Quite a few fished this match despite other clashes i.e. Evesham Team Qualifier. Looking around at the draw I think there were a few who simply came along as it was an ''Open''.
Drew the worst section above Woolavington Bridge....absolutley awful. To my left Nigellas Wyatt had 1 bream in the first 45 minutes plus 2 bits for 2nd in section. Nice Evans had 11lb of pole caught bits for 1st in section. to my right Adam Palmer had 4lb ish on the pole. i tipped back 2lb plus on the wag not a bite on the feeder.
Below the bridge fished ok as predicted as did the upper section above.
Our man Mike Withey aka bream whisper done the business in the last hour putting 4 bream in the net to win his section with 15lb beating up young Andy Cranston who had a bag of white bait for 8lb taking 2nd in Section.
North Bank and Gold Corner fish ok it seems.
40lb plus won the match with a few 20lb weight making up the rest of the frame.
Lets hope I draw better next week.
Staverton on Wednesday for the Open.
Nothing else to say....nothing happened.....
Monday 24 June 2019
Friday 21 June 2019
Friday 21st June - Evening on the River Kenn
This was my first session on my local river. I walked the match length checking licences before starting fishing as I was undecided where to go. The wind suggested it was simply a feeder job so I went down below Strode Rd on the first bend, used to be peg 24 but I think its 22 now. Started at 17:20 and packed up at 21:00.
Chopped worm and caster and corn with worm on the hook, 25 gramme cage feeder and B560 size 16 hook to 0.11 power line.
Only fished for less than 4 hours, water very clear and tough upstream wind.
3 hours without a bite and then as the light started to fade I had eels and perch then a big bream and tench both going 6lb plus.
Chopped worm and caster and corn with worm on the hook, 25 gramme cage feeder and B560 size 16 hook to 0.11 power line.
Only fished for less than 4 hours, water very clear and tough upstream wind.
3 hours without a bite and then as the light started to fade I had eels and perch then a big bream and tench both going 6lb plus.
Lovely short session.
Thursday 20 June 2019
Sunday 16th, Monday 17th and Wednesday 19th - its all go
Well the Glorious 16th came and it was good to get back on a River.....well its called a river but some would argue that its simply a drain and I guess they are right.... yes the Huntspill. I met up with team mate Chris Hook on the bank as we have a couple of Super League matches coming up so thought we would go and have a look. Former Maver team mate Sean Partridge was also going but he was getting there at 04:30 .. feck that I thought. Chris was also going early ish so said I would meet him down there.
We fished below the Pump House at Woolavington Bridge. I got there around 07:30 and walked down. a couple of anglers were in the early pegs but had only the odd bream. When I came to Sean he had 2 and was getting a lot of liners but he had put in 30 odd balls across and he was on a noted peg. 2 pegs down was Chris who hadn't had any yet but had just finished setting up. I went 3 pegs below Chris.
Some of the Diana Gordon League guys also came down and went below me but where we settled won't be in when the match is on.
Sean ended up with 25 bream, Chris 6 and I 3 plus a load of rudd and roach fishing the waggler.
Monday night with the wife on lates I went for a few hours on Barrow Tanks fluff chucking and had 5, kept 1.
Wednesday saw me head to Staverton near Trowbridge on the Bristol Avon for the Wednesday Open. These are great matches starting with the draw at 14:00 and fishing 15:00 - 20:00 up until the end of August. You can drive to your peg and park behind it. If you get into double figures you are likely to frame with 7lb winning a section. It's a lovely bit of water with roach later on but early season its mainly chub.
My luck at the draw bag has not been that good lately and I put it down to seeing one solitary magpie when out with my dog but the night before the match I saw 2 (those who don't know what I am on about the old wives tale goes ...one for sorrow ... one for joy).
Not a bad turn out, I counted around 16 / 17 and it was pegged from the bottom meadow to halfway up (there are 70 plus pegs) so plenty of room.
The peg cards were thrown up in the air and two landed at my feet so picked one up. It was peg 29 which is a decent peg if the chub play ball and there are some real animals who live there.
I set up 2 waggler rods, one at full depth (6 foot ish and one at half depth) with 0.11 power hook lengths, the shallow wag had a B611 16 and the other a Drennan forged wide gape 18 so plenty of power for the big boys. I also set up the pole to fish at 11 metres but tbh it was a waste of time so no more about that.
Starting off on the shallow wag feeding maggot across I was in to chublet's immediately biggest initially was 6 oz. I stayed shallow for the first 2 hours and was gradually putting a weight together and added a few chub around the 1lb mark. it went a bit quiet so picked up the full depth rig and had another couple of better fish. The middle part of the match went a bit quiet but by chopping and changing and keeping the feed going in I managed to added more chublet's with a better one coming 2 minutes before the all out.
The scales came up and the best weight below me was 10lb, the angler immediately below me on 31 had about 3lb, I weighed 12lb 6oz but was beaten by peg 42 who had 17lb of chub.
Still 2nd place and £40 so happy days and it was a long overdue result, hope them 2 magpies stay around.
We fished below the Pump House at Woolavington Bridge. I got there around 07:30 and walked down. a couple of anglers were in the early pegs but had only the odd bream. When I came to Sean he had 2 and was getting a lot of liners but he had put in 30 odd balls across and he was on a noted peg. 2 pegs down was Chris who hadn't had any yet but had just finished setting up. I went 3 pegs below Chris.
Some of the Diana Gordon League guys also came down and went below me but where we settled won't be in when the match is on.
Sean ended up with 25 bream, Chris 6 and I 3 plus a load of rudd and roach fishing the waggler.
Monday night with the wife on lates I went for a few hours on Barrow Tanks fluff chucking and had 5, kept 1.
Wednesday saw me head to Staverton near Trowbridge on the Bristol Avon for the Wednesday Open. These are great matches starting with the draw at 14:00 and fishing 15:00 - 20:00 up until the end of August. You can drive to your peg and park behind it. If you get into double figures you are likely to frame with 7lb winning a section. It's a lovely bit of water with roach later on but early season its mainly chub.
My luck at the draw bag has not been that good lately and I put it down to seeing one solitary magpie when out with my dog but the night before the match I saw 2 (those who don't know what I am on about the old wives tale goes ...one for sorrow ... one for joy).
Not a bad turn out, I counted around 16 / 17 and it was pegged from the bottom meadow to halfway up (there are 70 plus pegs) so plenty of room.
The peg cards were thrown up in the air and two landed at my feet so picked one up. It was peg 29 which is a decent peg if the chub play ball and there are some real animals who live there.
I set up 2 waggler rods, one at full depth (6 foot ish and one at half depth) with 0.11 power hook lengths, the shallow wag had a B611 16 and the other a Drennan forged wide gape 18 so plenty of power for the big boys. I also set up the pole to fish at 11 metres but tbh it was a waste of time so no more about that.
Starting off on the shallow wag feeding maggot across I was in to chublet's immediately biggest initially was 6 oz. I stayed shallow for the first 2 hours and was gradually putting a weight together and added a few chub around the 1lb mark. it went a bit quiet so picked up the full depth rig and had another couple of better fish. The middle part of the match went a bit quiet but by chopping and changing and keeping the feed going in I managed to added more chublet's with a better one coming 2 minutes before the all out.
The scales came up and the best weight below me was 10lb, the angler immediately below me on 31 had about 3lb, I weighed 12lb 6oz but was beaten by peg 42 who had 17lb of chub.
Still 2nd place and £40 so happy days and it was a long overdue result, hope them 2 magpies stay around.
Back on the Huntspill on Sunday for an Open, photo shoot with Anglers Mail on Tuesday on the Kenn and back to Staverton next Wednesday.
Monday 10 June 2019
Sunday 9th June - S. W. Super League Round 1, Gloucester Canal
So the 2019 Super League begins.......
7 Teams of 8 made up of:
Diawa Gordon League
P I Thatchers
Sensas Nomads
Sensas Lobbys
Sensas 88
Garbolino Blackmore Vale
Premier Angling (first time they have entered)
Usually there are 2 matches on the Gloucester Canal, 2 on the Huntspill and 2 at Newbridge on the Bristol Avon. This year one of the Glossy matches has been dropped and we are on the Avon at Chippenham and Melksham.
Nomads Team today was:
Clive Branson (c)
Rich Whitmarsh
Mike Withey
Mark Williams
Stretch
Chris Hook
Leigh Wakefield
Me
Team manager Mike Martin also came up to bank run.
We eventually got Clive to go up and do the draw in-between filming for his vlog.
Sections today were, Monk Meadow Woods, Permali, Hempstead Straight, Hempstead Bend, Netheridge, 2 Sections at Rea and 1 upstream of Pilot.
Stretch managed to get hold of a draw grid a few days before the match and it didn't look too bad but sets 3 and 4 were the more favourable option.
Two feeder lines and two pole lines today. Due to the canal towing hard over the past few weeks I set up a 3 gram flat float as well as a normal 2 grammar. Both had size 16 wide gape hooks to fish a big ish bait. 4 balls went in at the start at 9 metres and 2 at 5 metres. I started off right across on the feeder which was about 40 odd turns.
Mike sat behind me initially and then a few things happened which he found quite entertaining.
1. Nicky Ewers on 64 cracked his pole cupping out.
2. An angler in the dead arm landed a bream (club angler not in the match).
3. Craig Pinker on 62 snapped his feeder rod casting out and got a rower to retrieve the bit that broke off before it sank.
4. Nicky Ewers landed a bream on the feeder.
All this in the first 15 minutes!
Mike strolled off up toward the bend to check on Clive who was on peg 45. He hadn't been on the Glossy for a few years but we did give him advice and info on how the peg had fished the last few weeks.
It took about 30 minutes before I had my first indication on the tip. Not that positive though. I had one more small pull and a big liner and that was it on the tip. I was blanking the first 3 hours of the match until I had a small perch on the longer pole line using the flat float. A bootlace eel followed and a small perch at 5 metres and that was it. I was expecting to catch a few bream or skimmers on the pole after bait dropping in a load of worm and caster but it just didn't happen.
Nicky had a couple more bream a skimmer and an eel for 11lb which was more than enough to take the section. After that the next best weight was 2lb 13oz. Jon Tocknell and I tied for last in section with 6oz so another one to forget. I really can't work out what has happened this Spring on the Glossy its like I have gone back 3 years.
As I headed back to the van Mike came around the corner from the bend where Clive was and asked how it went.... err .......it hadn't. He told me Clive had done ok taking 6 bream, one on the tip and 5 in the last 20 minutes on the short pole! So 2nd in Section with 19lb behind Jack Jones on 23lb. Even the bend had fished poor.
Back at Gordon League Rugby Club half of the Team had done really well.
Mike Withey had 29lb from Permali and won the match. Great result for Mike who had also framed in Holland recently on the Voorne Canal.
7 Teams of 8 made up of:
Diawa Gordon League
P I Thatchers
Sensas Nomads
Sensas Lobbys
Sensas 88
Garbolino Blackmore Vale
Premier Angling (first time they have entered)
Usually there are 2 matches on the Gloucester Canal, 2 on the Huntspill and 2 at Newbridge on the Bristol Avon. This year one of the Glossy matches has been dropped and we are on the Avon at Chippenham and Melksham.
Nomads Team today was:
Clive Branson (c)
Rich Whitmarsh
Mike Withey
Mark Williams
Stretch
Chris Hook
Leigh Wakefield
Me
Team manager Mike Martin also came up to bank run.
We eventually got Clive to go up and do the draw in-between filming for his vlog.
Sections today were, Monk Meadow Woods, Permali, Hempstead Straight, Hempstead Bend, Netheridge, 2 Sections at Rea and 1 upstream of Pilot.
Stretch managed to get hold of a draw grid a few days before the match and it didn't look too bad but sets 3 and 4 were the more favourable option.
Clive came back and we were on set 2 and I found myself on peg 63 at Netheridge. That was the best draw I have had this year on the Glossy with plenty of water to have a go at and a big chuck to far bank vegetation although in recent weeks Netheridge has been poor.
Two feeder lines and two pole lines today. Due to the canal towing hard over the past few weeks I set up a 3 gram flat float as well as a normal 2 grammar. Both had size 16 wide gape hooks to fish a big ish bait. 4 balls went in at the start at 9 metres and 2 at 5 metres. I started off right across on the feeder which was about 40 odd turns.
Mike sat behind me initially and then a few things happened which he found quite entertaining.
1. Nicky Ewers on 64 cracked his pole cupping out.
2. An angler in the dead arm landed a bream (club angler not in the match).
3. Craig Pinker on 62 snapped his feeder rod casting out and got a rower to retrieve the bit that broke off before it sank.
4. Nicky Ewers landed a bream on the feeder.
All this in the first 15 minutes!
Mike strolled off up toward the bend to check on Clive who was on peg 45. He hadn't been on the Glossy for a few years but we did give him advice and info on how the peg had fished the last few weeks.
It took about 30 minutes before I had my first indication on the tip. Not that positive though. I had one more small pull and a big liner and that was it on the tip. I was blanking the first 3 hours of the match until I had a small perch on the longer pole line using the flat float. A bootlace eel followed and a small perch at 5 metres and that was it. I was expecting to catch a few bream or skimmers on the pole after bait dropping in a load of worm and caster but it just didn't happen.
Nicky had a couple more bream a skimmer and an eel for 11lb which was more than enough to take the section. After that the next best weight was 2lb 13oz. Jon Tocknell and I tied for last in section with 6oz so another one to forget. I really can't work out what has happened this Spring on the Glossy its like I have gone back 3 years.
As I headed back to the van Mike came around the corner from the bend where Clive was and asked how it went.... err .......it hadn't. He told me Clive had done ok taking 6 bream, one on the tip and 5 in the last 20 minutes on the short pole! So 2nd in Section with 19lb behind Jack Jones on 23lb. Even the bend had fished poor.
Back at Gordon League Rugby Club half of the Team had done really well.
Mike Withey had 29lb from Permali and won the match. Great result for Mike who had also framed in Holland recently on the Voorne Canal.
Bream slayer Mike Withey
Stretch had also won his section in Monks Wood with 7lb odd.
Steve ''Stretch'' Saunders
Our man of the match though has to be Mark ''Whippet'' Williams who comfortably won his section on the unattractive Hempstead Straight with 9lb odd.
Mark with his catch
Clive with his catch
So 3 section wins and a 2nd in section plus 1st in the match and a 5th in the match and we ended up 3rd in the team placings. Just a shame Chris, Leigh, Rich and I bombed out.
But..... that's the Glossy for you.
Individuals on the day...
1st Mike Withey Sensas Nomads 29lb 4oz
2nd Jack Jones P I Thatchers 23lb 3oz
3rd James Carty P I Thatchers 22lb 13oz
4th Steve Priddle Sensas 88 19lb 15oz
5th Clive Branson Sensas Nomads 19lb 13oz
6th Martin Barrett P I Thatchers 17lb 11oz
Teams...
1st P I Thatchers 42
2nd Diawa Gordon League 39
3rd Sensas Nomads & Garbolino Blackmore Vale 33
5th Sensas 88 30
6th Sensas Lobbys 26
7th Premier Angling 21
So ''licking wounds time'' and need to have a word or two with myself as its gone a bit pear shaped.
I think it went wrong when Mike failed to deliver the ice lollies due to them melting before he got to me.
Next round is on the Huntspill end of June.
Monday 3 June 2019
Sunday 2nd June - Angling Trust Canal Pairs Qualifier, Gloucester Canal
Team mate Chris Hook and I won this qualifier last year but there were only 12 pairs. This year we were more than surprised to see 27 pairs entered, some of who hadn't seen the venue before.
I can't write too much as I am still totally distraught with my experience, remember I blanked last week at Simms. Well on this match I drew peg 30 on Hempstead Straight, total shite. Chris was a little better drawing 227 below Rea just out of the bend.
With good local anglers on good pegs we didn't stand a chance and fair play they down exceptionally well but I firmly believe Chris and I would have done OK as well given that we have been fishing the place for about 5 years now.
I mustered one bootlace for 1 fecken ounce!!!!!
Chris done 3lb plus with a decent bream late and a skimmer beating quite a few around him.
At least we had a go and we stayed the full 5 hours.
Nomads Team Manager made the rest of the Team aware that I was a bit low posting the following on our Facebook Page....
I've just spoken to Ivan Currie As some of you may know Ivan was involved in a nasty incident with the drawbag yesterday. He drew Peg 30 on Hempsted straight* ☹️ He remains under light sedation but his psychiatrist said it was OK to talk as long as we were brief. He was a bit subdued but that is to be expected.
I simply just cannot draw a decent peg on the Glossy this year, think I was spoiled last year.
Have I had enough of it?
Nearly ...... but back on it this weekend for the 1st round of the S.W. Super League.
Anyway.....
Well done to Jon Tocknell and Gary Townsend in coming first with 5 points. Jon was on the ''Bend'' and came 4th in the Section with 18lb while Gary won his from zone B, not sure what weight.
I can't write too much as I am still totally distraught with my experience, remember I blanked last week at Simms. Well on this match I drew peg 30 on Hempstead Straight, total shite. Chris was a little better drawing 227 below Rea just out of the bend.
With good local anglers on good pegs we didn't stand a chance and fair play they down exceptionally well but I firmly believe Chris and I would have done OK as well given that we have been fishing the place for about 5 years now.
I mustered one bootlace for 1 fecken ounce!!!!!
Chris done 3lb plus with a decent bream late and a skimmer beating quite a few around him.
At least we had a go and we stayed the full 5 hours.
Nomads Team Manager made the rest of the Team aware that I was a bit low posting the following on our Facebook Page....
I've just spoken to Ivan Currie As some of you may know Ivan was involved in a nasty incident with the drawbag yesterday. He drew Peg 30 on Hempsted straight* ☹️ He remains under light sedation but his psychiatrist said it was OK to talk as long as we were brief. He was a bit subdued but that is to be expected.
I simply just cannot draw a decent peg on the Glossy this year, think I was spoiled last year.
Have I had enough of it?
Nearly ...... but back on it this weekend for the 1st round of the S.W. Super League.
Anyway.....
Well done to Jon Tocknell and Gary Townsend in coming first with 5 points. Jon was on the ''Bend'' and came 4th in the Section with 18lb while Gary won his from zone B, not sure what weight.
Jon with his bag today
The second pair to qualify was Shaun Bryan and Mark Gaylard. Shaun was also on the ''Bend'' flyer 46 and was also 2nd in the match with 35lb.
Shaun with his 2nd placed overall net and 2nd in the pairs
The final pair to qualify was Andy Jane and Andy Richings. Andy J Actually won the match off 24 with 39lb, a great weight from down that end. Sorry no photo available.
So now I need to get my head straight and up the medication as necessary to prepare for Sunday......what can possibly go wrong!!!!!!!!!!
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