Sunday 15th September - Bristol Commercial House League Round 2, King Sedgemoor Drain Somerset Levels

On to the 2nd Round of this friendly league. I missed the 1st Round which was at Newbridge due to being away in Ireland but the lads done well winning the Division with 16 points from a possible 18.

The league has only 7 Teams this year, 3 in A Division which are P I Thatchers, Mosella Bathampton A and Mosella Bathampton B. B Division is made up of Sensas Nomads, Midland Spinner and M & N Electrical. There is also a team of anglers who just want to fish and not take part in the league so the float alternatively between A and B Div to spread out the Section money. Its sounds complicated but it's not really and allows for 42 anglers per match which is OK but a far cry from what the League used to be like in terms of numbers.

The Draw was at the 37 Club in Puriton just off the M5 and its a good breakfast for £5.

Chris and Sam are in Ireland fishing the Carrick on Shannon Festival so Mike and I replaced them. As I was the only responsible person in the Team .... i.e. I had a pen it was down to me to fill in the Team Sheet and perform the draw. I was given specific instructions to draw peg 1 or 7 ... oh the weight of responsibility...... I came back with 3!!!!!

Question....... Is there a representative body that deals with bullying, harassment and verbal abuse in angling especially from fellow Team members?
My quick train of thought and thinking was to say .... you won too easy in the 1st match so as your Captain I thought you needed a bit more of a challenge. Hmmm .... not too sure this changed their minds.

A, B, C and D Sections were at Parchey Bridge, E and F at Bradney. Postcodes for the locations were provided but about a mile away from the parking due to the area the postcodes covered.

I drew E and Brian Melksham drew F so Brian followed me. We had the boards as well, so assisting the scales men.

It was a shortish walk to my peg and all on the flat, no gates either. Walking up it looked great and some hard grafting had been done cutting out the pegs which were all down a grassy bank to the water from the hard path.

Above me on E2 was Des Shipp who was guesting for Thatchers and on end peg 1 Nick Coles Bathampton B, below on 4 was Kev Dicks...no mugs here then.

I set up a 6 metre whip with a 3BB waggler on it, a waggler rod but slipped on the bank after setting it up, fell on my ass and broke the top after it hit my platform, this would cost me, not only for the replacement section but points as well. I also set up the pole at 13 metres with a 2 gram set up but never had a bite on it. Prior to Lee Warden arriving on peg 5 I saw what looked like bream blowing so set up a tip rod just in case.

My whole match apart from about 20 minutes on the long pole was spent on the whip. For the first few hours I was putting fish in the net. Roach, Hybrids, Perch and Dace. Lee Warden on peg 5 below were I had seen the bream blowing had one on the whip in the first 10 minutes and a couple of skimmers. Des above me was struggling on the whip and was constantly talking to Nick on peg 1 as he was also doing very well on the whip.
Des did do OK in the end by fishing the waggler across 4 foot deep in the gusting wind.

My peg slowed during the last couple of hours and by not being able to fish the waggler prevented me  from getting a few more fish but it may not have changed the overall section result.

My full Section Board

So 2 points from a possible 3 not a disaster and I had a nice days fishing.

Back to the 37 Club for the results and a catch up with the Team. Totting up the points we had 12.5 from 18 with Mike winning his section with a level 12lb and Rich winning his with 11lb 9oz.

I recorded the section weights as follows:-

          A Div          B Div

A       8-2              8-2

B       12-3            12-0

C       11-0            13-14

D       10-10          11-9

E       14-10          14-5

F        8-13            8-12

Pretty good and 25 out of the 42 anglers had over 8lbs.

Individuals on the day....

1st   Mark Harper 24lbs 12oz

2nd  Warren Bates sorry didn't get his weight

3rd   Rob Manns 15lb 10oz

Match Winner Mark Harper all on the whip from Parchey

Team results courtesy of Vince Lunn

On the day A div:
Joint 1st:Preston Innovation Thatchers & Mosella Bathampton A - 13
Mosella Bathampton B - 10

B div:
Sensas Nomads - 12.5
Midland Spinner - 12
M&N Electrical - 11.5

League positions:
A div
Preston Innovation Thatchers - 27
Mosella Bathampton A - 25
Mosella Bathampton B - 20

B div
Sensas Nomads - 28.5
Midland Spinner - 24
M&N Electrical - 19.5