A number of our Team fishing today....
Mike Withey
Rich Whitmarsh
Andy Thomas
Chris Hook
Me
Draw was at the Crown in Keynsham, usually pretty good but breakfast a bit disorganised.
We had to pay an additional £1 today in order to cover the cost of a parking charge at the Rugby Club in Saltford which is also the access point to the ''trees section''. I am sure if Bathampton AA put their mind to it a car park could be developed for anglers use, not only for matches but for pleasure anglers as well. There is currently no safe place to park in the area as far as I know.
The match length had been pegged out the day before by Lee Trivet who had also provided anglers with plenty of room. I drew peg 21 which was somewhere in the mid 40 permanent peg area so not too bad.
It was already warming up but the walk was OK, all on the flat and no fences.
I got to the peg and looked at it ...thought oh bollocks....it was a long way down the bank to get to the water so the Rigger Platform would need to be set up and unshipping back with the pole at an acute angle of 60 degrees would not be much fun either.
Just as well we had plenty of time to set up, fishing was 11:30 - 16:30.
There were a few rowers about which were going all over the place but they usually are off the water by lunchtime.....hopefully.
I took a bit of time sorting out the platform as I usually slide in halfway through the match, cries for help would go unnoticed due to the distance between pegs.
2 pole rigs and a feeder for today, not much point setting anything else up as there was little flow and deep on the inside and middle. No flow across so not much point in a waggler.
Depth at 11 metres was good enough for a top 4 rig with about 2 foot between pole and float. A 1 gram was just right and pick up what flow there was. 18 hook to 0.10. At 13 meters it was a bit deeper about top 4 and a half, could have done with a short no. 4 section really to ease any swinging (fish that is not swinging like your thinking of). A 2.5 gram was chosen with a 16 to 0.12. The feeder chuck was just downstream in the middle.
On the all in I balled 14 big ones in between the 2 lines. My mix wasn't right and should have put some leam in it, will sort that out for next week. In the mix I had corn, hemp, caster, dead reds.
6 feeder fulls of chop and caster were put in as well with green F1.
Starting at 11 metres with the light rig it was a bleak first put in then a few more ..couldnt get through them. I decided to give them a break of 10 minutes while I took the hook out of my keep net followed by my trousers then my t-shirt...no going well you might say!
New hook length sorted and back in business .... more bleak.
Picked up the heavier rig, shortened the depth a bit put on double caster and had a few roach followed by perch. Unshipping was difficult with the pole having to be raised high in the air causing a slack line after hooking fish resulted in a few losses. You can't afford to loose fish early at Newbridge as they tend to back right off quickly. I hooked a decent skimmer and it spat the hook out at the net. This happened with a couple of nice roach as well.
After an hour the bites dried up so went out at 13 metres after adjusting the depth again. Bingo a couple of skimmers and some lumpy perch. Double caster was doing the trick still but after catching a small chub it spewed out a load of corn.
Corn on the hook did not get any interest at all. Nigel Wyatt came down (he was pegged up near the Pump House I think) asking what I had saying it was fishing hard but Warren Bates had around 8lbs. It was about the halfway mark and I just plodded on after topping up the feeder line for a look later on. I took the odd fish on the pole now and then, tried the feeder a couple of times but not a sign.
I did enjoy the day but that bank behind me was a real hinderance and knew it cost me a few pounds. I also made a couple of school boy errors swinging fish so have had a word with myself.
Dean Harvey came down with the scales and said it had fished hard, he hadn't done that well.
My fish went 5lb 14oz but it should have been more like 10lbs
I went back to the pub for a pint, not many had come back and after hearing the main weights left for home as my dog was on her own.
1st Neil Richards 20lb (little field)
2nd Rob Jones 16lbs 6oz (trees peg 122)
3rd Phil Bendall 16lb 5oz (peg 88)
Warren Bates and Dave Clapton both had 16lb 3oz so a tight 2nd to 5th.
2nd placed Rob Jones, nice bag of fish (courtesy of his FB page)
As I write this team mate Mike Withey had contacted me saying he has some money for me £20 for 2nd in Section....happy days.
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