Monday 26 November 2018

Sunday 25th November - Angling Trust Upper Thames Winter League Round 5, Kennet and Avon Canal near Marlborough

I was looking forward to getting back out fishing again after being away the previous weekend although I did manage a fluff chucking session on Chew Valley Lake and caught 4 nice rainbows from the bank, well I saw bank I was nearly up to my arm pits in the chest waders as the level is so low. Trout fishing finishes on the 30th November so not sure if I can fit another visit in this week.

Back to today ..... I met Chris at Gordano Services again on the M5 at 06:30, it was meant to be 06:20 but he had to wake his partner up as he couldn't find her car keys in order to move her vehicle out of the way in order to get out so he was not popular. It was another fairly long journey for us to Marlborough Football Club, about 70 miles and we done it in just over an hour. The Football Club was easy to find and had plenty of parking plus a variation of breakfast rolls etc where available.

We finished 2nd in the last Canal Match and were looking to do well again. A few of the lads had fished the practice match the previous week which was quite hard and bonus fish (perch) were going to be needed to stand any chance of good points.

Team today was...
Mark Williams (c)
Mike Withey
Ian Stainer
Rich Whitmarsh
Paul Rigby
Chris Hook
Me

Sections today were Wooten Rivers, Brimdslade and Wolfhall and I had no idea how to get to any of them.
I drew E4 at Brimslade and fortunately Rich drew F8 in the same area so I was able to follow him. It was around 3 to 4 miles away from the draw but nice and easy and on arrival good parking and access to the Canal.
I was told I was on the peg that won the practice match the previous week (14lbs of big perch) but when I got there I wasn't. I was about 2 pegs away from it and the person who fished were I was today struggled plus on arrival a pleasure angler was setting up but moved off without any problem.
Diawa Gordon Leagues Dave Micklewright was on ''the peg'' but said someone had come down midweek and pleasure fished it.

13 metres got me across to the far bank but it was only a foot deep. While setting up there were a couple of swirls across with fry jumping out of the water and I thought it was perch chasing them. Turned out it was pike but I only discovered this toward the end of the match when I saw one, I had already wasted about an hour off and on during the match looking for perch across when I should have went down a line in the middle....lesson learned.

I had a good depth down the track, about 4.5 foot and at 11 metres about 3 foot so these were the areas to concentrate on besides my wasted far bank pike / perch lines.
I had plenty of bites all day but they were very small roach, best fish was a 5oz perch on my 11 metre line.

I ended up with 2lb 9oz which was only worth 3 points from 8 my worst result in this league. I know I made a few mistakes and hope to put that right next week I did have a plan but failed to execute it.

Dave Micklewright won the section by a country mile with 7lb 10oz. Dave had a couple of nice hybrids and a pound perch plus bits, think he stuck it out on the worm which was the right approach on his peg. The rest of the section weighed 4lbs down...

Rich done really well on the end peg in his section weighing 9lb 13oz, 3 big perch and some decent roach on the worm. This also earned him 2nd in the match just being beaten into 1st place by an ounce!


Rich Whitmarsh


As a team we done rubbish so hero to zero but we are not bottom and just about hanging on in 7th place.

Results as follows:

Individuals

1st   Nick Ewers P I Thatchers 9lb 14oz
2nd  Rich Whitmarsh Sensas Nomads 9lb 13oz
3rd   Mike Marsden Devizes 9lb 5oz
4th   Ruben Guerra DGL 8lb 2oz
5th   Mark Brush DGL 7lb 11oz
6th   Dave Micklewright DGL 7lb 10oz

Teams on the day

1st   P I Thatchers
2nd  DGL
3rd   Wyvern Anglers
4th   GBV
5th   Devizes AA
6th   Sensas Lobbys
7th   Matrix Swindon
8th   Sensas Nomads

DGL put in a great performance today and are winning the league by 2 points from P I Thatchers.

Back to the Canal again next week for the final round but different sections....Great Bedwyn to Little Bedwyn wherever that is.....but drawing again at Marlborough F C.

Sorry no photos today as camera on phone didn't want to work.

Wednesday sees me at Chippenham for the 2nd Round of the Avon League.


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