With the late draw fishing would be 12:00 - 17:00 as there are some very long walks. There were two England Internationals fishing today, Calum Dicks who was fishing for us again and Des Shipp who was fishing for his second Team, namely Thatchers.
Prior to the draw Team Captain Chris Hook (great surname) had been down to look at the river and reported hardly any flow, it was also due to be very bright later on as well.
Chris came back with the draw and I was on 65, a hell of a walk no matter which end you approached it from. Looking at the weight sheet from the previous weeks practice match 8lbs had come off it.
Calum was on 122 which was two pegs away from the 53lb bream weight last week!
After a sweaty walk and a bottle of lucozade later I found my peg after walking past it, a lot of them are poorly numbered or not at all. It was a long way down to the water but there was a very small shallower ledge at the bottom of the steep bank which I managed to get my box onto with the front legs more or less fully extended (getting back up would be an effort).
it was a good 10 foot drop down into the water.
i had about 90 minutes to set up and I needed all of it due to climbing up and down the bank with the gear. Set up was a 1.5 grm, top 5 deep at 11 meters, a shallow rig (0.50 grm) set at around 3 foot for fishing 11 meters plus, a 1 grm rig for down the edge 2 meters out from the bank where it was around 8 foot. Finally a ''window feeder'' for fishing across. Did not have time or the energy to set up the waggler, on reflection I should have.
Most people ''ball it in'' at the start and you have to follow suit otherwise the fish may be drawn away from you. Some times it works sometimes it doesn't.
12 big jaffa's went in at the start laced with hemp and caster at 11 meters and some chop down the edge.
As expected first put in on the 11 meter line and with maggot on the hook the float sailed away and a small roach was swung to hand. Same again for the next 5 trots through, a change to single and double caster brought slightly better roach and then a few perch started to show. My 11 meter line lasted about 40 minutes tops.
Others must have experienced the same thing as you could hear the feeders going out.
I stuck it a little longer and snared the odd perch on the chop line as well as the end of the trot on the 11 meter line but after an hour and quarter grabbed the ''window feeder rod''. Filled with caster and hemp and plugged with a little ground bait it landed perfectly under the far bank tree and the tip rattled straight away. I connected with a baby chub and thought there may be a few bigger ones around like the previous week. I had loads of bites but was only hitting one in about ten. Very small roach were the problem so very hard to hit.
I had the odd look on the pole lines as all the while I kept feeding them but it was no good.
I stayed on the feeder for the last 2 hours solid and did connect with a skimmer of around a pound but the hook came out at the net.
The 'Section' was very tight and won by Paul Purchase with 6lb 13oz, he managed a couple of big eels with gave him the advantage. There were 3 other 6lb weights, I managed 5lb 6oz so that lost skimmer cost me, still 4 points in a hard Section.
Calum won his Section with 11lb plus getting a few early Skimmers on the ground bait feeder and then catching shallow. Sean also picked up money coming second in his Section with 8lb odd.
The ever consistent Mark Bromsgrove won the day with 14lb plus (a very low weight compared to the previous week, I don't think any bream were caught).
Cannot remember who was second but believe Des was 3rd with 12lb plus.
Thatchers are still top of the table, we are 6th.
Last round is next week, same place then its finishing off the prep for the Arva Festival.
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