Still here & August / September 2000

It has been a blank two weekends on the fishing front, in fact three as it turned out. I went on holiday with Wendy to Zante again, a fantastic little resort where the people remember you and welcome you back with open arms (well the bar owners remember lol). That was two weekends taken up, and this weekend I was supposed to be fishing the Thames Champs, unfortunately I have some bottom issues this week and I was forced to pull out of the match and do my best to sort myself after a visit to the hospital didn't really help. Luckily in the end I went for a natural remedy; a hot curry and plenty of Cider, and wouldn't you know Sunday has been a good day, yay!

Of course I did have a shock in the meantime when I found myself on the cover of Anglers Mail. They had used my catch shot of chub on the River Tone, taken by the one and only Brian Gay. That was a nice surprise.

I should mention that the Thatchers team have not fared well today on the Thames and Geraint Powell who took my place had 3lb+ of gudgeon so I didn't miss much. It was also the last match where young Andy Cranston fished for Thatchers as he is moving on to fish for Dorking, so good luck to him I hope it works out for him.

I've not been able to fish as much during the summer as normal, and that's been due to me doing lots of other things which I've thoroughly enjoyed, I will have to sharpen up on the fishing front pretty quick though to compete as I have a couple of Riverfest qualifiers on the Thames coming up!

Back in August 2000 I was fishing the river Huntspill on a Superleague match and I had drawn permanent peg 92. I had 2 small skimmers on the feeder and after this only had tiny roach and perch. I had 5 eels and again some tiny roach and perch on the pole, all in all I only weighed in 3lb 140z, but this was worth an OK 8 points out of 11. I remember some anglers did well on the pole by feeding really heavy with maggots, catching some big eels and occasional quality silvers.  One week later and I was back to do it all over again but this time on a Huntspill open match and I drew peg 193. The feeder was better this time with 4 hand size skimmers and a bream, plus a 12oz eel. Double red maggot caught all of my fish, I got bit off by a big eel on the feeder that day and lost another on the pole. They were costly as my 3 kilo 350g was 100g short of winning the section.

After two decent matches it was back on the Spill for the Superleague. Well what is it they say "one week you're a lion, the next eek you're a dandelion". 13oz and I only beat one person in the section, oh dear!

Saturday 26th August and a bit of pleasure fishing at Witham Friary where I fished the top lake. I started fishing casters for the crucians, and caught for an hour before it died completely. I switched to fishing with luncheon meat and caught small carp up to 3lb. I used to cup decent amounts of meat in back then, but this was a day when I found throwing in 4 bits of meat was far better. On the Wednesday I fished an open match at Bullocks Farm on the carp lake which I am sure would have been run by Tony Rixon. It was certainly not like fishing commercials these days, and it was a long wait for bites. I managed 7 carp and a tench on meat or corn, 4 to the far bank and 3 on the margin. I had 30lb exactly and that was good enough for 3rd and some money.

A practice match on the K&A canal at Horton was piss poor, I had just 1lb 4oz of tiny fish and hardly caught for the last 4 hours. It was though still enough for me to be picked to fish the following week again in a superleague round. This time was a little better as I caught for two hours at 3/4 where I had fed 2 balls of gbait and loosefed squatt over the top, before having to fish tight across for the odd blip. 2lb 11oz was worth 7 out of 11 points.

Saturday September 16th and more pleasure fishing, this time on the Avon, I fished the high wall peg on the Crane. I fished a 7 n04 stick float with a 22 to 0.10. Feeding caster & hemp I soon had trouble with bleak and had to push the shot to a bulk just 10" from the hook. It was OK though and I had a good double figure bag of roach and dace. What I do remember that day is hooking a very large chub, at first I thought it was a pike, but it swam to the far bank by the boats and soon I had it back in the middle of the river. My heart was in my mouth as I caught a glimpse of it after 5 minutes, and then it came off. I'll never know how big it was for sure of course, but it was a whopper.

The following weekend was the first round of the Commercial House on Fry's the whole league of anglers used to be able to fish on Fry's. I drew upstream end peg 1 and didn't really fancy it to be honest, plus I had an angler pleasure fishing opposite. The wind was awkward and with only half the river available to me I fished a waggler down the inside and loosefed maggots, and tried gbait and caster just shy of the middle. The middle of the river was not great but as the match wore on the inside line improved and in the last two hours I was catching roach, dace and bleak with a 20 to 0.10. It looked wrong but the waggler was the only way to present the bait well and I enjoyed the match. 8lb 2oz was as it turned out a great weight and I came 3rd overall and picked up over a ton.

My last match of September 2000 was the first round of the ATWL at Keynsham. I drew the Crane, the peg below the High wall. The river was a bit pacey and coloured and not really conducive to this section as you wanted a bream peg for sure. I gave the stick float a go but the swim got to boily and I had just a handful of roach and bleak and was really struggling after 2 hours. With nothing to lose I fished the gbait feeder 2/3 over with a 16 to 0.14. It was all quiet with no bites, then out of the blue a proper bite, but it wasn't a skimmer it was a chub. Carrying on I fished double or triple hookbaits and ended up with 6 chub. My weight of 12lb 1oz won the section and if I recall correctly Martin Barrett was 2nd in the section with 6lb. I used to like the river when it was like this, as if I couldn't catch roach I would go for big fish on a feeder when a lot of anglers preferred the float. Of course it was a risk, but as I got to know the pegs I knew where it was right to fish for them, and if I blew out I didn't worry too much as the same result would have happened on the float. Team won the day, so a good start.

Tony Rixon Float only Viaduct Fishery

Well after a great weekend at the races last week (where for once I won more than I bet) this weekend was all go, watching cricket Friday night and a good gas win on Saturday and Viaduct Sunday. I haven't fished this league this year and was filling in as a stand in for Tom Magnall.

Me and my wife at the races last week, just before my first winner of three, and we watched Madness
after.

Having not been to Viaduct since my June holiday, and hardly done any carping I did need to some preparation, rigs, hook lengths and I had to put some elastic in my XS90 pulla kits. I did all this by Saturday morning so was happy. I was picked up Sunday morning by Rich Lacey, another angler with a van which meant I could have a good chat there and back. We were going to stop at Cannards Well for Breakfast but it was shut, looks like it is being refurbished, so bacon baps in a garage it was. At the draw I was getting the gear out and chatting and then noticed anglers walking to their pegs, the draw had started.I ran up to the Lodge and pulled out peg 112, a really good peg. As I had an open mind on what to fish for I now decided to target carp as on Thursday Norman Sterry on peg111 had 465lb!

 Got to my peg and opposite me on the spit on 129 was driver Rich, on 110 was Paul Elmes and on 111 Russ Peck, both excellent carp anglers. I didn't see who was on my right on 114 as they were behind the tree branches. I was slightly worried about using the new pole today, I had forgotten my margin pole and that would have been useful for the bay to my right, but I would tackle that anyway with red hollo 11. Open up my holdall and get out my big tube of topsets, ummm where are all those new pulla kits, this is all river topsets! Well I assumed I had left the new top sets at home and all I had on me were some old top sets, one with 11 hollo, one with 13 hollo and one with 15 hollo. This meant my options were very limited and I had to decide on rigs. In the end a deep rig for fishing banded pellet with 16 KKM-B to 0.15, a shallow rig on a long line, and a 0.15 margin rig for fishing pellet.

Obviously it was a long hot sunny day and this would make the fishing tougher but I was happy that a number of carp were showing before the match began. At 10:30 we started and I began at 5m on pellets, nothing much happened other than 2 skimmers. and it seemed quiet for most anglers. I was feeding 6mm pellets out to 14.5m and was soon shipping out the deep rig to try this line. It wasn't long before the float shot under and the 13h elastic was shooting off towards the opposite bank. It was obviously a fouler but I survived the initial run and was soon playing it on my top set where it was a waiting game. I was waiting for the fish to give up, but instead the top set gave up and snapped in my hand. Luckily I was able to keep the elastic under my control and eventually landed a 10lb fish hooked in the anal fin. I was now down to two top sets, so I took the margin rig off and was soon back out and I hooked another carp which soon came off. Then had a skimmer. Then I had another carp on which was a fouler and came off. I was soon into another carp which was fouled but I landed it and this was in the pectoral fin and near 12lb. One hour and 15 mins and I landed a carp hooked in the mouth, I now had three carp and a few skimmers. I had fouled all the carp right near the bottom, and even though there were no signs shallow I gave it a go for 15 mins but had not a single sign.

The next 90 mins were rock hard, with hardly any bites for me. Russ and Paul were not bagging and only had a couple more fish than me. I upped the feed on the long line and this worked in as much as I got some fish into the peg, but alas it was very frustrating as it was fouler after fouler. I tried different size pellets to no avail, I tried shallow on two more occasions and hooked two carp both came off as they were FOULERS! I did manage a couple more on the deep line and then switched my attention to the margin on a top set plus one. It was slow going but I managed to hook 5 carp and land all 5 as they were all in the mouth, and didn't snag me.

The match was over and I knew I was well beaten by Russ and and Paul so no money today. I felt like today I lost more fish as I landed so a good weight was on the cards if I could have sorted it out. A paste rig might have worked but I discounted it with only a couple of top sets. My final weight was 88lb something for no good, Russ had I think 109lb and Paul 169lb which was good enough for 2nd overall. Piccy of Paul.

Winner today was Glenn Bailey on peg 85 who had 181lb of carp on paste, including a 21lb beast caught in his margin.  Silvers winner was Tony Thick 38lb 12oz on peg 95.

I don't know much else as I had to shoot off with Rich as he was going out, but I am sure Tony will cover everything on his blog.

When I got home and put the gear away I looked for my new top sets, couldn't find them. Looked in the holdall and there they were in another new tube, so they were with me all day, what a plonker!

Super League Round 5 Bristol Avon Newbridge

After a great weekend away last week in Blackpool, even if the Gas lost, I was feeling rather achy. My wife and I decided to join a gym again (25 years after the last time) and I had gone to some classes and was feeling the effects. One class which involved lifting weights, squats and thrusts was full of women, mostly older than me, half way through I had to take a long break whilst the women made me look stupid lol. Only 2 weeks gone and I feel better for it and enjoy it, hopefully soon I'll be able to last a whole class.

This match was my first time out after struggling on the riverfest, the river had fished a lot better last week and with some rain might make the fishing better and the river have a little flow. Nick Chedzoy drew the team pegs but he had the last set and to be honest we didn't have what I thought was a decent draw. Myself I was on peg 49, a peg I've had before and it is a bit all or nothing as the flow is on the pole line and not much elsewhere. The peg is a long way off the water, and not for the faint hearted but it is something I am used to. Picture below shows how wide the peg is, but it's one of my worst pics, primarily because we had a lot of rain and the phone was kept in my pocket mostly.

Set up the usual rigs for the pole, a 1.5g pencil float, 2g, and 3g and a flat float for chopped worm. Also a gbait feeder and a crowquill. I did not set up a waggler as this peg is so wide and has very little if no flow past midway. Also I know from drawing this peg before that the far bank is snaggy with weed coming out a long way and not great for fishing across. I plumbed for fishing the pole at 13m it was deep at least 13 1/2 feet.

I balled the peg at the start at 12:30 just as the first heavy shower arrived! I began on the 2g rig with a 20 N40 to 0.10 with a caster on the hook. Float buried first chuck and hybrid was swung out. Next drop another hybrid that I had to net, about 6oz. Two further hybrids followed and then some roach about 2oz. After 20 minutes the caster was rejected and so I switched to maggot to catch a few more roach and a small perch. On about 40 minutes the bites just stopped, and none of my pole rigs could induce a bite. I tried the crowquill and had another hybrid and a couple of roach before that too died. I spent another 30 to 40 minutes without a single bite on anything.

I was going nowhere when I tried the pencil rig again and the float settled and buried and I had a small roach, a couple of missed bites forced me to put a pinkie on the hook and I caught a few more roach, a small sized maggot was the best and I even caught an 8oz chublet. After about 30 minutes this died and despite trying all the usual top ups and hookbaits it was dead. This was a problem as usually the pole line is the banker on this peg and I was worried about things already. I was right to be worried as I could not raise a bite on the crowquill, nothing on chopped worm either (again!). Casting the gbait feeder out to just past halfway I could get bites from tiny chublets, tiny roach and even gudgeon. Putting on a big hookbait like a worm and 4 maggots was no good. I did try the crowquill over the top and had the same tiny fish but not easy to hit bites, I hooked one slightly better fish but a pike grabbed it and bit me off.

I kept hoping the pole would come right but it never did, and as the rain and thunder abated I gambled with an hour to go and reballed it, a roach first drop got me excited, but that was my only bite. I sat it out on the feeder in the vain hope of a bonus, but just a small perch and a gudgeon.

I thought I had 4 1/2lb and that was not going to be any good today. In fact I weighed 5lb 4oz and that only beat two people in the section Jerry Pocock and Ivan Currie. I was chip shop sausage though as to my left Andy Powell had 11lb some big roach and 2 skimmers on the pole, and to my right Mark Brush had a bigger 11lb some roach on the pole and some decent chublets on the feeder. Well that was a lesson for sure, maybe I had some soap in my groundbait lol!

The winner on the day was Dean Harvey on peg 5 in the little field, he had 3 bream and a couple of skimmers and a big eel on the feeder and chublets on the waggler for a great 29lb. Chris Parr was 2nd on peg 3 with 24lb and Charlie Valendar had 20lb on peg 65 with some big roach. Better mention Nick Chedzoy came 4th with 19lb on peg 124 otherwise he will moan at me I expect.

Dean's fish below.

Diawa Gordon League won the day with 43 points, and despite my inepitude Thatchers came 2nd with 38 points. That means with one round left DGL are 21 points ahead and have already won the league unless they don't turn up. Thatchers are 12 points clear of third placed Garbolino Blackmore Vale and so need a good result to cement that place. I am not fishing next match, luckily I'm on a weekend at the races at Newbury as I may well have been dropped anyway! That said Thatchers are fishing the Div one National on Saturday and they will need a good draw as the venue Aire and Calder canal, and New Junction are producing some good weights but also blanks!

Onwards an upwards!

Riverfest Qualifier Bristol Avon

Last couple of weeks were busy and not much fishing involved. I did manage to get out for a few hours last Saturday on Saltford Straight, though only just as is it solid with boats. I got to use my new Preston XS90 pole for the first time, but I only fished 10m as the wind was horrendous and I wanted to keep shipping the pole back easy. Probably had about 9lb, roach to begin with but these petered out, one skimmer and lots of dace, bleak were a pain at times, also a few small perch. No photos as my new phone bought last week has died today! Actually I have no clue about how Riverfest has gone for everyone as I have no contact with the outside world without my phone lol!

I met team mate Jack Jones on the morning of the Riverfest, we had breakfast in Wetherspoons Hanham. The draw was not until 10am in Saltford, so for me at least it was a very nice easy start to the day. At the draw there were lots of locals as well as some long distance travellers, plenty of very good anglers on show. I was not too far from the front of the queue, but the downstream end peg had already gone. I dipped in and pulled out 124, down in the trees with about four pegs below me. I didn't fancy it, not with a low flow river, but you never know. Last years winning peg 59 was favoured as bream had been seen rolling in the days before, team mate Mat Challenger had that one.

Nice easy walk to the peg and with a start time of 12:30 I had lots of time to get set up. The wind was blowing upstream and was going to prevent any rod and line top and bottom fishing, I debated a waggler but thought it wouldn't be right. I did set up a gbait feeder with 0.13 to 14 N30, and three pole floats, a 1.5g pencil float with 20 to 0.09, a 2g bodied float with 20 to 0.10, and lastly a 3g with 18 to 0.12. All hooks were N30's.

The angler to my right was from the midlands and he was going to start on the feeder, the angler below me was Dave Roberts, one of the best river anglers in the country and he excels on the Wye and Severn. When we began I cast out the feeder 8 times to get some worm and caster in, I cast quite close to the far bank as I thought as well as a few skimmers there might be some chub. I then threw in 12 balls of gbait on the pole line at 13m. Out I went with my 2g rig and a caster, not a bite on this so on with a maggot which got me 2 bites and two small fish fell off. I then had a positive bite and netted a 8oz hybrid, a couple of runs down later and I had a 6oz hybrid, a few of these would be handy. No more bites on this rig, so onto the pencil rig which I was convinced would do the business. Alas no, I could not get any roach and for 30 minutes the only fish I caught where odd bleak and tiny perch. Fifty minutes in and caught my first roach, and had two more and a 4oz hybrid. Unfortunately the bites on the pole just died and no matter what I tried I never had another bite on it.

I cast the feeder out and had 30 minutes on it and never had a touch, this was looking piss poor quite frankly. A try on the pole line for nothing, so I fed some chopped worm at 11m and down the peg and put a bigger hook and hook length on the 2g rig, well that was a waste of bait as I never had a bite on that either.

Back on the feeder with 3 red maggots and just as Shaun Townsend came along for a walk, I told him I was struggling and so were many it seemed. However, two anglers in my zone were admitting to 8lb and had a bream or two. After a couple of casts the tip knocked and I had a tiny roach, next cast and more knocks and missed it, next cast the same. Weird now a bite a chuck on the feeder with 3 or 4 red maggots but I can't get a bite on the pole. After 30 mins of this I put a bit of worm on and still I got bites, but now it was from 2oz chublets, not easy to hit in 13 feet of water right over. I was at least getting plenty of feed into the peg and was happy to carry on hoping for a bit of late bream action (dream on). I did manage to snare a skimmer of about 10oz and a couple of chublets about the same size, but I also had three fast bites but when I struck the feeder was snagged up, on one occasion I lost the lot. I fished double dendra for the last 30 minutes, that stopped the  bites but sadly no bream showed for me.

I was well aware I had done no good but thought I would still weigh in. The scales showed a 6lb on the end peg, then Dave Roberts had 6lb 5oz, he had 4 eels on worm and some perch and a few late roach, he fished the worm much further out, so I think I made a mistake there. My net went 5lb 1oz and the lad to my right had 4lb+. My ten peg section was won by Craig Fletcher who had 7lb 11oz, a decent bream and a couple of skimmers early. I don't know what won my zone of 20 pegs but there was an estimate of 9-10lb on peg 90 which included a 4lb chub caught in the last 5 minutes.

As my phone had died and it was very late I decided to go straight home and get my phone charged and sorted and to find out what had happened. Well the phone has proper died and will not charge or switch on, so I am clueless as to what has happened today!!! Off to get the phone sorted tomorrow and hopefully get a replacement. No fishing next weekend as off to watch Rovers first game of the season at Blackpool. Hopefully I'll get a chance to give the pole a good work out soon, but I can certainly say it is so much stiffer than any pole I have had before and I was able to fish 13m with ease despite the wind and it should improve my fishing I hope.

Superleague Huntspill Round 3

Glorious day Saturday, walked to the Lock and Weir pub on the river (Chequers) with my wife, walking there through the fields I saw more butterflies than I can ever remember seeing. It was fantastic, and the fields where anglers and cows used to tread are now overgrown and birds, flowers and many insects have returned. There are a number of platforms on the Chequers stretch where carp anglers and pleasure anglers in the club fish from, as well as some small opens. After a nice meal and a few pints we walked back home, a 5 mile round trip, and then I sorted out my gear for the superleague.

Sunday morning, up at 6am and got away on schedule, then as went to get on the M32 it was blocked off by a police car, detour to Cribbs Causeway to get on M5 then. The rest of the trip was without issue and arrived at the 37club in good time. Due to my drawing last week and the team winning I was asked to do the draw again, fatal mistake. Anyway I pulled out peg 2 this time, so one peg away from team draw last week, I was down on the North Bank this time, peg 10, with peg 8 being the end peg.

I was drawn in this section last year, and a lot of bream came off the first two pegs, but it is pegged a bit differently and the bream don't seem to be here in numbers this year, only a handful were caught here last week. Got to my peg and I had a little but of space to my right due to the bank being eroded, but to my left peg 9 was really close to me. Nigel Wyatt was on that peg, and Andy Powell was on peg 11 to my right. Again a standard view of the Huntspill, though there was quite a bit of weed growing further out into the peg as you can see.

Setting up was once again a simple excersize, the gbait feeder as ever with 0.11 to 16 PR355 today, a waggler but was hardly used. Three pole rigs, a worm rig that again was a waste of time, a 0.4g silvers float with size 20 N40 to 0.09 Accu Power, and a 4x12 with with the same hook line, first rig bulk and droppers, latter strung out.

As last week the match started at 11, and I was going to cast 10 feeders out into the middle, then bal the pole line. Well the plan was blown... first chuck and I cracked off the feeder, not sure what happened as it didn't go on the tip, think there was a loop or knot as it snapped about 15m out, weird. Of course I got plenty of abuse from the anglers in the section, especially Stretch and Neil Richards, but I didn't bite. I decided to now ball the pole with my 12 made up balls, a mix of Sonubaits black roach, lake and brown crumb. I then quickly threaded the line back up the feeder rod and made my 10 casts. Nobody had caught anything of significance so it seemed no harm done.

The first hour on the feeder passed without incident for me, a couple of tiny indications and one end of the maggot sucked. A bream did roll, on my pole line and I dropped the feeder over it but to no avail. After the hour Nigel and Andy both had a couple of fish and nobody had caught a bream, so it was looking tough. I picked up the pole and went out with the heavier rig with a maggot on the hook, straight away I caught a couple of very small hybrids and roach that were welcome. Andy next to me changed to the pole but was struggling whereas I was getting bites. However, I had switched to a pinkie on the hook as maggot was not working as in the previous matches, and this was a great move as it was a bite a chuck. The wind this week was much lighter than last week, it was right to left and sometimes off my back. Feeding a little bit of hemp and pinkie was possible with the catapult.

Basically I stayed on the pole line, 11.5m for the next hour catching in bursts, mostly off the bottom or on the drop, though I did best on the bulk rig spotting the tiny bites. I kept my eye out on other anglers it seemed everyone in my section was struggling so I kept on going on the pole even when it went a bit iffy. At one stage bites just stopped, and I was wondering what to do but thought my loose feed might have been dropping short so came back a metre and had a good run here. If I could catch roach they were a little better stamp than the perch and hybrids. I did try hemp but I couldn't make it work and soon reverted to pinkie.

About halfway through Andy Powell on my right started to get regular bites on the feeder, he was pulling his hair out at the number of bites he was missing, but with many anglers not getting bites he was doing well with odd little skimmers / hybrids. As the match wore on I thought it was close between us, and it was difficult to know if my 3 or 4 fish to his one was the same or better. With about an hour to go my pole line proper died, so I cupped in 2 balls of my mix with some pinkie and squatt in. I considered chucking the feeder out but thought better of it. It was a good move as the fish responded well to the feed on the pole, and from then on in if bites died I fed a ball of gbait and got fish straight away. The match ended at 4pm, I was very hot and sweaty as the sun had shone all match and god knows how many times I shipped in and out with a little fish, I thought I might have 5lb to 6lb.

Nigel had the scales and I had the board so we started on the last peg in our section Neil Richards, he had 2lb 12oz. Next to him was Rob Randall, now Rob is one of those anglers that always seems to catch a lot of fish, a great angler, so when he tipped 4oz on the scales nobody could believe it, Bad luck Rob, sorry I just had to mention it.

Stretch had no bream so weighed 12oz, Then it was Andy's turn, and his net of little skimmers went 5lb 6oz. I thought it would be close, and my net of sprats went 6lb 10oz, that was enough to win the section as Nigel had 1lb 14oz and Brian Slipper on end peg 8 had 1lb 15oz. I was happy enough, I just had a feeling that the sun would put the bream off and going negative on the pole would do the team job, of course a bream or two would have messed it up, but hardly any fed today.

Back at the results it was clear it had fished hard. Top 4

1st Charlie Vallender 12lb 12oz all small fish on the pole end peg at Gold Corner
2nd Nick Chedzoy 10lb two bream early then smoked a cigar for the rest of the match
3rd Martyn Howard 9lb 13oz  roach on hemp
4th Kev Boltz 9lb 12oz other end peg at Gold corner and small fish again

On the team front we had a few struggle today, including young superstar Andrew Cranston who after two section wins had the last in section treatment with 6oz. Such is the nature of this venue sometimes just getting a bite is a challenge.

DGL won the day and Blackmore Vale were second with my Thatchers third. That mean overall the top three are after 3 of 6 rounds:-

1st DGL 127
2nd Thatchers 123
3rd Blackmore Vale 104

That's another year on the Spill over, I can reflect on it happily, even though I didn't land on an end peg or flyer I had bites and some decent fish, and enjoyed my three matches. I cannot fish next weekend so a week off the blog, Tuesday this week I am off to Old Trafford to watch India v New Zealand in the cricket world cup, all thanks to my daughter Lucy who won a couple of free tickets.