Viaduct Xmas Match

I fancied a change this weekend on what would be my last match before Christmas, and fishing the Saturday suited me and so I chose to fish the Viaduct Xmas match. My preparation was slightly hindered on the Friday, this was mainly due to me having a very late night Thursday (3am) at a industry awards dinner. I found some barbless hooks, and threw in some pole rigs which I had used before.

It was a foggy start in Bristol Saturday morning, and about 4 Celsius, there was not much chance of seeing the sun today so 8 or 9 degrees at most and a few layers required. The drive down was easy and I got to see a few thousand starlings flying overhead from their roost to their feeding ground. I arrived at the fishery with 20 mins to spare and parked up near the bottom of Carey lake, as I got out I saw a carp roll in between peg 105 and 74, and then another. You could see carp moving just below the surface, but the talk was they showed the same last match and didn't feed. I picked up some bait from the shop, paid my dues and said hello to my fellow anglers. A number of anglers told me the pegs that would win would be at the bottom of Campbell, i.e. 110 and 132. I got in the draw queue and those pegs were still in there when I drew, but alas I missed them. Peg 96 on Carey was to be my home, one that can be very good as there is a lot of water to go at. Steve Long said the carp had not really been showing there but they might have moved. Adrian Jeffery told me it did not produce a carp on the Thursday, not really selling it to me then lol, but I was still happy with the draw.

As I walked to my peg I passed Dan White on 105 where the carp were still showing themselves, I tied to video them but I cocked that up it seems. Setting up on my peg was simple, a straight lead with 0.16 to 16 PR36 for hair rigged baits, a waggler with a 18 PR456 to 0.14, and a couple of pole rigs one for gbait at 14.5m and one for for fishing 16m off to my right where I fed positive with caster and corn and never had a bite lol.

At 10:30 the match began and I fed 3 balls of gbait on the pole, and then decided to chuck the lead out to see if there were any carp signs. I started with meat and chucked about half the maximum distance. 15 mins nothing, so I chucked further, 15 mins nothing so I chucked further. After 30 mins Chris Fox on 100 had a carp on the waggler, and not long after Roland Lucas on 99 had 2 on the lead. No bites or liners for me, and it was very quiet around the lake.

After an hour of nothing I chucked the waggler out casting to various parts of the lake with double red maggot, just hoping I might drop the hook bait on the nose of a carp. It didn't happen but I did catch a small roach to break the blank. Back on the lead and trying bread, corn and meat it was still dead. At 12:50 I was on the lead on corn and the tip went round and a carp was on. I was surprised how hard it charged off and it gave a good account of itself. I finally netted it, a Carey mirror around 9lb. Next chuck and I had a slow liner which did not turn into a bite, but that was a good sign I thought Then the angler on my right, Paddy, had a double figure carp on the waggler, then Roland had another. The angler on my left Pete Denslow had been on the pole for a while but chucked the lead as it seemed the carp were waking up, he had liner as soon as he put the rod down. Next cast he had a carp on, but lost it halfway back. Unfortunately this was the end of the action as far as the carp went.

The only fish I caught for the remainder of the match were the odd little 2oz skimmers from the gbait line. It was fizzing most of the day but I never had a sign of a bigger skimmer, and although I kept topping it up I never spent aged on it. The last hour the light was poor and I was struggling to see the float on the pole, knowing that I needed more weight I sat on the lead, but I just had a couple of the same tiny skimmers.

The match over and it was clear this lake had fished hard, pegs 85, 86 and 88 had no carp, Bob Gullick on 90 managed one with 15mins to go. The scales soon arrived, the carp had swam off in Dan's peg and he only had one, Roland Lucas was clear winner on Carey with 5 carp and a few silvers for 49lb 7oz. Phil next to me had 2lb and my carp was 9lb 9oz and my silvers were 1lb 11oz. My 11lb 4oz was 3rd in the 8 peg section, it was tough! Paddy took the section by default with 18lb which included a 12lb carp.

As was predicted at the start Campbell bottom bank was the place to be, with Jamie Bowden winning the match with 109lb 11oz. On peg 132 the second weight was recorded at 91lb 7oz, not sure of the name. Winning the silvers with a great performance of waggler fishing was Matt Parsons, he had 28lb 3oz of tench and skimmers on corn.

I ended up 16th out of the 30, and picked up a nice big box of Becks beer. Whilst waiting for the prizes we were treated to home made mince pies and a can of beer, nice touch that.

Well that's it for me, not sure when I will be wetting a line next now, looking forward to finishing work this Friday and having a relaxing Christmas. Wishing everyone a happy Christmas, enjoy yourself and hope Santa brings you what you want ;-)

Bathsmpton Xmas Match - Bristol Avon & K&A Canal

Middle of the week I had not decided whether to fish the weekend, but with a few mild days forecast I decided to give this match a go. I of course went with the choice to fish the river at Newbridge, and expected to fish for bream.

The draw was at the Crown in Saltford, this pub / restaurant has recently been taken over and it seems it has gone a bit more up market, i.e. prices are higher. Managed to get a breakfast which was not bad but not worth £7.50. Whilst I was eating it the draw was taking place and so I shouted to Dean Harvey to draw a peg for me, he did and pulled 61 on the Norfolk Reeds. This can be a brilliant peg but this season it has not shown its usual bream form, with just odd fish coming from it. However, last match on the river peg 59 just above had 60lb of lids so I hoped they might have dropped down, Callum Dicks had drawn peg 59 today.

I drove to the river and saw Shane Caswell on peg 16, Derek Coles on 18 (a good bream peg) and then there was a gap till Lewis Walker on peg 30.  Warren Bates was on form peg 36 and on the end of the straight Dean Harvey, both their pegs had been fished on Weds and lots of bream were caught.

I had the longest walk of the day but don't mind that as I like to keep fit, I arrived at the peg and got
my waders on as you have to get in the water, and got my box in nice and comfortable. The picture below was taken after the match when I had dragged my box up to the edge.

 I set up my feeder rod first with a 14 B611 to 0.148 exceed, I also set up a 4gm pole rig with 16 to 0.12 to fish 13m out, but rather than ball it I was going to feed balls of crumb and try punch bread. That was it nothing else was set up. Chris Ollis came for a chat before the start, he was in the bream hole on peg 54 and was trying to remember the last time he had drawn it.

When the match began I had about 10 chucks with a feeder about 2/3 the way over, I had intended to to feed chopped worm and caster in the feeder, but.... when I opened my worms they were all dead, oh dear. I had about 15 lobworms with me and for what it was worth chopped them up. After feeding that line I threw 3 balls of crumb on the pole line and tried a 10mm punch, a few run downs were fruitless, so I tried a 6mm punch and had a couple of 4oz roach. It didn't seem right though and I put 2 maggots on, I took another three roach and a chublet but that was it and it was now an hour gone. I picked up the feeder rod and put 3 dead reds on, the feeder was only in 20 seconds when the tip rattled and jagged about. Missed it, and missed the next, but then a little roach. I was surprised by this and it seemed the feeder line was full of small roach and perch, although hitting the bites was tricky. Of course I was never going to do any good catching these fish, but I just had to hope I could feed them off / the bream would move in.

I tried the feeder on the pole line a couple of times but it never worked, and I spent most of the match fishing on the far line. As well as little fish I had 2 chub about 1lb each on this, a 12oz roach and a 12oz perch, not really good signs for bream. I knew bream had been caught by Dean and Warren, Derek and Mike Goodhind and so I had to keep going for slabs. At 2:15pm nearly 4 hours after we started I had a proper bite and a 3lb bream was the culprit. It would have been nice if the tip went round again next chuck but it didn't, in fact at 3pm I had my next decent bite, a classic steady drop back and bream number two was on. At nearly 3:15 I had another slab, but that last 15 mins I was plagued by small fish bites again.

Dean Harvey came up with the scales and I had 18lb 12oz, happy enough as I had more bites than I 'd expected. Callum above me had 1 bream in his 11lb, and then Chris Ollis on 54 had 5 bream for 21lb, most of those came in the last hour. I didn't see the guys weigh but Dean Harvey had about 11 bream for 62lb, a good weight, but Warren then beat him with 66lb. However, the fish that won it for Warren was a spectacular 10lb 6oz barbel!

Back at the Crown Warren and Dean were clearly the top two, Derek managed 3rd with 27lb of bream but he and Shane Caswell on 16 were plagued with boats. I was in stitches as Shane told me of his day, watching 100 Santa's racing in boats, sat on his pole line, listening to the same songs played all day, oh and drone buzzing about overhead.  On the canal Ivan Currie had the top weight with 11lb (read his blog for details) and Darren Gillman was 2nd with 8lb.

After the prize giving we had the raffle, and no surprise I won nothing again, neither did Shane to make his day complete lol. Funniest part was the last prize, it was won by Darren, a chocolate santa. As he made his way to pick it up someone threw their raffle tickets at Kev Dicks and caught him in the face. Kev assumed it was Darren and smashed Santa into a mess. Darren responded by tipping up all the undrawn raffle tickets over Kevins head and they were everywhere!

One more match before Xmas, I'm going to give the Viaduct Xmas match a go, not been for ages and will have to find those barbless hooks out and hope for a bunghole draw.

Commercial House Round 4 - Bristol Avon Newbridge

Getting anything prepared for this match was going to be pretty much impossible, I had a full on week and left work early Friday to take a train to Chesterfield. I was travelling with the wife and met up with my eldest daughter. Nice place Chesterfield, the town was full of bars and places to eat. Saturday we met up with Mark Jefferies and his son Mitch, had a few ciders and watched Rovers lose again. A few more ciders to drown the sorrows and then I caught the train back with a few more cans. By the time I was home I was tired and a tad wobbly.

Sunday morning alarm at 6:15 was a shock, and I felt a bit dehydrated, not sure why.... Grabbed all my gear and some gbait and got to the draw in time to have a breakfast. Glenn had picked up some bait for me so I paid him and my pools and waited to see what peg would be coming my way. B2 didn't tell me much, mainly because the pegging sheet (if you can call it that) was just one peg in every section, so had to wait to get to the bank to find the exact spot. I drove down and passes Mike Withey on peg 16, Rich Lacey on peg 18, both could throw up bream today I thought. The river had some extra pace and just a bit of colour, not sure how it would fish like this. On peg 20 was Vincent Lunn and he was the first peg in my section, I was next peg and behind the pumphouse. I've drawn this peg a few times and I've never done amazing off it, would rather not draw it if I had the choice.

My feeling was that this was going to be a day when bream would be needed, and so the feeder rod was first out. I know this peg can be snaggy, but today I didn't get any problem fishing just past halfway. I set up with 15 B711 to 0.165 exceed. The next rod out of the bag was a 13 foot Normark Microlite to which I attached a 3 1/2BB stick float for fishing about 2 rods out, a 20 to 0.117 exceed was used on this rod. I had to get my box in the water to fish this peg as there are reeds growing out, as soon as I got in I noticed how cold the water was, not a good sign. I finally got the box set up and got as much as I could next to me.

Rich Lacey walked down just before the start and asked me how I thought the river would fish, and I said I just didn't know, but I was concerned at not seeing any fish top. As Rich walked back I shouted out we should have a pound on who caught the first fish, he said yes but lets make it buy a drink, sorted!

I began the match casting the feeder out with 3 red maggots on the hook, all the while I was throwing hemp, maggots and casters to prime the stick float line. Third chuck on the feeder and a decent rattle on the tip, when I struck I was connected to a small fish, it turned out to be a 4oz roach. A quick call to Rich and I was a getting a free pint later lol! Sadly that was not the start of more bites, and in fact after an hour all I had added was a 1oz perch. With plenty of bait put through the feeder I thought it was worth looking on the stick float line. A couple of roach and two perch on the stick in about a dozen casts wasn't that bad, but another 20 mins without a bite  meant it was time to go back to the feeder. My first cast back on it and I had a bit of sharp tap, I struck but there was nothing and the bait was still OK. I cast again and after about a ten minute wait I had a good bite, a good fish was hooked but I soon realised it was not a bream and was a chub. I gave it no quarter to keep it away from the reeds and soon had a 2lb chub in the net. It was about midday this happened and still 3 hours left.

Unfortunately there is nothing more I can write about my day as I never had another bite, all hook baits were ignored and the stick was also dead. Meanwhile above me Vinny connected with 4 bream and a few skimmers and won the section with 22lb, the lad below me had 1 roach and was last in the section, hmmm winter fishing.  Further down the section there were odd bream and some decent roach and small chub all caught on the feeder, with Jeff Surman coming 2nd in the section with just under 10lb. Andy Britt had a nice 6lb bream to get him out of jail, hooked in the the fin I believe. I only beat 2 people in the whole section and was last in the A div, oops.

Winner today was Rob Manns who was helping out my team, he drew peg 58 on the gas pipe, the deepest peg on the river. Rob had 11 bream for 60lb, Rich Lacey came 2nd with 7 bream for 35lb, I think Paul Purchase was 3rd with 30lb from peg 36.

Well it was a disaster on the team front today, as we were one short we needed good results, but didn't get them, we are now bottom with 2 matches left to go in the New Year.

No fishing for me next weekend, and that's probably it for river fishing for a while now.

ATWL Final Round K&A Canal Bath

After yet another hectic week in which I forgot to order bait but Mat Challenger sorted me out late on Friday, cheers. I also had just a couple of hours to tie up some rigs, and I used my top sets from last year, elastic seemed OK after pulling it a bit. Loading the car up Sunday morning it raining heavy and only 4C so my hands were froze as I set off to the draw in my car.

The match had been pegged with some sections int he town and the rest out at Bathampton, A draw in the town would most likely be needed to get in the frame, or an end peg. Team draw done and I was over the moon to find myself on A4 in the Long Pond in the town. I hoped that I would be on a few fish today. On the end peg A5 was Nige Evans, On A3 was Darren Gillman, no mugs here then.

I thought I would fish a positive match and went with 3 rigs, a 4x14 Drennan Roach for punch bread at top set +2, 18 PR311 to 0.08, A 4x12 PB float for fishing over gbait at 9m, and 0.4g PB silver float for fishing over neat joker at 13m. I also set up a 4AAA insert waggler with 20 B611 to 0.10.

I fed all my lines at the start of the match and began short on the bread punch, Nige was already catching 2-3oz fish on this, and I had 3 roach but then a boat came along. It didn't really affect my peg but it went through Niges, but Nige carried on catching and I didn't. I had to feed more bread to try to make something happen. I took another 3 roach then it went quiet again, after a while a positive bite was met with a lot of elastic coming out. I landed a near 1 1/2lb skimmer. By the end of the first hour I had taken a couple more smaller skimmers and some more roach, the bread line died soon after. Trying my 9m line with a pinkie I took four 6oz skimmer / hybrids, then a little fish. Then as Hughie Evans was watching me I struck and my elastic snapped, doh. It was only a little fish and I managed to retrieve the rig minus the fish. This line died soon after and only gave 1 roach during the rest of the match.

My first look out to 13m was with 3 bloodworm on and the float soon buried, skimmer, and two more soon followed. Bubbles started rising now, and there were lots of blows showing me there were feeding skimmers still in the swim. I took another two in the next 30 mins but the next 30 mins despite the blows and me trying different hook baits I had nothing! I wondered if the skimmers were off the bottom so I fed another ball of joker on the 13m line. I tried the waggler out about 20m where I had been loose feeding casters, I took 3 small roach and though it wasn't great I was encouraged.

Nige had now taken some skimmers but he was still catching small fish which I was not. Back on 13m and I persevered as the blows were back. After a couple of smaller skimmers on 3 bloodworm I tried just 2 on the hook, this seemed better and I had another 5 skimmers a perch and decent roach. With 30 mins left the blows stopped and the fish were gone, I fed some more joker and went on the waggler again. I took some roach and hybrids on this, up to 4oz, and with 15 mins left a very finicky indication had me thinking it might be a small fish so I struck, but the rod bent nicely! I very carefully played the fish in, and it came in easy until it was under the rod tip, but I finally slipped the net under a 2lb skimmer. A few more small fish and then the match ended, the 13m line never did show life in the last 30 mins which is why I stuck to the wag.

It was going to be close between me and Nige, but he kept saying I had hammered in. The scales came up with Darren having a nice net for 10lb 1oz. My turn next and they went 15lb 12oz.  Nige was last to weigh and I thought he would beat Darren, but he was closer to me than I thought with 14lb 12oz, Nice fishing, especially considering the weather over the last 3 or 4 days.

Back to the results and the canal had fished well overall with 5 of the 10 sections won with double figures and 7lb was the lowest section winning weight. It turned out I had done enough for the match win and I was chuffed with that, Nige was 2nd, Mark Harper 3rd 12lb and Tony Gilbert 4th with 11lb.

Bathampton won the match today, but Thatchers came 2nd and as a result won the league by just 1 point from Bathampton. A very tightly contested series indeed.

Nige Evans won the league individually, and Tony Gilbert won the knockout, so Thatchers had good payout today.

A nice way for me to end the league, I had to miss two matches, but was very happy to get in amongst the fish on the canal, drew a dolly today but really enjoyed it and felt like I fished a good match catching on all lines and only losing a couple of better fish which can happen on a peg full of skimmers lol!

Bill Milton Memorial - Poppy Match

Didn't have a particularly good week, my nan died (although she was the grand old age of 90) and then had what I think was heart palpitations on Wednesday night. They had a weird effect on me and Thursday at work I found myself carted off by ambulance to Southmead hospital. There was no serious issue, and might just be down to a virus or a one off,I still felt like I'd been hit by a bus though.

Thanks to Lee Trivett who collected my bait on Saturday, and that meant I was not under any pressure and even had time to have a couple of beers to celebrate Glenn's birthday. I woke up Sunday and other than tired I felt well, I honestly didn't know where I wanted to draw, but Swineford or Jack Whites would probably be good, as well as the noted bream pegs at Newbridge. Sadly I got neither and ended up down the trees at Newbridge, just about the one area I thought would be very hard to frame from. Trevor Chalk was down to fish this match and he drew on 115 not great on a day like to day. The river was still clear and without much flow, quite amazing that the rain we had hardly had an effect. Some idiot/s had ripped out most of the pegs so we did our best to work it out, my peg was still in, but in my opinion it was unfishable with this tree right over my head. I can only assume Mr Magoo  put this in.

With the next angler above me having a lot of room he agreed I could move 5 yards up where I smashed down nettles, brambles etc to get to the river and fish from about 5 foot off the water. It looked a bit like this, at least I could get the 5 sections of pole up in the air that I would need to fish this deep peg.

Just set up a feeder rod with 0.148 exceed to 14 B611, and two pole rigs, a 1g pencil rig with 20 to 0.09 and a 2g rig with 18 to 0.10.  I would have set up a crowquill but never had the time.

When the all in was called I cast out 8 feeders full of gbait, worm and caster 3/4 across, then fed 12 balls of gbait on my 13m pole line. I started on the pencil rig with a single maggot and three small roach in three chucks, I tried the heavier rig with caster and never had a bite. Back to the pencil rig and with a single maggot I had a bite every run through from 1oz roach. I had the odd small perch and one or two 3-4oz roach. It was though an absolute nightmare to fish, with lots of rowing boats that were all over the river, and some who were effing useless. Shipping back was also tricky as there were a great many walkers, dog walkers and people watching the rowers. It was like Picadilly circus and I kept repeating to myself keep calm, keep calm. I did have one outburst at a four, more out of frustration really, but bit my tongue for the rest of the day.

Back to the fishing and I caught on and off for the first two hours but the fish were very small and so I thought I had about 2 1/2lb. I had a look on the gbait feeder but that was no good at all, the angler above me came down and said he about 12oz and above him was worse. That was how I expected it to be, and I thought I would do my best to enjoy my day on the pole.  Back on the pole and it was much harder so I cupped a ball in, this helped and a few more roach came out, I also had a few right down the peg probably just below my loose feed. Another top up ball had a positive effect and I had a couple of 6oz roach and a 8oz hybrid, I thought this might see the fishing improve, but another ball did not work and it really died on me. I chucked the feeder again for 30 mins, but other than a quick rap I had nothing.

With about an hour to go I just kept working hard on the pole, trying different hook baits, though fluro maggot was by far the best, and messing around with the loose feed and gbait. I managed a few little chublets and another 6oz roach on a caster on the heavy rig, but the pencil rig took everything else. When the all out was called I thought I had 5 to 6lb, and to be fair I was pleased with that as I had thought it could have been a lot worse.

The scales had to weigh in from the end peg where Derek Coles had drawn, he had the top weight in that section with 8lb 10oz, and there were a couple of 7lbs, then it got worse with a couple of 3lbs. Then in my 5 peg section I weighed in 6lb 14oz and that won the section money, mainly due to the fact that everyone else chucked back! The next section above me was won with 4lb 13oz, and it was definitely not a good area to draw.

Back at the results and the banter was flowing well with Ray Bazely running proceedings and generally taking the mic. It was apparent the river had fished hard, but there were still some decent catches. Ray had got a new trophy for this match, and he did a very nice gesture by presenting the old cup (which I had won three times) to me to keep, thank you very much Ray!

1st on the day Terry Ellis 32lb 4oz, 10 bream on the gbait feeder from peg 36 at Newbridge
2nd Shaun Townsend 23lb 8oz,  4 late bream on pole + roach from the Norfolk Reeds (flyer)
3rd P Knight 18lb 9oz, 3 barbel at Jack Whites!
4th B Knight 18lb ,  2 barbel and chub at Jack Whites!
5th Ivan Currie 17lb 10oz,  mainly 2 pike!!!
6th Nigel Evans 14lb 12 1/2oz  roach and a near 5lb chub from peg 28 at Swineford.

Well done to Terry, sadly he doesn't do the pools so Towner cleaned up, he might buy a beer next week.

Couple of pics of Terry, and even though he didn't get any dosh he has his name on the cup. He actually approached me before the match to say he reads my blog and likes it because I fish the rivers. He told me what peg he had drawn and I said if was on it I'd go for bream, so perhaps I had a little hand in his success, good on you Terry, well done indeed.

Canal at Bath next week, best get some rigs and bread sorted out then!