Wednesday 6th March - Avon League final round Chippenham

This league has been plagued by the weather and river conditions from start to finish and today was no exception.
Heavy overnight rain brought the river up a little but it was also very dirty. I drew 2 pegs above the town bridge and set my stall out for bream as did Steve Rogers below me.

It soon became apparent they were not going to feed and after 90 minutes I had 3 roach. The river became dirtier and dirtier as the match progressed. I managed to land another roach and a 12oz perch before the end. I thought I had the section with only 3 out of the 6 bothering to weigh in.

Steve weighed 4oz, me 1lb 7oz and team mate Mike Martin done me weighing 2 small skimmers and so bits for a level 2lb. But....he did buy me fish and chips.

I'm not smiling, I'm in pain as I hurt my back

Steve Palmer won the match with a couple of bream for 11lbs and there were 2 4lb weights for 2nd and 3rd.

The league was won by Steve Palmer, second was Nicky Johns and third Tony Cinicola.

Well that my river fishing over for another season, can't get out the last week but fishing Don Sutherland Memoral Silvers Match at Viaduct on Saturday, came 2nd last year.

Sunday 3rd March - Clevedon Club Match River Kenn

We had spent the previous day completing our tree management programme along the river which opened up a lot of swims and cleared large overhanging branches. It was best to do it before the birds started to nest.

A tidy job and it didn't take long for the logs to be snapped up either

The working party including supervisors !

We knew we wouldn't get that many for the match but 13 did attend and Adie put in 2 sections above Strode Rd Bridge and 1 below.

I didn't draw one of the favoured pegs and ended up on end peg 41 upstream. Long story short....no bites after 2.5 hours and neither did the other 3 pegs in the section so we all packed up early.

The pegs immediately above Strode Rd all had fish as expected and the bottom section was won with one tench for 2lbs 12oz.

Here is the press report....

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club held their first match of the spring on the River Kenn in Clevedon above and below Strode Rd. Bridge. Above the bridge had been producing some fantastic bags of fish in the weeks prior to the match and this is were most anglers wanted to draw.Match Secretary Adie Baker drew peg 36 in the favoured area and had two early tench on the float followed by a quiet spell before ending on a high in the final two hours catching quality roach almost every cast giving him 1st place with just over 20lbs. Just downstream of him was Scott Smallwood who caught roach throughout the day and ended up with 10lbs 14oz  which was enough for 2nd. Head Water Keeper John Sallis was 3rd with a mixed bag of quality fish for 10lbs 9oz which he caught on the straight lead and maggot.

1st Adie Baker

2nd Scott Smallwood

3rd john Sallis

Sam Johnson had a rare Chub