Wednesday 27th February - Premier Angling Open, Bristol Avon Chippenham

Billed as an Open it was in the main a few of the Avon League guys who booked in for this match plus a few others making a total of 12. Our final Avon League match of the series is on Chippenham waters next Wednesday.

Chippenham had a Club match Sunday just gone and in the main it fished terrible with 2lb winning most sections.
Colin pegged it from a permanent peg in the 30's all the way down to Monkton Park so a fair bit of room for everyone.
Team mate Mike Martin pleasure fished peg 40 on Monday and bagged up to the tune of 45lbs (chub).

I was early in the draw due for a change and pulled out peg 9, I was told this was permanent peg 57 so off I went to try and park in a cul de sac hoping for a short walk. When I got there Tony Scott and Dave Baker had the last 2 parking spaces. I stopped and asked if they had been helicoptered in!!
So Riverside Dr. it was then and a longer walk.

It was OK to be honest but when I got to permanent peg 57 there was no peg 9. I had a good look around and picked up the local druggies litter before I went a couple of pegs upstream where I found a 9 taped to a bush.

The peg did look nice with far bank cover just downstream and you could cast a wagger into a clear spot before allowing it to progress under the trees.

Depth right across was about 5 foot so set up a waggler to fish at full depth and another at about 3.5 foot. 

A crowquil for down the middle and a tip rod. Both these were never used.

I started on the deep waggler as it was going through quite quick firing over maggot and hemp. I had a bite first cast but bumped it. No mistake second trot through and netted a chub of around 12oz. The maggot and hemp kept going in and I soon had chublets lined up taking my hook bait which was double red on a wide gape 18 to 0.11 power. It was going brilliant to be honest with bites most trots down.

After about 2 hours or so Tony Scott came up for a walk saying he wasn't doing that well and it was the same for Dave Baker and Kev Boltz on end peg hadn't had a bite. Tony watched me net a decent perch followed by a chublet and walked upstream to see how the rest were doing.

I carried on catching using the deep wag when it was going through and the shallow wag with it slow up due to the tilting gate below the town bridge.

Tony duly returned and reported that the angler on 40 had a few chub and 3 bream but said I was doing well.

The fish kept coming and I was enjoying myself (unlike last Sunday).

A paddle boarder came up and a canoe came down but fair play to them they came on the inside as I requested.

Tony was back again nearer the end and said Dave Baker had a few big chub now but Kev was still without a bite. He saw me get a few more fish before he went off home.

The all out was at 4 p.m. and it came around too quick but it had been a great session in the warm sunshine.

Kev came up with the scales and said Dave Baker had 9 chub for 24lb I knew I had nowhere near that as my fish averaged 6oz but he called 15lb 15oz.

So I ended up with a section by default as Dave won the match.

Second best weight was 21 lbs off permanent peg 40, my weight was third best.

Fellow Clevedon Club mate Paul Randell got the other section with 8lb odd.

Lovely days fishing and a bit of litter clearing as well.

Clevedon Club Match this weekend on the River Kenn which could be superb or dire but rain is forecast and a bit of colour might help.

Sunday 24th February - Get together Lower Bristol Avon at Swineford

With no match on anywhere today 9 of us got together for a ''Rover Pleasure Session'' at Swineford.
I was 5th to choose where to fish and not being in touch with the stretch at the moment went with Dean Harveys suggestion of peg 18. Tim Ford was above me and said we were in a reasonable area for some fish.

Well......we were not although Tim did have a 2lb Chub and a smaller sample.

Me.....

I had one bite on the crow quill and this was the culprit and that was that!

Both Tim and I chucked back before the end and a couple of others had already left. I think Dean would have had the most with 4 bream off peg 2 below the Outfall and Matt Challenger had a few chub.

On the plus side it was a glorious day and I bumped into an old work colleague who said it was shit at work now.

Nothing more to say really and I don't think Tim will drag his blog out too much either.

Chippenham ''Knock Up'' on Wednesday.

Wednesday 20th February - 5 hr pleasure session River Kenn

A brief summary of the session.....

Started fishing at 10:00 just after the tide had turned, I always feel its important to check the tides.
Fished 3 pegs above Strode Rd Bridge in Clevedon.
Stood down in the mud rather than sit up on the bank with only a bait waiter, keep net, landing net and rod rest down at water level. The level of the river is dropped during the winter by some 5 foot.

The run off was pretty fast so adjusted the depth with the 3AA Waggler to hold back just tripping bottom. Continuously fed red maggot every trot down.
Hook size was an 18 to 0.10 fluro alough I did step up to a 18 forged hook to 0.12 halfway through the session.

2 roach went 2lb and 2lb 1oz and another over 1lb plus a few smaller samples.
1 perch went 2lb 9oz
3 big hybrids
11 tench

Total weight 52lbs

Packed up at 15:00 as 3 other Club members weighed in for me.

This was my 3rd session of 2019 on the River Kenn.

1st session 45lb bream

2nd session was a blank

3rd session 52lbs

Incredible.

Sunday 17th February - Chippenham Open Bristol Avon

Back to Chippenham today for one of their Opens with Team mate Mike Martin. Given the state of the River at Bradford on Avon on the Wednesday and with no more rain the river would be spot on.
25 booked in and all hoping for a decent peg. Pegging was from just downstream of the town bridge up to the 40's below Riverside Drive.

I was about halfway down the Draw Que and when it came to my turn I pulled out 42. I was advised it was a good peg for Chub but was also advised that 40 above me was better as was 44. Mike drew 50, I believe he had drawn this peg quite a number of times and its not that great.

So off I went reasonably happy and parked up at Riverside Drive with about a 5 minute walk to the peg. I think peg 40 was the first peg and young Luke Wooldridge was on this. He really knows this water and does live or lived in one of the properties on Riverside Drive. I fished with his Dad a number of times in the SW Post Office Team so he has had a good tutor.
Before heading off from the draw Mike advised me to leave the pole in the van and set up a waggler, crow quill and feeder.

The peg did look quite nice but looking above to peg 40 there was more far bank cover and peg 44 below me had the tins across in front of the sailing club.
The flow was quite strong and then slowed at times due to the tilting weir further down in the town, this takes a bit of getting used to and does affect the fishing.

A 3AA waggler, 10 x No.4 wire stick and a feeder were set up pretty quickly. Depth across averaged 3 foot and down the middle about 4 foot.
Mike came for a walk up before the whistle and confirmed my set up was OK and pointed out were to target the chub.
I decided to start on the bread feeder with an 8mm double punch on a 14 while needed caster down the middle. I had a couple of small knocks which were not positive but then at the 30 minute mark the tip bent over and it was chub on. Not huge but at around 2lb I was up and running. I stayed on the bread across for another 45 minutes without success so came off it. I saw Mick Gale on 44 with his rod bent over land what looked like a chub as well.

2 hours in Luke shouted down asking if I'd caught. I told him I had one chub and at this point he was blanking but that was soon to change.
The rest of the match I only caught a few minnows and chub fry on the maggot across, didn't get a bite down the middle even though I did feed both lines constantly.  I did see Mick land some more fish and Luke also got off the mark and I saw him land chub on a regular basis on the waggler.

Luke ended up with a great net of 10 chub for 19lb 11oz.

I weighed in anyway and only registered 2lb 4oz.

I walked down to see what Mick caught and he had a couple of big perch to go with his chub for 14lb 10oz.

Mike didn't do that well either .... as he expected and weighed a few ounces more than me.

The match was won by Bruce Murtough from just above the town bridge (same peg that won the last open with 69lb of bream) with 46lb 14oz.

Luke and Mick either side of me came 2nd and 3rd respectively so was well and truly battered.

When I arrived at Wetherspoons for a pint and were the results were held I bumped into Colin Gittins who was pegged below the town bridge and showed me a photo of the perch he caught, it went 3lb 5oz.

So.... Mike and I both hero to zero in the space of 4 days but that's fishing.

Looking for a match this weekend coming but will pleasure fish the River Kenn Wednesday 20th.

Wednesday 13th February - Avon League Round 5, Barton Farm Bradford on Avon

I did fish the Tuesday £10 er's at Acorn the previous day but drew crap and fished crap. Eddie Wynne won again so fair play to him. UTG Eddie.

So on to the river match.......
I was surprised it was still on the river as some of my team mates sent pictures of a bank high river on the Monday at Melksham where it was supposed to be held. Colin walked the bank and decided to switch it to Bradford on Avon for a couple of reasons...one being the water in the Forest Section had been lost and two the river at Bradford was a lot deeper plus with 40 hours to the match the level would be below the banks.

I left home at 06:15 even though the Cafe was not open until 08:30 in order to park up without having to pay and it was just as well as there was a lorry on the A46 that had broken down. I managed to get past it before the traffic built up and arrived OK at 07:20 and parked up. I walked down to the river and it was pacey and clean.  I could see Colin and Dave Baker ahead of me pegging out but it was quite a way down before I came across peg 1. I could see why they had done this i.e. providing as much slack as possible. Pegging went beyond the sewer field and I had never been this far down before but it looked quite good.

Team mate Mike Martin gave me a call asking where the broken down lorry was as he was caught up in a huge que of traffic, fortunately it soon cleared and he was on his way in plenty of time.
Breakfast over the draw got underway and I found myself near the back again. Mike doesn't rush and drew after me.
I drew peg 18 one from the end as a couple could not make it today so only 19 fishing, Mike drew 15 so I thought we had drawn OK based on what I had been told.

I wasn't sure what to take so I took everything, pole, 1 heavy waggler rod, stick float rod, long rod 16', 12' feeder rod and my 12' 8'' dutch master.
I passed Dave Baker who was already on peg 17 and I picked his brains a bit on the area I was in, just after arriving at my peg Colin came along and stopped for a breather as he was on end peg 19. He told me there were some big fish down this end of the river, usually bream.

It did look a nice peg and with plenty of room.

I set up my lighter feeder rod first and chucked out the straight lead to have a search around. It was quite deep in the middle, probably around 20 foot and not much shallower across. The lead came off and on went a 30 gram feeder which just about held in the middle. A size 14 B520 hook to 0.13 went on the business end. Out next came the dutch master, its a beast of a rod and I don't use it that often, my lightest tip must be 3oz. I put on a 45 gram feeder in order to hold bottom properly and fished off with a Tubertini Series 2 size 12 to 0.15, no finesse here.

The only other kit I set up was the long rod for trotting down the edge with a 10BB crow quill where it was a good 14' deep a rod length out. GB mix today was Sensas River with Black lake and Mole Hill soil.

Colin on the end peg must have set up before me and walked past me to speak to the anglers above as when the all in was shouted he said ''good luck'' on his way back and a bream rolled beloved me in mid river.....come on.

I put a couple of really firm balls in at the start on the float line with dead reds before going out on the light feeder rod with a small dendra tipped with a maggot. I got indications within about 10 minutes and after a few missed bite had a 3oz roach, not what I was after but blank avoided (I have had 2 in this league). More small knocks followed with connecting with anything so I put on double dead red and instantly hit the next bite, another roach. I was not ungrateful catching the roach but as I had seen a bream roll I had to go for it.

On to the dutch master with a big dendra tipped with dead red and I re-cast about every 10 minutes giving them plenty of bait. I really squeezed the GB in the feeder in order to make sure in didn't break up in mid water.
Not surprisingly the little knocks ceased and then just after the first hour a proper drop back and a chub of around 1lb 8oz was netted without any trouble. At this point a few more fish started to roll right across.
I tried the float line a few times, I had been loose feeding heavy with maggot over this line but it was not right so put that behind me for the rest of the match and concentrated on the heavy feeder. Not sure how but I caught a few more roach on big baits.

Tony Scott came down for a walk and said it was fishing hard although he had a 2lb 8oz chub and a few bits.

 Then at 14:50 a proper heavy tap followed by the tip pointing downstream saw me play a bream and net it after a nervous battle in the strong flow. A lovely fish of about 5lbs.
Just as I was about to retrieve the next cast another proper bite 10 minutes later and wasn't quite sure what I had hooked. The dutch master was really bent and the fish was moving fast and I had to give it line.  This fish took much longer to control and when it came to the top I could see it was a bit chub, the scales on it were more like that of a common carp. Thank goodness I caught it on the heavy gear.
My only other bite and fish of the remaining hour was a perch of around 6oz.

Colin came up with the scales and saw what I had ..... you'll probably win the match with that after the scales registered 11lb 10oz, the chub went 4lb 11oz.

I was more than happy considering the level of the river.

Colin below me had 4lb odd as did Dave Baker above me. As I walked back to the van Tony said Mike had 3 bream. I stopped at his peg in order to take a photo. I think he had his first bream mid match then another 2 in the last 15 minutes.

Mike's fish went 17lb 9oz think lending him my lucky hat helped.

There were no other double figure weights so not was a 1 - 2 for Mike and I with the ever consistent Kev Boltz coming 3rd with a level 9lbs.

So ..... happy days for the both of us who have had some crap draws in this league.

Both of us fishing the Chippenham Open this weekend so hanging on to the lucky hat myself.

Sunday 10th February - Clevedon Club Match v Fry's AC, Horseshoe Lake

I don't get to fish many of my local Club matches but with nothing else on I booked into this one. The Match was originally scheduled to be on the bigger and more prolific lake at the Plantations complex in Kingston Seymour but the owners have stopped Weekend Matches on it now trying to get anglers to fish the smaller Horseshoe Lake. We decided to give it a try. There is some improvements being made but quite a bit more to do.
We were fishing an inter club against Fry's today as it seems to be the way forward in order to get more anglers on the bank especially when booking a Commercial.

14 of us in total today after a few no shows. 10 pegs around the perimeter and 4 on the island.
I drew peg 10 which was deemed a good peg but opposite me at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock I had 2 anglers on the island and the distance from my bank to the island is only about 14 metres.

Anyway, I got stuck in plumbing up and had a good 5 foot in the middle and 5' in the left hand margin by some reeds. Right across at 13 metres I had about 4' so depth was not a problem on all lines.

Fry's Ray Cooper was opposite me at 2 o'clock and had a foul hooker on after about 20 minutes. Looking down my bank no one else was catching but I could see Mark Bromsgrove catching roach on the whip over on the island.

3 pegs to my right I saw Paul Ratcliffe catch a small carp on the corn, he had a sunken island in front of him and he was fishing up against it, I was still bite less as was Matthew Davis opposite me at 10 o'clock.

It was fishing rock hard but Paul to my left added a skimmer to his earlier carp.

Paul Faiers who was end peg on the island packed up after catching a few see through roach and went off to watch the football.

Ray opposite had another foul hooker and lost it plus he missed a bite down the edge under a tree and ended up squirrel fishing. He also packed up well before the end.

Shortly afterwards Matt Davis packed up as well.

I had one small dip of the float and a liner, that was my excitement for the day and I also packed up 30 minutes before the all out.

The anglers who had no one opposite them all caught my part of the lake was dire.

Pete Sivell of Fry's had a good day after switching to the pellet feeder and had some right lumps for first place by a country mile.

Pete Sivell

Full results as follows:

1st     Pete Sivell Fry's AC 37lb 12oz

2nd    Ade Crawley Fry's AC 17lb 10oz

3rd     Mark Bromsgrove Clevedon 17lb

4th     Steve Bonwick Clevedon 14lb 14oz

Silvers

Paul Ratcliffe Fry's AC 7lb (default)

Some more pics

Mark Bromsgrove

Steve Bonwick

Paul Ratcliffe

So .... one to forget

Tuesday 5th February - Tuesday £10 er's Paddock Lake Acorn Fishery Kingston Seymour near Clevedon

I usually fish a few of these matches during the winter run by Mike Chapman and Ray Bazeley. The weights are not stupid and if you have around 30lb you can usually frame. I didn't fish at the weekend as we were due to go off to Mid Wales but the snow kept us at home so was looking forward to wetting a line.

11 turned up which is about average this time of year and Mike spread the pegs out around the lake so we all had plenty of room. Rain was forecast later in the day and with a bit of luck we would miss it. There was a brisk wind though and I ended up right in the thick of it after drawing peg 15. I did set up a sobbing rig for right across but after about 10 minutes or so I gave up as presentation was crap and there was a danger of the pole breaking in the wind. Instead I fished the track for most of the day feeding micro and maggot with maggot on the hook with 6 sections using a 4 x14 to a wide gape 18 to 0.11. I had another rig down to the pallet on my right.

It was slow going and for the first hour not a lot was happening and then I started to get a few small dips on the float but nothing positive. I shallowed up slightly and found the culprits were small roach and skimmers. I did have a couple and then they backed off.

Near the end of the second hour a good bite and it went solid before screaming off pulling out the white hydro. It was a foul hooked 5lb carp (in the tail). I didn't rush it and managed to net it.
I saw Eddie Wynne have a few below me on peg 21 and the guy up on peg 6 but that was it.
A few more skimmers followed after adjusting the depth and a couple of roach and perch were taken down by the pallet.
I lost another carp at the net and then next put in had a right lump, it took ages to get in and must have went 10lbs plus and felt I was back in it. I added a pasty carp and another of about 4lbs before the all out.

The scales started at peg 40 and worked around to the low numbers. I walked down to Eddie to met them were Paul Faiers was also waiting. Paul fished for silvers all day and weighed 7lbs. I took a look at the weigh board and 20lb was best with 5 pegs left to weigh. Eddie put a great net of carp together and weighed 39lbs, I think we all knew at that point that he won it.

Eddie Wynne (UTG)

I weighed in 4lbs of silvers and 19lbs 11 oz of carp for 23lbs 11oz so lying 2nd at this point but I thought peg 6 had more and Cadbury Angling boss Dan Hurley on peg 9 said he had about 25lbs.

Well it was close but I hung on in 2nd place to cover my costs plus a small profit.

Results:

1st   Eddie Wynne 39lb 9oz
2nd  Ivan Currie 23lb 11oz
3rd   Dan Hurley 23lb 7oz
4th   John Mills 23lb 2oz

Silvers:

1st   Bob Smith 11lb 2oz
2nd  Mike Chapman 8lb 11oz

This Sunday I am fishing with my Club, Clevedon Freshwater A C against Fry's A C on Horseshoe Lake which is part of the Plantations complex at Kingston Seymour, think it will be hard.