Sunday 16th July - SW Super League Round 3 River Huntspill

This was to be my 3rd visit to the Huntspill in 8 days. After last Sundays practice match I pleasure fished it in the week on peg 133 with the main aim of sorting out my Feeder fishing technique and had a great day with 30 lb ish of bream and a 10 lb mixed bag of roach, rudd and skimmers. Amount of fish aside I was much happier with my casting and ground bait approach which gave me renewed confidence.

part of my practice session catch.

Got to Laburnum House Hotel nice and early and was soon tucking in to a big quality breakfast, best I have had anywhere.

The team today was.......
Chris (capt)
Sam
Me
Dave
Dom (aka eel slayer)
Tony
Nigel
Geoff

Generally speaking the river (totally canalised) fished very well the week before with double figures needed to win each Section so I was really up for it and its not complicated fishing either.
The Team was in good spirits and some info share was done before the draw. All capable and experienced anglers just needed the draw gods to be kind along with a bit of lady luck.
I think its fair to say that 99% of the anglers fishing the Huntspill only pay a visit on the Super League matches so no real venue experts.
Chris came back with the Team Draw and I found myself on 186 (Puriton Bridge). Not fished this Section before and not sure where it was but was put right and it was the shortest drive from the draw.
Its always a bit of a panic and rush after the draw with guys wanting to head off to park even though there is plenty of room and time before the match.
Thatchers Rob Jones was in my Section and wasn't sure where to go so I said follow me ...... like I am totally familiar with the area!
It was straight forward and on arrival Nicky Collins was opening the gate to allow parking. We were soon parked in an orderly manner and looking around there were no mugs here.
Brian Slipper Sensas 88, Alan Jones DGL (2nd last week), Richard Candy Sensas Nomads, Rob Jones Thatchers, Nicky Collins GBV and Andy Powell Sensas Lobbys.

186 was the first peg in by the road bridge and on 187 was Andy Powell. Andy told me he was on my peg last week and had 12lb made up of a couple of bream and skimmers, but the winner from last week Steve "Stretch" Saunders had been on 187 (36lb 4oz of bream). At least there was a chance of a few bonus fish today I thought.

peg 186

A fair bit of weed had been cleared the previous week but right out in the middle was a big raft which would give me problems sinking the line, thankfully it was floating and by the time 11:00 came it had moved down, happy days. 

I cast the straight lead out in order to get the distance and have a feel around right across. It was not as far as last week but the marginal weed on the far side came out a fair bit. I found a reasonably clear spot in between the two clumps of big rushes and about a metre out from the weed on the top, it was still a fair chuck. I set another Feeder Rod up for the middle but was never used. Two pole rigs were set up at 13 meters where it was around 4.5 feet deep, one with a 5 elastic and the other with a 6 due to the marginal weed, these were not used either!

On the ''all in'' at 11:00 I put seven cup full's of ground bait in on the pole line (wasted really) and started on the Feeder right across. I think most of the guys in the Section had the same approach.

After 10 minutes or so the wind picked up so instead of holding the rod in the rest to my right I brought it around to my left and rested it on top of the keep net. This was much better and the tip was protected from the wind. 15 minutes in and after about 6 to 8 casts across I had a very small knock and hit it. A pleasing thump was felt the other end and it was bream on.  Nervously I played it very carefully and brought it through the weed. A nice fish at 3lb plus. I kept casting regularly and I suppose another 10 minutes passed when a proper wrap around connected me with another good fish and bream number two was netted. On the next cast I had another, couldn't believe it and thought to myself, thats the team points sorted now just go for it.

Andy next to me was also on the tip but only getting small fish, how strange is that, they must have moved near the bridge from last week or preferred my offerings more.

Sam text me after 2 hours to see how I was doing, he had 1 bream in the first 30 minutes but said Adam Palmer in his Section had 6 bream in the first hour, by this time I had 5.

I could hear Andy next door talking to Alan Jones who was the next peg up and it appeared to be a struggle above me.

The middle of the match was fairly quite and I lost a bream in some weed halfway across and bumped another, I also got bitten off by pike or eels three times.

Kept plugging away though and ended up with 10 bream and some bits which easily won the Section,  a level 31lbs.

heres how my Section looked, Alan Jones had a nice 3lb plus tench.

my 31lbs

During the weigh in some phone calls were made and we understood from reports that Chris Parr had been catching bream all day at Woolavington but the thought was I would at least frame.

Back at the results those of the team that returned met up. Team Captain Chris Hook had been next to Chris Parr and ended up with 20lb plus and was 2nd in Section, Dom was 3rd in Section missing 2nd place and a pay out by a couple of ounces. Sam was 4th in Section and the other guys were well down.

Results as follows:

Individuals.....

1st   Chris Parr Sensas 88  57lb 11oz 

2nd  Ivan Currie Maver Cadbury Angling 31lb

3rd   Martin Barrett PI Thatchers 29lb 8oz

4th   Nigel Evans DGL 24lb 13oz

5th   Chris Hook Maver Cadbury Angling 20lb 8oz

6th   Brian Slipper Sensas 88 19lb 2oz

Teams on the day...

1st   DGL

2nd  Sensas 88

3rd   PI Thatchers

= 4th Maver Cadbury Angling & Sensas Lobbys

6th   GBV

7th   Sensas Nomads

A couple of other catch pics...

1st place Chris Parr

4th place Nigel Evans

Back on the Huntspill next Sunday for Round 4.