Sunday 23rd August - SW Super League Final Round Newbridge

Forecast did not look good for this match and for once it was spot on. At the draw the word was the river was moving fairly slowly and clear despite the rain the previous evening.  We had Darren Gillman fishing for us again today and Matt Challenger boss of Scots Tackle in Bristol helped us out due to injuries and work commitments. Captain Chris done the draw as usual and came back with the weigh boards, I suppose it had to happen sometime. I was allocated 74 which was 7 pegs downstream from where I was the previous week and below the old railway bridge. I was happy with the draw but another long walk for the oldest member in the Team. I didn't see what the others had drawn as everyone done a star burst!
I did pass Glenn Calvert on the way up the track who apparently was on a flier (aren't they all) but with a fairly steep slippy bank due to the rain which was persisting down. He had been given advice what to do and to be honest he could only follow it due to being in a bit of a bird cage.
I continued up the bank following Neil Richardson DGL who always looks as if he has the contents of his house on the barrow platform. Got to peg 74 and it was going to be a case of carefully taking all the gear down a very steep bank to get comfortable.
I did get the box in position but had to move it back about 4 times due to rising water levels. There was not a lot of flow on the inside and I had to go out about 13 meters to find any. At this distance it was just under top 4 deep and I set up a rig to fish about 9 meters out where it was just over top 3 deep. 1 grm float on each. I set up a waggler as well but never used it due to being unable to cast properly because I was so far down with the high bank and vegitation behind me. The feeder rod came out just in case.
I did ball it in at the start and wished I had cupped in instead as with a few minutes I had pike trouble. I lost numberous fish to pike in the first 3 hours no matter which line I fished on the pole and also could not believe the amount of perch in the swim. After just over 3 hours I picked up the feeder and put on maggot feeder casting two thirds across and hit a big snag. I put on a new hooklength and cast slightly further down and managed to snare a decent roach. I then had a number of chublets around 6oz up until the end of the match.
Then the sun decided to come out but I was drenched. Weigh in started and I walked down to the end of the section with the GBMV angler who had the scales. Here is the wet weight board.

If you squint you will see the section was won with 13lb plus, second was 11lb plus and then it got tight. I had 9lb 5 for 4 points.
Back at the rugby club I met up with Chris who had in his own words a red letter day catching 33lb of bream on the pole and feeder for second place.

Above are the weights by section by team on the day, a really good match and the river at Newbridge is full of fish. The colour started to come into the river just before the last hour and the bream fed on some pegs.

Diawa Gordon League won the series so well done to them and Sensa Thyers came second, we finished 6th from 7.

On the individual front we had a number of anglers in the top 20 (highlighted).

Somerset Teams of 4 start next week and first match is on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain which I have never fished.

Saturday 22nd August - Pleasure session River Kenn

With the wife away for the weekend I had a free Saturday and managed to do all I needed to do around the home on the Friday evening. I called into Cadbury Angling  www.cadburyangling.co.uk/ late Friday afternoon to get my bait for the SW Super League Match which is at Newbridge tomorrow, I had enough bait left over from last week for the session on the Kenn.
It was nice to wake up to no alarm on the Saturday and all day to myself so no rush. I arrived in Clevedon around 09:30 and was on peg 9 or 10 (not sure as peg numbers missing but there abouts). I had all the gear with me but decided to just use the waggler, it was already set up so just a case of doing the necessary adjustments. There were quite a few fish topping but decided to fish the middle at full depth to start with just loose feeding caster as the water was gin clear.

Nice looking peg

There was no wind and a little flow but I knew the wind was forecast later and high tide was around 12:00.

As expected first fish was a perch after about 20 minutes followed by a few more then it went dead. I kept at it and changed to pinkie on the hook and the roach responded ... sort off before backing off. I decided to put a few golf sized balls of GB in laced with pinkie and caster and that was what they wanted.

Plump roach

I also had some small skimmers and hybrids.

Tidy hybrid

I finished the session just after 15:00 and the spring balance went 13lb 4oz. Passers by took a pic for me.

My catch, happy with that.

Looking forward to Newbrdge tomorrow.

Sunday 16th August - SW Super League Bristol Avon Newbridge

This was the 5th match in the series out of 6 and my first visit to the Avon this season. I do like the venue mainly because of the quality of the pole fishing, usually in deep water (top 4 or top 5) with a 1grm to 2grm float at this time of year. I knew the rain we had during the week would not make much difference in terms of level or colour so was expecting quite a tough match.
Back to 7 teams of 8 this week due to no made up teams like we had on the Gloucester Canal. Cadbury Angling boss Toby came out of semi retirement to fish, we had Glen back from the Tony Rixon short pole series and £100 better off plus Darren Gillman on loan from Bathampton to help boost the team.
The draw was done and we didn't get the scales or weigh sheets, on the face of it the draw was good with Darren drawing end peg 148, Don on 54 or there abouts, me on 67 and the rest OK ish.
I decided to stay put at the Rugby Club and walk as it was halfway (a long way) whatever end you came at it..
67 was a few pegs above the old Newton St. Low railway bridge and as I passed the pegs immediately below it they did look nice. On arrival at my peg the water was a long way down a steep bank so I had to get in the water which would mean shipping the pole back more or less vertical.

Peg 67 Looking down from the high bank

It was fairly cramped down there but not uncomfortable. I found it was top 4 deep at 9 meters so decided to stick with this line for the pole although in hindsight I should have set a rig up for 13 meters as well despite the issue of shipping back up the bank and on to the footpath. I also set up a maggot feeder rod and a wag for fishing shallow.
5 big balls went in on the 'all in' and as expected the float buried first trot down which resulted in a small roach. This was the pattern for about 20 mins, I was fishing caster on the hook but the size of the fish did not improve. It then went quiet so I put on a red maggot which resulted in a half hearted bite which I hit and it went solid and the No. 4 hollow elastic took off, I was hoping it was a bream but when I got it up it was a pike of around 5lb - 6lb which bit me off after 5 mins. I was loose feeding hemp and caster and within about 15 mins started to get some perch. A couple were around the 1lb mark and most welcome. I suppose about just over an hour had gone by and an angler appeared behind me as I was landing a small roach asking if I was catching. It did piss me off as I would not do that especially with the clear water and high bank. Another angler then came behind me soon after and stood on the sky line saying I was on a peg too close to the foot path above, ffs! what is it with some people or was it tactics, I hope not.
I tried the feeder and had a roach and a few bleak as well as a short session on the wag but decided to stick with the pole as I was getting the odd bite. The last hour was not good and cost me a few points and I bumped a few perch due to their hard mouths.
It turned out my section was pretty tight and apart from the 15lb odd weighed in by Andy Powell from the first peg below the bridge most anglers had a decent days fishing. I was disappointed that my 9lb 2oz only got me 3 points from 7 but still enjoyed the day.

My Section

Our ringer Darren Gillman had a good day on the pole weighing over 18lb of roach for 2nd overall. A Garbolino Blackmore Vale angler won the match, with 25lb plus of skimmers and a decent bream on the pole. Team wise although everyone had a reasonable day it was not good enough and we are in last place.

Next week back at Newbridge for the final round.

Sunday 9th August - Clevedon Club Match Paddock Lake Acorn Fishery

I made the decision late in the week to fish this match. There was a SW Super League practise match at Newbridge with a 10:00 draw fishing 12:00 - 17:00 but I decided against this as I did not want to get home to late. The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta was also on so I would have to pass traffic coming out of it whatever route I took.
I prepped for about 2 hours on the Saturday afternoon, just as well as the elastic on 3 of my 4 carp top kits had some wear and needed cutting back a bit. I tied 4 rigs for banded pellet and 1 paste rig. Sorted out pellets which I had already stored and that was it.
The draw was at 08:30 in the on site Cafe and there were plenty of anglers around made up of the SW Over 55's and disabled who were on the top lake and some other Bristol Club that we were sharing the Paddock with. Match Sectary Adie sorted out the pegs and we ended up with pegs 26 - 40 as there were 12 of us booked in. The other club had a good turn out so a fairly full lake. A small match the day before produced a top weight of just over 50lb so it was predicted it might be hard going.
At the draw I pull out peg 40 which is a bridge peg, never ever drew a bridge peg before and they have a bit of form. Adie was paying top 4 today, £60, £50, £40, £30 so a 1 in 4 chance of a pick up.

Peg 40 with Nick Harvey opposite on 5 and Rob Fogg on 4 over on the island

Also on the island was Mark the paste Walsh on peg 1 (Mark more or less lives on the venue) and Adie on peg 2. Peg 39 next to me was vacant but on peg 38 was loacl carp slayer Kev Perry.

No silvers pool as all the silvers have gone except for perch and tench. There were plenty of carp moving around so I set up a rig for the bottom of the far shelf with a pole pot for feeding micros through and a wide gape drennan 16 with a band on it. Inside rig for my left and right  margins after Adie and Mark gave me some advice. Finally the paste rig for fishing down the the middle and against the bridge.

At 10:00 the all in was called and I fed the near side and middle with wetted 6mm before going across with an 8mm and dripped in mirco's. As expected the float dipped more or less straight away and an foul hooker was on, needless to say it came off. Next put in was the same and the pattern continued for about 30 minutes before a foul hooker caught on the outside of the gill was landed and a fish of around 4lb. I had a few more fustrations with lost fish. At around the 2 hour mark Kev shouts up and asks how many I have had. One I replied and so did he. Looking around I could not see that many had been catching on our part of the lake. I stopped fishing the far shelt and tried the middle wth the paste and had a bite straight away but missed it. I was feeding 6mm through the pole pot and was getting lots of liners so scaled down on the feed and the size of the paste and finally connected with a small carp. That's what I stuck to for the rest of the match although I had a look on the inside there were no indications. My fish were not big but from what I could see I was the only one putting a quanity of fish in the net. 

At the all out at 16:00 Kev said he thought I had done enough to win.

Mark on peg 1 was first to weigh and although he did not have many fish they were munters, all caught on paste and the scales registered 75lb so I was not sure I had done enough. Next was Adie and again not many fish but big resulting in just over 71lb. Nick on peg 5 had 32lb 4oz. I was next and I had 3 nets in just to keep the small F1's apart and I lost count on the carp so played safe. My total was first called out at 73lb but then the maths were done again and I had 83lb 8oz. Kev just weighed under 60lb.

Weight sheets as follows:

1st  Ivan Currie Maver Cadbury Angling 83lb 8oz

2nd Mark Walsh Clevedon 75lb

3rd Adie Baker Clevedon 71lb 8oz

4th Kev Perry Sensa Thyers 59lb 2oz

Next week SW Super League Bristol Avon Newbrige

Sunday 2nd August SW Super League Match 4 Gloucester Canal

I have had no time at all this week up until now to update my blog concerning the above match.
This would be my third visit to the Canal in as many weeks and I have done OK in the two previous ones. One change to the team line up this time though due to Glen Calvert fishing Tony Rixons Float Only League and doing quite well was replaced by Bristol Angling Centres rent boy Lewis Walker.
The draw for this match was the Whitminster Hotel on the A38 near the Stroud junction on the M5.
Although the Hotel was open, breakfast was by way of a Chuck Waggon mugging anglers for £4 for a bacon or sausage roll. My £1.89 bacon bagget from Budgens was much better in all respects.
Sections today were at Saul Junction and Purton.
Purton was to be the area to draw near the timber ponds but a match in the week saw bream and skimmers come from around Saul Junction which is were the old Stroud Canal joins the Gloucester.

The draw was a little late due to one of the organisers being misinformed about the time. No worries though as both area's were not that far away. There were other anglers fishing today in made up teams practising for the National but they did not get any points just cash as if it was an open so 80 plus along the bank. Will Raison and Des Shipp were in attendance again.

Captain Chris Hook came back with our pegs and I was at Saul Junction along with Sean and Lewis.
Will and Des were down at Purton and word was Will had drawn the flier!

Saul Junction is a bit busy

My peg was 458 and as I trundled up the towpath I passed Lewis who was just on the edge of a wide bay, the bay took about 10 pegs and then it narrowed again by some barges and I guessed that's were I would end up. Low weights had come from were I was heading during the week.

458 was on the upstream end of the bay and it did narrow.

Peg 458

It did not look too bad but the water was very very clear and you can see the nearside margin weed and the weed along the far side so not able to fish the feeder tight across.

3 set ups today, the feeder a top 5 at 11 meters and a top 4 at 8 meters. There were some small fish topping so at least there was a bit of life around. Talking about life, there was a rave going on at 10:00 when we got there and Diawa Gordon Leagues Mark Treasure was right opposite them, later on in the match he was to be treated by some females skinny dipping!

Just before the all in at 11:00 a girl came past on a bike wobbling all over the place and apologised for being pissed!

I had 3 bites straight away on the feeder and hit two of them for skimmers around the 12oz mark and then it died so came in on the pole at 8 meters and just on the edge of the weed were I had a few blades before latching into a pike or zander after it took a blade but it let got after a short tug of war.

I did have a few small fish as well on the longer line but nothing to write home about. Bank walkers reported anglers were generally struggling and some blanking. I just kept my head down and added the odd small fish now and then. A short spell on the feeder saw me take a roach and bump a skimmer half way across.

My Section was won with just over 10lb which was caught from the bay downstream made up of a few decent skimmers and roach. I ended u with 2lb 11oz which was fairly well down the section.

Will Raison managed the pressure on his flyer peg and won the match with just over 27lb, Dave Micklewright Diawa Gordon League was second with 11lb and Lee Trivett who was pegged next to Will had 9lb for 3rd. 

We finished 3rd on the day so a good result for us.

Next match is at Newbridge Sunday 18th, there is a practice this week but I am going to fish a Club Match on our own water at Acorn due the Bristol Balloon Fiesta being on and the roads surrounding will be car parks.