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.
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