Lower Avon Teams of Four - Round 4

 Back to the lower Avon this weekend and my first match at Newbridge this season. Last weekend the river fished really well with 80lb of bream winning but lots of good weights, the extra colour and rain made a difference. However, this time the river was going to be clearer and slower as all the rain had gone through. Not many bream probably I thought. Prep was very minimal, not very much 😂. Saturday was spent travelling to Derby to watch the Gas get battered 4-2, but it was a fun day out despite lots of train issues coming home, I was home by 9pm and in bed by 10pm. 

It was nice having the extra hour in bed today, and I probably needed that, and I got to the draw in good time. My Thatchers team was the same as the first 3 rounds; myself, Mark Harper, Rob Manns and Shaun Townsend, and we had a small lead in the league. Shaun drew for us, and it looked to me like a set poor pegs for us, I was on the end of the straight about peg 40 not an amazing area, better with water on and colour usually. I drove to the river and started to get the gear on the trolley, then I heard Shaun shout out anyone got a spare keepnet and landing net.. lol. Derek Coles bailed him out.

Got to my peg and as I rightly recalled I was sat high up off the water, not that it really worries me as I’m used to it. 

I could see nearly 3 feet down, and I was sure this was not gonna be a day for bream, but I still set up the obligatory feeder rod as you just never know. The only other thing I set up was a pole,, 3 gm flat float, 2gm with 0.11 to 18 N20, and 1.5g pencil float with 20 to 0.10 accupower. No running line as there was an awful wind which would mess things up. Pole and feeder it was then.

We started at 10:30, I put a few feeder fulls across the river and put 8 balls of Sonubaits black river and black roach in at 11m. Picking up the 2g rig and fishing caster on the hook I had 6 roach up to 6oz then no more bites. Onto the pencil rig, no bites on the caster so on to maggot and straight back into roach. After 20 minutes the bites virtually stopped and I was thinking surely this is not the end of the roach. After another 10 minutes bite’s suddenly came back and I continued to catch small roach for the first 90 minutes. Lee Gregory below me said he was struggling, as was Dean Harvey and Clive Feddery on the pegs below. Talking of Dean, he’s had his gnashers fixed and has a wonderful smile now!

Back to the match and my peg was now really slow and I cupped in a ball gbait, it had a very positive effect and bites resumed, it’s always a relief when this happens. About 20 minutes later I topped up again, and caught again, but on the third time it was not as good and I was now thinking the pole line might be ending. A pike then bit me off and I chucked the feeder while I put another hook on. A perch grabbed the worm, another cast and no bite so back to the pole.

I’d been loose feeding hemp, but added casters in to this, and doing this and topping up with the odd ball of gbait I kept getting runs of fish, mainly roach and odd perch. Most of the fish I caught I swung in, but I did get a nice 12oz roach which looked in perfect condition. I was told I was doing well in the section, but then Lee had a bream, skimmer and chub on the pole in quick succession! With about 40 minutes to go bites became hard to get, and all of the little changes made no difference. Part of me wanted to go on the feeder, but hardly any had been caught it seemed. I tried different pole rigs and baits without success, then in the last 25 minutes I probably had another 12oz of small fish.

I reckoned on having 12lb, Lee couldn’t decide what he had but I think at one stage said 8lb lol. Paul Purchase on peg 1 was admitting to 7 to 9lb, and nobody else much more, but what would the scales say! Well I ended with 13lb 4oz which was enough to win the sections. Lee had 11lb 13oz, Paul 11lb 10oz and Mat Challenger 8lb. I’ve got to say that I really enjoyed the day, it was a busy match but one that I had to keep working at, quite honestly I was surprised to keep the fish going on the pole virtually all match.

As it turned out the river fished really well and roach fed well at Newbridge with the odd skimmer and just a couple of bream. Ben Matthews was top weight at Newbridge with 16lb from peg 61, Mike Shellard had nearly 15lb from peg 24. However, this was nothing compared to the section in the trees where Andy Ritchings once again was on the bream… he had 131lb, next peg Lee Warden had 95lb, then Rob Jones 28lb and Rob Manns 26lb (he got the section money lol)

Bathampton did the business and not only won the day but now lead the league by 1 point from my lot. Two rounds to go, one in December and another in January.

Another enjoyable day, I’ve had a lovely run these last couple of months, is it to much to ask to land on a shoal of slabs 😂.

Upper Thames ATWL Round 3 Bristol Avon

 After my decent performance last week I was picked to fish again this week, so back on the Avon at Melksham and Chippenham. I really didn’t need to do any preparation as everything was intact, though I did put some heavier rigs in as there was a lot of rain forecast. Well I was awoken at 5am by very heavy rain that just didn’t seem to stop, and the drive to Melksham was horrendous. Huge puddles, pitch black, driving rain as well as thunderstorms… I was glad when I arrived.

Andy Ottaway was entrusted to draw for the team today and not draw the same peg as last week! He managed to draw a different peg, and I was going to Chippenham this time, Riverside Drive. I was told my peg came second in the section last week with 4lb, and that I should focus on waggler for chublets and chub. The only thing I needed was to wade out a long way to be able to fish it.

I got to the peg with a pair of chest waders lent to me by Martin Barrett, and got advice from both Lee Trivett and Otter, basically telling me where to fish from lol. I assembled my platform and walked it out next to some weed, here I could fish without being troubled by the overhanging trees.

I set up a 4BB waggler with 0.13 powerline to a 16, a 3 no 4 stick float with 0.11 to 18, a blockend feeder and a bleak whip.

The river was picking up colour and pace but was still looking good when the match started at 11. I began on the waggler feeding maggots with double maggot on the hook. After a couple of minnows I had my first small chublet which I was able to swing in. I carried on getting bites fishing about 18” deep, the whole peg was only about 3 feet deep max. I had a nice steady first hour catching small chublets and roach, but no signs of any chub as yet. Derek Jarman below me didn’t seem to be bagging but Dan McDonald above me latched into a couple of chub on the pole, he could reach a big bush with 14m of pole. I then had a disaster losing my waggler in a bramble across, I tried the stick float and had a few nice roach, then it tangled! I was forced to walk back to the bank and set up again.

Maybe you can see the colour in the water in this picture, I had to cast the waggler tight to the bank to get bites.

At 12:40 on the waggler I connected with my first chub, it gave a good account of itself in the flow and was about 1 1/2lb. Over the next 20 minutes I landed 5 more chub mostly around the pound mark. They disappeared after this for a while and I switched between stick and waggler to tick over. But then Dan went into overdrive catching 3 bream and another chub. If I was going to beat Dan I would need more chub, so I focused on the waggler and upped the feed. I did catch more chub, biggest maybe 2lb, they would come in bursts, but not the lumps I needed to catch Dan.

About an hour to go the river ran faster than it had all day and with more rubbish coming down the river it was not going well. I had a couple of casts on the feeder but no bites, and then the river slowed up a bit again. Back out on the waggler and probably had another 3 chub in the last 30 mins. I’d had a really enjoyable match, I hoped I might have 20lb, but when I dragged my gear and net back to the bank I liked at my fish with Dan and thought maybe 17lb. Dan had at least 25lb he thought.

I had the scales and weighed from peg 6 up, Derek was best with 8lb 2oz up to me. My fish went exactly 23lb so I was way off my estimate! Dans bag went just over 30lb a lovely river bag of fish for him. My net of fish was my best for some time.

Back at the results our team had fared better and we came second behind DGL, we are now on 10 points, 2 behind GBV and 6 behind DGL.

Winner on the day was Michael Lichota with 33lb from the same peg at Chippenham that won the last two matches, more chub on the waggler. Dan was second and I was third and last in the frame, so happy days 😃

Team sheet below shows how we all fared, next week I’m at Newbridge on the teams of 4, could do with some bream.

Upper Thames ATWL - Round 2 Bristol Avon

 After catching a few fish on the lower Avon I got picked to fish round 2 of this league, it was on the Avon at Melksham and Chippenham. I spent Friday evening getting the prep done and was ready for Sunday. I did the prep Friday as I was off to Cheltenham Saturday to watch the Gas, and glad I went as I saw a great win! May have had a few beers too, but I was fine when I woke up 6:15 on Sunday.

I grabbed a McDonalds in Longwell Green and then drove to the draw at Spencers club Melksham. Met up with the rest of the team and paid my pool, and waited for Martin “bad news” Barrett to draw for the team. I’m no expert on this part of the river and so needed the lads to put me right on the draw. However, it was quite easy as I was given a peg that Liam Braddel had fished last week and had nearly 9lb of roach. General consensus was that we had a lot of poor draws and there were a few concerned faces.

I was at Portman Road and had a short drive to get to where I needed to park. It wasn’t too long a walk, but quite hard going. I was on peg 2, and peg 1 had Mark Kimber on it, upstream end peg and would be hard to beat. My peg as warned was very difficult to get into and fish, very steep bank, trees overhead, and a branch stuck out to my left. It was very awkward and every step I took was a careful one. In the end I got my platform in a stable place but was sat about 6 feet off the water.

There was a lovely looking tree opposite me, but the only way I could fish it was with a pole, a waggler would be better but I couldn’t strike in this peg.

I put 4 pole rigs up, 1g and 1.5g for fishing at 13m, a 1g for chopped worm by the tree and a 4 x 14 for fishing shallow. We fished 11 to 4 and I was ready in plenty of time. I kept everything as close to me as I could as I didn’t want to have to get off my box. I cupped a ball of gbait in at 6m and 3 at 13m, started at 6m and had a roach and tiny dace and that was it, so I was soon shipping out to 13m. It was better here, and I had a steady run of roach from 1oz to 4oz, plus the odd little chublet. I had a nice first hour but then it slowed and I topped up with some gbait. This kept the fish coming and I was catching as well as Mark it seemed. Topping up became a bit more regular to keep the fish coming.

Just as the second hour passed my 13m line died and I was surprised as I had expected it to slow up but not be biteless! Nothing I could do would bring back bites, meanwhile Mark carried on catching. I tried my worm line across but never had a bite, and despite numerous attempts I never managed a single bite on worm. Annoying as at least 1 perch was in the peg chasing small fish on the surface. The last two hours went past slowly, I caught a few blips shallow and probably 6 roach, and knew I had been bashed up by Mark.

My section board below shows I came third in the section, Mark had all roach and 1 perch caught on maggot over gbait, Mick Gale had 3 chub plus roach. I was ok with my 7lb and had enjoyed the experience.

Back at the results and it was clear the team had struggled, and we ended up 4th on the day and are off the pace with DGL in front with 3 points. I had a surprise getting 2nd in section money by default as Mark came 3rd overall and framed.  Apparently the same peg at Chippenham that won last week won again today, Ricky Searle with I think 26lb of chub.

Back up here next week and we will need a better draw and performance to claw back some points.

Lower Avon Teams of Four

 Back at it again after a weekend off, but a fair bit has gone on since then. I went to Benidorm with my wife for four days, we went to celebrate Simon Alders 50th birthday. I’ve known Simon since the Silver Dace juniors and although he doesn’t match fish he still loves fishing. I think there were around 16 of us all told including Shaun Townsend who  could drink for England! In the picture are the anglers in the Dorm, Tyler (Simon’s son), Towner, Simon and I’m the slim one on the right 😂.

We got back Monday and all was good, until later that evening when I started coughing. I went downhill every day and ended up in bed a lot of the time, must have been flu as I tested negative twice for covid. I still wasn’t right when I woke up Sunday morning, and had to take sinutabs to clear my head and chest. I was the last to the draw and nothing to do with alcohol! Only 5 teams of 4 as only Jack whites and Chequers were booked, and I was headed for Jack Whites for a change. 

It takes a while to get to your pegs because of the damn kissing gates making you have to unload your trolley and load it again. I was on C4 which is the new peg cut out this year, not for the faint hearted mind. A steep bank with reeds at the bottom where I put my platform in.

The bank is far too steep to allow the use of a pole, so I set up a 12BB crowquill with 18 to 0.11 accupower, a waggler and a feeder rod. I very carefully got everything down the bank and mixed up my gbait Sonubaits black river and roach. I was just forming my initial balls of gbait when the all in was shouted. Both Rob Jones below, and Derek Coles above, balled it in just before I did. That’s three matches on the trot Derek has been next peg to me!

I began on the crowquill with a caster on the hook and it was a good start seeing regular bites but they were annoyingly hard to hit. I swung in a few roach and dace and 1 perch before the caster was ignored. Maggot on the hook revived things but the roach were virtually non existent and this wasn’t a good sign. Catching Dace on a crowquill is challenging as sometimes you pull your hair out missing bites, but it pays to change things around and keep working at it. I found out my section was fishing hard and so I knew that I should keep plodding away. The wind was doing its best to ruin things and trying to get control was at times impossible for more than a few seconds, but at least it wasn’t in my face.

With 2 hours to go the swim was really hard work and I was priming a waggler line down and across with maggots. You can’t really fish that far across as there is a massive snag 2/3 over, you can see it from the top of the bank. Rob had taken a small chub and was probably in front of me with 90 mins left. I looked for a chub on the waggler but only had 1 bleak. I did manage to catch a handful more roach and dace on the crow, even though a small pike grabbed 2 I got them both out. A couple came from fishing it over the waggler line, with my best fish a 5 to 6 ounce dace.

Match over Rob told me he had caught next to nothing the last 90 minutes, and it was sounding closer than I thought. On the end peg Dean Harvey had 1lb 6oz, next Ben Matthews 2lb 12oz, Rob had 5lb 15oz, then my bag went 6lb 9oz, and Derek had 3lb. Finally a proper section win after two defaults lol. This section was the hardest on the day, but above us the top 3 pegs by the steps all had double figures.

Picture below shows the overall top 2 and the section winners. Paul Purchase returned from Australia to draw the end peg at Chequers and do what he does and bagged up on roach, nice one.

It was a bit tight on the team front with 4 teams all joint on 13 points! As my team were one of them it means we retain the lead at The halfway mark. Next match is 30th October.