Sunday 23rd February - Port Talbot Dock Open

With only 3 booked in for our Clevedon Club match on the River Kenn and a bad forecast our Match Secretary called it off. I booked in again for the Port Talbot Docks Open for the second week running despite a forecast of strong winds again.

Gloucestershire angler Tim Frampton contacted me via Facebook regarding the venue and after some messages back and forth he also booked himself in. Team mate Clive Branson done a road show last Friday night in Bristol and I bumped into Ben Rendall who also told me he fancied it. I gave him some info and he asked me to book him in. On Saturday 11 were booked in but this dropped to 10 on the Sunday morning.

The forecast was 45 mph westerly winds up until about 11:30 and then an average of 23 mph after that but the good thing was there was not much chance of rain.

Driving over it was quite difficult and the Prince of Wales Bridge and most of the M4 to Port Talbot was restricted to 50 and 40 mph. Last week the wind was stronger but a south westerly which was ok to be honest.

Bro's Cafe done the business again and Draw Master Steve O'Mara got the draw underway. One of the waitresses pulled out the Golden Peg which was peg 20 and worth £50 on top of the £80 first prize.
Venue virgin Tim Frampton pulled out peg 20 and had every chance of winning from there.

When it came to my turn I drew peg 6 which I haven't been on before but was told that its very deep close in and I wouldn't need a long chuck.

Paul Cole was on the next peg to my left (peg 8) and Steve O'Mara to my right was on 2 so plenty of room.
The peg was very comfortable and I was able to get the box right down in the water. There was a bit of a chop but more than manageable.

I bought a few bags of Clive's Gold Medal Ground Bait ''Black Bream'' on Friday night so mixed 2kg up with some left over green fish meal. I put enough aside for the feeder and then added leam to the remainder making up 8 big balls for putting in on the whistle laced with corn, dead reds and caster.

I had plumbed up one feeder rod at 20 turns and the other at 12, 4 balls went in on each line at the start.

Starting off on the longer line with 5 red maggots on a size 12 B560 it didn't take long to get a pull which I hit, result a 1lb skimmer. I was feeding caster and corn through the feeder and 20 minutes in after casting every 5 minutes I felt the swim was coming on nicely after catching a few hybrids. I stuck with the red maggots for the first hour just to keep putting something in the net pretty fast. 

Paul to my left was having a bit of a nightmare with his tackle, line breaking, line tangling within the reel etc.

I rang the changes by putting a worm on the hook tipped with a maggot or caster and the quality of the fish improved. A few baby bream appeared along with net skimmers. I had to compress the ground bait and particles in the feeder quite a bit to prevent in emptying part the way down and thus attracting roach which would hit the bait on the way down.

After a couple of hours Paul came up and asked if I had much. I said into the teens and he seemed surprised. He walked up to Steve and came back and told me he'd had quite a few bream and skimmers. No worries as still half the match left.

I was thinking about coming in on the short line when the tip went around and stayed there, bream on, lovely. I decided to simply stay on the longer line and upped the feed a bit. Good move as more big skimmers followed along with a cracking rudd. I lost two bream at the net after the hook pulled out, always a risk as you bring them up in the deep water and I thought that this would cost me.

I had a great days fishing and weighed 26lb 6oz. Clive easily won the match on the tip from peg 16 with 52 lb 2oz, Steve O'Mara was 2nd with 29 lb and Martin Thomas was 3rd with 28 lbs. 

So I narrowly missed out on a pick up.

Lovely net

One of the rudd

Clive with his winning bag

Steve had a nice net for 2nd place

Full results

Tim and Ben enjoyed their first visit to the dock and I think they will be back again, after all where could you go to have a bath provided behind your peg lol!

Hope to get out on the river on Tuesday so watch this space.

Sunday 16th February - Port Talbot Docks Match / Knock Up

Team mates Sam Johnson, Chris Hook and I booked in for this match at the beginning of the week. As the week progressed the weather forecast did not look good with ''Storm Dennis'' coming in from the Atlantic.
I tormented myself all week looking at different weather forecasts hoping for a change in the forecast.

14 were booked in and this was the limit due to another Club having a small match on the dock as well.
Chris decided to pull out on Thursday due to the extreme weather forecast, plus he had never fished it before. Sam and I hung on, I think we were both waiting for the other to say they weren't going. On Friday I had a text from Sam saying ''we've got to go now as I've got my bait''. That was it then, fully committed lol.

Steve O'Mara who organises the matches posted in facebook that the 14 booked in had been reduced to about 4 due to the weather. Fair play he told me it wouldn't be a problem if we cancelled due to the weather and the distance we had to travel.

We still said we'd go, mad or what!

Sam was making his own way over so I planned to leave home around 06:00. I left home and went on my usual route to join the M5 at Gordano but didn't get far due to the police blocking the road after a tree came down in the storm. I turned around and gave Sam a call saying what had happened, he was on the road heading up the M5 from Weston Super Mare. I told him I would take another route.

To be honest it was windy but not too bad for driving and there was the odd heavy shower.

I got to Bro's Cafe were the draw is held at 08:45 and Sam was parked up. A quick natter before going in for a great breakfast at 08:00.

Steve was already in the Cafe and confirmed there was only 4 of us. But....£45 for 1st and £15 for 2nd  plus another £45 in the golden peg. We drew for pegs 1 to 4 with the view we would decide were to fish in a row when we went over to the dock and a view to get the wind on our backs.

When we got on the bank fishing with the wind off our backs was not an option due to the height of the water, apparently the highest its been for 20 years.

I ended up on end peg 21, Steve on 20, Sam on 18 which was the golden peg and Chris Bradley on 16.

I only set up one feeder rod with a 45 gram feeder to punch it through the wind paired up with 6lb mono, size 12 B560 to 0.16. I was on a shallower peg than the rest but Steve advised me to go out 26 turns into the deeper water.

After we set up the dock level dropped about 3 foot and I ended up repositioning my box etc.

Here's a little clip showing the conditions, this was the calmest part of the day lol

With fishmeal ground bait combined with casters, corn, dead red and chopped worm I started off with 3 reds on the hook just to get a bite. 

The 2oz glass tip was OK for the job although it took a while to figure out whether or not to leave it slack or tighten up in order to see the bite. After a bit of trial and error I started to get some small fish up to 6oz, roach, skimmers and hybrids.

It wasn't fast and furious but the odd fish was going in the net. The wind was getting stronger and it was raining as well. Waves were rolling in and hitting me and the rod rest had to be brought up higher to avoid them.

Sam turned up behind me after a hour or so and said he only had one roach. I told him I had about 7 fish.

About 12:00 I started putting worm on the hook which brought on a run of net skimmers. It was a horrendous day but I was enjoying it.

A positive pull around and I connected with a better fish but it turned out to be an eel. 

At 13:00 the fish were responding better and getting their heads down and I lost what felt like a good bream when the feeder snagged in the nearside shelf rocks. I also noticed Steve was getting a few better fish, proper bream.

I started putting on bigger hook baits i.e 2 worms withe ends nipped off and tipped with a couple of casters. That seemed to make a difference and the bites became more positive. 

I plugged away and was rewarded with a proper bream followed by more skimmers. 15 minutes from the all out the reel line got tangled under the spool and that was it for me.

Chris was the first to weigh and had 9lb 10oz.

Sam had 5lb 7oz

Steve had a great net of quality bream for 31lb

I done better than I thought weighing 16lb 9oz

Despite the weather I was glad I went, it's a great venue.

Not sure about this week, keeping an eye on the weather, Club match on the Kenn next Sunday weather permitting as well as number of entries.

Wednesday 12th February - Pleasure session River Kenn

I was planning to go to Chippenham in order to target chub but the rain prior to today messed that up. My local River Kenn can take a bit of water due to being tidal and controlled by the sea gates so off I went.

High tide was at 09:00 so there was not much point in fishing until about 12:00. I set off from home around 10:45 in order to get a bit more maggot but could not get any due to both tackle shops being closed. I knew Zoe at Acorn Fishery had a key to the tackle shop (Cadbury Angling) and she does normally serve in Dan's absence but she wasn't there today. Still I had about 3/4 pint of red and some worm as well as lobby's.

Spent my maggot money on a sausage sandwich in Clevedon before heading down to the river at Strode Rd. I had a walk along the bank first and there were 2 anglers one on 34 the other on 33. Reg on 34 had a full annual tab the other with no ticket. Told me he couldn't get one due to the tackle shop being closed. We don't sell tickets on the bank but I wrote hi out a ticket on a scrap piece of paper due to there being no other anglers around and he was just lure fishing for a few hours, bollocking was accepted and he handed over £5.

I decided I would fish well upstream from them and decided on a peg in the dead reds between 37 and 38.
As I returned wheeling my gear past the two other guys Reg landed a jack pike on the worm.

Reg with his pike

I had my waggles rods already set up so it didn't take long to get organised in the peg and I was fishing by 12:15. Chris Ford soon came up for a look and then Kev Perry. They stood behind me willing the float to go under but it looked a waste of time. After 40 minutes Kev said I was unlikely to catch due to all the cold rain that had gone into the river the day and night before.

I kept feeding red maggot every cast and eventually the float went under about 20 yards downstream and a good fish was on. I netted a hybrid of around 2lbs, lovely. Plugging away and continually feeding and trotting, holding back I had another good fish. It looked like a big roach but in fact it was another hybrid with more roach in it than bream.

Chris and Kev walked off to have some lunch but Chris said he would be back. 

Around 14:00 I had a lovely perch up on the far shelf and then a small jack but it bit through the line just before I netted it.

Another 2 decent perch and a lost pike was my lot over the next couple of hours.

The river in the afternoon was spot on but I do think the cold rain had affected it.

an enjoyable day, thanks to Chris for taking the photo

Port Talbot Dock Open on Sunday weather permitting .

Saturday 8th February - short pleasure session River Kenn

I had a 4 hour session on the River Kenn this morning on peg 35 above Strode Rd. Bridge. Fished peg 7 on Thursday but only had one bite and lost a good fish after the hook pulled out. Only had one perch just under 2lbs before 10:30 then as the river slowed down (tidal) I managed 2 more decent perch, a 3lb pike, 5lb plus bream and a 2lb tench all on wag and mag. Meanwhile down on peg 15 Paul Tedman Whitemore had 2 bites on the lead and connected with one ... a 4lb 13oz chub which was witnessed. The Kenn can break you but can also bring you joy if you can tolerate standing in the mud this time of year. Wonder where the roach are?

Not bad ...about 15lbs

Pauls Chub, got to be a record for the River

No fishing tomorrow due to the storm but hope to get out mid week followed by the Port Talbot Open on the 16th Feb.