So on to the river match.......
I was surprised it was still on the river as some of my team mates sent pictures of a bank high river on the Monday at Melksham where it was supposed to be held. Colin walked the bank and decided to switch it to Bradford on Avon for a couple of reasons...one being the water in the Forest Section had been lost and two the river at Bradford was a lot deeper plus with 40 hours to the match the level would be below the banks.
I left home at 06:15 even though the Cafe was not open until 08:30 in order to park up without having to pay and it was just as well as there was a lorry on the A46 that had broken down. I managed to get past it before the traffic built up and arrived OK at 07:20 and parked up. I walked down to the river and it was pacey and clean. I could see Colin and Dave Baker ahead of me pegging out but it was quite a way down before I came across peg 1. I could see why they had done this i.e. providing as much slack as possible. Pegging went beyond the sewer field and I had never been this far down before but it looked quite good.
Team mate Mike Martin gave me a call asking where the broken down lorry was as he was caught up in a huge que of traffic, fortunately it soon cleared and he was on his way in plenty of time.
Breakfast over the draw got underway and I found myself near the back again. Mike doesn't rush and drew after me.
I drew peg 18 one from the end as a couple could not make it today so only 19 fishing, Mike drew 15 so I thought we had drawn OK based on what I had been told.
I wasn't sure what to take so I took everything, pole, 1 heavy waggler rod, stick float rod, long rod 16', 12' feeder rod and my 12' 8'' dutch master.
I passed Dave Baker who was already on peg 17 and I picked his brains a bit on the area I was in, just after arriving at my peg Colin came along and stopped for a breather as he was on end peg 19. He told me there were some big fish down this end of the river, usually bream.
It did look a nice peg and with plenty of room.
I set up my lighter feeder rod first and chucked out the straight lead to have a search around. It was quite deep in the middle, probably around 20 foot and not much shallower across. The lead came off and on went a 30 gram feeder which just about held in the middle. A size 14 B520 hook to 0.13 went on the business end. Out next came the dutch master, its a beast of a rod and I don't use it that often, my lightest tip must be 3oz. I put on a 45 gram feeder in order to hold bottom properly and fished off with a Tubertini Series 2 size 12 to 0.15, no finesse here.
The only other kit I set up was the long rod for trotting down the edge with a 10BB crow quill where it was a good 14' deep a rod length out. GB mix today was Sensas River with Black lake and Mole Hill soil.
Colin on the end peg must have set up before me and walked past me to speak to the anglers above as when the all in was shouted he said ''good luck'' on his way back and a bream rolled beloved me in mid river.....come on.
I put a couple of really firm balls in at the start on the float line with dead reds before going out on the light feeder rod with a small dendra tipped with a maggot. I got indications within about 10 minutes and after a few missed bite had a 3oz roach, not what I was after but blank avoided (I have had 2 in this league). More small knocks followed with connecting with anything so I put on double dead red and instantly hit the next bite, another roach. I was not ungrateful catching the roach but as I had seen a bream roll I had to go for it.
On to the dutch master with a big dendra tipped with dead red and I re-cast about every 10 minutes giving them plenty of bait. I really squeezed the GB in the feeder in order to make sure in didn't break up in mid water.
Not surprisingly the little knocks ceased and then just after the first hour a proper drop back and a chub of around 1lb 8oz was netted without any trouble. At this point a few more fish started to roll right across.
I tried the float line a few times, I had been loose feeding heavy with maggot over this line but it was not right so put that behind me for the rest of the match and concentrated on the heavy feeder. Not sure how but I caught a few more roach on big baits.
Tony Scott came down for a walk and said it was fishing hard although he had a 2lb 8oz chub and a few bits.
Then at 14:50 a proper heavy tap followed by the tip pointing downstream saw me play a bream and net it after a nervous battle in the strong flow. A lovely fish of about 5lbs.
Just as I was about to retrieve the next cast another proper bite 10 minutes later and wasn't quite sure what I had hooked. The dutch master was really bent and the fish was moving fast and I had to give it line. This fish took much longer to control and when it came to the top I could see it was a bit chub, the scales on it were more like that of a common carp. Thank goodness I caught it on the heavy gear.
My only other bite and fish of the remaining hour was a perch of around 6oz.
Colin came up with the scales and saw what I had ..... you'll probably win the match with that after the scales registered 11lb 10oz, the chub went 4lb 11oz.
I was more than happy considering the level of the river.
Colin below me had 4lb odd as did Dave Baker above me. As I walked back to the van Tony said Mike had 3 bream. I stopped at his peg in order to take a photo. I think he had his first bream mid match then another 2 in the last 15 minutes.
Mike's fish went 17lb 9oz think lending him my lucky hat helped.
There were no other double figure weights so not was a 1 - 2 for Mike and I with the ever consistent Kev Boltz coming 3rd with a level 9lbs.
So ..... happy days for the both of us who have had some crap draws in this league.
Both of us fishing the Chippenham Open this weekend so hanging on to the lucky hat myself.
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