Wednesday 22nd May - 5th Session Bristol Feeder Canal

We had a squad meeting on the Tuesday evening and Mike asked me if I was going on the Feeder Canal the following day. I replied ''I think so''. I had sort of planned to go but the weather didn't look that great. Mike said he would go, so I said yes. I think it was the draw of the quality breakfast in Kelly's Cafe rather than the fishing to be honest.

We met at 06:30 down by Manor Scrap on Feeder Rd. After Mike parked up he asked if Geoff from Gloucester was already fishing. I said wouldn't think so as he has a painting job on. Turns out there was an angler already on the bank fishing where Geoff normally sets up.

We walked down and sure enough an angler was already there minus his landing net, keep net and a few other bits and pieces. Understandable really as he had travelled up from Castle Carey and arrived on the Canal at 05:30 so must have left home at 04:30 !
I hear you say why?....... Well, get this he had read my Blog and decided the Feeder Canal was worth a go. Didn't get his name but he had already lost a bream and had a skimmer.

Mike and I wandered on down the Canal and went up the steps to the road were we could smell the breakfast cooking in Kelly's.
We were in there at 06:45 and tucking into a feast by 07:00.

On the bank again and fishing by 08:20. Mike went up toward Clarks Wood and I set up by Manor Scrap.
Usual set up and lines as well as ground bait.

I had a fairly quick response and soon had a few roach which were nice and clean. Dace also followed but then for some reason the Daddy Ruffe moved in and I couldn't catch anything but them. I came off bottom and things did improve a little. It took regular top ups on both lines and loose feeding caster seemed to draw fish in.

I ended up with a real mixed bag, roach, ruffe, big gudgeon, perch, dace, hybrids and a skimmer. I lost a big bream half way across and bumped another so there were a few about still but I think most have returned to the docks after spawning.

Mike had a mixed bag as well but no bream.

Back up on the Gloucester Canal this Sunday for the Angling Trust Canal Pairs Qualifier with Team Mate Chris Hook. We won it last year and came 5th in the final up in Stafford so fingers crossed this weekend.

Sunday 26th May - Gloucester Canal Spring League Final Round

This was the final round of the well supported Spring League run this year by Dave Micklewright and his band of helpers. A big thanks must go to all the organisers and the Gordon League Rugby Club for hosting the draw and the results.

I have only been able to fish 3 of the 4 matches this year and there have not been any practice matches either. Last year I also pleasure fished it quite a bit during the week but have only been a few times. Pleasure session have not been as good as last year and up until today my match weights have been poor, the draws have definitely not been kind to me or my team mates but take it on the chin, last year I could hardly go wrong and as I always say ''your turn eventually comes back around again''.

Todays bad run of draws continued as I found myself on Sims 13, I hate this section and have never done any good from it and I don't know of anyone else who has had a big weight either. Not sure why it was put in but the Tall Ships event in Gloucester Docks my have had something to do with it and a lot more boats were moored up around Hempstead. Still it is what it is.

Before I left the Rugby Club Brian Pollard said I was in the bay which gave me a bit of hope. On arrival I wasn't. I was a bout 4 pegs away.

Now lets be fair....on the face of it this peg looks great. Apparently years ago there was quite a few chub in this area and you can see why, but not any more.

The canal here is quite narrow, about 20 metres across. Plumbing up with the lead I had about 6 foot just out from the tree line so clipped up tp fish here with the bread and fishmeal feeders.

Depth at 13 metres was around top 4.5 and at 6 metres top 3.5.

I started off on the bread and 2nd cast I had an indication which is about right for the bread. I had a 6.5 mm punch on a 16 wide gape hook. 3 cast and the tip went right around, struck and nothing. This happened 3 or 4 casts in a row. Double pinkie on the hook with liqqy in the feeder had the same effect and the pinkies came back in shreads. Small roach or bleak I think. 40 minutes in I switched to fishmeal and dead reds on the hook. One small knock for the rest of the match on the tip. Nothing on either pole line either so ''blankety blank'' for me. To say I was disheartened is an understatement.

1lb 9oz was weighed to my left and 3oz to my right. The section was won with 6lb 4oz from the Netheridge side of Sims Bridge and I think the other peg that side was 2nd with 3lbs plus. The other weights my side which broke 2lbs was made up of a single fish caught in the first 30 minutes or so!!

Team mate Chris Hook done well from 36 at Hempstead weighing in 6lbs plus and Geraint on 185 at Rea was 3rd in his Section with 5lb 4oz, not sure what Stretch had.

Geraint also lost a bream.

Here are the results on the day as well as the final placings courtesy of Dave Micklewright.

Sections.....

Teams on the day and final placings....

Hopefully back on the Feeder Canal on Wednesday and then ..... wait for it...... back ob the Glossy on Sunday for the Canal Pairs Qualifier with Chris. We won it last year but the way things are going...... who knows what will happen.

Wednesday 22nd May - 4th visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal

Team mate Leigh Wakefield asked me last week if I was fishing the Feeder the following week as he had the week off work. I said yes, Wednesday again. He knows the score with getting there early to park up so it would be an early start for him as he lives just outside Chippenham.

When I arrived about 06:15 Geoff Mortimer was also there parked up and waiting for me. I told Geoff last week that I would be fishing. Time went on a bit and it wasn't until 06:50 that Leigh turned up. Basically he couldn't turn off the Bath Rd. were he thought he could and ended up going around the long way. Anyway he managed to park up immediately behind me.

Off to Kellys Cafe next for breakfast and despite me warning Leigh about the size of the monster breakfast he ordered it ..... and he finished it the same time as mine which was half the size, but he was impressed.

As we unloaded our vehicles down by Manor Scrap a couple of guys in high viz vests were on the canal bank and next thing we know they had a boat. Turns out they were going to carry out a survey on the foundations of one of the buildings that borders the canal on the far bank. We decided to go upstream out of their way. Leigh settled in just about Clarks Wood Yard and had a few bushes across. I went 2 pegs up with Brandon Tool Hire behind me and also had a bit of greenery, Geoff went a couple of pegs up again just below the Footbridge.

The Canal was a very dirty colour with a fair bit of debris floating around. The tow towards the city was fairly strong.

I set up a 1 gram and a 1.5 gram rig, both would do the bottom of the far shelf and the track. 20 hook on the 1 gram and a 18 on the 1.5. It was about a foot shallower up this end compared to were I normally fish but still a decent depth.

Usual ground bait mix, black lake and pastoncino with a little leam this time along with the usual particles.

It did take a while to get a bite, Leigh was having little or no indications either but I did see Geoff net a few fish early.
After 30 minutes or so I did start to get a few bites across but they were only small dace and the odd small perch.
I fed across fairly regularly with small balls of ground bait and this gave me a positive response and a run of dace followed but it was by no means manic.

Geoff came down for a walk and said he had been getting mainly dace down the track loose feeding hemp with maggot on the hook.  I had been topping up my track line but started to fire a few casters and a bit of hemp in as well.

The flow started to back up which suggested there was a tide this morning, I didn't check but that's what it looked like. Tourist barges started to come up and down as well so the locks were opening and shutting at the river end.

I managed a skimmer followed by a decent roach across between a couple of boats going past but after that my far line went dead.
look down the track suggested there was some fish around. Geoff came back down and said he bumped a bream as had Leigh, so they were about.

I saw Leigh shipping his pole back very carefully and knew he had a bream on, it took ages for hime to get it in on the light elastic but patience paid off and luckily no boats came past at the same time.

Nice fish touching 4lbs

The latter half of the session I spent more time down the track and had a good run of roach but felt I hadn't got the feeding right. I did miss a lot of snatching bites but those were small dace.

Geoff and I packed up at 15:00, Leigh was going to fish on until after the rush hour and then go and see his mum but he weighed in along with us.

Geoff had 9lb 8oz (and was also asked to be a witness to a car crash behind him lol)

I had a level 7lb

Leigh had just over 8lbs, he had a big skimmer to go with his bream about 20 minutes to go.

The Bristol Feeder Canal is an interesting venue at this time of year. I have a match on the Glossy on Sunday and may well visit the Feeder again next week.

Sunday 19th May - Practice session Gloucester Canal

With no match this weekend I put a call out to a couple of pals to see if they wanted to go out pleasure fishing and suggested Bristol Feeder Canal or Gloucester Canal. When I was fishing with Mike on Wednesday he said he would go up on the Glossy with me as we have the last round of the Spring League up there this coming Sunday, then Chris and I are fishing the Canal Pairs Qualifier on it the following Sunday plus the first round of the Super League is on there on 9th June.

We discussed options and finally decided over a McDonalds coffee on the morning that we would have a look at Rea down.
The Car Park at Rea Bridge was closed for some reason but we parked easily enough across the far side.

As we walked down the nice tarmac path along the canal a couple of anglers were fishing the early pegs by the bridge on the pole. The angler on the short line swung in a small roach as we approached him. We only took our feeder rods so kit was minimum and we were soon in the area we wanted to fish. Mike settled in on permanent peg 177 and I went in on 175.
The pegs do have a little bit of form but this spring the canal has fished hard so we weer not expecting big weights.

I intended to start off on the bread and then go on fishmeal later. Mike went straight for a ground bait mix and I think it consisted of multiple ingredients.
After putting the bread through a riddle and mixing up some fishmeal it didn't take long to get the 2 feeder rods set up. The acolyte (1 oz tip) rod had a 20 gram cage feeder and a wide gape 16 to 0.11 power. My pro match feeder rod (2 oz tip) or as Mike would call it ''the barbel rod'' had a 25 gram cage and the same hook and line.

Before I started I took a walk down to Mike who already begun and had an early perch, he said he was getting a few liners as well. He also said there had been a couple of bream following in front of me, I didn't see them as I was probably mixing up the GB with the drill.

Back I went and put a 6mm double punch on the 20 gram set up and lightly squeezed in the liquidised bread. I was about 2 metres out from the far side bushes. Third cast in and 15 minutes later I had a small indication followed by a wrap around, struck, nothing. When I brought it in the bread pellet was still on the hook, so a liner. A couple more knocks in successive casts but nothing positive.

It must have been about 40 minutes in when I had another little knock but the 1 oz tip stayed slightly bent and I mean slightly. I picked the rod up and sure enough thud thud bream on. Played very slowly and netted just as the hook came out. 2.5 lb ish.
In the next 20 minutes I added a small skimmer and nothing else on the bread.

Out on the fishmeal with dead reds on the hook and dead pinkie and a small amount of chopped worm in the feeder gave me some indications straight away. I tried to hit a few of the bites but nothing. A walk down to Mike who was having a few eels suggested that this might be the problem.

Back on the box and head down I managed to get an eel, only a boot lace but they all count. The canal was quite dirty at times as they were dredging further upstream as apparently the Tall Ships are in Gloucester Dock next Sunday so we are in for a bit of boat traffic.

I kept putting the bait in changing rods depending on the tow as well as changing hook baits. I managed to snare 3 more bream, a perch, a hybrid and a daddy ruffe.

There was a boat to my left a peg away and the guy saw me catch a couple of the fish and was asking me about fishing on the Glossy. He was an angler himself but it was unclear want his style was. He asked if I went boat fishing. I said only when fly fishing and then asked me if I wanted a boat net as he was only going to bin it. I said I'll have it and he said he would leave it behind my van parked up at the bridge and walked off, it must have been in his car. I thanked him and fished on for another 15 minutes or so until 15:15 ish.

Mike didn't have any bream although we were certain there was a few in both our pegs but not really feeding, 2 of mine were still rough. Mike had a few small skimmers, perch and eels and a really nice hybrid.

When we packed up and got back to the vehicles sure enough there was the net as promised.

Now..... if a Nomads anglers wins his section or wins a match as a reward you get a prize i.e. riddle, stink bag, hat, ground bait etc.

I showed the net to Mike and it gave him an idea......... any Nomad who wins his section on the K & A Canal will get one of these as a prize and should come in very useful in next years Spring League and this years Commercial House League. I'm sure this will provide a real incentive....

other nets are available

Mikes best fish a nice hybrid

My catch, the best I have had on the Glossy this year

A very pleasant day and got my legs out again.

Back on the Bristol Feeder Canal this Wednesday with team mate Leigh Wakefield while Mike is down at Tamar most of the week fishing the festival.

Wednesday 15th May - 3rd visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal

Came back on Sunday after 10 days away cruising from Montreal Canada to Boston USA. The flight back was only 6:30 but it has been hard to get back into a proper sleeping pattern.

I text Geoff Mortimer from Gloucester to let him know Mike Martin and I would be fishing the Feeder today and he said he would be down. This would also be Mike's first visit to the venue. As usual it would have to be an early start in order to get a parking space so I suggested to Mike that we meet up at 06:45 at the latest and then go down and sample the delights of Kelly's Cafe, this seemed to make the early start more attractive to him.

I woke up wide awake at 04:00 and cat napped until 05:30, I was on the road by 06:00 and arrived on Feeder Rd by 06:30. Geoff was already parked up eating his cereal but when informed we were going for breakie he said he would come along for a cuppa. Mike soon arrived and parked in Short Rd just around the corner from us.

As the Cafe didn't open until 07:00 we took a walk along the bank. As Geoff and I were updating Mike on the venue I noticed a big swirl under a tree upstream of us. Geoff said it was probably a rat but there was another swirl. On close inspection bream could be see among the roots of a tree which had some weed on them. To say there was quite a few was an understatement, some proper slabs were rubbing themselves up against the vegetation and they were obviously spawning.

We left for the Cafe with a degree of excitement.

Even more excitement followed when we saw the prices and choice in the Cafe. I went for the large breakfast and Mike went for the Monster aka food shop for a family of 4 for a week.
Our order was quickly served and very good it was too. Mike definitely was hungry as he finished his the same time as I did mine.

We were on the bank by 07:45 . Geoff went in on the same spot as the other week as did I. Mike went in just past the access slipway so peg nearest the spawning bream but still about 50 yards from them.

Usual set up for me as well as the ground bait mix. It took 30 minutes or more to get my first bite which surprised me and that was a small dace. Mike however got a decent slab halfway across and added another 2 in the first hour or so. I think he lost one as well.

I eventually started to put a few fish in the net but was getting plagued by tiny dace just snatching at the maggot or pinkie. I suppose I was hitting 1 bite in 10, very frustrating.
2 hours in I had net skimmer and a couple of chunky roach holding back hard.

Looking down I could see Geoff adding quite a few fish including the odd netter. Mike's line had slowed.

The flow was changeable during the day and you had tp keep altering the depth and shot to get a bite.

We called it a day at 15:00.

Mike had top weight, 14lb plus.

Geoff had a nice bag which weighed 11lb

I was 2nd runner up with 7lb 6oz

No match this weekend but Mike and I are going bream slaying on the Glossy, then I am back on the Feeder Canal next Wednesday.

Wednesday 1st May - 2nd Visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal 2019

Warning before you read on this post comes with a warning..... there is a photo of me with fish, hard to believe I know but it had to happen sooner or later.

The alarm went off at 05:45 in order for me to set off from home by 06:20 at the latest to park up where I wanted in Feeder Rd. A quick stop into Budgens to grab a bacon, sausage and egg muffin roll followed by a good run into Bristol arriving at Feeder Rd at 06:50. Loads of space and parked up opposite the Canal down by Manor Scrap where I wanted to fish.

I was just starting to set up and saw another angler with a trolley load of gear walking towards me. Turned out it was Geoff Mortimer from Gloucester who I have met a few times on the tow path of the Glossy and he also follows this blog. Geoff said he set off from home at 05:00 and took a breakfast in a nearby Cafe after parking up not far from me.
An exchange of tips and the approach needed Geoff headed down the towpath and started to set up about 3 pegs away from me.

I had plenty of left over bait from the weekend, caster, worm, dead reds, reds and pinkie. I also had a bit of Lake and Leam left but also mixed up a bit of Lake and Pastoncino.

I set up my 2 usual rigs, a 1 gram and a 2 gram with a 20 on the light rig and an 18 on the other.

Although I usually bait up the track and a 12 or 13 metre line I decided to just bait up the long line leaving the track negative.

The Canal looked pretty good, rain was forecast but not much and its wasn't cold either.

I fed 4 big balls at 13 metres to start off with and went over it straight away with the light rig. I was about 2'' over depth and held it back a little. On the second run through the float slide away and it was a nice skimmer. This was much different to the previous week when it took me 30 mins to get a bite.

I soon had another decent skimmer which indicated a good day was to be had. Just before 09:00 the traffic on Feeder Rd was backing up a bit towards the city centre, I hooked into a bigger skimmer and the No.4 elastic was well stretched. As I played it someone in a car behind me shouted out ''go on Ivan, better than the Gloucester Canal''. I have no idea who it was lol.

Geoff took a walk up to see how I was getting on and I landed another good skimmer while he was there. At this point he had roach and dace, no skimmers.

The first half of the morning up to about 11:00 was brilliant and then it slowed a bit but there was fish still in the swim.

I played around a bit with the depth and added good roach and dace. Just before 12:00 I hit a really good fish which must have been a bream. The elastic bottomed out and then the hook came away.

Geoff started to get a few skimmers and had a decent bream around 13:00.

I packed up just after 14:00 but Geoff carried on for a bit longer.

Geoff had the best fish of the day and text me to say his total catch weighed 26lb odd

I can't complain about my day, absolutely love it and Geoff was good company.

My catch, what's not to like

Thats it from me for a couple of weeks but will be back on the bank week commencing 13th May.