Sunday 11th January - Commercial House League final match, K & A Canal Bath to Limpley Stoke

So the final round of the league was upon us and we were lying bottom of A Div but only just by less than 2 points. We left after the draw in a positive frame of mind and a can do attitude. Bloodworm and Joker was obtained again via Bristol Angling Center and there was plenty of it. I drew B Section which fished poor in the previous weeks match but it is what it is. I forgot my Barrow legs and handles so parked with James Gunter who drew A Section and piggy backed some of my gear onto his trolley and carried the rest to his peg before borrowing his trolley for the final leg, which was ok. In my Section was Tim Ford who I met part way along B Section and had been pegged under electric wires so a bit of a shuffle took place as well as an exchange of words with a boat owner who wanted to moor in Tim's knew peg. Thankfully common sense prevailed and everyone was happy.
I got to my peg B7 and was inbetween two boats, one vacant but a young couple in the other. The female came out to empty the ashes from their stove, it was very cold outside and she had a very tight top on.... get the picture..... I didn't.

So set up was simply bread rig down the track, chop worm and caster under the nearside boats and one point across on the far bank, joker helping on bottom of far shelf in two places.
I had a 4oz roach on the bread first put in a boat came through and that was it, I will summarise the rest of the match by simply saying I struggled everywhere with every rig and bait ending up with 2lb 2oz for 2 points from 6.
See Tim Fords blog for his report on the Section and overall, well done to Tim who picked up the biggest fish prize in the league and won the individual. http://cluckerspeg.blogspot.co.uk/
Back at the Rugby the Team slowly arrived, Don had 8lb at Limpley stoke for 4 points from 6! Sam had 6lb odd for 5 points, Lewis won his section with 1lb 10oz!!!! and spookly enough met Noel Emunds who was walking along the Towpath.

Noel Edmunds re-action when he saw Lewis fishing skills

Collectively we did not do enough to escape going into B Div next year, needed an extra 0.5 points! ah well.

It has been an enjoyable league and very very well organised with good banter.

Next up for me is Somerset Rivers League on the Tone down at Taunton, lets hope we don't get much more rain.

Sunday 4th January - Commercial House League Round 5 Kennet and Avon Canal Bath to Limpley Stoke

It was great to be back on a natural venue after a couple of outings over Christmas on Commercials. The Canal can be difficult and challenging in many respects, parking, boats moving, walkers, dogs and cyclists to name but a few. Everyone in the Team ordered a match pack of joker and bloodworm via Callum Dicks at Bristol Angling Center and I have to say the quanity and quality was superb.
I was drawn on E Section which was above Bathampton inbetween the village and the big turning bay, I had a peg about halfway which based on last years experience I was happy with. A quick get away from the draw with a 15 minute drive into Bath and out to Bathampton secured me a good parking space. The Canal has permanet moorings with people living on boats all year round, most have cars as well so take up a lot of space on the narrow road.
I quickly got to my peg and as usual pegged between two boats on a Duck Ramp.

peg E16 the duck ramp

I had to place my box on the 'duck ramp' as the boat to my left had the back door right on the rear of the boat. This meant that I could not shipo back parallel to the canal in one go as the top of the pole would hit the boat to my left, It was going to be a case of breaking the pole down 2 or 3 sections at t time depending on the distance fished.

So to keep it simple 3 rigs today, far shelf at about 12 meters where it was around 3 foot deep (chop and caster at 10 o'clock, joker a, track at 6 meters straight in front and at 4 feet with punch and then joker when it died, finally under the nearside right hand boat with chop and caster. I had Roy Carter to my left and Neil Mercer to my right.

view up the towpath before normal people got out of bed

As usual on the 'all in' lines were feed and I started on the bread, a few quick fish, not big but roach around 2 to 3 ozs, I did notice Neil Mercer net a couple which I found out later were skimmers caught down the track on punch. I stuck with it but it soon died on me. I re-fed this line with joker and a few caster, put on a maggot and the float sailed away and a 4 oz roach was swung to hand. I continued like this for about 90 mins putting fish regular in the net but by then the traffic on the towpath behind me was increasing and you had to be very careful when shipping back. A look over on the far shelf brought some more roach and I just kept swapping between the two lines for the rest of the match. The nearside boat line gave me nothing.

On the 'all out' it did not take long to pack up and I was quite happy with my day. I had the scales so started at the top of the Bay and as last year these pegs really struggled, Paul Pitt was the end peg in the bay and weighed just over 11 ozs, Richard Witmarsh done well to put together just over 5lb of very and I mean very small roach. Roy who was immediatley above me had 6lb 11oz, he has a habit of sneaking a few fish without being noticed. Next was me and my net went 6lb exactly (not too worried as Roy was in another Div. Neil weighed 8lb 11oz, those skimmers had done me.

E Section weights

I ended up with 5 points from 6 for the second successive match so Team job done. Back at the Rugby Club the Team gradually came back and it was a mixed bag of results. Glen had over 6lb at Limpley Stoke but was in the Section where the better weights always come from but got 4 points. Out of 6 Teams in our Div we came 4th which was not good enough to get us off bottom position overall. With one match to go iot looks like its B Div for us next year!

Glen an I both pick up our section money by default so £60 each.

Vinny Lunn won the match on the day with 15lb which consisted of a 4lb bream. Final match in the League next Sunday, back on the Canal.

Super League dates have also come through now so looking forward to that again although some way off but inbetween there is the Viaduct teams of 5, not sure how many of these I will be asked to fish.