Sunday 14th October - Sensas Bristol Commercial House Round 3, Bristol Avon Newbridge

We had a squad meeting a couple of weeks ago to discuss tactics for this match. Team manager Mike Martin-Davies handed out a few riddles as prizes for recent section winners, Chris said he had enough riddles but could do with a new stink bag. Mikes reply was you can have one but you got to win 2 sections.

I met up with Sam and Chris in McDonalds on the Bath Rd. Chris was a little late due to a busy Saturday which also involved some consumption of alcohol! He wasn't quite with it so to speak.

The draw was at the Crown in Keynsham but parking was a bit of a problem as the Rugby Club opposite had an event on so we could use their facility and most other roads are double yellowed.

Team today was...
Chris Hook (c)
Sam Johnson
Leigh Wakefield
Rich Whitmarsh
Geraint (aka keep Britain tidy) Powell
Me

We also had another team in B Div.

We had a fair bit of rain leading up to the match but reports after observations on the Saturday morning it had made very little difference to the river.
We were fairly well down in the draw and with fishing 10:00 - 15:00 it would be a bit of a challenge to get set up on time as there were a few long walks........guess what...yep, I got the longest feckin walk again.....Mike Martin-Davies....please send me a grievance form to complete!!!!

We drew Peg 1.
Chris was on A and was delighted with it being on permanent peg 3.
Sam had the shortest walk (i.e. nil as he parked behind his peg on B section permanent peg 20 before the pump house.
Leigh was in C Section partway down the straight around peg 36.
I was in D permanent peg 54
Rich in E somewhere around the old railway bridge.
Geraint in the trees in F.

The river was very clear but there was a bit more flow. I was sat well up from the river but at least it was a safe bank and my 4 metre net reached the water comfortably. The rain was still coming down as it had done for quite a few hours and was not due to stop until about 14:00.
I had a trolley but left it in the van due to having the long walk and did not need the extra weight.

Plumbing up with a 2 gram bodied float I found it was just under match top 4 deep at 13 metres which was were the flow was. It ran though nice but I thought the river might come up a bit and also set up a 4 gram Flat Float for the same line. A waggler and feeder rod came out of the ready rod bag.
Ground bait today was Sensas River and Gros Gardon plus soil for balling in and some brown crumb added instead of soil for the feeder mix.

I was just about ready for the all in and had 8 balls ready to feed laced with a little worm, dead pinkie, hemp and caster.
First trot down with an exploratory maggot the float buried and a roach of about 3 oz was swung in. Next run though a skimmer of around 8 oz which I netted. I switched to caster and soon was swinging in dumpy roach, beautiful fish and started to get my act together loose feeding hemp and caster over the top. Usually the pole line dies at Newbridge after 45 mins to an hour but I was surprised that after 90 minutes I was still catching although it did slow. I soon realised the pike had moved in as I had one on for a short while and then saw a few following fish in. The line died completely just after the second hour. The river had not come up nor had it coloured up any but I decided to give the flat float a try with a worm and dead red. After 20 minutes I did not have a bite so had a look on the feeder. I did have a couple of rattles but nothing positive so gave up on that and came back on the 2 gram rig. I did have a couple more smaller roach so put in a few more balls and left it. Out on the waggler was a fair distance and I couldn't loose feed all the way across to the tree line but I could get the float there. I noticed a few small fish jumping out of the water so guessed it was chub chasing them.
Double red shallow about 5 foot saw a few bites from barrel chub, they didn't weigh much but at least  I was putting something in the net. It was hard to judge how the match was going as there were no bank walkers and looked like everyone stayed at their pegs which is the way it should be.

I had a call from Chris to ask me how it was going, I told him I had about 5lb but was now struggling. He said he had about 20lb made up of skimmers, roach and a proper bream on the pole. He has drawn that peg a few times and it has got form.
I carried on chopping and changing and on the all out had a 6 oz chublet across on the wag.

The scales came up and Paul Issacs was best with 16lb odd from permanent peg 61 on the norfolk reeds but the rest of the weights were pretty poor ranging from 6oz to 3lb odd. Paul Purchase was below me and he weighed just over 8lb, my net went 6lb 14oz so 3 points from 4 and if Paul Isaacs framed I would get the A Div section money by default. The 2 pegs above me in C section had around 3lb - 4lb each.

Walking back to the van I caught up with Sam and Chris. Sam had 6lb 6oz for last in Section he also told me Leigh had a poor day with 2lb 3oz and last in his Section. Chris had finished with 21lb 4oz and hoped it would be enough to win the day.

Chris with his 21lb 4oz

The Team Sheet was a bit of a mixed bag with Rich also winning his Section.

Our Team sheet

Not a bad day really for Nomads. Chris 1st overall and 3 Section winners across the 2 teams (alough mine was default).

Individuals on the day......

1 C Hook Sensas Nomads Black 21 lbs 4 ozs
2 P Isaccs Mosella Bathampton A 16 lbs 12 ozs
3 S Kittridge Mosella Bathampton B 13 lbs 4 ozs
4 J Rowland DW Builders 12 lbs 13 ozs
5 S Skelton M & N Electrical 12 lbs 9 ozs
6 R Manns Preston Innovations Thatchers 10 lbs 13 ozs

Teams
A Div on the day
1 Mosella Bathampton B 17
2= Mosella Bathampton A 15
2= Sensas Nomads Black 15
4 Preston Innovations Thatchers 13 

B Div on day
1 M & N Electrical 19
2 Stand & Deliver Promotions 16
3 DW Builders 14
4 Sensas Nomads Green 11 

A Div League overall
1 Preston Innovations Thatchers 51
2 Mosella Bathampton A 50.5
3 Sensas Nomads Black 39.5
4 Mosella Bathampton B 39 

B Div League overall
1 Stand & Deliver Promotions 49
2 M & N Electrical 46
3 DW Builders 45
4 Sensas Nomads Green 38

Big day for Chris and I next Saturday as we are fishing the Angling Trust Canal Pairs Final on the Staffs Worc and the Trent and Mersey Canals after winning the qualifier on the Glos Canal back in June. Then on the Sunday I have a Winter League match at Chippenham and Melksham. 

Best get on with some prep then...