Sunday 10th October - Bristol Commercial House League Round 4, Bristol Avon, Newbridge.

I knew the river at Newbridge would be a totally different compared to last week as we had very little rain  but as always I was looking forward to it as were the rest of the lads. Looking at the water levels during the week it was going to be low but hopefully have a bit of flow remaining.

Team today was....

Myself

Chris Hook

Sam Johnson

Leigh Wakefield

Mike Withey

Brian Melksham

We were meant to have the draw etc in the Cadbury Heath Sports and Social Club but due to a problem it was switched to the Crown Pub in Keynsham which was closer to Newbridge. 

When I got to the pub I bumped into Ryan Couch from over Pontypool way and who fishes Llandegfedd quite a bit as well as the Brecon Canal. He was fishing for Bathampton B today, I think most anglers in the SW and a bit beyond have now fished for Bathampton A or B.

Sam assisted with collecting the money as the pub is a bit on the small side and team members were split up at different ends. When Mike Goodhind called the Team Captains up I was alongside Brian Melksham who rubbed my belly and said you've had a McDonalds this morning, I do need to loose a few pounds.

Mike explained the pegging which is listed below and also said the farmer who was not happy with the way we parked at Newbridge last week had cut the grass for us alongside the river in order to park safely and it gave us more than enough room with going onto his field so fair play to him.

With A to C Sections parking at Newbridge and D to F parking at the Rugby Club there would be no parking issues.

A1-A6 Small field

A7 Below bridge

B1 & B2 Pump House

B3 Cattle drink

B4 Peg 30

B5 Peg 32

C1 Peg 39

C3 Peg 44

C4 Peg 46

C5 Peg 48

C6 Peg 50

C7 Peg 52

D1 3 pegs short of bridge

D7 Stream

E1 Peg 101

E7 Tunnel

F1 Below tunnel

F5 Peg 118

F6 Peg 120

F7 Peg 122

We were last but one to draw and it was not a bad set of pegs on paper. I was on A3, Sam B7, Chris C4, Leigh D1, Brian E5 and Mike F2.

So off we went with the aim of getting a few fish in the net during the first couple of hours on the pole and take it from there. When I parked up Mike Weston was in my section again, 3rd time in 3 weeks and low and below Ryan was on A2 just above me.

In my section I had Shaun Townsend (Hostpital Team) on A1, Ryan (Bathampton B) A2, myself A3, Nick Coles (Bathampton A) A4, Matt Challenger (Thatchers) A5), Mike Weston (M & N) A6 and Craig Pinker (Midland Spinner) A7. So a pretty good line up.

I did fancy A1 and A7 would do the business today. 

The peg I was on today, A3 looked OK and I rang Chris who has drawn it numerous times for some guidance. I set up the pole to fish at 13 metres with a running through 2 gram rig and a 4 gram flat float. I also set up a 3 gram bolo float on the long rod to chase the fish down the peg as necessary as well as a feeder. Ended up not using the feeder or the flat float..

It's a fairly shallow area and the flow does vary a bit when the lock gates are opened and closed on the Great Western Cut. A lot of anglers ball it in at Newbridge but I favour cupping it in rather than ring the dinner bell for the pike as well as the roach.

5 big balls were cupped in laced with everything, caster, hemp, dead red and chopped worm.

Normally the response is pretty quick but it took 6 or more run throughs with the 2 grammer to get the first bite which I missed!

I nailed the next bite and it was a small hybrid around 4oz. A few roach turned up and they were not bad at around 3 to 4 oz. 

I started to loose feed hemp and caster but this brought the bleak in and they were taking the bait on the drop.  I decided to stop doing this and concentrate getting the bait on the bottom by feeding another ball and moving the olivette 18 inches from the hook with an 8 and 10 below. 

This worked a treat and I caught more hybrids and better roach holding back hard, inching it through and then hold back again. I made a few school boy errors by swinging fish that should have been netted and had a word with myself after the 4th catch and release.

I had a decent half of the match on the pole but while still getting bites they tailed off a bit. 

Picking up the bolo and fishing the middle of the river loose feeding plenty of hemp and caster with double caster on an 18 I had a good hour plus catching chublets, hybrids, roach, perch and gudgeon while still topping up the pole line.

No one was walking the bank (which I like) so i had no idea how the section was fishing. a phone call from Sam and Chris suggested the river below me was fishing hard.

The match finished at 3:15, I had the scales so packed up pretty quick. Just as I was finishing off packing away Mike Weston came up and said the anglers blow me were admitting to 4 to 5lbs each, I though i had maybe 5 to 6lbs. Mike walked past and came back to say Ryan had around 4 to 5lbs and Shaun has had a nightmare.

I walked down to Craig on A7 to start weighing as he had the board. Craig said he struggled but still weighed 5lb of bleak, Mike on 6 tipped back. All of us under estimated our nets as you can see from my section board below, me more than most (9lb 12oz) I was well happy to take the whole section but more importantly maximum of 3 points for the team.

My catch above

Sam called me just as I finished weighing and asked how I got on, he had also won his section. He also asked how Matt Challenger got on as he had Matt in the knock-out. Sam's 7lb plus got him through.

He also said Leigh had done well catching over 20lbs!

Back at the Crown Pub I collected the results, I knew Brian wasn't coming back as I saw him heading towards Bath.

Here is the Team sheet, not bad at all ......

Although Chris was 2nd in his section he picked up the section by default due to Andy Richings winning the match. So a good day with 5 of us picking up cash again, Leigh was 2nd in the match and our team won our division. Sam and Chris are through to the final round of the knock-out so with way you look at it one of our guys have won !

I would have been 7th overall as well.

Leigh with his 2nd placed bag.

That man Andy Richings can draw and made no mistake from a bream area weighing 26lb plus.

Not sure who took his photo but they need to go to specsavers.

I am thinking of pleasure fishing Llandegfedd on Wednesday and perhaps a Clevedon Club Match on the River Kenn next Sunday.

Here is the full match report and results courtesy of Vince Lunn .....

The 4th round of the Commercial House match was fished on the Bristol Avon at Newbridge. The river had a little bit of colour and it was mild with bright conditions.

Winner on the day was Andy Richings of Mosella Bathampton B with 26 lbs 9 ozs. Drawn on peg 44 he caught 3 to 4 lbs on the pole and then had 6 bream on the feeder 2/3 rds across, with worm on the hook.

2nd was Leigh Wakefield of Sensas Nomads with 20 lbs 8 ozs. Drawn around peg 77, he fished the pole over groundbait at 13 metres and caught chublets, roach and skimmers on red maggot. He then fished the feeder over the same line in the last 2 hours and caught 2 bream.

3rd was Rob Jones of Preston Innovations Thatchers with 16 lbs 7 ozs. He was on peg 107 and caught 2 bream on the flat float along with 2 big roach and some small fish. He caught them on worm and dead maggots.

4th Rob Manns - Preston Innovations Thatchers - 13 lbs 2 ozs

5th Tim Ford - Preston Innovations Thatchers - 12 lbs 10 oz

6th Andy Britt - Mosella Bathampton A - 9 lbs 14 ozs

Preston Innvoations Thatchers dropped only 1.5 points on the day to extend their lead in the A division. In the B division Sensas Nomads won, to close the gap on the leaders Mosella Bathampton B.

Teams on the day;

A Div

Preston Innovations Thatchers 16.5

Mosella Bathampton A 11

M & N Electrical 7.5

B Div

Sensas Nomads 15

Mosella Bathampton B 13

Midland Spinner 8

League positions;

A Div

Preston Innovations Thatchers 58.5

Mosella Bathampton A 49

M & N Electrical 35.5

B Div

Mosella Bathampton B 55

Sensas Nomads 49

Midland Spinner 40

Knockout draw for the next round:

Sam Johnson vs Chris Hook

Sunday 3rd October - Newbridge Open

 Dean Harvey assisted by Derek Coles kindly ran this match on behalf of Ben Rendall as he is away fishing in Ireland.

With much needed rain forecast during the days before it was going to be an out and out bream match so only packed 2 feeder rods and a long rod just in case.

I stopped off in McDonalds at Emery Rd for a coffee and a breakfast roll. Just after I ordered a couple of Deliveroo Drivers came in asking for their orders only to be informed by the young manager they were not ready and it all kicked off despite the manager saying he had only 3 staff on duty. For such a young person I think he handled it well and yes they had to wait but moaned the whole time in broken english, it was quite entertaining really but I didn't let it show.

When I arrived at the Pump House at Newbridge a few anglers were already there. I spoke to Dean who said he had 21 booked in and he had spread the pegs out between the Little Field and the Norfolk reeds so some would have a bit of a walk. 

I was about 3/4 way in the draw and pulled out 39 which is not a bad peg. For the second time in as many weeks Mike Weston was below me on the next peg (46). We had plenty of time as fishing was 10:45 - 15:45.

As expected I was ready with an hour to spare, I didn't bother with the long rod. One feeder rod had a 30 gram on it and a 1 metre hooklength, 0.16 to a preston size 14 N50 hook. I set the other one up as well with a maggot feeder and a size 16 hook in case I wanted to go under the trees looking for chub.

I was well prepared today with 1.5 kilo of worm, 2 pints of caster, 1 pint dead red, hemp and live reds.

With 50 minutes to go I took a walk down to Mike who was still setting up. He had a waggler set up plus a pole and feeder. He also had a lot of space between him and the next angler downstream. The river looked spot on for bream but would they feed?

It was nice to fish as an individual and not for a team, it was all or nothing for me today.

On the all in I started casting 3/4 the way across every few minutes and put plenty of loose offerings in my mix of dark f1 and sensas river. After 20 minutes I started to get the odd little rattle on the worm and maggot hook bait and soon found out it was perch. I had a few all around the 4oz mark.

As the end of the first hour was approaching the tip bent over and it was bream on, it took 3 casters. It did feel a good fish but I'll never know how big it was as the hook pulled out went I got it down the inside.

"oh dear" I said to myself......

I kept putting the feeder down the same hole with generous amounts of particles and at 14:00 I was into another bream on a small piece of chopped worm and maggot. I landed this one and had another the following cast! I was expecting another few but it didn't happen.  I did foul hook a big bream and got it to the net before the hook came off its belly.

With 10 minutes to go I had a big drop back and hooked into what I thought was the bottom but then it started to move. it stayed deep and I was thinking barble, carp or a big pike. It went downstream at pace but I managed to turn it and get it to the top, it was a massive eel. Netting it was a bit hairy as it was in the net then out, back in then out etc etc. I did manage to net it but due to the steep bank and distance to the water it nearly came out on the the way up.

By the time I had sorted it out and put it in the keepnet it was the end of the match.

I was assisting Mike weigh in from 46 to 24 so packed up quickly. 

Mike had a great day catching 8 bream and some bits which weighed 38lb 13oz.

Mike with a smile on his face.

I thought he would frame with that today so was hoping I beat the others in the section for a default section win.

My net went 11lb 08oz if you zoom in you can see the big eel (top left in the net).

My bag was the next best in the section but didn't know if Mike would frame.

My section board

When I got back to the Pump House were the cars were parked the Farmers son was kicking off about the parking on his field. The parking was no different to what it has been for years and its only a bit of ground which nothing grows on. I think he was cheesed off as someone (not an angler had driver right across his field. Dean handled it pretty well and parking is permitted in future but not on his side of the concrete path.

It turned out the section below me fished really well with Andy Richings having a great 75lb plus from peg 50.

Andy with part of his catch

2nd was Warren Bates with 39lb 07oz and Mike Weston was 3rd so section win by default (again).

John Tocknell was 4th with a great mixed bag weighing 32lb 15oz including a big roach.

John Tocknell.

Here are the other two section boards, great fishing.....

Little Field

End Section downstream

Next week is Round 4 of the Commercial House League at Newbridge so lets hope we get some more rain to keep the colour in the river and perhaps less angry people about!

OK I'll give it another go........

 There have been a few people recently asking ''where's the blog''.... 

To be honest I couldn't be arsed (again) and after nearly 10 years of writing it became a bit of a chore, well that's how it felt and I suppose a run of poor draws and results also affected my enthusiasm. I have also been busy doing Angling Admin with Nomads and the Clevedon Club as well as carrying out home improvements plus a few trips away.

Looking back my last post was in early August and that was Round 5 of the S W Super League.

Since then I fished......

• The final round of the SL at Newbridge and done crap.

I was drawn halfway down in the Tree's section and only had about 6lbs. The pegging was far from ideal with some anglers really close and others literally 100 meters apart due to lack of bank maintenance and boats moored up illegally. Mike Bernsten won the section easily with 24lb from the first peg under the railway tunnel. He had 4 good bream along with roach and perch. None of the team done any good and we left before the final presentation which is a bit rude to be honest but we did not enjoy the league this year. It's only teams of 4 but we struggled at times to get enough to fish due to family commitments. The venues are changing next year and will be more expensive. We won't be putting a team in, not due to costs but because of availability and numbers. I am looking forward to a summer off fishing leagues and will be happy to do my own thing.

• The Lance Tucker memorial on the River Kenn.

Quite a few of us worked our socks off to clear the river of as much weed as possible in order to provide 55 pegs, the largest match on the Kenn for some time. A lot of anglers who knew Lance and had not fished for quite a while dusted off their gear and came along. All 55 pegs were filled and ran from the Outfall at the Sea to Kenn Rd. I drew peg 8 which is a good area but it fished rock hard. I managed a level 2lbs of small roach to win the section worth £50. Club Chairman Steve Bonwick won the match from peg 1 with 11 bream for 66lbs, 2nd was Dom Sullivan peg 3 with 43lb of bream and on peg 2 Des Shipp managed 3rd with 42lb. It was a great match and along with what Lance's family organised over £4000 was raised for a heart charity.

Steve had a great match

2nd place for Dom

Des not far behind, this is the 2nd time he has fished the Kenn, maybe he'll be back.

• Llandegfedd 2 day festival.

I booked into this match because I didn't think I was going to Ireland the first week in September. The match was held over the August Bank Holiday weekend. I was on the boats each day in order to get to my peg. it was a well organised festival but I done pretty crap along with a load of others. you would get a few hybrids early and the odd roach and then nothing. I was confident in what I was doing as I had caught well during pleasure sessions, it's funny how even a 400 acre venue can switch off on match day. I will try and get back before the end of October when the fishing ends.

• Ireland

Well what a week this was. There was no festival organised in Arva as Ireland opened up too late for it to be organised so 3 of us just went pleasure fishing and stayed at our usual place which is the Breffni Arms Hotel. I had a couple of 10lb days which was surprising but after that I had 4 days on the pole bagging, 45lb, 32lb, 28lb and  22lb in 4 hours after trying in vain for bream. Here's some photo's........

• Commercial House League Round 2, Chequers, Jack Whites, Crane and Swineford 19th September (missed the first one due to being in Ireland).

I drew Chequers, the end peg upstream and was expecting bream, bream, bream but the whole of chequers fished hard. I ended up on the bolo down the middle and amassed a whole 3lb to take 2 points from 3. Lee Gregory was the best with 10lb of whip fish and Jeff Surman won the bottom section with 7lb. as a team we bombed out finishing last on the day in B Div, one to forget.

• Commercial House League Round 3, 26th September, Huntspill.

This was supposed to be on the KSD but due to the drain being covered in duckweed was switched to the Huntspill. 

Team was Chris Hook, Sam Johnson, Leigh Wakefield, Owen Davis, Sean Partridge and myself.

We done well as a team tying with Bathampton for top spot in B Div. 5 of us picked up our section money, mine was by default. I drew between the motorway and railway bridges which was a hell of a walk. As expected the pegs nearest the railway bridge fished best with Derek Coles having a fantastic 31lb of bream. That meant my 4lb got the section by default in B Div. Sean won his section with 6lb, Leigh won his with 3lb and Owen and Chris narrowly missed out on theirs.

Purition bridge was the place to draw with Paul Purchase weighing in 101lb, Rich Lacey 85lb and Gary Webber 27lbs. 

There were some shocking weights i.e. ounces from some very competent anglers but that's a bream venue for you.

Sam and Chris are also through to the next round of the knock out.

Paul with part of his catch

Here is the full report from Vince Lunn......

The 3rd round of the Commercial House match was going to be fished on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain, but due to duckweed it had to be moved to the Huntspill.

The river was clear with bright conditions.

Winner on the day was Paul Purchase of M & N Electrical. Drawn peg C1 at puriton, he caught 26 bream of the straight lead at 20 metres out over loosefeed castors. He weighed in 101 lbs 0 ozs.

2nd on the day was Rich Lacey of Mosella Bathampton A. He was next to Paul on peg C2 and caught 23 bream on worm and castors, alternating between the feeder and straight lead. He weighed 86 lbs 2 ozs

3rd on the day was Andy Pritchard of Mosella Bathampton B with 55 lbs 11 ozs. He was on peg C3 and caught 14 bream on the feeder across on dead red maggot.

4th Derek Cole - Mosella Bathampton B - 31 lbs 15 ozs

5th Gary Webber - Preston Innovations Thatchers - 27 lbs 2 oz

6th Paul Issacs - Preston Innovations Thatchers - 10 lbs 15 ozs

Teams on the day;

A Div

M & N Electrical 13

Mosella Bathampton A 12

Preston Innovations Thatchers 11

B Div

Mosella Bathampton B 14

Sensas Nomads 14

Midland Spinner 8

League positions;

A Div

Preston Innovations Thatchers 42

Mosella Bathampton A 38

M & N Electrical 28

B Div

Mosella Bathampton B 42

Sensas Nomads 34

Midland Spinner 32

Knockout draw for the next round:

Rich Lacey vs Chris Hook

Matt Challenger vs Sam Johnson

So that's a quick summary of my fishing which has been a bit like a yo yo ...up and down.

I am looking forward to the rest of the Autumn and Winter fishing on rivers, this Sunday 3rd October I am at the Newbridge Open. With rain this week there may be a bit of colour in it.

Catch up summary..........

 I have not blogged for a few weeks, to be honest I couldn't be bothered. I got like this before but bounced back. Posting on FaceBook is so much easier but in terms of keeping a diary it's not suitable so I have kicked myself up the ass and here I am again trying to drum up some enthusiasm.

Since the last post (Round 3 Super League Glos Canal) I have fished ......

Super League Round 4 and ended up at Melksham on what must have been the hottest day of the year. Plastic tubes inside the holdall warped in the heat, every man and his dog was on the water and the only highlight of the day was Steve "Stretch Saunders" coming around with ice creams for us, what a gent. 

Next match was the following Saturday, our annual Charity Club Match on my local River Kenn in Clevedon. The work we put in clearing the weed prior to the match was unbelievable and the river looked spot on. 31 took part but the fishing was rubbish. I had 8oz !!!!! Life Member Andy Law won the match with one big bream and some bits. Like a lot of venues they switch off when you put a match on them. Over £600 was raised for Clevedon Cottage Hospital and The Orchard Trust.

winner Andy Law (left)

I have been going up to Evesham on the odd Wednesday plus Staverton was an option but decided to go up on the Glossy for a pleasure session taking just 2 feeder rods.

I fished 441 Castle Down from 8 until 1.30. I had my first bream at 8.20 and they just kept coming ending up with 25 in total. I estimated I had approx 60 to 70lbs. A lovely day with no one near me in a great setting.

Sunday just gone I have fished the 5th Round of the S W Super League between Newbridge and Chequers. I drew the top end of Chequers which is not a bad area.

Mike Shellard guested for us today at short notice due to Andy Thomas having vehicle problems and Sam was on holiday.

We done OK as Team with Chris coming 2nd in section, Mike and I coming 3rd and Leigh 5th. We finished joint 5th out of 15 teams.

I started off on the long rod with a topper float down the middle in about 10 foot of water over ground bait. I had a few roach and a small skimmer but it was far from fast and furious. I had also fed 6 big feeder fulls across for later. About an hour in the float disappeared at the end of the run and it was bream on. I was a bit nervous bringing it in as it was a big one and there were snags on the inside but land it I did.

I don't know how it happened but my bulk of 13 BB was totally tangled within my hook length so chucked the tip out where I had caught the bream expecting the tip to go round while I sorted out my float rig. Not a bite!

With the float rod sorted I gave it another 30 minutes and didn't catch much at all.

Out on the tip with half a worm and maggot brought a few small perch but around 2 o'clock I had a big drop back and bream number 2 was on, another big one.

The rest of the match I only added a few perch but missed a lot of bites, small fish snatching at the worm probably. I had to stick it out for bream as Rich Chave up on the end peg was bagging on bream. Rich caught 14 in all to win the match with 52 lbs plus.

My bag went 11lb 10oz for 3rd in the section missing out on some beer tokens by 10oz!

I'll probably fish Staverton this Wednesday and the its the last round of the Super League on Sunday back at Newbridge and Chequers.

I have also got the Lance Tucker Memorial Match on the Kenn in mid August which is a 50 pegger. Then its the Llandegfedd Res and after that planning a trip to Ireland.

In between all of the above got to keep the wife happy !

Sunday 11th July - S W Super League Round 3 Gloucester Canal

 It's been a few weeks since I blogged and I have been out match fishing but it has been pretty uneventful.

A Wednesday match at Evesham saw me draw peg 66 which is worse than not very good when the river is clear and it was, I weighed 1lb 15oz!

The second round of the Super League last Sunday was not great either. I drew below the benches on the downstream section at Parchy and had 3lb 15oz for 4 points from 8. The team bombed out as well.

On Wednesday just gone I just went pleasure fishing on my local River Kenn and thoroughly enjoyed myself catching net roach on the waggler and maggot feeding hemp and maggot.

The 3rd Round of the Super League was supposed to be on the Bristol Avon, 2 sections at Staverton, 1 at Melksham and 1 at Bradford on Avon. Unfortunately there was a booking error so the Glossy was brought forward a week.

2 sections Rea to Pilot and 2 Saul Junction towards Castle. No venue was available for breakfast etc but the Whitminster Hotel just off junction 13 on the M5 allowed the draw to be done in their car pk and we would be back inside for the results after the match.

Due to the Football Final in the evening the draw was at 0730 with fishing 1030 - 1530 so an early start.

I think we were last but one to draw due to arriving just in time.

The draw gave.....

Sam 197 (Rea)

Leigh 229 (Rea)

Me 456 (Saul)

Chris 467 (Saul)

Rea was a bit of an unknown as it had not been match fished for some time due to towpath work. The Saul Junction area was fished during the Glos Canal Spring League and you definitely need to be in the bay or immediately above the wires heading toward the sunken barge.

On paper it looked a decent draw as Chris was just in the bay at Saul and my peg had produced the winner of two of the matches in the Spring League as the bream spawn in this area, but that was in the spring!

When I drew peg 456 Mark Brush of DGL gave me a few tips and confirmed it was a good peg as did Dale. I was told I did not need to take much kit but I did anyway.

It was a fairly long walk up the towpath from the Rowing Club where we parked but that doesn't matter if you are on a form peg.

Although not an end peg on paper it was as there was a huge gap due to a bay under power lines between my peg and 458 (there was no 457). The fish spawn in the bay which is shallow and lined with reeds. Opposite my peg there was a bush and I was advised to fish as close to this as possible.

Lobby's Andy Powell was to my left on 455 and said I would catch and he would struggle even though we were only 1 peg apart.

I had bread with me but decided to leave it in the bag and just go with the fishmeal approach given the pegs form. I did set up 2 feeder rods, 1 clipped up tight against the bush and one clipped up towards the edge of the bay to my right. 20 gram cage feeders were attached as I wanted a softly softly approach in the shallow water as it was no more than a count of 4 deep. 

2 pole lines short and long were also set up and fed at the start but never used.

Casting regular, every 5 minutes after the all in with choppy, dead reds and caster with worm and maggot on the hook it took exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes to get my first bite. It was a skimmer around 1.5 lbs. From what I could see and hear there was not much being caught. I soon got another pull but did not connect. There were definitely fish in the peg as I started to get a few liners and what appeared to be snatches at the bait. At times the bait came back completely ragged. 

I soon found out who the culprits were ....rudd. I had a few by tightening up really hard and not sinking the braid after casting. They were worth having .... the ones I hooked and the best one went 1lb 8oz.

By putting on a bigger bait i.e double worm I managed a few more skimmers and a proper bream. Had I been able to fish a waggler across and feed I could have had a great day on the rudd.

I had a lovely match, the best one on the Glossy for 2 years or more with plenty of bites ending up with 19lb 1oz which won my 8 peg section and 6th overall in the match.

That's one of the most uncomplicated matches I have every fished.

Overall.....

1st    Kev Perry 67lb 10oz peg 211

2nd  Charlie Vallender 30lb 14oz peg 471

3rd   Rob Jones 27lb 5oz peg 213

4th   Kev Bennet 20lb 10oz peg 441

5th   Troy Weaver 19lb 10oz 205

6th    Ivan Currie 19lb 1oz peg 456

Team wise not great but ended up 5th on the day and now lie 11th overall so some work to do.

Here are the weight sheets as you will see it was feast or famine.

On the Bristol Avon next week where we should have been this week but it looks very very hot according to the forecast.

Not sure about this Wednesday as still undecided......Staverton or Evesham or pleasure fishing.

Sunday 27th June - S W Super League Round 1 King Sedgemoor Drain

Here we go again, another year another Super League, doesn't time fly.

There was 16 Teams of 4 originally booked in for the League this year but at the last minute a Team withdrew. The pegging had already been sorted so the 4 sections of 16 remained and if you had a blank peg next to you that was just the way it was.

The 37 Club in Purition was the HQ and apart from wearing face masks everything else was near normal as opposed to the ''on line process'' last year.

Although it was big Sections of 16 there would be two Mini Sections of 8 for payout and points making it a tighter League.

Our Nomads Team today was....

Me, Chris Hook, Sam Johnson and Andy Thomas ( all that was missing was a Scotsman).

After a hearty breakfast the draw got underway with Dave Micklewright and Chris Parr in charge. We had put in our Team Sheet quite early and paid the pools so were about the 4th to draw.

No end pegs this time, Chris was in A Section (Bradney Up) on peg 2 and one up from where he was the week before. Sam was in B Section peg 21, I was on peg 39 in C Section and Andy on peg 55 above Parchy Bridge.

So apart from Chris who was near to an end peg the rest of us were middle diddle.

Personally after the practice last week I was not expecting big weights.

As I left the 37 Club the Devizes guys asked me where I had drawn.....another end peg I said.....well the response was FFFF£%&*@$!!!!!! .....then I said ...only joking lol.

No parking issues at Parchy Bridge and we rammed the car park as instructed to stop any paddle boarders etc.

I walked down the cycle patch to my peg and Dan Squire was below me on 38. Dan's response was ... there can't be many fish around here if you have drawn this area.  Err ummm last week I was 3rd don't you know.

I looked at my peg and the flat area was well down below the bank but it was in a bird cage which would cause problems casting the feeder. I set to work pulling down branches as best I could with a weed cutter and breaking them off and after about 30 minutes it was much better but still a bit awkward. I asked around for a saw but no one had one (I have ordered one now to keep in my bag).

My peg after some tree work

The peg did look nice with plenty of cover across and some lilies so I would target this for better fish. Same set up on all lines as last week, well it did work to a degree.

As fishing was from 11 - 4 there was plenty of time but it's surprising how quickly it goes.

8 feeder fulls went in at the start across, 2 balls went in at 13 metres and 1 at 5 metres. 2 gram rig long in case the tow picked up and a 1 gram rig short. I also baited up a tench line with worm and caster plus a little corn.

After 10 minutes feeding etc I started short and as expected a bite straight away, a small skim bob and as i brought it in a pike attacked it making quite a bite of noise. Dan heard it next door, so not a good sign.

I could hear Dan catching next door but my inside line was quiet but I persevered for 10 minutes and had a few small roach. The inside line died again quite quickly forcing me out long after 30 minutes. A small skimmer took the bait almost immediately. That was the only fish I had long.

Coming back short I had the odd bite and felt things would improve but not really.

My first chuck across with the feeder at 12:45 gave me a little pull which I hit and it was a bream, not huge but much appreciated.

Dan heard me land it and followed suit by going out across himself.

I had a few blades across but no bonus fish and only a few blades short. Thank goodness I had that baby bream.

At the end of the match the word on the bank was that it was a struggle in our section.

Ruben came up with the scales and he was best with 5lb 14oz which included two skimmers, he took the mini section.

My fish went 4lb 1oz which was 3rd best in the mini section so 6 points which was worth having from 8. Maybe I should have gone across earlier on the feeder?

Chris was 2nd in his section with 6lb 11oz so 7 points and a £40 pick up, Sam had 6lb plus as well but his section fished pretty well and had 4 points, Andy had 7lb plus but it was only worth 2 points which is hard to believe, had in been in the other half of his mini section he would have won it I think.

Anyway because of the new points system lots of teams tied at the top and we ended up with 19 points and 5th, the top team Gordon League Black had 24 so not a lot in it.

The match was won overall by James Carty with 17lb plus (4 bream) so well done to James (he's part Irish you know).

Back on the KSD for Round 2 next week and I may go back to Evesham on Wednesday.

Wednesday 23rd June - Evesham Qualifier

 I decided to go up to Evesham today instead of Staverton as I might be fishing in a Team Qualifier on the venue at the end of July. The venue can be rock hard and it's a real test in terms of fishing and at times mental stability!

Last year was the first time I went to the Warks Avon at Evesham and I done ok. The matches were well attended mid week due to loads of people furloughed but today saw an entry of 45, still a great turnout.

I didn't know anyone else that was fishing today but it doesn't matter as its all very friendly but on arrival I soon got chatting to John Tocknell and Rob McKenzie. Rob especially knows the venue very well and is very free with advice.

Last year I picked A5 on the battleship type grid to reveal my peg but by the time it was my turn to select it had already gone. I can't for the life of me remember what I picked but I ended up on peg 26 my first time in the lowish numbers and just below the town bridge.

Team mate Sam Johnson showed me this area on my first visit last year. It's very shallow and therefore a much faster pace than the pegs below. Across were the permanent manicured moorings but no boats, lets hope they stayed away. Downstream on the far side was an inviting willow tree.

When I drew I spoke to Rob McKenzie who told me there were lots of pandocks in the peg and he was correct. when I was plumbing up they went beyond a third the way across so so nearside line today.

I set up 2 waggler rods one at full depth which was barely 3.5 foot and one at 2 foot. A maggot feeder rod and a 10 x no4 stick for down the middle.

Chublets were topping across and bleak were all over the place but very very small.

The draw was at 09:00 with fishing from 12 - 5 so plenty of time to set up. The trouble is you can set up too much because you have time.

It was a pretty warm day 22 degrees and was forecast to get warmer.

Starting off on the waggler shallow right across I had some small chublets straight away (3 to 4oz) and the odd bleak. I was able to feed pretty tight across with maggot and hemp but also fed caster down the middle for later on.

The first hour passed and it was pretty good but as expected the bites tailed off. Going on the deeper waggler produced some small roach but at least I was putting something in the net. 

Halfway through and just below the willow tress was a boat and the guy decided to do some maintenance so lots of banging just were I was nicking a few fish.

Coming in on the stick float line I had some perch and more small roach every now and then but it was hard work.

The guy in the boat then decided to hang his feet out over the boat and wash them! Once he done that he started playing a guitar ffs.

Anyway ......

I thought I gave it 100% and my fingers are sore due to feathering the line, goodness knows how many casts I made. I had a little look on the feeder but no joy.

The results board speaks for itself ....I got battered both sides but looking at their pegs they did not have any pandocks.

You have got to report the bad as well as the good, lets hope there are not too many of these.

KDS on Sunday for the first round of the S W Super League.