Sunday 25th October - Bristol Commercial House League Round 5, Bristol Avon Swineford to Chequers

 I didn't get out pleasure fishing on the Wednesday due to the bad weather and I noted that the Somerset Frome went up a couple of feet on the same day. More rain followed and the River Level Guage at Saltford showed a steady rise each day which meant it could be a difficult river for the match.

The pegging was publicised on the Saturday with a few comments indicating it would be a Feeder Rod match for most.

I only put in 2 Feeder Rods, a Long Rod and a Whip.

Sensas Nomads Team today was...

Me

Sam Johnson

Chris Hook

Leigh Wakefield

Brian Melksham 

Leigh Wakefield

The draw as usual was at the Cadbury Heath Sports and Social Club with all COVID Rules being adhered to and Mike Goodhind had also completed a Risk Assessment which kept us fully legal.

Going into this round we were the bottom of the 3 teams in A Div but only 3 points away from Bathampton A. Our main objective today was to try and claw back those points.

I thought I had paid the team pools quite early but we ended up about 5th in the draw!

On paper our draw looked good.

Brian was on the outfall at Swineford, Mike top end of the Crane, me in the middle of the Crane, Sam 2 pegs above the Cattle Grid and Chris and Leigh down at Chequers with Leigh on the end peg. When Leigh saw where he was he got all excited as word was this would produce the winner.

I parked up OK and headed up the Crane quite easily with the lightened up gear. One fence to go over but with assistance no need to break down the trolley as a few guys gave me a hand to lift it over.

My peg C2 looked ok with a slack 2 rod lengths out and for once I was not fishing off a high bank.

I had about 90 minutes to set up so no rush.

As I set up my Feeder Rods, one for ground bait feeder and the other for maggot feeder I notices a few blips close in on the surface...bleak so I set up a 5 metre whip. The long rod was not really and option due to an over hanging tree to my right. 

Ground bait was a mix of River and Magic. 

On the all in at 10:00 I put 8 feeder fulls of chopped worm and caster a few rod lengths out slightly downstream and then started on the whip fishing about 2.5 foot deep loose feeding maggot.

Straight away I was into bleak, some of them were sizeable fish plus I had a few small dace as well.

I stayed on this for just over an hour and felt I had about 2lbs.

A exploratory cast with the feeder and 2 worm half's produced a couple of knocks. I hit a couple of them and the culprits were dace. I gave it 30 minutes and came back on the whip, I had been feeding this line while on the tip. They were still there and I gave it another 20 minutes before going back on the tip.

Darren Gillman was walking the match length and stayed with me for a short while. He told me there had been 3 bream caught in my section by Nigel Wyatt but other than that anglers were struggling. He watched me swing a few dace and suggested I could do double figures of them. He walked on up past me and when he came back he said they were struggling above me as well.

I went back on the tip and Sam called me. He had a couple of small skimmers and was also getting missable bites on the tip from dace. Sam also told me Leigh had 5 bream! After he hung up my tip went around and it was bream on.

A nice fish of around 5lb was netted which would put me right up in the section at that point.

Around 20 minutes later another decent bite and bream number 2 was netted, a lot smaller, probably 2lbs.

I swapped between the whip and the feeder the rest of the match, no more bream on the tip just a few bigger dace and roach but loads more bleak on the whip.

I thought I had about 8lbs but when weighed the scales went 12lb 8oz.

This easily won my A Div Section as well as the whole Section.

I phoned Sam before packing up and he had managed a few more bream weighing 23lb and a section win.

Leigh phoned me, he had 21 bream and was waiting to weigh.

I caught up with Mike and he had won his B section so things were looking good.

Back at the Social Club our guys gradually came back. Well I was overwhelmed tbh. We only dropped 1 point from 18 winning A Div by a country mile and clawing back those points.

We all picked up cash today either sections or framing.

Leigh won the match with 57lb 7oz, Sam was 2nd and I was joint 4th.

Leigh with part of his winning catch

All in all a cracking day for us.

Last round next Sunday on the Kennet and Avon Canal which could prove interesting.

Sunday 18th October - Frome AA Open, River Frome Lullington

 I had booked into this match a few weeks before as there was nothing else on and with the chance of a bit more water in the river it could fish OK. 

I fished the second of the rejuvenated Frome AA Opens back in September when the water was low. 6lb won the match assisted by a big bream and I picked up a section by default with just under 3lbs.

A few of the guys in the Club had been out clearing more swims, taking out fallen trees and putting a new gate on the entrance to the Factory Field where the matches have been fished. 

08:30 Draw in Lullington Lane and when I arrived there were a couple of familiar faces giving it a go, Mike Shellard and Tony Scott. I think there were around 18 booked in.

I was second to be drawn and ended up with a short walk to peg 4 right behind the Factory on the opposite bank commonly known as ''Canteen Corner''. 30 years ago this peg on a bend used to throw up big bags of roach in the winter and I think the highest weight was around 42lbs.

Back in the day there was a wall instead of the metal shuttering and it was a lot deeper right across. When the sun shone on the water you could see a rocky bottom so very very shallow. The deepest part was down the middle at around 2.5 foot, the depth was the same under the near bank trees.

The bank wasn't great so I went back to the van and got my waders to get in the water and take my box down to use as a table and to attach a bait waiter.

The pole was out of the question today so set up a small 3BB avon, 2BB stick and a maggot feeder.

I loose fed caster and hemp down the middle and also fired some under the trees. 

Starting with maggot on the hook it was minnow, minnow and more minnows no matter how many maggots I put on. 

I had a couple of trots down under the trees which was a bit dodgy due to risk of snagging in the low hanging branches plus I couldn't always see the float.

More minnows but I did take a few small chublet's no bigger than 2 ozs.

Tony Scott came up for a walk and was experiencing the same but also said someone below was catching chub and had lost a few as well. Tony said he was just going to go back and sit on a lobby for chub.

I persevered and took a roach and a couple of dace as well as a trout before the all out.

Quite a frustrating day and a bit disappointing to be honest but it was the same for a lot of anglers.

I weighed 1lb 10oz (without the trout). 

5lb 12oz won the match (chub), Mike Shellard had a mixed bag for 5lb 9oz and Tony nailed a chub plus his bits for 4lb odd and third.

Ah well.....

Pleasure fishing somewhere on Wednesday and the 5th round of the Commercial House League on Sunday (Bristol Avon, Swineford and Crane).

Sunday 11th October - Bristol Commercial House League Round 4, Bristol Avon Rotork and Newbridge

 Round 3 on the KSD saw us crash big time so today we were looking to recover some points.

The heavy rain the previous weekend and the early part of the week suggested it would be a bream match, of course not for everyone but a few decent weights were predicted.

I tried to get some information on the pegging but this was not available until the morning of the match. It turned out one section on Rotork was on Rotork and the rest above and below Newbridge so there would be a long walk for those drawing E and F sections.

Normally the Trees down by the Rugby Club are in but Network Rail are working down there so it is all closed off.

I drew peg A4 at Rotork and have not fished this area for about 25 years. As far as I am aware Rotork is free fishing. Given that its free what do you do if there is someone in your peg when you arrive? From what I saw there are not that many pegs and to be honest the ones that I saw are high off the bank and narrow. There are a few that you can get down into the water but they are steep, given the average river anglers age these days who's going to take the risk.

The good thing about Rotork is that you can park close to your peg so its not all negative.

Shane Caswell who was on A3 suggested mine was a better peg as was team mate Mike's on A5 who was fishing for the Hospital Team today.

When I saw my peg I was not that overjoyed with it tbh, I was way up off the water and when I put my 4 metre keepnet in there were only 3 rings in the water!

The river looked spot on and there were only a couple of options, feeder and bolo. I did set up two feeder rods one with a 3oz tip for the middle and the other with a 2 oz tip for 1/4 the way out, a 4 gram bolo would be run over the same line.

No messing about today, 4 balls of gardons and leam for the inside and 6 of magic and river for down the middle ''splodoush''.

The first 20 minutes were uneventful on the bolo, not a bite. I put an extra couple of inches on the depth and held in back as best I could, when I was able to do this the float sailed away and for about 30 minutes I put some roach and chublets in the net. I did miss quite a few bites due to having to strike awkwardly because of an overhanging branch and the amount of line between the rod tip and the water because I was so high up on the bank, shy biting dace were also culprits.

I made an exploring cast with the feeder and to my surprise nailed a small bream first cast on a full dendra and 2 maggots.

Shane came down the bank from the peg above after 90 minutes and asked how I was getting on I told him what I had, he said he was really struggling.

After he went back I saw a big bream roll right across so I stuck with the feeder for 2 hours only getting a single perch, no other bites.

Vince Lunn and Andy Britt also came up for a walk to see what was going on as they were really struggling.

I chopped and changed between the both feeders and the bolo the rest of the match getting a few more roach but they were very small.

I weighed 5lb 9oz for 2nd in my A Div section just being pipped to first place by a pound.

Shane Caswell above me pulled a rabbit out of the hat in the final 35 minutes catching 2 big bream and a big chub on the feeder in consecutive casts for 15lb 9oz.

Shane Caswell aka Dynamo

I did the board when Vince weighed in Shane. On it there is a section to record big fish. I knew one of Shane's fish was being weighed separately and though it was the chub. I recorded 6lb 3oz and wrote chub next to it. Well .....back at the results he got asked so many questions about that huge chub lol and we kept it going for a while, I even said he caught it on a black slug .... 

Up on peg A1 Derek Coles had a good day on the bolo catching over 20lb of roach, dace and chublets.

5 of our team ended up with 2 points each and 1 had 1 point. I knew we would finish 2nd on the day in A Div which we did clawing back quite a few points which now leaves us 3 point to catch up in order to achieve 2nd place in the league.

As predicted there were a couple of big bream weights.

Paul Issacs took over 60lbs from peg 59 and not far behind was Lee Warden with 49lbs from peg 46.

3rd Derek Coles with 20lb 10oz

4th Shane Caswell 15lbs 14oz

5th Clive Branson 15lb 2oz

6th Graham Hunt 13lb 8oz

Back on the Kenn this Wednesday trying to help someone catch fish on this moody river then the Frome AA Open on Sunday.

Wednesday 7th October - Pleasure session River Kenn

 The River Kenn is almost at its winter level at the moment i.e about 3 foot below normal ( depth should increase again soon). After the recent heavy rain there is a slight tinge of colour and its running off nicely although once the tide turns there is some nuisance weed coming down. I decided to fish peg 3 today approx 10:45 - 15:30. Fished chopped worm and caster in the feeder 3/4 the way across and slightly downstream whilst feeding maggot on the waggler line down the middle. After more than 2 hours feeding the waggler line I was itching to run a float through. First trot down and a nice 4oz roach took the bait, quite a few followed and it was nice to see them.

Chopped and changed throughout the session for a nice bag of bream, hybrid, roach, rudd and perch. 

The river really is in great form at the moment

Should be spot on at the weekend and next week. Thank you to new member Tony Derrick for taking the photo.

Commercial House League match at Newbridge this Sunday.

Some great new this week........

Ben Matthews and Ben Rendall are planning to run a big money match next year with qualifying rounds over 6 matches in order to bring a quality BIG RIVER MATCH and PRIZE for SW based anglers. Keep and eye on Facebook for more info, I will also post any forthcoming details on this Blog. Well done guys.