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.