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.

Thames Championship

No blog last week as I spent a lovely week in Skiathos with Wendy, really enjoyed the holiday. This blog is a bit late due to getting home late Sunday evening and I felt very tired and couldn’t face hitting the keyboard.

Thatchers always put a team into the Thames Champs but sadly this year only 13 teams in attendance when normally there is 20+. Still it’s a good match with some exceptional anglers fishing and a big test. I have never felt quite at home on the river here, it just seems so different to my local Avon. But it is a test and also a bit of practice for the Thames w/l round in a couple of weeks.

Shaun Townsend picked me up at 6:45 Sunday morning as we were next section to each other on the Clanfield stretch. The teams decide which sections anglers go to, but in our case we do a random draw, but at least we know. Also in the team were Andy Ottaway, Matt Challenger, James Carty and Kev Bennet. They arrived at the Swan in Radcot early for the 7:30 draw whilst Shaun and I drove straight to the river. On the way the peg set was shared on WhatsApp and I was F13 end peg 100 at Clanfield, sounded good!

As we drove through the fields to my peg we stopped and asked a local Drennan angler what peg he was. He then also kindly told me how to approach my peg and that it has been a chub flyer but so far this season not one has been caught there. It was very generous of him to be so helpful.

Shaun dropped me off and said something like don’t mess it up lol. Took a picture once I was set up, lovely and flat calm, spiky stuff opposite but no flow, mostly the flow was my side of the river.

The river was about 6 feet deep here, bit of variation but not too much. I set up three rigs for fishing over a gbait line at 11m; 1 and 1.5g floats bulk and 1 or 2 droppers (depending on if tiny fish were a problem) and a 4x16 with spread shot for hemp. 0.08 and 20 on everything. Also set up a waggler for chucking across if needed.

Lastly I set up a chop worm rig, 1g with 0.17 to a 14 that would be used at 7m and in the lions den at 13m down the inside next to the stick ups. As you can see below it’s a right jungle below the stick ups, but I was told to fish the stick ups for the chub.

The water was gin clear and I could see minnows in close and even saw a crayfish. I was looking forward to having a good match, expecting roach and perch and hopefully getting some chub, got to be positive! We started at 11am and had already had to put my coat on due to a shower and more was coming, the wind also blew up but was ok at this time. I cupped 4 balls of gbait containing caster, hemp and pinkie in, and fed chopped worms and casters with a bait dropper on my two lines. I picked up the 1g rig hoping the bait would get to the bottom. Well I put a caster on and after five runs through not a bite, on with a maggot. Dropped the rig in to close and a minnow got it, lesson learnt swing the rig out. Now avoiding the minnows but also avoiding everything else, not a bite! 

I went on my 7m chopped worm line, no bites here either WTF is going on I thought. On to my banker inside worm line, after 5 or 6 minutes I had a perch of 6oz, and then another but that was it, so fed more worms etc here. Back on my gbait line still no bites, put a pinkie on and got a perch and pulled out of another. An hour gone and maybe 14oz, I couldn’t believe that I could not catch a roach or a dace, yet the angler above me fishing pole over gbait was getting small dace regularly. Back in the lions den, a couple of slow moving bites were missed, thinking crayfish, but then missed a dink, next dink bite I hit and quickly realised I needed to pull hard as this was a good fish. I had 14 elastic in and was able to get the fish out into open water and landed it without any problems, a chub of 2 1/2lb to 3lb. That was a lot better and just under 4 hours to get some more.

The match though continued to be much tougher than I expected on this end peg. The gbait pole line gave me 2 more perch, 2 dace and 1 roach. The rain got worse, the wind blew straight into my face and was really bad. Lost my hat twice, pole sections blown around, and the lad above me had his number 5 section break. It was not pleasant. I managed a few more perch from the inside, but mid match it dried up, I kept feeding it. I then caught bleak short lining on the pole for about 30 minutes before they went. Also had about 30 minutes catching tiny fish on the waggler. I cast it hard into the wind to get near to the far bank, couldn’t feed it of course. With 30 minutes left having fed more worms and casters inside I sat it out looking for another chub. Sadly none appeared but I did get my best perch of the day about 1lb and a couple more flying crayfish.

Match over I was a tad disappointed because was really hoping for good double figures, but still hoped I would do ok in the section. Typically the rain stopped and within 45 minutes the wind had disappeared lol, not that affected me catching. I was the first to weigh in and 8lb was called, definitely my best weight at Clanfield. 

I followed the scales up to peg 6, and the Dorking lad had a 4lb+ chub with some bits to get 8lb 12oz. I was told nobody above this peg would beat me and I would be second in the section. However, this turned out to be quite false as there was an 8lb 11oz and a 14lb (all perch), so I got 10 points out of 13. I’m sure a local angler would have done better in my peg, I was certainly messed up by the roach not feeding in our section and just assumed at some point I would catch some. I did give it a good go for the chub so I’m not beating myself up.

The team did pretty well with Kev 12 points, Andy 11, Shaun 9, Matt 8, James 5 and my 10. But our tally was just a few points short and we came 4th first out of the money. Diawa Dorking romped it, local experts Drennan Oxford second and DGL third. The individual winner Alex Clements had an amazing 43lb which was 8 chub to nearly 6lb and 6lb of bits. 

It was a bittersweet result, but as a very good angler said to me later, you done well considering that you hardly fish the Thames.  It certainly ain’t like Swineford 😂😂 That said I do think it’s fished quite well today.

 

Another weekend off, then it’s going to be head down with a lot of river matches until mid November.

Commercial House winter league Round 2

A busy week leading up to this match as I was working in Frankfurt all week, a great time but long days. It meant Saturday was prep day which was more enjoyable than watching the Gas 🙈🤣. 

The same as round 1 this match was on the Bristol Avon, Newbridge, Swineford and Crane. Plenty of bait taken as you never know what you might be fishing for. After a quick visit to Greggs I was soon at the Crown for the draw, left my wallet in the van so Dave Lewis bailed me out. The team draw put me at the bottom of crane, F1 on the high wall with the rest of my section all downstream.

There’s an option on this peg to get down into the water but I decided to sit on top about 7 feet above the river to most others surprise lol. This peg has most of the flow this side of the river and can be good for roach and perch but pike are pretty bad in this area. The boats opposite can hold chub but they have not shown up yet.

Set up today was a 7m Preston Absolute whip with 2g float with 18 to 0.10. A 3g bolo with same hook etc, a 1g rig for chopped worm at top set plus two, and lastly a 4 AAA waggler with 16 to 0.13. No feeder required today. We had plenty of time to set up and I wandered down to the next peg to see Rich Whitmarsh who had plenty of gear made up. 

We started at 10:30 and I put 9 balls of my usual roach mix in for the whip line. I started on this line with caster and had a nice roach first drop in, but after this it was just tiny dace and roach. Trying hemp and tares produced mainly missed bites or the same small fish. A pike took a perch and had another go at a fish. I was feeding maggots across to the boats for the waggler but wanted to leave it a while before trying. I put some worms and casters in on my short line and gave it a go. Plenty of bites from tiny perch, I took them hoping better perch would follow, they didn’t. I tried the bolo close in, down the middle etc, tiny fish and when I hooked a better roach a pike grabbed it.

After 90 minutes and maybe 2lb I went for a walk, Rich was also struggling as was Jason Fearn, both having a lot of pike trouble. Going back to my peg I decided to give the waggler a go, thinking I might get less pike trouble. Fishing about 5 feet deep I could not get a bite despite dace taking my loose fed maggots across. I guessed that the hook length was too thick so changed it to 0.10 and put a 18 on. This worked and I started to get bites from dace and roach, a bit better than the whip line. It was tricky as there was a strong upstream wind at times with little flow the float was hardly moving. 

I had to rest the waggler but the whip and worm line was still poor. Lee Warden and Ben Rendall further down were catching roach so I made my mind up with 90 minutes left to stick to the waggler and upped the feed. I picked up the odd small fish but not great, then I saw a big swirl which I assumed was a pike having a go, but could it have been a chub? I shallowed the waggler to 3 feet and cast short of the boat where I saw the swirl and had a dace. About 30 minutes to go I finally struck into something big, was it a pike or a chub, I took my time with it as it plodded about then up popped a big chub! It was later weighed at 4lb 10oz.  Ten minutes later chub number 2 was netted, 10 minutes later chub number 3. I landed my fourth chub at 3:28 and then hooked number 5 just a second before the all out and I shouted fish on.

Five chub hooked 5 landed all on 0.10, it helps when there are no snags! Well obviously that run was going to rocket me up the section and my chub went 14lb 10oz and the rest 7lb 1oz for a total of 21lb 5oz. 

Here’s my section board it’s not in peg order, and Lee did really well on the boys hole to catch 16lb of roach.

Adam Beachgood won the match, fishing for Sensas Nomads with 31lb 4oz .  He was drawn at Newbridge on peg 22A.  He also fished the waggler at a variety of depths, feeding maggots and caught 7 good chub.

I was 2nd on the day and 3rd was Jack Jones peg 14 at Swineford and had 18lb roach and 1 bream on the pole.

4th - Lee Warden (M & N Electrical) - 16 lbs 2 ozs

5th - Ivan Currie (Sensas Nomads) - 14 lbs 11 oz

6th - Sam Johnson (Sensas Nomads) - 13 lbs 9 ozs

Sensas Nomads won the match with 33 points.

Bathampton Lobby’s were 2nd with 30 points.

3rd - Midland Spinner - 26

4th - M & N Electrical - 25

5th - Wiltshire Angling - 20

5th - Mark Paynes Leads - 18

7th - Sensas Lobby’s - 14

After two matches it’s like this…

1st - Sensas Nomads - 59

2nd - Midland Spinner - 56

3rd= Bathampton Lobby’s & M & N Electrial - 53

5th - Wiltshire Angling - 43

6th - Sensas Lobby’s - 40

7th - Mark Paynes Leads - 30

Well another great day though I must admit I wasn’t quite expecting that last 30 minutes! No fishing next weekend and then I’m fishing the Thames Champs. I suspect that will be the end of my good run as I never catch up there 🙈🙈🙈😆

Bathampton / Bristol & West Pairs League

This was the final round of this friendly league and was being fished at Newbridge, Rich Lacey and myself had an 8 point lead going into this final round. However, after losing a 6 point lead last year to come second we were definitely not counting our chickens! Our nearest rivals Ivan Currie and Dave Lewis only went and drew out two great pegs, Ivan end peg (again) below the Norfolk Reeds and Dave behind the pumphouse. Unfortunately we got poor pegs and knew we were up against it. I was going to the end of the straight peg 40 where 6lb has been a very good weight, I couldn’t see me beating Dave, Derek below Dave and Graham Hunt on peg 46. 6 or 7 points was my target and same for Rich we thought.

The river was very clear and you could easily see 3 feet or more down, lots more rain needed. You can see my net and a shelf under the water here

Setting up I was going to cover my options and fish a bit lighter than normal. Three pole rigs, one pencil float 1.5g with 20 N10 to 0.08, a 2 g float with 20 to 0.09, a rig to fish chopped worm at 5m. A gbait feeder with 16 to 0.13 and a waggler with 18 N10 to 0.10. I didn’t put up a topper or bolly as there was hardly any flow and the wind was blowing everywhere.

We started at 10 and I put 8 balls of gbait in at 11.5m then started on the feeder with three red maggots on the hook. I had instant bites from small fish and had 2 roach a perch and a chublet. There were clearly no bream here at the moment so I went onto the pole as it would be easier to catch roach on it than the feeder. I did get a small roach first drop in on single caster, but was soon onto a maggot which got a couple more small roach, but I was soon onto the pencil float. Bites were hard to come by, the fish were not lined up on the gbait and I had to search the area to get a small roach or perch, red or fluro maggot was best.

After an hour the pole line died, so I fed some chopped worm at 5m and tried the feeder again. I had a couple more roach and a 6oz perch but then couldn’t get a bite. The chopped worm line gave me 3 small perch so not great. 

Rich rang me to say he was struggling with maybe 1lb and wasn’t getting bites, but not long after he had a bonus 2 1/2lb perch on the feeder dead handy!

The pole was still dead for me so my only choice was to try the waggler where I had been feeding maggots across. Started with double maggot but missed three bites, so changed to single and caught the culprit a bleak. Kev Boltz had walked up my section and said other than Dave, Derek and Graham it was a real struggle, Jerry Pocock below me hadn’t had a bite on the pole but was getting odd fish on the feeder including a pound chub. I stuck on the waggler as the bleak were a decent size but it wasn’t frantic. With just over an hour to go the bleak dried up, and I couldn’t get a bite anywhere. I recalled the pole, didn’t work, had a 1oz perch on the tip and 3 or 4 bleak late on. Maybe 5lbs but would it be enough?

Below is my section board, I weighed 6lb 2oz for 7 points, getting beat by the three form pegs. No bream had fed so that had helped I guess. Dave Lewis won the match with 11lb 8oz from behind the pumphouse. Dave had this peg last week in the Commercial House would you believe, but a hole in his net then cost him. He got a second chance and put it right with some roach and small chub.

In Rich’s section Ivan comfortably won the section, but Rich had a late run of fish on the pole to get him second in the section. We had 16 points and knew then we had won the league.

Fair play to Ivan and Dave coming first and second today for the maximum 20 points. Runners up in the league.

Here’s the overall result, we had 101 points out of a possible 120. 

Top of the league and currently Rovers are also top of the table, so a pair of very happy Gasheads here. Commercial House next week, same bits of river as last time. I’d prefer Swineford or Crane, mainly to get away from the boats, rowers, swimmers etc 🙈🤣🙈

Lastly big thanks to Dean Harvey and Craig Pinker for running the series and swim clearing. Also Derek Coles and Jeff Surmon put in a lot of work. Cheers lads 🍻 UTG 

Commercial House Winter League Round 1

I was asked by Jerry Pocock if I could fish with his team the Midland Spinner in this league. I’m able to fish four rounds as have to give my primary support to Thatchers team events. It’s always nice to fish the local river, but many other anglers also enjoy it travelling from far afield.

Have to mention the lovely day out Saturday watching the Gas win at home, cracking match, and was celebrated with a few ciders. It was an early kick off so a long time to celebrate 😆.

Sunday morning I picked up Jerry and we got to the draw at the Crown at Keynsham. Jerry had pegged the match and told me 2 sections were at Newbridge, 1 at Swineford and 3 at the Crane. Soon after a breakfast roll and a cup of tea Jerry drew and it seemed to be ok, especially for me on dolly peg 15 at Swineford 😊.  I’ve won on this peg on the pairs league this year with 18lb of chub and roach and was really happy. 

My view today. A bit of shade for a while but boy did it get hot later in the match 🥵.  Andy Reid from Lobby’s was above me and Bristol City fan Leigh Wakefield on end peg 17. Leigh’s peg had loads of chublets and chub swimming under the surface and I was not sure if I could get the better of him. Top bloke is Leigh, not all City fans are bad eggs 😉

Gear put up today, waggler, crowquill, pole rigs; 1.5g with 18 N20 to 0.10, 2g with 16 N20 to 0.11, a 4x14 with 18 N20 to 0.10 for fishing mid depth.

We started at 10:30 and I crashed in 10 balls of my usual Sonubaits Black Roach and Black River with a good helping of casters and hemp. I chucked the waggler looking for the early chub, but I hadn’t seen any and my peg was full of bits and dace. After 15 minutes I put that down and tried the pole at 13m where I fed, first run down on a caster and hooked a roach, but a jack pike grabbed it. Eventually the pike let go of the roach, I was not looking forward to hooking more pike! The next 15 minutes it was a bite a chuck, a couple of bleak a dace and small roach. I stuck a tare on the hook, I find these much easier to hook than hemp though can’t say I’ve had lots of days where you catch on tares. Well first drop in on the tare produced a roach, and so did the next one. I was getting a bite every chuck but missing too many, so I pushed the olivette up and spread the two droppers more. This made a difference and I hit more bites.

I was feeding a pouch of hemp one run through and then next I fed a pouch of maggots and casters across the river. Soon the roach were coming off bottom and I had to shallow up a foot. Bites were coming as soon as the rig settled if not before and i hardly had time to feed. I was soon needing to shallow up again but the rig felt too heavy for this depth so I tried the 4x14 rig. It worked but it felt like I was catching slower waiting for rig to settle, so I went back on the 1.5g and the roach just carried on gobbling up the tares!

An hour to go and I decided to stop feeding the waggler line as the small fish were still there. I had a little go on the crowquill to give my body a rest from shipping 13m of pole. I had 3 roach on this on tares and then missed bites so back to the pole. It proved that there were tons of roach in the peg bottom to middle.. solid!

When the match ended I was feeling the heat, the sun was burning my pole and landing net pole, but the roach carried on feeding. I was sure I had 20lb of roach, I had fed nearly 2 pints of hemp.

Swineford fished very well and I won the sectional with 24lb 7oz. Rich Whitmarsh had 16lb and then Leigh had a 14lb, Andy Reid 13lb that just beat Andy Britt 13lb, Mike Goodhind had double figures too!

It was a nightmare back at the pub as the sports ground opposite wouldn’t allow us to park in there, and there’s not much parking in the area as it’s all double yellows! Managed to get parked up and walked back, and was soon told that I had won the match as Sam Johnson was second best weight with 16lb 8oz from the Crane, then Rich Whitmarsh was third. Poor old Rich got beat up by pike so could have weighed a lot more, once again the pike stayed away from me after the first fish, that’s lucky!

Here’s part of my catch today, 18lb in this weigh.

Some very good river anglers were here today and you’ll see a few of them on the sheet below with section and overall. Great to win against these guys, another win for the Gas too 😆😆😆

Here’s the team positions after round 1 and pleased to see our team win today. The team was Jerry, me, Derek Coles, Shane Caswell, Craig Pinker and Jeff Surmon. Local lads who just love fishing the river.

A weekend off now, then the last round of the pairs league, one more good draw please, or is that greedy 😉😆

Bathampton / Bristol & West Pairs

Round 5 of this friendly competition and it was back at Newbridge for this one. I had missed the first two rounds on here when a fair few bream have been caught so I was hoping to get on few! On my way to the draw I had just got on the ring road after picking up a McDonalds breakfast when I realised I’d forgotten my reels and feeders. Had to turn back and rang Dean Harvey to tell him I might be late. I arrived at the pumphouse a minute past 8am and the draw was underway. Rich Lacey and I were last to draw so it was fingers crossed we had something decent. Rich drew again and put me in A section and I got peg 3 which was behind the pumphouse, Rich got B9 which was peg 63 and meant he was definitely in the bream area. Our nearest challengers had also drawn well so it was going to be interesting!

I last drew this peg in the Poppy match when I had some nice chub, but they haven’t shown this season so far and neither have the chublets, but they are there for sure. Jerry Pocock helped me get my gear to the peg as the path is too dangerous here for a trolley. Jer was on peg 18 again and last time he had 30lb of bream on it. No surprise he was fishing for bream today.

I set up the trusty Preston Absolute platform to get me as far out as possible. Never bothered to set up a feeder here today, not used one yet in the league lol. A 4AAA waggler with 16 to 0.11 Powerline for chubbing was put up, and just two pole rigs; a 1g pencil float with 20 to 0.10 and a 1.5g with 16 to 0.12. With virtually no flow there was no need for heavy rigs, just had to hope that bleak would not mess it up.

The match was just about to start when a couple who live on the orange boat jumped in and swam / paddle boarded/ fell in. I thought it was probably not a good idea to start on the waggler….

Threw 12 balls of Sonubaits finest on the 11m line and shipped out with the heaviest rig, ran it through 5 times and no bites. Picked up the pencil float, ran it through 5 times without a bite but then had a roach. It was a slow start but gradually I was getting more bites on a maggot. All the while I was feeding maggots and casters on the waggler line. I reckon after an hour I had 3lb, roach, dace and one chublet. However, the waggler line was alive with swirling fish, not bleak but chublets, and I had to get on this as it was still cloudy and boats were not too bad. I had bites immediately, and within a few seconds of the bait hitting the water, chublets averaging 6oz but I did have a 2lb chub. I had a good hour on the waggler and even when a boat went through the chublets would come back. The great news was Rich had a good first two hours with about 7 bream and 3 skimmers, so we were looking good.

I had to stop fishing the wag for a bit when about 6 rowing boats lined up along the river. I had a few roach on the pole but not decent size so was soon back on the waggler. I took some more small chub and also had another 2lb+ fish and a couple of pounders. Then the sun started to come out and the boat people went for another swim and this was pretty much the end of the chublets. Luckily for me the pole line was now solid with roach that were well off the bottom taking the loosefeed. I had a nice last hour on this trying the wag a couple of times. When the match ended I knew I had a hell of a day and had been on a right aquarium lol.

Jerry weighed me in and I had totally underestimated what I had tipping all the fish on the scales and they bottomed out. We took the biggest fish out and then took more out, and after 3 attempts got 19lb 8oz, had to put the net back with no photo. The remaining fish went 10lb 6oz for a total of 29lb 14oz, we could get a picture of these my best fish. 

As it turned out Rich won the match with 38lb and I came second, Derek Coles had 21lb of bream from peg 59 in the bream area. Obviously me and Rich had a maximum of 20 points. But even so our challengers all did really well both Ivan “end peg” Currie / Dave Lewis, and Jerry / Nick had 16 points. Rich and I have an 8 point lead going into the last round, but as we saw today draw in the wrong areas and you’re in trouble, with some top anglers struggling for bites. But I had one of my favourite days on the river despite all the pitch invasions 😆😆😆

Here’s the section boards and the overall scores after round 5. Back on the river next week for the commercial house.

Bathampton / Bristol & West Pairs

Round 4 of this 6 match series, round 3 was last Sunday which I missed recovering from the National. Myself and Rich Lacey were now just one point behind Ivan Currie and Dave Lewis and so we wanted to make sure we had a good day today. This round was split with one section at the trees, Salford and one section at Swineford, that meant we had to be drawn by 7:30 so it was an early start, but I made it with lots of time to spare today! As usual, I left it to Rich to do the draw and he kindly pulled out Swineford for me, permanent peg 17, which was one below where I was the last match here when I won. Rich himself had drawn the end peg at the bottom of the trees which can be good for roach, But the top pegs in his section I felt would be hard to be as there’s more roach up there.                  

Gave a lift to Jerry Pocock who like me was at Swineford again. He and Nick Coles were on the same points as me and Rich, but I didn’t fancy Jerrys peg today.

One good thing about my peg is that for a large part of the day it would be in the shade. Some people call it the chub peg as over the years it has produced many chub, but definitely better from Autumn. Derek Coles had it last match and had 7lb of roach and tiny chublets.

I set up a crowquill today that was far too heavy for the depth but I wanted to get through the bleak, 14BB went on! A 16 and 0.12 fluorocarbon finished it off. A 4AAA waggler with 16 to 0.13 powerline, and a lead rod threaded up but not used.

I was set up way before the 10:30 start so had a wander around, I had Alan Mapston on 15 and Mike Weston on 19. End peg was Ivan Currie and we all fancied him to win the section from there as he’s on fire at the moment.

I began by throwing 6 balls of Sonubaits black roach and black river with some hemp and caster in it. Then I had an early look on the waggler which I was just about to give up on when I hooked a chub, but after 5 seconds it had shed the hook. Another 15 minutes of catching bleak / tiny chublets was enough and I had a go on the crowquill over the gbait line. Well it was just as bad here tiny bleak grabbing the hookbait, and when I did get below them the roach were minuscule. However, as I found last time you do need to try to keep going and the better fish should turn up.

Two hours gone I went for a walk as I only had about 2lb, around me most were saying 2 or 3lb so it was tough. By regularly feeding small balls of gbait I began to get less bleak and the roach were now a better stamp and I started to enjoy it. Not long after Jeff Surmon came along and sat behind me. Jeff should be fishing but he recently hurt himself in a fall and is recovering, but he’s on the mend. 

Jeff sat behind me at the time I was catching best so I think I entertained him lol, but seriously we had a good chat. I did start to have some pike problems and lost about 5 hook lengths, but after that the pike went. I carried on catching odd roach till the last 40 minutes when the flow slowed up, less bites and missing most of them! I was reluctant to try the waggler as every time I fired a pouch of maggots across the surface exploded with fish and they were still tiny. But I needed to do something and so I cast the crowquill across the river. The hook bait got to the bottom which surprised me, and then it went under. I had a 6oz chub, the next three casts produced identical fish, missed a couple of bites then had a roach and that was the all out.

My immediate thought was I should have tried that earlier, but it’s easy in hindsight. I reckoned I had double figures Jeff said 11lb.  I had a fair wait to find out my weight as Ivan had the scales and he had to mountaineer to get out the peg. Ivan had 14lb of roach and had done well, Mike above me struggled and had to move peg when a moored boat came loose and stuck in front of him, he had just under 5lb. My fish went 11lb 14oz, a lovely second half of the match, just missing a couple of chub.

 As it turned out I came third at Swineford beaten further upstream by two ounces, but luckily for me the angler was fishing it as an open, meaning I got 9 points out of 10. Here’s my board from Swineford.

No bream caught here today, hence why Dean Harvey came last I guess 🤣

Below is the board from the Trees, only 1 bream caught by Deans partner Derek Coles, but Derek only weighed 1 bream as everything else swam out of a hole in his net 🙈. Rich did well because as expected the other end of the section was much better for roach and Graham Hunt moaned on 15lb 8oz to win.

Results were back at the Swan, we were all glad of a cooling pint! I’d got the section money which Dean kindly paid me mostly in coins, 🙈🤣, but the bar staff were pleased to get them. You could tell the anglers who had caught a lot of small fish by the state of their clothes, Ali Gibbs one of messiest 😬

Dean tried to do a quick tot up of the overall points, but he forgot his abacus and didn’t get it right. I reckon Rich and me are in the lead, 4 points ahead of Ivan and Dave, with Jerry and Nick just a couple of points behind them, it’s still all to play for.

One thing I forgot to mention when I got my bait Saturday, I walked through the front door and dropped the bag of maggots which split. I shouted to Wendy to help but she took one look at the maggots and couldn’t help lol. I ended up getting them rounded up with a dustpan and brush, and Wendy did help by grabbing me a couple of bags. Fingers crossed I got them all 🙈😆

Well there’s no significant rain in the forecast and the river is going to be very low and slow or almost stopped soon. No fishing for me this weekend, up to Newbridge for round 5 the week after. 

Division 1 National Aire & Calder Canal / New Junction Canal

Some time ago a team was assembled from my Thatchers squad for the National. I didn’t know the venues but put my name forward if required, and I was needed as it turned out. I ended up being one of the five anglers who would be fishing the Aire & Calder, the other five on the new junction. These canals are near Goole and it is a 200 mile drive to get there for me, more for many of the team. It was decided to not practice and instead focus on not getting relegated lol.

I spent some time researching my venue and found a few good videos to give me some idea. It’s a wide shipping type canal with depths up to 14 feet. Skimmers, bream, roach and perch were the target species. The section draw was done in the week and I was drawn D section around Great Heck, but my 48 peg section was actually split into 3 separate parts of the canal so 6 end pegs and who knows how similar the fishing would be. I did a lot of prep and had my groundbait mixes decided on. 

Met up with the team and we had a great curry in a place called Howden (maybe they make the kitchens there lol). A relatively early night for me at midnight after a bit of refreshment.

The next morning I hoovered up the Premier Inn breakfast and was raring to go. Martin Barrett did the team draw and we were soon off to our pegs. I had to drop Rob Jones off to his section first as his van had broken down on the way up. It was a nightmare for Rob and we all felt for him. Got to my part of the canal and it was just a 10 peg part, most anglers were telling me it was not good.

Looking up the canal, the first peg was not far past the gate, I was a few more pegs down.

My peg, no features here just tins. Note the calm water which I knew was not going to last long.

I had been told the night before that the wind would make pole fishing impossible in places, so after getting my gear ready I put my tip rod up first. I cast a lead out and clipped up about 5m off the tins where I was happy with the depth. A cage feeder with 16 N20 and 0.11 powerline was my chosen tackle. Groundbait was Thatchers Green and F1 Green. By now the wind was really getting up, I got a couple of top sets and three more sections of pole out. Bit of a waste of time the pole as you will read.

We started at 11am, I fed some gbait on the pole and then cast the feeder out, rather than quick casts just feeding, I left the feeder in for 2 minutes. Second cast and I had a bite that banged the tip and dropped back, fish on. Felt like a skimmer as I reeled it in with no trouble, but about a third the way out it started fighting and banging on the rod. Got it under the rod tip and another bang and the hook pulled out. Oh dear I thought…. I’m guessing it might have been a hybrid but never saw it.

The next twenty minutes brought odd indications but then a 10oz skimmer settled the nerves. I had another smaller skimmer, but on the hour decided to get a quick look at the pole line, 1 bite 1 tiny perch. Back on the feeder and I had 3 skimmers in the second hour but then it died. 1 more perch on the pole was my last fish on that line.

The wind got worse, I really had to work hard to cast the feeder accurately. The wind was blowing all sorts of crap on the inside of the canal and it kept catching my line. All I had for the next 2 hours was a perch and a Ruffe. 

Going into the last hour I knew I had to sit on the feeder, there was always the chance a few skimmers would feed. At 3:15 I had one, then with 25 minutes to go I had three in three casts. All on red worms and the bites were not shy. Match over, 9 skimmers.

As is often the case the scales arrive quickly and had come from the far end peg who was leading with 3.29 kilo. My fish went 2.98 kilo and that was enough for second in my ten pegs as the other end peg was third. As you can see in the snapshot below it was tough in these 10 pegs.

I saw later that the first ten pegs were really tough and I beat all of them, but the middle 28 peg area was much better and 18 people there beat me, so I ended up with 20 penalty points. To be honest I was really happy with my result given the weights around me, and the lost fish probably cost me 5 points only. I had enjoyed battling the wind and trying to trick the skimmers.

Sadly the team didn’t have a good day, although many had some nice catches they weren’t in the best areas. We ended 30th and had avoided relegation.

Congratulations to Barnsley on another win, and also to DGL coming third beating many local teams.

I should have been fishing round three of the pairs at Newbridge today but had asked Shaun Townsend to cover for me. He and partner Rich Lacey both had a few bream and both were second in their respective sections, so we are in the top three at the moment. Round 4 next week.

Now time for some sleep 🤣🤣🤣

Bathampton Pairs

I missed the first match of this series which was at Newbridge, partner Rich Lacey and super sub Ben Rendall getting a few fish but missing bonus bream. Today’s match was split one section at the Trees at Saltford and one at Swineford, payout is done on this match as two separate matches effectively.

I watched the England match the night before but never had a drink so was totally sober to make sure I was able to get up and cope with the heat. A 7:30 draw time meant not loads of sleep, but still same for everyone who watched England win. Rich has always drawn and I let him do it again, we were last but one pair to draw. Rich put himself a few pegs below the arch at the trees, and me A7 at Swineford. I didn’t know what peg it was until I got to the bank. I helped Jerry Pocock by taking him to Swineford, he was downstream end peg and a fair walk in this heat below the gas pipe!

When I got to the peg I was on permanent 16, so one above where I pleasure fished last week, Derek Coles was on that peg. My peg needed a little bit of bank digging to get box level, but no trouble with casting here.

I set up the same bolo as last week with 18 to 0.12. A 4AAA waggler with 16 to 0.13. A 4m whip for bleak that were topping everywhere, and I did put a tip rod up but it never got used.

I was ready early but match started at 10:30 so had a little walk to see Derek below me, Jan Mazyk and Mike Weston above me.  Sun tan lotion applied and ready to go! I threw 7 balls of gbait (Sonubaits black river and black roach) with caster and hemp in downstream about 16m, not great flow here as better over in this peg. I fed the waggler with maggots and that erupted.

I tried the waggler for some early bomber chub and I did get two but it was bleak central. Onto the bolo and it was even worse than last week as the bleak were here big time! I was soon on the 4m whip trying to get some bleak, trouble was they were small and I missed a lot of bites as they couldn’t get a maggot in there mouth. Bolo was still bleak, waggler still bleak..

90 minutes in and I was frustrated that I couldn’t get bleak lined up on the whip and no dace or roach on my other lines. All I could do was plough on and try and feed the little buggers off! Eventually the bolo did calm down a bit, but the fish I caught below the bleak were not the size I had last week, maybe the heat had an impact? I heard a commotion below me and went to see Derek, he had a run in with a boater who decided to turn his boat around in front of Derek and nearly took his net out! Suffice to say words were exchanged by both!!! Derek was struggling to with the bleak but was getting the odd roach.

Going into the last two hours things improved as I lined a few roach up on the bolo, but then I heard Mike Weston had three bream so I thought I needed some chub. Onto the waggler and after a bit of thrashing my triple maggot hook bait started to avoid the bleak and I hooked a chub about 1lb and soon after had another. The last hour I was feeding two pouches of maggots to try to feed the little fish off, and by persevering with the wag I would eventually get a bomber chub in between the bleak. It was great to see a bend in the rod and other than one bumped fish I never lost one. Such a great end to the match after a frustrating first few hours.

My weight was recorded at 18lb 12oz and that was top weight at Swineford. Mike was second and Ivan Currie third off the outfall with a big perch, bream and bits. Weigh sheets below.

The Trees fished quite well with the top weights being made up of bream, well done Dean on the win! Rich had a good day getting a couple of bream and skimmers on the pole but nothing on the feeder.  A win for us on the day as a pair but Jerry Pocock and Nick Coles, and Ivan and Dave Lewis after a good first match are still doing well. 

I can’t fish the next match because I’m fishing the Div 1 National on the Aire and Calder canal near Leeds, so have drafted team mate Shaun Townsend as my sub, he should be able to moan a few on the hook 🤣