Sunday 20th January - Chippenham Open, Upper Bristol Avon

With all the League Matches over now until the Spring I put a message out on Facebook asking if anyone knew of any River Matches on. A response came back pretty quick informing me of an Open Match at Chippenham. That'll do for me, its a decent bit of river with good access. Team mate Mike Martin-Davis was also going.

Draw was at the Brewers Fare in Chippenham with breakfast at £9.50 a go but you could help yourself to as much as you wanted and they make anglers welcome. Mike and I were sat having breakfast and in walks fellow Clevedon Club member Paul Randall, didn't expect to see him there. He showed me photo's of 6 tench he had on the previous Wednesday from our own River Kenn.

Chippenham AA Match Secretary got things underway at 08:30 but we were at the back so couldn't hear him very well but I noticed Paul has somehow managed to get near the front of the que.

There were not many pegs left by the time I got to the draw bag and I ended up on 87 which is on Island Park in the middle of the town. I had never fished this part of the river before and luckily I had the postcodes of the available car parks. I was informed in was an armchair peg by the life buoy and to expect chublets across by some tins on the waggler.

I ended up parking in Wetherspoons car park which was more or less in the right area and only a short walk into the park. As I got into the park Paul Randall was already there on the last peg (90) just upstream of the town bridge. 89 was in, 88 was not taken and then me by the life buoy, Devizes ace Kev Rowles was on 86 and another angler on the last upstream peg 85.

It was a cold day with a ground frost during the night but not unpleasant. I had a brief chat with Kev before setting up. The flow here is affected by a tilting wear just downstream the other side of the bridge so the flow goes from quite strong to almost stationary.

A 3AAA yellow top waggler was sufficient to get all the way across where is was about 7 foot deep. I also set up a long rod with a crowqull for trotting the middle and the pole at 11 metres with a 1 gram rig.

I catapulted maggot across, fed some caster in ground bait down the middle and choppy and caster on the pole line.

Starting off on the waggler I had a chublet about 5oz first trot down holding back slightly. A couple more followed within the next 20 minutes but further down the swim. I was hitting a bit of fine weed towards the end of the run so shallowed up a bit. Four more chublets were caught in the next 30 minutes but it was hard going. I didn't see Kev above me catching much at this stage.  Had a quick look on my other two lines but no life at all. I was told there was perch to be had here so stuck it out on the pole with worm for a while without success. 

The waggler line was the only place I could get a bit and managed a few net roach plus more chublets up to 8oz at best.

I did keep feeding the other two lines but couldn't get a bite at all. The waggler line also appeared to have died on me.

It must have been around 1 o'clock when Paul Randall came behind me and asked how I was getting on. ...........

Me:  about 3lbs. How are you doing 

Paul: you don't have a spare keepnet do you

Me: no, why

Paul: I got about 50lbs and am a bit worried about too many fish in the net

Me: (to myself) fff&*%@!

Me: I have got one in the van but I'm sure you'll be OK

Paul: Yes they are getting smaller, haven't had any more 5lb er's. The guy above me has a couple as well.

and ..... back he went.

I did persevere and added a couple more chublets. I did see Kevin above me net a few fish and they looked bigger than mine. 

At 2 o'clock I decided I was going nowhere so decided to pack up and go and sit behind Paul, I tipped back around 3lbs at the end of the match.

He had another 4 bream while I sat behind him and was getting quite a few liners. He ran out of ground bait about 20 minutes to go so put on a block end feeder with maggot and still went on catching.

The scales came up and I gave them a hand to do about 4 weighs, Paul ended up with a level 69lbs.

what a result for Paul who does not fish that much competitively.

The upper part of the river fished hard with Island Park producing the best weights, so right Section and perhaps wrong peg or wrong angler on the peg?

Results..

1st     Paul Randall 69lbs

2nd = Kev Rowles & Len Baldwin 13lb 4oz

4th     Kev Abigall 10lb 8oz

5th     Jim Bone 7lb 14oz

32 fished

Back on the Gloucester Canal next Sunday for an Open.