Angling Trust Winter League Round 3

Another busy week lead into a busy weekend. A drab game Rovers v Swindon didn’t start the weekend well, but at least I stayed fairly dry in the Thatchers terrace. We certainly had a decent amount of rain Saturday and in the previous few days. It made me wonder if the river was going to be flooded and the pegging that was shared suggested it might be pacey.

An extra hour in bed, or does everyone else wake up the same time? I had plenty of time to get something to eat and get to Melksham for the draw. It was very cold out and the wind was making it chilly in the car park. It was good to meet new teammates Rod Dunsford, I don’t think I’d seen him for about 30 years lol. I was chatting to Lee Trivitt and said how I had drawn in the same area around the blue bridge at Chippenham for a few matches and fancied a change. Ian Paulley was drawing the pegs for the team and he came back with me two below the blue bridge FFS.  Last week James Carty was on it and had 1 roach and packed up. The rest of my section were all upstream. At least I knew where I was going.

Got to the peg and the river had a little colour and pace but was perfect for the float. The picture below shows it dirtier than what it was, it was still clear in the side.

Setting up was straightforward, chopped worm rig, couple of pole rigs for 13m with 0.09 to 18’and 0.08 to 22. A waggler with 0.12 to 16 and a bolo 3g with 0.09 to 20.

We started at 10:30 and the wind was a nightmare blowing all over the place and nearly took my top sets into the river! I cupped the usual balls In at 13m but started on the waggler looking for early chublets. 15 mins later I was biteless, so I put some worm in at top set plus two and tried the pole line. Just like last week the pole line didn’t start well and after 15 minutes here I had one roach and 1 bleak. I decided to try the bolo casting around the gbait and also across to where I was feeding maggots for the waggler. I finally hit a nice roach and landed a 4oz fish, next cast I hit another but a bloody pike took it and my hook length. When I hooked another roach the pike took it again.

 I gave the worm line a go for nothing and thought I should try the waggler again to get away from the pike, there were a few fish here now, bleak and the odd small chublet. It was ok catching these but I kept thinking I needed the better roach. I tried the pole and finally had what I thought was a bite and hooked something better I thought. Whatever it was I thought it was in the weed so I just kept the pressure on and then I saw I was attached to another piece of fishing line. That was another hook length gone. Onto the bolo and I had a chublet which the pike took but eventually let go and I got it out. I then had a nice Rudd about 6oz which the pike ignored. Then I was hooked up to the line again, this was a nightmare, but I was pulling more line back each time I hooked it. Eventually I got hooked up on the end of the line but it was too far out for me to get hold of it. You can see it below in the picture (you can also see how the river had gone clear again and the level dropped a foot).

 Clearly I had dislodged it and now it was just a real pain. The pike grabbed fish 6 times in total I lost 5 times. My waggler line fished off the bottom gave up less and less bleak and I was in trouble. Just 1 4oz perch on the worm all day so not getting out of jail there. With an hour and 15 mins I upped the hook and line on the waggler and blasted the bait in looking for a chub as I knew I was probably last in the section from bank walkers. Sadly no chub showed so the writing was on the wall.

The scales came to me last and the weights were all better than me, my 5lb being last in the section. A poor peg made worse with pike and old fishing line, it happens and you just have to take it on the chin. Below me in the next section was expert river angler Jim Brockie, he only beat one angler in his section so we certainly didn’t drawn on many fish.

My section board, Phil Bendall continues to smash it up!

It seems we had a poor team draw, and only had 21 points which was 5th on the day beating only Lobby’s. Well done Blackmore Vale winning the day after coming last in the previous two rounds. The league now is

DGL 6

Talisman 8

Lobby’s 11

Devises 12

Thatchers and Blackmore Vale 13

It’s going to take 3 match wins for Thatchers to come back from this, next week is round 4 on the canal. I’m not fishing the canal so my next match is the Poppy match.

Well done to the framers 

Alex Clements had 20lb of chub and perch at riverside drive.

Phil Bendall had some chub for 12lb

Gary Etheridge 11lb

Ian Paulley 10lb

1st, 3rd and 4th all came from A section.

A break next weekend so plenty of time to forget about my match today 😂

Open match Bristol Avon Chippenham and Melksham

Had to prep for this match in the week as Saturday I went to Shrewsbury to watch another away loss for the Gas. A few beers drowned the sorrows!

This match was a practice match for next weeks Winter League third round. Myself, Lee Trivitt, James Carty and Ian Paulley were in attendance from Thatchers. By the time I got to Spencer’s club the draw was already well underway and many anglers had already gone to their pegs. I got in the small queue and hear organiser Rob Kepner say all the chub pegs had gone. When I drew I was told I was at Chippenham above the copse above the blue bridge. On this match last year I was the peg below in the copse and had 10lb of chublets and roach. Mick Gale drew after me and was the last peg in my section end peg on the slipway. He didn’t rate my peg but also said he didn’t expect the chub to show.

I drove to Chippenham and knew where to park and it’s a short walk to the peg. The sun was coming up a mist clearing and with the chill in the air it looked and felt a bit autumnal at last. The river itself looked dreadful for fishing, gin clear, no flow and lots of weed growth. 

We didn’t have lots of time to set up so I went with a couple of pole rigs for an 11 mtr line, a chopped worm rig and a 3 AAA waggler. I was just ready on time at 10am and few a few balls of gbait at 11mtrs, and fed maggots across for the waggler. Putting my pole rig in the float was dotted right down as the float just sat there with no sign of flow. I caught a 3oz roach after 5 mins, had a much smaller one shortly after and I was already going through all the different hook bait choices and it was apparent the fish were not really feeding at this stage. After 40 minutes I had caught another roach and a tiny chublet so it was time to feed some chop worm at 6m.

Upstream of me Gary Williamson hadn’t had a bite, in the copse Dave Micklewright had 1 chublet on the waggler. I decided to try the waggler even though Dave was not catching. It was a good move as I had a bite straight away but missed it. Next cast a 4oz chublet that went in weed three times reeling it in. I reckon in the next 10 casts I had seven more chublets, all swung in. Then they were gone and the waggler was rested.

Tried the worm but nothing doing, won’t mention it again as I never had a bite on the worm. On the pole it was dire, virtually biteless other than a tiny roach. Probably went over an hour without a bite on anything. James was a couple of pegs below the blue bridge and after 2 hours he had 1 roach and was going home. I changed depths, baits all to avail and then out of the blue had a bite on the waggler and had hooked a better fish, after getting out of the weed I landed a 12oz Rudd. It was a one off. Dave had gone for a walk as he only had 2 chublets, he walked back to tell me upstream was better with Phil Bendall getting roach and a chub. That was enough for Dave and he packed up and went home.

My last 90 minutes produced a 4 or 5 tiny fish on the pole, though I did hook what I think was a perch that weeded me up within seconds and slipped the hook. I did get a couple of net roach and a chublet on the waggler. But there was no pattern. All match I could not fish on the bottom as there was more silk weed. I was quite happy when the all out came, thought I had 3 1/2lb to 4lb.

Gary above me was in the next section he chucked back his 6 fish. I had the scales so set off to find Mick on the end peg. He had a better day with 9lb 9oz of bleak and roach, Shaun Bryan was the third person in my section to have left early. Mick Nowicki had 3lb 14oz, and Dan McDonald just below the bridge had 1/2 oz more than Dan. Getting back to my peg I had to find another angler from upstream to weigh me, my fish 4lb 1oz. 

Having the scales and board I had to go back to the results at Spencers. Once there I realised just how hard the whole venue had fished. Below you can see the top 3 and section winners. Phil Bendall added to his bulging wallet after winning last week, by winning again, well done! Mick Gale coming second meant I won the section by default (again). Derek Jarman was last in the money.

Whether we get some rain and enough rain to make the river for next week we will see, but there’s no way the weed will be gone. Will it be another grueller 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

Angling Trust Winter League

After a break last weekend it was back to the bank this week. Last Sunday I had a great time visiting Aldwick Estate and trying out some of their wines. A lovely place in the countryside not far from Blagdon Lake.

As I was enjoying the wine my teammates were slugging it out on the Gloucester canal in round 1 of the winter league. They had a bit of a tough time and came 4th out of 6 teams, the pressure was on this weekend in round 2 on the Thames around Radcot. I’m certainly not in tune with this river like my local river and it definitely needs a refined approach for the roach. 

Team drawn was done by Charlie Isaacs who was going to have a watch today, he put me on F3 below Radcot. It was the better end of the section and on the Thames champs peg 2 had 17lb of roach I believe. The wooden footbridge to get to the river is currently closed for repair, so we had to drive through a field and park in long grass, then get the gear over a kissing gate. Not a long walk for me and plenty of time to set up.

My peg was on a bit of a bend, the flow was all this side of the river and across was dead still, but I could see lots of little fish topping over there. I set up a waggler for this with 0.10 to a 20, but this was only in case my pole lines were not working. I had three rigs for my gbait pole line; a 0.5g strung rig, a 0.8 rig and a 1.2g for holding the bait still. Also set up a 1g rig for chopped worm. My roach rigs had 20 to 0.8 and the worm a 14 to 0.17. As ever in this league you’ve got good anglers fishing, either side I had Phil Bendall on peg 2 and Jon Tocknell on peg 4. Add to that Gary Williamson, Mick Gale and Ricky Searle.

We started at 11am and I cupped 5 balls of gbait caster and hemp onto my long pole line, then fed a couple of chop worm lines. I started on the worm lines, but 20 minutes later hadn’t had a bite. Went onto my gbait line trying a caster on the hook, I had 2 roach in 20 minutes, so back to the worms where I had 3 perch up to 8oz. After an hour Phil already had 35 fish and was netting roach regularly. I was doing my nut in trying and failing to catch roach over my gbait. I had tried maggots and pinkie on the hook and added a few small dace and 1 net roach.

I gave the waggler a go to put something in the net, I knew I would catch as every time I fed a pouch of maggots across the water erupted. It was tiny chublets, bleak and dace. It was solid but they were tiny fish so I gave it 20 minutes then back to the pole where I had topped up. With nearly 2 hours gone I finally started to catch some nice roach, the only bait I could catch them on was pinkie. I reckon I had them for about 40 minutes and then they were gone again. I had a couple more perch on the worm after this but that was the last action on worms.

The rest of my match was spent catching sprats on the waggler and then trying the pole for roach. I didn’t get many roach, and knew I was miles behind Phil and Gary so kept the small stuff coming to put something in the net. I tried hemp a few times but never got a bite. I was quite happy when the match finished lol.

Here’s my weigh board, as you can see Phil smashed it catching 21lb 6oz, he caught on casters and hemp. On peg 1 Gary had roach on hemp and tares. My 9lb 8oz scraped me third just beating Mick Gale.

My fish today.

Back at the results it was not looking great for the team, with just one section winner and a second. We ended up 4th again, with DGL winning again.

Phil won the match and Gary was second meaning I got the section win money by default 😊😊. That was a nice surprise. Ian Paulley was our top angler he came third with 16lb of mainly roach.

Right now the league is

DGL 2

Talismen 5

Lobbies 5

Thatchers 8

Devizes 10

GBV 12

Next Sunday is an open at Chippenham and Melksham for practice for the next round. Not expecting it to be great with little flow and clear water.