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.