Over 55’s Match Bitterwell Lake

For some years now there’s been a group of anglers that formed an over 55 years of age match group. They fish matches on a Thursday and have traditionally fished at Hunstrete lakes, but due to issues they’ve now picked to fish Bitterwell. Due to my break from work I now can fish mid week so I asked if I could fish and I was told I could do so.

This match was to be every species counts, but the day before fishery manager Paul Isaacs said it had to be silvers only due to carp spawning. That meant I had to make a few more rigs and get some bait as my 8mm pellets approach was trashed lol.

Thursday morning and fought my way through the traffic to the lake and met my fellow over 55’s, well I think over 65 might have been more apt 😂. I was made to feel very welcome and looked forward to the match. I drew peg 20 which is under a tree and so some nice shade on a sunny day. On Tuesday I’d seen Paul Isaacs catch 40lb of silvers from 21 and so I was well coached and he gave me more advice and help today. I found out the payouts on this match are 1st and 2nd in section, my section started with me and went round to the car park bank which is a good area. Haydn Withers was on peg 23 which had won the last two silvers matches, and two pegs along on the end peg was Mike Nicholls. On 21 was Dave Gillard and he and I were being deafened by noise of spawning carp.

I set three rigs up today; 4x14 F1 maggot with a bulk, 4x12 F1 maggot with strung out shot, both had 0.11 to 16 SFLB. Also a 4x10 Chianti with 18 to 0.11 for fishing off bottom. My plan was start short top set plus two feeding maggots for as long as possible and then go to 13m looking to fill my net with skimmers and odd tench.

Match started at 10, I fed some worms at 13m and then started short on the maggots with 4x12 strung out rig. I had a steady start with a few 4oz hybrids, small perch and a couple of small skimmers. It died after 30 minutes so I added another section and had an another run of fish. I had a few on the 4x10 rig fishing off the deck, including a 12oz tench. After an hour and 15 minutes most people were struggling and having carp trouble, but Haydn and Mike had both caught quite a few skimmers. With the maggot line dead I went to 13m, only waited 10 seconds for the float to bury and then waited a tad longer to net and return a 9lb carp. After a long wait I got a skimmer but there no other signs.

I was falling a long way behind Mike and Haydn, so I opened another 13m line but fed this with maggot and caster since the worm was not great for me. The next two hours were a real grind for me, I hooked another 3 carp, and caught 2 skimmers off the long lines. I thought that the silvers would have backed off, but as it seemed not I wondered if they were right in close to the margins enjoying some carp spawn. I plumbed up left and right with my 4x10 rig and began feeding small amounts of maggot. Carp spawning activity had slowed but there were many in the area, at one time 19. Poor Dave on 20 was plagued by them, and only had a couple of tench.

The last 2 1/2 hours of the match were very satisfying for me, catching roach up to 12oz, odd hybrid, 3 small tench up to 2 1/2lb and of course did lose a couple more carp. I had to keep resting it and swap between lines, but only the margins yielded fish. Should have worked this out earlier, but to be fair in all my coaching this was not in the plan 😆

Match over and Haydn looked like the winner but Mike had endured a poor last couple of hours so it might be close. Mike to weigh first and his weight 18lb 4oz, he had some quality skimmers caught on wag and mag, lovely.

Haydn went into the lead with a similar bag of fish that went 21lb 4oz, he caught on the pole and worm. My net of fish went 19lb 7oz definitely a bit more than I thought! Nice picture of my fish with Paul showing off one of the quality roach.

As you can see from the pictures there was a big difference in the fish caught, I’d set my stall out to catch skimmers like Mike and Haydn caught, but eventually changed tact. It was a good decision on my part as I came second with my catch to the winner Haydn, well done H! Mike was third and venue expert Martin McMahon was 4th with 16lb 7oz.

A nice day’s fishing if a little hard at times, and the carp certainly interrupted a lot of anglers baits during the day.  Went back to the Ring O Bells pub for a roll and a pint, good crowd there, and saw the lads from Windmill match and so I booked in to fish there on Sunday.

Windmill Fishery Open

 Back at Windmill again for the Sunday open. There’s currently two finals later this year, one for qualifiers from Thursday matches, and one for Sunday’s. I missed out on qualifying on Thursday by 2lb, but felt I could have a good chance with a decent peg today. It was a pleasant start to the day weather wise although showers were forecast for later. The draw was done before 9am and I was gutted when the bottle top I pulled out had number 20 on it. 20 and 21 have been awful for a long time and I knew I would not stand a chance to qualify today, reluctantly I decided to just go for the silvers. 

Peg 20 is probably 17m wide, and with pegs 19 and 21 not pegged I had lots of room. I set up 3 rigs, a 4x10 for fishing shallow/ on the drop. A 4x12 for margin and across as depth was the same. Lastly a 4x16 for the deep water. An 18 SFL to 0.10 accu power was used on all rigs for starters. I mixed up some gbait Thatchers and F1, soaked some micros, and had some dead red maggots and some live maggots supplied to me by Martin McMahon who was helping young Charlie Isaacs fish this match. Charlie is son of my team mate and Bitterwell lake manager Paul Isaacs. Charlie has qualified to represent England under 15’s this year, big congratulations to him for this achievement.

Match started at 10:30 and initial feed was 4 spots, top set plus 2 at angles left and right, similarly at 13m. Steady on the feed and gbait on right, micros on left to keep options open. I fed maggots left and right near the margins. The top set plus 2 lines were a complete waste of time, never had a bite on them all day! Out to my long lines, over the micro tried soft pellet, red maggot live and dead, not so much as a rattle, over the gbait and a bite at last! But it was a fouled carp that soon broke me. An hour gone and nothing in the net! On peg 18 Gerry Welsh was fishing for carp and was also blanking.

I tried live maggot in the margins and caught one 3oz perch, maybe more time needed for the roach to show. Tried my other lines again but still not a bite, so plumbed a new spot at 14.5m into shallower water. Fed a mix of gbait, micro and dead reds, and left it for 15 mins. When I went over this new line I had a bite within seconds, unfortunately it was a carp of 3lb which I landed. I then had a 3oz skimmer and then lost a skimmer which was fouled, then lost a fouled carp, and that was the end of that. This was not going to plan. I did manage to get 6 or 7 little roach and perch in the margins, but it just was poor I wouldn’t give it long.

Three hours in and my 13m micro line showed some signs of life at last, I was getting tiny indications on the float that I thought my be liners, and several times the float slid under slowly and my strike resulted in no resistance. My patience was rewarded though, two 3oz skimmers in two drops followed by a near 2lb skimmer. Maybe this was the arrival of a few… hell no lol.

Gerry had now got a tiny perch, and was really hacked off as he could see anglers on the opposite bank catching carp regularly, luckily I couldn’t see them. Brolly went up soon after as the predicted rain arrived, it wasn’t really a hindrance to me as I was mostly sat like a gnome. I tried another new line at 16m to my left a bit, just another carp lost here. With an hour left I’d fed a small amount of meat at 6m looking for a bonus skimmer whilst knowing a carp could get in on the act. I did get 1 bite on the meat, a large carp hooked in the mouth that was soon leaving me to put another hook length on. The 13m micro line gave me another bite with about 40 mins left, and it was a 1.5lb+ skimmer. That was it for me, but Gerry soon after caught his first and only carp.

What a struggle that was, I reckoned on having 5lb of silvers which really wasn’t going to be enough based on recent silver weights here. However, I’d given it my all for 6 hours and was going to weigh in, Gerry was soon packed up though, and he said we’d been on the worst 2 pegs today and he wondered why the fish don’t seem to want to be in this area. The scales soon arrived from peg 12, and I was surprised to see 1lb 12oz was the best silvers so far, my fish went 5lb 4oz and top on my side of the lake.

As you can see one of the skimmers had some red marks on it, I’m sure this is damage as a result of spawning.

When the scales came back from the other side of the lake (where the fish evidently were) I was told there were two higher silver’s weights. However, the anglers who had those would frame and so I ended up winning the silvers, which was a bonus on a tough day. Steve Salter got 2nd in silvers with a 2lb perch and skimmer for a 3lb 14oz total.

Winner overall today was Paul Barnfield who had 163lb from peg 10 on worm and micros.

2nd Nic Sanders 124lb peg 2

3rd L Reynolds 112lb peg 6

My next match is Thursday at Bitterwell lake, and my debut in the over 55’s club, really looking forward to it.

Windmill Fishery Cost Cutter

 Another week on garden leave and another week where spring let alone summer is yet to arrive in Bristol. The thunderstorms in the early hours of Thursday morning woke me up, so I was a little tired when the alarm went off. It was a cold and grey start and it was the same all day just a bit of rain too. No photos as phone stayed in my pocket.

This was my first Thursday match at Windmill, and looking at prior matches the weights aren’t quite as good as they are on a Sunday for some reason. Possibly the 30 minute earlier start and finish? Anyway, talk at the draw was you still needed to be at the bottom end of the lake, pegs 9 to 16 to do well. Once again I drew bang opposite on peg 25 in the deeps, hmmm. I had this peg last time I was here and was 3rd with just under 74lb, that day I had a good 90 minutes slapping a pellet in the LH margin but then really struggled till a few late margin dwellers. Plan today was much the same as last time, a slapping rig, close margin rig, I went with a straight lead to the island as I could feed 8mm pellets with no wind. Also set up a paste rig as signs of blowing fish raised my confidence… I’ll say now that was wrong and the paste was a waste.

We started at 10am and I shipped down to 14m and was soon into a carp by the reeds. A 4lb common, they are buggers to get out of the reeds, 10lb lumps are easier! After an hour I had 4 of these common carp in the net for 18lb and a steady start. On my left Nic Sanders on peg 1 had nothing slapping and had just 1 carp on the long pole. On my right John Osbourne was targeting the silvers and had 1 carp and a skimmer. My second hour was really tough, I lost all signs of carp, and trying going closer to the reeds ended with me hooking a reed underwater and losing the rig,. Went to the reeds on my right and lost a rig on another unseen reed… tedious. Managed to hook another carp slapping only for the hook to pull as it came out into open water.

Tried the paste, no more mention of this waste of bait. Onto the lead and after about 30 minutes of odd liner I had a nice 8lb carp. No more. Rotated lines for an hour for nothing and was wondering where the next bite would come from. Then out of the blue another carp on the lead, and next cast another but this one came off half way back, deep sigh.

I fed my left hand margin at about 6m with some dead maggots earlier than normal and did get a carp here but again a one off. Two hours to go and another carp on the lead, then hooked one slapping which came off at the net, bugger. The left hand margin was dead until 45 mins to go when I had 3 big fish here. Just before the whistle Nic landed a margin dweller, he’d done well last two hours fishing next to the pallet on peg 2 and I thought he and I were close. Other than Paul Barnfield on peg 6 who definitely had more I didn’t know what was caught in those bottom pegs.

1st Steve Venn 99lb 5oz peg 11

2nd Paul Barnfield 89lb 15oz peg 6

3rd Nic Sanders 73lb 12oz peg 1

4th Tim Ford 71lb 14oz peg 25

Silvers

1st Shay Gilman 17lb 12oz peg 16

2nd John Osbourne 8lb peg 24

Well a bit gutted if I’m honest, I’d had a day of very few bites, and any one of my lost fish would have saw me third. Still got to be in it to win it. The winner had nothing after 2 1/2 hours he told me, and was contemplating going home. Then he and peg started to catch carp, he said it got better as a breeze got up. Conversely Paul in second saw his peg dry up last hour as the wind turned up. 

I was going to fish Chilton Trinity on Sunday, but a social engagement means I need to get home early, so I’ve booked to come back to Windmill and see what peg awaits me this time.

Sedges Costcutter

 You may be surprised to see a weekday blog, as it’s not often I take a day off work for a match. However, last week I resigned from my company after 38 years loyal service, and have taken a job with a small family run business which is a small competitor. As a result of this I have been put on garden leave for 3 months and so a bit of fishing will be needed as well as jobs round the house and garden. Onwards and upwards. First job was making some rigs, tying hooks and putting some new elastic in my top sets.

I picked up Glenn Bailey just before 7am and we set off for Sedges near Bridgewater, arriving in good time for a breakfast and chinwag. The match was a costcutter on Tile lake, we were fishing as Glenn wanted to practice ahead of his float only match here on Sunday. Peg 40 had won the last match and the wind was blowing down to that end of the lake. Drawing peg 30 I was in a corner as far away from 40 as possible, Glenn had 37.

I had a long left hand margin (end bank) and put up a pole rig for fishing at 13m and pellet, and a hybrid feeder for casting further along. A 4x16 rig for 13 straight out in front with 0.15 to 18KKMB for banded pellet and a 4x16 with 0.17 to 14 XSH for margin to my right.

Starting at 10:15 I fed some pellets at 13m but started on the feeder. Second cast and rod was off the rest and a heavy fish was on. Nice first fish about 8lb, a few casts later another carp of 9lb and a skimmer ended the first hour. I got snapped up, and so upped the hook length to 0.19. Casting was tricky, a cross wind that kept changing was making it hard to get the feeder as close to the bank as I wanted. In the second hour another carp, then a run of skimmers before a 10lb common. 

The third hour it went very quiet but I did get one carp of 12lb on the feeder. On my right a lad called Dean Bradford was struggling with just 1 skimmer, it seemed a lot of people were struggling but Glenn and the guys around him were getting some carp. Dean put a pellet waggler out and managed 3 carp, I’d really wanted to set one up at the start, but I had a problem with reel and ran out of time, think this was to cost me. By now trying the long pole had got me 1 skimmer and it appeared devoid of fish in my peg except for the very end of the bank by a tree on the rope. I took the line clip off and cast nearer to the tree. This brought me another big carp, a straightened hook, and then I chucked it in a bush and lost the lot.

I came in on the margins, nothing left, but top set to my right and it flew under, 12lb common eventually landed. Couldn’t get another touch. Out at 13m and finally got a little fizz, after a few liners I had a nice 4lb ghostie. All went dead, but with a few minutes left I landed another decent common from the margin on corn.

I was pretty sure I was off the pace, but sat in the sun in a T-shirt for most of the day made it a very pleasant day. Jamie the fishery owner was soon arriving with scales, from peg 21 on my bank the best weight was 59lb by Dean on the next peg. My skimmers went 13lb+ and my carp 83lb, so 94lb. The opposite bank at the other end was the place to be it seemed..

1st Glenn Bailey 118lb mainly paste peg 37

 2nd Colin Butler 106lb peg 40

3rd Dave Chedda 103lb peg 36

I was 4th

Silvers 1st Robert 24lb peg 22,   2nd Mike 21lb peg 26.

I think the peg I had was a potential winner, needed to chuck the feeder longer earlier and tried the pellet wag. Need to practice more lol!

Windmill Fishery Open

 Last weekend I had a fabulous time with my wife in the New Forest. We walked 15 miles over 2 days and I got to see some great birds that I haven’t seen for years, best of the lot a lesser spotted woodpecker. Will definitely be going back.

I was keen on fishing again but I had two things to contend with 1) the weather forecast for Sunday strong winds and storms. 2) Saturday at the gas with some friends from Huddersfield who drink cider like it’s water!

Sunday morning I felt fine when the alarm went off, I’d survived the Northern drinking session 🙈. A breakfast at Wetherspoons set me up for the day and I was soon at the fishery having survived the drive down the track. 17 fishing today and with the wind blowing down to pegs 11 and 12 I guessed the fish would be down that end. I managed to draw peg 25 which is the opposite end of where I thought the fish would be. However, 24 and 25 would be the most sheltered pegs, and last week Gerry Welsh came 3rd from peg 25 with 97lb.

There’s an island chuck on 25, but it can be cramped with 24 and peg 1 able to cast here, I set up a hybrid feeder for here.

Down to my left margin is a reed bed, this is where Gerry caught last week, simply slapping a hard pellet. I set up a 4x10 carp shallow with 0.15 to 16 KKM B.

Also set up a rig for fishing about 7m tight to the margin to my left, with 0.17 to 12 XSH B.

I began the match by slapping a pellet by the reeds at 13m, no signs, went to 14m still no signs by slapping by the reeds. By going to 14.5m and slapping into a gap in the reeds I managed to hook my first carp. Landed a common carp about 4lb. 15 mins later had a 5lb common, and by the end of the first hour I had 4 carp. 

Into the second hour and I had a visit from Leighton Palmer who sat with me for a long part of the match. I wasn’t getting many indications, just an odd bite out of the blue, Leighton suggested I went to 16m, I tried it but never had a bite. It was fish in the gap and pull like mad if you hooked one. Slapping with an 8mm was best and three hours in I had 43lb on the clicker and had lost 2 carp in the reeds. All was good it seemed, as all the anglers I could see were struggling with the wind and not catching much. However, the carp deserted the reeds and I only hooked one more here but it did me.

I tried the feeder to the island on and off but never had a fish on this, I don’t think I put a fish in the net for at least 90 minutes and I could see the anglers on 14 and 16 now catching. I’d fed maggots and micros in my margin line and had to wait a while but finally caught a carp on a bunch of maggots. It was a long wait for a bite but at least I was putting something in the net. Think I had 5 carp here in the last hour and 15 mins for 30lb, my clicker read 73lb for my total catch. I was happy I had survived the day without and tackle damage or loss, though one gust of wind blew two top kits into the lake I managed to get them.

After packing up I had the scales so went down to peg 10 to start weighing in. Bobby Moore on peg 9 had 70lb 7oz and was the best weight until I weighed in, and I just pipped him with 73lb 10oz. But it turned out that the other side of the lake fished better.

1st Ian Barker 114lb 15oz peg 16, caught on method feeder and some on short pole late on.

2nd Steve Venn 100lb 13oz peg 14, caught in his RH margin.

3rd Tim Ford 73lb 10oz 

I was last in the frame so a handy pickup.

Silvers was won by Bill Knight with 9-9lb and Jason Pitman second with 7lb 7oz. Andy Gard did have more than this but as he carried on fishing after the match (for fun) he was disqualified. I don’t believe for 1 minute Andy cheated, but the only time I’d fish on after a match is when I’m not weighing in. Bad luck Andy.

Weigh sheets below, still hoping for an improvement in the weather!

Windmill Fishery Open

 Another busy week, four days working in Munich and then Friday at Cheltenham races, five second places and no winners hmmm. I was pleased to see Kevin Boltz won the last match on the river at Newbridge with 87lb of bream. Quite a few bream fed and so it seemed quite a few anglers had a good day. Dean Harvey framed and he rang to tell me he followed my blog and advice and it was spot on, happy days. Today after the match, an angler asked me if my blog would contain the truth about the bait I used, not sure what caused that comment but I have no need to lie and have always wanted to help others. During a match itself I may try to play my cards close to my chest, but not afterwards. Anyway that’s enough of that, if someone thinks I would go to the trouble of writing a lot of lies they must be very sad.

With 19 booked in for the Windmill Sunday open it was a decent amount for the venue. Peg 10 has been a very good area, and with the wind blowing down that end most people favoured pegs 10 to 14. Tom Baker predicted Paul Staite would draw 10 and he did lol. Not long after I drew peg 11, very happy with this peg. Before getting to my peg I pushed Bob Price’s trolley to his peg, it was then I realised how boggy it was. I was sweating like a pig when I got to my peg!

Peg 11 has good options, island chuck, open water, and a big reed bed to the right going to peg 10.

I set up a straight lead for bread and a method feeder for casting towards the island. I also set up a 4x14 Preston Pellet float with 0.15 to 16 GPM for open water at 13m.

For the reeds a 4x10 carp shallow with 0.15 to 18KKMB with a band for fishing a hard 6mm pellet.

I also set up a 4x12 rig for the short margin well away from the reeds.

We started at 10:15 and I began on the lead, a couple of casts and nothing, but noticed the guy on peg 9 had 2 carp on the method feeder, so I quickly swooped to that. Still no joy on this other than a liner, Paul on 10 was also fish less on the lead but then landed 2 carp on the pole. I’d fed two long pole lines one with a bit of meat and one with pellet and corn. I hooked 3 carp on these lines and all were fouled, I got one out that was hooked in the tail and took ages to get out. I got the feeling there were fish about but they wanted to be shallow.

After maybe 90 minutes I picked up the shallow pellet rig and went down to the reeds at 13m. I had hoped not to have to do this and endure a potential torrid time, but needs must. After a few slaps I saw a bubble come up, and soon after another, and before I knew it I was playing tug of war with a carp. I landed a nice 7lb common. Back out and was soon into another one, fishing about 2 feet deep. This was ok for a couple more fish but I fouled a couple and had a fish hooked deep so went to 18 inches deep. This helped and I was amazed how shallow the carp were, I even saw one come through the reeds to take my pellet, there were a few there!

Inevitably I had a few losses, fish that got into reeds, and I went shallower at 14” for a while. I rested this line when a carp came off and made a right commotion, and cast the lead and bread to where I had seen a few fish moving. I nailed a 4lb fish but it was a one off. Looking around I could only see Gerry Welsh on peg 2 catching and thought I was winning. I had to go out to 14.5m and in the  last hour 16m to keep the fish coming. It was certainly harder hooking and landing the fish at 16m but I carried on as I’d not had any more bites in the open water. I did manage to catch a nice 9lb carp on meat in the RH margin but that was my only bite there. 

When the match ended I had 160lb on the clicker, and all bar 2 fish had come from areas I had not fed any bait. 

Nick Sanders was on scales duty and after four weighs and a bit of adding up my total was 152lb 12oz. It seems a while ago since I caught that much. 

I had enough to win the match, Gerry Welsh was 2nd with 98lb from peg 2, he also caught slapping a pellet. 3rd was Andy Bright on peg 9 with 65lb on the method feeder. Silvers first Jon Osbourne on 14 with just over 6lb, Alan Oram on 18 had a couple of big skimmers for 4lb and second. Weight sheets below.

What a lovely day that was, not just the fishing but a virtually dry day and some welcome sunshine. That is it for a few weeks as next two weekends I’m doing some family stuff. Let’s hope for a bit of sunshine for Easter.

Last chance on the river

 After the disappointing weather and flooding of the previous week I was really pleased to enjoy a lot of dry weather. However, with football on Saturday and my having to travel on business to Germany Sunday I was going to miss out on the last week. However, I was able to get Friday off work and so was going to get one final crack at the Bristol Avon.

I had my bait still from last week and that was done worms, casters and dead maggots. The question was where to go? Saltford straight was a good place, but then I saw that Graham Hunt had 60lb of bream there Wednesday, but not much the following day. In the end after a chat to bream whisperer Dean Harvey I settled on Newbridge. I got to the river about 9:15, and pegs 14 to 20 were all free, so I chose my favourite peg 18. The river is still pacey but the colour is dropping out and going that green colour. It would be a feeder job.

A 45g Preston open end feeder was put on my mainline, a size 14 PR355 to 0.15 Powerline as ever for bream. I’d mixed a bag of Sonubaits Sweet Skimmer, and added a small amount of Thatchers and Dark F1. I really like these baits for bream and skimmers, and I can add more or less Thatchers to increase the fish meal content.

An underarm cast to about 18m was my chosen spot, 3 or 4 red maggots on the hook. From the second cast I started to get small roach bites, I was happy to get them and keep casting regularly feeding the swim. After about 40 minutes the roach bites stopped, this was now either gonna be down to bream moving in or just nothing in the swim. Ten minutes later a great bite that nearly pulled the rod in, had to be a big slab. As the fish came in closer it started fighting like a chub, when finally in the net I could see it was something I’d not caught for years, a sea trout! About 3lb max, very long but thin.

That was a nice surprise, I put it straight back into the river. It took another 15 minutes to get a bite, this time it was a 1lb skimmer. A chap saw me catch it and told me he was going to fish in peg 16. After another 15 mins I had a bream on worm, and another soon after. Then I couldn’t get a bite on a worm. However, by using either maggots or casters on the hook I had a nice steady  run of skimmers and a couple more bream, treble caster probably the best.

Bites then stopped and when they returned it was roach bites. Whatever I tried it was just small roach. As I needed to be home by 3pm I decided to pack up at 2:15, on my last cast I’d not had a bite and picked the rod up and as I wound in it all went heavy. First I thought bottom, but no it’s moving, maybe a huge bream? It kited downstream and boiled under the tree, I had the keep my rod well under the water. I was thinking a foul hooked bream as it was a heavy weight that occasionally made me give line. Then I saw it, a pike lol, three red maggots showing in its scissors. It took two attempts to net it, another long slim fish, about 7lb.

Not being a match catching two fish that wouldn’t normally count made no difference, and I really enjoyed catching them. I pulled my keepnet out and guessed there was 30lb in there. Whatever the weight it didn’t really matter as I’d had a real enjoyable 4 hours fishing with some good fighting fish. It was a relief to catch them, as I’ve really missed the river and it made up for my Swineford blow out. But that’s it for me another season done, I really hope I can get on the Avon a lot more next season. Good luck to you if you are getting out on a river before the season ends, it’s usually a good time.

Weather, weather altogether what’s it going to do?

 Well I’ve had my fill of this winter, it seems to have been raining mostly for 3 months or maybe more. On Wednesday the weather forecast was for light rain, so I thought yes I’ll get on the river. Then in the early hours of Friday it hammered down, game over… I’d ordered bait and so had to get that, and thought about what do to with it.  Then on Friday night I put a post on Facebook saying would this rain ever stop. Well yes it did, but only to be replaced by a dump of snow Saturday morning.

That was it I couldn’t take anymore lol. I’ve been travelling a lot with work lately and a lot more in the next two weeks, so my chances of getting one more time on the river are slim. It’s the last match of the season at Newbridge next Sunday, same match last year I came second with 91lb, but I have to travel to Germany that day and can’t fish it. 

After having a few beers Saturday afternoon with Mark Jefferies, Glenn Bailey, Darren Gilman and Mike Nicholls, I felt much better. We all said we were looking forward to better weather and our holiday at Viaduct in June.

I decided to spend Sunday with my wife and not go fishing, and we had a lovely time in the SUN at Portishead. What a thoroughly beautiful day, and the only fish I saw was a piece of cod with my chips.

A dry week please, I might be able to squeeze a session in 🙏🙏🙏

Windmill Fishery Open

 I was working in Ireland all week and was a bit tired after travelling from Dublin to Galway, Cork and back to Dublin. But I was itching to get back on the bank, though of course the river was once again out of the question being in flood. I dropped a text to Dave Haines and booked in for the Windmill open, this was about 2pm on Saturday. After asking a couple of regular anglers for tips it seemed I really needed a pint of maggots, so nipped off  to Premier Angling where you always get a warm welcome from Tony Rixon.

The forecast was for heavy rain Saturday evening/ night, and they weren’t wrong, the river is back in the fields again. Still I was happy to see it was dry when I loaded the van. It was very mild out and I was removing layers as I tucked into my Wetherspoons breakfast. I took a very slow journey down the fishery track as I didn’t want to hit the potholes hard, arriving in good time paid my pools and the draw was done early. Hoping for a peg at either end of the lake was a waste of time as I drew peg 7 in the middle of the two islands. Last time I fished here was November and then I had peg 6 and DNW.

This peg has an island chuck to some reeds, and the reeds were knocking showing signs of carp. A lead rod for fishing corn was assembled for here. I set up two pole lines at 13m one for corn and one for maggot to cover my options, a 4x16 F1 pellet float with 16 GPM to 0.13. A very similar rig but with 4x14 for fishing meat at top set plus three sections. No silvers rigs as I was told my best chance was with carp. On peg 6 Tom Baker was going down the carp route, but on peg 9 Bill Knight was edging his bets.

We started fishing at 10:15 and it was a 6 hour match today. I fed my long pole lines but started on the lead. Thirty minutes later and not a liner, so thought let’s try the pole. Not a touch on the corn line, but on the maggot I had a few small roach and a perch, but none of the hoped for carp. I upped the maggot feed which fed the silvers off and drew no carp lol. Back on the lead and still nothing, I cast as close as I dare to the reeds by taking line off the clip. 2 1/2 hours in and I had a liner on the tip, but still no bite. Tom had 2 skimmers and had lost one fouled carp on meat, Bill had maybe 2lb of silvers but was abandoning them.

At 1pm, nearly halfway through the match, I decided to go for the silvers just to get some bites. I got a 4x14 rig out with 18 to 0.10 that had spread stotts down the line. Fishing at top set plus two sections and feeding maggots I had a nice little run of small roach and 1 Rudd for 30 minutes. Then bites got less and the fish tiny. I went out over my 13m maggot line and struggled for more small roach but at least I was catching something! Tom was now getting a few carp on meat and that made me keep at the silvers.

I started feeding the long line heavier by catapult as I really wanted to get some skimmers, but to begin with it wasn’t good. An hour and 15 mins left and I tried the corn pole line again for a skimmer. Did get a bite but it was my first carp, so I knocked the corn on the head. The last hour then improved a lot as more roach and a few Rudd showed on both maggot lines, swapping between them was important as was changing depth and feeding. End of the match and I hoped I might have 8lb. Leighton Palmer was walking the bank and said that I might have enough to win the silvers, and as it turned out he was right. 

My net went 7lb 13oz, not bad for just over 3 hours fishing for the silvers. Nick Coles got second in silvers with 5lb 13oz, he had a a 2lb skimmer and small roach.

The match was won by pre match favourite Paul Staite on peg 14 with 119lb 2oz of carp mainly on pellet short. Fair play to Tom Baker coming second with 76lb on peg 6, top performance. Up on peg 2 Alan Oram got third place with 52lb 7oz.

Nice to get out and get a pick up again, feels like it’s been a while. Got to say the weather today was nice bar one shower, but this winters rain has done my nut in!

Just one last thing to say, and that’s RIP Steve Stretch Saunders who passed away after his battle with cancer. Steve was always someone who spoke his mind and I got on well with him. We had similar passion for football and we shared a bit of banter. He’s definitely going to be missed by many people.

Chub hunt - Epic fail!

 I’ve been wanting to get back onto the river for ages, and finally I thought the level was ok to give it a go. I fancied a go for some chub which I hoped would be hungry after all the floods. I didn’t need to any preparation other than to pick up some maggots on Friday. Saturday I was busy watching Rovers, got to see a decent game and good result.

A leisurely start Sunday, and I parked up at 10:30. Carting my gear through the kissing gate I was then loading the trolley and realised I’d left my bag with reels and feeders in the shed (hope this doesn’t become a habit again 🙈😂).  I really didn’t want to carry everything back to the van and drive home, so I rang Wendy and told her my predicament. She very kindly said she would drop the bag down to me and said I should double check if I’d forgotten anything else, I hadn’t. Ten to fifteen minutes later Wendy arrived and I could finally get going. The walk along the footpath was nice and easy, and I didn’t have to worry about the next kissing gate as there’s no fence on one side of it.

I stopped at peg 15 which is a peg I’ve always caught chub from. However, it’s got some overgrown willows that reduce your options. I had thought about fishing a big stick float or bolo, but decided the river was too fast. Instead I set up a maggot feeder to underarm cast out about a third of the way across. I needed 40g to hold here and a decent bow. A 16 XSH to 0.17 powerline was tied up for the hook length.

I was fishing by 11:30, and just before midday I had a bite but didn’t feel a fish, but the hook bait was gone. It took me until 12:50 to get another bite, no chub but a small roach that saved the blank. Not long after this Mark Jefferies came along walking his dog and in the next 40 mins I had two more bites but the bait was never touched hmmm. Just as Mark came past again and we were chatting, he told me I had a bite and I turned around and lifted the rod. Again it was a roach but probably 6oz. Mark went on his way and I had another big drop back bite and no fish and bait untouched again. 

Nothing more happened, so I decided to move down to peg 17. Awkward to cast in because of more willow branches, but casting like a noddy allowed me to get 3/4 over, needed 60g and a very big bow to hold bottom. Well the move was not to prove successful as I never had a single bite. A couple of anglers came along and I told them that I had struggled. They were roving anglers and said the last 2 hours before sunset is when they fish for chub. They headed off further downstream and I wished them luck. I was feeling a bit cold and decided I was not going to stay any longer, probably leaving a chub behind then.

Well that’s a shocker, and just goes to prove there’s no such thing as a banker peg. Got to try again!

In other news Derek Coles had a bumper day up at Newbridge with 24 bream, the biggest estimated at 11lb as it bottomed the scales out that someone had. Wow.

What’s going on…

 At my last outing at Hillview I had an irritating cough, unfortunately that just got worse and with a lack of sleep I felt quite low on energy. I had to work from home, cancelled going to the gym and didn’t really do anything at the weekend. Even now the cough is still lingering, but I don’t feel rough, although my wife has not got a heavy cold.  With the very cold weather and everything being frozen, and the forecast of nasty wind and rain for Sunday I put fishing on the back burner again. I’ve said before I don’t mind not going fishing this time of year, I’d rather not risk it. Spent some of Sunday afternoon watching BigJetTV on YouTube, watching those big planes landing in the wind at Heathrow 😬😬😬.

Right, not done an old diary blog for ages, I’m back to January 2004, just 20 years ago then lol.

Had a day pleasure fishing on the 2/1/2004 the Avon was flooded and so I fished the cut by the Lockeeper pub at county bridge Keynsham. I put some gbait in to try and catch roach but none showed. On a top set shallow I caught lots of bleak, and then later on a few roach turned up over the gbait. Had a good 12lb. Always a good place to fish is the cut when the river is very high, if you have a short top set then actually fishing right under the road bridge can be good.

Fished a match at Viaduct the following weekend, peg 59 on Lodge lake. It was rock hard and I only had 25lb made up of 3 carp and 3 skimmers, I was 3rd on the lake with that!

I didn’t go fishing at all until 22nd February, it was an open match on the K&A canal that was a practice for the ATWL semi final. I was at Savernake, and it wasn’t very good where I drew. 2lb of mainly gudgeon on squatts, and just a few tiny perch and Ruffe on worms. I have a feeling that Ian Spriggs won this match with a good bag of skimmers. The semi two weeks later and I was drawn Farmers at Marlborough, had some crack anglers in my section and remember Keith Arthur was a couple of pegs away. It was another struggle for me in a low weight section, this time I had 1lb 13oz of gudgeon and some small roach, 7th out of 15 in my section with that. That was better than most of my team as we came 13th oh dear!

The last match of the season for me was at Newbridge, looking for a bream bagging session. I drew peg 38 at the bottom of the straight and was happy with that. Unfortunately the bagging never happened, I had 4 bream and a skimmer, but I list the last two bream and that cost me framing. It looks like I’m going to miss the last season match this year as I have to travel to Germany for business meetings, gutted.

Hopefully a week of mild weather will bring the fish back on the feed, but not sure yet where I will go.

Hillview Fishery Open

 Happy New Year everyone, hopefully you had a great Christmas and New Year. My wife and I went to Tenerife for New Year, what a great decision that was, 25C every day and missed all the storms in the UK. I did pick up an irritating cough that I still cannot shake but I’ve not felt ill.

Back to work and back to normal, but where to go to get back on the bank? The river was certainly out of the question, the highest I have seen the Bristol Avon in my lifetime, and feel sorry for those who got flooded. My choice was Hillview near Tewkesbury as Martin Reyat told me it was fishing well, plus there were a lot of ide stocked a while back. With a lot of F1’s in there I should get some bites which is all I really want in the winter. I didn’t know if the match would be on the canals or the lakes so made rigs up for both.

I woke Sunday having had the same recent cough affected sleep 😫. That said I felt ok, and was soon at the fishery enjoying a breakfast. Martin was already there and it was nice to see Lewis Walker. There was some event on the canals and so the open was on the two lakes. I drew peg 32 which is on the top bank on Heron lake, can be good and yesterday Lee Massey had 75lb on it and came 3rd on the lake. Bang opposite was Lewis on 22 which won the lake yesterday. However, my money was on Ian Didcote to win from peg 9, as he’s won on his last 4 visits here and is a very good angler.

It was a chilly start but very calm, I’d set up a 4x10 for the margins, a 4x12 with 18 SFLB to 0.12 reflo fluorocarbon for top set plus two and 11.5m. Also set up a 4x14 in case it got windy. No lead rod as your cut off here.

I started at 11.5m with maggots I started by Toss potting in to see what happened. It took me 10 minutes to get a bite which I connected with and this fish was not an F1. Got it in and was a carp of 6lb, surprised by this as apparently yesterday it was all F1’s caught. I had a fair wait to get another indication but eventually I started to get a few more bites either an F1 or an ide. I had 15lb after the first hour.

The second hour was steady, and I was catapulting maggots as well to try to attract more fish into the peg. Probably had 28lb after hour 2, but then bites stopped. I tried my short lines but only had 1 small skimmer. Lewis was doing the best on my lake it seemed, but I thought I was next best. Hour 3 was a struggle and the whole lake seemed to have switched off, 35lb was my estimate. I tried fishing 13m but never had a bite here, also tried fishing off at an angle but that only produced a few fish. My original 11.5m swim yielded an odd ide and rare F1. Then an hour to go I finally got a few F1’s on my top set plus two. With 30 minutes to go I gently placed a third keepnet in the lake…. Big mistake. I never caught another F1, but lost 2 at the net fouled. Bound to cost me I thought. Never had a bite in the margins today.

My final weight was 55lb 8oz. Mission accomplished in that I had an enjoyable day with bites. But it was not quite enough to get me coin, as my section was won with 59lb 5oz by Darren Knight who caught well the last two hours short on maggots. Lewis won the other section and lake with 65lb.

The match was won as predicted by Ian Didcote, he smashed it with 124lb, 50lb clear of second place. Class act.

Full results below on the sheet. 

Well I managed to emulate the result Lee had the day before off the peg, he was also narrowly beaten. I’ll have to go again, need the practice and worth the effort for bites.