Sunday 16th October - Sensas Commercial House League Round 4, Bristol Avon, Swineford to Jack Whites

 On to Round 4 of this friendly league and we were back on the same pegs as a couple of weeks ago. Going into this round we were lying 2nd one place behind Bathampton and there wasn't much in it points wise with the other teams as well.

Leigh and I had gone to Swineford a week prior to this match on a Wednesday for a bit of a dable trying to catch chub. Leigh went in his winners peg and went in on the first peg into the second field. I was all set up ready when all of a sudden a wasp nest behind me came to life so had to vacate the peg quickly. Leigh had a nice net of chub and I had loads of perch on the Outfall right over on the tip.

I informed the peters for this match about the wasps and it was left out.

Draw was at the Crown again who continue to look after us very well.

Team today was.....

Me

Sam Johnson

Leigh Wakefield

Jan Van Myzak

Dave Lewis

Andy Cranston

I think we were last buy one to draw and ended up with average pegs.

Dave A4, me B3, Sam C5, Leigh D2, Jan E1, Andy F5.

Jan was on a great peg for the whip and Andy was on an end peg, I had a feeling they would do well.

When I parked up at Swineford Kev Boltz and Jerry Pocock said I was on the chub peg, a flyer. But .... I wasn't, Lee Warden was on that and I was the peg below. Dead water across and shallow down the middle.

I just set up a waggler, 3 gram bolo and a maggot feeder.

At the all in I put 3 balls down the middle and started feeding caster and hemp on the edge of the dead water. Going right over was not really an option as it was very very shallow and weedy.

First run down with the bolo I had a 2oz roach and then some dace but after 30 minutes nothing which was worrying. I put another small ball in and went over on the wag. Bleak, bleak and more bleak which was very frustrating.

Back on the bolo I had a few perch, another bad sign but at least it was something. A quick look with the feeder containing caster and hemp with double red on the waggler line just gave me more bleak when I managed to hit the rattle of the tip.

I was going absolutely nowhere on this peg and became very frustrated.

I got up and set up a whip to fish at 6 metres and started loose feeding hemp and caster. It took a while but eventually caught a couple of roach around 4 oz. It wasn't fast but felt I couldn't do anything else.

I ended up with 5lb 1oz and last in the section. Leighton Warden had 6lb off the end helped by a big chub in the last knockings, Kev Boltz had 7lb below me, Lee Warden had 15lb off the chub peg and Andy Pritchard had 5lb 15oz above him. So apart from Lee's chub weight it was pretty close.

If only I had gone on the whip earlier !!!!!

Walking back I caught up with Dave who was in A section, he weighed 12lb 3oz and managed to snare a bream giving him 3 points from 5 but that was OK and he nicked a point from Kev Dicks fishing for Bathampton.

Jerry Pocock had a great day in A section taking over 30 lbs of skim bobs on the peg that Leigh had 2 weeks previously, Leigh had 31lb of chub then. Just goes to show you can't always call it.

Back at the Crown the results came in from the rest of the lads.......

Sam done ok from the bay opposite the Soap Works and took 3 points with 9lbs 4oz, Leigh was on the high wall and also took 3 points with 7lb 11oz despite cows going in the river. Jan came back with a section winning 14lb as did Andy with 21 lb 14oz plus 2nd in the match.

21 points in total gave us a Team win on the day and we are going into match 5 at Newbridge with a 3 point cushion.

Jerry enjoying a pint after his victory

Andy with a great net of whip caught fish

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

The 4th round of the Commercial House League 2022 was fished on the Bristol Avon from Swineford to Jack Whites. The river was still clear and low with bright conditions. It fished well again with 15 double figure weights from the 30 anglers.

The winner of the match was Jerry Pocock, fishing for Midland Spinner. He was drawn on the first peg in the 2nd field at Swineford and fished the pole over groundbait. In the first hour he had about 4 lbs of small fish and then after that, 8 to 12 ozs skimmers moved in and he caught these for the rest of the match to finish with 30 lbs 6 ozs.

2nd was Andrew Cranston who was guesting for Sensas Nomads. He was drawn on the last peg at Jack Whites and fished an 8 metre whip and put in 8 balls of groundbait at the start. He caught roach most of the day on castors, feeding odd balls of groundbait, hemp and castors. He weighed in 21 lbs 14 ozs.

3rd was Paul Purchase fishing for M & N Electrical. He was drawn on peg 6 at Swineford and fishing a long rod with bolo float 2 rods lengths out. He fed groundbait and loosefeed to catch mainly roach all day, plus a couple of 6 oz skimmers. He weighed 17 lbs 14 ozs.

4th Nicky Johns - Mosella Bathampton - 16 lbs 9 ozs

5th Lee Warden - M & N Electrical - 15 lbs 1 ozs

6th Jan Mazyk - Sensas Nomads - 14 lbs 2 ozs

Midland Spinner won on the day with 21 points. Sensas Nomads were 2nd with 20 points and take the lead overall. It’s close though with only 5 points separating the top 4 teams.

Teams on the day

Midland Spinner 21

Sensas Nomads 20

M & N Electrical 18

Mosella Bathampton 16

Crown 15

League positions

Sensas Nomads 82

Mosella Bathampton 79

M & N Electrical 77

Midland Spinner 77

Crown 42

Sunday 9th October - Clevedon Club Match River Kenn

As Secretary and Press Office for Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club I manage our Website and FaceBook page. I am always grateful to those members who report catches on the Kenn and supply photographs as it promotes the Club and in turn generates more ticket sales.

This year has been exceptional and it has been great to see the return of the roach and small skimmers throughout the river.

Due to all of the above we had a fantastic 29 anglers booked in for this match. Normally we only get this number on our Annual Charity Match.

Match Secretary Rob Fogg was in charge today and was well organised.

Due to the numbers attending Rob had to use the pegs just downstream of Kenn Rd Car Park and then most of them above and below Strode Rd.

At £20 per angler less a £1 peg fee Rob had plenty of money to play with so it was well spread out.

Into the draw bucket and I pulled out peg 29, not one you would run to but I had caught well on 22 the other week so you never know.

I parked up on Strode Rd and only had to walk 3 pegs downstream.

My plan for today was to use a 0.6 gram and a 1 gram rig at 13 metres and another 0.6 gram rig at 7 metres.

Chopped worm and chopped red maggot with a few casters and a little hemp in ground bait at 10 o'clock and at 2 o'clock the same but no ground bait. At 7 metres it was just going to be chopped worm.

On the long line I always use 0.11 hook length as you can come across proper bream, tench or big perch, a size 18 B611 hook usually handles anything big but small enough not to put the roach and skimmer off.

I had a size 16 B560 on the 7 metre rig.

A waggler was set up but not used and the feeder rod stayed in the holdall.

After feeding the pole lines I started off over the ground bait line with pinkie on the 0.6 rig and the float went under first put in, a small skimmer. Nothing on the same line after 15 minutes so came in on the 7 metre line with a worm head. As expected it went under and a 5 oz perch was swung in. A few more followed before I hooked a jack pike which bit me off so re-fed more worm.

Out long at 2 o'clock with a worm head and a decent roach was netted but then nothing. The water was gin clear and the sky was clear so not ideal.

The question was do I feed much?

I decided on feeding the bare minimum and fed more really finely chopped worm than anything else.

Even this only brought me the odd fish and I had more roach short over my perch line in the latter half of the match than perch.

I ended up with 3lb 10oz, not great but the draw, clarity of the water and the bright sky didn't help.

Jeremy Salisbury had a nice day from the end peg downstream from Kenn Rd getting a bite almost every put in. He ended up with a lovey bag of mainly roach for 15lb 2oz. 

Not far behind was Paul Randell 10 pegs below Jeremy with 14lb 3oz, a few skimmers but mainly roach.

Below Strode Rd from peg 8 was Kev Perry who had 11 skimmers in as many put in's and then they disappeared but he done enough to come 3rd with just over 8lbs.

Considering the conditions the river fished really well with most pegs in.

Full results below......

1st. - Jeremy Salisbury 15.02, peg 49.

2nd - Paul Randell 14.03 peg 39.

3rd - Kev Perry 9.06 peg 8.

4th - Mark Broomsgrove 9.02 peg 37

5th - Jeff Surmon 8.11 peg 35.

A section - Paul Smith 2.01 peg 3

B section - Steve Cox 2.06 peg 11

C section - Paul Faiers 6.14 peg 22

D section - Barry Fowler 8.00

Really looking forward to fishing it when there is a bit of colour in the river, it will fish it's head off.

Section board photo's .....

Sunday 2nd October - Bristol Commercial House League Rd 3, Bristol Avon, Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites

 I had a few team management problems prior to this match. Chris and Brian had to pull out due to health issues and Mike was up North somewhere on Saturday and wouldn't get home until late. 

So with 50% of the team to replace it took a bit of phoning around but in the end I got enough cover with some help from Nicola Goodhind (thanks Nicky).

Sensas Nomads Team today was.....

Myself, Sam Johnson, Leigh Wakefield, Jan Van Mazyk, Andy Cranston (guest) and Jack Jones (guest).

We had a bit of catching up to do after a disastrous Round 2 as per the table below.....                                                                                                                                                                                 

Mosella Bathampton 45

M & N Electrical 38

Midland Spinner 37

Sensas Nomads 36

Crown 22

The draw was at the Crown Pub in Keynsham as usual and they do a great breakfast. After breakfast I handed over 5 boxes of Sensas ground bait and a set of whips which had been ordered by Kev Dicks and Ben Rendall who fish for Nomads in the Wye Winter League. All supplied by M5 Angling.

I collected the £20 pools money off the guys, Andy actually gave me a £50 note which Nicky bounced back at us because you have to change them up in a bank now, not that I'd know.

Prior to the draw Mike Goodhind announced a thank you message on behalf of Vince Lunn who was running the London Marathon on behalf of Children's Hospice S W, a lot of the anglers including myself had sponsored him. Well done Vince.

Pegs

We were last but one to draw, Sam was on A2 at Swineford, Leigh just into the second field at Swineford, Jan to of the Crane, Jack on the Cattle Grid on the Crane, Andy around E4 at JW's and me on F3 JW's.

It was a fairly wet start to the day and slippery underfoot as we walked to the pegs. On the way to the pegs at JW's everyone helped assist each other over the Kissing Gate which was the only obstacle.

When got to my peg F3 I recognised it as it was end peg here in this section on the last match. It was ok except for the fact your are about 3 metres off the water.

My view from the top of the bank.

I needed to use a rope to assist with getting up and down and put some dead grass in the mud to stop me skidding into the river, but by this time the rain had stopped. I also assisted Gary Gross get his box down to the water on his peg F2.

The pole was left behind and I only set up a 3 gram bolo on the long rod, a 7BB crow quill and a maggot feeder. Ground bait mix was 50 /50 Sensas Black River and Gros Gardons Noire.

I shouted the all in at 1015 and put in 4 balls of hemp and caster down the middle.

First trot down with the bolo I had a small chub which I netted, it was a stretch and used all 4 metres of the landing net handle. No bites for a couple of runs down and then some roach turned up . Not a bad size either but swingable. I did misjudge swinging some of them resulting in them hitting the bankside vegetation underneath me, nightmare. 

I was loose feeding a few casters and hemp but that only seemed to push the fish down the peg and I ended up catching a few roach there. Putting in a few more balls didn't improve the situation but for the first half of the match I was doing ok.

During the last 2 hours I caught the odd dace and a few roach across on the maggot feeder but couldn't get the to settle so swapped between the bolo and the quill to nick a few roach now and then.

I had no phone calls from the team which is usually a good sign but did have a couple from Gary above me who always like to know what's going on lol.

I had no idea how JW's was fishing.

This is how my section ended up. Jerry who had 11lb odd had one bream and lost one plus broke his top set on the pole. He also had bream rolling in front of him but they wouldn't get their heads down.

I sort of bombed out bring back only 2 points from 5 and the peg was worth more than that although most said their pegs died off in the last 2 hours.

Sam called me to say he was 2nd in section as he had to get home quickly, he also said he thought Leigh had done ok.

On the way back I caught up with Andy who won E section with 21lb odd on the whip.

Back at the pub it got better. Jan won his section as did Jack. Leigh was last back and he won his with 31lb of chub, it was also top weight on the day.

Leigh with his match winning bag

So we ended up having 4 section wins and a 2nd in section plus me ...... lol totalling 26 points from a possible 30. (and the top 3 individuals).

Results on the day:

Sensas Nomads 26

M & N Electrical Services 21

Midland Spinner 19

Mosella Bathampton 18

Crown 5

The League Table now looks like this ........

Mosella Bathampton 63

Sensas Nomads 62

M & N Electrical Services 59

Midland Spinner 56

Crown 27

So job done and back in the frame, next match is on the same venue 16th October.

I also got my Poppy Ticket from Rich Lacey, biggest and best match in the area plus a great cause.

Clevedon Club Match on the Kenn next Sunday.

Sunday 18th September - Bristol Commercial House League Round 2, Lower Bristol Avon

 I missed the first round of this League due to returning from Ireland. The lads done ok finishing 2nd on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain.

The remaining 5 matches are on the Lower Bristol Avon, one of the finest stretches of river in my opinion offering great fishing at this time of year.

The draw for this match and the remaining ones are at the Crown Pub in Keynsham opposite the Rugby Club and they are great hosts.

Sensas Nomads Team for today was ....

Chris Hook, Sam Johnson, Mike Withey, Leigh Wakefield, Brian Melksham and myself.

The stretches used for todays match were Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites with the pegging as follows:

Pools paid and Team Sheet submitted a little late than most I thought but not really as we were called out second to draw.

I put my hand into the bags of doom which put us on the following pegs ......

Sam A5, that's what I wanted he said.

Chris B4 a fairly average peg

Brian C1, we thought he was well above the bay opposite the old Soap Works but he wasn't so very average.

Mike D3 which used to be good and still is if there's a bit of colour and extra water but not today

Leigh E2, not bad and a good chance of a weight using the whip

Me F1, no idea of it's form.

Off we went with the scales and boards, we are doing the weigh in every match as it keeps continuity and at least the scales will be returned by the same team.

I parked opposite the Scrap Yard down near the Marina as I had hoped you could still get access to the field but its a double gate now so had to go back toward the Lock Keeper pub and down towards the old Fry's Chocolate Factory on the opposite bank.

After receiving help negotiating a Kissing Gate I was soon at my peg. It was a long and I mean a long way down to the water as most are at Jack Whites so out came the rope to help me scale down the bank (several times with all the gear).

I got set up nice and comfortable with the platform in the water. It looked nice with tree cover right across and lilies on the near side.

I left my pole behind and only took running line gear plus a whip.

It was only about 3 foot at 6 metres but right across against the trees it was more like 7 foot with a deep hole in-between a gap in the trees then it shallowed up just downstream.

So ...... 6 metre whip with a 2 gram float fishing maggot or caster over ground bait with caster and hemp. Maggot down the middle on a 3 gram bolo, waggler across in front of the trees and a feeder for the deep hole right across.

On the all in I fed about 8 feeder fulls of chopped worm and caster into the deep hole, a couple of golf balls of feed on the whip line and a pouch of maggots down the middle.

Starting off on the whip I was soon into small dace and roach but they were small. I put in a couple more balls and the better dace turned up but only had a few and they disappeared, couldn't get them back despite regular feeding with loose hemp and caster, I was still firing in maggot down the middle at the same time.

After about 40 minutes I was going nowhere so had a look down the middle on the bolo. A few better roach were caught but they really were not having it and the peg shallowing up towards the end didn't help either, in hind sight I should have set up a stick float.

About an hour and 15 minutes had gone so picked up the Feeder rod with a worm and maggot on a size 14 and cast it into the deep hole. It only took a few minutes and the tip bounced , I struck and was playing a decent fish, half way across aI could see it was a skimmer of just over a pound, lovely and more please I thought. A few more casts produced a perch of about 10oz and a stamp roach, then it went quiet.

I decided to feed some loose caster and hemp right across whilst trying the middle again. After 15 minutes and a couple of roach down the middle I went across with the waggler. I had the odd bite which produced a few dace and bleak but no roach.

There were no bank walkers and no phone calls so I couldn't tell how the river was fishing.

I was still lightly feeding the whip line, the middle and the far side which kept me busy if now confused at times lol.

It was a case of swapping between the lines nicking a few fish here and there, 

The waggler line during the very latter part of the match was best as some roach turned up and even had a couple of puppy chub.

The all out was called at 15:15 and I scaled the bank again to get my gear up before heading downstream to start the weigh in. Andy Britt met me near the end peg and said he had a nightmare match saying he had about 4lbs, he also said one of his team had a big bag of bream at Swineford.

My section was quite tight and the end peg pipped me but second in section for the team was ok. Everyone had roach, dace and perch to make up there weights except Kev below me who had a lovely 3lb plus chub.

I saw Leigh and Brian on the way back to the van, Leigh had 6lbs and 2 points and Brian had 3 points so not great.

Back at the Crown I caught up with the rest of the guy's.

Sam had 11lb at Swineford but was bridesmaid to two big bream weights and got 3 points, Chris had 6lb odd and 2 points and Mike bombed out having only 1 point, it happens.

Top weight of the day went to Bathampton's Rich Lacey who made no mistake on A2 at Swineford catching 66lb of slabs, the peg below him had 30lb of them.

Top man Rich Lacey.

3rd on the day with a 30lb bag of roach and dace on the whip from E1 was Lee Warden.

Lee Warden

Team wise we need to play catch up and it's possible.

All was not lost though as Sam and Chris picked up for coming first and second in the Knock Out last year and Leigh for top in team.

The river fished it's head off, here's the match report from Vince Lunn........

The 2nd round of the Commercial House League 2022 was fished on the Bristol Avon from Swineford to Jack Whites. The river was clear with bright conditions. It fished well with 9 double figure weights and 22 of the 30 anglers catching at least 6 lbs

The winner of the match was Rich Lacey fishing for Mosella Bathampton. Drawn on the outfall at Swineford, he started on the feeder and had a few perch before catching his first bream after 40 minutes. Sticking on the feeder with double worm, he finished with 16 bream for 66 lbs 7 ozs

2nd was Paddy Merrett fishing for the Crown.

He was on the peg below Rich and also fished the feeder over with worm. He had 6 big bream. He also caught a few smaller fish on the waggler for a weight of 33 lbs 10 ozs

3rd was Lee Warden of M & N Electrical. He was drawn on the 1st peg at Jack Whites, above the fence. He fished a 5 metre whip with castor on the hook and fed hemp and castors to catch roach, dace and chublets. He finished with 151 fish for 30 lbs 13 ozs

4th Kev Dicks - Mosella Bathampton - 25 lb 2 ozs

5th Nick Coles - Mosella Bathampton - 19 lb 6 ozs

6th Jeff Surmon - Midland Spinner - 15 lbs 8 ozs

With 4 section winners, Mosella Bathampton won on the day to take an 8 point lead overall

Teams on the day

Mosella Bathampton 23

M & N Electrical 19

Midland Spinner 18

Sensas Nomads 15

Crown 15

League positions

Mosella Bathampton 45

M & N Electrical 38

Midland Spinner 37

Sensas Nomads 36

Crown 22

Bit of a pleasure session on the Kenn tomorrow with hemp and maggot.

Monday 5th - Friday 9th September Arva International Festival

 The Arva Festival has had a couple of years break due to COVID and I was really looking forward to getting back on the Lough's around Arva (aka Arvagh).

4 of us travelled over on the Saturday before in 2 vehicles and took the Ferry from Holyhead to Dublin arriving at the Breffni Arms Hotel in Arva around 19:30.

A quick check on the advanced bait order and unpack the bags then it was straight into the bar for a few pints of the black stuff and a home made chicken curry, half rice and chips which is traditional.

Three of us fishing the Festival also paid our entrance fee.

The Breffni Arms is the HQ for the Festival i.e. Fee's / Pools, Draw, Daily Results and Presentation.

The Festival usually attracts around 75 anglers but numbers were lower this year (63).

I was in bed by around 23:00 as I had been up since 04:00.

07:30 the next morning it was up and down to a full Irish breakfast before we headed off to have a chill pleasure fishing session on Carrigallen Town Lake a few miles from Arva.

It's lovely venue with quite a few platforms and holds plenty of tench, bream, roach, hybrids and perch.

I opted to go to the furthest peg away from the car park and just set up one rig on the pole. A 1 gram float with a size 16 feeder hook to 0.14, a number 8 elastic was through my match top 3.

I plumbed up at 13 metres and had around 6 foot of water to my left and right so fed 2 spots with chopped worm and caster about 10 metres apart. Maggot on the hook only attracted small perch or small roach. A switch to double caster or corn brought me 6 tench and plenty of skimmers for just over 29lbs.

Tony had a lovely day on the caster and pole catching 7 big tench and some bits for 22lb.

Steve managed one tench and bits for 9lbs.

Andy didn't trouble the scales too much as he was after specimen tench on the meat (Irish Tench don't like spam lol).

It was back to the Breffni then for more Guinness, food and then the van draw on the evening prior to the peg draw the following day.

As Andy wasn't fishing the Festival Tony, Steve and myself were travelling 3 up so the van draw allows you all to fish the same section.

I done the draw on our behalf and pulled out 'C' so that meant we would rotate as follows ....

Monday - C Section - Corfree

Tuesday - D Section - Dernafest

Wednesday - E Section - Hollybank

Thursday - A Section - Gulladoo

Friday - B Section - Kevins

Corfree, Dernafest and Kevins are all part of the Lough Gowna system and Hollybank and Gulladoo are separate Loughs. I have fished they all before except Hollybank.

Day 1 and I drew peg 13 on Corfree, never been down that end before and a new track had been put in along the shoreline in order that you can more or less park behind most pegs, before you had to be taken by boat which was still the case on the early pegs Steve and Tony drew.

I made some errors by fishing the pole too long in deep water and when I did fish the feeder I fished too long but I'll know next time. Ended up with 7 kilo 250.

The errors cost me and put me just below halfway overall in the Festival.

Day 2 on Dernafest and I drew peg 12. I was conveyed to the peg by boat. 

I took everything but on arrival at the peg decided to simply fish 2 feeder lines, 20 turns and 35.

I had a great day catching decent sized hybrids short on a 25 gram feeder and worm for 14 kilo 250 and 2nd in the section. I was now lying 30th out of 63.

Day 3 I drew peg 13 on Hollybank and another boat ride to the peg. This end had not been fishing great but I got my head down and fished the pole all day catching quality roach for 16 kilo 500 for 3rd in section and another pick up.

I was now lying in 17th place.

Day 4 I drew peg 1 on Gulladoo narrows. Usually good for roach but they didn't feed. I went really long for bream and that was a mistake. Opened up a new line at 40 turns with 2 hours to go and snared some decent bream for 7 kilo. Another error and put me down a few places to 24th.

The final day on Kevins Shore I drew peg 2, peg 1 wasn't in but I was at the wrong end, I needed 13 or 14 for the bream.

Started off on the pole after feeding 2 feeder lines short and long but only caught small roach. After 20 minutes I switched to the feeder lines and didn't look back catching skimmers and hybrids for over 15 kilo and a section win.

I ended up a respectable 19th from 63 overall. Absolutely loved the week and met some great anglers.

Well done to Dave McManus on the Festival win.

I am looking forward to next year and hope to improve on 19th. We had a few pick ups between us and pooled the money which treated us to a steak meal on the last night and paid for a third of our bait bill.

Thanks to M5 Angling for the supply of equipment and ground bait which was brilliant.

27th & 29th August - Evesham Festival, Wychavon Final and Team Final, Warks Avon.

Saturday the 27th August was the Wychavon Final and I qualified for this match on 17th August with over 13lb of roach and chub, my best ever weight at Evesham.

Team Nomads was well represented with Sam Johnson, Clive Branson, Chris Smith, Kev Ellaby and myself.

I met with Sam at Hampton Ferry for breakfast nice and early as we had to register for the match by 08:45.

This was the first day of the Festival and when we arrived to register at the Crown Meadow the Angling Stalls, Beer Tent, Food Vans etc were all setting up.

80 anglers fishing so all but 8 pegs in along the Town and Ferry length but there had not been a match on it for over a week.

I was fairly well up the draw queue and picked out disc A5 on the Battle Ship Matrix, when it was turned over it was peg 20. I had been on 21 before which was the peg upstream of the bridge.

Pegs 19 and 18 above me were not in so a bit of room but 21 was in. I was happy enough with the draw but would not be a match winner.

It was a bright warm day but I was confident I could catch. 

There was some cover across so a waggler was set up but not used much as there was a downstream wind which made presentation difficult. I also had a maggot feeder for the same line.

My main line was going to be between 13 and 14 metres with 3 hemp rigs between 0.3 and 0.4 grams and a 1 gram rig at full depth.

As I was setting up my board was placed behind me. When I completed my forms a week before the match under notable achievements (which really is for angling achievements) I put "married to the same woman for 44 years" lol and they actually put that on the board !!!!

Thanks to Rich Whitmarsh for the photo

As members of the public walked passed I could hear them laughing when they read it.

On the "all in" at 11:30 I started off on the waggler while pinging in hemp down the middle. I was soon chucking that up the bank due to the wind and cast out the maggot feeder still pinging in hemp.

A couple of rattles on the tip saw me catch a small perch and a few sprats. 

30 minutes in and I went on the pole with caster on the hook. First run down on the 0.3 gram rig I had a 1 oz roach followed by a slightly better one which I netted. The wooden bannister at the side of me was a problem with the 4 metre net handle but there was no rush.

I was ticking over nicely during the next hour, not bagging but getting bites and taking small roach. Then .... it went quiet and sun was overhead not ideal.

A couple of chucks with the feeder didn't produce anything either.

Back on the pole I fed a few casters with the hemp and with hemp on the hook got a few more roach but very small. 

At the halfway stage I had no more than 1.5 pounds.

It didn't get much better for the rest of the match but in the last 30 minutes I put the hemp rig about 10 inches over depth and held back a little which got me a few decent gudgeon.

Only weighed 2lb 3oz but if you look at the board below you will see how hard it fished.

No real surprise where the winning weights came from.

Results below......

I was really shattered when I got home due to shipping back above my shoulder all day, went to bed at 11p.m. and woke up at 11:30 the next morning.

Sunday 28th August was the Evesham Final, I don't think I would have been fit to fish it had I qualified. We had Clive Branson and Terry Parrott from Team Nomads on the bank. 

Clive done ok with a big 5lb and won his section and only a pound away from a framing place.

Monday 29th was the Team match and we had what I believe was a strong line up against the best.

Team Nomads was ...

Me

Clive Branson

Kev Ellaby

Terry Parrot

Chris Smith

Registration was supposed to open at 08:00 but when I got there at 07:30 nine Teams had already registered meaning we would be 10th out of 16 to draw.

Before I went up to draw some of the guys said don't draw set .......... as if I could influence what I drew.

Luckily I drew set 15 which they were happy with, thank goodness lol.

Clive was on 15, Chris on 34, Terry on 50, Kev on 67 and I was on 85. 

A discussion on the approach for each peg was had and off we went to do our best.

Peg 85 was the furthest I had been down the 89 peg match length. 2lb odd had come off it the day before which wasn't bad down that end so 3lb plus was my target to do well.

Chris gave me a low down on the peg and said it was deep in the middle and then shallowed up from there to the far side.

It would be a lot quieter down this end as most spectators would be on the Crown Meadow and the Ferry sections.

I did set up a waggler for across - not used all day.

Maggot feeder - not used all day.

3 hemp rigs as used on the Saturday for 13 /14 metres.

A 2 gram bulk rig for the middle 13/14 metres.

0.6 rig with number 8"s as bulk for down the edge 6 sections out for the worm line.

While setting up an Evesham regular came down and said he was on the peg the day before and caught very small skimmers in the last hour down the middle over ground bait. Thanks mate.

At the start I put 2 bait droppers full of chopped worm in short and 2 balls of ground bait with choppy and dead pinkie plus a few casters  down the middle I also pinged a few grains of hemp in on the same line as it wouldn't do any harm.

Starting with a worm head on a 16 down the side I had a dumpy perch 2nd run down so blank avoided.

That first hour was great, I caught perch right down the peg and landed a couple of 6oz fish which I was more than happy with and estimated I had 1.5 lbs which was well on the way to my target.

Team mate Andy Thomas turned up as bank runner for us and when I told him what I had he said I was doing really well.

A look over the ground bait after putting in some more worm with maggot got me a small skimmer straight away. I was also regularly pinging in hemp.

Small roach also turned up and more small skimmers. I topped up with another ball of ground bait and had a look over the worm again but no more perch.

Back over the ground bait with caster or maggot still brought me the odd fish and I lost a couple of good fish (probably big perch) when the hook pulled out. I could have stepped up from the 18 hook but it might have cost me some smaller fish and every ounce was important today.

Andy kept me up to date with what was going on in my Section of 16 and I was doing quite well.

A look on the hemp brought me a couple of roach but they were very small and due to there size I missed a lot of bites so abandoned that and went back looking for small skimmers.

This was a good move and they were easier to hit.

The scales started on the end peg and as expected 89 done well putting over 7lb in the net which is mega down this end, the next peg up had 5lb. Below me weighed 2lb plus and I had a nice 4lb 8oz.

Andy was up the other end of the section and phoned me to say I had come 3rd so 14 points from 16, that'll do I thought.

Kev done very well taking 10 points from the worst peg in the team draw, Terry had a bummer, Chris done great contributing 12 points and Clive had a tough day after loosing a barbel on the whip above all things and 3 points.

We ended up 10th from 16 but we go again next year.

That's the end of Evesham for this year, I'm already looking forward to the campaign next year after having a lot of success on the venue over the last 2 months.

Next up is the Area Festival in Co. Cavan next week ...... to be sure