Jerry Pocock Christmas Match Newbridge

I sincerely hope that you had a great Christmas. Sadly my step dad passed away on Christmas Eve, he was at home on the farm where he wanted to be. A difficult time for the family but we are sure he suffered no pain.

I was booked on this match and decided to go, the river was going to be clearer with a bit of pace but I thought it would be tough after the cold easterly wind. We met in the Midland Spinner for breakfast and the draw. I think there were 21 people fishing and I danced drawing the first 7 pegs and the last 6, but I managed to pull peg 12 and that was middle of the straight peg 36, not going to be good I reckoned.

I got to my peg and with the vicious easterly wind blowing downstream and the conditions I could not see setting a float up was worth it. A one rod job for me, using a Supera 12 foot feeder rod with a 2oz tip. A 45g open end feeder would just hold 2/3 over with 14 to 0.15. I didn’t set up a block ended feeder as I reckoned I would catch any around on gbait feeder and that would give me the chance of a bream.

After 15 minutes of the match I had a nice bite and was pleased to net a 12oz chublet, not blanking was a major achievement for me today.  Ten minutes later a similar bite and this resulted in a 6oz chublet. An hour later and no more bites and as it was so cold I went for a quick walk and the peg upstream of me Warren Bates was blanking. Downstream Jan Mazyk was also blanking. During the match a number of people were walking the bank and mid match just a few anglers had 1 bream and there was an odd chublet. As the match progressed I never had another bite so it was a bit of a bind, but I gave it my best.

My wanting to be in the first 7 pegs was a bit off, as 1 angler had 2 bream and another one chublet, I expected a few chub to come out. But the other end the match bream did show and the top 3 came from here.

1st Derek Coles 25lb (Norfolk Reeds)

2nd Kev Boltz 15lb 15oz

3rd Nick Coles 12lb 13oz

My section was won by Jerry Pocock with 3 chublets for 2lb 15oz. My two went 1lb 2oz, which was 9th in the match beating two other catchers and 10 blanks. Not a single roach was caught.

Actually I did have some luck in the end, I picked up a bottle of whisky for my prize and three prizes on the raffle 😊 

Must say thank you to Jerry and Dean Harvey for running the match.

Potentially I may be fishing next Sunday but with another cold week forecast it’s probably going to be another draw bag job.

Wishing you a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

There’s was no fishing for me this weekend after a busy week working away in North Yorkshire. Don’t mind going to work when you see a beautiful sky like this in the morning.

I’m hoping to fish a match at Newbridge the day after Boxing Day it might be a tough affair. However, my

Plans are all a little fluid at the moment as my step Dad (I call him Dad as he brought me up from 2 years old) has terminal cancer and not long left sadly.

Here’s hoping you have a Merry Christmas. 🎅 

Ridgeway Xmas Match - Bristol Avon Crane

I can’t believe that the last time I went fishing was on the Poppy match. A number of other things have been more important to me, and then last week the commercial house Xmas match was cancelled. I was gutted it was cancelled as I do like the challenge of a flooded river.

This match with Ridgeway was a small friendly affair where the entry money went towards prizes entirely and no pools money. I was pleased to be back out, but my bait was a bit pongy as it was what I had bought last week! Still I was expecting, rather hoping, that it would be a chub match on the feeder so smelly bait is not a problem.

I got drawn on the peg below the high wall, so not such a long walk and my new 4 wheel Preston shuttle got me there in no time.

It’s an easy peg to get in to but it’s not been great in the winter leagues. It was bombing through fast and boily till halfway. After this the river was smoother and a little slower. I did think it was chub or bust.

I had 2 pints of casters, 1/2 pint dead red maggots, dendra’s, lobworms and a few live maggots. It meant I was going win an open ended feeder approach, normally I’d of gone on a maggot feeder, but as I said I was using last weeks bait which was for a flooded river. It seemed I needed a very heavy weight to hold 3/4 across the river of 60g.  A size 12 N60 to 0.17 powerline completed the set up. 

We started at 10am and I had a few 2 minute casts to get a bit of bait in, no bites on a bunch of maggots so tried double dendra and at 10:20 I had my first drop back bite and landed a 12oz chublet. It was 25 minutes later that I had my next bite this time on half a lobworm, a very similar size chublet. After this I started to get a bit of a problem with a snag, I didn’t get a bite for an hour but I reeled in once with no bait left. Then at about 11:30 whilst on the phone to Glenn Bailey I had a bite that banged the tip but no drop back. I thought that was odd but when I picked up the rod I was snagged up, the feeder was stuck. Eventually I got it free and saw the hook was opened out, I reckon the chub hooked itself but as the feeder was stuck it buggered the hook. 

Not long after I lost a hook in the snag, and I realised I needed to fish a different spot. I don’t like doing this but had no choice, so I came shorter to just past middle. This was better though still an odd snag but not bad ones. It took me till about 1pm to get my next bite, a brilliant drop back with tip straight and slack line…. But no fish on the hook 🙈. The lobworm was ripped to pieces and I was gutted to not have hooked the fish. Worse was to follow when another bite was missed. I changed the feeder to a lighter 50g size and it would just about hold on this shorter line. But I missed another big drop back WTF was going on I thought. I then had another chublet in the net which was welcome. After this fish and the previous quick flurry of bites I had no signs again. 

At 2:15 another bite came and this was on and I had to give line initially, it was a powerful fish but it didn’t find any snags and I got it in the net, definitely over 4lb. Next cast another bite and a 8oz chublet. Sadly that was to be the last action of the match.

As it didn’t take me long to pack away I wandered upstream to meet the scales. Craig Pinker was top weight with 11lb made up of 3 nice chub and a 1lb of bits, he was on the last but one peg in the little ashtip which is one of the best chub pegs at the crane this year. However, his weight was only going to be good enough for 2nd as Ali Gibbs had a catch of a lifetime on the Avon. He was on the last peg in the first field which in normal conditions is left out. Today it had a nice slack and some perch decided to reside in it. Ali had 3 perch and a small chub on a maggot feeder, then he added 4 more perch on a lobworm on a float. 7 perch and a chub doesn’t sound amazing I know, but they weighed 18lb 12oz and the biggest perch was 3lb exactly! What an awesome catch, well done Ali.

My 5 fish weighed 7lb 8oz and so the big chub had to be 4 1/2lb we thought. My weight was enough to get me third and I picked up a nice set of 4 bottles of wine. Many thanks to Steve Dumbleton for running this match and getting a great array of prizes. 

I was glad to get back in the warm as I had the wind in my face all day and I did start feeling a bit chilly as the sun went behind the clouds late on. Not sure what is happening on the fishing front next weekend we will see.