Sunday 31st July - SW Super League River Huntspill

We had our Team Meeting on the Wednesday night with England International Calum Dicks in attendance. Calum was kind enough to bring us some gifts in the form of pole floats and hooks along with some advice, he was also going to fish with us for the remaining three matches. Given the management structure at Maver UK has changed this will help us to maintain our relationship with the Company which is launching some new products and improving the quality of others over the next few months. I am also going to replace my non Maver items.
We discussed how the venue had been fishing and came up with a plan which all of us would stick to using the pole. Calum gave us a ground bait mix which consisted of a 3kg mix of three different ground baits (we will keep that in our back pocket for future use). We would add a pint of hemp and a pint of caster. It was going to be a positive approach and something we had never done before or been used to. In addition we also into intended to bait up a bream line with an approach we will also keep in our back pocket for now.
Saturday saw quite a bit of prep but once complete I felt confident thanks to Calum.

The very experienced Calum Dicks, good to get his advice.

Match day came with the draw being held at Laburnum House at 08:30 with fishing 11:00 - 16:00. Captain Chris Hook was early in the draw due us paying our money early and we had time for a quick review of the pegs before heading off. 

I was on 57 upstream of Woolavington Bridge, also above the bridge was Calum and Lewis. Passing them they were setting up platforms in the water. The sun was out and a small ripple on the water, it did look good.

As I got nearer my peg I could see Andy Power was on 58. Due to the vegetation no one would be able to see whether or not anyone was catching and on what method.

After the long walk I still had 90 minutes to set up. Two similar pole rigs were set up on 1 gram floats to fish at 14 and 13 meters where the depth was around 4 foot. An eel rig was set up for fishing to my right and left at 10 meters, I also set up the feeder for fishing at around 2/3 rds the way across. it is very wide at this end and did not try to get all the way over.

Ground bait was already pre mixed  and just needed a bit of attention to get the consistency right.

I was ready with 15 minutes to go and looked at the amount of ground bait I had to put in as per the plan!

On the ''all in'' I began feeding the pole lines first and finished 15 minutes later. Next I fed the feeder line which tool another 15 minutes! So with the first 30 minutes gone I put a maggot on my 14 meter pole line. Straight away it sailed under and a 4 oz roach was netted, taking no chances. for the first 2 hours it was all going to plan and I was happy with progress as a few small skimmers and perch also came to the bait. I was using caster on the hook and feeding hemp every put in. 

The wind became stronger so came in a bit shorter and continued to catch although presentation was not great and I bumped a few decent fish. Tried the shorter eel lines but nothing. 

By 3 p.m. and with an hour to go I was knackered holding the pole in the wind so picked up the feeder. 

First cast I had a small knock which I hit resulting in a skimmer of around 8 ozs. 15 minutes later a more positive bite in the form of a drop back giving me a bream of around 3lbs, happy days. I had a couple of small blades and perch for the remainder of the match. 

I had the scales and assisting was Andy who said he had around 25lb, I could hear him casting out the feeder for most of the day.

Here are the scores on the doors for our Section.

I was happy with my weight, I had followed the Team plan to the letter, perhaps if I had gone out on the tip and hour earlier I would have snared another bream or two which would have made all the difference.

Mark Leader had a good day on the bream with 34lbs 13oz and went on to win the match so fair play to him. Andy Power who also had bream came second overall.

Thatchers won on the day with Sensas 88 coming second, cannot remember who was third, we were fourth so not bad, two of our Team picking up 2nd in Section money (Chris and Sam). 

The wind picking up scuppered our plan after 3 hours and we were slow to re-act. Still learned an awful lot and I personally ended up in the top 20 out of 64 anglers. 

Newbridge on the Bristol Avon next week for a practice match before the next two rounds. 

Prep also beginning for the Arva Festival first week in September.