Saturday 3rd August Chippenham AA Open upper Bristol Avon

The Clevedon Club has a Match today on Woodlands Lake Trinity Waters but I did not fancy it. I did find a river match run by Chippenham AA, I have fished their waters before and done reasonably well, good head of roach and chub, access is also ver good. The draw was 13:00 with fishing 14:30 - 19:30 so a late return home. On arrival at Riverside Drive I met up with kev Williams the Match Secretary who informed me only 10 had booked in but this was increased to 12 before the draw, not that it mattered to me as a days fishing always comes first with a bit of an edge to it. One of the anglers who booked in late was Gary Etheridge a very experienced river angler who has enjoyed a lot of success fishing for silvers. Another reason why numbers were a little low was because the usual Devizes Anglers were fishing the Div 2 National. So back to the match, I asked if waders would be needed and was informed that all the pegs had platforms. I drew peg 30 and was told it was the scaffold peg! when I got there I could see why. A number of scaffold bars were positioned in the bank and clamped to allow access down to the platform it was quite hazardous as the banks were wet so carefully does it to get all the gear down. A chat to a couple of loacals about the peg told me it was about 5 feet deep in the middle shallowing up to 3 - 4 feet on the far bank. Bream sometimes show on the next peg downstream but unlikely todsy. I set up a wag at 3 foot for across, the pole at 10 meters and a tip rod that was never used. Bait was mag, caster and hemp with some worm, a kilo of Noire was also mixed up. At the all in I balled in on 10 meters (only 4 small ones) and set about the wag attack sparying caster and hemp, lots of bites and very small chublets, bleak and roach in the first hour and a half (about 2lbs worth) then it stopped. I kept topping up the 10 meter line but kept the wag line going hoping they would come back (I thought about 10lbs would win it). Then disaster as I cast out the line caught in a branch behind me and I broke the top eye of my rod (about 1 inch so repair or insurance job? not sure yet). So out on the pole line and first put in the float buried and a 6 oz perch was netted. I kept getting the odd fish but nothing exciting. At 18:00 it was if a someone sounded the dinner bell and the roach came on, in that last hour and a half I put 4lb in the net. At the weigh in I put 5lb 15oz on the scales, the angler above me had 6lb and the one below 5lb 12oz so very tight and I was reasonably pleased with my efforts. The match was won from one of the first pegs (early 20's) with 22lb made up of 2 chub and the rest roach, not sure of the anglers name but a local. Kev Williams the match secretary was second with 15lb of roach from the other end all caught late in the last half of the match. I'd love to go back there but their next open is New Years Day! Day tickets are avialble, check out their web site http://www.chippenhamac.org.uk/ Backto work tomorrow, I think we have a match on Durliegh next week.