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.