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...
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