Wednesday 23rd September - Pleasure session River Kenn

 I don't usually go on the Kenn if the tide is not right. In previous posts about this river I have emphasised the importance (as far as I am concerned) of fishing when the river is flowing the correct way toward the sea. High tide today was 11:47 so it would be backing up before 11:00 and it would take it until about 14:00 to turn and run off.

The weather forecast was mixed as was the wind strength and direction, also important if you intend to fish the waggler.

I settled in on peg 10 (gradually moving up river session by session). There was an angler on peg 4 with two carp rods out with wafters on the hook looking for big bream.

Two wagglers again, one for the middle tripping bottom and the other for 2/3rds across again tripping bottom. Both with B611 size 18 hooks to 0.11 power line.

Maggot would be loose fed in the middle and caster across.

It was really slow for the first hour with only one small tench across. I had been feeding the middle on a regular basis and just began to have a look on that line when Club Match Secretary Adie Baker came along with his dog. While Adie was there I took another tench, some perch and some roach which surprised him.

After an hour down the middle I went back across and picked up more roach, perch and a couple more tench. Thats the way it went for the rest of the 5 hour session just swapping between both lines.

Ended up with 5 tench, a small carp, numerous perch and some good roach. Loved seeing the roach turn up and about time to.

A lovely days fishing and better than I expected.

King Sedgemoor Drain on Sunday.

Sunday 20th September - Bristol Commercial House League - Round 2, Bristol Avon, Newbridge, Swineford & Crane

 I had a phone call on the Wednesday from Brian Melksham informing me he had van problems and would not be able to make it. Fortunately he arranged Rich Whitmarsh to step in if needed so we went with that.

There was meant to be a Section on Ben Rendall's Chequers stretch but this was cancelled due to a 14 metre tide which would have reached this Section at around 11:00 ish.

We ended up with 2 Sections on Newbridge, 2 at Swineford and 2 up the Crane. Parking can be a real issue on any natural venue these days, Newbridge was fine but Swineford is now limited for some reason. Thankfully Brian Lloyd who is Secretary of the Bristol and West Federation managed to get permission from the farmer to park in the field. Down on the Crane Section and around the Marina the Council have put yellow lines down so not quite sure how that worked out but I didn't hear any horror stories.

Todays Sections

The individual Knock Out started today and I drew team mate Chris!

Team today was...

Me

Chris Hook

Sam Johnson

Leigh Wakefield

Jan Van Mazyk

Rich Whitmarsh

The draw and breakfast was held again in the Cadbury Heath Sports and Social Club with appropriate safety measures in place.

We got our team sheet in nice and early again and were first to draw.

Rich was on A7, Jan B4, Leigh C1, Me D5, Sam E2 and Chris F6. On paper it looked ok and we all set off, fishing was 10:30 - 15:30.

As Leigh and I were at Swineford we walked down to his peg together for a look. Hmmmm not that many options and if the chub didn't show across then it would be small fish which would not compete with the pegs below him.

Two kissing gates later, unloading and loading the gear and a long walk I arrived at my peg which was actually 4 pegs above Bitton Railway Bridge.

I think its fair to say I was a long way down to the water from the top of the bank but at the bottom when you actually got there I was able to set up ok on a flat area. A bit of light pruning and chopping back reeds was required but once you were settled it was fine.

Most of the flow was nearside to middle. The flow was not that fast but steady enough. Plumbing up with a 3BB wire stemmed avon float I had about 5 foot a few rod lengths out. A waggler across under a tree gave me the same depth. A maggot feeder was also set up as there was a fairly strong downstream breeze.

Just as I was halfway through setting up I had a message from Rich who was fuming and that's putting it mildly. The Rowing Club directly opposite him where driving in steel pylons, in order to build a new boardwalk and launch area. When I spoke to him the noise was horrendous, he was not happy and they would be there all match. I tried to console him as best I could.

On the all in I put 4 balls of Black Lake and Gros Gardons in about 8 metres out laced with caster, hemp and dead reds. Starting off on the wire stemmed avon it did not take long to get my first small roach. I was tripping the bottom a bit and had to continually check the line due to the downstream breeze. Lots more small roach followed but they were not taking the float completely up so after 20 minutes I shallowed up slightly and bingo under it went. In order to let it have a decent run through I didn't check the line as much but did keep it fairly tight.

During the first hour they were not that far out and putting in a small nugget of ground bait every couple of casts kept them coming.

As the morning went on the boating activity on the water increased including a couple of guided nature tours on 6 man inflatables, of course we had the paddle boarders as well but they kept out of the way.

Two hours in and i hit a proper fish at the end of the trot. I thought it was a chub but turned out to be a 2lb bream. Now under normal circumstances you would lobby a feeder out but due to the clear conditions I decided it was lost and in any case the way I was feeding and fishing if there was any more I  would get them on the float.

Well I didn't get any more bream but the roach and the odd dace kept me busy for most of the match despite two wild swimmers coming up and down plus one of them decided to jump off an old pontoon just downstream of me, no feckin respect.

Nicky Goodhind came along just before the end and told me most people around me were admitting to 10lbs, I said I might have 12lbs.

When the match was over and I packed up I walked down with Andy Britt who was weighing in, starting with Derek Coles who was on D7, end peg. Derek weighed 12lb 15oz, all roach. Paul Issac's was next to weigh and also had small fish for 12lb 12oz. Me next and I weighed 12lb 10oz.

Lovely days fishing on the float.

Our A & B div section was really tight, here is the weigh sheet.....

So...2 points from 3, beaten for the Section by 2oz ...

Back at the results the team did not do well.....but fair play to Rich was winning his Section given the circumstances.

Given the above I am through to the next round of the knock out against Kevin Boltz on the KSD next week.

Full report on the match from the Groups FB Page courtesy of Vince Lunn.........

The 2nd round of the Sensas Commercial House League was fished on the Bristol Avon at the Crane, Swinford & Newbridge (42 pegs). The river was clear and it was a warm bright day.

Swinford and the top section of the Crane were the places to draw with 15 double figure weights from the 21 anglers in these sections. The other 3 sections produced only 1 double figure weight. The top 4 all came from Swinford.

Vince Lunn of M & N Electrical won the match from peg 12. He caught around 80 small fish on a 5m whip with maggot, before fishing the waggler with maggot & castor and catching mainly 2 to 5 oz chublets for most of the day. Later on he caught 3 bigger chub to weigh 16 lbs 2 ozs.

Kev Boltz and Craing Pinker were joint 2nd with 14 lbs 7ozs, with both fishing for Midland Spinner.

Kev was on peg 6 and caught around 200 fish on a 5m whip with hemp and castor. This was roach, bleak, dace and around 5 lbs of decent perch.

Craig was on peg 17 and he caught roach at 14.5 metres on the pole over groundbait. He then fished the waggler shallow to catch chublets and some decent chub.

In the A division, Preston Innvoation Thatchers won by 3 points to take a nice 7 point lead overall.

In the B division, M & N Electrical won on the day to take the lead by 1 point from Midland Spinner.

Individuals

1 V Lunn M & N Electrical 16 lbs 2 ozs

2= K Boltz Midland Spinner 14 lbs 7 ozs

2= C Pinker Midland Spinner 14 lbs 7 ozs

4 S Townsend Preston Innovations Thatchers 13 lbs 10 ozs

5 R Manns Preston Innovations Thatchers 13 lbs 4 ozs

6 D Cole Mosella Bathampton B 12lb 15ozs

Teams

A Div on day

1 Preston Innovations Thatchers 15

2 Mosella Bathampton A 12

3 Sensas Nomads 9

B Div on day

1 M & N Electrical 14

2 Midland Spinner 12

3 Mosella Bathampton B 10

A Div league overall

1 Preston Innovations Thatchers 29

2 Mosella Bathampton A 22

3 Sensas Nomads 21

B Div league overall

1 M & N Electrical 27

2 Midland Spinner 26

3 Mosella Bathampton B 19

Todays winner Vince Lunn who obviously had a change of clothes for the catch photo...

Wednesday 16th September - pleasure session River Kenn

 I still had about a pint of caster and half a pint of red maggot left so opted to return to the River Kenn again following my success with the tench on Sunday. You don't need a lot of bait for this venue at any time of the year.

The weather forecast suggested in would be 21 degrees and light SW winds. High tide was just before 07:00 and it was a big one at 13 metres.

My fellow Club members have their views on the tide affecting the fishing. I have a very strong view that the river fishes best after high tide as the river will flow the right way (towards the sea). When it is backing up or still the fish do not appear to respond. When the incoming tide peaks, i.e. High Tide, it takes about 2 hours for it to turn and start running off. In the winter it can be quite a surge but this time of year it is more gentle.

I arrived on the bank just after 08:00 and talked briefly to an angler who had been on peg 6 since first light. He hadn't had anything but I suggested it would get better after 09:00 based on my theory about the tide.

I carried on past him and settle in on peg 8.

I took my time setting up as the tide would not turn for another 45 minutes.

2 waggler rods, 3AA wagglers, 4lb main line, 0.11 power hook length, size 18 B611 on one, size16 B611 on the other for fishing corn if needed. These are nice sharp strong hooks which I usually use when chub fishing.

I had 2 number 8's as bulk 2/3rds the way down followed by another 8 and 2 number 10's, one above the hook length and the other on it.

I plumbed up to fish 3/4 way over and had about 4 inches tripping the bottom.

My timing was spot on as the tide turned just as I was ready.

I decided I would ease my way into the session and fed about 6 casters via the catty every couple of minutes.

At 09:15 I had my first bite, a nice sail away and connected with a tench of about 1.5 lbs.

The waggler was tripping through nicely and I got into a real rhythm with the feeding. Along with a red maggot on the hook I put on a fluro pinkie.

Small mirror carp next which took me all over the place. These are starting to show now on a regular basis and we didn't stock them.

By the end of the first hour I had 4 tench and the small mirror, nice I thought.

I had been putting the odd single grain of corn in now and then so picked up the other rod and tested the corn, nothing so back on the maggot and pinkie.

Well up until about 12:30 I had a tremendous session, more tench, another carp, perch some nice roach up to 8oz and a few eels.

The wind got a little stronger and became a proper upstream one so presentation suffered a little. I didn't want to go on the bomb as I thought that it would bring eels.

I did continue to to winkle out more perch up to 10oz and another tench which weighed around 3lbs.

I called it a day at 14:00 and managed to get a passer by to take a photo for me.

I estimated I had around 20lbs.

Next out is Sunday on the Bristol Avon, Bristol Commercial House League Round 2.

Sunday 13th September - Peasure session River Kenn, Clevedon.

 No match this weekend so just pleasure fished my home water for only the 2nd time this season.

It has been fishing really well for tench and bream plus some big perch, the roach should show very soon.

3AAA waggler, 18 B611 to 0.11 Powerline, 4lb mainline.

Caster loose fed 2/3rds the way over at 6 foot deep, red maggot on the hook.

Fished 08:30 - 14:00.

Lost a small carp at the net when the hook pulled out, there's not many in here thank goodness.

Lost 2 tench, one broke me and the other slipped the hook at the net.

Went on to land 4, the best 5lbs along with a hybrid, some perch, roach and eels.

Made a nice change.

Sunday 6th September - Sensas Bristol Commercial House League, Bristol Avon, Chequers, Newbridge and Rotork

 A few thank you's first......

Mike & Nicola Goodhind plus Andy Britt for getting the League up and running despite restrictions. 

Ben Rendall for allowing a section of todays match on Chequers.

Ben Matthews for running the individual and knock out pool, Kev Dicks for running the super pool.

The Cadbury Heath Sports & Social Club for the use of their premises and cooking breakfast.

Team Bathampton and Team Thatchers for agreeing to weigh in and do the boards every match.

As in previous years there was an A Div and a B Div, 3 teams of 6 in each plus a floating Hospital Team who did not attract any points.

As we ended up top of B Div last year (one year we go up the next year we go down) we were in A Div this year along with Thatchers and Bathampton A.

Our Team for today (and all of the series) was...

Sensas Nomads

Me (capitano)

Sam Johnson

Chris Hook

Jan Van Mazyk

Brian Melksham

Leigh Wakefield

Instead of all of Newbridge being used Rotork and Chequers had to be put in due to Network Rail Works down at the Tree's in Saltford.

So...

A Section was Rotork

B, C, D, E Sections Newbridge

F Section Chequers

I had requested that fishing be from 10:30 - 15:30 due to distance from draw to Newbridge and if you drew D and E it was a bit of a walk, plus we are not getting any younger, this was agreed.

As we were first to pay our Pools we were first to draw, it was done for us.

A3 - Sam

B7 - Me

C4 - Brian

D1 Chris

E5 - Jan

F2 - Leigh

We were away nice and early so plenty of time for everyone especially Leigh and I as we could both park behind our pegs. I was on the first peg below Newbridge so the rest of my Section was above in the Little Field and I thought it would be hard to compete with the others. I also had Tim Ford and Kev Dicks in my 3 man A Div Section.

As I parked up boats were coming up on the inside as well as a paddle boarder, I hoped that if anymore came up when the match commenced that if they saw the anglers below me it would push them out a bit.

Directly opposite me was the pub and a slipway plus the Rowing Club so knew it could get busy.

While looking at my peg Mike Shellard parked up and told me about the possibility of chub right across and suggested at leaving the waggler in the holdall and just use a block end feeder.

The peg was quite high off the water and I didn't fancy sitting fishing the pole at 45 degree's. There was a small ledge below the bank but getting down was a bit hazardous. I got the rope out and put a stake in the ground. Once down I could see the my medium legs on the rigger would be ok for the front in the deeper water.

It took me almost an hour just to set the platform up and get the box and side attachments safe. Getting down was OK but getting back up was a different story and I am still a bit shattered.

You can see that my box is very close to the bank and the drop down to the water.

At 11 metres I had a full top 4 deep so had to add a bit of line between the float and the pole. A 2 gram rig went through nicely. I also set up a 6 metre whip with a 3 gram but didn't use it much as the water was too dead on the inside. A ground bait feeder for the middle and a block end for right across by the bushes.

The water looked a nice colour and I suspected that the bream might feed especially at Chequers and the Little Field.

I had a small amount of Magic and River for the open ender and Gros Gardons with Lake for the pole line.

At the start I only put in 4 balls at 11 metres as there were fish already present so didn't want to attract too many pike.

shipping out and bringing back 11 metres of pole was really awkward when you hooked a fish the line could not be kept tight. I had some stamp roach in the first 30 minutes, absolute beautiful fish which stretched out the no.6 elastic. One pike did have a go but failed. After that incident it went quiet and changing from caster to red maggot on the hook produced perch, not a good sign but welcome none the less.

Rowers under tuition were a bit of a problem, they just sit there in front of you. I think their coach saw that I was getting a bit fed up and took them further up river.

A few more nuggets of ground bait did bring the 11 metre line back to life a little but it was very slow going.

After an hour I put some feed down the middle via the ground bait feeder and then went across with the block end right under the bushes. It was a bit weedy and not much depth to it but the response from chublet's was immediate. They were not big but ant least I was adding to my weight. 

As the day went on people started to come up the river in blow up watercraft and dock in the pubs concrete slipway just below were I was catching, not helpful. Another family pitched up at the ramp and began to inflate a boat so more noise.

In-between these activities I had a look on the GB feeder but didn't have a bite. The odd roach was added from the pole line and more chublet's across.

Sam rang me with about 90 minutes to go and said he had a few fish on the pole and could catch tiny fish shallow on the waggler. I was still putting fish in the net so he let me go.

It was hard to tell how the match was going as no one was walking the bank and I couldn't see anyone else.

Tim and Kev came down with the scales along with Dean Havery who told me 8lbs was winning my Div Section. I thought I had around that.

My net went 7lbs 12oz which actually got me the maximum points in my Div.

Dave Lewis had top weight in my Div with 8lbs 4oz but as he was in the Hospital Team he did not attract any points, just the money. I'll take that.

Back at Cadbury Heath the rest of the guys pitched up, we had done reasonably well. Leigh had also won his Section, Sam had 2 points with 18lb 14oz also earning him 2nd in the match. Chris had 2, Jan and Brian had a difficult day.

We ended up with 12 points and middle for diddle as Thatchers had 14 and Bathampton A 8.

Former Nomads member Geraint Powell won the match from the same Section as Sam with 19lb 14oz.

So although the river looked spot on the bream did not show.

Next match in the League is in 2 weeks time, Swineford and Crane, oh dear....styles, fences and long walks.....

Finally congratulations to Nomads Team Manager Mike Martin who won Tidefest (Tidal Thames) for the 3rd time.

Wednesday 2nd September - Staverton Open

 I missed the last 2 Wednesday matches at Staverton due to going up to Evesham and was surprised this one was still on as they usually finish just before the end of August, the last one is next week.

Apart from the first match I have struggled at Staverton this year, as have many others. Unless you get a couple of chub or a bream then its just bits and the roach have been generally small. Some anglers have done well just fishing for anything that swims with the whip but that doesn't suit me tbh.

With nothing else on I decided to go.

The draw was at 13:00 with fishing 14:00 - 19:00.

15 fishing today  with the pegging going from 27 to 77 so well spread out.

I picked up my peg after Gerry had thrown them all on the grass and was pleased when I opened and saw 75. It's a nice clean peg and I had 13lb off it in the first match this year on the pole.

2 identical 2 gram rigs were set up, both with an N40 18 to 0.10.

1 waggler set up for across to target chublet's.

3 balls cupped in at 11 metres containing chopped worm, caster and hemp and started off on the wag but after 15 minutes got fed up catching minnows and baby bleak.

On to the pole line and a 5oz roach straight away, lovely and what I was expecting. A few more smaller samples came quickly and then it died off. Re-fed another ball and had more roach but small, too small.

By the halfway point I thought I had about 2lbs so still OK I thought, they'll come on as it gets darker.

Well, it didn't go to plan at all, really struggled and only put the odd fish in the net catching on the tare over hemp further across.

Ended up with 3lb 10oz, crap really.

Kev Bennet won with 15lb, 2 big chub estimated at 5lb each and some roach from peg 42.

8 out of the 15 weighed 3lb odd or less so not great and the river was in good nick.

I would go back for the last one next week but I can't so that's it for me at Staverton until next year.

Commercial House League starts this Sunday with the first match split between Rotork, Newbridge and Chequers.