The old chocolate factory before Kraft bought it and moved operations to eastern Europe.
A text from captain Chris Hook assured me of my place and on paper we did have a full Team, 6 anglers, the last 3 matches in this league only 5 turned up for various reasons. A new youth member by way of Lewis Walker from Bristol joined us which is good for the future although a cold day on a river with a potential long walk may not be the best way to introduce a guy who fishes Bristol Docks and Commercials more regularly, but.... you have to start somewhere. Sunday came and at the draw we had a full team but we were concerned for a bit as Paul Nichols was running a bit late (but he made it). Sam Johnston done the team draw and we had peg 8. Sections were allocated, I was on D8 up the Crane which turned out to be a relatively short walk with the boatyard opposite and the peg was very comfortable.
The river was running with a bit of pace but I did have a crease about 6 meters out and some slack towards the inside so set up the pole with a 5 gram float and found that it was about 6 foot deep. It was a bit of a bird cage so could not set up a running line with a crow quill which would have bee ideal. A maggot feeder and straight lead were also set up. The plan was hemp and caster on the inside with the odd red maggot and feed some nuggets made up of sens magic and noire.
On the whistle I could hear the angler above me balling it in but decided on a softly softly approach as there had been a hard frost. First trot down with the pole and maggot, the float buried and a small roach was swung in a few more very small ones followed but at least I had fish. After an hour I had about a pound but was enjoying it, you can't beat fishing the pole on running water. To cut a long story short I did not use the other rods as I though it best to stick with the pole, I have fished this area before and never caught any chub over by the boats and the flow was all wrong in the peg anyway. I upped the feed towards the second half of the match and fished caster which brought a few better roach and one perch.
At the all out I thought I had about 3lbs. When the scales came I looked at the weights for my division and 6lb 1oz was winning, I weighed 5lb 1oz (maybe should have upped the feed sooner but it was one of them days when if you made a mistake with the feed it could be the end of the bites for you. I remained in second place until Derek Coles weighed 7lb odd. So third in the section was OK for team points.
As I walked back to the car in the marina my team mates Sam and Baz were loading up, both had poor days, I also heard Paul and Lewis had not done that well. A phone call from Chris confirmed this but he had also finished third in the section. So for the first time we fielded a full team we blew it!
The Avon has fished very well this year and my return to the river has been rewarded with a couple of wins along with section wins I have also learned a lot fishing alongside more seasoned river anglers.
The match was won with 20lb plus of roach and 18lb odd from Tim Ford for second, see Tim's report on the match at http://cluckerspeg.blogspot.co.uk/
Next league match is on the Kennet and Avon Canal on 5th January which I am looking forward to. In between there is a Clevedon Club match next Sunday on Woodlands which I am still thinking about or a visit to the River Kenn and a couple of Christmas Matches.
The team Maver Cadbury Angling is still being developed http://www.cadburyangling.co.uk/ and I love being part of it.
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