Out and about

Here we are then, on the cusp of the resumption of match fishing. I for one am certainly looking forward to fishing some matches again, but I will have to see what venues I can get on as time goes on. I had to get the racking / shelving out the van I bought before I could get my gear in. I've tried to sell it for a week, but despite some genuine interest it still remains unsold (although I had a number of buyers who simply never showed up, just idiots I guess). I was looking forward to giving the van a run out, and I had the opportunity when my daughter had to be picked up from Gloucester University for the Easter break. Anyway, this gave me an idea, right or wrong don't judge me, I would have a drive out that way to fish and pick my daughter up afterwards. I know we are not supposed to travel out of our area and this would be the one and only time and one day before the easing of lockdown, that was how I sold it to myself.

Sunday morning, nice lie in and loaded the van with ease with lots of room to spare. I drove up the M5 and arrived at Hillview Fishery around 11:15. I had a nice welcome from Huggy (he recognised me with my mask on lol) and paid for a day ticket. I opted to fish on Moorhen Lake peg 5, the nearest anglers already fishing were on the car park bank and on peg 10. I was well socially distanced and so it remained.

I had actually gone to the fishery with the thought of going on one of the canals in my head as I had plenty of canal rigs still made up from the last match I fished up here in December. However, the short walk and chance of some bigger fish sold me on the lake. I set up a 4x12 Preston F1 with 16 GPM to 0.13 powerline for fishing a couple of feet away from the bank, where I had a nice 2 1/2 foot of water. Then I made up a fresh 0.4g rig for fishing top plus one and a half sections. 0.4g is bigger than I would normally use, but the wind was horrendous and I imagined the lake would be towing, or at least some of it would be. I made the right decision here I feel as the wind got worse as the day went on. I also had a 16GPM to 0.13 on this rig. The choice of hook on both rigs was because I was going down one hook bait route, sweetcorn.

I fed fishery 4mm pellets and corn down to my left for the margin line, and the same in front on the deep line, both top sets had little Preston pots on the end to keep the feeding accurate. The margin top set had 11 hollo, while the deeper 9 hollo. It was a very slow start for me and after 20 mins I had 2 nice skimmers and a roach, and was thinking corn was not right, especially as the lad up on 10 was doing well on soft pellet out in the deep water. However, all of a sudden a shoal of F1's arrived and I had a nice little run of them up to 4lb, by about 1pm I had a dozen F1, but then they disappeared for a while.

For the next 90 minutes the fishing was steady, odd F1, but nothing in the margin line. At 3pm things improved and I started to catch more regular on the deep line and was able to up the feed and get quicker bites. I really had to hold onto the pole at times, the wind was awful, at times I was struggling to get the 4mm pellets into the pot lol! The guy on peg 10 had slowed after the early bagging, but he had been lucky, he retrieved a number 4 section three times, and his landing net and pole went in twice.

I definitely caught some bigger fish in the last hour, but I swear the F1's were fighting 10 times harder than the earlier fish I caught, a number of times I thought I must have foul hooked something, only for the fish to pop up hooked in the mouth. I caught a really big F1, must have been over 5lb, and this one did an impression of an eel twisting round and round, trying to unravel it I badly damaged the hook length. I decided to try the margin again. A few fish had turned up here, with some more bug F1's and a couple of carp with one being close to 8lb.

I had to pack up and leave the fish feeding as I had promised to meet my daughter at 5pm. It had been a very enjoyable day, I really had to work hard on presenting the hook bait to get bites and I did miss a few but not lots like you can with F1's. I had one fish come off at the net, and never had one foul hooker all day, never happens in a match lol. The fish are clearly waking up, and it was interesting to see the mix of methods working today; quite a few were catching on maggot feeders whilst others like me were catching on short poles. The wind put paid to many other methods working, I could also see a few elastics being stretched on the canals.

Matches start here from Wednesday, and there is a Saturday and Monday open on over Easter, think I will give the Saturday a go, but need to make a few more rigs up for the lake in case I draw on that. If you are going out on a match this week, then I wish you good luck and have fun, let's hope this lockdown path can remain in place.

Whoops

 Oh dear, I forgot to write a blog Sunday, truth be told I was pretty busy and ended up going for some nice walks and I just never thought about the blog!

The good personal news is I finally got myself a fishing mobile, yay! A Ford Transit Connect van which being a Long Wheel Base version will allow me to get the gear in nice and easily. Now I just need to go fishing and get a road test out of it, maybe I will get a chance to go Saturday this weekend. However, I am really looking forward to going somewhere Easter weekend, a match would truly be nice, but I imagine most will be booked up, I will have to see if anything is available.

I am just a tad fed up with the football, Rovers are absolutely shite, 3 managers cannot get a decent team on the pitch and that tells me we have shocking players. Joey Barton I think can do the club some good, but he can't make these turds look polished, he needs to build his own squad. That's enough about the football, I think we are doomed to league 2 sadly.

I took a walk to the river at Jack Whites on Sunday, it looked nice, a little pacey but lovely colour. Of course as is typical we cannot fish it... I spent some time watching a large shoal of dace feeding on a hatch of flies, I think dace spawn early and many were going up into the stream so looking like they are getting ready to spawn. There are very healthy numbers of dace in the river, Jack Whites and Chequers as well as down at Conham, has been for a long time, be nice to have a float only match down there one day and see what comes out, rather than a handful of bream weights taking out the framing places.

I do look forward to the clocks going forward, I love that extra hour of light on an evening, just gives me a bit more time outdoors, especially after work. Just need the weather to warm up a bit as we move through April. I doubt we will get a repeat of last years hot spring, but a few warmer days please.

I'm not really prepared for commercial fishing, I haven't been able to put my mind to making rigs, or hook lengths, partially because I couldn't see when or where I would be match fishing. I will get something sort I guess, maybe I will go back up to Hill View, at least I should get some bites up there even if I get smashed up lol.

Fingers crossed for only good things going forwards. 

Bitterwell Lake

First thing to pass on today is the sad news that angler and angling reporter Roy Garland has died. Roy spent many years taking photos of anglers for the reports he put in the Bristol Evening Post and Green Un. I got to know quite well as he took a few photos of my team and of course I got a few results which he needed to report on. Roy had a good sense of humour too, and he always used to stay to the end of a match results to have a beer and chat. Overall, Roy did a lot of good for local angling by promoting in the papers, and there was many a time that non anglers told me that had seen my picture in the paper. God Bless you Roy, RIP.

A long time friend Clayton Hudson told me a while back that despite living in Bath for about 20 years he had not fished the K&A canal, he managed to put the right today and had a few hours out by Bathampton. His pleasure session was very similar to how matches go, dropped in some bread, caught a skimmer first cast and then had an hour of catching them before all went quiet and he struggled then for odd small roach. Couple of pictures of where Clayton fished and his catch. 

My blog title today was supposed to be something like "last day of the river season", but the rain came again and unfortunately made a mess of the river by me. I had ordered some caster and maggots and so thought I will have to get out somewhere and use them, and decided upon Bitterwell. That meant more thought on how to get a bit more tackle into a Toyota Aygo this week, I got my box in and a net bag, plus a container with a reel and wagglers. One rod tube and the landing net pole. I was just going to the fish a waggler.

I got out to Bitterwell about 10:30 and there were not many anglers there, I think Mother's Day had kept a few away (I'd seen my mum the day before). I chose a peg on the road bank where it appeared that the wind would be almost off my back, conducive for waggler fishing. I set up a 4AAA Preston waggler (blue coloured with high visibility insert) and put just 1 no 8 and 1 no 10 down the line. 0.10 Accu Power to a 18 SFL-B hook. As ever the lake was pretty much flat calm as I began, but wasn't expecting this to stay the same all day.

As I began by feeding lightly with maggots and casters Fishery Manager and Thatchers PI team mate Paul Isaacs came round to collect the day ticket money. I had a small roach straight away and a few casts later a 6oz skimmer. I felt a bit rusty if I am honest, and needed to change catapults to get the bait where I wanted it, but was soon in the swing of things, cast, sink line, feed. For the first hour I had regular bites from small roach and one little 6oz carp, but had to keep swapping from red, white or fluoro maggot on the hook. I had started off bottom and went deeper to try to catch some of the skimmers that are in there, I could see that over the lake Chris Davis had caught a few small skimmers on the pole. A regular local angler then came walking around and started to chat to me, and during this time I had bite when the rod was not in my hand, I struck to hard and snapped the hook length, doh. 

A nasty bit of rain and wind then appeared which had me reaching for my coat, and not long after this I hooked a better fish and it was skimmer of about 1.5lb. Next cast and a pounder, and then a few casts later another nice skimmer. They disappeared as soon as they arrived, and the swim went a bit quiet after this, switching to a fluoro maggot I had a few small roach and perch. Going back to red maggot was much slower but it was all the skimmers would have. I had another visitor as I was fishing, Les Williams, I haven't seen him for quite a long time and he had a very large camera on him as his hobby these days is photography, mainly wildlife. He showed me quite a number of pictures of birds that he had taken, and he is clearly very adept at photography. Whilst Les was by me I managed to snare my biggest skimmer about 2lb.

The wind was gusting all over the place after the early calm, and feeding had been a nightmare. My bites had really slowed up and I noticed the waggler was beginning to tow through. I added a little more depth and stopped feeding casters and increased the maggots. This pretty much had an immediate effect with roach and perch responding. I was catching quite nicely again, but the temperature was dropping really fast and my hands began to get very cold as more light rain fell. Desperate for a pee I decided it was time to pack up and go home. Chris had already gone home, we had a quick chat as he passed me and said he had about 14lb. An angler further up from me had struggled to catch early but had a nice run of skimmers on the pole when he put some groundbait in. I did my best to take a photo of my fish in the keepnet,  felt like about 14lb I guess.

I enjoyed that today, fishing a waggler is great fun and busy fishing. I am sure a pole approach added in as an option would have given me a few more skimmers but I it's nice just now and again to not pick one up.

Before I finish I noticed that another mate of mine Brian Gay has been filming some underwater videos, he has put them on YouTube. If you search for "Angling Images Fishing Media" you will find them. Very interesting to watch how the fish react to some bait going in, take a look, he's got plenty of other stuff on there too.

Back To Basics On The Bristol Avon

 First of all I just need to say that I will be writing about some actual fishing action today, as after 72 days I have finally got out there and done some fishing, yay!!!

I have made some small progress in my search for a used van, putting a small deposit down to hold a van that popped up a couple of days ago that was what I was looking for. Need to wait for the van to go through the workshop checks and get a view of it, so am really hoping everything will be fine.

I was thinking this weekend I would finally get out and fish, I hatched a plan to go on Sunday and the weather forecast was really promising, I was looking forward to going.

Trying to think what to type now, as I am not quite clear in thought tonight, tired and a little achy but nothing nasty. I had the covid vaccine yesterday, and was aware that I could get a few issues, just depends I guess? Mike Nicholls suggested I take paracetamol or Natch to keep the effects at bay lol, I went down the red wine route. I did wake up feeling a sore arm, and a slight swelling there, but that was it. Speaking to a couple of other anglers Dave Stiff and Ben Rendall they felt really bad after their jabs, shame. Of course this could have put a spanner in my plan to fish had I felt really ill, but luckily for me it didn't. Anyway, my plan, how to get myself and my gear to Swineford in a tiny Toyota Aygo lol!!!  I had to go back to basics, right back. I took one heavy feeder rod, landing net pole, and  bankstick which I would carry by hand. Had a backpack with a reel, feeders, hooks, line, disgorger, scissors, bread, and food and drink. A Sainsbury's carrier bag with my landing net, gbait, 1 pint of maggots and a bowl. I probably blended in well with the other anglers lol.

Where to fish, that was my dilemma, I walked up the river thinking that I would find a peg in the second field at Swineford. I walked past a few anglers, piking and general pleasure, all had caught but not a lot. I walked up to peg 15, it is a fairly easy peg to fish as it has a lovely flat bank just above the water, but there are tree branches overhead so an underhand cast is required. It didn't take long to knock up a mix of brown and white crumb (no additives) and set the feeder rod up with a 40g open ender. Hooklength was 2 feet of 0.17 powerline, and I used a size 12 Preston XSH barbless hook for gaffing a piece of bread. Now the XSH is designed for bagging carp on commercials, but I fancied it for using it for chub on the river, and today was the day for experimenting, not a match. I began fishing a couple of minutes before midday, and cast the feeder out to just past middle in the fast flow. On the second cast I had a hell of bite, the rod dropping back, pulling forward, dropping back violently! I just could not believe there was no fish attached when I picked the rod up. I had one more little rattle on the bread and I was a little disappointed I had not had a chub. I tried 5 maggots on the hook and this resulted in a couple of bites but again I did not connect.

On about the hour mark I tried a big piece of bread again, and if this didn't work I was going to change to a maggot feeder. Well I had another whacking bite, and this time I was attached to a decent fish, I played it hard and kept it under a lot of pressure to keep it away from any snags that could be around. I was really happy to land this chub, I had no scales, but I would have said it was a 4lber. Managed to take a photo of it in the landing net.

No more bites on bread and I was itching to switch to the maggot feeder, I changed my hook to a size 16 of the same XSH pattern. After only 3 or 4 casts I had another chub of about 3 1/2lb, and as I was netting it I noticed someone stood up the bank behind me, it was an angler called Rich Britton who hasn't been so much in the last couple of years. Rich had arrived at the right time as the switch to the maggot feeder brought fairly regular bites from chub from 12oz to 3lb. Rich was great company and he told me some great stories of fishing past. I was sat on the bank with the sun on my face, a few fish caught and great company, it was just perfect really, I was really enjoying myself.

Inevitably the sport slowed, I imagine primarily as I had no keepnet and I had now caught a dozen chub all returned straight away. Having travelled light the plan was to fish the next peg, so I was quickly out of the peg and looking to get in 17. Bugger another angler had got in the peg just 10 minutes before, so on to 19, damn another angler was just setting up! I walked up to what is now 20, a wide peg but with a willow tree downstream. As I was wanting to catch lumps I went up on the hook size and began with bread again. First chuck, casting downstream to the end of the willow, and a lovely bite which I bloody missed again lol. Next cast similar bite but chub on, about 2lb, and a couple of casts later another chub landed. I then had a couple of casts with nothing, and then had a little rattle but nothing, as I began to wind in the rod suddenly buckled over. I realised what had happened, a pike had grabbed the bread as I wound back, and soon enough it bit me off.

I put some maggots through the feeder with gbait, as I hoped I met get a bream out of this peg, but I didn't connect with any bream, but had two more chub just over the pound mark. I decided at 4:30pm to call it a day, I was feeling a bit tired now. Ended the day with 16 chub, and never lost one, so as far as the hooks go I am really happy with them for this type of chub fishing and glad I tried them.

For anyone looking to get out on the river I would suggest you do so this week, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, as a load of rain is coming which will cock it up. No roach were caught at Swineford today, so it's chub or bream, but I do know that roach are coming out up at Saltford and Newbridge. Get out while you can, before the damn close season arrives. I'm glad I got out when I could, I have not caught chub for what seems a long time, I love days like this now and again.

My Poppy Match Results

At last there is some light at the end of the lockdown tunnel it seems, with matches looking likely to resume from the 29th March hopefully. During this week many commercial fisheries have also announced they are opening up again, and that means more pleasure fishing opportunities for local anglers. With the settled weather the upper part of the Bristol Avon is now fishing well, with chub and roach coming out, lucky if you live close by, I would be on it! The river at Keynsham is still a bit pacey, but I would imagine Newbridge would be spot on for fishing the feeder for bream, get on the right peg and you could have a great day. I decided not to fish again this weekend, had a nice couple of hours walk on Saturday, then today I finished putting up shelves in my shed, then set about sorting my garden, and before I knew it the time was 16:30. As I sit here typing I feel a little tired but very satisfied with my efforts, and spending time outside in the sun was very pleasant.

Earlier in the week I received a message from Ray Bazeley, he said he would like to read about my results in the Poppy Match and would I oblige, it was nice of him to ask and I said I would do so. Later on Ray put a post on Facebook that this year will be the 40th year of the Poppy Match running and he's hoping to celebrate that achievement in November, would be great to get a good turnout, especially after last year's cancellation.

I've looked back at previous posts on this match and my diaries to come up with my best results on this match, which is my very lucky match indeed. Ray joked the last time I framed on this match that I had paid my mortgage off with my winnings from the Poppy Match, lol.

1988 was my very first win, it had been an ambition of mine as a young angler to win a Winter League and the Poppy match, and in 1998 I did both. This match was a 200 peg sell out, and I was drawn on Chequers Straight a couple of pegs below the Cow Drink. I had fished this part of the river a lot since being a junior and knew that their were skimmers to be caught here, and if I was going to do any good I would have to catch them. I set up one feeder rod with an open ended feeder and that was it, I thought about a crowquill for roach but told myself go for it skimmers or bust! Two hours into the match I had been casting mid river and was blanking, meanwhile the angler below was catching roach on the crowquill, I very nearly went up the bank to set the float up but then thought I'd never catch him up. Good choice as the skimmers turned up and I had 11 of them and I was doing the best. Then I had no more signs and going into the last hour I was told by Glenn Bailey that everyone else was catching me up and I needed to do something. I decided to start a new line, right over by the boats, what I hadn't appreciated at the time was that this was where the skimmers mostly shoaled when it was clear water. I had a skimmer straight away and had 6 in this last late burst. My final weight of 27lb 6oz was enough for my first Poppy Match win, just beating Graham Hunt who had about 24lb of chub. It was a glorious moment for me, sat with all of my Bristol Amalgamation team mates passing round the cup, winning with your friends present to celebrate is really important to me.

1989 the river was up a bit and coloured, not so bad and well fishable. I drew two pegs above the New Fence peg, and was not sure I would do any good from this peg as the bream didn't tend to show here. I remember Lee Gumbleton was next peg, and not too far away was Tony Rixon. As the previous year it was just a groundbait feeder set up for me, I fished this about 1/3 the way out and had regular bites for the first four hours before a quiet last hour. Still I was well happy as I had netted 3 chub, 2 hybrids and about 5lb of decent roach. My total weight of 12lb was enough for me to come 3rd on the day, I was quite surprised by that as I thought there would have been more bream weights. It was a very happy day for me, but a better one of course for the winner Tony Rixon who had a great net of bream.

In 1991 I was pegged in the last peg in the first field at Swineford, in amongst the reeds. I recall a few comments along the lines of "you won't win it this year from there". To be fair they were right, and four hours in I had hardly anything in the net, but then the angler above me packed up and went home on a peg that I knew held a few fish. Whether those fish dropped down to me I don't know but I had some chub and skimmers in the last hour to end with 12lb 4oz. That got me 9th overall and a frame payout  (they paid down to 10 or 12 back in the day). 

1993 the river was well up and not nice at all, I had a nice draw getting the peg opposite the outfall at Swineford. I caught just 11 eels on the feeder for 2lb 2 1/2oz and that was good enough for 8th overall! The match was won by Ron Gaulton (RIP).

2000 and another flooded river! The match organisers had unusually gotten part of the match pegged on Bathampton's water at Newbridge and Kelston straight, a good move as Swineford and Crane would be awful. My golden arm pulled out a peg one above the danger weir sign on Kelston straight. On the weir sign peg (flyer) was my good friend and team mate Mark "Podge" Jeffries. We had a good match between ourselves, with Podge getting an early bream and me playing catch up but getting plenty of eels. I had a good bite but got snapped up and thought that was my chance gone it was a right lump. Luckily I was to hook a bream, and boy did it go in the flow, I was stood up on my box leaning out holding just the very butt of my rod as I tried to keep the bream out of the reeds. I succeeded and that would make it close with Podge. My 16 eels and 1 roach to go with the bream went 9lb 10oz , and I beat Podge by about 10oz I think. I came second on the day, beaten by Les Williams who had 4 bream.

2001 The river was clear and float fishable and that was great. I remember being in the draw queue chatting to Podge and Bob Sheppard and we said we fancied being on Chequers Straight, Bob pulled out a peg just above the cow drink and was very happy about it, Podge didn't, but then I pulled out the peg above Bob, opposite the rock face. Bob said he would hammer me, he liked his mind games. I had drawn this peg once before and had a nice net of roach on the stick float, and I believed this would be the best method again on the day. I did also set up a block ended feeder but I never cast that out  at all. I had one of my favourite days fishing, catching roach, dace, a few bleak and 1 chub on the stick float feeding hemp and caster. I had to vary the shotting pattern and where I cast the float in to avoid the bleak, but it was a bite a chuck. I weighed in 21lb 12oz and this was enough to the win the match, and in doing so made me the first person ever to win the event twice. It was a very proud moment for me, as it was something I had also wondered, could I win it again. Oh and by the way, I nearly doubled Bob Sheps weight ;-) lol.

2005 The last Poppy match to be run by British Legion legend Brian Lloyd after 25 years of sterling work raising an awful lot of money for the Poppy fund. The river had been in flood and was now running off with the colour was still in, a steady peg was needed for sure I thought. I drew the steps at Jack Whites, probably the shallowest and fastest peg on the day and all thoughts of doing any good were over lol! As I was walking to my peg an angler came up from below, he said he was on the peg below me and was not going to bother and I was wasting my time. Well I had a look and yes it was fast but I was going to give it a go. I set up so that my feeder rod butt was on top of the bank and I stood just a few steps down to be comfortable. I started by casting a heavy feeder right over to the willow tree in a slack looking for some of the chub that used to be on the peg. After 90 minutes I had just the one bite and it was a 3lb bream! I had snagged up a fair few times and so decided to make my life easier by casting just a third the way out in the flow with 2oz of lead and the tail of a lobworm. I think I had 6 bites on this, and hooked 5 chub and landed them all. Those six fish went 18lb exactly and I came 4th as a result. One of the most satisfying matches I have had when nobody gave the peg a chance.

2007 Another lovely river, nice pace and clear and I really wanted to draw a chub peg at Swineford and fish the waggler. I did it again and pulled out peg 18 at Swineford and was really thinking I had a chance today. I set one waggler and one feeder but started on the waggler. Bites came steady, but they were only from small fish and no sign of chub at all. I upped the feed (maggot and caster) and this resulted in the small fish going and me getting no bites. A guy wandered along and told me he had fished the peg the day before and had 35lb of chub, cheers mate!!!!!  I was absolutely gutted at hearing this as chub don't take toothache well! Half way through I had about 8lb of bits and was going nowhere. I never gave up and carried on running the wag hoping for a few late chub maybe. What happened next was as big a surprise to me as anyone else, I had a bream on the waggler. I landed it and cast the feeder out, nothing at all. Back on the waggler and another bream, and then I went on to catch in total 15 bream on the waggler. I weighed in 61lb and not surprisingly I won the match, this was for the third time! I have to thank Nick Ewers who was above me, he swapped his waders for my moon boots as I had to wade out or I could not fish. Nick came third I think with a few bream on the feeder. 

2008 Back to a coloured river with quite a lot of leaves in it. I pulled out the first peg in the Long Ashtip field at the Crane, peg 85. I have caught a few bream on the peg before so put my faith in the good old groundbait feeder, I fished it only a couple of rods out, I could have gone much further out but the leaves were worse further out. To cut a long story short I had 4 bream and 4 skimmers for 22lb 2oz and won the match again. I remember being stood at the bar with my team captain Mark Harper, I was shaking my head in disbelief, I just couldn't take it in winning two years on the trot.

2012 A nice river for this match in terms of flow but probably a little to clear. Once again I was back up the Crane in the Long Ashtip field on peg 81, my team mate Martin Barrett was on my favourite peg 85 and I thought he could win the section if he balled it and fished the pole, but he fished the topper float. I had a bad snag in my peg on the pole line, and had to fish right at the top of my peg and balled it in here. I was catching the odd roach on the pole, but if I let the rig go too far I got snagged. I lost quite a few hooks and then disaster the whole rig was lost, the snag came up off the bottom a few feet. Another rig and I caught a few more until the halfway mark and it went dead. I picked up the groundbait feeder and cast this out a little further than the pole line to avoid the snag. I had 1 skimmer on this, and a few roach up to 1lb, then I hooked what I thought was a big bream... I soon realised it was a pike, and was gutted, but then I thought pike might count, so as I was playing it I rang my mate and poppy match co-organiser Paul Benson and asked if Pike counted, he said "yes, why?".. I got one on says I,  "You jammy c..." I put the phone down to carry on playing the pike knowing this would bump me up as the match was fishing hard. It was a decent pike and I was a long way off the water and wasn't sure I could get the pike up the bank, so I slid down the bank with the net and scooped it up there. I then had to pull myself back up the bank by grabbing stingers and whatever else! The pike was weighed at 10lb 5oz and in total I weighed in 23lb 9oz.  That meant I had won the match and this was my fifth win. I had been jammy with the pike of course, but as it turned out even without it I would have been second, but the pike won me the match. It was a very emotional win for me as I had been diagnosed with cancer in 2010, and part of me wondered would I ever fish another Poppy match again, so to win it gave me a big lump in my throat.

2017 The river was a little pacey but looked good for some good weights (but we have said that before!) I drew myself peg 3 at Newbridge, a peg I have drawn quite a few times over the years and usually a good bet for a roach bag, but on some days bream will show. I went for it today and just fished the feeder straight down the middle of the river. The roach were feeding and I had bites from then on maggots and casters, I kept trying bigger baits and occasionally it worked and I had a few bream. 23lb 10oz was enough to come 4th overall, with Kev Boltz winning the match on peg 54 with 59lb of bream.

With Ray Bazeley, Paul Benson now running this match since 2006 the event has been and is in good hands. The Poppy Match is a special event for me, I don't know why that is the case but it is. Some Poppy matches I have caught next to nothing, but I guess the thing I would say is that I have made the most of the good draws when I have had them. I am still the only person to have won it more than twice, but I'm sure that won't forever as there are some great winners names on the cup. After winning it twice I always thought I won't win it again, but the only question I get asked is can I win it again? Who knows, six times would be mental, but I will certainly be giving it my best shot.