that, and had the help of Bristol's finest chippy Dean Harvey. What Dean can do with a good piece of wood is just amazing, at least that what he told me.

Friday and the wife and I decided the alcohol free October had been fun but it was time to crack open a bottle of vino. Call me weak, but I had resisted for a long time and did enjoy a nice Malbec. I was up fine and dandy Saturday to meet Dean at Swineford as we began the pegging out, A1 was the outfall and we new Swineford would be tricky as there are not enough pegs to leave out the shitters, but we did our best. We chatted far too much and also had a few calls, enough to put us off the peg numbers we put in, but luckily we avoided a few cock ups LOL. We got to the Crane and met up with Shaun Townsend, now 3 anglers with their own ideas on what to peg is fun, but we seem to sort it out and even managed to walk Shaun's dogs. Chequers was pegged by venue expert Dean, so he can take the blame for that dross lol. I'll say this now, I've pegged lots of matches out, but without a doubt I had the biggest laugh today with these two clowns lol.

Sunday morning, I am determined to get to the draw with time to get a breakfast without rushing, and I was there 20 minutes before the 8am draw yay. However, the pub was not open, due to a lack of communication by the organisation by the Britt / Goodhind family. A later match start was agreed allowing anglers to get at least a McDonalds. I did the draw again and thought I got a fair set of pegs, I was going to Chequers, one off the end peg on the straight, a chance of bream I hoped but unlikely to best the end peg.

Unfortunately my laptop / phone will not communicate today so I cannot upload any photos, a shame as I had a few pics today, maybe I can add them later this week.

My peg has a willow tree growing out into the water and prevents you running a float in the peg (though a pole would be OK) but with the river heavily coloured and pacey I wasn't worried about that. All I set up today was a gbait feeder with 0.17 to 12 N50 and a 3g pole rig but that was no good. At 10:30 I under armed my feeder out about 13m to the edge of the tree and began with 4 red maggots on the hook. I didn't ball it and just had some very regular casts. I had a couple of small perch quite quickly and then not a lot, so I changed up to a lobworm tail and had another perch but then missed a couple of bites. I thought a dendra with maggots would be easier for the perch to snaffle and indeed I had one quite quickly. About 40 minutes in I had a proper bite and this was met with more resistance and I netted a nice skimmer of about 2lb+, next cast and within 20 seconds a similar bite and a 1.5lb skimmer, next cast same result another skimmer, wow! The next cast resulted in no bite and things went decidedly quiet after those three quick skimmers.

I had a visit from some wanderers, Dave Tippet and Darren Gillman, they told me not much was caught , but below me Andy Britt on the end peg had 3 bream for 12lb. Above me Jerry Pocock (who had moaned like a bitch about his peg) was struggling to hit bites from dace and roach on the feeder. As the match progressed it was strange that I was getting no bites from dace / roach whereas Jerry was. I kept altering the hook baits from maggots to worms etc, but all I was now able to catch was the odd perch, and one tiny eel. The bites began to tail off and my pole line had yielded nothing, so I was drifting off the pace and not feeling good vibes that some bream might show up, then Andy told me had another bream.

Jerry came off the feeder and tried running a bolo float through and he started to get bites on this, his peg was shallower than mine and flowing more than mine, as I had slack to 12m, so it seemed roach and dace were happy in his shallower water. With about 90 minutes left to go and the peg quiet I decided to throw in 5 balls of gbait laced with worms, casters and dead reds, shit or bust I guess. It didn't give me any immediate response if I am honest. It was about now that a guy on a boat opposite decided it was a good idea to go for a swim... twat. He jumped in and despite his best efforts he could not swim against the current, and was soon complaining of cramping up. Luckily for him he managed to get back to the boat and out of the cold water. I found out that Andy Britt had a dog go in his peg, it couldn't get out and the owner stripped off and jumped in to get the dog out and Andy helped the bloke get out. What a palaver!

In the last hour I had a couple more perch and then a decent eel of over a pound, finally 10 minutes before the end of the match I had a 6oz roach, my first of the day.

I didn't know how my section had fished, I knew I was well beaten by Andy who was admitting to 21lb, but was hoping I could be second to him in the section. The scales started up at peg 1 and when I caught up with them only 3lb+ was best, that was until Jerry weighed 5lb 6oz. My turn next and my fish went 11lb 3oz which I was happy with, 1 roach, 2 eels, 14 perch and 3 skimmers. Andy then weighed 23lb 3oz to win the section and be the top weight at Chequers overall. However, with Andy likely to frame I was going to pick up the section money, nice :-)

The pub was if course open and happy to us after the match, so the results were done with a few beers and some grub. I thought Andy would have won the match but as it turned out he didn't..

1st Andy Pritchard 29lb 6oz bream and skimmers from just below the boys hole at the crane.

2nd Andy Britt 23lb 3oz

3rd Andy Ritchings 22lb 9oz bream at Swineford first field

4th Derek Coles 21lb 2oz bream end peg Swineford.

5th Dean Harvey 20lb 15oz bream upstream end peg chequers (first out the money bad luck)

6th Mike Shellard 18lb 15oz chub on feeder from peg 17 at Swineford.

As you can see all the sections of the river managed to get into the top 6 today, good pegging out I guess lol. There were some roach caught too, up to 10lbs of them, so not bad given the conditions I think.

Bathampton won A div today with 13 points, my Thatchers team were 2nd with 12 points. Overall with one match left Thatchers are winning the A div by 8.5 points which should really be a big enough gap to win it I hope.

B div was won by Bathampton B and they lead the B div by 11 points and are going to win that unless they all get bolloxed and don't turned up.

It is the final round next week, on the K&A canal, but I won't be there as my services have been called upon by the team for the ATWL up at Chippenham which I look forward too.

Commercial House Round 4 Bristol Avon Newbridge

 I think I mentioned last time that I was not having any alcohol during this month, I forgot to mention there are two exceptions to this; a pre booked gin festival and a family birthday celebration. The gin festival was yesterday and it was a lot of fun and my wife and I were really glad we went, I was back home by 6:30pm and no more liquor touched my lips.

I was looking forward to fishing Newbridge as the river level had held up well after the rain and I hoped it would be a decent match. Last week it fished well, but that was the first wash through for ages and it seemed to stir the fish into feeding. After the last CH round where I drew for the team and we came last I was not planning on drawing again, running a tad late I called Towner to order me a brekky so it would be ready as I got there, cheers Shaun. As I sat eating my food Ben Matthews wandered up and asked if I wanted to go into the £5 super pool, I did and was glad he asked as I would have forgot. Then it was the draw and when Thatchers were called up to draw nobody was in the pub, so I had to go an pull the peg again, yikes! I was hoping for a draw in A,B, or C (pegs 3 to 52) but I found myself in D section below Newton St Loe bridge somewhere. I ran outside, gave my team mates some Sonubait black river and black roach, and told them the pegs they were on. Off we went.

It is a bit of a walk to from the rugby car park to my peg, but straight forward and pretty flat so no problem. I couldn't see my permanent peg number, but reckon it was about 77. I was happy, but thought the two pegs above me would be hard to beat, as would the peg on the stream. The river was flowing nicely and had a nice colour, looked like it should fish I and many others thought.

I mixed up two lots of gbait, the aforementioned roach mix for the pole, and some thatchers and F1 dark for the feeder. It is a nice peg to fish as you can get your box in the water and the bottom is flat and hard. I set up a crowquill, a gbait feeder with 14 N30 to 0.13 powerline, and three pole rigs; 1.5g 20 N10 to 0.10, 2g 18 N20 to 0.12, and a 4g flat float with 16 N20 to 0.13. I didn't set up a waggler as the wind was upstream and in my face and the river was covered in leaves.

I was a couple of minutes late start and heard Nicky Johns and Leigh Wakefields gbait go in on the pegs above me (Leigh on upstream end peg). I put 10 balls in with some caster, hemp and pinkie, and went straight over it with the 2g rig with caster on the hook. I was pleased to get a bite and 2oz roach first drop in, and had 4 or 5 more before no more bites, this rig was not getting many bites on maggot so I switched to the lighter rig. It made a big difference with bites every run through on maggot from roach, perch and chublets, all fish were swung in (bar one perch about 6oz) so size was not amazing. Of course this soon slowed right down, but a change to fishing pinkie got me some more fish and I had manage to eek fish out for nearly 2 hours before it was dead. I hadn't fed a feeder line yet as I was hoping the pole line would be the best bet for skimmers and bream too, but I now felt I needed to. I put in 6 feeders of bait, then fed 3 balls of on the pole line, and finally tied and attached the 14 N30 0.13 hook length. I then cast out the feeder with 3 red maggots on the hook and settled in and just made sure everything was to hand for fishing the feeder. It couldn't have been in a minute when I noticed the tip jagging quite severely, I struck expecting an early chublet but instead felt a couple of big thumps. Not expecting to hook a bream first chuck I think my heart rate soared as the shock kicked in lol. It felt a good fish and gave a good account of itself, I was glad when it was in the landing net and I thought that must be nearly 6lb, happy days!

I would like to now write and say how I caught more bream and won the match, but I cannot, that was the only bream I saw today, not even a skimmer. I had a few roach and a couple of chublets on the feeder, and just two more perch on the pole line. I did give nearly all the last 2 hours fishing for bream, but when the leaves cleared I cast the crowquill set at 6 feet deep across the river and could catch bleak on this, a waggler would have been better of course, but I had a few fish here resting the feeder.

The match ended at 3:15pm and it had fished a bit harder than expected it seemed, just wished I could have managed one more bream. It turned out that Leigh Wakefield had made the most of his peg and had 7 skimmers and 2 bream for 20lb 8oz, I ended up second in the whole section with 12lb 10oz, but won the A Div. My board here..

Nicky above me had a lot of fish for his 8lb, all on crowquill and waggler, Steve Skelton below me struggled for some early roach and not much else. The bream came in handy for the section, as without it I would not have beat Nicky.

Back at the Crown Pub results and as the lads came back it seemed we had all done really well today, and I added up we had 16 1/2 points out of 18, and would definitely win the day and extend our lead in the A div. Here is the team sheet..

Not bad weights there really.

Our team did indeed win the day and in B div Sensas Nomads won,

Individuals today

1st Andy Ritchings 26lb 9oz (bream, he won here last week too!)

2nd Leigh Wakefield 20lb 8oz

3rd Rob Jones 16lb 7oz (peg 107 had 2 late bream on the pole plus roach)

4th Rob Manns 13lb 2oz (roach, chublets and perch by pumphouse)

5th Tim Ford 12lb 10oz

6th Andy Britt 9lb 14oz

As you can see I came 5th, they pay the top 4, one out of the frame again so I got £30 for the section... or so I thought. Ben Matthews wandered up to me to advise me about the superpool 2nd, 3rd and 4th anglers didn't go in it, so I got the 2nd money an extra £55, yay! We had some laughs in the pub today, mainly at the expense of others of course lol.

Back home and writing the blog and enjoying a beer, don't worry it's alcohol free ;-) No fishing next weekend for me, need to sort the garden out amongst other things.

Angling Trust Winter League Round 1 - River Thames Grafton / Radcot

 This time last week I was planning for my week away in Edinburgh and had booked to fish a Windmill Fishery open match. My time away in Edinburgh with my wife was absolutely brilliant, lots of history, good tours and rides around and plenty of walking. The pubs were plentiful and all good and I got to try some great Single Malt Whiskies.

Not more than 30 minutes of stepping off the plane in Bristol Airport Friday evening I had a call from Martin Barrett. One of the team due to fish the winter league on Sunday had taken ill and Martin wanted me to stand in. It meant a number of changes to plans but I was happy to stand in and step up for the team. I had no bait ordered but that was sorted by me having the other lads bait, and I spent quite a while Saturday making rigs and tying more hook lengths! I did waste a few hours going to watch the Gas and that was just pants...

Sunday morning up at 5:15 to get ready for 6:15 when Shaun Townsend was coming to pick me up. A bit of a shock to the system after a week of lie ins lol, but as I am having a "dry October" (no alcohol) I was bright as a button. We had a steady run up and had to make a little detour to get to the McDonalds in Shrivenham where we found team mates Lee Trivett and Andy Ottaway, the Bristol Massive. Got to Ye Olde Swan at Radcot and quickly got my bait from Martin and paid my pools and shivered as the morning was cold. The river was flowing and had some colour after the recent rain but well fishable on a float. Team draw done and I was going to upstream of Grafton Lock (Shaun was downstream) a part I have never fished before.

It was a healthy walk to the peg and after a week of walking it was nay bother for me. I was on B2 and that meant I had an end peg to compete with, Andy Jane was on that. My peg did look nice with a tree opposite and another some way down the peg.

I set up a lot of gear for a change, simply as I know on this river you need to be prepared to chop and change, so I had whips for bleak, 1g, 1.5g and 2g pole rigs, as well as a 4g flat float, a waggler and blockend feeder. My neighbours also seemed to set up a lot of gear, though Troy Weaver below me had nearly twice as much as me lol, Steve Long was on B1, but I couldn't see him as he was a long way above. We started at 11am and I was ready for once, I cupped in 4 balls of gbait (Sonubaits Black Roach and River) at 11m and picked up the 1gm rig. I ran the rig through 6 times and it never went under and so with no resident fish feeding I went out on the feeder casting across towards the tree. I put worm and caster in the feeder and had a lobworm tail impailed on a the size 12. Not long after casting out a boat came down, and I had to dip the rod under the water, bringing it back up I felt a bite but missed it. Cast out again, and no boat but another bite and was pleased to net a 6oz chublet. A couple of casts later and a 4oz perch, then a 6oz perch before all went quiet. I had one more bite and landed my best fish, a perch of 10 to 12oz.

An hour had gone and I picked up the pole to try to catch some small fish, I tried the 1.5g rig in the 7-8ft deep swim. It was awkward as it was shallow out to about 7m and then the river got deeper steadily, but as you went downstream the river got shallower! It was a tricky peg to fish and I needed to get good control over the float, but that was not easy in the very strong winds. This pole line was hard, and I only got the odd bite on this, I did get a 4oz roach, a few tiny roach and gudgeon, one reasonable dace and a few tiny ones. Trying different rigs, and different feeding didn't really do me any good and the pole line just died. I flogged the waggler for 20 mins and had 1 bleak and thought that this was not going to work so binned it.

First cast back out on the worm feeder and I missed a bite, next cast and I had the culprit a 3oz chublet. I missed another bite which I was a bit gutted about as the worm was properly shredded, and that was the last bite I had on the tip. In fact in the last 90 minutes I only had 1 tiny gudgeon and I fished for a bonus for a fair amount of time with no success. Match over, and I thought I had about 2 1/2 to 3lb at best and wasn't expecting many points for the team. However, I soon realised that my section had fished poor and even allowing for anglers under estimating things sounded better than I thought. Steve Long above struggled for just 5oz, I then had 3lb 1.5oz, which was enough to beat Troy below me who had 2lb 8oz. I ended up 2nd in the section getting beaten by Stuart Harrop on peg 5 who had a decent chub of near 3lb and some perch for 5lb 10oz.

My paltry net, with half the fish hidden lol.

Back to the results and my team had done well, all bar Shaun who had a terrible peg on a corner with no room when some anglers had 100 yds...

Teams

1st Blackmore Vale 35 points

2nd Thatchers 34 points

3rd Matrix 27 points

4th DGL 26 points

Winner on the day was Ian Sheppard with a brilliant 18lb of dace and roach from Radcot

2nd Rob Randall 12lb 

3rd Kev Bennett 10lb 2oz

This match is always tricky as the river is very peggy here, and it was a relief to get off to a decent start as a team. Next week I am fishing the Commercial House at Newbridge, there was an open there today and it fished well with a 70lb and 50lb of bream.

Commercial House Round 3 Huntspill

 Originally this match was supposed to be on the KSD, but that venue was completely covered in weed, I saw a photo of it in the week and new instantly it was unfishable as you can see.

The match being transferred to the Huntspill meant some changes in approach, though my approach was based upon my own thoughts from historical matches as the Spill hasn't been match fished for 2 years. Luckily Paul Purchase and his mates set about cutting the grass and cutting out pegs and dragging out weed to make 42 fishable pegs, great effort and made it a match for all, well done chaps.

Onto the morning of the match and the draw was at the 37 club, breakfast and pools paid and then I was asked to do the team draw. Well not sure that's a good idea but I did manage to get 2 end pegs, one for Paul Isaacs and one for Mat Challenger, I was in F section, peg 2 up by the A38 Bristol Bridge. F7 was the end peg and Nick Coles was on that one and would be hard to beat. My peg was the same as most I guess but I had some weed going out to 12m which might be handy for catching some fish next to I thought as the water very clear. 

As you can see by the photo it was bright and sunny whilst setting up, I was in my T shirt at 8:30 and stayed in it all day long, amazing really for end of September. Didn't really want the bright sunshine today but it's the same for everyone. I set up a groundbait feeder today with 0.13 to 16 N30, a 3AAA waggler with 0.10 to 20 N10, a 6m whip with a waggler on with 20 N20 to 0.10 and a 0.4g pole float with a strung out rig with 20 to 0.09. 

I began the match on the gbait feeder using F1 dark and Thatchers original in the feeder, but I cupped in some balls of black roach and lake gbait at 13m by the weed, and threw the odd small ball out in front for the whip. The feeder line produced bites but only from small roach / rudd, and putting on worms gave me no bites, back on maggot and small fish bites. No bream about here yet and with lots of small fish bites I went onto the whip after 55 minutes, 5 rudd in 5 drops and I thought this could be good, but not another bite on the whip! Onto the waggler where I had been feeding casters and a bit of hemp, not a bite at all. It was on to the 13m pole line by the weed and thankfully there were plenty of small rudd here grabbing the single maggot on the drop. I had bites most casts for an hour and hadn't fed another thing other than the initial 4 balls on this line, then things slowed up so I put another ball in and caught a few more. I then had to rest it and went back on the waggler and had 2 rudd in 2 casts, these were the only two bites I had on the waggler all match!

I started to cup a small ball of gbait over the 13m line and also cupped in some loose gbait to try to keep the rudd in the swim. But listening to Shane on my right and Dean Harvey on my left they were really struggling to get 3 or 4 fish then wait a long time. I was happy enough how I was going, and getting the odd roach, but then it went and stopped dead with 2 hours to go. There was no signs of fish anywhere now and I couldn't get a bite. The wind had blown left to right and then right to left, and the weed I was fishing next to moved in the wind. I changed to 11m as the weed was closer and throwing small balls of gbait over the weed had a little run of fish again before it died, and then the wind turned again blowing the weed out again! Never had another bite here after this and the last hour was drifting away. I had tried the feeder on and off during the match but had not had a bite since the first hour here. But I noticed an odd small fish topping on the other side of the river now, so changed to a smaller feeder with natural gbait and "whooshed" it over to the far bank. I had a few weed problems but did catch 3 roach and a rudd here in the last 30 minutes so better than nothing.

The match was over at 15:30 and I thought I had maybe 5lb, nobody in my section had caught a skimmer or bream, so it was all small fish catches. Shane on peg 1 had 2lb 12oz, then I had 5lb 11oz, Dean had 2lb 10oz and then Sean Partridge had 6lb 2oz (all on the feeder), there was no more weights more than mine until the end peg and Nick Coles had 6lb 10oz. He told me had caught small roach for the first 90 minutes, then again in the last 50 minutes. Undoubtedly without the weed I would have struggled today, as my approach was quite positive on my other lines, but I did enjoy a couple of hours getting regular bites. Walking back Dean Harvey's trolley tipped over, then Nick Lewis did the same lol.

C section at Puriton fished very well as you can see from the board, Paul Purchase was next to the bridge, and basically the weights got lower as you went away from the bridge. Paul caught best on a bomb over caster feed 20m out, hell of a weight. 

1st Paul Purchase 101lb

2nd Richard Lacey 86lb

3rd Andy Pritchard 56lb

4th Derek Coles 31lb

5th Gary Webber 27lb

6 Paul Isaacs 10lb 14oz (all roach and rudd)

My team were last in A div after a few poor results (like Gary Webber last in section lol), but we were only beaten by 1 point by Bathampton and 2 points by M&N Electrical, so we still are wining the league by 4 points. B Div is being won by Bathampton B by 8 points.

Had a good few laughs back at the results, can't say to much but I was crying with laughter before I had to go, you can't beat a good get together.

I think I am fishing a match at Windmill lakes next Sunday, then it will be back on the rivers.