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.

Bathampton pairs series- Round 3

I had a busy week as I was up in Richmond at my new employers HQ for a week of induction and training. A thoroughly enjoyable experience and my fellow employees were very friendly. Despite having 3 months off I was able to get back into the routine.

Back to Newbridge for the third round of this 6 match series, and I picked up my bait and my partner Rich Lacey’s bait on Saturday. Didn’t need to do much prep as all my rigs were still in one piece. The weather forecast was showing it would be a hot sunny day, so made sure I had plenty of drinks, sun tan lotion and a hat ready.

Sunday morning and I was at Greggs Longwell Green for 7am, it was supposed to be open but it wasn’t ready, off to McDonalds then. I got to Newbridge in good time, paid my pools and gave Rich his bait. The pegging was going to be a little bit different to the first match due to some boats moored up, this despite a huge sign saying no mooring is allowed. In fact pegger Derek Coles had a bit of a run in with one of these boaters, but it got calmed down. Apparently Dean Harvey has now been on Amazon and has bought Derek a pair of boxing gloves 😂.

Anyway, the draw got underway and as before I let Rich go first, at the moment this boy can draw as he pulled A1 which was peg 18, my favourite peg. My turn and I got B4 which I didn’t know where it was but would soon find out. A nice warm walk along the river and I was soon sweating, I found my peg and I was on old peg 52. In the first match this section was dominated by bream, but with the hot sun I wondered if they would feed, however, the river did have a good colour again.

I set up a feeder rod for bream with 0.13 to 14, waggler, and two pole rigs, but they won’t get much of a mention. I mixed up some Sonubaits Dark F1 and Sweet Skimmer for the feeder, as well as roach and river for the pole.

I had Nick Coles below me on 54 and last match winner Warren Bates on 49, peg 50 in between us had a boat moored up and so Warren had a lot of room as Graham Hunt above him was on 46.

We started as per usual at 9:30 and I kicked off on the feeder having 10 fairly quick casts and did catch a roach and missed a couple of small fish bites. Bream trap set I went onto the pole and cupped in 4 balls, as I did this I thought I saw a bream roll across. Onto the pole and I had bites but it was only from small roach and bleak which were grabbing the bait on the drop. I’d seen another 3 bream roll during this, not over my feeder line but close enough. I wasn’t going to let that go and so went on the feeder again. First cast on 3 red maggots and ragged out, next cast on worm and ragged out. OK on with 2 worms to try to get past the bits, result proper pull round bite and bream on. Put that one in the net about 45 minutes into the match. A few casts later and just as a rowing boat was going in front of me the tip pulled round again, another bream on and had to keep the tip under water as the rowers went over. Fifteen minutes later another bream, and 15 minutes later another bream on, this time a large barge was closing in fast, I had to crank this bream in hard and just got it my side of the barge, phew! The lady on the boat said she’d seen another like that but mine was bigger, I thanked her and said it was nice of her 😂😂😂. Both her and her husband laughed 😂.

Warren must have heard that and rang me up to see what I had, my four bream was less than his 5 bream which he had in 5 casts, the first after 15 minutes! Nick Coles was only getting bits at this stage but did have a skimmer.

My next hour was quiet and I had just a few small perch and a 10oz chub, then a bream. I’d heard that a few bream were coming out, and Rich had started to get them so good news. Nick below me then had 3 bream in about 30 minutes, so after a good start I was struggling, but there was no point fishing for anything else other than bream now.

It was a struggle with no bites, but this is bream fishing and I just had to stick it out on the tip. I think about 2 hours to go when out of the blue I had 2 more bream in 2 casts. Very welcome fish on a worm and red maggot, but no more followed. Sadly other than a roach that was my lot, but Warren had done well and more bream on the feeder and waggler, could I get second in section?

Mike Weston on the end peg in the Norfolk reeds had the scales, and when he got to me Nick Coles was best with 21lb 10oz. My fish went 31lb 8oz, the first 4 bream in the picture went 16lb 14oz.

Warren then obliterated that and weighed 62lb 10oz, a great bag and well done mate. Above Warren the next angler Graham Hunt had 22lb 9oz which included 5 bream. Poor old Dean Harvey was on B1 and the peg I had first match (I beat 1 angler) and it was crap again as he came last in section with 2lb. Yet on A8 and A7 above Dean both anglers had bream. Top 4 anglers are paid out and I got 4th, hers the frame and section default winners. Well done Warren on winning two matches on the trot. 

Weigh sheets are below, and you’ll see that my partner Rich won A section, that meant we were top pair on the day and this has put us on top the league at the halfway stage with 35 points, Mike Weston and his partner Pete have 30 points and Jerry Pocock and Nick Coles have 29. All very close! I am chuffed to finally get amongst the bream after 2 tough matches, it’s certainly proving to be Peggy and so good draws will be needed in future rounds. Not sure if I will be fishing next Sunday, will all depend on the weather as I’m supposed to be watching cricket.

Short River Session

I had a lot of casters left over from the previous two matches and a few hours available Thursday morning, so I thought I would give Saltford straight (Mead Lane) a go. I have watched Charles Halliday videos on YouTube fishing here, and it seemed the fishing was good and the boats were no longer moored up.

I got out there about 9:30, and took a drive along the straight as I couldn’t see a parking spot (road is double yellow lines). Unfortunately the first two thirds of the straight were blocked by moored boats 🤬🤬🤬. The very end is private slipway, but there were a few spaces. I drove back up to where the parking is to see if any cars had moved, they hadn’t. But then I saw Charles who was going fishing upstream as he had also seen the boats. He told me I could park in the Jolly Sailor car park but would have to pay so I drove back down there. I paid a fiver for four hours parking which was the maximum, and pushed the gear up the road. I found a couple of platforms that had private mooring printed on them, no boats on them but I decided against fishing from them as didn’t want to get chucked off. Eventually I spied a small gap next to a post that said it was a deer crossing place. I didn’t think I would see any deer today in this heat.

Got my self in the peg, and quickly knocked up a bit of gbait and set up a 5g bolo float with 16 N10 to 0.11. 

With the hot sunny conditions I was a bit worried if the fish would feed, I wanted to fish as I did last Sunday at the Trees (which is upstream of here) so it was going to be regular small balls of gbait and caster. First run through nothing but second run down and a dace. In the first 30 minutes I had 6 dace and 1 roach all on single caster. I started to miss bites on the drop and had to shallow up, at one stage I was fishing a foot off bottom. As I fished on the roach moved in and the dace became few and far between. I had a couple of 10oz roach that were my biggest fish, but I did have 2 pike on which did slow things each time.

The wind got up a bit and made presentation awkward, the best bites came as the rig was settling and before the downstream wind caught the line. I fished for just 2 1/2 hours, but in that time I had 10lb of roach as most of the fish were 4oz to 6oz.

Awkward taking a photo on your own.

Nice to finally get a few fish on the river. This stretch had held roach here now for years, and as they are feeding well it makes me think are there not many roach at the moment up at Newbridge?  Back up there a week on Sunday and will find out I guess.  Until then that’s the fishing done for me.

Acorn Fishery Costcutter

My last week of garden leave and my last chance to fish this Tuesday regular, and popular, match at Acorn for a very long time. After my dismal performance last Tuesday to catch carp and not enjoying it, I was back with my silvers focus. The payout is less for silvers than overall of course, but my personal payoff is the enjoyment of doing what I love. After another breakfast roll at H&H burgers I arrived at the fishery in good time. At the weekend the silvers weights had been on the low side, and after the rain I was wondering how it would fish.

I drew peg 37 today, it’s by the car park and near the draw hut. Eddie Wynne said tench peg, but as I had seen since I had been there 36 and 37 had carp showing everywhere. My mind was still set on the silvers, and in any case I have seen this before only for the carp to disappear. I had plenty of casters and worms with me (too many) from the weekend left overs and what I had ordered. However, I’ve not seen a big need for worms myself so I decided on a three plan approach today. I picked three spots; top set plus two, and 11m in front and 11m off to the left in the middle. These areas were pretty much the same depth, but I thought I could feed these a little differently. Rigs were standard.5g or 4x16 with 16 GPM to 0.13, a shallow rig was set up but I never had a bite on it.

Starting at 10am I fed a small amount of worm with caster on my short line. Couple of balls of gbait containing casters and micro at 11m in front, and potted just casters off to the left. I started short whilst letting the two longer swims get going. Twenty minutes short and nothing. Over on the gbait nothing, off to the left and a 6oz tench, a small skimmer joined it and that was all I had after an hour! I couldn’t believe how bad a start I had and just hoped I could draw some silvers in as peg 36 and 40 were fishing for carp.

Two small tench and a skimmer then quickly obliged from the gbait line, I thought that this was now going to be better, but I fouled a tench and had 2 carp here soon after. I rested this line and refed, I resisted feeding gbait on the other lines. I was loose feeding casters over the 11m line to the left, and now more bubbles started to appear, but it was still a struggle to get a bite, triple red maggot did get me another tench and a skimmer but also a carp. Three hours gone and 12lb in the net, I needed a brilliant last 3 hours.

The fourth hour was better, and the short line was really fizzing now. I had only been potting in casters here (to avoid drawing carp in) but I started to throw casters in to try to make something happen. Trying maggots or casters in the hook wasn’t making a massive difference, and I was frustrated to lose a couple more fouled tench, and land a huge F1. But I knew that I now had fish short.

At 2pm with 2 hours left Glenn Bailey gave me a call to ask how the match was going, I said I had really struggled but might have 20lb of silvers. This coincided with me trying a worm on the hook again (despite not having fed worms on this line since beginning of the match). This time it was a revelation, tench, skimmer, tench whilst on the phone. My tench had mostly been averaging a pound, but I now had a couple knocking 4lb and skimmers up 2 1/2lb. With 25 minutes left my great spell of catching stopped and it was back to no bites, but I did have a big skimmer on the whistle, I knew that I had over 50lb after that great spell.

Reflecting on the match I had been told before by some regulars here that getting the silvers on the short line late was the way to bag, but in my previous matches here I had not managed to do that, glad I persisted today. The scales came to me from the Island where Gary Flinders on peg 1 was best with 208lb, think Hadyn Withers on peg 4 had 20lb of silvers (I forgot to get pictures of the sheets doh). Antony Piekielniak on peg 40 had caught well all day and he went into to the overall lead with 219lb. My turn next, 20lb of accidental carp, then silvers net one goes 26lb 12oz… silvers net two 26lb 13oz. I was well happy with 53lb 9oz. I carried on packing up and chatting and didn’t follow the scales, but Gary Bowden on peg 34 reckoned I would win the silvers.

Picture below is of my second net of fish.

Eddie Wynne gave us the results..

1. Antony Piekielniak           219-07 p40

2. Gary Flinders                    208-06 p1

3. Simon Stacey                   157-12 p2

4. Gary Bowden                    155-14 p33

5. Paul Faiers                        137-14 p6

6. John Dursley                     133-14 p5

Silver's 

1. Tim Ford                             53-09 p37

2. John “Turkey” Thompson   33-02 p31

I was most pleased to win the silvers, and on my 5 matches here since June I have won the silvers 4 times, just messed up last time fishing for carp lol! I can honestly say I have loved fishing Acorn for the silvers, and I have loved meeting and chatting with the crew of anglers that fish here. I mean I even looked forward to seeing Merv Sivell who always manages to make me laugh with his great wind ups, Up The Gas Merv 😂. 

I will probably have to be retired to fish these matches again, but it’s been a blast and I look forward to it. We ended with a few of us enjoying a pint in the Prince of Waterloo in Winford, happy days 😊😊😊

Bathampton Pairs Series

Back to the river and the second round of six of this series. I was advised by match organiser Dean “Turkey Teeth” Harvey that the match would be held in the Trees section of the river (by Stothert and Pitt Rugby club). Fair play to Dean and Derek Coles and others who did some great work swim clearing before hand, these guys are doing their best to keep the river matches going.

I woke up before my alarm clock went off Sunday and had plenty of time to get ready and some grub. The Trees section can be very peggy and usually the further down the section the better it can be. Derek had pegged it and advised that bream were rolling in the bottom of B section and predicted B6, B7 and B8 to do well. As last match I had a bad one it meant partner Rich Lacey and I needed to have a good match to drag ourselves up the board. I let Rich draw and he got himself end peg B8, good start, he got me A6 which really meant nothing as probably would be a fair section I hoped.

Got to the peg and noticed how coloured the river was, must have been some heavy rain upriver maybe, hopefully not sewage related. The pace on the river was slow but it varied.

I was going to have to get in the river to fish comfortably, and so was a bit miffed I didn’t bother to bring my platform, still with extended legs it was OK just.

As I was setting up I realised I had left my feeder reels on my ready made up carp rods, but luckily that kind man Dean Harvey leant me one, Dean was on A7 below me, and about 100 yards upstream of me was Mike Weston on A5. We three had a bit of banter just before the match started 😂. Also during setting up I got bit on the arm by a large ant, but that wasn’t as bad as Lee Wardens partner Craig who tripped up fell in and split his nose when his box landed on his face.. ouch. Thankfully he was ok and fished the match.

I wasn’t expecting a lot of fish to be caught today, and so I decided against a balling in approach. Also I sacked the pole off deciding to go rods only. I put a 5g bolo up with 0.12 accupower to 18, a 4AAA waggler with same hook, and a gbait feeder with 14 to 0.15.

Match started 9:30, there were already plenty of rowers about, I started on the bolo throwing in a small ball of gbait with caster and hemp, meanwhile I could hear the barrage of gbait going in elsewhere. It took three casts to get a bite which I missed, and missed the next, I was already thinking the pole would have been better as the flow was so slow. But I started connecting with the bites, catching a few small roach, perch that were all swung in. The river then started to run faster, this seemed to kill the bites but I got one more and when I struck it felt like a better fish. Wasn’t sure what it was but after a couple of minutes saw it was a poxy pike with a chublet in its mouth. I kept the pressure on and was rewarded when the pike finally let go. Probably 6oz, but was badly injured. The bolo line was dead now, and then due to a boat changing direction I lost my rig to it, would put another on as I fished the feeder.

Onto the gbait feeder, I had not fed this at all and wanted to get a feel for it but would have 6 fairly quick casts. After an hour on the feeder I had got 1 ruffe… Dean below me had ounces at this stage, as did Jerry Pocock below him, but Mike had caught some small fish on a whip. I probably had 1lb 8oz at best. Middle part of the match was dire for me, wanted to try the wag but too many boats, bolo line was still dead, feeder produced another Ruffe. My partner Rich had started well as he caught some roach on the pole and had a couple of good eels, no bream despite him seeing 3 roll. Out of desperation I decided to throw 4 balls of gbait on the bolo line as it couldn’t make it worse. Had about 10 runs through on the bolo and was about to give up when I had a bite out of the blue, a nice perch of 12oz and definitely a bonus. But that was the last bite on this line.

Finally the boats abated and I could feed and fish the waggler line. I could get the odd bleak and was at least putting something in the net, couldn’t catch any chublets that had been showing themselves along the river before the match started. A large barge going to fast went right over the waggler line, that killed it for 15 minutes. Got the bleak back but bites tailed off, that was fine as I planned to spend the last 30 minutes on the feeder looking for a bonus. With 5 minutes left I had the tiniest of bites and wasn’t going to strike, but the tip moved a tiny bit again and again so I struck. Wasn’t the bream I wanted, but a 6oz hybrid. Match over.

Another tough day on the river for me, but I felt like I had fished a decent match, but not sure how I would do in the section.

Jerry and Dean below had 7oz and 8oz respectively showing how tough it was, my fish went 4lb 2oz which I was fine with today.

Mike above me paralysed our section with 13lb which was a bream and 4 skimmers, but nobody else had a bream in our section. I ended up third in the section as Jeff Surmon had 5lb 6oz, he had quite a few chublets on the float and feeder.  As the anglers started to walk up the bank it was clear that A section had fished much better than my section. The winner came from B6 Warren Bates having 35lb 2oz of bream. Warren explained he had some quick casts on the feeder to start and during these quick casts he caught 2 bream, a great start but he had a long wait for 4 more, well done. Rich had managed a small bream and had 10lb 2oz which got him second in the section and third overall.

Weigh sheets here..

As for the pairs, well it was a bit of a twist with many who did well last round bombing out this time. Myself and Rich were top pair on the day, this dragged us up to second overall now on 20 points. Mike Weston and Pete are leading with 24 points, but as you’ll see it’s all very tight at present. Next match is in 2 weeks time back upstream at Newbridge.

Acorn Fishery Costcutter

 These Tuesday matches are quite nice, shame I’ve only got one more I can fish. By leaving home before 7am I seem to get ahead of the traffic and get a good run down. There were lots of large puddles around on Tuesday morning after the heavy overnight rain, so steady driving was a necessity.

About 22 fishing today, and with a Southerly wind a large part of the lake was going to be affected by the 15 to 20 mph winds. I drew peg 13 which was in the wind, and certainly not flat calm like a few weeks ago when I drew 12 and had a lot of tench. Gary Bowden told me it was a great carp peg and that I should fish for them today, another angler said similar and so I was turned from my usual all out silvers approach. However, I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing.

I got to my peg and realised the wind would keep most of the pole sections in the hold-all. I set up a method feeder for fishing across, a paste rig for top set in front (0.17 to 12 XSH), a 4x14 for the margin with same terminal gear, lastly a 4x16 rig for silvers at top set plus two sections. I had Paul Faires on my left on 15 who knows this place like the back of his hand, he used to only fish for silvers but now he’s all carp. At the weekend the silvers was won with 80lb of skimmers and there was a 60 and 50, looking at past results my peg hadn’t featured in silvers weights.

When the match started I thought I would feed some casters and then fish the method feeder. That was my first mistake of the day! As I struggled on the tip Paul and above him Tony Wittcomb both began by fishing short and both were catching, the guy on 12 also on the tip had nothing. After 25 mins of wasting my time I dropped in on my paste line at top set, had a 7lb carp and missed a bite, that was it. Paul and Tony stopped catching and switched to the method feeder across and caught on this… I went back on the method for nothing at all. Paul had micros on his feeder the same as me.

1 hour and 20 minutes in I gave my silvers line a try, it wasn’t easy in the wind at first with just a roach, but after 40 minutes of trying it I had a few small tench but I thought I was going to be miles off the pace like this. I was probably 50lb behind Paul by now and I guessed that my only chance was to catch some carp in the margins and short, but I would need to bag up in the last 2 hours. An odd fish was coming in to my margin and I caught one and lost one but then had to rest it. A few carp turned up on my paste line, but they were small, and Paul

Was now catching lumps in his margin and I was getting well and truly battered. I felt out of my depth, knowing I was doing it all wrong but not having the slightest idea of what to do to improve things. Paul was though feeding gbait in his margins whilst I was feeding micro, was that making that much difference?

I limped through the last couple of hours catching odd fish on paste and another couple in the margin, all the while thinking why didn’t I just stick to fishing for silvers which even if I didn’t frame with I would have enjoyed more. 

The guy on 12 fished a method feeder all day around his peg, and he had 86lb that just beat me by a pound I think (I didn’t take much notice of my weight), my silvers were just under 8lb. Paul weighed in 187lb to give me a big lesson and show his class on this venue. He didn’t win though as Mr consistent Gary Bowden won with 211lb from peg 4. Gary caught on pellets short today feeding micro.  Another great angler Gary Flinders was third from sheltered peg 31 with 172lb mostly from his margins where he fed micros. 

Kev Perry took the silvers win with just 27lb from peg 23 and Turkey had 23lb for second from peg 1.  I can’t say for sure I would have beat those weights, but had I fished for silvers for 6 hours I would have liked to think I could’ve. Pretty much I messed the whole thing up today, and was glad to have a cider in the pub with Gary and Tony. I just don’t feel comfortable fishing for carp at the moment, so I’ve got one more chance to get a crack at the silvers next week here. This Sunday it’s back at Newbridge for the pairs series, and praying for a few fish in the peg this time.

Bitterwell Lake Over 55’s Match

After my recent matches where I have been targeting the silvers I fancied fishing for carp. Carp weights at Bitterwell are not usually that large so there’s no need for a bagging race. That was the plan, but I take my silvers stuff just in case.

Sadly only 11 anglers were fishing today, think quite a few are on holiday. Paul Isaacs pegged the match with 5 pegs on the road bank and 6 pegs along the car park bank. Two sections and each would have a silvers and overall winner. The car park bank is the fancied area, especially around 23 for silvers. I drew peg 3 on the road bank, and was told not great, so let’s go for carp I thought.

A view of the lake.

In my section today we’re as follows:-

Peg 1 John “Gashead” Smith

Peg 3 Tim Ford

Peg 4 Andy Gard

Peg 6 Martin McMahon 

Peg 8 Haydn Withers

As it’s a small friendly match with a chance of a small bit of dosh I decided to give the method feeder a go. Set that up with 16 KKM B to 0.19. Had a 4x16 for long pole and a 4x14 for fishing meat at top set plus two sections with 14 XSH to 0.17.

I started the match on the method, at my section Haydn and Martin were both going for carp, John and Andy silvers. Martin hooked 3 quick carp on the lead but only landed 1, then went a bit quiet. My method feeder was not gaining any interest but I kept frequently casting hoping to build the swim up… 1 hour and 20 minutes later I caught a skimmer on a yellow wafter. I had tried lots of differing hookbaits but now cut the band off and put red maggots on the hook. That worked, 3 skimmers in as many casts and then a carp hooked, only as I got it in close did I realise it was a tench, nice one about 4lb. Had a carp shortly after but then all went quiet. The wind was blowing all over the place and making life difficult for many of us, my accuracy began to suffer. Martin was now catching carp regularly, and I realised he was fishing the current in method a PVA bag. I knew then that I could not beat him, and as John and Andy didn’t have more than 5lb of silvers I switched over to fish for them.

I changed my pole rig hooks to 16GPM to 0.13, and began to feed a few bits of meat short, and fed some long, as well as some micro and corn long to my left. Not quite sure what I did wrong but I never caught a fish on the long pole 🙈. Andy next door then had 2 tench on paste in 2 drops but that was his lot. I managed to sneak out the odd skimmer on meat short, but I had to keep resting it. In the last hour John had a big tench in his margin, he hooked a few more fish but thankfully for me they were carp. I had a 1lb tench on meat late on and then a carp bust me up. I tried my margin and had a bite on the all out but it was a carp.

Match over and I already knew that Martin had won overall, and I would take the silvers, the scales confirmed this with Martin just doing a ton, well done mate. My silvers went 23lb 6oz for the section win. I enjoyed the match and the banter tremendously, but sadly that’s the last over 55’s match I can fish for a long time now, great bunch of blokes.

On the other bank Tony Ponting had 53lb to win and Shay Gilman took the silvers with 25lb 9oz. Well done both.

No fishing this weekend as off to watch a bit of Tennis  at a place called Wimbledon 🍻.

Acorn Fishery Costcutter

With no fishing last weekend I was glad to be able to get back down to Acorn again. Although I wanted to target the silvers again I was this time taking carp gear and bait depending on the peg I drew. 

After another pit stop at H&H I was at the fishery in good time. I think there was 23 anglers in attendance today, so a decent turnout again. I was really hoping to draw pegs 9 to 12 which is where I thought the tench might be. However, I pulled out peg 33 which is one of the bridge pegs. Good mate and venue expert Gary Bowden was drawn on 36 and his peg looked alive with fish whilst mine looked like there were no fish present. Gary told me that 34 was the better peg but I should be able to catch tench that like to live under the bridge. Another venue expert Paul Faires was on 34 and told me he was going to fish for carp, but that I should catch at least 30lb of silvers.

My mind was made up, silvers it was. I set a 4x12 rig up for fishing top set plus one to the yellow pipe, and a 4x14 for fishing 11m further along the bridge about 2 feet away from the pipe (I did try another line about 6m but binned it). Both rigs had 0.13 to 16 GPM to cope with tench and any accidental carp.

Starting at 10 I fed just casters to begin on both lines, nothing in close so out to the long line. It was slow going and when I finally caught it was a 12oz tench. I had a couple more but felt like I needed to change my feeding, so started to feed gbait with caster and worm in it. This increased the fizzing but it was still very hard, after the first hour I had 4 tench and 2 skimmers that would be about 6lb. It all seemed rather slow for everyone, especially to my right on 31 and 29 Phil Cooper and Merv Sivell were still trying to catch a fish!

Going into the second hour the short line produced a perch and that was it, but I continued to loose feed casters here. My long line was now devoid of tench it seemed as when I did get a fish it was a skimmer. Similar to my last match here changing hookbaits and feeding seemed to be important. I had some skimmers that were probably 3lb, so although I was waiting a long time for bites they were worth catching. In the middle of the match I managed to get a couple of skimmers and another perch from the short line. I had a bit of a problem though when one of the skimmers jumped out of the water and landed between the two pipes! I had to walk along the bank to get the landing net in the gap lol.

During the match I witnessed something like I have never seen before. I heard a loud buzzing getting louder, I thought it was a drone. I then noticed what I think was some hornets buzzing around me, I looked to my right and up and there were literally thousands! My first reaction was concern, if they decided to sting I would be jumping in the lake! Thankfully they slowly drifted off and disappeared, phew.

The last two hours were a grind, hardly any silvers and lots of small carp. Though in the last 15 minutes I had 3 skimmers, the very last one from the far line jumping between the pipes, this time I had to walk along the bridge net it and then feed the top set under the rail just as the all out was signalled. I looked at my clicker, it had 42lb on it for silvers, would that be enough?

My estimated weight was pretty good, with the scales registering 40lb. As you can see it was mostly skimmers today, think I had 6 tiny tench, 4 perch and 2 eels. I also weighed in 38lb of carp. To my right Phil and Merv didn’t weigh, but Paul on 34 had done well on carp.

Overall

1st Gary Bowden 179lb peg 36

2nd  Antony Piekielniak 166lb peg 12

3rd Paul Faires 160lb peg 34

Silvers

1st Tim Ford 40lb

2nd Eddy Wynne 34lb

Full peg sheets below. Well that’s my third silvers win on the trot at Acorn, but I still feel that I have not got sorted. Think I have 2 more chances to fish it before I go back to work. Off to Bitterwell Thursday for the over 55 match.

Acorn Fishery Costcutter

 After my lovely day here a couple of weeks ago catching tench I just had to come back and see if I could catch them again. I got booked in for the Tuesday costcutter and ordered some casters, I decided for me to enjoy myself I would fish for silvers again. Made some more deep rigs for the middle of the lake, and tied some hooks up.

I woke up really early Tuesday morning and finally decided I wasn’t going back to sleep so got up. This meant I had time to visit H&H for a breakfast roll and tea before getting to the fishery.

I paid my pools to Eddie Wynne and then went to the shop to pick up my casters, but none were available! Not to worry though as John Bradford was fishing and bringing the bait with him. It was nice to see John and a few others I’ve not seen for a while like Merv Sivell. Like I said I was here with a single minded approach for the silvers, and the man to beat was John Turkey Thompson who had won the last five Tuesday silvers prizes. Into the draw bag and out comes peg 5, oh dear, probably one of the best pegs on the lake for carp. However, I couldn’t really fish for carp as I had no pellets, so I was sticking to silvers.

Peg 5 is on the island, and it and peg 1 are at each end of the island giving you plenty of water to go at. Obviously conditions today red hot and sunny were much different to last time I was here, so I didn’t think the weights would be as good and so I decided I would try 2 lines today, a top set plus sections in front, and a line slightly to left at 11 metres, there was only about 2 inches difference in depth but I set up two rigs, a 4x14 for close and 4x16 for longer both had 16 GPM to 0.13 for starters. Martin Reyat rang me to offer advice and I did set up a pellet rig as Lee Waller gave me a bag of 4mm pellets. I knocked up some gbait which was a mix of F1 dark and sweet skimmer, and had worms and dead red maggots as well as casters.

Starting at 10am I tried the pellet at top set, not a bite so after 10 mins that was put on the roost not to be picked up again! I had started by feeding pots of casters on the whistle, and both lines were fizzing. Starting on the short line I caught 2 1lb tench but despite the fizzing no more. Out on the long line and a couple more small tench here on double caster, but again slow. I swapped between the two lines but was finding it hard to get more than 1 small tench and after about an hour the short line stopped fizzing. This prompted me to focus on the long line and by altering the amount of caster I was feeding I did manage to pick a couple of tench round the 3lb mark.

About two hours in I started feeding small balls of gbait with worm and caster in, it got me more fizzing and a couple more tench but also the carrassio seemed to like it! Carrasio are carp and so every time I hooked one I thought it was a tench and then I would see it and go bugger! I had also landed a couple of small carp. About halfway through Lee asked me if I had any skimmers and I said no. I then caught 3 skimmers in about twenty minutes lol. But I then had a really bad hour and caught just a few  non silvers! I tried a lighter hook and line but no difference, and then thought why not try my lighter rig. I plumbed it up and went out, and I started catching again slowly. I had more skimmers than tench in the last 90 minutes, and a lot more carassio and carp. I knew I would get carp trouble on this peg but it was still enjoyable fishing. Worm or maggots on the hook seemed better than casters today. When the match finished I had 42lb of silvers on my clicker (in two nets) and 50lb of carp. I had no idea what other silvers had been caught, but on peg 1 Simon Stacey had caught carp all day and was likely to be the winner.

My accidental carp went 51lb including this lovely goldfish 🥰

My silvers 42lb for a lovely days fishing.

Frame today..

1st Simon Stacey 245lb (pellets across) well done!

2nd Gary Bowden 204lb (paste, then pellets in margin)

3rd Gary Flinders 148lb (had 3 of his keepnets fall in the lake after the match, despite losing some carp it didn’t change his position.)

Silvers 1st Tim Ford 42lb.   2nd Turkey 36lb. (Sorry to end your run John 😂).

Phew that was a hot one! And why is it that despite covering myself with sunscreen lotion my knees always burn? 🙈😂  It was nice to get home and have a couple of cold beers (whilst watching England aimlessly knocking a ball around). Full results further down, not sure if I am going to fish a match Sunday as England are playing… I must be mad.