Sunday 27th May - Gloucester Canal Spring League, Final Round

This would be our final match under the Cadbury Angling Team Banner before 4 of us make the full transition to Sensas Nomads. Cadbury Angling still support us in many ways so there will still be a strong association with the shop who also do a lot of business with Sensas M5 Angling.

We were 2 anglers short for this final round so drafted in my good friend Steve Vernon and Richard Candy from Sensas Nomads along with Chris and myself.
Steve had never fished the Glossy before and was using it as a practice session for a Feeder Master qualifier on the venue in June. I met him in Michaelwood Services, handed over some tied hooks dead reds, pinkie and worm and he followed me up to the Gordon League Rugby Club in Hempstead.

Arriving nice and early for a breakfast roll and tea I done the Team Sheet ahead of Chris arriving to save a bit of time as the Team Draw is done in order of submission of names and money.
Chris went up and done the draw and came back showing himself in A section, Richard in B, me in C and Steve in D. I can't remember Chris and Richards actual peg numbers but I was on 49 just off centre on the famous Hempstead Bend and Steve on 215 just out of the favoured big bend area in-between Rea Bridge and Pilot.

Here are the details / locations of the Sections (in case anyone wants to know where / how to get to them).

 

I had never been on any of the Hempstead Bend pegs before, the nearest I got was peg 51 in the Roy Carter Memorial Match just after Christmas but I had read enough about the pegs 46 -50 to have some idea what to do. Martin Bendall told me 49 had been fishing better than the few pegs above it but also said the Canal could be difficult today due to a lot of rain going in 24 hours earlier. It didn't take long to get there and it took me longer to unload the van than walk to the peg.

Arriving at the peg I found there was a lot of water to have a go at and where do you start, there was also a pleasure angler over on the opposite bank (the old bend bank).

Here are some photo's of the peg and immediate area.......

It resembled a small lake rather than a Canal. You can just about see the pleasure angler across.

Rain, thunder and sunshine was forecast and it was a very warm muggy day.

I sorted out my 2 Feeder Rods first and picked a long chuck around 40 - 45 metres out in front of me picking a tree as my marker for my main line of attack with a drennan wide gape 16 to 0.11 50 cm hook length in conjunction with a 25 gram plastic cage feeder. Main line was sinking braid to a 8lb shock leader. Tip was 2oz glass. The second Feeder Rod had a similar set up and same distance to a line as far to my left as I dared to go. It had an ordinary 25 gram open end Feeder in case they wanted the ground bait in a lesser cloud form as the feeder hit the bottom.

Two pole rigs were also set up. One at 14 metres, top 5 deep, 2 gram float, 18 hook to 0.12 fluro. The other rig was at 5 metres where it was also almost top 5 deep, 1 gram float to same hook and hook length.

I had premixed my ground bait the night before so it only needed a little bit of attention by adding more water and a bit of leam. Feeder GB was Dark F1 mixed to a nice fluffy consistency. For the pole lines the mix was Lake, Epicene and a little leam. I had some liquidised bread with me but decided to leave it in the bag due to the peg. I had some pinkie, maggot (in dead form as well), worm and caster.

I was set up with almost 40 minutes to go which was really nice and I was able to watch the pleasure angler opposite. I did see him net 2 bream and wonder if he had drawn them away from my area.

I had 10 balls made up ready to cup in and I did put quite a bit of feed in them, 5 for each line. 

The ''all in'' was called and I didn't rush the cupping in. After that operation I put 2 feeder fulls to my left line and then went out on my straight in front line with a dead red and a live pinkie on the hook. It is quite funny as in the early stages anglers look up and down to see if anyone is catching early. I was hitting the clip each time and dipping the rod immediately in the water slightly tighting up at the same time to sink the line which took a while due to distance. 3rd cast I had a positive pull and soon netted a 1lb plus skimmer. I was only putting about 4 casters, a couple of dead pinkie and a couple of pieces of chopped worm in the feeder each time. Around the next 15 minutes I had 2 more skimmers of the same size, and yes I looked up and down and couldn't see anything else being caught. I put on a 2'' tail of a worm tipped with a live pinkie for a change. After a while the tip sort of jerked a bit and I hit it, solid thud the other end and proper bream on. I love playing bream in deep water especially when its snag free. I took my time and it was carefully netted, a nice fish of around 4lb. Before the first hour was up I had another but around 2.5 lbs. To say I was pretty chuffed was an understatement. 

I decided to step up to a 14 hook to 0.13 and put on a whole worm. After 20 minutes no indications at all. During this time the angler on 48 had a bream. Not feeling confident I scaled down again. A load of big boats then started to que up for the main road swing bridge to open to let them through so I had a n early look on the pole. at 14 metres. I did have a bite but did not connect. after 15 minutes no further indications and by now the boats had gone through so it was back out on the feeder. I had a liner almost straight away and left it as I thought the boats might have put fish on the move. After around 10 minutes the tip flew round and bream number 3 was on, not big at around 2lbs but very welcome. I did see the anglers on 46 and 47 net fish but unsure how big they were. 

A 20 minute look on my left hand feeder line produced nothing so it was back out straight in front and this is where I decided to stay for the rest of the match as the pleasure angler opposite had now gone.

I kept varying the density and firmness of the ground bait in my feeder to try and induce a bite as well as mix and match my hook bait to get another 3 proper bream and a couple of skimmers. On peg 48 he managed a couple of bream on his near pole line as well as loose a couple in the latter stages of the match.

On the ''all out'' I thought I had around 20lb and guessed that would be nowhere near enough overall but good in the section of 25.

Scales arrived and they were only weighing part of the section as it was split.

I ended up with 22lb 4oz which was the best from the bottom end up to me and with another 3 anglers to weigh.

My catch

Peg 48 weighed just over 13lb and was the nearest one to me.

This is how the board looked with another one covering the other 10 pegs below Rea Bridge

I phone Chris to see how he got on and he weighed 5lb 6oz for good points, I also spoke to Steve who hadn't had a bite all match.

I went back to the Rugby Club to meet up with Chris and Richard as Steve went straight home.

I was only just through the door when Phil Bendall approached me and asked what I had. I told him and he said he had 22lb something as well but not sure about the ounces! Strange I thought, I know him but why would he make a point of coming up and asking me. I got a beer and it soon became clear I might have framed. The League pays top 3 in the Sections (by default if appropriate) plus top 4 overall.

I was on the same table as Liz Grant who does the Super Pools and he found out I was 2nd overall with Phil beating me by 8 ozs!

Section results as follows (some names may be slightly incorrect but not many, weights are spot on)...

A

1st   A Patchet 9-2

2nd  E Dryon 6-9

3rd  C Hook 5-6

B

1st   P Golding 13 - 14 (next to me)

2nd  G Webber 10-11

3rd   D Cox 10-1

C

1st   N Harris 13-3

2nd  M Brush 11-6

3rd   C Vallender 10-4

D

1st   T Weaver 9-15

2nd  N Baker 9-14

3rd   L Tucker 8-9

Overall

1st   P Bendall 22-12

2nd  I Currie 22-4

3rd   Liz Grant 17-12

4th   K Perry 16-0

Teams on the day - top 3

1st   Misfits

2nd  Sensas 88 Silver

3rd   DGL Red

we finished 8th on the day

Overall League - top 5 paid out

1st   DGL Gold

2nd  Sensas 88 Silver

3rd   Stroud AC

4th   Sensas Lobbys Green

5th   DGL Black

Some other pics from todays match....

1st - Phil Bendall

3rd - Liz Grant

League winners - DGL Gold

I picked up £110 in the Super Pool and had an envelope marked up as £110 for 2nd in the main prize money but when I got home there was £170 in it. I phone Mark Treasure to check that no one else had lost out but he confirmed my payout was correct and that he had put the money in the wrong envelope so happy days.

A big thank you to all the organisers, the car park attendants and Gordon League Rugby Club for a well run League.

Back on the Glossy again this Sunday for the 1st Round of the SW Super League for Sensas Nomadsbut will it be hero to zero.....usually is on the venue!

Sunday 20th May - Sensas Kennet & Avon Canal Spring League Teams of 4, Hungerford

Sensas Nomads had 2 teams in this league but were 2 anglers short for the final round which was at Hungerford. I put my name forward and was accepted for the ''nobblers'' team (unfortunate name).
I had never fished further east than Devizes before so went about trying to get a bit of info on it. Hungerford AA had limited information on their site as did youtube so a few phone calls led me to believe it was more or less the same approach as in the Bath area.
Fortunately I had quite a few canal rigs already made up and just had to tie a few hook lengths of various sizes and lines. I ordered some squats from Mark Williams who was originally fishing but had to stand down with Mike Withey taking his place and who would also bring the squat.
The draw was at the Sun Inn which when route planned was 72 mile from home but all motorway except for a few miles so only 1 hour 15 mins drive.

I got there by 07:30 and the car park and adjacent roads were already full but found a little industrial estate and parked 3 minutes walk away. Breakfast sourced and met up with the team (Nobblers) which was....

Mike Withey
Rich Whitmarsh
Paul Rigby, also called in to fill a gap
Me

Also had a chat with Geraint Powell who was fishing for Nomads Vets (he's only 20 at the most lol). Geraint had been doing quite well in the League but had never fished Hungerford before so no more info gained. None of the usual postcodes were available for where to park at the Sections so going in blind.

Mike came back with the draw, he was well down in the draw order (25 teams fishing, there were 27 apparently but 2 had dropped out for the final round)

I was on A24 which meant absolutely nothing to me but after taking to organiser Simon Hebditch he said it wouldn't be far and put me in touch with a guy who was in my section. His name was Phil Speakman, really nice guy and he was on A25, end peg. Even better he was parked beside me and heres his van....

He did say he drew a lot of ''end pegs'' ....underneath his number it says if he doesn't answer its because he is fishing....love it.

We got to the parking area OK and had a good 90 minutes to set up as the match was 10:30 - 15:30. A short walk through a grave yard soon had me on the towpath and was soon on my peg.

Phil did have the end peg in A Section but B section was immediately following.

I was told I was in a good area and it did look nice....end peg Phil was excited.

It does look nice straight in front but there was no depth as there was a cut back, bit like a cow drink, the best area was across to my left.

                                 

I set up 3 rigs today. Across was a a choppy float 0.3 to 0.08 hook length to a fine 20, it was no more than 18'' deep and a good 14 metres.

Down the track, which flowed quite hard at times I had a 4x14 round bodied float to the same hook length and hook. It was around 4.5 foot deep. Finally a bottom of the near shelf rig (never used).

Due to the colour I decided to leave the bread in the bag and had already done a mix of Sensas Roach, Noire and Epicene the night before just needing to add some more water. Bait tray consisted of maggot, squat, pinkie and worm.

Skimmers would be the main quarry today so on the all in I fed 2 balls of ground bait with chop and caster plus some squat across to my left and the same down the middle leaving the right hand far bank swim alone for later.

Starting off down the track I was expecting to get a bite quickly but after 20 minutes nothing other than a few slight dips of the float so went across to the far left hand swim. I soon had a hand size skimmer so blank avoided. During the next 30 minutes I had a few roach around the 2 oz mark before some more hand sized skimmers arrived. The canal towed really hard at times and I had to keep re-feeding. Shipping back 14 metres each time was hard as I had to keep the pole rollers parallel to the canal as the patch behind me was very narrow. It was well into the second hour when I tried the right had far bank swim and put a string of roach together some around 3 oz so good weight builders. 

At the halfway point I tried a single caster over to my right and had an instant bite resulting in a big skimmer just under 2lbs followed by a smaller one. Caster was the best hook bait come the end so stuck with this the rest of the match. Worm did produce a few fish as well and I put a small piece on for the last 15 minutes of the match and lost what I believe was a big perch which took me around the back of the reeds breaking the hook length.

The scales came down and reports were that some of the early pegs in the section had struggled.

End peg Phil was first to weigh and had 9lb 2oz.

Phil with his catch made up of hand sized skimmers and dumpy roach

I knew I didn't have that but was pleased to record 6lb 14oz.

Not bad for a 1st visit to the venue

Heres how my section ended up..

I had 23 points so well up there for the team.

Both Nomads Team Sheets as follows.....

Match results as follows courtesy of Simon Hebditch Facebook page.....

Here are results of the Sensas Kennet & Avon Spring league on the canal at Hungerford.
99 people fished the final round of the Spring league on the prolific canal at Hungerford and it fished quite well with double figures needed to frame.
Winner on the day, and going one better than last week, was Wyvern Angling Gold’s Nick King who drew by the wires on the Marsh section and caught
Bream and skimmers to 2lb on fluoro or yellow maggot over groundbait to weigh 17-13.
Runner Up was PI Thatchers Lee Trivett who drew end peg at Lower Dunmill and caught 6 Bream and some bits on maggots an worms over groundbait over to some rushes.
3rd: John Williams (Drennan Oxford)- 11-1
4th: Chris Telling (Devizes Black)- 10-12
5th: Daniel Webb (PI Blackhorse)- 10-9
6th: Stretch Saunders (Bordon Shop)- 10-1
On the team front Drennan Oxford put a stirling team performance in to win with 96 points fro PI Blackhorse in second with 92 and Drennan Bordon Red in third with 83 points.
4th: Sensas A 4 Black- 82
5th: Rive Homestores- 78
6th: Sensas West Sussex- 75

This meant that Garbolino Blackmore Vale won the league for the second year running with 329 points winning £1000 and some Sensas prizes from PI Blackhorse who had 317 points and won £800.
3rd: PI Thatchers B- 283 (£600)
4th: Drennan Oxford- 277 (£300)
5th: Wyvern Angling Gold- 277
6th: Drennan Bordon Red- 275
Rob Randall (Garbolino Blackmore Vale) won the individual with 98 points from Graham Smith (PI Blackhorse) with 97 points and Nick King in third with 96 points, all winning Sensas goodies.
Thanks go to all the clubs who let their water be used, the draw venues, Sensas and M5 Angling for providing prizes, Devizes Ac for providing scales and especially all the anglers who make it such a friendly league despite challenging fishing at times!

Back on the Gloucester Canal on Sunday for the final round of the Spring League....end peg please or flyer.

Sunday 13th May - ''knock up'' Bristol Feeder Canal

A couple of weeks ago I received a message from Will Gibson who has fished the Feeder Canal quite a bit over the last 2 years asking if I was going to organise another ''knock up''. Will told me the Canal had been fishing quite well with 6lb nets of dace and roach commonplace. I had a look at my diary and found that 13th May was match free so sent out a text to the usual contacts and 10 positive replies came back although later reduced to 9. So it was on.

On the Friday morning (just gone) I decided to go and have a few hours on the Canal to see if the fish were actually there and migrating up from the City Docks.
I had about 4.5 hours down near Manor Scrap and had loads of bites netting big roach, dace and skimmers. I didn't weigh them but well into double figures. Most of the fish were caught down the track on 1 gram - 2 gram floats to 18's on 0.10 fluro over a mix of Sensas Gros Gardons, Noire and leam. Hold back hard was the best approach with pinkie or maggot on the hook.

A busy few hours 2 days before the ''knock up''

I was looking forward to Sunday not just for me but for the guys who were turning up and thought 15lb - 20lb would be needed to win.

I was up early and called into McDonalds in Bedminster for a breakfast roll and coffee on the way finally arriving outside Brandon Tool Hire Feeder Rd at about 07:10, the draw was at 08:00 so I set about pegging out. No pleasure anglers in sight so all good so far as you cannot close the stretch as its free fishing.

Just as I finished pegging out mate Steve arrived as did a pleasure angler but he went in below our last peg so no worries. Steve and I started carrying our gear across the road to the Canal to save time and the others started to arrive. 

I made it £15 all in paying 1 section of 5 £25 and 1 section of 4 £25 (luck of the draw) plus 1st £45 and 2nd £40. So almost 50% chance of a pick up.

I had the last peg left in the bucket and it was peg 9, end peg in our match but with 2 anglers now immediately below me not really, but I still got ribbed about the ''end peg''.

We were scheduled to fish 09:30 - 14:30 but as everyone was read at 09:15 the ''all in'' was called. In went 4 big balls of chop, caster and dead pinkie with a sprinkling of hemp down the track at 11 metres and 2 of the same further across at 13 metres. I had 3 rigs set up today, a 1 gram, 2 gram and 2.5 gram. The latter 2 rigs had 18's to 0.12 fluro and the 1 gram rig a 20 to 0.10 fluro. The 11 and 13 metre lines were more or less the same depth so marked up with tippex as you need to keep adjusting due to the level fluctuating during the day.

Starting down the track on the 1 gram rig it took a while (15 - 20 mins) to get my first bite ( I was beginning to have my doubts) which turned out to be a 2oz roach, phew I thought as it was looking dire. Leigh next to me started on the tip across hoping for a bream as they have been caught during the past week.  I started to put a few bites together and connect with a few fish, not big but more than I could see looking up the stretch. 

Lots of rowers appeared along with a few boats so it was difficult at times to keep the rig in the water for any length of time for a while. I nicked the odd fish now and then usually after topping up with a ball of ground bait. 

It was not fast and furious by any means and after 2 hours it appeared to switch off completely. At this point Leigh above me hadn't caught on anything.

A guy came up walking the bank and told me the 4 or 5 pleasure anglers below me hadn't caught but they had quite a few bream the previous week!

Around the 3rd hour Steve came down and said he only had a small chub and that most were struggling, not having a fish.

I just kept swapping lines and rigs all day getting the odd small fish and ended up with 3lb 5oz which was good enough on the day.

cannot believe how bad it fished after Fridays good bag?

Above me did not improve either during the day, results as follows:

1st     Ivan Currie  3lb 5oz (peg 9)

2nd    Jeff Surman 1lb 13oz (peg 5)

Section 1 - 5 by default Chris Hook 1lb 3oz (peg 4)

Section 6 - 9 by default Leigh Wakefield 10oz (peg 8)

Think thats it for the Feeder Canal this year.

Next Sunday I am fishing for one of the Sensas Nomads Teams on the K & A Canal, no idea where.

Sunday 6th May - Gloucester Canal Spring League Round 3, Hempstead, Rea to Pilot, Splatt and Saul Junction

Neither Sam or Chris could fish today so we drafted in Glenn and Lewis to make up the 4 man team along with Leigh and myself.
Organiser Mark Treasure spread the Sections of 4 x 25 anglers out across miles of Canal in order to try and put anglers on fish in the clear and very bright and warm conditions.

Leigh ended up on 61 below the new bridge at Hempstead, Glenn was 223 I believe between Rea and Pilot,  Lewis just a few pegs out of the bay at Saul Junction and I was 2nd peg in downstream of the boats at Splatt near Frampton on Severn village.

My peg did not look too bad although it was very clear but I though I may nick a few fish across under the bush on the far side where it was a good 8 foot deep. It was also a full top 5 plus deep down the track.

peg 626 

Next to me to my left on the first peg was Sensas 88 Paul Nicholls (also a Clevedon Club member). Paul adopted a similar approach. Below me to my right was Diawa Gordon Leagues Neil Richards.

After 20 minutes on the tip I had a small rattle, not a proper bite. I didn't bother with the bread to start with and on reflection wish I had instead I went straight on the fishmeal with dead red or worm and pinkie on the hook. After 1 hour 40 mins and nothing on the tip I went out on the pole over my leam and ground bait mix with a dead red. The 2 gram float sailed away just as it settled and I had a 3oz roach and my friends that was it for me for the whole match, exciting lol.

Paul managed to snare a big skimmer on the pole and a couple of bits while Neil below me did not have a single bite all match, never known him not to catch.

Paul with his fish, think he weighed 3lb 12oz

I took a few calls from the rest of the team during the match, Leigh struggled at first but managed a couple of bream for 7lb 12oz breaking his bad run on the venue. 

Leigh with his couple of bream which earned him a few points but not good enough to compete with the pegs on the Hempstead Bend.

Glenn finished about halfway with a few small skimmers, think he had 2lb ish. 

Lewis ended up bottom in his section with ozs like me.

The Match winner came from my Section but on the end peg near the mouth of the Cam, Shane Williams had 43lb of bream I believe there was a 30lb as well.

Did not get any other results as we all went straight home rather than double back on ourselves going back into Gloucester.

This Sunday 13th May 9 of us are having another go on the Bristol Feeder Canal which will defo fish much better than our last outing there in April then the week after than I am fishing for Sensas Nomads on the K & A somewhere.

Sunday 29th April - Pleasure session Gloucester Canal, Castle down.

I had no match in my calendar this weekend and put a call out on Facebook looking for a match. Of course there were a few on local Commercials but I hung back for a bit as I also put a ''post'' on the Kennet and Avon Canal match Facebook page as the Sensas Canal League 2nd Round was on and there may have been a few teams (27) short as a lot of guys had headed over to Holland.
It kinda worked as I was given a place fishing for Sensas Wiltshire Angling but then found out a day later they had a full team after all.
Team mate Chris Hook also fancied fishing at the weekend and was up for a pleasure session somewhere. I suggested the Gloucester Canal downstream of Castle and he was up for it. The previous week in the League this is where the two biggest weights came from and where I won the knock up the week before that.
I didn't need any additional bait as I had plenty of worm, dead maggot and pinkie plus live pinky from the week before as well as some green F1 Fishmeal ground bait.

I met Chris just before 08:00 in McDonalds at Hardwick where we had a bite to eat before travelling down to Castle which was only 5 minutes drive. I thought we may have been able to get parked up the west side of the bridge in the rough lay-by but it was completely full with boaters vehicles. Fortunately going back over the bridge we were able to park at an entrance to an orchard without blocking the gate, a bit of a walk but we had plenty of time.
I was travelling light today with only two feeder rods plus my box, bait bag, nets and accessory bag, Chris took the lot. Given that I knew were the fish had been we started the long easy walk down towards the sunken barge (tow path side).

I pointed out to Chris where I had been a couple of weeks ago (peg 441) so he suggested I fish there and he would go in on the next one down, 442.
It didn't take long to set up, Chris too a little longer trying out the slider plus a feeder rod. I usually mix up some black F1 for the feeder but picked up a bag of green by mistake instead. It was premixed the night before and after adding a little more water became a nice fluffy mix by the time I was ready to cast in.
I had one rod clipped up to fish two metres out from the tins on the far bank where it was around 7 foot deep with a 25 gram cage feeder to a 0.11 hook length with a drennan wide gape 16. The other rod which I didn't use all day was clipped up for the bottom of the far shelf with the same end tackle except for the feeder which was an ordinary open ender.

I started off putting a bit of worm and caster through the feeder with double dead red on the hook and I suppose it was around 20 minutes in when I had my first pull round ending up hitting the bite and netted a 1lb skimmer. 15 minutes later another pull round and connected with a better fish a big skimmer of around 2lbs happy days, Chris had still to get a bite. That soon changed when he netted a 4lb bream of 12mm double punch.

Chris netting his first bream

I cannot remember if I had a bream next or the tench which was a big surprise and a decent one at that around 5lbs. I thought it was a tench as when I got it half way across it started to take a lot of line.

I kept fishing the same line all day and had regular bites swapping hook baits and varying between half a worm and caster, dead red and live pinkie.

Chris and I both got smashed up so upped to 0.13 hook length and a 14 B520 hook without any more problems.

Chris did catch on the slider but the wind conditions prevented him from fishing it for any length of time.

We called it a day around 15:15 have enjoyed a great days fishing although a bit cold at times with the NE wind but it stayed dry.

Here are our catches......

Chris with his bag

my catch

close up of the tench

Decorating the hall stairs and landing at the moment so unlikely I will get out before the weekend unless I decide to got fluff chucking.

Round 3 of the Gloucester Canal Spring League this Sunday which I believe is from Splatt to Purton which fished its socks off last year. I was at Splatt and there was 800 lb of bream caught by 15 anglers!

Lets hope i get a good draw.