Sunday 4th December - Brian Britt Memorial, Kennet and Avon Canal, Bathampton - Claverton

In previous years this match was known as the Commercial House League Christmas Match but is now in memory of Brian Britt who was involved with the league for many years. Brians daughter Nicola and son Andy donated a trophy to be fished for every year in his memory.

Access to the town waters in Bath is difficult now due to the Clean Air Zone and residents parking only extended to 7 days a week. It's a real shame as the town stretch is quite prolific.

There was 26 booked in originally for this match but 3 anglers pulled out. They probably looked at the weather forecast. 

I was surprised when I left the house that there was no frost but it was cold, 2 degrees. I had joggers on underneath the jeans and a couple of layers on under the fleece. 

Due to the parking and access issues in Bath the match was pegged between Bathampton and Claverton so no parking issues.

I really didn't fancy Meadow Farm. There were a couple of decent pegs either side of Meadow Farm bridge but didn't relish the walk back up the hill afterwards. 

The pegs at Bathampton fished ok in the final league match in November as did the pegs at Claverton.

I got to the Crown in Keynsham around 7:30 after being up in the night a few times with stomach problems, really didn't want a breakfast so declined that but they were able to sell the one I had booked.

Paid my pools etc and bought some raffle tickets, the prizes were donated by the Crown Pub which was brilliant of them.

I was about 6th to draw and pulled out peg 19. Quite happy with that as it was at Claverton halfway between the bay and Ferry Lane bridge.

Fishing today was 10:15 - 15:15.

Off I went the long way around to Claverton avoiding the Bath clean air zone (up over Haycombe and Combe Down), it takes about 25 minutes.

I parked up in the car park, unloaded and proceeded down to the canal bridge which you have to go down the side off through 2 gates. When I got to the bridge Andy Cranston was going to unload his trolley but I said with a bit of help there's no need. Between 3 of us we helped each other down the side of the bridge onto the towpath.

The pegs were well spaced out and Paul Purchase was right in the middle of the turning bay which is a good area for skimmers when there is colour and I mean colour (brown), it wasn't clear today but not that coloured either.

I soon got to my peg were a guy was sitting pike fishing, he had only been there 10 minutes and went off without any problems.

I was a bit high off the water and there was only one feature across, a den of twigs and a couple of over hung bushes but there was a little gap in the middle. The canal was quite narrow here, 8 sections to the far bank so easy enough. Depth down the track was about 4 foot and right across in the feature was about 2.5 foot. 

A 4 x14 for bread down the track, a 0.4 choppy float for in the feature with worm / caster and a 4 x 14 for the far shelf with pinkie.

While tackling up I had a visitor ........

                                            

That robin stayed around me all day and even landed on my knee !

Back to the match .....

After putting in one cup full of liquidised down the track I fed some sloppy minced worm and caster over to my snaggy feature and a few pinkies in ground bait at the bottom of the far shelf.

Starting of on the punch down the track the float was motionless for 5 minutes. I fed a little more bread but didn't make any difference. Jan Van Myzak was to my right and was fishing the same, he shouted down "I think we are in trouble". After 20 minutes I knocked it on the head.

I went over onto the worm line, a bit too easy for my liking but needs must. I had about an inch of red worm on an 18 and the float soon dipped and headed off. A micro perch which I thought was a daddy ruff at first, it was about 1/2 an ounce.

Back out and the same again, really bagging now lol. A few minutes passed and a boat went through so re-fed some more worm slop and a few pinkies on the far shelf as well as a pot of worm down the track.

Went back out over the worm and had a better perch, well I say better, it was about 2 ounces.

It went quiet again so had a look over the bottom of the far shelf. I didn't see the bite but bumped a fish when I moved the float, didn't think it was very big though.

Over the worm line again and a few more micro perch.

Jerry Pocock came walking down and said they were all blanking to my right and he walked on down to see how they were doing. He came back and said Andy Cranston had about 6 oz as did Andy Britt and that was it. When he was there my float went under and the 5 elastic came out. A jack pike of about 2lb which bit me off eventually.

A few more perch came in spells and then Andy Britt came down for a walk off the end peg above Ferry Lane. He asked me what I had. I said about a pound, with that he said your winning the match. Meadow Farm and Bathampton were struggling.

The end of the match couldn't come soon enough as it was now freezing.

Andy Cranston came down on his way back to the car park and stopped to watch me weigh, he had weighed 1lb 4oz and that was about 30 perch and a roach on bloodworm and joker.

My perch and a minnow sized dace went 1lb 6oz which was top weight at Claverton.

Back at the Crown I found I was 2nd in the match with Kev Boltz catching a 2lb perch when he lifted his float 30 minutes from the end! Better to be lucky than good Kev lol.

Kev with his trophy and prize presented by Nicky and Andy

Here is the full report and results by Vince Lunn .......

The Sensas Commercial House Xmas match has been renamed this year to the Brian Britt Memorial match, as Brian was involved with running the league for a long time.

It was fished on the Kennet & Avon canal from Meadow Farm to Claverton (22 pegs).

Thanks to Angling Direct for donating some prizes for the raffle. Also thanks to Cameron Malin for donating some nice engraved glasses for all of the winners.

The drop in temperatures made the fishing extremely hard for everyone, with not many fish being caught other than tiny perch. The canal was fairly clear and there were not many boats moving around.

The winner of the match was Kev Boltz (Midland Spinner), who was pegged 1 to the right of Claverton bay. In the first 4 1/2 hours he managed to catch only 1 micro sized perch. With 30 minutes to go, he was fishing a small piece of worm on the inside when he lifted the float to try another line, but hooked into a large perch. After a bit of a battle he had the perch in the net which gave him a winning weight of 2 lbs 0 ozs.

He won the Xmas hamper and is also the first angler to get his name on the memorial trophy!

2nd was Ivan Currie (Sensas Nomads) who was drawn 4 pegs to the left of Claverton Bay. He had a decent feature over and fished really tight to this with small red worms over chopped worm. He caught lots of small perch to weigh 1 lb 6 ozs.

3rd was Andy Cranston (Sensas Nomads) who was drawn next to Ferry Lane bridge. He had all of his fish on bloodworm, catching mainly perch next to the concrete wall on the inside and then right over on the far side. He weighed 1 lb 4 ozs

4th Nicola Goodhind (M & N Electrical) - 12 ozs

5th Shane Caswell (Midland Spinner) - 8 ozs

6th Andy Britt (Mosella Bathampton) - 6 1/2 ozs

Sunday 6th November - Sensas Bristol Commercial House League final round, K & A Canal Bathampton - Dundas

In my opinion this has been one of the best series of the league for a few years. Although only 5 teams of 6 this year the contribution and support by everyone has made the 2022 league a great success.

A big thanks to Nicky and Mike Goodhind, Andy Britt and Vince Lunn for the behind the scenes work and organisation on the day of each match. Thanks must also go to the staff at the Crown Pub in Keynsham for hosting the draw and the results over 5 matches and the 37 Club in Puriton who hosted the first match on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain. 

A few new faces fished the league this year which is great to see and will help the league to continue.

Due to various issues which couldn't be helped my Sensas Nomads Team struggled for anglers this year but we were covered for each match thanks to Baz Bright, Jack Jones, Andy Cranston and Dave Lewis.

Team fishing isn't for everyone but although you always want to come back with good points this league isn't serious enough to get too annoyed if it doesn't work out on the day.

The league itself was very tight this year and there were some great individual performances. The Lower Bristol Avon fished its head off although some of the pegs at Swineford and Jack Whites are getting very dangerous which could put off new teams joining, something that needs to be looked at for next year.

The draw at 08:00 sharp worked well and with an amendment to the fishing times (1015 - 1515) gave everyone a chance to park and set up.

Todays match on the Canal was pegged as follows:

The George Bathampton A & B Section

A1 Start of bay

A2 White gate

A3 Flag pole

A5 Tree swing (rope)

B1 Opposite tree between boats

B2 start of bay

B3 after bay reeds

B4 before wires

B5 after wires

Claverton  C, D & E Section

C1 -C5 Claverton towards Bath around bend, all 5 in a row.

D1 Claverton towards Ferry Lane near bench

D3 This side of bay

D4 Far side of bay

E3 & E4 either side of wires

E5 Ferry Lane

Dundas Turning Bay towards Diggers F Section

F1 – F5

Our Team today was.....

Me, I drew B5 above the wires at Bathampton (end peg)

Brian Melksham who drew A1 start of turning bay opposite Bathampton School

Sam Johnson who drew C2 which is not a great area

Jan Van Myzak (our dutch international) who drew D4, can be a great peg

Leigh Wakefield drew E3, not bad

Dave Lewis F2 at Dundas, right area

Off we went to Bath then, not far from Keynsham but I have suggested if we fish the Canal next year we do the draw a bit nearer to the venu plus a lot of us had to go the long way around to avoid the congestion charge in Bath.

I parked in the George Pub Car Park in Bath which Nicky had kindly agreed with the Manager as long as we scanned our reg in before we left after the match.

Brian's peg looked great opposite the School and he has fished here a few times so I expected him to do well.

Due to moored boats the pegs were well spread out and in particular mine and Neil Mercers.

It was a nice morning but due to lash down with heavy rain later.

My peg was in-between 2 boats but still plenty of room and they didnt look as if they were going to move during the day.

I was surprised to see the water so clear which was likely to be a problem. A nice bit of depth right across for choppy lines (approx 2.5 foot), 3 foot at the bottom of the far shelf and about 4 down the track, the same rig done under the boat to my left.

Various canal rigs were already set up with the appropriate hooks to save time and no adjustment was required.

At 1015 I cupped in 2 golf balls of bread down the track, fed 2 choppy and caster lines tight across and a soft ball with dead pinkie at the bottom of the far shelf.

Starting off on the bread line with 6mm punch I expected it to sail under pretty quick ....... nothing, not a sign even by slightly lifting and dropping. 15 minutes in and still not an indication. I put a white pinkie on and still no response. I fed another pinch of liquidised and it didn't make any difference. When the bread went in you could almost see it on the bottom. I gave this line a good 30 minutes but no joy.

Going across on one of the choppy lines with a worm head the float sat motionless, I was now very concerned. Nothing on the other choppy line either so re-fed more worm.

Just over an hour had gone and I had a look at the bottom of the far shelf with a fluro pinkie. The float went under and a barely half ounce perch was swung in. Not a good sign and no more bites there after 10 minutes.

I went back over the worm line while the tow was pulling towards Bath and let a worm tail run through all the way down the peg against some reeds. Under it went first time and a perch of around 4 oz was netted. I had another 3 small perch while the tow remained.

2 hours had gone so I phoned Sam, he was also struggling. Neil came walking up from the peg below me and said he only had a couple of small perch, Nicky below him had one and the others below were struggling as well.

So section wise at this point I was doing ok. Given that everyone seemed to be having a nightmare I decided just to go all out for perch.

Finely chopped worm was fed on all lines including under the left hand boat and the worm dobbing began lol.

The lifting and drooping did work in a fashion as I ended up with 1lb 9oz which got me 3 points from 5. The section was won by Shaun Townsend with 3lb plus maily small roach and Paul Purchase had 2lb 3oz of mainly small roach late, the roach caught were small even by canal standards.

In A section Shane Caswell won it with 9lb 7oz of mainly roach and our man Brian done the business catching 8lb 11oz for second in section.

Leigh done the best in our team taking 4 points from 5 with 5lb 14oz, Sam had 2lb 15 for 3 points and Jan and Dave blew out giving us a total of 16 points which wasn't good.

I haven't seen the canal fish that bad for ages but without any colour it was always going to be hard. The only place there was colour was at Dundas and the top 4 weights came from there.

Vince Lunn was at Dundas and made no mistake catching just over 13lbs of nice skimmers and roach to win the match.

Vince with his catch.

Here is the match report from Vince from the leagues facebook page.............

The final round of the Commercial House League 2022 was fished on the Kennet & Avon canal from Bathampton through to Dundas.

The weather was overcast for most of the day with heavy rain at times. The canal was coloured at Dundas, which produced the top 3 weights in the match, but it was clear in the rest of the sections.

Only 6 anglers caught more than 6 lbs.

The winner of the match was Vince Lunn fishing for M & N Electrical, drawn on F4 at Dundas. He caught 6 skimmers from 6 ozs to 1 lb 8 ozs on the bread down the middle along with lots of quality roach. Then he caught more quality roach on red maggot over groundbait 3/4 across. He also caught roach, dace and bleak on castors right over. He weighed in 13 lbs 5 ozs.

2nd, on the next peg (F3) was Craig Pinker of Midland Spinner. He fished bread 2/3rds across and caught 7 skimmers and lots of small roach.

He then caught more small roach right over on pinkie having fed groundbait with dead pinkie and squatts in.

He finished with 11 lbs 1 oz.

3rd was Rich Lacey (Mosella Bathampton) from end peg F1. He fished bread at 5 metres and caught 3 skimmers from 1 lb to 2 lbs and some roach.

Then he put in some joker across and caught lots of roach and chublets. He weighed in 9 lbs 15 ozs.

4th Shane Caswell - Midland Spinner - 9 lbs 7 ozs

5th Jeff Surmon - Midland spinner - 9 lbs 1 ozs

6th Brian Melksham - Sensas Nomads - 8 lbs 11 ozs

Midland Spinner won on the day with 27 points which is only 3 points dropped.

M & N Electrical were 2nd with 21 points, whilst the league leaders Mosella Bathampton were 3rd with 16.5 points.

After the final round, only 8.5 points separated the top 4 teams, so it was very close.

Mosella Bathampton won the league overall with 123.5 points from M & N Electrical on 121.

Toby Bentham (M & N Electrical) won his section to claim the top individual over the series with 24 points.

Jeff Surmon (Midland Spinner) was 2nd with 23 points.

Nick Coles (Mosella Bathampton) and Sam Johnson (Sensas Nomads) had 21 points, with Nick taking 3rd place on weight.

Andy Richings had the biggest fish of the series with a 6 lbs 14 oz bream.

Top of teams:

Sensas Nomads: Sam Johnson

Mosella Bathampton: Nick Coles

M & N Electrical: Toby Bentham

Midland Spinner: Jeff Surmon

Teams on the day

Midland Spinner 27

M & N Electrical 21

Mosella Bathampton 16.5

Sensas Nomads 16

Crown 8.5

League positions

Mosella Bathampton 123.5

M & N Electrical 121

Midland Spinner 119

Sensas Nomads 115

Crown 53.5

Having a pleasure session on the River Kenn on Wednesday then the Poppy Match on Sunday.

Tight lines all.

Sunday 1st November - Bristol Commercial House League, Final Round K & A Canal, Claverton / Limpley Stoke nr. Bath

 5 days late with the blog due to managing to get away to Cornwall for a few nights before Lockdown 2 started so here is a summary of my last match.....

Glorious weather with a Bullfinch sat on a post, Cornwall's North Coast

The league managed to finish before the latest restrictions thanks to the great work done by Mike and Nicola Goodhind, Andy Britt and Vince Lunn. The staff at the Cadbury Heath Sports and Social Club were also outstanding allowing us to use their facilities within the guidelines. Team Thatchers and Bathampton performed the weighing in throughout which made life a little easier on the bank. 

I think overall Team Thatchers had one ''blow out'' during the series but it did not stop them topping the A Div table with 83 points, 16 points ahead of Bathampton A who had 67 and my Sensas Nomads Team relegated to B Div next year with 65 points.

In B Div it was a much closer finish with any of the teams capable of winning but in the end M & N Electrical came out top with 73 points followed by Midland Spinner with 72 and Bathampton B with 70.

Thatchers Paul Issac's had a great league ending up top in his team, biggest fish, top individual in the league and knock-Out winner.

Team mate Leigh Wakefield and I had a practice session on the Canal on the Wednesday prior to the match   trying different methods. Leigh concentrated on bread and I used ground bait and dead pinkie / caster / choppy / maggot.

Leigh had some quality roach and I had a real mixed bag on what would have been D section in the final match.

Chris Hook had to work on the Sunday so we brought in from the Red Corner ....Mark aka ''The Whippet'' Williams.

Going into the match we knew we could not win A Div but as we were 3 points ahead of Bathampton A hoped we could retain the lead and stay up. 

Sadly that didn't happen as already reported above. We had a few things that went wrong on the day.....

On the way to the canal from the draw Brian Melksham's van broke down and he was unable to fish despite some valiant effort's to get it going. Mark lost 2 decent fish which would have seen him win F Section at Limpley Stoke (he still finished 6th overall with 7lb plus), the end pegs in that section beat him. Sam in B Section had a terrible day (the whole section fished crap as it did last year) only able to catch tiny roach. I was in A Section, not too bad a peg but next to a boat that played loud and I mean loud music for 4 hours. I caught ok before they started up and then only adding the odd small fish to weigh 4lb 2oz, Tim Ford had 4lb 11oz and Andy Britt who I needed to beat had 7lb plus off the end peg. Leigh done ok in C section with 5lb 11oz and 2 points.

Leigh's 5lb 11oz

The only highlight (and that's a massive understatement) of the day was team mate Mike Withy winning the match from E section with a massive 32lb 12oz, yes you read that correctly, I believe it could be a record weight from the canal in this league.

Mike with his catch

So not our day ..but...2 individual match winners and we did smash it out of the park on one match.

Pleasure fishing now for a few weeks so will be giving the River Kenn a go this weekend, some Flyfishing at Chew and maybe take a look at the Bristol Feeder Canal.

Sunday 24th November - Bristol Commercial House League Final Round K & A Canal Bath

Onto the final round of this league and the first time it's been fully completed before Christmas.

We had a squad meeting about 10 days before the match and due to the drop in temperatures we decided that bloodworm and joker would be a good idea.  I volunteered to source it again and placed an order with Taffy up in Bolton. We have had it off him before and its very good.
It arrived Friday morning so I unpacked it right away and gave it all a good spray with cold water and left in in the paper on the garage floor. Prior to match day it was sprayed twice a day.
My rig and hook prep was done a week ago so no last minute rushing.

Team today was:
Chris Hook
Leigh Wakefield
Rich Whitmarsh
Mike Withey
Jeff Sibley
Me

Mike was also in the final of the knock-out against Vince Lunn.

We already knew what sections were being put in as it was posted on Facebook the evening before...and as follows (sorry about the shadow but I didn't take the photo).

Prior to the draw there was much debate about the sections and what would be the favoured peg number to draw, we decided that 1 would be a good one.

Chris went up to do the team draw and .... came back with 1.

My enthusiasm deteriorated a bit when I saw that I was in F section aka Meadow Farm. Never done any good in this section and the upstream side of the bridge usually fishes better that the other side, which I would be on.  Anyway, job to do so off I went.

I parked at the top of Bathampton Lane to walk down, I wouldn't be pushing the barrow back up the steep hill, instead the gear would be left at the bottom and I would drive down with the van to pick it up.

Only 3 of us on the shitty side of the bridge, Nigel Wyatt, Ben Rendall and me.

The peg to be fair looked OK and it was quite mild so perhaps I would be surprised.

2 identical 4 x 14 rigs for the track although one had a 20 hook and the other a 18 both with 4 elastic.

1 4 x 12 for actors with 7 sections to fish the bottom of the far shelf, 20 hook with 3 elastic.

1 0.4 gram choppy float with a wide gape strong 18 for fishing up on the shelf for perch, 5 elastic.

I fed 2 balls of bread down the track to my left at the start and fished a 6mm punch over the top. 15 minutes went by and just little blips on the float, not going under as I would expect. I did give it another 15 minutes but felt it was a lost cause. Prior to fishing this line I had fed choppy and cast up on the shelf at two points and a ball of joker on the 7 section line straight in front.

An early look on the left hand shelf line with maggot did produce a couple of quick bites but I fail to connect. I think I hit the bite too early manly due to a boat coming up. After it went past I put a bit more choppy in. 

Going across at the bottom of the shelf with double bloodworm finally gave me a fish which was about 0.5 ounces! Another one followed about the same size, oh dear!

Ben shouted down and asked how I was doing, not very well was the reply, he had about 9 small fish at this stage.

The first hour is normally the best on the canal but it just wasn't happening and I feared the worst.

It got a bit better after 2 hours as I just got my head down and fished the bloodworm over regular top ups of joker in team. I did have a couple of 2 oz fish but in the main it was 4 to the ounce, riveting ...not.

The track produced little or nothing and it was too long to wait for a bite.

With and hour and a half to go I finally snared a decent net fish on the worm right across. I thought at first it was a perch, then a hybrid but no, it was a good roach. Soon afterwards I had a small perch on the same line but that was it.

I just stuck it out the rest of the match on the B & J line.

Darren Gillman came up with the scales to weigh me in first.

The scales registered 2lb 8.5 ozs. Here's two photos to get some idea of the size of fish in my peg.

Ben weighed in next and beat me by a few ounces but he was in A Div anyway.

Here's how the whole of F Section fished .....

Geraint who had the 7lb only really caught in the first hour but had 3 nice big skimmers.

Still, won my section and maximum 3 points, job done.

Back at the pub and there was a mixed team result but we did manage 3 section wins from 6.

Team sheet below.......

It was enough to win our Division by 8 points so a good effort from all the team over the 6 matches.

Here are the section winning weights some by default...

Sect         A Div            B Div

A             9-15              11-13 Rich

B             10-6              10-3   Jeff

C              4-4                11-8

D             6-9                 4-12

E              2-3                 0-13.5

F              7-0                 2-8.5 Me 

Some good weights as expected from the Town area and Rich just missed out on framing with his 11lb odd.

Mike didn't manage to beat Vince in the Knock-Out but he done well getting through to the final.

Match winner Nicky Johns with a magnificent 23lbs from the Long Pond.

Sunday 13th October - Bristol Commercial House league Round 4 K & A Canal Bathampton and Claverton

The K & A in this League is usually fished after Christmas but after last year it was decided to put the 2 matches in the autumn instead. My Team Sensas Nomads were responsible for pegging it, this was left in the capable hands of Mike Withey, Rich Whitmarsh and Brian Melksham.

Prior to our squad meeting on the Tuesday we decided to peg it ''out of town'' i.e. Bath and in the main the Claverton area. Not many anglers would fish this area so it was a bit of a gamble.

Team manager Mike Martin and I decided to meet up on the Tuesday before the match and give it a go. So I got 2 day tickets and obtained the gate code for the Bathampton AA car park at Claverton although I wasn't quite sure where it was.

On the morning I did drive past it and had to be talked in by Mike but it was all good and a great facility in an otherwise limited parking area.
Mike suggested we go up towards the old Swing Bridge beyond Ferry Lane. The access down the side of a bridge leading to the towpath was a little bit of a challenge but overcome. It was a fair walk up to where we wanted to fish.

Mike set up about 4 pegs below the old Swing Bridge (which incidentally isn't there anymore but you can see where it used to be). and me 1 peg below. The Canal had a nice bit of colour to it and looked lovely. Bit of early boat traffic but otherwise ok and we both had a good day catching on everything and both of us ending up with about 7 to 8lbs.

Loved the session and lost 2 decent big fish one of which I think was a chub.

After the session we went to the squad meeting in Keynsham to share our experience and thoughts on pegging.

The guys were going to peg it late on Saturday afternoon due to boats continually moving.

Rich phoned me on Saturday evening around 19:30, he had just got back and sent the pegging plan.

Parking was going to be in in 2 places, Bathampton Village by the school and in the George Pub car park courtesy of the land lord (A & B sections) and then everyone else in the Bathampton AA car park so no stress whatsoever about parking which is really important these days.

The draw on Sunday was in the Crown at Keynsham where they really do look after the anglers before and after the matches. 

Team today was..... 

Chris Hook (c)

Sam Johnson

Rich Whitmarsh

Mike Withey

Brian Melksam

Me

Team mate Leigh Wakefield was also fishing but standing in for one of the Bathampton teams.

Mike and Rich were also in the ''Knock Out''

Team draw put us on....

A - Rich

B - Brian

C - Chris

D - Sam

E - Me

F - Mike

So I was in the same area I fished on the Tuesday and happy with that, even better when I got to my peg it was where Mike had been.

The canal had a lot more colour in it due to the continuous rain all week but I was fairly confident. To my right I had former Nomad Geraint Powell now fishing for Thatchers and to my left Kev Dicks Bathampton A. Leigh was also in my section end peg 6.

Fishing was 10:15 - 15:15 due to the loner walks.

I had already set up my rigs with hooks at home and they just needed some fine tuning. To be safe I set up 2 for down the track (4x14), 2 for across just off the shelf straight in front (0.3 gram) and 2 for the shelf left and right, 0.3 gram, one to 6 elastic and one with 5 elastic for bigger fish. Doubling up on the rigs would save time if I trashed any.

I fed some bread down the track to my right before going across left and right with choppy and caster, the worm was very finely minced and I would leave these line for an hour. Casters were catapulted across in front of me as Mike had caught well doing this. 

I had just put in my 7mm punch over the feed when I heard a splash to my left and saw Kev net a big skimmer so looked promising. I also soon had a skimmer but only about 6oz and bumped another next put in. I topped up with a small ball and this brought some roach, not big but very welcome. 

Boat traffic was quite heavy, makes you wonder where they all go!

I was keeping an eye on what was happening up and down the section as far as I could see and thought I was doing ok.

The bread line slowed so I fed a ball of ground bait down the track to my left with choppy and pinkie.

The first hour was nearly up so I had a look right across to my left towards the tree and had a good run of fish on maggot. After 20 minutes or so I topped up this line and had a look across to the right and had bites instantly mainly dace. Again didn't stay too long here and topped up before having a look on the caster right in front of me.....nothing. 

A look on the track line to my left produced a few small roach and perch but not fast and furious. Boats seemed to me getting worse and a load of canoes came up as well so decided the only place where the fish could find refuge was across by the tree.

I took fish from this area off and on the rest of the match, not big but at least I was putting fish in the net compared to others.

I ended up with 6lb 4oz which was enough to win my Div but was also the best weight across the 6 pegs. 

Full section board .....

The Canal fished well to be honest, here are the winning section weights (some by default)....

                    A Div                B Div

A                 5-11                   5-7

B                 8-5                     11-5

C                 7-0                     5-5

D                7-12                    5-3

E                 6-1                     6-4

F                 8-12                   10-8

As a Team we ended up with 14 point from 18 which is quite good and enough to win B Div.

Full results and match report courtesy of Vince Lunn..........(well done to Sam who took 3rd overall and Mike for getting through to the next round of the knock out).

Steve Kedge of Mosella Bathampton B won the match from peg D1 (downstream of Ferry Lane bridge) with 15 lbs 3 ozs. He fished bread down the middle to take 20 big skimmers up to 2lbs and roach. He had a few fish on castor over and also had a big perch on worm.

Matt Challenger of Preston Innovations Thatchers was 2nd from peg D3 with 14 lbs 4 ozs. He started on bread and had a 2 lbs skimmer first put in then had 6 smaller ones. He also caught on chop worm and castor and had some big perch and roach.

3rd S Johnson (Sensas Nomads) 13 lbs 13 ozs

4th N Johns (Mosella Bathampton A) 12 lbs 1 oz

5th J Pocock (Midland Spinner) 11 lbs 5 ozs

6th L Warden (M&N Electrical) 10 lbs 8 ozs

The 2 Mosella Bathampton teams tied for the win in A Div to gain a bit of ground back on Preston Innovations Thatchers.
In the B Div, Sensas Nomads won to slightly extend their lead.

On the day A div:
Mosella Bathampton A - 13
Mosella Bathampton B - 13
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 10

B div:
Sensas Nomads - 14
Midland Spinner - 13
M&N Electrical - 9

League positions:
A div
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 54
Mosella Bathampton A - 48
Mosella Bathampton B - 42

B div
Sensas Nomads - 53.5
Midland Spinner - 48
M&N Electrical - 42.5

Looking for match options next weekend...

Sunday 14th April - K & A Spring League Round 1

Bit late again with the blog due to decorating, driving the Community Bus getting issues with vehicles sorted, Gas Boiler service, a few things for my Clevedon Club plus looking after myself as the wife has been away for 4 days. All sorted now so looking forward to more fishing.

On Sunday 14th April I fished the first round of the K & A Spring League run by Simon Hebditch. 23 Teams of 4 this year from as far away as West Sussex. Dorking also had a side of very able bodied canal anglers. Sections for this first round were....Kings Arms, Whaddon, Seend and Pyle.

Our Senses Nomads Team was...
Me (c) oh the responsibilty
Rich Whitmarsh
Mike Withey
Geraint Powell

We decided to only enter one team this year as one match clashes with the Glossy League and quite a few of our guys are away in Holland for the second round.

The draw for this first round was at Spencers Club in Melksham and the car park and adjacent road just about coped. Directions to sections were great with maps and postcodes circulated in advance plus additional info was displayed at the draw. This makes all the difference to anglers who are not familiar with the area.

So onto the draw and I didn't do the team any favours. Mike was in the best section at Pyle but the end peg at the wrong end well away from the epee centre. I was at Seend apparent in an area that was silted up and Rich and Geraint at Whaddon and Kings Arms on very mediocre pegs.
We knew it would be hard anyway and our plan was to ease our way into the match feeding very little at first but regular with pinkie on the hook.

I got to my section and parked up without any trouble and after a 10 minute walk was at my peg. My peg was in an area known as the wides and I was informed ''it used to be good'' great, I was also told there was no depth across. I had Andrew Chatterley (Devizes) to my left and Mick Gale (Matrix Talisman) to my right. I suppose the canal here was a good 16 metres wide but no depth as advised beyond 12 metres. I found the bottom of the far slope at 12 metres where it was about 2 foot deep, down the boat channel it was about a foot deeper and inside shelf was nothing until you went out 5 metres at around 2 foot.

Rig for across was a 4x14 to 0.11 with a 0.08 hook length to a 22, same rig for down the track but with a 20 hook and 5 metres out another 4x14 but with a 0.10 hook length and a 15 hook for perch.
The rigs were this heavy due to the very strong tow the canal was also full of crap so you needed to get the bait down through it. Boat traffic was expected to be a bit of a pain due to being the start of the Good Friday week. Just before the all in a holiday boat came up and got stuck in the silt between Mick Gale and I.
I think his intentions were good as he wanted to stay away from us but did not realise how shallow it was right over. Suitable words of advice was given.....i.e. stay down the middle.

I fed my worm line first with a pot of choppy and a few dead reds in leam to anchor them to the bottom before putting a golf ball sized lake and a little leam mix with dead pinkie and squat over on my far line, I left the middle.

The first 40 minutes or so was spent looking for that first bite and anglers were looking up and down the tow path to see if anyone was catching..... no one was. I put a soft pot on and started drip feeding squat in ground bait across with 3 squats on the hook and this brought me my first bite but I didn't connect. The tow was pulling hard so I put on an extra few inches on the depth. A few micro roach and small skimmers were caught over the following hour but nothing to write home about. Mick to my right was fishing right across and had a couple of blades. Andrew started to catch the odd small fish as well.

I had been topping up my worm line, you had to as I am sure most of it go washed upstream or downstream due to the tow but a few looks on it now and then and not a sausage.
The middle was so full of crap I abandoned it.

About the halfway mark I was holding back across when the float slide away and I hit something solid, thought it was a branch at first until it started nodding, seemed like a bream and I started shipping back very carefully. I had to ship back parallel due to the towpath behind me which makes things awkward. The 3 elastic was doing its job but when i got to the 4th section the feckin hook pulled out, I knew it would cost me ...ffs.

A couple of net skimmers followed and I had a 10oz perch as well but bumped another big fish (think it was a perch) despite going up to a 20 hook.

Andrew to my left had a few fish right across towards the end and I thought we were more or less even but I knew Mick had struggled.

The section points were based on sections of 8 and 7. My 2lb 10oz got me 4 points from 8. The section was won with 4lb 9oz, Andrew had 4lb 6oz for 2nd in section. Those lost fish definitely cost me.

Andrew 2nd in section (I didn't take the pic)

On the Team front Rich and Geraint both had 6 points, Mike had 1 and with my 4 put us in 13 position out of 23.

Here are the full Team results........

1	DEVIZES BLACK
2	GARBOLINO BV MARINE
3	PI THATCHERS SONUBAITS
4	DRENNAN BORDON BLUE
5	GARBOLINO BV GOLD
6	DAIWA DORKING
7	DRENNAN OXFORD
8	WYVERN ANGLING GOLD
9	DEVIZES WHITE
10	MATRIX TALISMEN YELLOW
11	SENSAS A4 BLACK
12	SENSAS A4
13	SENSAS NOMADS
14	RIVE HOMESTORES
15	SENSAS A4 GREEN
16	MATRIX TALISMEN PURPLE
17	BORDON ANGLING
18	SENSAS WEST SUSSEX
19	PI THATCHERS
20	DRENNAN BORDON PINK
21	GARBOLINO BV GREEN
22	ANDOVER
23	RIVE HOMESTORES RED

Individuals as follows...

1st    Liam Bradell 23-12
2nd  Steve Pawson 14-9
3rd   Dave Docherty 13-15
4th   Matt Herbert 13-10
5th   James Carty 12-9
6th   Brett Cooper 12-3


Due to clashes with the Glossy League and a holiday I am only available for the last round.

Glossy League Round 2 on 28th April.