No blogs until Mid January 2020

Taking a break from fishing until mid January as I will be very busy.

Thanks for all the support and comments about my blog.

Hopefully I will get a few decent days on the rivers before mid March and then it will be the Spring campaign on the Bristol Feeder Canal and Gloucester Canal.

Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

Sunday 24th November - Bristol Commercial House League Final Round K & A Canal Bath

Onto the final round of this league and the first time it's been fully completed before Christmas.

We had a squad meeting about 10 days before the match and due to the drop in temperatures we decided that bloodworm and joker would be a good idea.  I volunteered to source it again and placed an order with Taffy up in Bolton. We have had it off him before and its very good.
It arrived Friday morning so I unpacked it right away and gave it all a good spray with cold water and left in in the paper on the garage floor. Prior to match day it was sprayed twice a day.
My rig and hook prep was done a week ago so no last minute rushing.

Team today was:
Chris Hook
Leigh Wakefield
Rich Whitmarsh
Mike Withey
Jeff Sibley
Me

Mike was also in the final of the knock-out against Vince Lunn.

We already knew what sections were being put in as it was posted on Facebook the evening before...and as follows (sorry about the shadow but I didn't take the photo).

Prior to the draw there was much debate about the sections and what would be the favoured peg number to draw, we decided that 1 would be a good one.

Chris went up to do the team draw and .... came back with 1.

My enthusiasm deteriorated a bit when I saw that I was in F section aka Meadow Farm. Never done any good in this section and the upstream side of the bridge usually fishes better that the other side, which I would be on.  Anyway, job to do so off I went.

I parked at the top of Bathampton Lane to walk down, I wouldn't be pushing the barrow back up the steep hill, instead the gear would be left at the bottom and I would drive down with the van to pick it up.

Only 3 of us on the shitty side of the bridge, Nigel Wyatt, Ben Rendall and me.

The peg to be fair looked OK and it was quite mild so perhaps I would be surprised.

2 identical 4 x 14 rigs for the track although one had a 20 hook and the other a 18 both with 4 elastic.

1 4 x 12 for actors with 7 sections to fish the bottom of the far shelf, 20 hook with 3 elastic.

1 0.4 gram choppy float with a wide gape strong 18 for fishing up on the shelf for perch, 5 elastic.

I fed 2 balls of bread down the track to my left at the start and fished a 6mm punch over the top. 15 minutes went by and just little blips on the float, not going under as I would expect. I did give it another 15 minutes but felt it was a lost cause. Prior to fishing this line I had fed choppy and cast up on the shelf at two points and a ball of joker on the 7 section line straight in front.

An early look on the left hand shelf line with maggot did produce a couple of quick bites but I fail to connect. I think I hit the bite too early manly due to a boat coming up. After it went past I put a bit more choppy in. 

Going across at the bottom of the shelf with double bloodworm finally gave me a fish which was about 0.5 ounces! Another one followed about the same size, oh dear!

Ben shouted down and asked how I was doing, not very well was the reply, he had about 9 small fish at this stage.

The first hour is normally the best on the canal but it just wasn't happening and I feared the worst.

It got a bit better after 2 hours as I just got my head down and fished the bloodworm over regular top ups of joker in team. I did have a couple of 2 oz fish but in the main it was 4 to the ounce, riveting ...not.

The track produced little or nothing and it was too long to wait for a bite.

With and hour and a half to go I finally snared a decent net fish on the worm right across. I thought at first it was a perch, then a hybrid but no, it was a good roach. Soon afterwards I had a small perch on the same line but that was it.

I just stuck it out the rest of the match on the B & J line.

Darren Gillman came up with the scales to weigh me in first.

The scales registered 2lb 8.5 ozs. Here's two photos to get some idea of the size of fish in my peg.

Ben weighed in next and beat me by a few ounces but he was in A Div anyway.

Here's how the whole of F Section fished .....

Geraint who had the 7lb only really caught in the first hour but had 3 nice big skimmers.

Still, won my section and maximum 3 points, job done.

Back at the pub and there was a mixed team result but we did manage 3 section wins from 6.

Team sheet below.......

It was enough to win our Division by 8 points so a good effort from all the team over the 6 matches.

Here are the section winning weights some by default...

Sect         A Div            B Div

A             9-15              11-13 Rich

B             10-6              10-3   Jeff

C              4-4                11-8

D             6-9                 4-12

E              2-3                 0-13.5

F              7-0                 2-8.5 Me 

Some good weights as expected from the Town area and Rich just missed out on framing with his 11lb odd.

Mike didn't manage to beat Vince in the Knock-Out but he done well getting through to the final.

Match winner Nicky Johns with a magnificent 23lbs from the Long Pond.

Wednesday 13th November - pleasure session Gloucester Canal

We had a squad meeting on the Monday night to sort out our approach for the final round of the Bristol Commercial House League as well as look ahead to next year.

I mentioned that I would be going up on the Glossy mid week as the river would still be high.

Mike said he would come along and we met in McDs at Hardwick before heading up to Hempstead to fish the bend where I had a great day last Tuesday.

Mike went in on 48 and I took up 47. Both of us just took feeder rods.

No one else was there so we assumed we were in for a decent day.

Well ...It didn't happen.

Mike had two bites and no fish.

I only had 2 x 3oz perch and 2 hand sized skimmers.

Think it was too cold the night before and they will take a week to get used to the drop in temperature.

No fishing this weekend as we are having "Christmas Dinner" .... I know....don't ask...got the Samaritans on speed dial.

Sunday 10th November - Bill Milton Memorial Poppy Match, Bristol Avon, Newbridge to Chequers

Up until the Saturday morning prior to the match the river looked spot on ... then the heavy rain that came the same day and overnight had a big impact and up the level went again making it difficult for the guys who pegged out. Years ago if the river was out of sorts the Kennet and Avon Canal from Bath out to Claverton would have been a contingency but with the increase of house boats this is sadly no longer an option.

So the river it was then and a difficult day could be expected for the participants.

It was a good turnout despite the conditions and out of over 100 tickets sold 84 anglers turned up.

The event is the biggest match on the Bristol Avon with all proceeds going to the British Legion. In all the years I have fished it the best I have done is a 3rd and a 7th. At this event even some of the Commercial Anglers turn out such is the level of support given.

The organisation of the event is no mean feat lead by Ray Bazeley and a team of magnificent helpers who liaise with the controlling clubs, land owners, tackle shops, printers and the Pavilion Club in Keynsham to ensure the proceedings run smoothly.

Out of our Nomads Match Team we had 5 representatives fishing today, Chris, Sam, Brian and Stretch as well as myself.

Pegging details were as follows:

Sam is always keen to get as near the front of the draw que as possible so after the 2 minutes silence we were right at the front. Unbelievably Sam drew 77, Chris 76 and me 75 after the tickets were given a good mix up!!!!
So we were all up the Crane, Sam said we were in a good area on the day.... remember that....

We got parked up OK before the rest of the anglers arrived for this area and just as well as parking is very tight now. Walking up the patch alongside the river it looked pretty full and pacy. I was just hoping for a peg with a bit of slack. 2 fences later I arrived and to be honest the peg didn't look too bad given the conditions with a bit of a slack a rod length out and a rod length down stream toward some trees.

This would have been a great peg in normal conditions running the crow quill down the middle and the waggles across but hey ho.

2 feeder rods and a pole feeder rig was the order of the day.

30 grams held bottom initially close in were it was about 5 to 6 foot deep but as the match progressed I had to clip on another 30 and towards the end a 10 as the river got faster.

Starting of the on tip the leaves were a nightmare but I still fancied it for a few fish. An hour in I had a call from Sam who said he had one small dace on the pole feeder, Chris was blanking.

I picked up the pole feeder and after 20 minutes had a small roach.

Paul Benson came up the bank and said most were really struggling below me, he walked on up. When he came back he said Glenn Bailey had about 5 small fish, no one else above had anything.

After he went I had another small fish close to the bank so decided to see the match out on the pole feeder. Lots of false bites from leaves were annoying.

Darren Gillman came up for a walk with his family and reported it was still hard below me, when he came back Glenn was supposed to have had 11 small fish.

During the time left I added a few more ending up with 10 but they were small.

Glenn came down with the scales and said he had 1lb 1oz, I didn't think I had that and sure enough weighed 12oz. Glenn actually won our section with that!

Chris finished fishless and Sam weighed 9.5 oz which won him his section.

To show you all how hard it fished here are the section weights from Newbridge down....none by default.

4 - 01
7 - 11
1-14 -8
1- 01
3 - 01
0 - 04
1 - 03
2 - 06
2 - 0
4 - 11
8 - 12
2 - 03
2 - 05
2 - 0
1 - 01
0 - 09 - 08
1 - 02
1 - 0
19 - 12
9 - 01

So out of our guys Brian, Sam and Stretch won their sections Stretch also framed.

Paying out top 11 results as follows:

1. Craig Fletcher 19-12
2. M Jefferies 9-01
3. Kev Abigail 8-12
4. Andy Cranston 7-11
5. Stretch 6-08
6. M Cox 4-11
7. Mike Goodhind 4-06
8. Mark Harper 4-01
9. Nigel Wyatt 2-07
10. Andy Richings 3-04
11. Andy Jane 3-01

To date £2000 has been raised as a result of this event.

Sam won the lucky ticket draw and won himself a Preston Monster Feeder Rod and promptly sold it for £40 lol, I won a bottle of red for the wife (you know it makes sense).

Great match, great cause, great company, well done all.

Event organiser Ray Bazeley with the winner Craig Fletcher.

Tuesday 5th November - Pleasure session Gloucester Canal

Looking at the weather forecast Tuesday looked to be the best day of the week but where to go. Chew Valley Lake was out as I have a freezer full of trout and the Bristol Avon was falling but still too high.

Late on Monday night I decided it would be the Gloucester Canal but couldn't decide whether to go but thought about Castle Up / Down or Hempstead Bend. A couple of feeder rods were sorted out with braid on the reels and ground bait pre-mixed.

When I got up on Tuesday morning I still wasn't sure but headed up the M5 and got to McDonalds at Hardwick around 07:45 for a coffee and a bagel.
Pulling out of their car park I turned right and headed up to Hempstead parking near the Swing Bridge in the housing estate to walk down to ''Hempstead Bend''. These are the pegs to draw in a match i.e 45 - 50 although 50 is not that great.

As I got down to the bend there was an angler already set up and fishing 49. He just had a single pole rig set up and fishing at 5 or 6 metres where it is approximately top 5 deep close in. The bream do come in close here but to do well a combination of pole and feeder is needed.

He hadn't caught yet and had been there about 2 hours. I asked him if it was ok to go in on 48 and he said carry on as I would be only fishing the feeder about 35 metres out.

The sky was pretty black and there was the odd shower but nothing to worry about as heavier rain wasn't due until the evening. Plenty of colour in the water as well as floating debris, leaves, twigs etc.

I decided to just take the 12 foot acolyte rod out of the bag combined with a 2oz tip, 0.10 braid on the reel, a 25 gram cage feeder and a size 16 B560 TO 0.11 power line.

Worm, dead reds, pinkie and caster were on the bait tray.

I was fully set up and ready by 09:30.

Casting out was good and I was hitting the clip and immediately sinking the braid before finally tightening up with just a little bit of tension on the tip.

2nd cast in I had a rattle but nothing more, at the same time the angler on 49 had a bream around 3lbs.

I kept re-casting every 5 minutes for the first 30 but not too much feed in the ground bait which was Bait-Tech Pro-natural with extra fishmeal added. Up unit the first 30 minutes I had dead reds on the hook but changed to half a dendra tipped with two flur pinkies. 

First cast with the change of hook bait produced a real wrap round and it was bream on. Lovely dark fish just under 4lbs. Soon after the angler on 49 had another but smaller than his first.

I kept with the worm and pinkie set up on the hook and dead on 10:30 had another positive pull and netted a bream of around 3lbs.

Another angler came down and set up the short pole on peg 51. Just as he came down 49 had another.

Plugging away my next bite didn't come until 12:00 ish and it was bream number 3.

After that the peg just got stronger and when I packed up at 15:00 in order to miss the traffic I had 17 bream so must have had over 40lbs. 

I know it's a decent peg but you still got to catch them.

The angler on 49 end up with just the 3 and the guy on 50 ended up with one as I packed up.

Lovely day

Poppy match on the Bristol Avon Sunday.

Sunday 3rd November - Chew Valley Lake

I was booked in to fish an Open on the Bristol Avon at Swineford but a text from organiser Dean Harvey notified me it was cancelled. No surprise really as I have been keeping an eye on the levels all day. The banks on some of the pegs can be quite steep so good call for safety reasons.

I pondered over a few options.....the K & A but couldn't get a day ticket until 9am. Durleigh Res probably too many carpers. Bristol Docks too many people walking around.  I eventually decided on Chew Valley Lake for another bit of "fluff chucking ".

I already had the rod set up with two red dawl bachs and a green one so it didn't take long to load up the following morning.

A reasonable day was forecast with light winds. I got to the Lodge around 9 am and got my ticket. I decided to try the Lodge Bank first as there is a decent depth close in but at the moment you can still wade out a few yards.

The sky was a little overcast but due to brighten up later.

The bank on Lodge is nice and solid with stones in wire cages to protect it from erosion unlike the North Bank where I was earlier in the week.
As I was putting my gear down a fish topped no more than 30 yards out.

I wadded out up to waist deep and fixed the bank stick with the landing net on it into the lake bed then went back to get the rod, I was the only one on Lodge Bank which is unusual but there were quite a few boats out.

I had my first pull around 20 minutes in and hit it. Lovely fit rainbow which gave a great battle as it took the point fly at distance.

Another angler turned up and started fishing about 40 yards to my right, he took a fish quite quickly.

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted another angler coming down the bank behind me...Mr. Currie..how are you he said...it was Steve Ball who I know from the Bristol and West Federation of Anglers and who also follows my blog.

Steve had read my earlier post about my day out on the North Bank and went there first but didn't have a pull, he also had been on Whalley Bank but know luck there either. He had a look at my fish, sat and had a chat and then went up near the boat jetty to try his luck.

The wind got up a little and was blowing right to left toward the bank so I had a few casts paraell to it and soon was playing another decent fish.

Steve came back about an hour later and asked if I had any more. I told him I had another, he hadn't had any luck and headed home to work on his motorcycle.

It was quiet for the next 90 minutes but on the retrieve about 2 rod lengths out I had a really violent take and had to give the fish a lot of line. What a scrap, it was a long lean fish but another angler weighed it for me and it registered 4lb 8ozs.

I had another smaller fish around 1lb 8ozs but let it go after landing it.

So a nice day after all.

Poppy match next Sunday but may go up on the Gloucester Canal in the week.

Wednesday 30th October -Chew Valley Lake Fly Fishing

I intended  to fish for roach on my local river Kenn as I had loads of left over bait, another option was to fish the Avon at Swineford.
But...to get to the Avon I would have to que in Bristol traffic and as for the Kenn the wind was stronger than forecast so.....a session on Chew it was.

A bank ticket in the winter is only £18 and you can take 6 fish plus catch and release.

I got up to the Lodge around 1015 and the wind looked OK in order to fish the Lodge bank but after getting my ticket it had increased and was blowing north to south, bit chilly as well.

In the interests of comfort I headed around to the North Bank were the wind would be off my back.

I already had the rod set up with 2 red dawl bachs and 1 green.

4 other anglers were on the bank plus a couple of boats in the vicinity.

I decided to settle in nearest the car park with an angler 30 yards to my left and only reeds to my right. I waded out up to my waist.

Casting was easy with the wind off my back and 4th cast I had a take and the others looked at me in astonishment lol.

After I netted it and put it in the bag two came down to me and asked what I caught it on as no one else had a pull.

I freely showed them my set up and off they went to change their flies.

I waded back out and had another...one guy shouted down and asked if I came here often. I said no I am a match angler.

The guy nearest to me then had one on a red dawl bach.

I had another 3 fish but put one back as it was only around 1lb.

At 3 o'clock I called it a day as it was getting colder.

Quite a nice few hours.

Open match on Sunday....Bristol Avon Swineford to Jack Whites.

Sunday 27th October - Bristol Commercial House League Round 5, Bristol Avon, Swineford and Crane

The rain we had on Friday was of no real concern but the down-pours we had on the Saturday were. I did check the gauge on line at Saltford which is upstream of the match length late Saturday afternoon and it looked OK. Further checks in the evening however did show a steady rise leading to a very steep rise before I went to bed.
With the clocks going back I had a troubled nights sleep and was more or less awake from 03:30.
When I did get up at 06:00 I checked the gauge again and saw that it had peaked and was slowly dropping.

When I went out the door it felt very cold and the van windscreen was frosted over (1st one of the year). I decided to leave the pole gear at home and just took 2 feeders rods, a long rod and a whip.

I met team mates Sam and Chris in McDonalds before joining the others at the Crown Pub in Keynsham.

Team today was the same as the last outing.....
Chris (c)
Sam
Rich
Mike
Brian
Me

When we got to the pub the word was the Upper Thames Winter League which was scheduled to be fished on the river at Melksham and Chippenham was cancelled due to the level of the river.

Chris done the team draw and came back with peg 3.
A sect (Swineford) was Brian
B sect (Swineford) me
C sect (crane) Chris
D sect (crane) Mike
E sect (crane) Sam
F sect (crane) Rich

Mike was also in the semi final of the ''knock out'' and was fishing against Rich Lacey.

As a team we were 5 points clear in our Div so needed to build on that as well.

Only one fence to negotiate today which was OK but someone had taken all the pegs from the fence posts but found my peg in the end with the help of Shane Caswell who also lent me a rope to get down the bank safely.

On the face of it the peg looked OK with a slack down the left hand side although there were a few boils. It was a full river and plenty of colour.

I just set up 2 feeder rods with a view to fishing short 30 gram and 45 gram feeders with a 14 and 12 hook. I was all set up and settled with 30 minutes to spare when I noticed a few small fish topping a rod length out so decided to set up a whip. 

A look in the rod bags and no whip.....left in in the van so decided to walk back and get it. As I passed team mate Brian on A3 he asked were I was going, told him and he lent me a whip which saved some time. I attached a 0.6 gram float and set it 10'' deep with a 20 hook.

On the whistle I went straight in with the 45 gram feeder, plenty of chopped worm and caster and a lobby on the hook. It sat there nice but when I picked the rod up to recast it was snagged and lost the lot. Went out with the other rod and cast a bit further out but that also ended up getting snagged and lost the lost again. 

So 20 minutes in and it wasn't going well. I felt my feeders and end tackle were ending up on parts of the bank which would have been visible had the water not been so high and there was also a sunken branch of a tree in the peg as well.

At this point I decided to forget about the feeder and try and get some bleak etc on the whip.

Loose feeding maggot it took me 20 minutes or so to get my first fish a small dace at 6 metres. I soon got into a rhythm and took a few more but only when the ''boils'' in front of me calmed down and the whirl pool ceased.

Lee Trevitt came down walking the bank (after coming back from the cancelled match at Chippenham) and watched me for a while and said I was doing ok.

So the whip it was for the rest of the match, caster brought a couple of better fish as did feeding small nuggets of sloppy ground bait.

I had a real mixed bag, roach, chublets, dace, bleak and minnows.

My net went 3lb 6oz which was 2nd in the whole section but also second in B Div section behind Paul Purchase who fished the feeder all day a rod length for a couple of late bream, a skimmer and some roach for 14lb 8oz.

Paul actually went on to win the match

My section board

Back at the pub we appeared to have done OK ish with Rich and Chris winning their sections and Brian and I second in section.

Our team sheet

Mike also got through to the final of the ''knock out'' so well done to him. He's up against Vince Lunn on the canal in a few weeks time.

Section weights as follows some my default....

            A Div          B Div

A         6-8               5-0

B         2-3               3-6 (me)

C         1-5               3-3 (Chris)

D         4-3               5-15

E          5-9.5           1-5

F          4-3              3-14 (Rich)

Full report and positions courtesy of Vince Lunn.....

The 5th round of the Sensas Commercial House league was fished on the Bristol Avon at Swinford and the crane. Heavy rain the previous day made the river high and coloured. There was an overnight frost with bright sunshine all day. The weights were low with only 8 anglers catching over 5 lbs.

Paul Purchase of M&N Electrical won the match from permanent peg 20 with 14 lbs 6 ozs. He fished the feeder all day just 1 rod length out to catch 2 skimmers and a couple of roach before catching a couple of late Bream up to 5 1/2 lbs.

2nd was Luke Sorokin of Preston Innovations Thatchers with 10 lbs 9 ozs from the beach.
He caught 4 to 5 lbs of bleak on the whip and then caught a bream, a skimmer and a decent roach on the feeder in close.

3rd M Kent (Mosella Bathampton B) 8 lbs 1 oz

4th S Hutchinson (Preston Innovations Thatchers) 8 lbs 0 oz

5th K Dicks (Mosella Bathampton A) 6 lbs 8 ozs

6th L Warden (M&N Electrical) 5 lbs 15 ozs

Preston Innovations Thatchers won the A division to take a 10 point lead into the final round.
In the B Div, M&N Electrical won on the day to move into 2nd place, but Sensas Nomads still have an 8 point lead.

The knockout final will be Mike Withey vs Vince Lunn

On the day A div:
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 14
Mosella Bathampton B - 12
Mosella Bathampton B - 10

B div:
M&N Electrical - 15
Sensas Nomads - 12
Midland Spinner - 8

League positions:
A div
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 68
Mosella Bathampton A - 58
Mosella Bathampton B - 54

B div
Sensas Nomads - 65.5
M&N Electrical - 57.5
Midland Spinner - 56

So still leading our Division with a few points spare and one round to go.

Open on the same stretch next Sunday.

Sunday 20th October - Bristol Avon Open, Newbridge

I was toying with going over to fish the Port Talbot Docks Open but that would have meant leaving our little dog at home alone for too long as the wife was away. Another option was trying to fish for the Hospital Team on the canal at Devizes in the ATWL but again meant I could be away for quite a while due to distance. I then remembered that Dean Harvey and Kev Dicks were running a Team / Open match at Newbridge, perfect.

Dean and Kev have filled the gap during the winter on the river as a result of the S W Winter League folding a couple of years ago. They bill the matches as teams of 4 or you can fish them as Opens.
A quick call to Dean and I was booked in.

After all the rain we have had the river would be spot on. Draw was in the Willow Cafe at Willsbridge with breakfast from 08:30 and draw at 09:30, fishing 11:30 - 17:00.

I spoke to Dean after he pegged it on Saturday morning and he advised me to take float gear as well due to the river dropping fast. I had already set up a couple of feeder rods so had to sort out my Flat Floats and some heavier top kits in case I drew a peg which was steady on the inside.

The draw was done in the order you had booked in (I think). With around 30 fishing I was in the last 3rd and picked up peg 36 plus scales and board. Not a bad peg in the winter to be honest, in the middle of the straight and with some slack on the inside.

Parking up and looking at the river I think everyone agreed it looked spot on for a bream fest.

I took the pole gear as well as the feeder rods and on arrival the peg looked good.

I set up 2 feeder rods, one for 3/4 across with a 45 gram and one this side of the middle with a 30 gram both with B560 hooks 12 & 14 to 0.15.
A 5 gram flat float top 5 at 11 metres with a 16 went through lovely, I didn't set up any other rigs.

20 minutes before the all in I walked back to the van to get a bit more ground bait, that's how confident I was.
At the start I put 8 big balls in on the pole line and then started on the shorter feeder line with half a lobby and maggot, 10 minutes in a couple of rattles but nothing positive. After 30 minutes a run though on the pole produced a net roach followed by a could of 4 oz fish then they got smaller and smaller.
Back out on the longer feeder line with a big bunch of red maggots got me a small hybrid but then nothing for ages until I had a perch.
To be honest the feeder lines were poor and I upped the feed to try and make something happen but it was a lost cause.

No one was walking the bank so it was hard to tell how it was fishing, most anglers were going bream or burst.

I wish I had set up a couple more pole rigs as the roach were definitely up for it responding to little balls of ground bait every couple of run thoughs, a long rod trotting with a crow quill would have worked as well so I now regret not setting these up as apart from Jeff Surmon on peg 40 my section was dire.

As you can see out of 6 pegs only 4 of us weighed in.

My 5lb 10oz was caught now and then in around 90 minutes, had I stuck at it longer and concentrated more I could have done double figures but as they say hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Jeff had 3 quality fish and I believe snared his big bream in the last hour to easily win the section.

Mark Harper won the match with 30lb odd of bream from peg 59, Ben Rendall had 20lb plus from peg 24 followed by Chris Ollis with 19lb from peg 22 A and Tim Ford had 15lb from peg 18.

There were quite a few double figure weights but not the bream fest everyone was expecting. I think the drop in temperatures overnight affected things.

Bristol Commercial House League match on the river next week, Swineford and Crane so should fish well.

Sunday 13th October - Bristol Commercial House league Round 4 K & A Canal Bathampton and Claverton

The K & A in this League is usually fished after Christmas but after last year it was decided to put the 2 matches in the autumn instead. My Team Sensas Nomads were responsible for pegging it, this was left in the capable hands of Mike Withey, Rich Whitmarsh and Brian Melksham.

Prior to our squad meeting on the Tuesday we decided to peg it ''out of town'' i.e. Bath and in the main the Claverton area. Not many anglers would fish this area so it was a bit of a gamble.

Team manager Mike Martin and I decided to meet up on the Tuesday before the match and give it a go. So I got 2 day tickets and obtained the gate code for the Bathampton AA car park at Claverton although I wasn't quite sure where it was.

On the morning I did drive past it and had to be talked in by Mike but it was all good and a great facility in an otherwise limited parking area.
Mike suggested we go up towards the old Swing Bridge beyond Ferry Lane. The access down the side of a bridge leading to the towpath was a little bit of a challenge but overcome. It was a fair walk up to where we wanted to fish.

Mike set up about 4 pegs below the old Swing Bridge (which incidentally isn't there anymore but you can see where it used to be). and me 1 peg below. The Canal had a nice bit of colour to it and looked lovely. Bit of early boat traffic but otherwise ok and we both had a good day catching on everything and both of us ending up with about 7 to 8lbs.

Loved the session and lost 2 decent big fish one of which I think was a chub.

After the session we went to the squad meeting in Keynsham to share our experience and thoughts on pegging.

The guys were going to peg it late on Saturday afternoon due to boats continually moving.

Rich phoned me on Saturday evening around 19:30, he had just got back and sent the pegging plan.

Parking was going to be in in 2 places, Bathampton Village by the school and in the George Pub car park courtesy of the land lord (A & B sections) and then everyone else in the Bathampton AA car park so no stress whatsoever about parking which is really important these days.

The draw on Sunday was in the Crown at Keynsham where they really do look after the anglers before and after the matches. 

Team today was..... 

Chris Hook (c)

Sam Johnson

Rich Whitmarsh

Mike Withey

Brian Melksam

Me

Team mate Leigh Wakefield was also fishing but standing in for one of the Bathampton teams.

Mike and Rich were also in the ''Knock Out''

Team draw put us on....

A - Rich

B - Brian

C - Chris

D - Sam

E - Me

F - Mike

So I was in the same area I fished on the Tuesday and happy with that, even better when I got to my peg it was where Mike had been.

The canal had a lot more colour in it due to the continuous rain all week but I was fairly confident. To my right I had former Nomad Geraint Powell now fishing for Thatchers and to my left Kev Dicks Bathampton A. Leigh was also in my section end peg 6.

Fishing was 10:15 - 15:15 due to the loner walks.

I had already set up my rigs with hooks at home and they just needed some fine tuning. To be safe I set up 2 for down the track (4x14), 2 for across just off the shelf straight in front (0.3 gram) and 2 for the shelf left and right, 0.3 gram, one to 6 elastic and one with 5 elastic for bigger fish. Doubling up on the rigs would save time if I trashed any.

I fed some bread down the track to my right before going across left and right with choppy and caster, the worm was very finely minced and I would leave these line for an hour. Casters were catapulted across in front of me as Mike had caught well doing this. 

I had just put in my 7mm punch over the feed when I heard a splash to my left and saw Kev net a big skimmer so looked promising. I also soon had a skimmer but only about 6oz and bumped another next put in. I topped up with a small ball and this brought some roach, not big but very welcome. 

Boat traffic was quite heavy, makes you wonder where they all go!

I was keeping an eye on what was happening up and down the section as far as I could see and thought I was doing ok.

The bread line slowed so I fed a ball of ground bait down the track to my left with choppy and pinkie.

The first hour was nearly up so I had a look right across to my left towards the tree and had a good run of fish on maggot. After 20 minutes or so I topped up this line and had a look across to the right and had bites instantly mainly dace. Again didn't stay too long here and topped up before having a look on the caster right in front of me.....nothing. 

A look on the track line to my left produced a few small roach and perch but not fast and furious. Boats seemed to me getting worse and a load of canoes came up as well so decided the only place where the fish could find refuge was across by the tree.

I took fish from this area off and on the rest of the match, not big but at least I was putting fish in the net compared to others.

I ended up with 6lb 4oz which was enough to win my Div but was also the best weight across the 6 pegs. 

Full section board .....

The Canal fished well to be honest, here are the winning section weights (some by default)....

                    A Div                B Div

A                 5-11                   5-7

B                 8-5                     11-5

C                 7-0                     5-5

D                7-12                    5-3

E                 6-1                     6-4

F                 8-12                   10-8

As a Team we ended up with 14 point from 18 which is quite good and enough to win B Div.

Full results and match report courtesy of Vince Lunn..........(well done to Sam who took 3rd overall and Mike for getting through to the next round of the knock out).

Steve Kedge of Mosella Bathampton B won the match from peg D1 (downstream of Ferry Lane bridge) with 15 lbs 3 ozs. He fished bread down the middle to take 20 big skimmers up to 2lbs and roach. He had a few fish on castor over and also had a big perch on worm.

Matt Challenger of Preston Innovations Thatchers was 2nd from peg D3 with 14 lbs 4 ozs. He started on bread and had a 2 lbs skimmer first put in then had 6 smaller ones. He also caught on chop worm and castor and had some big perch and roach.

3rd S Johnson (Sensas Nomads) 13 lbs 13 ozs

4th N Johns (Mosella Bathampton A) 12 lbs 1 oz

5th J Pocock (Midland Spinner) 11 lbs 5 ozs

6th L Warden (M&N Electrical) 10 lbs 8 ozs

The 2 Mosella Bathampton teams tied for the win in A Div to gain a bit of ground back on Preston Innovations Thatchers.
In the B Div, Sensas Nomads won to slightly extend their lead.

On the day A div:
Mosella Bathampton A - 13
Mosella Bathampton B - 13
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 10

B div:
Sensas Nomads - 14
Midland Spinner - 13
M&N Electrical - 9

League positions:
A div
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 54
Mosella Bathampton A - 48
Mosella Bathampton B - 42

B div
Sensas Nomads - 53.5
Midland Spinner - 48
M&N Electrical - 42.5

Looking for match options next weekend...

Sunday 6th October - Clevedon Club match River Kenn

Well it's been a while since I have been out and mainly due to a cruise around Italy.

I had a number of options today but decided to stay local and fish my Club's match on the River Kenn in Clevedon. I am Secretary of the Club but find it hard to fish these matches due to Team commitments.

Only 8 of us today which was to be expected due to other matches around and the River Kenn is not everyones cup of tea. The River has been weed locked for a couple of months but is now almost completely clear after the EA done some serious cutting.

The decision was to put 4 pegs above Strode Rd and 4 below.

I drew peg 16, end peg below. We had plenty of room with a spare peg in between us.

Forecast was for a dry day with a moderate wind and high tide was due at 12:47 but only 9 metres so should not affect the flow too much. Lots of cold rain went in overnight and despite this the river was still clear.

Due to the upstream wind I didn't set up the waggler. I did set up the feeder but never used it slough I should have given it 30 minutes perhaps. I concentrated on 2 pole lines, 1 at 6 metres just beyond the reeds to my right with a 4x14 to a wide gape 16 where it was just over top 3 deep, target species was perch using choppy and caster. Out at 13 metres and top 4 deep I had 2 rigs, a 1 gram with a 18 and a 2 gram with a 16. Ground bait was black river and gros gardens with a bit of noire.

After feeding both lines I started at 13 metres one the lighter rig with maggot and it was going through lovely although the wind was a bit difficult at times. After 20 minutes not a bite so fed another ball laced with caster and hemp and came in on the inside with half a worm.

In 20 minutes I had a run of perch 5oz plus before it dried up so re-fed and went back out to 13 metres. Small roach had turned up and I mean small but anything was welcome.

Club mate Scott came down from peg 18 and said he hadn't had a bite, he had started on bread and it hadn't worked. While he was there I took a few more roach.

I swapped between both lines on a regular basis and kept the bites coming to finish with 6lb 11oz which was enough for 2nd on the day.

Up on peg 20 Barry Fowler didn't have many fish but what he had was quality, 3 tench and a couple of skimmers. Barry took 1st prize easily with 15lb plus.

Scott 2 pegs above me went back and refocused and managed 4lb 11oz of perch including a 2lb specimen which was enough for 3rd.

I know it was only a small knock up but I really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, good access and the fact that everyone had plenty of room.

Next up for me is the 4th Round of the Commercial House League 13th Oct on the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Sunday 15th September - Bristol Commercial House League Round 2, King Sedgemoor Drain Somerset Levels

On to the 2nd Round of this friendly league. I missed the 1st Round which was at Newbridge due to being away in Ireland but the lads done well winning the Division with 16 points from a possible 18.

The league has only 7 Teams this year, 3 in A Division which are P I Thatchers, Mosella Bathampton A and Mosella Bathampton B. B Division is made up of Sensas Nomads, Midland Spinner and M & N Electrical. There is also a team of anglers who just want to fish and not take part in the league so the float alternatively between A and B Div to spread out the Section money. Its sounds complicated but it's not really and allows for 42 anglers per match which is OK but a far cry from what the League used to be like in terms of numbers.

The Draw was at the 37 Club in Puriton just off the M5 and its a good breakfast for £5.

Chris and Sam are in Ireland fishing the Carrick on Shannon Festival so Mike and I replaced them. As I was the only responsible person in the Team .... i.e. I had a pen it was down to me to fill in the Team Sheet and perform the draw. I was given specific instructions to draw peg 1 or 7 ... oh the weight of responsibility...... I came back with 3!!!!!

Question....... Is there a representative body that deals with bullying, harassment and verbal abuse in angling especially from fellow Team members?
My quick train of thought and thinking was to say .... you won too easy in the 1st match so as your Captain I thought you needed a bit more of a challenge. Hmmm .... not too sure this changed their minds.

A, B, C and D Sections were at Parchey Bridge, E and F at Bradney. Postcodes for the locations were provided but about a mile away from the parking due to the area the postcodes covered.

I drew E and Brian Melksham drew F so Brian followed me. We had the boards as well, so assisting the scales men.

It was a shortish walk to my peg and all on the flat, no gates either. Walking up it looked great and some hard grafting had been done cutting out the pegs which were all down a grassy bank to the water from the hard path.

Above me on E2 was Des Shipp who was guesting for Thatchers and on end peg 1 Nick Coles Bathampton B, below on 4 was Kev Dicks...no mugs here then.

I set up a 6 metre whip with a 3BB waggler on it, a waggler rod but slipped on the bank after setting it up, fell on my ass and broke the top after it hit my platform, this would cost me, not only for the replacement section but points as well. I also set up the pole at 13 metres with a 2 gram set up but never had a bite on it. Prior to Lee Warden arriving on peg 5 I saw what looked like bream blowing so set up a tip rod just in case.

My whole match apart from about 20 minutes on the long pole was spent on the whip. For the first few hours I was putting fish in the net. Roach, Hybrids, Perch and Dace. Lee Warden on peg 5 below were I had seen the bream blowing had one on the whip in the first 10 minutes and a couple of skimmers. Des above me was struggling on the whip and was constantly talking to Nick on peg 1 as he was also doing very well on the whip.
Des did do OK in the end by fishing the waggler across 4 foot deep in the gusting wind.

My peg slowed during the last couple of hours and by not being able to fish the waggler prevented me  from getting a few more fish but it may not have changed the overall section result.

My full Section Board

So 2 points from a possible 3 not a disaster and I had a nice days fishing.

Back to the 37 Club for the results and a catch up with the Team. Totting up the points we had 12.5 from 18 with Mike winning his section with a level 12lb and Rich winning his with 11lb 9oz.

I recorded the section weights as follows:-

          A Div          B Div

A       8-2              8-2

B       12-3            12-0

C       11-0            13-14

D       10-10          11-9

E       14-10          14-5

F        8-13            8-12

Pretty good and 25 out of the 42 anglers had over 8lbs.

Individuals on the day....

1st   Mark Harper 24lbs 12oz

2nd  Warren Bates sorry didn't get his weight

3rd   Rob Manns 15lb 10oz

Match Winner Mark Harper all on the whip from Parchey

Team results courtesy of Vince Lunn

On the day A div:
Joint 1st:Preston Innovation Thatchers & Mosella Bathampton A - 13
Mosella Bathampton B - 10

B div:
Sensas Nomads - 12.5
Midland Spinner - 12
M&N Electrical - 11.5

League positions:
A div
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 27
Mosella Bathampton A - 25
Mosella Bathampton B - 20

B div
Sensas Nomads - 28.5
Midland Spinner - 24
M&N Electrical - 19.5