Pairs League Saltford Trees / Swineford

After a great day out Thursday at Acorn I was looking forward to getting back on the river Avon. The weekend was slightly soured by the Gas losing their opening match but still remain hopeful for a better season than last.

I got to the rugby club car park at 7:15am and as I paid my pools to Dean Harvey I had to listen to a lot of comments aimed at me about the Gas. Well you’ve got to take it haven’t you lol. My partner Rich Lacey and I were up to second in the league, just a couple of points behind Dean and Derek, this was the 4th match of the league. I let Rich draw again as at least that way I can moan at him, I fancied pegs 6 to 10 in each section. Rich drew out Swineford for himself the first peg in the second field (I’d prefer this later in the year, and he got me peg 2 in the trees one below the arch. Last match this end of the section had been poor but Jan Macyzk did get 3 bream late I was told.

Got to the peg and as Frank Barlow used to say it was a right parrot cage! I was only going to be able to fish the pole and the feeder, even then I had some issues. 

I set up two pole rigs; a 1.25g pencil float with 20 to 0.10 and a 2g round float with 16 to 0.12. The gbait feeder had a 14 to 0.15. Gbait for the pole was Sonubaits black roach and black river, for the feeder it was Thatchers green and sweet skimmer.

I starred in the feeder to get some bait in, but on my third quick cast I had a bite and was into a decent fish. I was chuffed to net a skimmer of 1 1/2lb to 2lb, a great start. I carried on with some quick casts but was getting quick bites from small roach and perch. After 40 minutes I wanted to try the pole, so in went 8 balls of gbait and caster and I went straight over it looking for an immediate response. A couple of tiny roach then bleak were a real problem, they grabbed everything on both rigs even with the bulk pushed down. I went back on the feeder and bugger me but bleak were grabbing the hookbait when I cast in. I put a whole dendra on and even had a bleak take this. With 2 hours gone I wasn’t going anywhere fast, stacks of small fish smashed into the bait on the feeder and bleak on the pole. I went for a walk, Toby on peg 1 was struggling and had pike trouble, Dave Lewis on 3 had some roach on the pole early, Mike Weston on 4 was getting a bite a chuck on the feeder after catching roach early on the whip, no bleak problems.

Back to my peg and chucked the feeder out again with whole dendra, I rang Rich to see how he was doing, and as I did I had a good bite and another decent skimmer, then a 10oz chublet then a 1lb skimmer all while talking to Rich! I then lost a small skimmer at the net and was now just getting fast bites I could not hit. The pole was tried but still rubbish, so I fed a ball of gbait with worms thinking I might get some skimmers here. Back in the feeder and I had another couple of chublets and 2 hand size skimmers. Tried the pole again just 2 perch, fed another ball. Back on the feeder and a proper bite and bream on! Fifteen seconds later it came off 😫 when I reeled in the worm was in an o shape and had doubled over the hook, gutted.

With an hour to go I tried the pole again, another small perch on the worm so decided to try the pencil float with maggot on the hook. The float settled and went straight under, roach. Next drop roach, and the next…. I had a bite every drop and kept catching roach, but also thought I need to try the feeder again. Well 10 minutes left to go I picked the feeder up and put a worm on again. Lots of taps and jags as before, I left these and then had a pull round and struck on this and had another 1 1/2lb to 2lb skimmer. Missed a bite last cast and match over. I hoped I had 14lb but really wasn’t sure. 

The scales were coming up from peg 10 and when they got to me Nick Coles was top with 14lb 3oz, I was surprised and happy that my fish went 16lb 14oz and was enough to be top weight in the trees.

Here’s the board for the trees, decent weights made up mainly of roach and odd skimmers. No bream caught but 3 were lost.

We had the results at the Swan pub in Swineford, and top angler there was the consistent Warren Bates with 16lb 2oz of roach and 1 bream on the whip from peg 4. Rich had done brilliant again to nick 2nd in section with 12lb 10oz catching roach and perch on the whip till he snapped it late on ooops! I’d won the day which was a bonus, but a great result for us as a pair. Here’s the Swineford board.

Not sure how all the pairs points are, will have to work them out, but Rich and I are now in first place. Two more matches left in the league.

My next match is in two weeks fishing the division 1 national on the Warwickshire Avon, it will be a case of feast or famine, definitely need a good peg!

Darren North Memorial Match Acorn Fishery

In late 2024 Darren North suffered a heart attack and died whilst away fishing in Ireland. It was a big shock to everyone and a sad loss. I’d known Darren from school and for the last 5 years lived a few doors down from him. When Mike Wilson asked me if I’d like to fish his memorial match it was a definite yes. 

I was looking forward to fishing the match and the chance to raise money for the British Heart Foundation. My preference at Acorn is to fish for the silvers as I enjoy busy fishing and don’t have to pull my arms off slaying carp lol. Last time here in June I managed second in the silvers but I struggled to catch, but since then 35lb to 58lb has won the silvers most matches, I just needed a decent peg. I had asked Jamie Rich for a bit of info and he obliged, it was pretty much in line with what I thought so I was well prepared.

After a breakfast roll at H&H I was at the fishery in good time, I already had 2 pints of casters (from not fishing the weekend) and bought 2 pints of maggots from the shop and was served by my old (very old lol) team mate Des Shipp.  Not long after Mike announced match details and we had a minutes silence for Darren, followed by the draw. Jamie said draw 38 or 40 would help, but I drew 18 on the straight hopefully ok.

When I got to my peg I was happy to see I was surrounded by carp anglers 😊 and had the silvers to myself here. To my left on 19 was Lee Waller, on 16 was Graham Smith, Ryan Jordan and Gary Bowden (with new teeth 😬) were also on the straight. Setting up was simple, 3 top sets with two 4x16 with 0.12 accu power to 16 SFLB one for top set plus two sections, and one for 10m (both deep water) and a 4x12 for 3 1/2 feet at 13.5m.

We started at 10 and I fed maggots and casters on my short line and 10m line, then went across and dropped a small ball of gbait and maggots in and started here. I had a couple of liners and then landed a carp… I binned this off straight away! Onto the 10m line and there were lots of fizzes, but for 15 minutes not a bite! Fishing double red maggot on the hook I finally caught an ide, and very gradually started to get bites and topped up with a toss pot of maggots and casters. After the first hour I had 8lb ide , a couple of skimmers and one small tench.

The second hour was more of the same with ide regularly coming to the net, I was up to 20lb by the end of it. The next hour carried on well but the 10m line was now slower, time to rest and look short. It was more ide here plus a skimmer and 2 tench, but it slowed quickly. Back to 10m and more ide had arrived. I carried on catching mainly at 10m till an hour to go, then it slowed up. With 45 mins to go I dropped a couple of balls of F1 gbait with worm and caster to my right at 10m, and as expected this fizzed right up! In my experience at this time of the day it draws carp in as well as silvers, on this occasion I hooked 3 carp here but did get a couple of skimmers and 3 tench one landed in the all out.

I’d had a fantastic day, really busy and had to change a few things up with the feeding to keep bagging. I had clicked exactly 60lb (30 in each net) but wasn’t sure if I had that much as a lot of the ide are 6oz. However, Graham said he thought I had 60lb. Brian Shanks was on peg 10 and had the scales, Lee elected not to weigh in and then my two nets were added up at 66lb 8oz. 

As it turned out I was able to beat the regular silvers slayers here and was well chuffed to win the silvers on this memorial match. Results overall…

1. Brian Shanks          203-12 p10

2. Keith Ray                192-13 p13

3.Matt Vowels            173-04 p6

4. Jeff Grant               172-07 p40

Silvers

1. Tim Ford           66.08 p18

2. Mike Chapman        32.12 p2

Mike Wilson did a really fantastic job and the match raised £450 for the charity, partly in thanks to Darren’s sister who paid the peg fees, she also came to the match and it was nice to talk to her.

It’s Coming Home

 Well things did not go to plan this weekend until the very end.

I was booked in for a match at Lacock on the Avon, but it was cancelled as the club decided with the low river level they did not want fish kept in keepnets. I had ordered bait so decided to use it up on Swineford or Crane on Sunday pleasure fishing and then get back home to watch the Women’s Euro Final.

Sadly on Saturday my wife Wendy got a call to say her grandfather had fallen and hurt his head but was refusing to go to hospital. Long story short, we drove to Lymington and took him to hospital in Southampton. Got home 02:30 and then drove back to Southampton Sunday. He’s settled down in hospital now and fingers crossed for a good recovery.

Never even thought about fishing.

Got home after listening to the football on the car radio just in time to watch the penalties. Well after a tough weekend England back to back Euro champions was a great tonic.

Well done ladies absolutely brilliant team!

Pairs League - Newbridge

No blog posts from me for a while as I’ve been really busy with other social events. This meant I was not able to fish the first two rounds of this league and I was indebted to Shaun Townsend and Rich Whitmarsh covering for me and keeping me and my partner Rich Lacey in contention. After two rounds Jerry Pocock and Nic Coles were clear leaders. 

My preparation for this match was a bit short and being at Warren Bates stag do was probably not the best preparation… 🤣 but it was a cracking day out 🍻

Got to the river before the 7:30 draw time, then realised I’d left my 2 litres of squash at home, definitely was going to miss that! Unfortunately more boaters had decided to moor up illegally and pegs 16 and 18 were unfishable.

Rich did the draw for us as I was still loading my trolley, I fancied A1 to A3 for a good days fishing. Rich drew be B8 so a long walk for me to permanent peg 59, a very deep peg that is a good bream peg, but the bream aren’t feeding at the mo. Rich was on A5 permanent 30, and not the best we thought.

Setting up on 59 I put a groundbait feeder up first, 14 to 0.15, groundbait was Thatchers green. A waggler was put up but as I only caught 2 bleak on it it’s not getting a mention. A 2g pole rig with 20 to 0.10 and a 3G with 16 to 0.13 for fishing worm. My plan was to loose feed the pole line today, and I did this from the start feeding maggots and hemp (couldn’t feed casters as I only had a pint due to the maggot shortage). I started the match on the feeder hoping for a lucky bream, but after 45 minutes I just had 2 roach and a perch.  Onto the pole and I had 2 perch and a roach, I was properly struggling.

After 90 minutes I called Dean Harvey who was below me on the Norfolk Reeds peg. He was doing well having had a 6lb+ bream and lots of perch on the feeder.  I needed to get some bites, so I decided to put more worm in on the feeder line and now feed worms on the pole line.  This did improve things in that on the feeder I had a some small perch, a 6oz skimmer and two chublets. The pole worm line gave up some small perch which petered out.

I spent the last hour on the feeder hoping for a bream, but it never came but I added a few more small roach and perch.

I thought I had just over 4lb, and was not expecting to do well. Toby on the end peg had 9lb 10oz of mainly roach on the pole, then Dean had 15lb 1oz. He caught on the crowquill for the last 3 hours, and had tons of bites he said. 

My net went 5lb 1oz so a right battering of Dean.

There were it seemed pockets of fish and only 1 other bream was caught in the section by Mike Weston. As you can see from the board I got 5 points and was the best of the worst weights, definitely needed a bream or 2 to get good points.

Down in A section Lee Warden had a good day catching on a 6m whip and long rod to catch 14lb 13oz of roach and chublets. Rich did brilliant to get 8lb 5oz and 8 points.

Dean won the match and with his partner Derek coming second in his section they smashed the day and as a result are now leading the pairs league with 39 points. In second with 38 points is myself and Rich, then Jerry and Nic have 36 1/2 points after blowing out today. With 3 matches to go though it’s really close with most pairs having 30 points plus. The next round is in 2 weeks, 1 section at the trees at Saltford and 1 at Swineford.

Back on the River

Not had a chance to get on the river so I became a member of Ridgeway and booked in for their Sunday match at Swineford. I walked this match last year and it fished well with lots of chublets, chub and some bream.

The draw was 8:30 by the outfall, and big thanks go to Ridgeway legend Steve Dumbleton who runs the club, matches and had organised swim clearing on the Friday. My first duties were to explain to some Eastern European anglers that they could not fish here. Eventually the penny dropped and they headed off elsewhere. 

11 fishing today and I fancied drawing any of the last 5  pegs. Well as per my current draws I avoided them, I pulled a choice, 1 or 3. Well it was 3 for me, a steep peg but I hoped not a bleak fest like peg 1 would be.

I was surprised at how little flow there was, but then again I guess it’s been dry for ages. What flow there was was between 6m and 16m, and it varies and changes during the day. Past this the river was on its head. Set up a 6m whip with 3G rig 16 N10 to 0.12, a 3G bolo and a gbait feeder.  I mixed up some Sonubaits black roach and black river for the whip, and usual sweet skimmer and Thatchers for the feeder.

I had 10 chucks on the feeder and a quick look for just rattlers. Onto the whip where I was feeding the odd small ball of my gbait with casters and hemp. First swing in and caught in a tree… got the rig back but had to snap the line, it was turned into a 5m rig, no more tree problems after this. I started with caster on the hook, and it wasn’t long before I was getting hold ups from bleak and after a while the bulk was moved down and I had a no6, no 8 and no 10 next to the hook length. First hour was ok, maybe 2lb, bleak, dace, a roach and a perch. 

The second and third hours were better, more dace, but had to switch from caster to maggots on the hook. A few more roach and perch were also welcome. Ali Gibbs on peg 4 and Craig Pinker on peg 2 both said they were struggling and getting bleaker out.

Bites dried up other than bleak so I introduced some chopped worms in the gbait, this got me a few more perch and then I hooked what was probably a chub that took off at a rate of knots and snapped me. After this it was a struggle, the feeder line was dead other than bits and the whip and bolo was just odd bleak. My match ended quietly and I thought I had 7 to 8lb, word was everyone had struggled. 

The scales came down from peg 12, John (forgot his surname 🙈) was top with 8lb 12, and Matt Challenger had a little less. Ali had 4lb then my fish went 9lb 8oz, with Craig also having 4lb that meant I was top on the day. 

A lot tougher day than I expected, and had the bigger fish fed I would have been way down, but I got lucky today and enjoyed my day on the whip. Nice to be back on the river, but I’m now not fishing for a couple of weeks due to other activities. Hopefully so meaningful rain falls to improve the flow.