Jerry Pocock Xmas Match - Bristol Avon Newbridge

 Hope you had a good Christmas and we’re able to enjoy the festivities, I certainly had a fun time with the family. 

This match took place the day after Boxing Day, and the draw was at the Midland Spinner pub in Warmley where 20 hardy souls gathered. It was nice to have a breakfast, though it wasn’t the best in my opinion, and then a part of one of my teeth fell out as I was munching. I’d been waiting for that to happen for months as it had been painful when biting on it, now pain free but it will need sorting as it’s left a sharp edge. Jerry and Dean Harvey got the draw underway and I pulled out peg 13 (unlucky for some) which I was told was permanent peg 42, not a noted peg.

Off we all drove and parked up in the field, first peg in was 16, with 59 being the last. Looking at the river it was pacey and coloured but not really dirty, I thought 18, 24, 46 and the 50’s would throw up the best weights. When I arrived at my peg I found I was on peg 40, I’d been on this one last time on teams of four, but had roach on the pole, no pole today.

The colour was not inspiring me, but I did see 2 fish top whilst setting up. I only set a feeder rod up with an open ended and 14 N50 to 0.15 powerline. I needed 45g to hold bottom at 9m out which was my chosen line and where the fish had topped. Groundbait was Sonubaits Sweet Skimmer, a bit of Thatchers and brown crumb. We started at 10 and I spent the first 30 minutes having regular casts to get some bait in the swim instead of balling it. I had 3 maggots on the hook as this is usually a good way to get bites from initial small fish. Well not today, I never had a bite on maggots. At 11 I had my first bite, a decent tap but nothing proper, reeled in to find the worm was shredded, it had been down the throat of something then. 

It was about 30 minutes before my next bite and this came on treble caster, missed this bite, a few chucks later missed another. It had to be small roach I guessed as the bites were tiny (but a bit bigger than the many leaf bites I was getting), but thought one would’ve hooked itself! Andy Britt on peg 46 came for walk and he had a roach as did Mat Challenger on 44, Shane Caswell below my on 42 was blanking but Mike Goodhind above me had 2 roach. The whole match was tough and halfway through 10oz was winning.

With the top 4 and 4 sections being paid I just needed a few fish or better still a slab, I continued to fish positively with big baits, but I only had bites on Lobby tails or casters. Despite changing the length of hook lengths from as short as 1 foot to as long as 4 foot, but still I managed to not hit a bite. The match ended at 3pm with me having had 8 bites and no fish at all, quite frustrating and not something I recall happening to me before. Shane also blanked and missed a few bites, and there were quite a few other people who blanked.

Back at the pub most were glad to be in the warm after we had got soaked in downpours for the last 2 hours. It only required 2lb 5oz to win the match, Derek Cole’s had a skimmer and 6 roach on peg 50. Second Craig Pinker had 1lb 11oz on peg 18, and Mat Challenger was 3rd with 1lb (2 eels and a roach). Why the river fished so bad I don’t know, maybe all the raw sewage the water companies are pumping straight in when it rains?

Not the best way to end 2022 with a blank, but I’ll get another chance to put that right on the teams of four match at Newbridge on Sunday 8th Jan… I hope lol!

Happy New Year, let’s hope 2023 brings better things for everyone. 

Update and 2003

 Lack of fishing due to the inclement bitterly cold weather! I was supposed to fish the Lower Avon Teams of 4 last Sunday, but it was called off about 6:45am due to falling snow. Can’t say I was unhappy with that decision, really wasn’t looking forward to fishing the Avon at Newbridge on a day when temperatures were expected to not get above 0.  With no plans for this Sunday and the even colder temperatures I decided it would be a stay at home day watching cricket, darts and a rather uneventful World Cup final lol!!

My view last Sunday.

Had to have a dig around for the diary, and am back to October 2003 when it was an ATWL round on the Avon at Keynsham, I got a nice peg though 16 at Swineford. It was waggler and feeder tactics looking for chub, but the river fished really tough and I only had 1 small chub on the wag along with dace and roach. 6lb 1oz surprisingly enough to win the section.

I went back to Swineford on the following weekend and pleasure fished in the first field, last peg. A different river today alive with small dace and bleak. I fished a waggler for 3 1/2 hours as I ran out of maggots at that point trying to feed the bleak off, had about 12lb of bleak dace and roach.

Sunday 19th October and ATWL again, this time at Newbridge, I was on peg 26. River was gin clear and might be a bit tricky. I balled it on the pole and never had a bite. Went onto a small chopped worm feeder looking for a perch or anything, no bites. Maggot feeder across and no bites! I was desperate not to blank and spotted a couple of minnows close in, so got a 3m whip out with a canal rig for where it was about 4 feet deep. I caught a couple of minnows to save the blank, and then got the odd small Gudgeon and perch. It was fishing so bad in my section it was worth catching these, any runners that came past I told I only had minnows. With about 40 minutes to got I broke the hook on the rig, before retrying I decided to try the pole line which I had not fed since balling. I took 10 roach from here to end the match. My weight was 4lb 1oz to comfortably win the section, a bit of a one off this day. Team won the day and were now winning the league.

I missed the Poppy match this year, and so was on ATWL duty again on November 16th. Swineford peg 29, mega walk but not so much gear to carry / push 20 years ago! I had a lovely day fishing a 6 no4 stick float catching roach, dace and perch feeding maggots and hemp. My 10lb 12oz was second in the section, beaten by an angler with a pike, but can’t remember who it was now. 

Onto the Commercial House the following week and I drew at Fry’s, a stretch that could be very cruel at times. However, I was downstream end peg just below the culvert and it looked nice for fishing the long 20 foot rod with a crowquill. I started on a 20 and 0.10 and feeding maggot and hemp started getting the odd dace and roach. I then hooked a chub which wanted to get into the margin, I pulled so hard I thought it would snap me, but I netted it. The hook was straightened out and I was dead lucky. On went an 18 and 0.12, still getting odd small fish and 1 more chub. An hour to go and bites were gone so I stopped feeding hemp and blasted maggots. It worked and I landed 2 more chub in the last 30 minutes. I remember that Dave Clutterbuck weighed me in and he was very generous in his praise of my catch, 22lb 8oz. I was top at Fry’s and overall 3rd in the match, a payout of £210 good in those days.

My last match of November was ATWL on the K&A canal at Bath, I drew Bathampton bend where occasionally skimmers showed. It was a real struggle, nothing on bread and only bits on bloodworm. I’d been feeding casters into the open water and fished the waggler looking for the skimmers, they weren’t there. But I did catch 3 perch up to 1 1/2lb on it to save my bacon and weigh 5lb 4 1/2oz. I was 3rd in section, beaten by 1/2 oz and an angler with a pike! I remember who had this pike, it was Jeff Surmon. He could reach the far bank and fished the pole, the pike and some perch took his worms. I’ve had a few good next peg battles with Jeff, not easy to beat, but always a pleasure being next peg to the nicest man I know. We’re all behind Jeff as he battles prostate cancer, and I’m sure he will kick its ass.

I’m not going fishing now until after Christmas, the plan is to fish at Newbridge on the 27th, getting milder and some rain will make it better, unless we get too much rain, but fingers crossed we will have a go.

Today I dug up my parsnips and picked sprouts from my garden ready for Christmas dinner, the frosts will have added flavour. Can’t wait to taste them! If you like a red wine with your dinner, I’ve really enjoyed this one recently, got it from majestic wines.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, although times are a bit tough let’s have a good time. Good health and happiness to you and your family.

Windmill Fishery Open

 The last two weekends I’ve not been fishing as I’ve been busy with family stuff and a Rovers match that was less than inspiring, plus the river was up and flooded. There was nothing I could do on the river this weekend and so I booked in to fish at Windmill, I thought it would be a bit hard.

I woke up Sunday with heavy cold, it had been coming on Saturday, and I thought to myself do I really want to go fishing today in the cold. However, I thought the fresh air would help, lol, so I got on with it.

I got myself a breakfast at Wetherspoons and was soon at the car park at Windmill. There seemed to be a decent turnout which was good, and I kept myself fairly distant to avoid passing on the lurgy. The draw soon came, no idea what was a good peg but I got 11 which is right at the end of the lake and today out of the Easterly wind.

The peg looks nice with an island chuck but I reckoned that would be to shallow today. Reeds to the right, and plenty of open water. I set up a straight lead with 0.17 to 16 KKM-B, a pole rig for by the reeds and another 4x12 with 0.15 and 16 PR478. I really didn’t feel like setting anything else up to be honest and just wanted to sit down.

When we started at 10am I fed a small amount of micro and corn at 14.5m, then tried an early look by the reeds for any resident carp. I didn’t get any a carp just a 1/2oz perch, so went onto the long pole. The float sat there for about 10 minutes and then finally dipped under, missed it! About a minute later another bite saw the elastic come out, a nice early common carp about 7lb. Shipped out again waited about another 10 minutes for the next bite which I hit, carp number 2 was soon in the net. It was pretty much a repeat next drop, and three carp for 16lb were in the net. The next carp I hooked came off just as I was down to the top set. I had to wait a bit longer for the next bite, but it was worth it as a 9lb mirror was netted. An hour gone and 25lb.

John Osbourne over on peg 10 had a slower start to me, but at the end of the second hour he had also had a few a the long pole and I was still just ahead. But the pole was now dead and I chucked the lead out, with double corn on, to another part of the peg. After about 20 minutes the tip flew round and another carp came to the net. I cast the lead to the same spot but nothing happened. Back to the reeds, nothing, out long on the pole and another carp after a long wait. I didn’t realise it, but that was my last bite on the pole. 

With about 90 minutes left I had another carp on the lead, but alas try as I might I couldn’t get another and I never had a bite in the last 90 minutes. Sadly for me John had a couple more carp on the pole, with his last one hooked a minute to go! I knew my poor last 90 minutes would cost me, and it did!

Top 6 on the day were…

1. N. Sanders peg 1. 135lb 10ozs

2. M. Boundy p20. 66lb 2ozs

3. J. Osbourne p10. 55lb 7ozs

4. D. Keen p6. 52lb 14ozs

5. G. Welsh p22. 50lb 5ozs

6. T. Ford p11. 47lb 15ozs

Silvers

1. N. Sanders 3lb 3ozs

Nick caught on waggler and maggot and later on the long pole, he said it was solid in front of him, but fair play that’s a good weight on a cold day. One more carp might have seen me sneak third, but I only lost one and everyone loses a few. Still I can’t complain I had a few fish and got some fresh air ☺️.  Got the teams of four next Sunday on the river, looking at the weather forecast could be blankety blank 🙈.

Bill Milton Memorial British Legion Poppy Match

 There are not many 100 pegger matches these days, but this match comes close, I think 98 tickets were sold and all the money goes to the Poppy fund. It’s a match that I and many others look forward to.

I was closely watching the river level during the week, after heavy rain it was well up on Wednesday, but slowly dropped down from there. It looked like I would need to take the kitchen sink, with pegs at Chequers, Jack Whites, Crane, Swineford and Newbridge. I was thinking a draw at Newbridge might be the best bet.

I got to the draw at Fry’s in good time, dropped off a bag of goodies to go in the raffle, paid my pools and ordered some grub. After the 2 minutes silence and the draw I was still waiting for my food, eventually I got it. My peg number was 2, and the put me on permanent peg 5 at Newbridge. Got to be honest it’s in the little field and not the best one there in my opinion. I’ve won matches on peg 3 and 7, but 5 never. Peg 3 is one of my favourite pegs on the river, and on that peg was last years winner Chris Gappy Parr. I knew I would be up against it.

As it turned out the peg below me was not drawn, and on peg 4 was my old mate Shane Caswell. I was surprised how much colour was still in the river, although the pace was lovely. It was looking like a feeder match I thought, and as no team points needed I could go for it. I set up a groundbait feeder, with 14 n50 to 0.15 powerline. Also a crowquill for fishing closer in with 18 to 0.11.

We started at 10:00 and I put 15 big balls of gbait with lots of casters and worms in down the middle of the river. Straight in over this with the feeder whilst feeding maggots closer in. It didn’t take long to start to get a few rattles on the tip, a chub of 6oz was my first fish. I had another chublet and a roach all on maggot and caster and then tried worms to look for a bigger fish. However, this didn’t bring better fish just plenty of bites from small perch, not the best sign when after bream.

I did try the float but the river was unreal, the float was being dragged at an angle downstream. It was like the top of the river was flowing much faster than the bottom. I wasn’t surprised that I didn’t have a bite. Back on the feeder and it was still small fish bites even on lobworm, but I did manage to get a skimmer about 1 1/2lb which came on dendra plus two bronze maggots. About halfway through I went for a walk to see Chris, he was a few pounds ahead of me, catching chublets and roach close in, his feeder line was dead.

Back to my peg and second cast had a real pull round and lifted into a better fish, turned out to be a chub around 1 1/2lb. Sadly no more followed. With 90 minutes left I had another try on the float to rest the feeder, now the float was going through fine and bang I had a roach. A few more runs down and another, and another. I then had another call from Shane who told me he had just lost a 10lb pike (which count) and was gutted. I cheered him up when I caught another four roach in as many casts whilst chatting lol. The roach then did one.

Back on the feeder and it was now all quiet, time for bream to turn up I hoped.. nope. Took some more roach on the float and another roach on the feeder to end the match. Decent day, just no bream in the net.

Weighed in Chris who had 12lb 15oz, lots of chublets in close. My turn next and my fish went 10lb 4oz, nice to get double figures again. Shane had 8lb 3oz all on the float.

My net today

Back at Fry’s and it seemed like nobody had got amongst the bream today, with 3 bream being the best caught by Geoff Francis. However, there were quite a few double figure bags of chub and roach, in the end 19lb was enough to win, and the champion today was my teammate Paul Isaacs. Paul had chub and perch on the gbait feeder at peg 123 at Jack Whites, well done mate! Second was regular money winner Sam Johnson with 15lb 12oz of mainly roach from Newbridge peg 59.

Shane was well happy when I told him he could have been second if he had landed the pike lol!

Here’s the results with section winners and top 10. I managed to continue my pick ups on the river with yet another default section win 😉😉 Thanks again to Ray Bazeley and Paul Benson for running the match, over two grand raised we think. Well done all involved today.

No fishing next weekend, then it’s back up Newbridge the following weekend.

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.

Lower Avon Teams of Four

 The second round of this new league which was once again being held at chequers, Jack Whites and Crane, but as we had 2 hospital teams in Swineford was also in. I had not helped with pegging this time as I had been away on holiday for a week in Zante, and only got home just before midnight Saturday. No preparation done and was getting my bait delivered in the morning by Mat Challenger, thanks Matt!

We met at Wetherspoons in Hanham for the draw, had a nice breakfast, Mark Harper did our team draw and I was going to the Crane, second field in the bay, this peg produced chub first match but none last week on the com house. Mark was end peg at Swineford, Rob Manns at Jackies again and Towner at Chequers but not a great peg.

My peg was lovely and calm when setting up with just a very slight downstream wind. To do well I would need some chub and so set up a 4AAA waggler with 16 to 0.13 powerline and a blockend feeder. Also set up a couple of rigs for the pole at 13m, 1g pencil and 2g both with 18N10 to 0.10 accu power. I also set up a chopped worm rig but never used it.

We started at 11:15 and decided to cup 8 balls of gbait in today (Sonubaits black river and roach) to try to avoid pike problems. I fed caster and hemp over to the boats. Dropping in on the pole and it was bleak soup, I was soon pushing the Olivette nearer and nearer to the hook, eventually it was just above the hook length. Caster on the hook seemed best when it got past the bleak, catching odd dace and roach. Didn’t take long for a Jack pike to start causing me some losses, but after a while it went. I kept plugging away but was still frustrated by bleak, after an hour bites only came from bleak so I cupped in another ball and got a few more fish until another pike hit. This one was very big and I was soon bit off, a couple more fish then lumpy bit me off again. Another roach and lumpy took it, I held firm thinking it might let go this time, it didn’t, and all I ended up doing was trashing the complete rig!

It was frustrating but I decided to take a rest from unintentional pike fishing and try the waggler. I was pretty sure this was going to be bleak soup as I’d seen them boiling on my loosefeed. I was right, double or triple caster or maggots was snaffled. To make matters worse the wind had picked up and was now upstream and in my face, meaning I was struggling to get my casters and hemp by the boats. After 20 minutes of being bitted out I tried a piece of corn on the hook, nothing for a couple of casts then a 4oz roach. A few casts later the float went under again and chub on and it felt like a good un. I played it hard as there are lollies and weed in close, luckily everything held and I landed a chub close on 4lb.

With about half the match left I was sure of hooking some more chub, but despite flogging the waggler I never saw another chub. I did manage to catch a few nice roach on the waggler on casters as the bleak became less trouble, but even then I lost a couple to pike and had a few near misses. I didn’t try the pole again as I was sure I needed chub to do well.

When the match finished I was sure I had double figures but gutted not more. Steve Lovell above me had similar pike and bleak issues he said, and Derek Coles below had major pike issues! However, on the upstream end peg in the long ashtip field Ben Rendall had avoided pike and bleak and had a lovely 17lb of roach on the long rod to win my section, I ended up second to Ben with 12lb 10oz. Steve had just under 10lb and Derek and Gary Cross both had 8lb 1oz. 

Back to the Lock Keeper for the results and once again there were some good weights with team mate Mark Harper winning with over 26lb of roach! Ben was second and Lee Gregory 3rd with 16lb at Swineford.

As Ben framed I got the default £50 section win, that’s two on the bounce 😆 

Teams on the day shown below, my team were second on the day, beaten by the other Thatchers team, but we are leading at the moment.

I cannot fish this weekend and next trip out is not yet decided until team selection is done.

Lower Avon Teams of Four

 Normally I would be fishing the Commercial House League at this time of year, but the Lower Avon Teams of Four league run by Ben Rendall was more appealing to my Thatchers team. It was looking like 7 teams were fishing, but then I heard that two teams pulled out just a week or two before, shame. I don't know what it is that anglers don't want to fish the Bristol Avon around Keynsham, this time of year it is generally full of fish, I guess easy walks and pellets are more attractive?

I helped peg the match with Shaun Townsend and Ben Matthews on Saturday, we put 5 pegs at Chequers, 10 at Jack Whites and 5 up the Crane. Everyone would have lots of room and hopefully a few fish. I hoped to draw Jack Whites..

Most of the team met at Wetherspoons in Hanham where I had a large brekkie and Cranberry juice. Thatchers have two teams in, and my lot were Towner, Mark Harper and Rob Manns. The other side were Matt Challanger, Paul Isaacs, James Carty and Andy Greenham. Mark did our team draw, no Jack Whites for me... I was down Chequers on the upstream end peg round the bend from the straight, with the other 4 pegs on the straight I was not confident about a good finish. below me on the top of the straight was Derek Coles. Derek was on a peg that I used to know as the rock face, not that you can see it so well these days, but it was always a good peg for roach and chub as the flow pushes across, he would get a few I thought.

My peg has no features across, just reeds, and the flow is halfway and across, so I put the pole out of my mind today for roach.

I set up a waggler and a whip (both never used) a feeder rod (chucked out a few times) a 14BB crowquill with 0.11 accupower to 18 N10, and a 6m pole line for chopped worm with my faithful 1g rig with 0.15 to 14 N50.

There was a tide on today and so the start of the match was 11:30 which was great as the river had dropped to normal level by then and was still flowing. I threw 8 balls of gbait to the middle of the river (sonubaits black river and black roach) and then put 8 feeder fulls right across to give myself a place for bream if they fed. I went out with  the crowquill with caster on the hook and I was pleased to get a bite first run down, it felt like a good fish, but it was a foul hooked dace! I had a bite every cast and it was just a case of trying to hit them and work out what was going on, I had a few dace and a few roach. Then the dreaded hold ups, where the body of the crowquill is shown, small bleak and small dace were in the peg now. I had not loose fed the peg and all that was in was my initial groundbait balls. I had no choice but to reduce the length of hook to bulk to get passed the snots as I was sure there were more decent roach to catch. It did work to a fashion, but hitting bites was a bit tricky.

I had stuck with the float for 90 mins but then gave the feeder a line a go hoping for that quick bonus, alas no sign of bream and even double worm was ragged by bits. Back on the crowquill and I was feeding small balls of my gbait mix with hemp and caster mixed in to keep the fish in the peg, and avoided loose feeding to keep the bleak away. I was always getting bites, but hitting them was not easy as many were fast dace bites. Mid match I had a bit of a melt down, the wind got seriously a pain, blowing right in my kisser and causing the line to get behind the spool on at least 10 occasions!!!! I had to snap the line twice and tie it back together, never good to have a knot in the mainline, but I managed. To say I had tourettes a few time would be an understatement, my wife came and sat behind me and watched for a hour, and commented on my swearing lol. About 10 minutes after she went a creature appeared from the far bank and swam towards me, a creature my wife is very, very scared of! It was a grass snake of about 3 feet long and it went into the bank to my right but I never saw it again.

I took about 10 small perch on my short chopped worm line, but this was slowing up and then I hit a snag and lost the hook so this went up the bank! I focussed my attention on the crowquill, and the bits had finally gone in the last hour, bites were a lot slower but when I did connect it was always a nice roach of 3 to 4oz. I had my best fish a roach of 6oz in this last spell on a red maggot, though most of my fish came on caster. Match ended at 16:30 and I guessed I had 10 to 12lb.

Whilst packing away Derek came up and told me had really had a great day and reckoned on having 20lb! Oh dear I might be in trouble as I knew Ben Rendall had 8lb after 2 hours! I had the scales and would soon find out.

My fish were weighed first, and I was happy to weight 12lb 12oz, I think 14lb+ was possible but as it turned out that would not have made a difference. Derek took the section out with 20lb 11oz, 13lb of roach and the rest chub, all on a bolo float fished across in the flow. He lost two big chub which snapped him up! I ended up second in my section which I was relieved to get, Andy Greenham had 11lb 11oz and Ben Rendall 9lb 5oz (his peg died on him big time). 

We went back to the Lock Keeper in Keynsham for the results and I was hoping my team had done well as we had Rob Manns won his section, Mark Harper second and Towner beat one. Indeed our 15 out of 20 points was enough to win the day, so a great start. 

Derek Coles won the match (and that got me the £40 section money by default, happy days!) and ORb Manns was second with 15lb 13oz at Jackies, Ben Matthews third from Chequers with 15lb 11oz. Every section was won with double figures.

Teams on the day..

I've had an absolute nightmare with my laptop tonight, I think it is close to going in the recycle bin, taken me ages to upload photos, arrgh! Anyway I hope you had a great weekend and a few fish, and I look forward to the next round of this league in two weeks time. In the meantime the only other thing I have to say is rest in peace your majesty, and God save the King.

Turner 400 River Thames Calnfield to Kelmscott

 This blog is a week late due to, a late night home last Sunday followed by working away for 3 days. The Turner 400 was being contested by 29 teams of 4, my Thatchers team consisted of some very good river anglers, Andy Ottaway, Lee Trivett, Shaun Townsend and yours truly. The draw was being done at Clanfield football club from 7:30am, but as teams could place anglers in sections we already knew where we were going to be (we did a random draw rather than place) and I was headed for Kelmscott. Andy did the draw and let us know where we were, I was the downstream end of Kelmscott and had to walk from Grafton Lock. I wasn't to chuffed with my draw as I felt I was the wrong end of the section, and I was only about 8 pegs above above Andy who probably wrong end of his section too!

It was a nice walk past the lock, then three fields to get to my peg, I saw John Bohane who told me my peg had produced 25lb of chub recently in a match, that day the chub could be seen on the far bank, couldn't see any today. Still I was happy to know there were chub in the area and would be have a bonus fish line to go at.

As you can see from the picture there were stick ups right opposite me then a nice tree just below, lots of trees on this venue and I guess the chub find their homes under them. My biggest issue was that the wind was in my face and it was getting stronger as I set up, I could reach the tree easily with a 3.5AAA wag though which I set up with 0.13 to 16. There was hardly any flow and so I dotted the float down. I also set up a 1g chopped worm rig with 14 to 0.15, and a couple of pole rigs for 11m, a pencil float with 0.09 to 20, and a strung out rig with 0.09 to 18 for hemp. Also set the feeder up with 0.17 to 12.

I cupped a few balls of groundbait on the 11m line and fed some chopped worm at 7m down the peg a bit, picked up the waggler and cast out. I tried to feed it but the catapult only got the bait halfway, so I got a stronger catty and that got the bait not a lot further, bummer. I caught a 4oz chublet 2nd cast and a couple of bleak, but it was not any good as I simply could not get any loose feed anywhere near where I needed to and I couldn't all match, I was gutted. I dropped in on the worm line and had a few small perch, then went on the long pole line which was not great, a few tiny perch, dace and one roach.

After 90 minutes I reckoned I had 12oz at best and I was not getting any bites on my pole lines which meant I was in trouble. I guessed I needed a chub and so I picked up the feeder rod with a blockend feeder but to fish worm and caster. First cast and the wind was so bad the tip was blown around, so I put the rod rest down and put the tip by the river, Next cast I had a small bite but nothing, then next cast a proper bite and a tug of war began, with the right gear on I was able to drag the fish away from the tree and land a 2 1/2lb chub. With 3 hours to go I was feeling a lot better about things and expecting to get a few more chub. Well what happened was.. not a lot! I spent a lot of time on the tip getting stupid little pulls which I realised were crayfish, I reeled back twice with no hook, and the pole lines were dead. I did get another chublet and a perch on the feeder but that was it. Last cast and never had a bite but the hooklength came back looking like this, I assume a crayfish did this!

I thought I might have 4lb if I was lucky, and as it turned out I had 3lb 15oz. In the bottom ten pegs that were weighed in, in my section I came 3rd with that. Beaten by Gary Barclay above me who had 5lb 15oz, and John a few pegs below had 5lb+. I was happy with that and hoped I had done OK for the team. Andy in the next section had a high 5lb and was second in his 10 pegs beaten by an 18lb of chub, so looking OK.

When we got back to results Shaun said he was about middle in his section and Lee had done well with a couple of chub. However, it turned out me and Andy were indeed in the wrong part of our larger 29 peg section, with Andy only beating 4 more anglers, and myself beating 8 more anglers. As a team we ended up 10th out of 29, and the Drennan Team next to us who are a good local side had the same points as us and on weight had 12oz more. Again we had to be happy with that and took some credit from that.

Windmill Fishery Open

 Time to get back on the bank and a switch back to a commercial for a bit of carp fishing, which meant changing out a lot of the rigs, hooks etc from the recent weeks Trent challenges. Sunday was the only day I would go fishing so I was hoping for a decent draw at the venue to help me out. However, I woke up Saturday morning with pain in my lower back, it was that bad I could hardly get out of bed. I was supposed to be watching Rovers and so took a couple of Ibruprofen and battled on best I could. It got better as the day went on, but was still painful Sunday morning, but I managed to get the fishing gear into the van.

I had a brekky at Wetherspoons in Kingswood, no silly sights in here today lol and got to the fishery in good time for the 9am draw. I wasn't sure I would be able to push the trolley up the slope to the fishery, but match organiser Gerry Welsh and his able assistant Nick Sanders both said they would help carry / push my stuff, thank you so much! I drew peg 22  which I wasn't that chuffed with to be honest, but then I was told that there were some carp caught in the area on the previous day. The trouble with this peg is it has a large sedge reedbed opposite that comes out about 3 metres, so you cannot get to the far bank shallow water, and you have to apply a lot of pressure on any hooked fish to keep them out of the pesky sedge reeds. There actually is one tiny little area of bank but it is wedged in between the reeds and a bush / tree, a tackle graveyard i reckon.

With my back feeling sore I was thinking I don't want to be fishing a long pole in the wind, but it seemed I had little choice as the carp don't tend to be in close for a few hours on this venue. On my right on peg 20 was venue expert Shaun Townsend, he knows that peg well and it has a good clean far bank, and with an empty peg either side of him he was going to be tough to beat today. On my left was one of the fishery management team Dave Haines. I put a straight lead up in case that was all I was able to fish, and 3 pole rigs, a paste rig with 0.19 powerline to a 12 XSH, 4x10 carp shallow with 16 KKM-B to 0.17 powerline for slapping, and a margin rig for fishing corn.

I began the match shipping out to 13m and slapped the rig over a few times with a 6mm pellet, within a minute I had a carp on the hook, and landed it at 6lb. Shipped out slapped a few times and another carp hooked and landed. Shipped out slapped a few times and third carp in the net. Now this was a great start, but Shaun had warned me that this can happen here at present and then you start foul hooking them and then they drift off. Sadly for me Shaun was bang on, I went from being 3-0 up to going to 5-3 to the carp. Frustrating when you are only fishing a foot deep and the elastic gets pulled out and you think that must be in the mouth. I tried going shallower to stop the foulers but every time I did I never had a bite. All indications stopped and I was forced to get the 14.m section and go closer to the reeds and slap. This brought me some more fish but when the bites stopped I had to try something else and rest it. The paste line I had fed short was dead, but as the wind that had been strong started to ease off (and my back was OK) I thought I should plumb up further out and settled on 10m.

It was probably about 2 1/2 hours to go when I started to get indications and fizzes on the paste line, I was behind Shaun who was fishing long and swinging a rig to the far bank with pellets. I had a couple of 8 to 9lb carp and was thinking this would get better, Kev Winstone and Dave Wilmott (more fishery management) who were watching me also thought I had a chance of doing well. Sadly it didn't quite pan out like that, with foul hookers becoming a problem. I struggled the last 90 minutes of the match, couldn't get anything in the margin, slapping was not working and the paste was a frustrating time. With 10 minutes to go I hooked into another bite and threw the pole back to keep the fish away from the reeds, but it soon pulled all the pole out to 10m as I hung on to another fouler that made the pole look in danger of going bang and was up by Dave. This one though stayed on, but I knew it was hooked somewhere near the rear end and I took my time and a few seconds before the whistle netted it. It actually weighed 11lb 9oz and was hooked in the anal fin.

Nick Sanders did the weigh in and my fish went 83lb 13oz, Shaun easily surpassed that with 144lb 9oz to comfortably win the match, but I guess his back was aching fishing long for a long part of the match. Picture of the winner with his shorts that he split bending over, I'll leave you to decide what caused that lol.

In second was Matt Taynton who had just over the ton on peg 12, Matt did well but was also helped by having peg 14 empty as there was a mix up with an angler thought to be fishing not being there. Third was Gerry Welsh with 88lb from peg 1, and I was 4th getting a small return as last in the frame. The last gasp carp I had took me ahead of Nick Sanders who had 82lb 11oz, sorry Nick ;-)

Much like the overall winner, the silvers was comfortably won by Dave Haines with 15lb 4oz of roach, rudd, perch and a couple of skimmers, meaning I had winners either side of me lol.

All change on the gear front for next week, I am fishing the Turner 400 on the river Thames around Radcot. I've yet to draw a dent peg on those matches and end up scratching for bites, you never my luck might change. The back is still sore and not right so I may have to get it seen to if this carries on.

Angling Trust Division 1 National - River Trent

 After the poor draw last week on Newark Dyke I was really hoping to avoid that section this week, that was what I was mostly thinking on the drive up to Nottingham on Friday afternoon, positive thoughts lol. Well your mind does tend to wander when you spend a fair amount of time in traffic jams on Motorways.

We stayed in some digs in the center of Nottingham, bit tricky to find initially but well positioned for a enjoyable evening out, and it didn't disappoint. We actually found out during the evening the sections we were all going to be in. Another amazing organizational stroke of genius by the Angling Trust, they simply applied A section to the first anglers name on the team sheet, next one B, next C, well you get it. That probably meant quite a few captains going to A section, Mark Harper certainly did for us! As for me I was in F section, a split section between East Stoke and Sheldons, G was Newark Dyke and Geraint Powell was the lucky boy going there. 

Sections used today.

I was on peg 7 at East Stoke, peg 1 to 6 were in the first field and I was reliably informed many times that all those pegs would do well and likely beat all below them! Barbel were on the cards for most of those guys, with a near 50lb bag of them caught here last week. We were all on the inside of a big bend, and as I expected the river was deepest on the pole line and got shallower as you went across. On my right was a lad called Doug Jackson from Browning West Midlands team, he told me he lived 10 minutes from the river, so a proper local. He was a friendly lad and said we might struggle unless we latched in to any bonus skimmers, or maybe a barbel.

I set up 2 and 3g pole rigs for fishing at 11m, it wasn't a flat bottom with a big rise toward the bottom of the peg, and that had branches stuck on it as I caught a few! I also set up a 0.5 rig for fishing 4m to hand as I could see a lot of bits in close and they might be needed if things were poor. A Flat float, GB feeder, and block end were also put up. No waggler as the pegging was very tight where I was.

We started at 11am and I had a few chucks with the gbait feeder to get some bait in, then put 10 balls of gbait in on the pole line. Doug next to me put the GB feeder down the same line as me so I thought that must be good. I then fished to GB feeder until 11:50, all I had to show from this was one nipped maggot. Doug had a skimmer of 1lb first cast, handy fish. I went onto the pole and the first three runs down were all the same, float held up burst maggot no fish. Maybe bleak I thought, but no I caught a tiny dace and I mean tiny. I messed about with my shotting and depth and could just about catch the odd little dace but it was slow and hard to hook the odd bite I had. I came into the short line and caught 3 little perch and a couple of tiny dace, before it died. I was a bit shocked because there had been so many small fish there earlier I thought I would get some, but they obviously weren't happy in the clear water. Chopped worm caught me 2 perch, but of no size at all.

After about 2 hours I guess all I had was about 10oz in the net, upstream the anglers were struggling but all had a bonus, Paul Glenfield had caught well on the pole. Doug had added a couple of tiny fish to his skimmer, and all talk of the stewards was that it was fishing really hard. More time on the feeder was just wasted, as I never had a bite on either feeder all day despite giving it a good go. I had tried topping up on the pole and it would bring a few bites back but not for long. The inside would yield a few bites but they would go as quick and then it was just bites off minnows. About 90 minutes to go I had 2 roach in 2 drops on the long pole, just as I thought I was going to put a few in the net that really was the end of the pole line.

Not much more to say really, I guess I divided my time up between fishing for bits and a bonus, as soon as the bits moved off I tried for a bonus, the bits would never stay for long sadly. A struggle for me again, and at the end of the match both Doug and myself were saying we had 2lb. As you can imagine I was feeling very hot with no shade to sit in, there was a bit of a breeze at times which helped, but late on it went and it was a proper roasting. Team mate Andy Ottaway was sick and felt ill at the end of the match, am sure he had been affected by the heat.

The scales came down from peg 1 and as suggested I wasn't beating any of them!

Peg 1 had nearly 9 kilos of barbel, peg 2 5.5 kilo of barbel, peg 3 7kilo of barbel, peg 4 4 kilo of bits and skimmers, peg 5 nearly 5 kilo of skimmers and a barbel, peg 6 2.4 kilo. Apparently the top 4 or 5 anglers all had barbel jumping out of the water in front of them most of the day!

My bits went 1 kilo 100g, then I got beat both sides when Doug weighed 1kilo 120g lol. Below him there was another good angler Neil Parkinson who struggled to get 890g. Well I think I can live with that, if the locals can't catch! However, the next angler was a Barnsley Blacks lad who took 3kilo 750g, next angler had 560g.  Well there you have it, somehow the Barnsley lad did something amazing, apparently he had all small fish.  My weight was only good enough to come 33rd out of 49 in the section, so not great, and needed 2.5 kilos to get in the top 15. 

As a team we ended up 18th, which we were pretty pleased with. Andy Ottaway west best performer with 8kilo+ and second in his section, he had a big bream, few skimmers and 2 small barbel at Caythorpe. Martin Barrett had a nice day on the waggler with 5.5 kilo of dace to come 7th in section.

No surprise I guess Barnsley Blacks won again, Starlets second and Cadence Superteam 3rd. Pretty much the three best river teams in the country right there and they all put in many hours of practice.

There were some good individual weights, with the winner in A section having 36kilo 650g of bream, he had just 50g more than the second place angler!!! There were 5 pegs in A section that provided 5 of the top 10 anglers, a big shoal of bream there. 

Not my greatest two matches these last two weeks, and in the past I've always done OK on the Trent, but it was not to be this time. Like most rivers it needs some, well a lot, of rain, and hopefully some will come soon for the sake of all our struggling water environments.

Angling Trust Feeder National - River Trent

 I must begin this blog post by remembering Mervyn Topper Haskins who recently passed away. My first recollection of Topper was before I even knew who he was, I watched him fishing a Topper crowquill and bread at Jack Whites. I sat in amazement watching and wondering how he could cast a float underarm to the far side of the river, throw a ball of groundbait next to the float and then watched him extract fish I could only dream of catching. I was about 14 I think and not match fishing, he chatted to me a bit and was very friendly. It was only a few years later I realised who I had been watching. I fished against Topper and his Bathampton squad for Silver Dace, Bristol Amalgamation and Bristol Sensas in my early match fishing days. The rivalry between "us" and "them" was fierce, and Topper to me seemed to be a big strong character who could intimidate you by this and his reputation. When my team took Bathampton on he called us the young pretenders one day, so when we finally beat Bathampton to win the South West Winter League it was a big deal for us, Topper congratulated us. I also remember drawing next to him on a match at Conham, it didn't fish great where we were but I had a 6lb+ weight on the stick float to beat him, that was the day I thought to myself I've made it. Of course it was only one match, and I had tons more to learn, but it was a massive confidence booster for me to beat a river legend at the time. What Topper achieved and added to the world of match fishing in the past is huge, he won't be forgotten.

The picture below is how I remember the great Bathampton team that Topper assembled and captained.

The funeral of Topper is at the South Bristol Crematorium Thursday 11th August 3-45PM.

Some time ago Mark Harper asked the team who would like to be considered for the Trent Feeder National, and the Division 1 National. I put my name forward for both and was selected for both. I was happy as the Trent is a river that I do like to fish, normally lol.  The team drove up to Sutton on Trent on Friday and we were staying at a very nice pub in a village where we had some great food and a few beers. The team of 6 was a blend of youth and experience, Geraint Powell, Paul Isaacs, James Carty, Mark Harper, Martin Barrett and myself... OK bit light on the youth with only Geraint lol. We talked a lot of the next day, and that Newark Dyke where two sections were pegged would be tough. Mark joined a meeting and came back and told us the sections we were in, I was on the Dyke, yuk! Not too many beers then.

I was up at 6am Saturday morning, my fellow room mate Martin making me a nice cup of tea. Got to the draw and had a breakfast and then got to say hello to a few anglers I had not seen for a while. Mark then told us that last nights draw was only a mock up and would be done at the draw, he then asked me to do the draw. It was a bit of shambles it felt at the draw, and I was stood next to Tommy Pickering who was definitely getting cheesed off with things! When I got to draw I took the sheet back to the team and found out I was on the Dyke again lol. 

A few of us enjoying brekky before the draw.

Martin on the munch.

I got to the river, I was on peg 8 in B section, and just down from a power station. Opposite me was a weir, but the water was flowing down the other side and so I was not thinking this would be the best. The anglers on peg 9 and 10 were locals and said it would be tough, pegs 1 to 3 were expected to get bream, we would be fishing for bites. Our team plan had been basically around going for big fish, whist we could have gone for small fish without any practice we would not be able to beat teams who had been refining it. Luck, we would need lots of it. The picture doesn't show it, but the weir sill opposite me was covered in Canada Geese!

 I set up 3 feeder rods, one for a long chuck with block end feeder, this had 0.19 powerline to a size 12 XSH, an open end feeder with 0.15 to 14 N50, and finally a block ender with the holes expanded for fishing chopped worm short. As you can see no small fish set up!

This match was fished to many of the CIPS international rules, I could plumb up with a straight lead, but not use a lead in the match, hook lengths had to be minimum 50cm. We had a 10 minute prebaiting period, but the two lads below me didn't bother to prebait, I put 5 feeders in of gbait at 50m with not a lot of feed in it, and some chopped worm in short. Everything has to be fed in feeders, you cannot feed with a catapult or out of your hand. I started on the gbait line, obviously hoping for a skimmer or similar, I had no bites in 3 casts with maggots on the hook, and then I had a 1/2oz perch on a bit of worm. I had decided to give the feeder 45 mins at least, and I did just that but had not put anything else in the net. I couldn't see the anglers either side, but could see their feeders going in, and I could tell they were struggling too. What to do next, I decided to see if there were a few perch about and went out with a lobby tail on the short line. I had taps in the first two drops but nothing hooked, swapped to a dendra and caught another very small perch, I had another 4 small perch which were not going to get a lobby in there mouth. I wasn't going to get enough weight with these as it wasn't fast enough, so I went back to the gbait feeder.

Well the gbait feeder having been rested was still a non event, I even went down to lighter line and smaller hooks (going for smaller fish) and had a couple of tiny bites which weren't hooked. Time to fish for a barbel or chub on the blockend, but that never mustered a single bite all match. Despite my best efforts I only had bites and fish on the chopped worm, I did get a perch of about 8oz, and pulled out of another similar 20 mins to go. My finally tally was about 11 small perch and the 8ouncer. I wandered down to see the local lad below, he said he had 5 small fish for about 8oz and said he'd never had such a bad day! The scales came down from peg 1, and peg 1 and 2 had both had a bream and a few skimmers, but a big 3 kilo was the best of them, and not a lot after. The Ossett lad above me had 890g, he told me he lost a barbel 2nd cast, my perch went 670g, the lad below had 270g, and the next local had 850g which was mainly 1 perch, but he had also lost a barbel whilst fishing for small fish. Well it was certainly tough in my area, and 1kilo 220g was all that was needed to be 10th out of 33. I ended up 20th out of 33, so 13 people had a tougher day than me lol! My lost perch only cost me 3 or 4 points.

A quick check on the Whatsapp team chat and it seemed we had not done well so it was drive straight back home time. As a team we ended up 26th, and the team that won, Ringers (congrats), well they went with a small fish plan unless they drew on a flyer. To be fair the weights were better away from the Dyke, but not as big as normal. Here's how my team did:-

A: Martin Barrett 1kilo 750g  22nd (think the winner was on the next peg with 20 kilo, oops)

B Me 670g, 20th

C James Carty 1kilo 150g  14th (beat Alan Scotthorne off the next peg, bet perfomer today)

D Geraint Powell 3kilo 750g  21st

E Mark Harper 2kilo 460g  23rd

F Paul Isaacs 820g  32nd

I always enjoy the buzz of a National, there is the anticipation of what might be a special day, well that will have to be the same this Saturday. I hope I can avoid the Dyke this time and the team can get a better set of pegs.