Open Match Bristol Avon - Swineford and Crane

 Ben Rendall had promoted this match on Facebook, and it was a free weekend so I could fish this match and get back on the river close to home. The draw was going to be at 7:30am with fishing 9:30 to 2:30, the earlier start is to try to avoid too many other bankside interferences. My only issue was I was out for a few drinks with my wife the night before and an early start wouldn't be conducive to a late night lol. In the end I didn't have a late night but had a nice time and a few beers with Shaun Townsend and Dean Harvey among others, both Shaun and Dean were fishing the match.

I got to the draw just a few minutes late so was happy with that, I hoped to draw a peg in the second field at Swineford, but although I got Swineford I got the first peg, one above the outfall. Back in the 1990's it was a chub flyer, but they are long gone, the peg was overgrown for years and not used, but it has more recently been used again. Jack Jones on peg 15 and Dave Micklewright on 17 were the guys who I thought should do the best today.

Got to the peg and as I thought I would need to wade a fair way out, Andy Cranston had lent me his chest waders so I could get in, thanks mate. A stream flows into the peg and there are reeds and lillies to watch out for.

I reckoned that 15lb to 20lb would be need to get in the money today, and the only way I could see me doing that off this peg was by catching some roach on hemp and tares, but there were going to be chublets and dace around too. I decided to only set up two float rods, as I got the rods out I thought something was missing, indeed, my Preston bag that holds my reels, feeders and running line floats. I was about the run back to the van and drive home but neighbour on the outfall Clive Feddery said he could lend me a reel, and next peg below Dean Harvey gave me a couple of wagglers, and finally Ben Rendall gave me another reel, thanks very much everyone!!! I had bolo floats on winders in my box and chose a 3g version which would be enough as the peg is no more than 6 ft deep, 0.12 accu power to a 16 N20 finished that off. For the waggler I had the same terminal tackle as I wasn't expecting any big chub.

I had to get my longs on my box to get it in the water with me, so I could get my keepnet and bait waiter positioned close to me.  Just before the start of the match Clive came down and wanted a pound side bet which of course I accepted.

I decided to start on the bolo feeding casters and hemp down the middle of the river to see what the reaction would be, I had three runs down with double maggot on the hook and no bites but then next cast I hit a bite and was surprised to feel a good fish on, it was obviously a chub and as soon as it was close I had to pull very hard to get it above the lillies. Luckily it was only about 1 1/2lb and I was able to get the better of it. That was a nice start and had me wondering if the chub were back in the peg, but alas it was a real one off. I gradually got more bites and more regular, the odd dace at first, but then a few roach. Unfortunately as bites increased fish came shallow as the bolo float olivette got held up. I tried the waggler but only caught a few tiny dace and bleak.

About 40 minutes gone and I was back on the bolo and put a tare on, first cast on this and a small roach. Then nothing, so back trying casters and maggots and even corn, but nothing was getting me past the the tiny fish. I stopped feeding casters and just fed hemp, on with the tare and had about 7 or 8 nice roach on this and I thought this could now be the fish lining up. Again they went, and I had to try other baits but it was frustrating trying to avoid the bleak. Feeding some casters with the hemp again seemed to bring a few roach back but that was shortlived. At one stage I was on the waggler trying corn and tares, but other than a couple of dace it was just  not right, maggots were obliterated. With a couple of hours to go I went for a quick walk, Clive had a few perch on the feeder and was bleaked out on the bolo, Dean had some skimmers and was on 12lb, with Ben saying he had 6lb. Andy Cranston had run to say he was getting some roach but that Jack Jones had 18lb.

I got back to my peg knowing I was not really gonna compete, so just thought I would see what I could go, I just fed hemp and tried tares, but after a few roach the peg went mental with bleak and dace boiling on the surface taking the hemp. Trying to hit dace bites on tares is not easy and more and more I opted for double maggot which would be a bleak or small dace every cast. I fed heavier and heavier, and was double pouching hemp and a dozen tares, it mattered not, there was a feeding frenzy of bleak taking everything lol. It was a shame those fish won't come in close, but on this peg the flow is further out, on the outfall I would have set up 2 whips probably and gone for dace and bleak all day (i had remembered by whips and whip rigs lol). I spent the last hour putting a fish in the net nearly every cast on maggots with the odd try on tare resulting in 1 small dace in half a dozen casts. I'm sure the roach were there but I just wasn't getting any bait down to them.

When the match was over I thought I had 9 to 10lb of fish, a lot of fish but nowhere near enough quality and not the roach I needed on tares. Still a busy day and I'm sure many people fishing up at Evesham this weekend would have like to have had 10% of my bites lol.

The scales came down from Dave on 17 and so I already knew I was only weighing in for the £1 with Clive, but I did nail that with my 10lb 13oz beating Clive's 5lb 4oz, thanks to using Clive's reel! I should say Clive's peg was full of pike today, and they were jumping out all over the place. It is a well known peg pike and they are fished for a lot, Clive managed to catch a lure today, but fair play he didn't try to weigh it it in even though it was very roach like lol.

Jack Jones ended up easy winner, on peg 15, think he had 26lb, some early dace, then three bream on the pole with some roach, and later on he had proper roach on hemp, a great performance that.

Andy Cranston was second on the peg in the reeds in my field, he had 19lb of mainly roach on casters over gbait and caster. Again a great weight (more than he will get at Evesham on Monday).

Dave Micklewright claimed 3rd with just under 15lb, one chub and lots of small stuff on the waggler, but he lost 3 chub.

Dean Harvey was 4th with some skimmers and early roach, but pike were a problem in his peg.

Top weight at Crane was 13lb by Shaun Townsend.

Nice to be out, a warm day, nice guys to fish against and I will hopefully draw a bunghole soon. Not fishing next weekend, then begins a busy period of team matches as winter leagues begin.

Quick update on some matches

 I've not been fishing these last two weeks, plenty of things on that are keeping me otherwise busy, but I'm planning on fishing a small open match next Sunday on the Avon, it will be on either Crane, Jack Whites or Chequers I think. If you are interested contact Ben Rendall for more details.

Thatchers have fished a couple of big team matches recently, neither of which I have been involved with, firstly the Division one National on the Grand Union Canal. It was a bad day for the team unfortunately, they struggled to catch the skimmers or bream needed and had one of the lowest positions for a long time. Andy Ottaway having the best individual result with a third in section. Big congratulations of course to the lads from Devises who won the event and had some great performances, with Rich Whitmarsh winning his section and framing I believe. Great result for them.

The second team match was today and it was the inaugural Angling Trust Feeder National on the Gloucester canal. The team had to be very clear on the rules, limit on bait, and gbait, length of shockleader, no mobile phones and certain other things. I was out walking when the results started to come in, here are how the lads did in their sections:-

A James Carty 8kgs 60g     3rd

B John Harvey 30kgs 890g 1st

C Nick Ewers  3kgs 380g   5th

D Mark Harper 340g          last

E Rob Jones     2kgs 160g   2nd

F Martin Barrett 3kgs 260g 4th

Despite the last place, the rest of the team had done enough to win the match with 35 penalty points! What they have also won is a trip to Italy to fish the world feeder championship, wow!!! Well done lads. Extra congrats to John Harvey for winning the match individually.

Lastly there was a match today at Newbridge today and it fished OK by the sounds of it with no runaway leader, I'm not sure who won it but I heard the little field fished well with a 16lb, 15lb and 14lb. Dean Harvey had a fun day on peg 49, landing a 10lb pike that doesn't count, and losing a 9-10lb barbel in a snag in close, gutted for him.

Lastly a picture of what I trod in when out walking and checking my phone for the results, what a plonker, hope it is lucky for me lol.

Final Round of the Superleague - Bristol Avon Newbridge & Chequers - The End of an Era

 After having an enforced weekend off previously I was back in the fold for the final round of the superleague, and I was in the Thatchers Blue team which was our highest placed team but some way off the top spot. Preparation was relatively easy as I still had plenty of rigs etc from the Riverfest, still I made sure I had everything and included some larger hooks for the feeder as I expected the river to have more colour with the rain we have been having.

I had a late alarm call on Sunday morning, this was due to the draw being at 9:30 and the venue Cadbury Heath Social club is very close to where I live. I scoffed a breakfast and caught up with my other 11 team mates and paid my pools. I was of course hoping for a decent peg with bream form, but alas hope was all I had as I ended up being given peg 105 just above the arch in the trees at Newbridge. This is a peg I have had before and not done amazing from, last week John Bohane had 7lb from the peg which he told me included a 2lb bream second cast. The positive was I thought my section had some worse pegs, but the ones around 90 on the stream would produce lots of small fish, 10lb to 12lb was what I thought would be OK.  On paper our team draw was not great and it was not looking good for a strong finish.

Got into the rugby club car park and was just about to set off when my path was blocked by Mike "Buzzer" Bernstein whose trolley went over before he had finished loading it, lol. I did say to him things could only get better as I gave him a hand picking the bits up.

After an easy walk down the side of the rugby pitch I was soon looking at my peg, the river had a nice colour I thought, and a little pace just perfect for all styles of fishing. I was in a tight peg from a point of view of trees and bushes but I could cast out overhead easily unlike a couple of anglers near me. As I was getting the gear off the trolley Mike Bernstein said I was on his peg, but I was sure I was on the right one. After a few calls we couldn't get it clarified but I was able to convince Mike I was right, which it turned out I was and Mike did apologise later, but no need to as it was a simple mistake.

It is a long chuck to the far bank, but those trees were likely to hold chublets, so I set up a 4AAA waggler set to 2 1/2 foot deep with 18 N20 to 0.11 powerline. A gbait feeder with 0.15 powerline to 14 N30 was readied for bream action, and three pole rigs, 1.5g pencil float, 3gm round bodied and a 4gm flat float. The bottom seemed flat at 11m and this would make fishing easier and my pole not being shipped into the path, meaning it was safe from dog walkers, bikers, etc.

The match started at midday and I put my usual 7 feeders of bait out about 3/4 over to put some bait down for the bream. then put 10 balls in at 11m and went straight in with my 3g rig to try to pick up some quality fish on caster. Things did not go to plan, not a bite on the caster and not a good sign, onto maggots and still no bites, in fact it was not until 12:25 I had my first fish a small perch on double red maggot. I did get the odd fish after this but had to swap between the 3g and 1.5g rigs. I think I had 3 more perch, 6 roach a few chublets and bleak. Like it normally does it died, and a quick phone call to Shaun Townsend who was 2 pegs up confirmed he had struggled too but had more fish than me. I didn't know how Mike was getting on (but he was in the next section) or how Nicky Johns above me was doing, but when Nicky chucked a feeder out I guessed he was struggling as he loves float fishing. It was an easy decision for me to get on the feeder quickly.

First chuck on the tip and the tip was bouncing before the feeder was anywhere near the bottom as a bleak had nailed the three red maggots. Same next cast so on with a worm, even this was grabbed as the feeder fell, but it got to the bottom intact I was sure. It was snaffled by a very small roach, and the next two casts it was small fish bites, I found this strange that bites were coming over my fishmeal mix, yet my pole line with no fishmeal had died. Anyway, I moved on to two dendras on the hook, and this produced no rattles, then after a short wait a nice repetitive drop back, the result was a 8oz skimmer. A few casts later and a 6oz skimmer was in the net but then I only had a little perch and a chublet, so I gave it a rest. I tried the pole and had a 4oz roach first drop in, but that was a false dawn with just one more perch here. Further rests and tries on the pole only resulted in one chublet so no more of this. Back on the feeder and I went straight on double worm again, a couple of fast chublet bites and then a slow bite which turned out to be my best fish so far a skimmer about 1lb 4oz. I gave the feeder a good go but just couldn't get any signs of bream or more skimmers. I was sure I was not doing well in the section and needed to get a bonus, but that might be late on so I tried the waggler. It was bites on this straight away from 1 to 2oz chublets and bleak, but after only probably 6 casts a wind knot developed that was about 25 yards back, I was able to continue with it but I had to punch the wag out much harder.

The dilemma for me was am I catching enough of these little fish to do any good, especially as I heard Rich Lacey had a bream and skimmers for good double figures. I stayed with the wag for 45 mins, then when it slowed gave the feeder another go for 20 mins but only had a chublet. Back on the wag and the rest helped as I caught quickly again and then it became hard work as the wind blew really strong upstream and I could no longer get 2 or 3 bites at the cherry. In my mind I was always going to fish the feeder again late on, and with 30 mins left it was time. After a couple of casts the rod was almost pulled in and nothing hooked, next cast similar bite and a 6oz chublet was the culprit. Couple more missed bites which was frustrating, but then a positive pull round and a better fish hooked, I thought it might be a chub as it fought quite well and not like a bream, but up popped a 2lb skimmer. I looked at my watch as I cast out after landing it, there were just 3 mins left, and that was that. Not a bad match after a poor start, I had not lost any better fish hooked, only had one pike attack, just felt I was a a few pound short of where I wanted to be, missing that bream, I thought I had 9lb.

I walked down to Mike and said I suppose you have battered me again, and he had! Mike caught on the caster on the pole for an hour and a bit, tried the feeder and had a bream 4th cast, he added a few more bream during the match he said. Above me Nicky Johns was admitting 4lb and Shaun 6lb, but after that I had no idea about the rest of the section. As I was last in my section I had to wait for the scales to get to me and then grimaced as I saw a 17lb and a couple of 9lb weights. I was relieved when my net was shouted at 10lb 7oz, and good enough for second in the section, just beating DGL legend Neil Richards who had 9lb 15oz. Full board below and my net, well don Rich on winning the section.

I drove back home, put the gear away and took the 10 minute walk to the social club where I could enjoy a few pints of Stella with the lads. My blue team had a section winner in Rob Jones, and two poor results so it was not looking good. Results I picked up on...

1st Mark Brush 84lb, end peg at Chequers 25 to 30 bream on the feeder. Fantastic days fishing.

2nd Rich Chave 33lb, end peg in little field, roach and 5 bream on bolo.

3rd Mike Bernstein 23lb.

The league winners were DGL again, they really are a very good set of anglers, I think they had another team in the top 3 as did Lobbys (apologies I think Lobbys were 2nd). In 4th and last in the money were Thatchers blue, yay. Chuffed with that as I was in the Thatchers team that came 3rd last year.

Now, the end of an era part needs to be explained... As ever on this match the venues for the next season are pretty much decided on, and they are Tamar lake (2), KSD (2), Dorset Stour and Gloucester Canal. There is no Bristol Avon match at all, and Newbridge has been in for as long as I have fished superleagues. It is a very sad situation, but the anglers who chose not to put forward Newbridge I am sure did so because they are not happy with the ongoing issues. As Dave Micklewright said to me, when we first fished Newbridge you might see one or two people walking up the bank, nowadays it is a lot more. Boats moor up where they like (they are not allowed to, but they do). I know 2 anglers who have had tackle broken by dogs off the lead and Eastern Europeans casting over them. Paddle boarders and swimmers are just an added bonus... The days when people used to say "ssshhhh that man's fishing" are very rare. Pissed up paddle boarders falling in, kids having fun and jumping out of boats in your swim are not pleasant. I am not saying these other people should not enjoy their time on the water, but with 60 anglers on the bank there will be issues. Anglers have had to make a choice, we've effectively been forced off the venue to protect ourselves from conflict I feel, it's virtually the end of match fishing on the river by me now. My skills and knowledge of the river are needed no more, I will have to transfer these and learn fast on new venues, with occasional pleasure fishing and the odd match on the river I hope (Poppy and commercial house). At least I have had a good 35+ years on the Avon.

No fishing this weekend, I'm off to the Rovers for a couple of games and some family stuff Sunday, then see what I can get on.

Riverfest Qualifier Bristol Avon Newbridge

There hasn't been amything from me for a while as I just have not been out fishing, and have had some quality time with the family. I spent a lovely weekend at Babbacombe when it was baking hot, and I got to swim in the sea a couple of times which is rare for me in this country. It was a wonderful break for myself and the wife.

Over the last couple of years I have found my opportunities to fish these qualifiers restricted to my local stretch of river, and going into one match means you do need that bit of luck at the draw and fish well. I have seemed to draw the trees section a few times and that's always a bit peggy so hoped to avoid that. It was a bit like pre covid times for me, I had a breakfast in Hanham Wetherspoons before rocking up to the draw and a good chat with many anglers queuing for the peg draw. The pegging was shown on the sheet as so...

The spare pegs were in case any boats had moored up overnight, luckily none hadn't I believe. There was though a great peg left out, 61 Norfolk Reeds, as a boat was in there when it was pegged and I fancied 59 and 63 to do well. I pulled out peg 32 ticket, which was 65, so close but yet so far I thought. It is right in the middle of the stretch and so was going to be a long walk, but since I am back to the gym these walks (on dry ground) don't faze me. It took me a time to get away from the draw as many anglers approached me to ask how to approach their peg and what were their chances.

When I got to my peg it was clear the heavy storms from the day before had put a little colour and flow into the river, making many anglers believe this would be a bream fest, but these things are rarely so clear cut in my experience, and I advised most anglers to take a pole to the pegs not just a feeder rod. That said I was in the middle zone and traditionally this is the highest weight zone and bream were expected to win it. My peg is wide and deep (about 14 feet) and used to be OK, but for many years now it is rare for the bream to drop down below 63.

From experience this area throws up bream on the pole line, and so I was going down the one line route, 13m for pole and feeder. I set up a grm float with 16 N20 to 0.12, a 4g flat float with 16 N30 to 0.13, and a gbait feeder with 14 N30 to 0.15. That was all I was going to go with and to be honest the 3g rig was only for catching some early small fish in my mind. My groundbait mix was done on the bank and I went with a mix of natural and a bit of fishmeal to encourage skimmers and bream. So Natural Lake and River, and Super Feeder. I split this up to allow for a heavy mix for balling / cupping and a drier version for the feeder.

There were some good anglers on good pegs and I was sure a decent weight would be needed today, 30 to 40lb. Had the river been clear then a bigger weight might win as the bream may be shoaled up. I began by balling in 16 balls today, plenty of casters, dead pinkie and chopped worms in there. The angler on 63 also gave it a few balls but not so much, would I pull some fish down past I wondered? I started on the 3g and had a dace first run down, then a chublet and then a small roach. I had regular bites was missing a few as I was fishing double maggot or caster trying to get the bigger fish, but the quality wasn't nothing special and the landing net was used once for a roach. As the quality did not improve I went out on the flat float trying worm and triple maggot but this accounted for small fish too. I tried a double caster and had a 4oz hybrid, then nearly an hour in I hit a very good fish that pulled a lot of 11 hollo red elastic out. It took a while to get this fish up and I was beginning to think it might be a pike, but finally glimpsed a bream, it was a good one around 6lb I think. A good start. Sadly no more followed this and I could only catch small perch or chublets. The guy above then had 2 big bream in the next hour to go ahead. I cupped in a couple of rich balls of feed, back on a worm hookbait and a few perch and then hooked a 1lb+ perch, but I lost it when shipping back some walkers wanted to get passed and I let the line go slack and it was gone.

My match petered away after the first hours with an almost blank third hour and it seemed the same for most people, with bankside talk of 2 bream being good. Try as I might I coud not coax anymore bream from my swim, the lad above had 2 skimmers and that was all. I nicked a few roach here and there and then sat out for the last hour for slabs to no avail. I knew I was beaten by the angler above and also James Carty on 56 had 3 bream, and then we heard that Andy Power on 77 had 4 late bream. I was still going to weigh in as you never know what the section money will be won with. However, after waiting a good hour and no scales and chatting to a few anglers I decided to chuck back as I was well overdue to getting to a 60th birthday party. Andy Cranston and Paul Purchase witnessed my fish, maybe 10lb.

I found out later that Powers won with 32lb, and my team captain Mark Harper was second with some bream and skimmers on the feeder from peg 7 with 27lb, the other qualfier from the bottom zone was Nick Chezoy who had the best day's catch in my opinion with 18lb+ of roach and chublets on the pole.

My only pic was my bream in the net. Not great I know and doesn't do it justice.

Well done to the three qualifiers and good luck in the final. I needed about 12lb to get the section money I think, so the lost perch and a few more bits would have been good enough, but I was there to qualify so it matters not.

That's it for another week, I am not fishing again this weekend, but will be back in two weeks fishing the superleague final round at Newbridge.

Update and 2002

 What is it they say, best laid plans and all that... I was not going fishing this weekend or the next, I was off to watch England v Sri Lanka ODI cricket this Sunday, and off for a long weekend next weekend. However, one of my daughters got a positive Covid test result this week and that meant the rest of us family were all going ot have to stay in our house and garden and self isolate. The good news is my daughter never got seriously ill and is now fine, and rest of us had all negative tests. Gutted to have to self isolate and miss some long looked forward to plans, but such is life. It now looks like I will be fishing next Sunday on the Superleague at Staverton / Bradford-on-Avon.

I have certainly enjoyed watching the England football team in the Euros, especially against Germany and Ukraine. My eldest daughter would definitely have been out watching with her friends, but we've ended up watching it together. 25 years we first watched the Euros together, although she was only a few weeks old back then, my wife is convinced it was me watching Euro 96 with the baby in my arms that got her into football lol. I'm looking forward to the game against the Danes, but even with such good England performances I am still nervous, but I give Southgate his due, he has these boys going really well. 

On the Superleague today I have found out that the match was won by Dan Squires off end peg A1 with 28lb, I assume some bream in that. Top team on the day was the Thachers Blue team, and with 28 out of 32 points they were able to go top of the league after two rounds. Sadly my Thatchers Green team had two lasts in section and finished nearly last, oops.

It has been quite a while since I looked back in one of my diaries and it was October 2002 when I last was looking. On Sunday 13th October I fished the Commercial House at Frys, I was on old peg 74. We had some rain and not being too far below Siston Brook I knew the river was going to colour up. I fished a gbait feeder 3/4 of the way over to begin with, I had 2 chub from here and then I couldn't fish here as the river coloured up too much. I switched to fishing down the middle where I had 10 eels and hooked another chub but I lost that one. 6lb 8oz was enough for 12 out of 14 points.

The following week and it was the ATWL at Newbridge, I was pegged down in the tree on 133. I remember this day as the river was just a little to pacey for the float I thought, and I reckoned on needing some bigger fish. I only set up the gbait feeder and fished it down the middle, but it wasn't quite as I expected. I had 2 skimmers and some hybrids, but no bream, but the roach were feeding. I basically had bites most casts but was struggling to hook them, double caster was the best hookbait. I had 9lb which got me third in the section, missing out on second by ounces. Team came 2nd so all good so far.

Sunday 27th October Commercial House was cancelled due to 90mph winds, in fact I drove to the draw at Bitton, only to find out that a few minutes after I got there a large oak tree was blown down into the road, makes you think how close that could have been. I had a rare day off mid week and went pleasure fishing at Conham on the Bristol Avon, Just set up a 6 no4 stick float with 18 to .10. I fed casters only and had a few roach, but the dace really came on the feed and came up in the water, I ended up with over 20lb. Would you believe it the following Sunday and the ATWL at Swineford / Crane was cancelled as the river was bank high. I did fish up at Newbridge for a while, never had a bite for 2 hours, then had 12 eels on lobworm.

The 2002 Poppy match was put onto the K&A canal and I was not really impressed by my draw on the first peg at Darlington Wharf by the bridge. I had a bit of a struggle all day, catching a few small skimmers and roach over gbait, and a few perch across on casters. I did hook a large fish on a pinkie which after a couple of minutes of playing I pulled out. Not 100% sure but think this match was won by Andy Ottoway. The ATWL was also put on the canal as the river continued to be flooded, I was just past Bathampton bend. The canal fished hard, there was no bloodworm and joker allowed back then. I caught small roach on pinkie over gbait at 3m and 10m for 3lb 2oz which was worth 5 points out of 8.

For my last match in November 2002 I had a complete change of scenery and went to Viaduct fishery and fished a match on Campbell lake. I was peg 124 and set up for the day was a waggler and a straight lead with 0.14 to a 16. I fished sweetcorn and fed 1 tin through the day, starting on the waggler but changing over to the lead as the wind made life tricky. Back then the carp were much smaller and biggest was 3lb, I finished with 72lb which was enough to win the match.