It's been a few weeks since I blogged and I have been out match fishing but it has been pretty uneventful.
A Wednesday match at Evesham saw me draw peg 66 which is worse than not very good when the river is clear and it was, I weighed 1lb 15oz!
The second round of the Super League last Sunday was not great either. I drew below the benches on the downstream section at Parchy and had 3lb 15oz for 4 points from 8. The team bombed out as well.
On Wednesday just gone I just went pleasure fishing on my local River Kenn and thoroughly enjoyed myself catching net roach on the waggler and maggot feeding hemp and maggot.
The 3rd Round of the Super League was supposed to be on the Bristol Avon, 2 sections at Staverton, 1 at Melksham and 1 at Bradford on Avon. Unfortunately there was a booking error so the Glossy was brought forward a week.
2 sections Rea to Pilot and 2 Saul Junction towards Castle. No venue was available for breakfast etc but the Whitminster Hotel just off junction 13 on the M5 allowed the draw to be done in their car pk and we would be back inside for the results after the match.
Due to the Football Final in the evening the draw was at 0730 with fishing 1030 - 1530 so an early start.
I think we were last but one to draw due to arriving just in time.
The draw gave.....
Sam 197 (Rea)
Leigh 229 (Rea)
Me 456 (Saul)
Chris 467 (Saul)
Rea was a bit of an unknown as it had not been match fished for some time due to towpath work. The Saul Junction area was fished during the Glos Canal Spring League and you definitely need to be in the bay or immediately above the wires heading toward the sunken barge.
On paper it looked a decent draw as Chris was just in the bay at Saul and my peg had produced the winner of two of the matches in the Spring League as the bream spawn in this area, but that was in the spring!
When I drew peg 456 Mark Brush of DGL gave me a few tips and confirmed it was a good peg as did Dale. I was told I did not need to take much kit but I did anyway.
It was a fairly long walk up the towpath from the Rowing Club where we parked but that doesn't matter if you are on a form peg.
Although not an end peg on paper it was as there was a huge gap due to a bay under power lines between my peg and 458 (there was no 457). The fish spawn in the bay which is shallow and lined with reeds. Opposite my peg there was a bush and I was advised to fish as close to this as possible.
Lobby's Andy Powell was to my left on 455 and said I would catch and he would struggle even though we were only 1 peg apart.
I had bread with me but decided to leave it in the bag and just go with the fishmeal approach given the pegs form. I did set up 2 feeder rods, 1 clipped up tight against the bush and one clipped up towards the edge of the bay to my right. 20 gram cage feeders were attached as I wanted a softly softly approach in the shallow water as it was no more than a count of 4 deep.
2 pole lines short and long were also set up and fed at the start but never used.
Casting regular, every 5 minutes after the all in with choppy, dead reds and caster with worm and maggot on the hook it took exactly 1 hour and 10 minutes to get my first bite. It was a skimmer around 1.5 lbs. From what I could see and hear there was not much being caught. I soon got another pull but did not connect. There were definitely fish in the peg as I started to get a few liners and what appeared to be snatches at the bait. At times the bait came back completely ragged.
I soon found out who the culprits were ....rudd. I had a few by tightening up really hard and not sinking the braid after casting. They were worth having .... the ones I hooked and the best one went 1lb 8oz.
By putting on a bigger bait i.e double worm I managed a few more skimmers and a proper bream. Had I been able to fish a waggler across and feed I could have had a great day on the rudd.
I had a lovely match, the best one on the Glossy for 2 years or more with plenty of bites ending up with 19lb 1oz which won my 8 peg section and 6th overall in the match.
That's one of the most uncomplicated matches I have every fished.
Overall.....
1st Kev Perry 67lb 10oz peg 211
2nd Charlie Vallender 30lb 14oz peg 471
3rd Rob Jones 27lb 5oz peg 213
4th Kev Bennet 20lb 10oz peg 441
5th Troy Weaver 19lb 10oz 205
6th Ivan Currie 19lb 1oz peg 456
Team wise not great but ended up 5th on the day and now lie 11th overall so some work to do.
Here are the weight sheets as you will see it was feast or famine.
On the Bristol Avon next week where we should have been this week but it looks very very hot according to the forecast.
Not sure about this Wednesday as still undecided......Staverton or Evesham or pleasure fishing.
