Sunday 16th September - Gloucester Canal Feeder Only Match

On 29th September there is a World Club Feeder only qualifying match on the Gloucester Canal. My Team Nomads did discuss entering but decided not to bother. It is a Team of 5 event and the entry is £80 per Team plus £150 in pools. We decided it was a bit expensive and if you win it the final is in Portugal next year so you would have to fund all the travelling etc yourself. On the bottom of the entry form it stated the team that qualifies on the Glossy would represent England ! Hmmm...so our team is a mix of Norther Irish, Welsh and English, not sure how that works? Don't need an answer as we are not entering.

Diawa Gordon Leagues Mark Treasure is the organiser (and a good job he does to) and is running a couple of practice matches this being the first one. Team mate Chris Hook asked if I fancied going to it and I said yes as there was nothing else on.

The draw was at McDonalds, Bristol Road in Gloucester. I got there quite earlier and found I was the second one to turn up Phil Bendall being the first. A few more drifted in before the final total of 12 attended. Jamie Harrison travelled all the way down from Sheffield, I think it was his first visit to the venue.

Mark simply put 6 pegs in on Hempstead Bend, 45 to 50 and the other 6 below the swing bridge starting from peg 60.
Pay out was £100 to the winner plus 2 sections of £50, one above / one below the bridge.
I drew 60 which I was not at all happy with and knew it would be a section win at the most but that would also be a tall order. Chris was on 63 so had a better chance at the section. There was no way we would compete with the pegs up on the bend.
We were fishing to CIPS International rules and Mark summarised them before the match.

Easy drive, parking and short walk to the peg. It was just on the point where the old bend used to come out before it was straightened. Pleasure anglers were up the old arm but not near the point where I would be casting to.
After taking advice from Shaun Bryan I set up 2 feeder rods set up today one in line with the point where the old arm joined the canal 13 meters or so from the far bank out into open water and another one about 10 meters further up into the arm more. Organiser Mark was on 61 next to me and had 6 set up.

I had a fishmeal mix 50% worm and 50% F1 green plus worms, caster, dead maggots / pinkies as well as live ones.
There was a 10 minute pre baiting period but I didn't over do it. The canal was a pretty dirty colour due to the high tides. I had never really seen it that dirty before.

I started off on the closer line with a red worm and dead red on the hook which was a 14 B520 to 0.13. Casting about every 5 minutes for the first 40 minutes there was no indications. Looking down the line of 6 anglers I had seen nothing caught. It was probably about just past the hour when I had a small rattle on the tip followed by a slight pull around and I picked up the rod just as a few canoes crossed my line. I did feel some resistance so put the tip down under the water to allow the canoes to go by. The fish was still on and I netted a small skimmer about 6 ounces. I think that was the first fish in the section to be caught. Mark managed a couple of eels and then I could see landing nets going out further down periodically.

My tip stayed motionless and after 2 hours or so I gave Chris a call a few pegs down, he had a few small skimmers. Word came down that a few bream where showing up on the bend (as you would expect).

My long line had not produced either so I unclipped the braid and cast as far as I could up into the open water. This produced another small skimmer and I thought I had located them....no I hadn't.
I did manage a better one about 10 ounces but that was it. Mark took a 4 lb bream short with 30 minutes to go and started to get a few bites on the same line but dd not connect.

Jake Fowles on 65 DNW as he tipped back 2 small skimmers. Rob McKenzie on 64 had 2 or 3 bream for 4lb 14oz 8 drams, Chris had around 6 small skimmers for 1lb 14oz, Shaun had 2 bream for 5lb 3oz (which won the section) and Mark had 4lb plus, my 3 skimmers went 1lb 3oz.

Shaun with his 2 bream worth £50

Up on the bend most of them had a few bream with Mark Gaylord winning with 42lb 12oz with Andy Richings close behind him with 41lb 11oz. Andy only caught in the second half of the match and Mark nicked a bream short on his last cast on the worm short without anything in the feeder!!!

No pic of Marks catch but heres one of Andy who go the Section by default.

Both pics from Facebook.

Mark is running another match next Sunday.

Well thats it for a couple of Sundays, next match is the Bristol Commercial House League on the Bristol Avon on 30th Sept, Swineford, Crane and Jack White sections.

Sunday 2nd September - Turner 400 River Thames, Radcot and Clanfield

I haven't done a blog for the recent Wednesday afternoon / evening matches I fished at Staverton during the summer due to time, lol I know I am retired but I am busy. I think I only missed one of them but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed them. Up to 20 fishing but usually around 16 and very friendly bunch. Easy to get to and park behind your peg. Gary Etheridge cleaned up most of the time picking up a place or a section. I had fished this part of the river once before but that was quite a will ago. I did start to get to grips with it and picked up 3 section payouts along the way which paid for the day. I will certainly be back next year.

So ... on to the Turner 400. I have never fished the Thames before and when a few of the lads said they were interested I put my name forward.
Nomads team of 4 was.....

Mark Williams
Mike Withey
Rich Whitmarsh
me

30 teams had registered for the match so 120 pegged.

I did trawl the internet for information but there was not a lot out there. A couple of the guys who were fishing Staverton on the last match did give me so info though and it sort of matched up with what I had found out and been told by Nomads Team Manager Mike Martin-Davies.

The draw was at the Swan Pub in Radcot OX18 2XS and when I route planned it I found it was 71 miles from home. The draw was also starting at 07:30 fish so I was on the road by 05:30 to be on the safe side. Just as well I did as I came across a road closure north of Swindon on the A420 which delayed me .......    note to utility companies doing road works and closing roads.......

PUT UP DIVERSION SIGNS BEFORE YOU CLOSE THE FECKIN ROAD!

Thank you

Once back on the A420 it was a picturesque drive into Oxfordshire and I arrived at the pub right on the Thames by 07:15. The lads were already there and I tucked into a delicious specialist sausage bap and cup of tea.
In terms of our teams overall experience on the Thames and on a scale of 10 we were about a 4 at a push.
There were lots of local teams as you would expect so we were really up against it but ... you gotta learn some way.

Sections today were.....
A              Radcoat up .....walk from the pub
B              Radcot down .......walk from the pub
C & D      Clanfied

Mark done the Captains job today and came back after the draw showing Rich on Radcot up and me Radcot down (peg 4 shortest walk), Mike and Mark having to drive a short distance to Clanfield but park behind your peg.
Steve Long (GBMV) pointed me in the right direction from the pub car park.

The Upper Thames here is a bit like Staverton but wider and shallower (just like Mike Martin-Davies said), very nice area. On the way to the peg I came across Shaun Bryan on peg 1, apparently it was a good area as was peg 2 and 3 with mine being ok ish. At the time there was little flow and Shaun said it probably would affect the fishing.
Roach would be the main target and 10lb would get you mega points.

When I get to my peg it did look nice, just around the corner from a marina mouth with over hanging willows. The bank was nice and flat and no need to get in the water.

I set up a 1 gram pencil float with number 11's strung out 3 feet below the bulk, 20 hook to 0.09. A 1 gram sensas carbon river float, again a 20 hook to 0.09 but bulk well down and a couple of number 10 droppers. Shaun also advised me to set up a 2 gram rig as well to a heavier elastic (no 6), my other top sets were no 4. Finally a waggler for right across as I was told chublets sometimes show.

On the ''all in'' I cupped in 8 balls of Gros Gardons and Noire with a few casters and hemp at 13 metres where the flow was plus 3 balls about 8 metres out where it was the same depth, about 7 foot.

Starting on the pencil rig with double caster I had 5 dumpy roach in 15 minutes then the bleak moved in. I started to spray hemp over the top hoping to fed them off, think I attracted more. Went out on the bulk rig and it was a bit better but my hook bait just kept getting ravaged before it hit bottom. I did overcome the problem a bit by putting the rig in well above my feed or well below it.
The roach did appear to reduce in size and I had a few dace as well. Coming in on the 8 metre line gave me a few perch so I fed some chopped worm which produced a small skimmer and a couple of roach but it was very slow. I had a look on the waggler but only caught micro chublets. I could see the angler below me and he appeared to be concentrating on a short line for most of the day. I did see him swing a few fish but not that many.

I re-fed my 13 metre line and nicked the odd fish but bumped quite a few right down the end of the peg. Switching up to an 18 hook made no difference and I became very frustrated with myself.

I thought i had around 3lbs but the scales said 4lb 6oz. Below me he weighed 6lb 6oz, above me 5lb 11oz, peg 2 had 11lb odd and Shaun on peg 1 won the 30 peg section with over 15lbs, he fished very well but gracious as usual saying he had a good peg but you still got to catch them.

Shaun with his section winning bag of mainly roach worth 30 points

My weight was only worth 9 points from 30.

Rich had 7lb plus for 17 points, Mike had 5lb odd for 17 points but Mark had 6lbs plus for a magnificent 26 points. 69 points in total which gave us 10th overall from 30 Teams.

Top 3 Teams as follows...

1st     Wyvern Anglers 99 points

2nd    Drennan Oxford Yellow 93 points

3rd     Diawa Gordon League Gold 91 points

Top Team Wyvern Anglers

So on relection...yep done a lot of that and will be trying to up my game.

On the plus side Mark picked up 3rd in his section, well done mate

PS .... I did not take the photo, think he was jumping around for joy too much to get all his head in

No top weights recorded today as I left early in case the road closure was still in place.

Pic (bit of an angle though) showing points per team if you want to try and work the full positions out.

Enforced match fishing break now until the end of September then Bristol Commercial House League  (I miss the first one) and Upper Thames Winter League.

If anyone locally is interested Colin from Premier Angling in Chippenham is running the following league once a month on Wednesdays through the winter.