Sunday 12th March - Bathampton Open Bristol Avon, Newbridge

Another visit to the Bristol Avon and my last river match of the season. Good turnout again due to the chance of catching a few bream. The river did look spot on and better than the previous Sunday.
Things did not go to plan at the draw as I pulled out peg 7 in the little field, a good peg if you intended to fish for roach and chublets. This was the peg where I had 17lb plus of roach on the pole to jointly win a recent Winter League Match (with Tim Ford). I spoke to Tim just after the draw when he asked what peg I had. I said I was going the wrong way for the bream and he said he was as well after drawing a peg in the 70's (I think) and too far down.
Graham Hunt told me he had been on 7 the previous week and had one bream but also said it was a snag pit.
Above me and for the second week running was Nigel Wyatt who was also non too happy with his draw. Geoff Surman was just above the bridge and was going to have to contend with all the Bath Half Marathon runners going over the road bridge above him and all their supporters.

peg 7, nice but wrong time of year.

Like the previous week I only brought two Feeder Rods as there was no point in taking anything else as this was going to be an out and out bream match. I had 3 pints of caster, a kilo of worm, maggots and lob worms.
I found the snag Graham told me about quite early in the match and lost a Feeder so had to fish to my left straight down the middle with a 25 gram. Hook was a 14 to 0.13 power on one rod with a 12 to 0.15 power on the other.
I was getting little knocks all the time but only from small fish attacking the lobby and only managed a chublet in the first hour. It was not long before Nigel came down for a walk and he was having the same day as me getting roach on smaller baits. Nigel went down to see Geoff on the bridge with his flask.
I also added a couple of roach when I swapped to three red maggots on the hook but went back to lobby in the hope of a slab or two.
After 30 minutes Nigel came back up a reported that Geoff had one bream but lost a big fish that he did not get sight off when he got it near the left hand bank.
I plodded on casting the feeder every 5 to 10 minutes but the bream did not arrive, I did have a couple of skimmers around a pound each though but I guess they were lost!
The angler on peg 1 walked past me around 14:30 having packed up.
The match finished at 16:45 and I give it my all throughout.

Nigel weighed 5lbs plus of small fish, he also had a trout. I had just under 3lbs.

Geoff on the bridge was the best in our Section with over 9lbs, pic below.

There were some great weights below the bridge on the ''straight'' which is where everyone wanted to draw.

Rich Lacey had a very good day from peg 36 with this nice bag, his biggest bream went 7lbs plus.

Matt Challenger caught his tea.

Top individuals as follows:

1st from peg 38 N Smith 75lbs 12ozs

2nd from peg 36 Rich Lacey 52lbs 2ozs

3rd from peg 30 Dean Harvey 42lbs 13oz (Dean also lost a double figure barbel at the net)

4th from peg 16 Adie West 42lbs 4ozs

Thats it for the rivers now so I'll be on the Bristol Feeder Canal and Gloucester Canal very soon so look out for my updates.

I was invited to fish a silvers match at Hunstrete Lake this week but doing a kitchen re-furb and have daughter down from London at the weekend so prob no fishing until mid week commencing Monday 20th March.

Happy St. Patricks Day (17th March).

Sunday 11th March - Don Sutherland memorial match Viaduct Fishery Somerton

Team Captain Chris Hook organised this match in conjunction with Viaduct Fishery in memory of our Team mate Don Sutherland who passed away unexpectedly almost a year ago. Viaduct was the last match he fished exactly a year ago. This match was silvers only (silvers fishing was Dons favourite) and 50 anglers turned up which is fantastic for a Saturday.
Prior to the draw Chris said a few words and we all had a minutes silence, Dons family would attend later but his son was there from the start.
I don't fish Viaduct or any other Commercial but Fishery owner Steve Long remembered me from way back when he bought the lakes as I organised a few Post Office Angling Club matches there in the early days. I found myself drawing 56 when it came to my turn to dip my hand in the draw tin. 56 was right in front of the tackle shop on the lawn. Fellow blogger Chris Fox told me 17lb of silvers had come off it the previous week, I thought I would need more than that today.
Plumbing up I could hardly believe how shallow it was, fairly even on all pole lines up to 13 meters and the waggler at around 25 meters.
No pellet was allowed today so I had caster, corn, maggot, pinkie and some worm.
At the all in I started on the waggler with corn after feeding two pole lines spraying caster over the top. I did have some indications put nothing positive.
It took me ages (probably around an hour) to get a proper bite on the waggler with red maggot and it was a decent perch of around 1lb plus but no more. Trying the pole lines it was also quite although Rowland Lucas on 59 was having a good day fishing about 9 meters catching big skimmers as well as carp which had to be put back.
It was a long 6 hours and I was kinda glad when the all out was called. I did catch some skimmers but they were small and ended up with under 6lbs. Sitting around a pond looking at other anglers is not really my scene but I think I should have done better and perhaps fished closer in. I will be there for next years event

Spring Lake fished well with all of the top weights coming from it.
Leading the way was Mark Saunders with 49lb plus.

Don's Mum and Dad, his wife and brother attended the match just before the finish and greatly appreciated the turn out in Don's memory, this will be an annual event.

 

Above - Mark with his winning bag and being presented with the Don Sutherland Memorial Shield by Don's wife and brother.

1st   Mark Saunders 49lbs 8ozs

2nd  Stu White  42lbs 9ozs

3rd  Gabe Skarba 39lbs 11ozs

4th  Shaun Kittridge 39lbs 9ozs

5th  Jess Jordan 33lbs 12ozs

6th  Ryan Shipp 32lbs 3ozs

We do miss Don especially his match analysis but this match will ensure his memory lives on.

Sunday 5th March - Bathampton Open, Bristol Avon, Newbridge

I was aware there was the usual last Sunday of the season match at Newbridge but saw that Kev Dicks advertised one the week before via Facebook. It was a no brainer and I was soon booked in. The draw was at 08:30 on the bank (just like the old days). I got there around 08:10 and saw there was already a decent amount of hardened River Anglers already parked up.
Organiser Kev was some way downstream pegging out so we would have plenty of room today. The river had a nice bit of colour and pace on it which was spot on for the bream.
The draw was done on time and I think there were around 26 ish in the orderly que. I was about 6th in and pulled out 43 which was at the bottom of the straight. Fellow blogger Tim Ford said it was a decent draw and I should also be a bit sheltered from the blustery wind. The weather forecast for the day did not look very good.
The walk to the peg was pretty slippery underfoot due to all the rain and nearly lost it a few times. The peg was pretty high off the water and only a small flat spot dug into the bank for a seat box. After  assessing the situation I decided to sit on the bank using a strong thick plastic bag to keep the old bum dry. The keep net was attached to a bank stick allowing the bottom 3 rings to be under water.  Nigel Wyatt was above me on 41 and the next angler below me was out of site around a bend.
Simple set up today, two feeder rods. I brought my old Silstar Traverse X out of retirement and attached a 45 gram feeder with a 12 hook to 0.15 power line. The second rod had a 3oz tip with a 30 gram feeder and a 14 hook to 0.13 power line. Bait wise it was classic bream fodder....chop and caster, some dead reds and lobby's for the hook.

I started off with the 30 grammer casting just my side of the middle retrieving and re-loading every 5 minutes to get some bait in. After 20 minutes I got a positive knock and left it to see if it would drop back but it didn't. I reeled in and half a lobby had gone. It gave me a bit of confidence and suggested a few fish may be around. Some 30 minutes passed and I had another knock which I hit and a roach of around 8 ozs was caught. Not what I wanted but at least I was up and running. At the end of the second hour as I picked up the rod to retrieve I felt felt some resistance followed by slow movement. It could have been a bream but I will never know as what ever it was it came off.

Nigel came down for a walk to see if I was catching. He had a roach and a bream of around 6lbs fishing the same line and method as me.

I plugged away at it as it does not take many bream to make up a decent weight. The pace of the river was starting to pick up a bit and it also began to rise so I switched to the 45 gram feeder and the trusty TraverseX. 

It held nicely in the increased flow and at 14:30 I had my third bite, a good one and it was bream on. The TraverseX had a good bend in it and even though the flow was strong I had the confidence to play the fish due to the big hook and strong line. It was a good fish of around 6lbs.

I did expect another but it did not happen. Nigel above me had added another roach giving him a total of 6lbs 13oz.

Nigel Wyatt

My single bream and roach went 6lbs 5oz

Most angler caught odd fish but best of the bunch was Jerry Pocock on peg 59 with 8 bream for 39lbs, second was Glenn Bailey from peg 52 with 6 bream for just over 31lbs and Tim Ford from peg 20 was third with 30lbs, also 6 bream.

Although windy the weather was ok and it only pissed down as we packed up.

Saturday 11th March I am down Viaduct for the Don Sutherland Memorial Match. Don fished in our Team for years before he sadly passed away unexpectedly last year. I think there are around 50 booked in for this match.

Sunday 12th back on the Avon at Newbridge for the last match of the river season.