Sunday 4th November - Sensas Bristol Commercial House League Round 4, Lower Bristol Avon

After Wednesdays disaster I was looking forward to this match, the temperature on the Saturday night was very mild and it was going to be overcast all day Sunday with continuous light rain. We had DGL young gun Phil Bendall fishing for us today as Geraint was on the ABC Wye Winter League.

So Sensas Nomads Black squad for today was....
Chris Hook (c)
Sam Johnson
Leigh Wakefield
Rich Whitmarsh
Phil Bendal
Me

As a team we are not doing very well in this league but we have had some individual honours.

There were two sections at Swineford, two up the Crane and two down at Chequers. The Jack Whites section was left out as the banks are very unsafe now, pity as there is always a bit of pace and a few fish to be had. Most fancied Swineford, Chequers didn't fish that well last time and up the Crane would be a challenge in terms of distance and fences.

We were nice and early paying our pools and Chris managed to get the fishing changed by 15 minutes  as drawing at 08:00 and fishing 10:00 - 15:00 is a bit tight, so 10:15 - 15:15 it was.
The team draw came back and I glanced at the sheet which told me normal service was resumed for me in terms of the longest walk, C1 top end of the Crane.
Phil was on A1 the outfall peg at Swineford and headed off to get his head down on the whip. Chris was on B1 near the railway bridge then there was a huge gap before my peg C1, Sam on D1 just above the old Soap Works and Leigh and Rich at Chequers where you could drive to your peg.

Todays pegging guide

So we all headed off to our respective parking areas nice and early and this time due to no section in at Jack Whites I was able to park fairly close to the Scrap Yard which is in the lane to take you up the Crane section. The trouble is along this stretch of river is that unless you know the layout of your peg (and it can vary week to week depending on who pegs it) you need to take the kitchen sink. 

I headed up the lane with Sam and into the field over the slippery Cattle Grid with my one wheeled rigger platform barrow, nearly lost an ankle! The field was muddy and the mud and grass was sticking to the mudguard above the wheel making it hard to push. We came to the first fence and fair play everyone helped each other get the kit over the first obstacle. Sam's peg was comfortable and we exchanged a few words before I headed up to the second fence, again helping hands were appreciated but I still had a way to go. Part way up I left the barrow and just took the two holdalls up to the peg before coming back for the rest of the kit. I was now down to a t-shirt.

I had my second look at the peg and decided to prod the small ledge with a bank stick which was under water down a very high and steep bank to see if the mud would take a platform. It didn't seem too bad and some 40 minutes later I had everything down that I needed level with the water.

It was a long way down (probably further than that!)

Given the logistics of having all the gear to hand the pole stayed in the holdall but I am sure it enjoyed the long trek.

I opted for three running line set ups today, crowquill, waggler and feeder. From a fishy point of view the peg did look nice the plan was to loose fed maggot in front of the boat for a waggler line, crowquill down the middle over ground bait and loose feed and the feeder rod across to the boat if it got hard.

Plumbing up I had about 8 foot down the middle and it was the same across in front of the boat. There was a slight downstream wind but with an 8BB quill it did not affect presentation, on the business end I had a drennan size 20 match hook to 0.09. The waggler was a 3AA with an 18 wide gape hook to 0.10. Feeder rig was a 25gram to B520 16 to 0.12.

That extra 15 minutes to set up made all the difference to me and I was just about ready when the ''all in'' was shouted. Four big balls of Sensas River and Noire went in laced with pinkie, caster and hemp down the middle and two big pouch fulls of maggot across. I watched some footage of the Riverfest on the Saturday and was impressed by the way some anglers were feeding so set out to feed with discipline today. 

starting off on the crowquill with maggot on the hook it didn't take long to get my first dumpy roach. I was more than happy the way the float was running through as its a method I have not used for ages. The fish were really lining up and ''having it'' and i think over the first hour I had 30 fish. I soon got into a rhythm feeding down the middle with caster and hemp every other run through and in between feeding the far line with maggot. The second hour was better than the first and the fish showed no sign of backing off. On the two hour mark the wind dropped a bit and I threw the crowquill over near the boat on the maggot line just to see what was about. It was easy to see it against the black hull and it didn't take long for it to go under. There was quite a bit if resistance and at first I thought it was a big chub. Coming across the river it went deep and fought a bit like a bream. It was actually a perch touching 3lbs. What a fish and the net was used for the first time. 

It was great holding back the crowquill on both lines and my feeding discipline held out for the 5 hours. I cannot remember when I had a day like it. Another big perch was landed about an hour from the end and I was tempted to put the feeder across with worm but with almost a bite a chuck the risk was too great. the waggler and feeder rods were not picked up.

During the 5 hours I fed 2 pints of maggot, 2 pints of hemp and a pint of caster, thats a lot of feed for a November match but like I say they were having it big time.

I knew I had 20lb plus. Shaun Townsend came up with the scales from 2 pegs down as I had the board, he also said he had 20lb plus.

My net of fish went 24lb 14oz

Heres C Sections board (A and B Div) as you can see Shaun had 1lb more than me!

So back to the results and I was grateful for Sam coming back up river to help push the barrow back as I was flagging.

It soon became clear that the Chequers section had fished extremely poor. One of the sections was won with 3oz, the other just over 1lb and there were loads of blanks!

I got the section by default as Shaun just framed (they only pay the top 4) so I was 5th overall from 48 anglers.

Matt Challenger had a good day on the Chub a few pegs below the ''beach'', all on the waggler.

Matt with his Chub bag

Here are the full results courtesy of Vince Lunn.....

Individuals 

1 M Challenger Mosella Bathampton A 34 lbs 0 ozs (Chub below the beach)
2 I Stainer Sensas Nomads Green 29 lbs 7 ozs (skimmers boys hole)
3 D Harvey DW Builders 26 lbs 7 ozs (bream at Swineford)
4 S Townsend Mosella Bathampton B 25 lbs 14 ozs
5 I Currie Sensas Nomads Black 24 lbs 14 ozs
6 D Gillman Mosella Bathampton A 19 lbs 10 ozs

Teams
A Div on day
1 Mosella Bathampton A 17
2 Mosella Bathampton B 15
3 Preston Innovations Thatchers 14
4 Sensas Nomads Black 8

A Div League overall 
1 Mosella Bathampton A 67.5 
2 Preston Innovations Thatchers 65 
3 Mosella Bathampton B 54 
4 Sensas Nomads Black 47.5

B Div on day
1 Sensas Nomads Green 17
2 Stand & Deliver Promotions 16
3 DW Builders 13
4 M & N Electrical 7
1 Mosella Bathampton A 67.5
2 Preston Innovations Thatchers 65
3 Mosella Bathampton B 54
4 Sensas Nomads Black 47.5

B Div League overall
1 Stand & Deliver Promotions 65
2 DW Builders 58
3 Sensas Nomads Green 55
4 M & N Electrical 53

Well done to the Sensas Nomads green Team today and Mike Withey for winning his Section plus Ian Stainer for coming 2nd overall.

Swineford and the Crane sections fished exceptionally well with only 8 of the 32 anglers catching under 6lbs .... what a river.

Next match for me is this coming Sunday, Upper Thames Winter League on the Kennent and Avon Canal at Seend. It will be a very different day.....fingers crossed for perch and skimmers.

Thank you for all the support ....... the blog will continue...