Philtone Teams of 4 Acorn Fishery

 Hope everyone reading this has had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the new year. Neil Mercer has run this match for a number of years now albeit on different venues. There were 20 anglers split into five teams of four anglers, my team was captain Mark Bromsgrove, Ricky Mills, Jamie Brown and myself. Mark was the only angler who fishes Acorn regularly, and I was next after my few matches back here in the summer fishing for silvers. 

I picked up my Thatchers team mate Andy Ottaway who was in one of the other teams, this would be his first visit to Acorn. We all met up at 8am at the Bridge Inn for breakfast and a good chat. The draw was soon done and from my teams envelope I pulled peg 40 a bridge peg, Mark was the other side of the bridge on 6, Ricky on 25 and Jamie on 15. My section ran from me back to peg 29.

It was cold and low cloud meant there was a tiny bit of drizzle now and then. However, I could still easily see the anglers on the island including Martin Reyat on fancied peg 5.

It wouldn’t take long setting up and based upon what my captain said I had 3 rigs. A 4x16 for fishing at 9m in the deepest water, a couple of 4x12 rigs one for 12m and one for against the bridge, both at around 3 1/2 to 4 feet deep. I had 18 GPM to 0.11 powerline on all rigs. I was going with maggot as my feed today but did have some corn and micro ready to try.

We started at 10:15 and it was really slow it seemed, my 12m opening gambit spot didn’t yield a single indication. I moved to 9m in the deep water straight in front, but nothing doing here either, so tried the 9m line next to the bridge which was my banker. This time I had a bite and hooked a decent fish, but I soon realised it was fouled and after playing it for a good 5 minutes plus I pulled out of it. Back to the bridge and liner, then another bite, hooked it and this fish charged off under the bridge. After a few minutes everything went slack, line had snapped just below the bulk so clearly the fish had found the underwater stanchion, think it was fouled too. Third time lucky I hoped, and indeed I was hooked up again to a smaller carp that was hooked in the mouth, but it came off as I was about to net it.  Not the best of starts then!

At this stage Mark in 6 had netted a few fish, Freddie Harper-Wojtyla had missed 1 bite on 38, but Steve Spencer on 36 had a few carp from fishing down his margin. By the bridge had gone quiet and so tried back in front of me, I had my one and only bite here, lost another fouler. Finally just after the hour I had my first carp in the net at 5lb, soon followed by a 4lber, both from the bridge. 

Had to rest it and go round my swims for nothing at all. Then about 2 hours in hooked a good carp than swam away from the bridge and up to Freddie. Luckily I just managed to turn it and get it under control, a nice 8lb common hooked in the mouth. It was a one off and I was really struggling, so went round the swims again. Three hours in and get my first bite at 12m, fish hooked and took off under the bridge, this was really pulling and I was just waiting for the line to snap when I saw the fish boil nearly in peg 7. Somehow the line held, after pulling the fish a long way from the bridge I finally thought it was safe to break down to the top set. Eventually got the net under the carp, it had been hooked in the pectoral fin and was a double figure common.

With 2 hours to go Freddie got his first carp, but mine and Marks pegs really switched off, Mark had double what I had but he couldn’t get a sign now. I managed to catch just two more fish, both tench about 3lb each. Freddie had a couple more carp and tench to end better.

Scales were coming to me last and it was getting quite dark so no pictures today. My section was being won by Steve Spencer with 52lb, my fish went 33lb 11oz which was just enough to get me second in the section, my biggest carp was weighed at 11lb 5oz. 

Back at the Bridge Inn Neil did the results. 

1st on the day Martin Reyat 104lb peg 5

2nd Neil Mercer 103lb peg 9

3rd Jamie Brown 93lb peg 15

On the team front my team had tied for first with Neil’s team, but we lost out on weight by 9lb. My consolation was taking the biggest fish prize and a tenner lol.

There was a match at Newbridge today and I expected it to fish well for bream, it did with 56lb, 54lb, 47lb and 44lb.

Next fishing for me is I don’t know just yet, will see in a couple of weeks.

Happy New Year!

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 🍻