Sunday 20th October - Bristol Avon Open, Newbridge

I was toying with going over to fish the Port Talbot Docks Open but that would have meant leaving our little dog at home alone for too long as the wife was away. Another option was trying to fish for the Hospital Team on the canal at Devizes in the ATWL but again meant I could be away for quite a while due to distance. I then remembered that Dean Harvey and Kev Dicks were running a Team / Open match at Newbridge, perfect.

Dean and Kev have filled the gap during the winter on the river as a result of the S W Winter League folding a couple of years ago. They bill the matches as teams of 4 or you can fish them as Opens.
A quick call to Dean and I was booked in.

After all the rain we have had the river would be spot on. Draw was in the Willow Cafe at Willsbridge with breakfast from 08:30 and draw at 09:30, fishing 11:30 - 17:00.

I spoke to Dean after he pegged it on Saturday morning and he advised me to take float gear as well due to the river dropping fast. I had already set up a couple of feeder rods so had to sort out my Flat Floats and some heavier top kits in case I drew a peg which was steady on the inside.

The draw was done in the order you had booked in (I think). With around 30 fishing I was in the last 3rd and picked up peg 36 plus scales and board. Not a bad peg in the winter to be honest, in the middle of the straight and with some slack on the inside.

Parking up and looking at the river I think everyone agreed it looked spot on for a bream fest.

I took the pole gear as well as the feeder rods and on arrival the peg looked good.

I set up 2 feeder rods, one for 3/4 across with a 45 gram and one this side of the middle with a 30 gram both with B560 hooks 12 & 14 to 0.15.
A 5 gram flat float top 5 at 11 metres with a 16 went through lovely, I didn't set up any other rigs.

20 minutes before the all in I walked back to the van to get a bit more ground bait, that's how confident I was.
At the start I put 8 big balls in on the pole line and then started on the shorter feeder line with half a lobby and maggot, 10 minutes in a couple of rattles but nothing positive. After 30 minutes a run though on the pole produced a net roach followed by a could of 4 oz fish then they got smaller and smaller.
Back out on the longer feeder line with a big bunch of red maggots got me a small hybrid but then nothing for ages until I had a perch.
To be honest the feeder lines were poor and I upped the feed to try and make something happen but it was a lost cause.

No one was walking the bank so it was hard to tell how it was fishing, most anglers were going bream or burst.

I wish I had set up a couple more pole rigs as the roach were definitely up for it responding to little balls of ground bait every couple of run thoughs, a long rod trotting with a crow quill would have worked as well so I now regret not setting these up as apart from Jeff Surmon on peg 40 my section was dire.

As you can see out of 6 pegs only 4 of us weighed in.

My 5lb 10oz was caught now and then in around 90 minutes, had I stuck at it longer and concentrated more I could have done double figures but as they say hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Jeff had 3 quality fish and I believe snared his big bream in the last hour to easily win the section.

Mark Harper won the match with 30lb odd of bream from peg 59, Ben Rendall had 20lb plus from peg 24 followed by Chris Ollis with 19lb from peg 22 A and Tim Ford had 15lb from peg 18.

There were quite a few double figure weights but not the bream fest everyone was expecting. I think the drop in temperatures overnight affected things.

Bristol Commercial House League match on the river next week, Swineford and Crane so should fish well.