Sunday 27th November - Bristol Commercial House League Round 4 Bristol Avon Newbridge to Saltford.

I had only fished one of the 3 previous matches in this long standing league due to holidays and was looking forward to getting back on the river following the heavy rain and flooding last weekend into Monday. I had not seen the river but word was it was very clean with a bit of pace and a tinge of colour. The Newbridge section would be the place to draw today with bream the main target.
At the beginning of the week we were one angler short but Sam managed to convince Mark Thorne to come along and help us out. Mark is primarily a commercial angler and had not fished the river before. After captain Chris Hook sent the team sheet out in the latter part of the week it was quickly followed by another amendment with Steve Hutchinson replacing Sean Partridge. At least we had a full team of 6.
I did fancy the Norfolk Reeds area but Chris came back with the team draw and I found myself on F3 which is about halfway along in the section know as ''the trees'' at Salford and walkable from the Rugby Club where the draw was. Not too bad an area and usually plenty of roach.
When I saw the river for the first time I was pleasantly surprised. It looked very fishable and the pole would be an option depending on my peg.
Space between the pegs appeared to be quite generous although Thatchers Tony Gilbert was not that far away on F4 (I do seem to be drawing the same section as Tony, 3 times in the last 4 matches).
My peg was fine as far as pace of the river was concerned and a 3.5 gram float was able to cope along a crease on the bank side of the main flow at 11 meters. Depth was just over top 4 so I set two identical rigs up top 5. Yellow and red tipped float and a 5 and a 6 elastic. Two feeder rods also set up, dutch master with a 40 gram and my trusty drennan with a 30 gram. Both had wide gap 14 hooks to 0.15 power line.

At 10:00 5 balls laced with chopped worm, caster, hemp and squats went in on the pole line. I decided not to put any feed in on the feeder line (halfway across) until I saw how the pole line went. 

After a couple of trots down I had a 4 oz roach on double red maggot which was encouraging. I added a few more roach over the next half an hour and then topped the line up with another small ball of ground bait. A few better roach were caught and worth netting. Tony came up to see if I was catching and said he only had a couple of small roach so I knew I was ahead of him at this point anyway. Soon after the angler upstream of me came down for a walk and was admitting to around 2lbs. I think we were about 2 hours into the match. The fish seemed to be a little bit further out and down the peg more so topped up again with two small balls. I caught a few more decent roach on pinkie but it was painfully slow. 

I guess it was around 13:00 when I picked the tip rod up and filled there feeder with plenty of worm and caster and half a lob worm on the hook. I was re-casting every 5 minutes or so and missed a drop back bite after 20 minutes. Another bite came next cast and I connected with a solid force that slowly started to move. It turned out to be a decent skimmer bream about 2lbs or slightly less.

Regular casting and lots of chopped worm brought me two perch around a pound each over the next 11/2 hours. I did miss another rattle of the tip due to being distracted by a dog walker behind me.

I did have a look now and again on the pole line but decided to finish the rest of the match on the tip. 

5 minutes before the ''all out'' at 15:00 i had what looked like a slow pull on the tip. I hit it on the second indication and thought I had a bream but it turned out to be a tidy eel of a 1lb plus.

After packing the gear up I walked downstream to meet the scales. Lance Tucker had just weighed 7lb 9oz and the next best with 4 anglers still to weigh was 4lbs odd. I wasn't sure I could beat Lance.

Tony was next to weigh and had 2lb 12oz. I knew he had had a bit of a mare today as he kept swapping methods all day trying to find some fish.

When I pulled my net out I knew it would be close between Lance and I. It was, my net went 8lbs 3ozs.

Those feeder caught fish gave me the edge in a tough section

I caught up with the scales for the last two anglers who had struggled so my section win was confirmed.

F Section weigh board

Back at the Rugby Club the rest of the team met up. Chris won his section up at Newbridge with 13lbs of bream, Lewis was second in his section as was Steve. Sam and Mark had barely a pound each and finished bottom in theirs.

There were a couple of decent bream weights up the Newbridge end as I expected.

Individuals .......

1st    Rob Mann  60lb 13oz

2nd   Rich Lacey 35lbs 01oz

3rd   Paul Purchase 30lbs 12oz

Teams......

A Div 

1st   Thatchers B

2nd equal...M&N, Mosella A, Mosella B

5th  Thatchers A

B Div

1st   Sensas Nomads

2nd  Maver

Not sure about 3rd and 4th places 

Next Sunday back on the canal in Bath for the Commercial House Christmas match.

Sunday 20th November - Angling Trust SW Div Winter League, Kennet and Avon Canal Bath / Bathampton

This was the final round of the Angling Trust Winter League in the SW and was held on the town sections of Bath as well as 3 sections at Bathampton.
I was guesting again for Sensas Nomads who are a great bunch of lads and who take their fishing seriously. When I was asked to fish for them I did not think I would be able to make all the dates but I did and just going into this last match I was equal 4th individually, Rich Whitmarsh was 6th and a number of others in the team were in the top 15 out of 40 anglers, pretty good performance I would say.
As a team we were lying in 3rd place and had no chance of wining the league overall. The experience of Mosella Bathampton and Preston Innovations Thatchers was evident throughout the matches although we did upset the apple cart on the 5th round when we won the day by a convincing margin.
The town sections through Bath were the favoured area's to draw and I managed to be allocated peg D3 in an area known as the ''tunnels'' down stream of Darlington Wharf. I think the area is called Sydney Gardens. I had not fished this section before but checked my understanding of where to go before leaving the Rugby Club. I parked easy enough and headed down to Darlington Wharf, through the tunnel under the main road and then into what I can only describe as the ''Victorian'' past. It was very quaint and a bit like stepping back in time with little bridges and a park area. My peg did not look that spectacular but Paul Purchase who was on D2 told me he won a match off it the previous year with 14lbs of skimmers (apparently all caught in the first hour on bread).

 

You can see why the section is called the ''tunnels''

Due to the variation in with of the canal in this area and with the bridges and tunnels we virtually all had end pegs.  The towpath behind us was quite narrow so had to be careful due to the walkers and cyclist's. 

set up was simple for me today with just 3 rigs. Two identical rigs for down the track at 10:00 and 14:00 just in case I trashed one (4x14 to an 18 to 0.08) and one for halfway up the far shelf at around 11 meters (a drennan choppy float to an 18 to 0.10).

On the ''all in'' at 10:00 I fed a small pot of bread on the 10:00 line and a half pot of chop and caster with a few squats across.

Starting on a piece of 5mm punch down the track I had a bite straight away and missed it, this happened for the next 3 or 4 put ins before catching a roach around 2ozs.  I had quite a few of these fish on the bounce and as I glanced down towards Paul and Tom Moratti I could see that they were having a similar stamp of fish.

I suppose it was 30 mins in before I had a proper fish which pulled out the no. 3 elastic about a foot. a decent roach of around 8 ozs was the culprit and it was safely netted. Just as I put it in the net i could see Tom netting a decent fish as well.

I had a few more proper roach over the next hour before latching into a skimmer of around a pound....had they arrived? 

Well some did and I had about 5 of them, still on the 10:00 line. They were not big but most welcome.

The 10:00 line then slowed up so went across on the far shelf and managed a couple more tidy roach. A boat went through and seemed to have killed the line so I re-fed and went in on my 14:00 line which I had not fed. A small ball of ground bait and squats with pinkie on the hook soon had me adding more small roach. I had kept looking towards Paul and Tom every so often but they did not appear to be catching as much as myself.

For the remainder of the match I just keep swapping around all 3 lines and picked up fish throughout.

I estimated I had around 7lbs.

When the scales came to me they registered 8lbs 2oz which I was happy with and don't think I could have had much more from the peg. 

My 8lbs 2ozs (almost looks as if I am carrying out a bodily function).

Tom and Paul above me had 6lbs and 7lbs plus respectfully.

Rich Lacey and Nigel Evans were in our section but not in the ''tunnels''. They were at Darlington Wharf and had better weights of 9lbs and 10lbs.

My section board...well done to Nigel

Back at the Rugby Club the results started coming in and the section nearer the town had fished well and as expected. Tim Ford made no mistakes and took 15lbs from 'A' section winning the match overall.

Organiser Mark Harper showed me the section by section results and they would have put a lot of rivers to shame with double figures required to win most sections and good backing weights.

Individuals on the day.....

1st    Tim Ford 15lbs 12oz

2nd   Nigel Evans 14lbs 12oz  same section as Tim.

3rd    Mark Harper 12lbs 4oz

League overall....

1st    P I Thatchers

2nd  Mosella Bathampton

3rd   Sensas Nomads

4th   Jerrys

5th   Amalgamation

Over the series of 6 matches .......

Senses had 3 individual winners

Won a round on the canal

Approx 8 sections winners

We had a good few anglers in the top 1/3 individually

Certainly something to build on for next year and thank you for making me welcome.

Huge thanks to Mark Harper and those who assisted with pegging etc. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Wednesday 16th November - Pleasure session River Tone, Taunton.

Summary of 4 hour pleasure session as follows.....

Fished the free stretch near B & Q and McDonalds just off the M5 motorway junct 25.
Water was very low and clear but had some pace.
Pegs are limited this time of year due to the vegetation on the banks but chose a peg with a nice run in a small copse.
Only set up a 4 No. 4 stick float rig on running line.
Fed caster and hemp down the middle and used double caster or maggot on a drennan forged 18 hook to 0.11 power hook length.
Had bites all through the session ending up with approx 15lbs of Chub, Roach, Dace, Bleak, Perch and a Grayling. Best chub was around 3lbs.

The peg

Nice mixed bag

Hope to make more visits during the winter.

Sunday 13th November - Bill Milton Memorial (Poppy Match) Lower Bristol Avon

The 'Poppy Match' as its traditionally known has been re-named as the Bill Milton Memorial (in honour of Bill who ran this match before he passed away just over a year ago) and is held on Remembrance Sunday with all ticket money (£5) being donated to the Royal British Legion. In addition money is also raised and donated as a result of a raffle and sponsorship. It is a fairly unique event as anglers who generally fish for pleasure or at club level support the event alongside the regular river match anglers. It does draw anglers from across the West and South West of England as it is probably the biggest match on the Bristol Avon with 100 pegs.
Ray Bazley and his Team of helpers have been running the event for a few years now and they do a grand job.
The pegging was from Newbridge (Bathampton AA water) to the end of the Tree's and then from Swineford to the end of Jack Whites (Bristol and West Federation water).

A pegging guide was provided as a hand-out to minimise questions and save everyone crowding around a map.

I met up with Maver Team mate Sam Johnson and good friend Steve Vernon at the Rugby Club for breakfast and paid my £15 main pool, £5 super pool and bought £10 of raffle tickets. The draw was at 08:00 with fishing from 10:00 - 15:00. Just before the drawn Brian Lloyd from the British Legion read the citation and we had 2 minutes silence. Ray announced and confirmed that pike did count if caught by accident. Most anglers were favouring a draw at Swineford or Jack whites. I was about a third the way down in the draw que and was hoping I did not get a long walk today. Sam was a bit nearer the front and drew 68 below Bitton Brook which is a hell of a trek across 3 or four fields and kissing gates! Steve who was in front of me drew a couple of pegs above Bitton Brook.  I pulled out 24 which is permanent peg 51 at Newbridge which was a long walk but at least it was fence free.  I knew there had been some decent roach weights come out from this area in the Winter League so was happy enough.

I was at my peg by 08:45 so enough time to set up. Upstream of me was Thatchers Captain Mark Harper on 23 who has drawn in this area quite a bit lately.

The peg was comfortable with a lower piece of bank and allowed me to get down near the water with ample room.

I set up a feeder rod (never used all day), a crow quill for down the middle (never used all day) and one pole rig to fish 7 sections out, depth was just over top 4 deep with a 2.5 gram float to a drennan 20 maggot hook to .10 drennan flurocarbon hook length. 7 sections out there was a nice bit of flow and the bottom was clean, it did shallow up towards the end of the trot. 

The water was very clear despite the bit of rain we had but the flow was a lot better compared to previous weeks, it was a bright sunny day.

On the "all in" I put in 8 balls on the pole line. I had a right old mix of offerings in the ground bait which included...squatt, hemp, caster and chopped worm.

While setting up I had seen no sign of fish but first trot down I had a sail away bite and swung in a 4 oz roach. Off and on during the first 30 minutes more roach followed and then I hit something solid which stayed deep. I thought it was a bream. it stayed deep for a while and when I managed to see it I thought it was a trout but when it turned I knew it was a pike. The 5 elastic done its job and I managed to play it to the net after about 5 to 10 minutes. It had taken a single pinkie and was hooked right on the edge of its lip. How that 20 hook held I don't know, it was around 2lbs...happy days.

The disturbance did not appear to have spooked the roach and I carried on getting a few along with a small skimmer of around 8 ozs. 

I guess it was towards the end of the second hour when I was bringing in a small roach that pike number two had a go and it just kept hanging on. This was a much longer battle and at one point I think the no. 5 elastic bottomed out. It did make a dive for some nearside cover but managed to get it out and netted it on the third attempt. The small roach it had went for some how done a loop the loop around its mouth and snared it! So... I got the pike and the roach. the pike was decent one and worth having at around 5lbs. 

Just before the halfway stage Mark came down for a walk (unusual I thought) and said he had around 5lbs of roach.

I carried on fishing the same line all day putting in a few balls now and then and kept the fish coming at irregular intervals. I did loose another two pike with one completely clearing the water and shaking the hook out.

At the "all out" I was happy with my performance and had a days fishing if nothing else.

The scales started at 21 and each section was 5 pegs. 11lbs was best when it came to me, I knew I had more than that but there was another angler in the section below me.

My total weight went 17lbs 10oz, the pike were weighed separately and went approx 7lbs together.

My catch

The angler below me had been on the feeder most of the day and weighed 12lbs 14oz of small fish. In the next section Sean Townsend was in the highly sought after Norfolk Reeds peg and had a few bream for 23lb 8oz. Well at least I had won my section and it was thought I might also frame as word was the other parts of the river had not fished so well.

My section and the section below

It turned out the angler on permanent peg 36 (Newbridge straight) had 9 or 10 bream so that would be hard to beat today.

Back at the results I met up with Sam and Steve. Sam had done 14lb 12oz of small fish and Steve 7lbs plus. Sam thought he had been beaten by 1/2 oz for his Section but turned out he had won it.

Barbel had showed for a few anglers at Jack whites but not the dace, Swineford and the Crane had fished hard so I was hopeful of framing.

The angler who had the bream at Newbridge won the match but.....had not done the pools as he only pleasure fishes.

Results as follows:

1st   Terry Ellis,   32lbs 4ozs

2nd  Sean Townsend, Mosella Bathampton 23lbs 8ozs

3rd  P Knight 18lbs 9oz (barbel)

4th  Bill Knight, Legion Club, 18lbs 2ozs (barbel)

5th  Ivan Currie Maver 17lbs 10ozs

6th  Nigel Evans, Thatchers, 14lbs 121/2 ozs

7th  Sam Johnson, Maver, 14lbs 12oz

So and enjoyable and profitable day....

£20 section

£115 main pool

£70 super pool

Sam picked up in main pool as well.

and ... shed loads raised for the British Legion.

Next match for me is Sunday on the Canal at Bath guesting for Sensas Nomads in the last ATWL match.

Sunday 6th November - 5th Round Angling Trust Winter League SW, Kennet and Avon Canal (Waddon and Semmington)

So ...onto the 5th Round of the Winter League and I was continuing to guest for Sensas Nomads.
I had not fished the K & A Canal for 2 years or more and never fished the Sections for the 5th Round Match. The guys in the Team gave me some idea of the rigs to set up but I felt more info was needed so contacted Diawa Gordon Leagues Shaun Bryan who had been fishing an adjacent section in the Upper Thames Div Winter league and won his Section the previous week.
I had a good chat with Shaun who gave me some pointers and much needed advise which was greatly appreciated and gave me a bit of extra confidence.
The draw was at Spencers Club in Melksham and the Upper Thames Div were drawing there as well so it was a bit busy in the car park.
Mike Withey was captain today and came back with the draw showing me on D4 with parking at the Chicken Farm (so Currie goes to the Chicken)....not a clue where that was but followed team mate Rich Whitmarsh who was in F Section.
We travelled out of Melksham towards Trowbridge and the fields were still white with frost, temperature gauge on the car was showing -1 and it was a bright morning so going to be rock hard. Rich informed me I was in a good Section but the wrong end.
It was a fairly easy walk to the peg but the gap between the waters edge and the hedge behind was more or less the width of the tow path which is not good due to the runners, walkers and cyclists.
To be fair my peg looked ok when I arrived and I was able to set up using my large Rigger Platform with the long legs out into the water a bit giving me more room behind, this platform has been invaluable.

Peg D4

I set up 3 rigs...2 for down the track at 14:00 and 10:00 where there was around 3 foot of water, top kits had No.4 and No.3 elastic with a 4 x 14 and a 0.75 gram float, hook lengths were 0.08 and 0.09 to size 20 and 18 hooks. A small choppy float (0.5 gram) was set up on the third rig for fishing across in 18 inches of water with a 5 elastic to an 18 to target perch. I was ready about 5 mins after the all in.

On D5 I had Jerry Pocock and on D3 Nicola Goodhind who was right beside a barge. Upstream from Nicola was Tony Gilbert on D2 who I had just pipped the previous week and on D1 Shaun Townsend.

My bait tray had ...bread, caster, squats, pinkie, maggot and worm.

When I started the canal was towing left to right and I started on the 4 x 14 rig down the track and it wasn't long before I had a bite from a see through roach. I looked down to Nicola and she had her landing net out but could not see what she had. Jerry below me was catching the odd small fish 3/4 the way across as well so at least something was feeding.

45 mins into the match I lost a decent fish with the No. 4 elastic out about 18 inches, I thought it was a perch so feed a little worm (not too much). 10 minutes later I did have a perch around 8 oz which was very welcome and felt at this stage I was ahead of Nicola and Jerry. I rested my two lines down the track every 20 minutes or so and kept the small fish coming along with a few 4 oz skimmers. The line across on the far side produced nothing although in hindsight I probably did not give it long enough but that's Team fishing, I felt the risk of just sitting there watching a motionless float was not worth it.

During the day the canal towed quite hard at times in either direction and in a very cold spell when the sun went in it switched off completely. Jerry walked the bank a bit and made a few phone calls and told me everyone was struggling and I seemed to be doing ok but D1 and D2 had a couple of better fish and were admitting to around 3lbs.

I managed a run of small fish in the last hour on various baits fishing over depth and holding back hard and I was fairly confident I had more than Nicola and Jerry.

I had the board today and Jerry had the scales. Shaun had a net of small fish but a decent perch and his net went 3lb 3oz, Tony had less fish but better quality and weighed 3lb 13oz (bigger perch), Nicola weighed 9oz, her peg was a bit of a nightmare as she had to ship back over the tow path and more or less straight up into a high hedge. When I lifted my net out I thought i had the most fish so far and they went 2lb 14oz, Jerrys went 1lb 2oz. 

So a third in section, not a disaster and I thought nothing more of it.

my Section board.

Back at Spencers Club the team met up and were in jubilant mood. We had 3 win their Sections, 2 Section seconds, 2 Section 3rd and a 1 point for bottom (to be fair Brian Melksham should not have fished due to his injured back). It also turned out Jeff Sibley had won the match with 4lb 1oz and I was just last in the money with 4th picking up £70.

I have calculated that as a Team we picked up £330!

We also won as a Team on the day..... get in.

Our Team sheet

Results as follows:

Individuals on the day.....

1st   Jeff Sibley (Sensas Nomads) 4lbs 1oz

2nd  Tony Gilbert (Preston Thatchers) 3lbs 13oz

3rd   Shaun Townsend (Mosella Bathampton) 3lbs 3oz

4th   Ivan Currie (Sensas Nomads) 2lbs 14oz

Teams on the day.....

1st  Sensas Nomads

2nd Preston Thatchers

3rd  Amalgamation

4th  Mosella Bathampton

5th  Jerrys

Teams overall....

1st   Preston Thatchers

2nd  Mosella Bathampton

3rd   Sensas Nomads

4th   Jerrys

5th   Amalgamation

Oh and by the way......Shaun (Bryan) won his section again on another part of the canal...brilliant.

Poppy Match next Sunday so back on the Bristol Avon which will be low and clear.