Sunday 24th June - Angling Trust / Canal and River Trust Pairs Qualifier Gloucester Canal.

Organiser and Diawa Gordon League Captain Mark Treasure sent out a text just over a week ago reminding people about this qualifier. I had originally booked into Evesham on Saturday 23rd as team mate Sam Johnson was down to fish on the same day but he changed it to the Sunday instead. I decided to cancel after team mate Chris Hook asked if I would be interested in the Pairs Qualifier on the Glossy. Why not I thought and registered us both last Monday with the Angling Trust to fish the match. We have been fishing the Gloucester Canal for about 4 years now and thought we had a good a chance as anyone.

14 Pairs had paid to fish this match but on the morning only 12 turned up for whatever reason!
Based on the entry 2 pairs would qualify for the grand final. Looking around at the Gordon League Rugby Club where the draw was all the competitors were Glossy regulars.

There would be 2 Zones for todays match and the winning pairs would go through on whoever had the combined lowest points e.g. 1 point for a Zone win.
Pegging was....  Zone 1, 45 to 65 (Hempstead) and Zone 2, 173 to 199 (Rea). It was every other peg at Rea.

Mark called each pair up in turn with angler 1 drawing in the Hempstead Zone and angler 2 drawing in the Rea Zone.  I drew 47 in Zone 1 and Chris 199 (end peg) in Zone 2, we were fairly happy with that. Fishing was 10:30 - 15:30.
Pay-outs were 4 sections of 6 and top angler in each Zone plus overall top weight (by default). The winning pairs would also receive a cheque from the Angling Trust.

Chris and I had fished these Sections enough to know what to do and we both went off to fish our respective pegs accordingly.
When I got to my peg I found Sensas Lobby's Andy Jane to my left on 46 and Diawa Gordon Leagues Mark Brush to my right on 48. Senses Lobby's Shane Williams was on 49 so I guessed this part of the Zone would be tight.

I had never fished 47 before but had fished 48 and 49. I saw Diawa Gordon Leagues Alan Jones fish it a few weeks ago and remember it being very snaggy. 

I decided on 2 Feeder lines, both fairly long chucks each side of where a drain comes in and about 4 metres out from far bank vegetation. Depths on both lines was quite good at around 6 to 8 foot. Only 1 pole rig today to fish at 5 metres where it was top 5 deep. 

Fishmeal ground bait for the Feeders and a mix of Sensas Magic and Brown crumb with a little soil for the pole line.

As we were setting up there were bream rolling everywhere, not a good sign.

Andy shouted the ''all in'' and I fed 4 big balls on the pole line before starting off on my Feeder line to the right of the drain. Just a pinch of caster, dead pinkie and a couple of bits of worm each cast. 

it wasn't long before I saw Shane on 49 net a couple of fish, I thought at that time they were proper lumps. 

I didn't get my first indication until about 35 minutes in and let the bite develop, usually the tip flies around no problem. The tip eventually went around and a skimmer of around 1.5 pounds was safely netted so blank avoided.  Frustration soon set in due to getting quite a few liners, Andy on 46 was having the same problem, they just wouldn't get their heads down but at least there was some activity.

Constantly looking up and down the bank as far as I could see nothing much was happening although Andy did get a couple of skimmers. About 2 plus hours in I had a call from Thatchers Jack Jones who was on 61 asking how I was getting on. He had only had a small eel i believe at that point and said his Section was fishing really hard.

About 15 minutes after that I gave Chris a call who said he had about 10 had sized skimmers feeding squats through the Feeder with maggot on the hook. 

I decided then to stop fishing worm and put on a couple of dead reds with a live pinkie and had a perch straight away. 

A very quick 10 minutes on the pole at the halfway stage gave no indications of fish so it was back out on the left had side of the drain with the Feeder. I did have a couple of liners but thought my options were better on the other line. I soon had another big skimmer followed by a second perch. At this stage I thought I was doing OK although behind Andy who had take a couple more skimmers. 

One more big bream followed before 14:30 and I lost another good fish halfway across the canal due to the hook some how coming off the line.

Based on who I could see I thought I was possibly 2nd in our mini section of 6 but didn't know what they had the other side of the swing bridge. Turns out I had done enough for 2nd in the 12 peg zone.

Here is our Zone weigh sheet......

Andy took the Zone with 10lb 3oz with me less than 2lb behind, that lost fish cost me.

Andy with his catch, not big fish but enough.

my 8lb 4oz, sorry about the quality, dirty lense.

Word soon arrived that the other Zone had fished hard and that Chris had done OK.

When I caught up with him back at the Rugby Club, he had done OK coming 3rd in his with just under 5lbs, top man.

Zone 2 had a couple of good weights but most struggled.

Gossip around the Bar suggested Chris and I had won it as we had 5 points. Always best to wait and see though.

Results as follows.....

Sections....

51 - 46       Ivan Currie, Sensas Nomads 8lb 4oz

45 - 61       Jack Jones, P I Thatchers 7lb 7oz

173 - 183   Steve Long, Garbolino Blackmore Vale 4lb

189 - 199   Chris Hook, Sensas Nomads 4lb 15oz

Zone winners......

Zone 1   Andy  Jane, Sensas Lobby's 10lb 4oz

Zone 2   Rob Skillet 15lb 10oz

1st Overall.....

Andy Pollard Diawa Gordon League 21lb 12oz

Andy Pollard, todays winner

Qualifying pairs.....

1st    Ivan Currie and Chris Hook, Sensas Nomads 5 points

2nd  Charlie Vallender and Andy Pollard, Diawa Gordon League 10 points same as 3 other pairs but went through on weight.

Qualifying pairs, Chris and I had goodie buckets cash and waiting on cheques from the Angling Trust

So.....national pairs final on 21st October on the Trent and Mersey Canal wherever that is....!!!!

Sunday 17th June - SW Super League Practice Match Bristol Avon, Barton Farm and Staverton

This match was published as an Open with 60 pegs but just under 40 were booked in mainly due to Fathers Day I guess. The draw was at McDonalds in Trowbridge and it was a right drive around the town. I think they have more roundabouts in Trowbridge than Milton Keynes. Simon Hebditch was running it he done a good job.
A number of our Sensas Nomads Team were fishing today......

Richard Candy
Andrew Thomas
Mike Withey
Leigh Wakefield
Chris Hook
and myself

Mike and Leigh drew at Barton Farm and the rest of us at Staverton. The majority of anglers had not fished either stretch for some time or not at all.

I had 77 at Staverton which was an end peg put the upstream end which was not good. I only have fished Staverton a couple of times and never saw anything great come off the 70"s, I also had the scales.
At Staverton you can drive to and park behind all the pegs and to be honest when I got to mine it looked OK.

A 1 gram top 4 rig at 13 metres with 0.10 fluro hook length to a 20 went through nicely as this was were most of the flow was. A choppy line was set up for just past the pads, a waggler for fishing across and finally a window feeder for under the trees. Ground bait was Sensas Roach and Noire.

Bait tray consisted of hemp, caster, maggot and worm.

I cupped in 4 medium sized balls at the start down the middle as well as some chopped worm and caster just past the pads were it was 5 foot deep.

Starting off on the waggler shallow feeding hemp and caster I caught a few cublets and bleak but nothing of any size. After 15 minutes I went squirrel fishing ...ffs... fortunately all I lost was the hook length and set up again before trying the pole down the middle.

This went well for 40 minutes or so and then died on me so I cupped in another small ball and went over on the window feeder with double red maggot and had a chub of around 8oz straight away and then the tip just sat there motionless.

A quick look just past the pads and a perch of about 4oz took half a dendra, not that impressive.

I picked up the odd small fish on the waggler and the pole and by 3 o'clock decided I was flogging a dead horse after making a few phone calls so tipped back 2lb and proceeded to pack up. As I looked down the bank others were doing the same.

Leigh done really well winning his Section by default at Barton Farm with 11lb 6oz, must have been the casters I got him.

Team mate Leigh with 2 bream and bits

Simon Hebditch won my Section with a nice bag of small fish going 8lb 9oz.

Simon had a lot of perch

The 2 Sections at Barton Farm fished really well as did the early pegs at Staverton. Lots of anglers at Staverton did not weigh tipping back around 2lbs.

Overall the match was won by Charlie Vallender from peg 3 at Staverton with a magnificent 77lb 8oz of bream on the pole.

Results as follows....

1st      Charlie Vallender 77-8 peg 3 Staverton

2nd     Phil Bishop 41-4 (bream) peg 11 Barton Farm

3rd     Andy Richings 23-5 (bream) peg 3 Barton Farm

4th      Richard Chave 21 - 4 (bream) peg 6 Staverton

Sections.....

1 - 13 Staverton, Andy Thomas & Andy Ottawa 5-1 (double default)

14-27 Staverton, Ian Sheppard 12-11 (roach)

50 - 63 Staverton, Derek Jarman 5-13-8

65 - 70 Staverton, Simon Hebditch 8-9

1-6 Barton Farm, Alan Jones 12-4

7-12 Barton Farm, Leigh Wakefield 11-6 

I hope to fish the Wednesday Open at Staverton this week then Chris Hook and I are booked in for the Canal Pairs Match this Sunday (24th) on the Gloucester Canal.

The Super League Match at Barton Farm and Staverton is on 1st July. The Team has been selected plus we have a Team entered at Evesham on the same day. Nice to be fishing with a bigger squad.

Tuesday 5th and 12th June - Pleasure sessions on the Gloucester Canal

To be honest after the 1st Round of the SW Super League on the Glossy 3rd June I didn't think I would be back up on it until next year as the matches are about to switch to the Rivers. There was a Feeder Masters match on the Canal on the 10th but I did not have a ticket so decided to have a weekend off instead.
Sensas Nomads Captain Mike Martin-Davies is also retired goes out quite a bit during the week so we both decided on a pleasure session and arranged to meet up on Tuesday 5th with a view to fishing the famous bend at Hempstead. A nice leisurely start meeting up at 10:20 and a slow walk down to the bend from the swing bridge.
As we reached the bend I could see a Diawa Gordon League angler on 47 and it was non other than Alan Jones. Alan hadn't long started but was getting a few liners. I settled in on 48 and Mike 49.

I only brought 2 feeder rods and with ground bait already mixed it did not take long to get started. Alan had a few bream while we were setting up.
I looked where Alan was casting to and decided on a fair old chuck, about 40 metres with an old piece of tin as my marker.
Started off on a wide gap 16 to 0.11, 25 gram cage feeder and green fishmeal ground bait with the odd pinch of dead pinkie, caster and chop. 2 dead reds on the hook to test the water.
Mike also started off on the tip but had also set up a pole line about 8 metres out where it is around top 5 deep.

It was a bit of a slow start for me but Mike had a few fish early, not big but netters. At around the hour mark I started to get a few liners and soon started putting a few fish together, proper bream on half a dendra and maggot eventually stepping up to a 14 hook to 0.13.
Mike hoped and changed a bit between the tip and the pole snaring the odd fish and a decent bream close in on the pole ending up with around 15lbs plus and me 35lbs ish.

Mike in action

my catch

I said to Mike over the following weekend that I was thinking about going back up the Glossy on the Tuesday again suggesting Castle downstream might be a good option. Mike was up for it and we met up in McDonalds in Hardwick for a coffee around 10:00, very civilised, before I lead the way to Castle.

We managed to park up close to the swing bridge and took a slow and long walk down to pegs 441 and 442.  Last time I fished here earlier in the Spring the sunken barge was on the towpath side on peg 443/444 but it had been moved across to the far bank and was tied up opposite 440.

I settled in on 441 and Mike 442 after clearing the long grass and reeds. It did look nice with pads across on the top of the shelf across.

I only brought a couple of feeder rods again as did Mike. I opted to fish up on the shelf in around 5 to 6 foot of water a couple of metres out from the bank whereas Mike went for a deeper line up the far slope.

Ground bait and feed was the same as the previous Tuesday but I went straight on a 14 hook to 0.11. The tow was quite strong at times pulling toward Sharpness but the 2.5 oz tip coped with it. I was hitting the clip each time and dipping the rod in the water tightening up at the same time. 

Mike had first blood again netting a couple of big skimmers before I had a knock about 45 minutes in, a baby bream of around 2lbs. After that I started to get a few more bites and liners, a perch and a big rudd plus a hybrid off around 2lbs. A couple of hours in and we were both neck and neck having caught a similar amount of fish and weight. 

I upped my casting and also stepped up to a 0.13 with half a dendra and a pinkie or maggot increasing my feed content as well. This worked and I was soon getting proper fish on a regular basis.

I lost what I believe was a good tench and on the next cast got broken so stepped up again to 0.15 hook length keeping the B520 14 hook.

Just as well as the bream lined up and I think I took 5 in consecutive casts much to Mike's amazement.

What a great day we both had.

Mike ended up with 30lbs plus

Red letter day for me 60lbs ish

Back on the Bristol Avon this Sunday at Staverton / Barton Farm for a SW Super League practice, 60 pegger.

Sunday 3rd June - S W Super League Round 1 Gloucester Canal

Back on the Glossy again today for the 1st Round of the SW Super League. I feel this venue has been my second home this Spring and overall I have done OK.
Sadly there are now only 6 Teams of 8 fishing this League (my old Maver Cadbury Team have now officially disbanded and we are part of the Sensas Nomads squad which I am more than happy with) although there was also a ''hospital team'' made up to fish today to swell the numbers but their points did not count.

We had a good Team meeting last Tuesday and left feeling positive with lots of information shared although ultimately it would be down to the draw and bream.

Captain Mike Martin-Davies selected the team in good time which was.....

Mark Williams
Mike Withey
Richard Whitmarsh
Steve ''Stretch'' Saunders
Chris Hook
Ivan Currie
Mark Traves
Mark Jones

Mike had dropped himself but attended as bank runner.

I did text organiser Mark Treasure asking what Sections would be in earlier in the week and he said it would be the same as the previous week except for Monk Meadow.

So todays Section  details were....

 

Chris was elected to do the Team draw and we were the last team but one to do so. Afterwards everyone held back before rushing off to give any advice necessary regarding peg form, approach and directions. When I glanced at the Team Draw Sheet I saw I was end peg 65 at Netheridge. DGL's Mark Brush had 11lb plus off it the previous week so not too bad. Mark Jones was also on a good peg, 46 on the bend at Hempstead. Others had a few OK pegs and a couple of poor ones.

Fishing was 11:00 - 16:00 and it didn't take me long to get to Netheridge and park up. As I walked down the towpath I passed some really good anglers who knew this Section really well so no mugs here then.

I was set up with a good 30 minutes to go. 2 Feeder Rods, one set up to fish hair rigged bread the other fishmeal. Both hooks were 16's to 0.11 power, 25 gram cage feeder to braid.

2 pole rigs, One at 11 metres, 2 gram float, 0.12 fluro hook length to a 18 series 2 tubertini, the other 5 metres out, 1 gram float and same terminal tackle.

Liquidised bread, Green F1 fishmeal, sweet mix for the pole lines and dead reds, dead pinkie, live pinkie, caster and worm.

View around the peg....

I had fished peg 64 before a few years ago and new the line to target the bream with the feeder. I was just beyond the arm of the old ''Hempstead Bend'' and although and end peg it would be hard to beat 63, 62 and 61 to my left. Andy Powell next to me on 64 also had a a fair bit of water in front of him.

I fed my pole lines first, 4 big balls cupped in on each with plenty of feed for a change. I started off on the bread feeder right under the far bank bushes as this was the team plan with a piece of 11mm double punch hair rigged. After 30 mins not a sign of a fish and I think Lee Trivet on 62 had a couple of early bream.

I felt the bread wasn't right so went on the fishmeal with a few offerings added fishing worm and pinkie on the hook. After several casts the tip flew around and it was bream on, a decent fish of around 3lbs. I started getting liners so stuck at it and soon added another then it went quiet. I couldn't really see what was going on to my left as I was facing the other way but Andy Powell next to me on 64 said Phil Bendall next to him was getting a few as well as Lee.

Mike Martin-Davies came walking along the bank and asked if I would like a chocolate ice lolly, he had a box of them and it was very welcome due to the heat. I got about halfway through it with Mike still behind me when the tip went around at the same time as I had the ice cream in one hand a a boat going over my line. I hit the bite with my free hand and connected frantically handing the half eaten ice cream to Mike and dipping the rod in the water. Thankfully the fish stayed on and bream No. 3 was netted. 

Mike went off to see how Mark Jones was getting on up at the bend on 46.

Andy next to me on 64 started to catch a few at this time as well.

I had a look on the short pole line and after 10 minutes or so the float went under and a good fish was on for a few seconds before leaving me. Close inspection revealed one of the dead reds had folded over the hook. Tried again but no more bites.

At this point I thought I was playing catch up with 64, 63 and 62 so more or less decided to stick it out on the tip. I managed 3 more bream and a small eel for the rest of the match. I knew Andy had 7 bream to my 6 and Phil had about 5 plus also knew Lee had a few more late.

I had the board and Andy had the scales so we weighed from 57 back down to our pegs.

Heres how the Section weights went.....

So finished 3rd in Section and was OK with that give where I was, not that much in the top 3 and a couple of bream could have made all the difference.

Todays catch 17lb 7oz 

Match results as follows:

Sections (paying top 2 on each).....

A

1.  Nigel Baker 13lb

2.  Jon Tocknell 11lb 4oz

B

1.  Mick N 7lb 8oz

2.  Mark Bromsgrove 4lb 4oz

C

1.  Ian Pauley 7lb 9oz

2.  Shane Williams 4lb 14oz

D

1.  Andy Jane 29lb 5oz

2.  Mark Jones 13lb 5oz   Sensas Nomads

E

1.  Lee Trivitt 24lb 15oz

2.  Andy Powell 22lb 5oz

F

1.  Andy Richings 36lb 

2.  Paul Nichols 17lb 5oz

G

1.  Lance Tucker

2.  Rich Whitmarsh (not sure of weight)Sensas Nomads

H

1.  ? 10lb 11oz

2.  Mark Williams 4lb Sensas Nomads

Overall, paying top 3

1st   Andy Richings 36lb plus (peg 177) Sensas Lobbys

2nd  Luke Sorokin 30lb 15oz (peg 221) P I Thatchers

3rd  Andy Jane 29lb 5oz (peg 44) Sensas Lobbys

4th  Lee Trivitt 24lb 15oz (peg 62) P I Thatchers

5th  Andy Powell 22lb 5oz (peg 64) Sensas Lobbys

6th  Ivan Currie 17lb 7oz (peg 65) Sensas Nomads

Teams...there is some confusion from our side and the points do need checking...

1st    Sensas Lobbys 35

2nd  DGL 29

3rd   PI Thatchers 28

4th   GBV ?

5th   Sensas Nomads 24

6th   Sensas 88 24

Some other photos from today....

Team mate Mark Jones, 2nd in section

3rd overall Andy Jane

No match planned for next week, nothing on that I know off.