Sunday 28th April - Gloucester Canal Teams of 4 Spring League Round 2

This is going to be hard...........

So onto the 2nd Round of this popular League. I say popular but even a lot of those taking part have the same opinion of the ''Glossy'' as they do ''marmite''. I would say after this match a lot will lean more towards butter and marmalade if you get my drift. Me....I still like marmite.
I may have started off writing a load of bollocks but need to write something ffs.

I also need to big up Dave Micklewright who has been running the League this year especially this Round. Apparently his Ferry was delayed from Ireland by Storm Hannah and he didn't get home to 02:00 I hear, and was up again to sort the draw out at 07:30.

Our Senses Nomads Team today was....
Chris Hook
Sam Johnson
Geraint Powell
Me

Sections for todays match were Pilot Up, Castle Up and Down plus Saul Junction.

Chris came back with the draw plus we had the scales and boards although they were only for sections of 10.

Sam had end peg at Pilot Up, Geraint was Castle Up, Chris was Castle Down and on 440 right in the middle of the part sunken barge opposite. We had pleasure fished this area and if he could have ran to his peg he would have. I was on 463 at Saul.
Chris said he would follow me and park at Saul which was a mistake as it was a long walk what ever end you came in on but afterwards wished he had parked at Castle.

As I walked up the Canal I was hoping I was in the big bay but with the pegging having been re-done I was well out off it and in an area I had drawn twice before and really struggled. But....job to do.

Standard Glossy set up today, 2 pole rigs and 2 feeder rods, same lines as previous posts. Ground bait was also the same mixes.

Paul Nicholls was to my left and we had a £1 on it.

While we were setting up the angler to my right had plumbed up and took the plumet off to shot his float better when a 2lb skimmer actually took a bare hook. It was nicely hooked in the lip! That was the only good sign on our pegs.

I started off on the bread and about 20 minute in a small skimmer hung itself just as the feeder hit bottom under the barge. Paul to my left had a similar sized one on the pole down the middle.

I had one more small knock on the tip and a big liner and that was it.....nothing on the pole lines or fishmeal feeder line...utter crap.

Pauls £1 and mine was safe as we both weighed 6oz.

Andy Powell comfortably won my section off the end peg in the bay as expected, the board shows how the weights got worse towards me.

I caught up with Chris at the Car Park and his peg did not produce. We fished in this area last year and had a great day.

Sam done well winning his peg section but look at the weights.....

Geraint done ok with 6lb odd giving him 3rd in the 10 pegs and 5th in the big section.

The winning weight was 38lb plus from a noted and expected area with high and mid twenties backing weights.

Sensas 88 won the day.

I think we finished 14 from 19.

Back on the Feeder Canal Wednesday for a morale booster.

Tuesday 23rd April - 1st visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal 2019

I had intended to get up and be on the banks of the Canal by 07:00 but a 6 mile waterfall walk in Wales the previous day put paid to that and I woke up around 08:00 so too late to get a parking space along Feeder Road. I decided to go in the afternoon instead hoping that a few spaces might become available due to people leaving the area after an early start.
Arriving in the area around 13:15 I found a couple of spaces, not on Feeder Rd itself but in ''Short St'' opposite the Burger Van. I was on the bank down by Manor Scrap at 13:30. There were 4 other anglers up by the popular old SWEB building but no one down my end.

The Canal had a steady flow towards Bristol Docks so set up a 1 gram rig to a 20 tied to 0.10 fluro, another rig was set up similar to above but was 2 grams as the flow can pick up from time to time. both set ups had no. 4 elastic.

Ground bait mix was Black Lake and a sprinkling of Pastincino with a bit of chopped worm, dead pinkie and a few casters. Two balls went in down the middle and two across at 12 metres, depth was the same on both lines.

Starting off on the far line with maggot things were not looking good for the first 30 minutes and then a change to pinkie go me a small dace following my a dumpy roach. A look down the middle produced nothing so re-fed a small ball. Back in the 12 metre line gave me another roach and after that the bites just kept coming. I left the middle as the far line was most productive with net roach and dace.

I kept potting in golf sized balls and around 15:30 had my first skimmer which was around a 1lb. I upped the amount of worm in the ground bait as well as a bit of addition pastincino and it must have been like ringing the dinner bell. Until I packed up at 18:00 I had a run of more skimmers, baby bream, hybrids and roach.

A great session and thanks to Phillip Yenug for taking the photo.

The Bristol Feeder Canal is open all year and is free to fish. Best time of the year is from April to June.

Wednesday 17th April - summary of pleasure session Gloucester Canal

Team mates Mike Martin, Chris Hook and I met up to have a feeder session on the Glossy down by the sunken barge at Castle.

Mike opted for the pointy end of the boat which must have been peg 439, I went on the blunt end 441 and Chris set up on 442.

We all fished the feeder but different approaches. Chris started off on the hair rigged bread, me straight on the fishmeal and chop with caster and Mike on the dead reds.

It was a slow session but there were fish about. Mike done the best by far sitting it out for a bite and not feeding as much as me for sure. He had a nice mixed bag of high double figures compared to Chris and I who had around 6 - 8 lbs.

Mike also had the prize for the strangest looking fish, a hybrid which had the tail of a chub.

2 pints of Guiness at the end of a lovely spring day went down well.

Nice bag from Mike

shouldn't have fed so much me thinks

Sunday 14th April - K & A Spring League Round 1

Bit late again with the blog due to decorating, driving the Community Bus getting issues with vehicles sorted, Gas Boiler service, a few things for my Clevedon Club plus looking after myself as the wife has been away for 4 days. All sorted now so looking forward to more fishing.

On Sunday 14th April I fished the first round of the K & A Spring League run by Simon Hebditch. 23 Teams of 4 this year from as far away as West Sussex. Dorking also had a side of very able bodied canal anglers. Sections for this first round were....Kings Arms, Whaddon, Seend and Pyle.

Our Senses Nomads Team was...
Me (c) oh the responsibilty
Rich Whitmarsh
Mike Withey
Geraint Powell

We decided to only enter one team this year as one match clashes with the Glossy League and quite a few of our guys are away in Holland for the second round.

The draw for this first round was at Spencers Club in Melksham and the car park and adjacent road just about coped. Directions to sections were great with maps and postcodes circulated in advance plus additional info was displayed at the draw. This makes all the difference to anglers who are not familiar with the area.

So onto the draw and I didn't do the team any favours. Mike was in the best section at Pyle but the end peg at the wrong end well away from the epee centre. I was at Seend apparent in an area that was silted up and Rich and Geraint at Whaddon and Kings Arms on very mediocre pegs.
We knew it would be hard anyway and our plan was to ease our way into the match feeding very little at first but regular with pinkie on the hook.

I got to my section and parked up without any trouble and after a 10 minute walk was at my peg. My peg was in an area known as the wides and I was informed ''it used to be good'' great, I was also told there was no depth across. I had Andrew Chatterley (Devizes) to my left and Mick Gale (Matrix Talisman) to my right. I suppose the canal here was a good 16 metres wide but no depth as advised beyond 12 metres. I found the bottom of the far slope at 12 metres where it was about 2 foot deep, down the boat channel it was about a foot deeper and inside shelf was nothing until you went out 5 metres at around 2 foot.

Rig for across was a 4x14 to 0.11 with a 0.08 hook length to a 22, same rig for down the track but with a 20 hook and 5 metres out another 4x14 but with a 0.10 hook length and a 15 hook for perch.
The rigs were this heavy due to the very strong tow the canal was also full of crap so you needed to get the bait down through it. Boat traffic was expected to be a bit of a pain due to being the start of the Good Friday week. Just before the all in a holiday boat came up and got stuck in the silt between Mick Gale and I.
I think his intentions were good as he wanted to stay away from us but did not realise how shallow it was right over. Suitable words of advice was given.....i.e. stay down the middle.

I fed my worm line first with a pot of choppy and a few dead reds in leam to anchor them to the bottom before putting a golf ball sized lake and a little leam mix with dead pinkie and squat over on my far line, I left the middle.

The first 40 minutes or so was spent looking for that first bite and anglers were looking up and down the tow path to see if anyone was catching..... no one was. I put a soft pot on and started drip feeding squat in ground bait across with 3 squats on the hook and this brought me my first bite but I didn't connect. The tow was pulling hard so I put on an extra few inches on the depth. A few micro roach and small skimmers were caught over the following hour but nothing to write home about. Mick to my right was fishing right across and had a couple of blades. Andrew started to catch the odd small fish as well.

I had been topping up my worm line, you had to as I am sure most of it go washed upstream or downstream due to the tow but a few looks on it now and then and not a sausage.
The middle was so full of crap I abandoned it.

About the halfway mark I was holding back across when the float slide away and I hit something solid, thought it was a branch at first until it started nodding, seemed like a bream and I started shipping back very carefully. I had to ship back parallel due to the towpath behind me which makes things awkward. The 3 elastic was doing its job but when i got to the 4th section the feckin hook pulled out, I knew it would cost me ...ffs.

A couple of net skimmers followed and I had a 10oz perch as well but bumped another big fish (think it was a perch) despite going up to a 20 hook.

Andrew to my left had a few fish right across towards the end and I thought we were more or less even but I knew Mick had struggled.

The section points were based on sections of 8 and 7. My 2lb 10oz got me 4 points from 8. The section was won with 4lb 9oz, Andrew had 4lb 6oz for 2nd in section. Those lost fish definitely cost me.

Andrew 2nd in section (I didn't take the pic)

On the Team front Rich and Geraint both had 6 points, Mike had 1 and with my 4 put us in 13 position out of 23.

Here are the full Team results........

1	DEVIZES BLACK
2	GARBOLINO BV MARINE
3	PI THATCHERS SONUBAITS
4	DRENNAN BORDON BLUE
5	GARBOLINO BV GOLD
6	DAIWA DORKING
7	DRENNAN OXFORD
8	WYVERN ANGLING GOLD
9	DEVIZES WHITE
10	MATRIX TALISMEN YELLOW
11	SENSAS A4 BLACK
12	SENSAS A4
13	SENSAS NOMADS
14	RIVE HOMESTORES
15	SENSAS A4 GREEN
16	MATRIX TALISMEN PURPLE
17	BORDON ANGLING
18	SENSAS WEST SUSSEX
19	PI THATCHERS
20	DRENNAN BORDON PINK
21	GARBOLINO BV GREEN
22	ANDOVER
23	RIVE HOMESTORES RED

Individuals as follows...

1st    Liam Bradell 23-12
2nd  Steve Pawson 14-9
3rd   Dave Docherty 13-15
4th   Matt Herbert 13-10
5th   James Carty 12-9
6th   Brett Cooper 12-3


Due to clashes with the Glossy League and a holiday I am only available for the last round.

Glossy League Round 2 on 28th April.

5 in a row and its not good news.

I have been fishing over the past few weeks but have not had the best of results and not sure what's gone wrong...... no need to pass the tissues as I see it happening to loads of anglers and I guess it's my turn and time ...... but I hope it doesn't last long.

On 9th March I ventured down to Viaduct to fish my old team mates memorial Silver Fish Match (Don Sutherland). I came 2nd in it the previous year and did draw a half decent peg on Campbell Lake according to owner Steve Long. Peg 126.
It was a difficult day with strong winds but was off my back for most of the day. I weighed 12lb odd which beat team mate Sam on 125 but 127 weighed 20lb plus. A mid 40lb won it from Lodge Lake and it was good to see former team member Dom Sullivan fishing after a break and coming 2nd on the day. Don and Dom used to fish Viaduct on a regular basis.
So not a good result No. 1.

I had a break in Mid Wales followed up by a long weekend in Copenhagen where I celebrated St. Patricks Day in the Globe Irish Pub. The previous day was not so good as we watched Ireland get hammered by Wales in the 6 Nations.
Not a good result No. 2.

Chew Valley Lake was my next outing for a bit of early season ''fluff chucking'' from the bank. I fished Whalley Bank for 3 hours without a pull and had an otter swim behind me while I was up to my waist trying to get that extra distance.
I moved down to Herons Green and whipped the water for another 2 hours without a pull but a lovely double figure pike swam by me twice in the clear water without a care.
Not a good result No. 3.

The week after I tried Chew Valley again from the bank and started off on North Shore where I was told that this was the place to go but another angler and myself failed to catch after 3 hours so I move to Wick Green. No pulls there either and another big pike swam by me a rod length out.
Not a good result No. 4.

Sunday 7th April - Gloucester Canal Spring League Round 1.

I wasn't down to fish this match but was called in due to one of our guys stepping down from Nomads. I was going up anyway to bank walk for the team and was looking forward to fishing it.

OI believe there were 20 teams of 4 down to fish but one team failed to attend I hear so down to 19 which is a great attendance by any standards on a natural venue.
DGL's Dave Micklewright was at the helm organising this league and it all went very smoothly.

Team today was....
Steve ''Stretch'' Saunders
Sam Johnson
Chris Hook
Me

The canal had been under a lot of pressure over recent weeks due to the Sensas Challenge and we were all wondering how it would respond.
We bumped into Andy Jane and Andy Richings in McDonalds who had fished it on the Saturday (not on the match length) and said it was really dirty and cold. Not great for this time of year and Bloodworm and Joker was not allowed.

Chris done the draw and picked out envelope 18 which had our pegs in. Teams had to do their own draw for pegs. We ended up as follows.... Sam - middle of Permali high wall (not good), Chris 55 on dead mans straight, me 183 at Rea and Stretch 227 towards Pilot. The draw was not great.

I started off on the bread across after feeding 14 and 6 metre lines. I had a small knock after 15 minutes but had to wait a further 15 minutes for a proper pull which resulted in a 2lb plus bream. A couple more small knocks and a liner on the bread suggested there was a few fish about so I gave the bread another 45 minutes without success.
The feeder line was fed with 3 feeder fulls of fishmeal, finely chopped worm and dead pinkie before I tried the short pole line.
A small skimmer and a roach in 2 puts in's and then nothing. Out on the 14 metre line and not a touch after 20 minutes so re-fed both pole lines before going back on the feeder. A roach on the feeder and another skimmer on the short line was my lot for the day.
I weighed 3lb 3oz and got battered both sides, 10lb to my left and 6lb to my right.

Two pegs below was Tim Frampton who had 5 fish short for 17lb and he won the match over all.

Tim Frampton with his catch (there is another fish somewhere)

On the Team front Sam had 3lb 10oz, Chris one skimmer for 1lb 10oz and Stretch 6lb plus.

We knew we would be way down the league and ended up 14th from 19.

Team and Section results as follows....

So I guess that's bad result No. 5.

Can it get any worse?????
K & A Spring League Round 1 this Sunday.

As Secretary of Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club its been very busy as we have a couple of big projects on the go. I have also written 3 articles for Go Fishing N I which is a free E Magazine and I also sponsor the young angler of the month competition as well as judge it.

It's great to be so involved in a sport I love. Just wish I could catch some fish.