Premier Angling Open - Bristol Avon Crane

It has been 3 weeks since I last got out fishing, and that was on the canal and not inspiring. I didn’t want to fish the Commercial House Xmas match on the canal as I thought it would be rubbish. I made the right decision as only 1oz won the match, the venue is devoid of fish once a frost happens.  This weekend was really my last chance to fish before Xmas, and when I saw Premier Angling advertising this match I booked in.

I travelled back from Yorkshire Saturday and getting home late meant I was going to do no prep. Sunday morning I grabbed the gear, chucked some gbait (sweet skimmer and black river) in a bucket and loaded my van. When I got to Premier Angling I picked up the bait I had ordered and paid my pools. There had been a couple of late drop outs so it was 17 fishing. A few old faces had booked on and it was good to see them, the likes of Mike Shellard, Clive Feddery, Andy Greenham, Lee Gregory, plus a very young face in Kai Hurley. I drew peg 2 which meant I was in the lane.

My peg was one I have fished probably ten years ago, the bank is reinforced by an old radiator and a big piece of metal which is right behind you. The bank is flat but it’s awkward. The river was still running fast but the colour was ok, there was no chance of me fishing a float here, so I just put one feeder up. A 60g Preston open ended feeder was my starting gambit. I went to tie a hook but realised my heavy line was still in my shed… so I walked back to the shop and bought a spool of 0.17 powerline (which I have a box of in the shed 🙈). 

I started the match casting the feeder about 2/3 over by the tree with 3 red maggots on the hook. Second cast and a nice drop back bite, landed the 6oz fish but was still blanking as it was a trout lol!

Still no need to worry as two casts later I was in again and this time it was a better fish, it was nice to land a 2 1/2lb chub so early. Next cast I had an 8oz chublet, then a few casts later a 1 1/2lb chub. By the end of the first hour I had added a roach and a skimmer and was really enjoying the unexpectedly good start. I had another skimmer about 1lb, and then Graham Hunt came for a chat, I had another skimmer and then pulled out of bream whilst he was there. Although I lost the bream in close it brought an end to my bites.

It was at least an hour later at 12:30 and exactly halfway through the match when I had my next bite. It was on treble caster and was a good chub of 3 1/2lb. That was a bite out of the blue and with no more signs I switched to a maggot feeder on the inside. That got snagged up, so I decided to cast it over the gbait line to see if I could find a chub, it’s something that works for me now and again. At 2pm I had a bite and as I played it Graham was back and said he thought it was a bream, he was right, 4lb+. This turned out to be my last fish, although I did have a bite on my last cast I didn’t see it.

I thought I had about 16lb and word on the bank was that would win it, below me Mike Jeffries on end peg had a bream and a couple of skimmers. It didn’t take long for the scales to arrive as there wasn’t lots caught it seemed, Gerry Welsh on the cattle grid was top in our section with 5lb. The guy above me Paul blanked, then my fish went 18lb 8oz. Mike below had a 10lb 8oz his bream was near 6lb. 

Back at the shop and I was announced as the winner with Mike second, so a good draw today at last. There was a couple of 6lb weights and 4’s. Other than John Osbourne getting 4lb of roach there were hardly any caught, chub and skimmers took the money today. A big thank you to Kieran and the guys at Premier for running this match, and for the tackle voucher.

Also a big thank you to my wife for my Sunday roast, what a great end to the day 😃.

Finally a good result this autumn / winter on the river, a few more days like that would be nice. That said my next match will be just after Christmas, at Acorn fishery. Which just leaves me to wish you all a Happy Christmas!🎅 

Upper Thames winter league final match

 Today was the last round and I was looking forward to playing my part on the river at Newbridge. Errr maybe not. The heavy rain of last weekend put the river up to near record levels and caused panic among some. Heavy rain was forecast again Wednesday and so the team captains decided to move the match to the Gloucester Canal. Game over for me and Shaun Townsend, and our team mates who are regular Glos canal anglers replaced us in the team. I was happy to fish the river, but many of the fields were flooded and access could have been a problem, so I couldn’t argue with the decision. We were 2 points in front of DGL and so had to do well.

There was nothing for me to fish, and I arranged to watch some friends singing at the Midland Spinner with Shaun and friends. We were keeping a close eye on our team WhatsApp for results, with fingers crossed. As the lads started to advise their respective results it was looking good, and eventually we saw we tied top on this match with 31 points with DGL but they took top by having 1 more section win. This though meant we had won the league overall by 1 point with DGL coming second.

The lads who fished today celebrating.

Myself and Shaun celebrating the win.

As you can tell we are all over the moon, and everyone contributed to the win. Our squad might be half the size of DGL but we showed we are still a capable squad. 

Well done to everyone who took part in the league, it was fished in great spirit and that’s what matters.

Hopefully I’ll get back fishing soon. Cheers 🍻 

Commercial House Final Round K&A Canal

The lead up to this match for me was one of concern for how it would fish, as everywhere seems to be fishing pretty hard on natural venues. Blanks on the river and blanks on the canal, with my team not in contention I was not feeling the slightest excitement for this match lol. 

I was the first of my team to arrive at the draw, so started filling out the team sheet and as the lads arrived took the pools money. As usual we were going to be last to draw, so young Charlie Isaacs was just going to take the last number and see what sections we got. There were four sections at Bathampton and two at Claverton, I was given F section peg 5 which was at Claverton, I was going to be 2 pegs past the Ferry Lane bridge, might be ok.

Managed to get to the parking field with no van issues this time, Dave Lewis was looking perplexed as he had left his keepnet and landing net at home! I helped him out with a landing net, and eventually he got a keepnet from Jon Tocknell. It’s a bit awkward getting to the towpath but  with 2 anglers per trolley it was easy. I finally got to my peg and couldn’t believe it when I saw Mike Kent on peg 6, that’s all 5 rounds in the same section, twice next peg and I was next peg to him in the Poppy.

Set up my std 4 x 14 bread rig with 18 PR 311 to 0.08, same size rig for bloodworm down the track. A 0.3g rig for bloodworm at top set and across. Also a positive rig for caster / chopped worm.

I started a few minutes late, plopped some liquidised bread in at top set plus two, some joker in the three lines. Twenty minutes in and I had not had a bite on the bread, neither had Mike or Dave Lewis on 7. However, on 8 Steve Skelton (who had to move up a peg due to moored boat in his peg) was getting a roach a chuck and on 9 so was Craig Pinker. The writing was very much already on the wall. Thirty minutes in and I caught a tiny perch on a top set to save the blank but no other bites. Searching my other lines I took another 2 perch, now I had an ounce lol.

After an hour Mike had a couple of bonus chublets across on caster, then Dave started to catch chublets 2/3 across over gbait and squatt. My caster and choppy lines were biteless. After three hours I had 6 tiny perch and it was clear I was off the fish, below the bridge was tough too. Word was the whole canal was fishing awful and Steve and Craig were probably first and second. Thinking I was never going to get enough little perch I gave the caster and worm lines a good chance, but it didn’t happen.

One hour to go and out of the blue three roach on bloodworm from across, ten more of them in the last hour would be brilliant I thought. Stupid idiot not another bite!! What a pile of 💩 

Andy Britt had the scales and said when he pegged the match Steve’s peg was the only one that he saw fish topping in. Craig on 9 had 4lb 10oz, Steve on 8 9lb, Dave on 7 3lb 21/2, Mike on 6 1lb 6oz and then me 8oz…. Well just to rub salt in the wound I was plumb last in the section as on the other side of the bridge Jon Tocknell had 11oz, guess I should have stuck with the bloodworm. Well that just about sums up my poor autumn, pretty pants lol!

Well done Steve an easy winner today, lots of roach, some chublets and perch.

Craig Pinker was second and young Kai Hurley was third with 3lb 3oz in E section and Dave Lewis 4th.

On the team front in A division Sensas Nomads carried on the good form and were champions, well done lads! In B division Sensas Lobby’s dominant display meant they were runaway winners, an awesome result.

My teams poor performances continued today, but I felt most sorry for Shane Robinson who was getting an odd bite from roach but his peg was infested by leaves..

The knockout winner was Andy Powell and the individual league champion was Dave Lewis. As Dave said to me he had drawn the fish every round, but you still got to catch them Dave and you did. Think he was a bit shocked by his win, though Jeff Surmon and I thought it was funny!

Some good news today was that my Thatchers team on the ATWL had a great day, they won the day and had the top 3 individuals! We are 3 points ahead of DGL with two rounds to go, one on the canal and the last one on the Avon at Keynsham. 

No fishing for me next weekend, hopefully the break will do me good 😂.

Bill Milton Memorial Poppy Match - Bristol Avon

 Pretty much the biggest match of the year, a 100 peg match if everyone turns up, and I always look forward to it.

Friday, Covid and flu jab in left arm, then out in town for nephews birthday. Saturday met at Premier Angling at 9am for pegging duty, I was putting 15 pegs in at Swineford. I pegged from the outfall to one below the beach. Boy did I fancy drawing here!!! Peg 46, the outfall.

Sunday morning and breakfast at Fry’s waiting for the draw. I was sure that with a clear river a bream or chub peg was required, so some pegs at Swineford and Newbridge were on my wish list. Well I drew a peg out up the Crane, first peg in the long ashtip field. I have won the Poppy match from this peg, but that was with water on and colour for bream. Today I wasn’t enamoured by it, but I was going positive.

Set up a 4g bolo, waggler and gbait feeder. We started at 10 and I put 12 feeder fulls down the middle of the river. Threw 6 balls at 11m and fed maggots across to the boats. It was a slow start on the bolo about 1 1/2lb in the first hour then it died. Onto the feeder for an hour for 1 dace oh dear. Onto the waggler for not a bite, oh dear oh dear!

Things were not going well and I went for a quick walk, Mike Kent above me had some small roach, but down in the little ashtip Paul Elmes was catching a few roach and chublets. My section was from me below and so I was up against it with Paul catching. I tried the bolo over the river where I was feeding maggots, I caught 2 roach and then lost 2 hook lengths. I came a bit shorter and avoided the snag, but it was just the very odd bite from a roach. I did catch a couple of chublets and a hybrid from way down the peg but it wasn’t good enough.

Bank walkers told me my section was fishing ok, so I spent the last hour in the feeder looking for a bream or two, none showed which was not a surprise lol. Match over and I tipped back about 5lb for a DNW

My section was won by Paul Elms’s with 14lb 3oz of roach and chublets on the crow quill, well done sir. Above me it was not good weights either, but Dean Harvey won that section easy with 10lb on the feeder, 2 chub, 1 bream and 3 decent perch. I followed the scales down and one below the high wall was 19lb of chub, it included a 6lb 2oz chub! Sorry I didn’t get the anglers name, but fair play! 

Back to the results and the jungle drums had already told me the winner but seriously it was brilliant weights, the bream had shoaled and fed.

1st John Fuidge                161-4  39 bream Swineford Outfall

2nd Andy Richings            106-8  peg 59 Newbridge just one peg away from where he won last week!!!

3rd Derek Cole                     90-6 Bottom of Trees

4th Tony Goodland             32-8 Chequers and included 3 pike!

5th Dave Stiff                        29-8 peg 16 Newbridge 

6th John Smith                     25-8 one below beach peg

A massive well done to John Fuidge, I walked in to the results with him. He told me he put 8 feeder fulls in then on the first cast with a hook on he had a bream, and after 90 minutes he had 18 bream and never looked back. Derek Coles in third was close to packing up as he was blanking after 3 hours, then it was a bream every cast till the all out.

It needed nearly 18lb to get in the top 10 today (last year about 4lb lol) and pretty much it was either bream or chub got you in. 

The match raised over £3000 thanks to the efforts of organisers Ray Bazeley and Paul Benson. The after match banter was great as always with lots of laughs, and you can’t beat it. My lucks still out at the moment, but as long as you can keep laughing with your mates you’ll always have a good day out.

Commercial House Round 5 - Bristol Avon Newbridge

After another dry week and the river was going to be float fishable again. After the roach fest of last week most people were expecting to catch a few again. I put some more pole rigs in the box for this match. Didn’t have much time to prep as I was going out just after midday with Wendy to see our eldest daughter and her boyfriend, then watch Rovers, then go down Gloucester Road with some friends. Very good day out, I got home at midnight lol. 

I got to the draw feeling a little tired,  and got my bait from Rich Lacey who had kindly got it for me yesterday. In no time at all the draw was being done, I really wanted to be in A to D sections and avoid the trees. But oh flip the team draw put me in E section a few pegs to the left of the arch in the trees. In my opinion this was the worst part of the whole river, and I was cheesed off, I forget what Newbridge looks like!

Despite the poor area I would still have to approach the peg in the same way, so waggler, bolo, gbait feeder and pole were all set up. Lots of rowers out today it seemed, but they usually thin out after a couple of hours.

For neighbours today I had Craig Pinker on my left and Mike Kent on my right, that’s four matches out of four that Mike and I have drawn in the same section. Last week this part of the river only produced 6lb so I was expecting less, but the danger was Ivan Currie on peg 1 who was up by the stream on a peg that had 19lb last week. We started at 10:15 and I balled it in but didn’t put much feed in it. On the third run down I had a bite and swung in a little roach. That was the only bite I had on the pole. Went onto the gbait feeder and no knocks or bites, this was not looking good.

An hour in and Rich Lacey rang me to say he was blanking on the arch peg, and I said well I’ve only got 1 roach. As we were chatting and the boats were passing I noticed the tip drop back, I struck and felt a fish on, shaking its head. It was a chub close to 2lb and was a nice little bonus. I thought I met get another now but no more bites came.

Mid match I was bored and a bit chilly so went for a walk. Ivan was well ahead with 6lb, I was next best, Rich had a little chublet but had been smashed up by a big fish. Either side of me had 3 little fish and were not getting any bites, it was grim at this stage and didn’t get any better for me. About an hour to go Rich rang me to say he had landed a 6lb bream hooked in a fin, oh jammy bugger I think I said 😂. Thirty minutes later he rang me again and now told me had a 5lb barbel!!! WTF 🤣. I was fishing the gbait feeder same as Rich, but I never had a bite after that chub at 11:15. 

Rich with his bonuses. Deserves a bit of luck does Rich.

I was quite happy to pack up today, and have not struggled like that for a long time. When the scales got to me Ivan was top with 13lb 7oz of chublets, and Rich had 11lb 12oz for his three fish. My 2 fish went 1lb 15oz, just 2oz off winning my B div section.

 There was another bream caught by Paul Purchase and he had 6lb. The board here shows the highs and lows.

The fishing up at Newbridge was ever so slightly better..

1st Andy Ritchings 88lb (bream peg 56)

2nd Jason Fearn 37lb (roach and chub peg 22)

3rd Kev Boltz 24lb (bream peg 50)

Sensas Nomads won A div and look to be favourites to win overall.

Lobby’s won B div and the only thing that will stop them winning the B div  is if they don’t turn up for the last round… and even then they could still be champions!

I certainly don’t feel like I’ve had a decent peg on the river yet this autumn, maybe I’ll get one next week on the poppy match 🤔

ATWL Round 2 - Bristol Avon Newbridge

 Due to the cancellation last week (badly flooded river) this match became round 2. My lead up to this match was not good, sore throat Tuesday that just got worse and by Friday I was feeling really crap due to lack of sleep and headaches. I was due to peg out Saturday and was not sure if I could do it all. However, come Saturday morning despite not waking up till 8:40am I did feel a little bit better. Myself, Shaun Townsend and Dean Harvey pegged the match out; 20 pegs at Newbridge and 20 in the trees. I went to bed Saturday night after helping Gary Etheridge avoid the Bath charging zone.

Lovely having the extra hour in bed, just what I needed as still blocked up etc. Got to the Crown at 7:20 so plenty of time for grub and a chat. Most of my Thatchers team had not fished Newbridge for ages, but once a river angler always a river angler? Rob Jones did our team draw, looked decent but on a dropping pacey river who knew. I was on H1 in the last section at the trees, got to be honest I was worried as usually the end peg wins and it gets worse as you go up river.

At the peg and I realised it was one I had in the pairs league in the summer, I won the match that day with a few breambut wasn’t expecting that result today. My peg was 14 feet deep at 11m, so with the pace set up a 4g pole rig, a 6m flat float, and a 6g bolo float, plus a gbait feeder.

I started the match chucking some gbait on the pole line and then chucking in 10 feeder fulls on the feeder at 2/3 over. I began on the 4g pole rig, trying various hook baits to no avail, 1 roach. Maybe the flat float would work, hmm, 2 roach on this. After an hour I had just 4 fish, DGL angler below me Tom Bolton was also struggling but the other three anglers were apparently catching roach. I was thinking get on the feeder but decided to try the bolo, well it was instant, a bite every cast virtually. Had to keep trying different hook baits and casting in different places but there were bites to be had and something to work at. 

I probably had 2 and a bit hours of bites on the bolo  before it went iffy, I tried the pole again and had a few on both rigs before that stopped. The Bankside information was that my section was really close, and I kept trying to eke out the odd fish. Eventually this line seemed dead so I went on the feeder, a good 30 minutes didn’t get me a single bite. Back on the bolo and yes it was hard but I could get the odd bite so I decided to stick with it.

Match over, Tom below said he had looked at his fish and had 9lb, I lifted my net up and thought 9lb+. The weigh in was done quickly by bank runners Guy Manton and Mark Treasure. I was taken aback when they said Tom had 15lb, not quite the 9lb he said lol! I had to beat 8lb 8oz by Ian Dunlop to get second in section, and was happy to hear 9lb 15oz called. Tom had a lot of chublets and a chub on the pole, whereas I had only had 2 chublets.

The next two sections in the trees my team mates Ian Paulley and Shaun Townsend struggled, both having real snaggy pole lines. Lee Trivett got second in section in E section. Up at Newbridge we had a better time, Andy Ottaway won the match with 23lb, helped by a 8lb carp! Martin Barrett won his section with nearly 18lb, Mat Challenger was third and Rob Jones only beat one.

Back at the results we knew DGL had won but we were a bit gutted to come third, we tied on points with Devises but they beat us having one more third in section angler.

The river fished really well today for roach and chublets, just a few bream showed.

Andy Ottaway had 15lb of roach to go with his carp on peg 52.

Dave Micklewright had 21lb from peg 22 on the bolo.

Neil Richards had lots of chublets on 92 on feeder and float.

Teams overall to date Thatchers and Devises 4, DGl 6.

Next match next week on the canal, but for me I’ll be back here on the comm house.

Commercial House Round 4 - K&A canal

 Strange week, lots of rain forecast and I was supposed to be fishing the second round of the ATWL up at Chippenham and Melksham. Friday it rained so hard it woke me up, I wasn’t surprised that Saturday morning the decision was made to cancel the match on safety grounds. No fishing for me then, but then Mark Harper asked if I wanted to fish in his place for Thatchers on the commercial house on the canal just outside Bath, so I accepted. I had to do a bit of last minute prep for rigs and hooks of course, but got it all done before I went for a meal and a few beers with Wendy.

I woke up Sunday morning before the alarm, it wasn’t as wet and windy as I expected, but the forecast was dire. I was at the draw nice and early and paid the team pools, this was necessary as Rob Manns had forgotten to set his alarm and was going to be late lol. I asked team mate Guy Manton to draw, but as the draw began he was nowhere to be seen, and I had to draw. I pulled out balls A and 1, and that meant as I was first on the sheet I was on A1, end peg. I was going to be between the George and Meadow Farm, not the best area always but having end peg was mega. Guy was in B and so said he would follow me.

On the way out of Bath I had a bad feeling about the van, pulled over and saw my left front tyre was flat. Guy stopped and then together we spent 45 minutes getting the spare tyre fitted. Guy was a massive help, and I was glad the spare had air in it lol!

I finally got to my peg which was unfishable as a boat was moored in front of it FFS.. moved down to a small gap between two boats and had 45 minutes to set up, I was hot and sweaty from the tyre replacement and the walk from the George to nearly Meadow Farm bridge. I set up in double quick time and put just three rigs up, 4x14 with 0.08 to 18 PR311 for bread at top set plus one. Another 4x14 with 0.09 to 16 PR311 for fishing 10m with gbait, worms and casters, and a 4x12 for fishing across. The canal has a bit of colour in it today.

I started one minute late, and began on the bread line, it took me 5 minutes to get my first bite, a fairly small roach. A minute later another small roach, and after 15 minutes things got going with regular bites from 2oz roach. I had a good first 90 minutes on the bread getting 3 12oz skimmers in amongst the roach, but it then died.

I put another section on and went deeper on my bread rig and fished over a gbait and squatt line, hardly a bite, so over to 10m. I tried worm and had one 4oz roach, then had a couple more on maggot, but this was very slow. I came back to top set plus two and now started catching on pinkie, roach, and a couple of hybrids. Had a good run here before it died and leaves were a real problem.

I 

I had a bad 30 minutes catching very little I wanted to fish across but the leaves were a nightmare, causing me to tangle a rig. With just over an hour to go, the boat to my left moved off leaving my peg a tad messy. I went for a quick walk and a wee, I was beating the two lads to my left. Little video of the barge moving off and the lady waving goodbye 😂

Back on my peg and the far bank had cleared of leaves, meaning I was able to try my caster line, and gbait line. I had 1 roach on caster, but the gbait line was solid and it was a roach a chuck on pinkie. Then the leaves returned and it was back to trying to get a rig in, annoyingly another rig got tangled due to hooking a leaf that twisted up. I still managed to put a few roach in the net. 

Match over, I was left a tad frustrated by the boat and leaves, but I had only dropped one fish and bumped one, so that was satisfying. It was nice packing up in the dry and the sun was warm. I was weighed in first in the section and my fish went 11lb 3oz. That won the section with Dave Lewis coming second with 8lb by the old lock.

Many people endured a dire journey back as the ring road was closed, but I saw on my sat nav the issue and got back to the pub first! That was lucky!

Team faired ok but still not enough to get the better of Lobby’s who are romping B division.

A few pegs near the bay and brambles in D section produced the top 3.. 

Mark Bromsgrove 23lb of skimmers

Graham Hunt 19lb of skimmers 

Kev Boltz 2 ounces less than Graham. 

I didn’t get pictures of the results today, so apologies. I think I was 6th. A bit of an eventful day to say the least, at least I got home in one piece, even if a bit knackered 🤣🤣

Winter league practice open Bristol Avon

 Well it’s been a few weeks since I was on the bank, I had a holiday in Zante, and then a couple of family things which included moving my eldest daughter Lucy out of our house into her new home with her boyfriend Jack. I missed the first round of the ATWL on the Thames, but I wasn’t missed as the team did the business winning the first round convincingly, Diawa Gordon League had an off day coming last, so maybe they might give us a chance this year lol. 

This open match was effectively a practice for the second round, being fished on the Avon at Chippenham and Melksham. After the rain we had earlier in the week the river has been flooded, but today it was float fishable if a bit pacey in places. There’s a Greggs near the draw in Melksham so I grabbed some breakfast in there first which was good. Thatchers had 6 anglers fishing today so hopefully we would get some good practice. I drew a peg at Chippenham about 4 pegs below the blue bridge, team mate Rob Jones drew two below me on the end peg and he followed me to the river as he had no clue where he was going.

It was a nice easy walk to our pegs thanks to following Neil Richards through the housing estate. I was the peg below Neil and we both had plenty of room, my peg looked good.

A quick phone call to Martin Barrett gave me a little info, though to be fair at the draw I had been given various suggestions on what to do. With the flow and features it screamed a running line approach, so not being a team match I went with rods only. A 4AAA waggler with 16 to 0.13, a 5g bolo with same gear (looking for chub on these rods). A 6x4 stick float with 20 to 0.10 and a maggot feeder with 16 to 0.17.

Match started at 10:30 and I began on the waggler. I soon realised that the flow was coming away from the far bank and so I cast the waggler down the peg a bit. With the speed of the river my maggots would be taking a while to sink anyway. It wasn’t the best first hour, a couple of small chublets and bleak for about 1lb. The bolo produced a couple of roach and the stick float in closer was biteless bar minnows.

Neil had a chub on the feeder earlier and so I switched to that, gave it 90 minutes but just had a couple of gudgeon, a roach and 2 small chublets. I was really struggling to get bites and was already thinking I would need some chub to do any good. At 1:30pm three hours into the match I started to get the odd bite on the bolo from small roach, but I couldn’t line them up. 

The stick float remained dead and I sacked it off. I spent the last two hours switching between the waggler and the bolo, it was better than earlier but no decent fish, I ended the match with about 40 fish and never used my landing net once. I wasn’t going to do any good today. Rob Jones on the end peg had a lovely day catching 15lb roach and 1 chub, above him there was a 12lb. My fish went 5lb 4oz, then Neil had 7lb above me. Well and truly battered today, but I gave it my all and it was nice to trot a float.

The match was won by Mick Withey with an amazing 20lb of perch at Scotland Road!

A couple of chub weights were next at. Chippenham where Ian Dunlop had 19lb and Tony Ellis Randell had16lb. Rob got 4th and last in the frame.

I will need a better performance next week, let’s hope the rain stays away.

Commercial House Round 2 - Bristol Avon

 A very busy week for me as I flew to Frankfurt on Monday for an exhibition, after a long week I got home Friday evening and was dog tired. Saturday had to collect my bait as well as Derek Coles, Steve Lovell and Rob Manns, the fridge was full! After watching the disaster of a 0-4 home loss at the Gas I was really happy to see Gloucestershire win the T20, my wife and daughter Lucy were there to celebrate with the players.

I felt very jaded Sunday morning and realised I had got a cold, so got some paracetamol in to me. Got to the draw and I was the only team member present, unfortunately we were going to be one man short today due to an emergency that occurred. Eventually my team mates started arriving after I had paid their pools, in amongst the crowd of anglers I spied good mate Martin Reyatt. This made me laugh as he told me he’d never fish the river again lol.

Team draw done and we had one flier end peg at Swineford, Steve Lovell was on that. I was on D7 at Jack Whites, middle of this section is not good normally. It was a good yomp to get to the peg, including having to negotiate a kissing gate. I walked past some real good pegs and then saw Andy Britt on D6 who was also not happy with the peg. However, when I finally found my peg (I had walked past it) I was properly pissed off, this was a peg I always leave out as it is full of snags. Just to make things better an otter surfaced to my left and then swam downstream.

My options were now very limited and a couple of calls to other anglers confirmed the situation. I set up a 4AAA waggler with 0.15 to 16 N50 to pull hard on any chub. A gbait feeder with 0.17 to 14 N50 and lastly a 6m whip. 

We started at 10:15 and there was no balling in gbait on this peg for me. By casting a long way down the peg I avoided any snags and had 25 minutes on the feeder getting some bait in and caught a chublet and a roach on it. Went onto the waggler (fished 3 feet deep) which I had been feeding and was able to catch some chublets from 4oz to 12oz. But they soon went, I went down to 0.13 and an 18 but it didn’t make any difference as the chublets were now right up under the trees and impossible to reach.

After trying the feeder again for 1 perch I tried the whip line, first run down I had a 8oz perch. Second run down snag and rig ended up in the tree. Poxy peg, I was 2 feet off the bottom and snagged, I gave up on the whip.

Back on the waggler and I started to get the odd bite from bleak and small roach, but I needed to fine down, so 0.10 to a 20 went on which made a difference and I got a lot more bites. I also had to go deeper as the match went on, getting to 6 1/2 feet seemed best. The only problem was the fish were so small, but as I heard the section wasn’t fishing great I just carried on. Changing the colour of the maggot on the hook was needed, but probably caught most on bronze. In the last half hour I had a couple of chublets out of the blue, and they actually started showing themselves under the trees after the match. 

My match was done, I thought I had 9lb, Andy reckoned he had 7lb. I’d had a busy day on the waggler but just not enough quality. In the end the section was quite tight but Leigh Wakefield won A div with 13lb, he had 3 chub with a couple of hours to go to bump his weight up. Mike Kent won my B div with 12lb 9oz, he had a good run of chublets that made the difference. My fish went 10lb 6oz which I was happy with, and was surprised to come third in the section from this peg.

Overall the match was won easy by Lee Warden at the top of Chequers straight who had 12 chub and a bream on the waggler plus roach for 38lb 6oz. A fantastic weight and Lee said it was one of his best days on the river. 

There was a tie for second with Andy Powell and Martin Reyatt, MR drawing the outfall at Swineford and catching 5 bream but not on pellets or meat 😂😂

Full results and team results are below, but that’s enough typing now as I need some sleep. No fishing for the next couple of weeks for me.

Commercial House Winter League Round 1

After a break my Thatchers team put a team back in the league this year. I was personally happy as it meant more chances to fish my local Bristol Avon, though our focus as a team is on the Angling Trust Winter League. Today’s first match was from New bridge down to the trees. Eight teams of 6 are fishing this year, plus a hospital team is available if people want to fish it as an open.

The draw was at the Crown pub in Keynsham and I got their quite early and got the team sheet and pools sorted. Team today was Shaun Townsend, Rob Manns, James Carty, Mat Challenger, Steve Lovell and myself. The river had plenty of colour, and with more heavy rain overnight I was sure this would be a bream match, but they’re not in every peg. I did the team draw today, certainly didn’t get the rub of the green as I avoided all the recent bream pegs, James Carty had the best chance in peg 20. I was drawn in the trees peg 92 which is one below the stream, not a noted bream area really. Wasn’t sure if we were going to get to our pegs as Dean Harvey was having trouble getting the gates to the rugby unlocked and a queue was forming! Thankfully Dean sorted it, but he’s no Houdini 😂.

Arrived at the peg and was surprised to see the river was not flowing that fast, but was quite coloured. I was still wondering if the river would rise / get faster as the day went on. This picture was taken after the match, but the river didn’t change.

Although I was not in a good bream area I still felt I would need them to do any good in my section. I put up two feeder rods, one with a size 12 to 0.17 and the other had a size 8 if I wanted to try lobworms. I did set up a crowquill but as I never had a bite on it that will not be mentioned again. I mixed up Sonubaits Sweet Skimmer and Thatchers original for the feeder line. I had some old gbait that I would chuck in at 10m for the float / just in case the river came up.

The match started at 10:15, although some duffer further down in the next section shouted all in at 10 he was soon put right. I threw my gbait in at 10m and then went onto the feeder. After six quick casts I started getting bites straight away from small fish. But the bites were a nightmare to hit, it was little roach, perch and chublets. An hour in and I would be lucky if I had a pound, Jerry Pocock above me on the stream said he had 2lb. Trying big baits resulted in just more missed bites, but after 90 minutes I had a 1lb hybrid that was my first net fish. 

Just over 2 hours in and the small fish bites abated, it was pretty dull now and I started to ring team mates to get a feel for what was happening, not a lot for us it seemed, but James had 1 bream. At 12:40 I was on the phone to Andy Britt when the rod really bent over, bream on. Landed a 4lb fish, next cast and immediately another bream about 5lb. Well the next cast was biteless, as was the next 50 minutes and then I had another 5lb bream. It was the last one though. For the rest of the match I had 12oz eel, plus a few more small perch and chublets. I’d fished the feeder for all bar 10 minutes, so I had given myself the best chance to catch bream.

I had the weigh board but as I was not quite ready Andy Pritchard grabbed it, he was on the last peg in the section and told me he had 10 bream / skimmers, and they ended up weighing 37lb 3oz which easily won the overall section. I was second in the section as my fish went 18lb 10oz. Luckily for me Andy’s team is in A division whereas Thatchers are in B, so I would get the B section money.

Picture of Andy just getting his largest bream out of the net, it went 8lb 4oz. There was a bigger one caught at Newbridge by Steve Hutchinson, his went 9lb 3oz!

As you can see from my section board there were some decent weights here. 

Back to the pub for a beer and some grub, my team results were up and down, Shaun won his section, James was second, but Steve only beat one with 25lb lol, and Mat and Rob were last. That meant Lobby’s won our division and we came second. In A division Bathampton won easily.

Below are the section winners and top individuals. Derek Jarman was one peg below Andy Pritchard by the arch, a good weight of bream from there. Andy Cranston was on peg 40 at the end of the straight. Dave Clapton on the Norfolk reeds. Good anglers on good pegs made no mistakes.

Next week it’s round 2, Swineford Crane and Jack Whites.

Bathampton pairs round 5 & 6

A bit of a catch up on round 5, where both myself and partner Rich Lacey were absent. Rich was watching a gig and Wendy and I were walking in the Mendips. Our two super subs shall remain nameless due to the fact that they both came last in section. 🙈😂. As a result of this we went from leading the league to being in joint second place with everyone in with a shout (bar Derek Coles and Dean Harvey who had been feeding fish repellent). To be fair to our stand ins they both drew the worst peg in each section based on previous matches. Craig Pinker and Jan Mazyk were now leading the league. I think Nick Coles won the match from peg 16 with bream, he and his partner Jerry Pocock were joint second.

Round 6, final match, and we were fishing back in the trees section. After the other two matches here we knew the early pegs in A section were best and late pegs in B section best. Graham Hunt actually said before the draw he wanted to avoid pegs A6 to B3, I couldn’t disagree. Rich drew for us, and for the first time he had a misfire.. peg A7 for him and B2 for me, oh 💩. Worse still the other top pairs seemed to have anglers in the good areas, and I was not sure if we could stay in the top three places overall.

Got to the pegs and we thought we would need a bonus bream to do well as not many roach have shown in our pegs, but it was a long shot. My peg was barren and not inspiring lol.

There was not much flow on the river today so this might slow the fishing down. I set up the usual gbait feeder, waggler, and a couple of pole rigs for fishing on or near the deck. 

I started the march by putting 8 balls of gbait with just a small amount of hemp and caster in (Sonubaits black roach and river). Then spent 45 minutes on the feeder casting fairly regular to begin. There were a few small fish about it seemed, and I had 2 roach and a chublet and then another small roach. Reeling the small roach in I noticed a fish chasing it, thinking pike I reeled faster, but it grabbed it. As I pulled I saw it was a big perch over 2lb, but just as I got excited it came off. I was gutted but it would have been a bit jammy to have caught it. Bites tailed off, other than a couple of big Ruffe and tiny perch. 

I thought I would let the feeder line settle and get on the pole, confident of a few roach. Well I got that wrong, 30 minutes of trying gave me just 4 tiny perch. Back on the feeder and another Ruffe and no bites, this was even worse than I expected. Rich was in the same boat and we were head scratching. On my right Warren Bates had just a couple of small fish, and on my left Lee Warden had less than a pound. It was rock hard, only Dean on A8 had caught a few fish on the feeder early and had 3lb. Dean has drawn the same peg every time so he was a bit annoyed!

Middle of the match and nothing was happening, no bites on the waggler or anything. I got off my box and got a chop worm pole rig out, 1g rig with 14 to 0.15. Bait dropped some worm and caster at an angle 10m down the peg. First two looks over this line yielded a one ounce perch each time. Another waste of bait? The boredom was interrupted by a good bit of banter, and one of Warrens trolley tyres randomly exploding! Occasionally I’d shout down to Lee to make sure he was still awake lol. Also a strange creature swam across the river to my bank, a snake, no, a rat, no… it was a squirrel, glad I had witnesses!

About 2 hours to go I caught 2 roach on the pole out of the blue, but they were the only ones. Another Ruffe on the feeder, and then an hour to go I decided to give the chop worm line one last look. I waited and had a very tentative bite just as before, expecting another tiny perch I was shocked when the elastic came out of the pole. Maybe it was that perch, but then I saw it was an eel and after a couple of attempts it was the net, had to be a good pound and a half, so a mini bonus. I ended the match on the feeder looking for a bream but it never came. Rich and I both were looking at 3lb, and thought we would blow out.

As I packed up the thunder started and I was hoping that the rain would hold off. Derek was on the scales and when he got to me the sky was getting darker over Bath. My fish went 3lb 10oz, catch shot not great due to apprentice photography 😂

As expected I was the wrong end of the section and got 4 points from 8. As you can see on the section board my neighbours faired worse. Mike Weston found a couple of bream to win the section and he won the match, top man.

In A section Rich Got 3 points, again wrong end of section, Dean did really well.

As we pushed our trolleys back the thunder got louder and spots of rain fell. What we didn’t need was Dereks trolley upsetting… twice… FFS 😂. Got back to the van as the downpour started and didn’t stop for well over an hour! Through the pouring rain the results were done by Dean. Poor weights today, only the top three had any bream. Overall the top pair in the league were Craig Pinker and Jan Mazcyk, well done chaps! Jerry Pocock and Nick Coles were second. Myself and Rich were tied third with Mike Weston and Pete, but we got the verdict on weight. Well we were chuffed with that given the pegs we had today. 

This has been a great league, hopefully more people will join in next season. Now it’s time to get ready for the winter leagues. My Preston Innovations has a team in the Angling Trust league, and a team in the Commercial House. I would love to get a chance on a couple of fliers 😊

Bathampton Pairs series round 4

This round of the six match series was back at the Trees section of the Bristol Avon at Saltford. Saturday was busy for preparation.. an hour spin class at 10am, dash to Scott’s Tackle to collect my bait, tie a few more hooks, check everything was ready and put some groundbait in the carryall. At 2pm I was in the Jolly Cobbler with Glenn Bailey and Mark Jeffries with a pint of Guinness. We met up with Paul Benson and our other mates in the Wellington pub before watching Bristol Rovers finally getting a first day win after 13 years. Some more Guinness rounded off a great day, all good prep for Sunday 😂.

After an early night I was up at 6:30 and soon loading the van (nothing forgotten), and dived in McDonalds drive through. I decided to pay cash to get some change for the pools, but that backfired when I was handed £15 of pound coins, fifty pence and 20 pence pieces!! When I got to the draw I counted out the coins and gave them to Dean Harvey and ran. Let’s just say I guess by his language he was not impressed, Rich Lacey nearly pissed himself 😂.

As Rich has been doing well in the drawbag I let him go again, he got A4 and me B3. Last match here A section was rank and B section better but down the lower end, so we weren’t really sure how we would do. When I got to my peg I was not that impressed, no far bank tree cover, just reeds. 

Since bream have shown every round the first thing I set up was a gbait feeder with 0.13 to 14 N30. I mixed up the usual Sonubaits Dark F1 and Sweet Skimmer for this. Although the peg was cramped and close to the path I set the pole up as I reckoned it would be best for presenting the bait with a down stream wind. A 1.5 pencil rig and 2gm bodied rig were put up with 18 N10 to 0.10 Accu Power. I also set up a whip and waggler but they were not used.

At 9:30 we started and I had 10 fairly quick casts on the feeder, casting about two thirds across. No lucky early bream for me, so onto the pole where I chucked in 8 balls of gbait (Sonubaits Black River and Black Roach). I started on the positive 2g rig and had 1 roach, onto the pencil rig and it was a struggle. I did manage to pull out some very small roach on single maggot but when this faded I picked up the feeder.

It was nearly 11am and I only had just over a pound I thought, the feeder had not produced a bite. I added some chopped worm and caught a Ruffe, great 😂. However, at 11:10 I had a lovely pull round and hooked a bream. Despite the increased boat traffic I landed it safely, maybe 3lb. Next cast worm and maggot on hook and probably waited all of 2 minutes for another pull round, this one was nearer 5lb. Next cast a perch, then next cast another bream. By 11:50 I had added another bream and a skimmer. About 16lb in aniut 40 minutes, happy days. 

All went quiet, just odd little perch and another Ruffe, but after my last match I was thinking that I would get a few more later. Unfortunately the vibes were not good, and the feeder was now dead. I picked up the pole to try it again but was not confident that I would catch, but I was wrong. By fishing the pencil float and maggot I could now catch 3oz to 4oz roach, I had 30 minutes catching then as soon as it slowed I went back on the feeder. The feeder line was still dead and after 25 minutes I was back on the pole and the roach were back. I caught them steady until 30 minutes of the match was left, and then went back on the feeder, but no last chance bream today.

I hadn’t heard much rumours about what had been caught, but  upstream Derek Coles said he only had 5lb, below me Tony Twist had a couple of bream and a skimmer. Rich had been struggling up in A section. I was packed away quickly and wandered down to see Lee Warden getting weighed in, he had 2 bream and a couple of decent eels, but he had lost 2 bream. He weighed 14lb 6oz which was top at that point. Whilst we weighed Lee in 2 bream rolled in his peg!

Tony weighed 12lb 10oz and then it was my turn. I put 3 bream on the scales for 12lb 10oz and then the rest of my fish also went 12lb 10oz for 25lb 4oz.  That was enough for me to win the section, but I was told that Warren Bates in A section had 5 or 6 bream so it sounded like he was going to win the third match on the trot. When I pushed my trolley back up the bank all the A section anglers were gone and so I didn’t know what was caught until I got back to the car park. The first person I saw was Warren and after winding me up he then told me I had won the match. Turned out the first three anglers in A section all had a few bream, as you can see from the sheet, and they all framed.

1st Tim Ford 25lb 4oz

2nd Warren Bates 22lb 6oz

3rd Craig Pinker 21lb 7oz

4th Jerry Pocock 19lb 4oz

Dean Harvey had the last laugh today, he put all the coins I gave him in my winners envelope! I just knew he would 😂😂😂. (Update, just bought 4 cans of Moretti in my local shop and paid for them with 50 pences 😂)

On the pairs front Rich and I extended our lead to 9 points, but fair play to Rich he was the best in A section without a bream with 3lb 12oz and that was a great result for us. I was really pleased with how my day had gone, I was not expecting to have that good a day but it just shows you never know. I cannot make round 5 but have super sub Matt Challenger standing in for me. Think it might be a few weeks till I get out again due to other commitments.