Wednesday 13th October - Llandegfedd Reservoir and general info.

 I have not really done a blog on Llandegfedd or "Deggy" as its also known so it's long overdue.

I had read about this place a couple of years ago and always said I would give it a go some day. Well this year I have fished it 5 times, 3 pleasure sessions and a 2 day festival.

The venue is owned by Welsh Water and can be fished on a Day Ticket £10, or you can buy a Season Ticket which I believe will be around £60 next year. Fishing is only permitted between March and October. Trout are stocked but not in huge numbers and live alongside the huge shoals of bream, roach, hybrids and perch. Pike are also present but I have never seen one, in fact "Deggy" holds the Welsh Pike record at 46lbs.

I live in North Somerset and I can get to Llandegfedd in less than an hour.

Tickets can be purchased via the following link .....

https://llandegfedd.co.uk

A couple of local anglers have been promoting the venue a lot. David Healey and Sam Cochrane have been working closely with on site management organising matches, boats and permanent pegging. They have also set up a Face Book Page - Llandegfedd Reservoir Coarse and Match Fishing where the matches are advertised. 

Access is limited and there are only two points as per the photo below.....

Fishing is 09:00 - 17:00 (well you have to be off the bank by 17:00) but if fishing the Visitor Centre bank you can usually get through the barrier by 08:00. The Car Park on the North Bank is opened officially at 09:00 but usually open by 08:30.

In the photo above pegs 51 - 60 need to be accessed by boat but these are generally just used in matches.

You can fish between peg 20 and 41 depending on the level and be prepared to walk.

I am still getting to grips with "Deggy" but have had 3 great days out of the 5 visits. Feeder, Whip and Slider work depending on the conditions. The reservoir is over 400 acres in size so as close as Irish Lough fishing as you will get. 

Based on what I have seen and from my own experience fishing the tip with the wind blowing in your face and stirring up a bit of colour are the best conditions.

When fishing the tip don't be shy, a strong 12 foot rod, braid on the reel with a 8lb to 10lb shock leader, bullet feeders or similar (window feeder), a 0.17 - 0.19 one metre hook length to a hook anywhere between a 14 and a 10 (usually 14).You can get the fish close, very close in fact but because of the low levels this year I have been fishing 40 to 50 turns. Dave who I mentioned earlier had 55lb of roach recently at 25 metres. 

Constant casting (every 5 minutes) and putting in plenty of particles, corn, hemp and maggot. I don't think you need to spend money on caster. Chopped worm is ok as well but the perch home in on it. 3 reds, corn and red or worm on the hook works well.

Waders or chest waders plus a platform are useful to take but lighten up your gear as much as possible for the flat walks and coded access gates.

So why not consider giving it a go, I hope to be back before the end of October.

Here are some photo's from my visits this year......what a place.

                   

 

Sunday 10th October - Bristol Commercial House League Round 4, Bristol Avon, Newbridge.

I knew the river at Newbridge would be a totally different compared to last week as we had very little rain  but as always I was looking forward to it as were the rest of the lads. Looking at the water levels during the week it was going to be low but hopefully have a bit of flow remaining.

Team today was....

Myself

Chris Hook

Sam Johnson

Leigh Wakefield

Mike Withey

Brian Melksham

We were meant to have the draw etc in the Cadbury Heath Sports and Social Club but due to a problem it was switched to the Crown Pub in Keynsham which was closer to Newbridge. 

When I got to the pub I bumped into Ryan Couch from over Pontypool way and who fishes Llandegfedd quite a bit as well as the Brecon Canal. He was fishing for Bathampton B today, I think most anglers in the SW and a bit beyond have now fished for Bathampton A or B.

Sam assisted with collecting the money as the pub is a bit on the small side and team members were split up at different ends. When Mike Goodhind called the Team Captains up I was alongside Brian Melksham who rubbed my belly and said you've had a McDonalds this morning, I do need to loose a few pounds.

Mike explained the pegging which is listed below and also said the farmer who was not happy with the way we parked at Newbridge last week had cut the grass for us alongside the river in order to park safely and it gave us more than enough room with going onto his field so fair play to him.

With A to C Sections parking at Newbridge and D to F parking at the Rugby Club there would be no parking issues.

A1-A6 Small field

A7 Below bridge

B1 & B2 Pump House

B3 Cattle drink

B4 Peg 30

B5 Peg 32

C1 Peg 39

C3 Peg 44

C4 Peg 46

C5 Peg 48

C6 Peg 50

C7 Peg 52

D1 3 pegs short of bridge

D7 Stream

E1 Peg 101

E7 Tunnel

F1 Below tunnel

F5 Peg 118

F6 Peg 120

F7 Peg 122

We were last but one to draw and it was not a bad set of pegs on paper. I was on A3, Sam B7, Chris C4, Leigh D1, Brian E5 and Mike F2.

So off we went with the aim of getting a few fish in the net during the first couple of hours on the pole and take it from there. When I parked up Mike Weston was in my section again, 3rd time in 3 weeks and low and below Ryan was on A2 just above me.

In my section I had Shaun Townsend (Hostpital Team) on A1, Ryan (Bathampton B) A2, myself A3, Nick Coles (Bathampton A) A4, Matt Challenger (Thatchers) A5), Mike Weston (M & N) A6 and Craig Pinker (Midland Spinner) A7. So a pretty good line up.

I did fancy A1 and A7 would do the business today. 

The peg I was on today, A3 looked OK and I rang Chris who has drawn it numerous times for some guidance. I set up the pole to fish at 13 metres with a running through 2 gram rig and a 4 gram flat float. I also set up a 3 gram bolo float on the long rod to chase the fish down the peg as necessary as well as a feeder. Ended up not using the feeder or the flat float..

It's a fairly shallow area and the flow does vary a bit when the lock gates are opened and closed on the Great Western Cut. A lot of anglers ball it in at Newbridge but I favour cupping it in rather than ring the dinner bell for the pike as well as the roach.

5 big balls were cupped in laced with everything, caster, hemp, dead red and chopped worm.

Normally the response is pretty quick but it took 6 or more run throughs with the 2 grammer to get the first bite which I missed!

I nailed the next bite and it was a small hybrid around 4oz. A few roach turned up and they were not bad at around 3 to 4 oz. 

I started to loose feed hemp and caster but this brought the bleak in and they were taking the bait on the drop.  I decided to stop doing this and concentrate getting the bait on the bottom by feeding another ball and moving the olivette 18 inches from the hook with an 8 and 10 below. 

This worked a treat and I caught more hybrids and better roach holding back hard, inching it through and then hold back again. I made a few school boy errors by swinging fish that should have been netted and had a word with myself after the 4th catch and release.

I had a decent half of the match on the pole but while still getting bites they tailed off a bit. 

Picking up the bolo and fishing the middle of the river loose feeding plenty of hemp and caster with double caster on an 18 I had a good hour plus catching chublets, hybrids, roach, perch and gudgeon while still topping up the pole line.

No one was walking the bank (which I like) so i had no idea how the section was fishing. a phone call from Sam and Chris suggested the river below me was fishing hard.

The match finished at 3:15, I had the scales so packed up pretty quick. Just as I was finishing off packing away Mike Weston came up and said the anglers blow me were admitting to 4 to 5lbs each, I though i had maybe 5 to 6lbs. Mike walked past and came back to say Ryan had around 4 to 5lbs and Shaun has had a nightmare.

I walked down to Craig on A7 to start weighing as he had the board. Craig said he struggled but still weighed 5lb of bleak, Mike on 6 tipped back. All of us under estimated our nets as you can see from my section board below, me more than most (9lb 12oz) I was well happy to take the whole section but more importantly maximum of 3 points for the team.

My catch above

Sam called me just as I finished weighing and asked how I got on, he had also won his section. He also asked how Matt Challenger got on as he had Matt in the knock-out. Sam's 7lb plus got him through.

He also said Leigh had done well catching over 20lbs!

Back at the Crown Pub I collected the results, I knew Brian wasn't coming back as I saw him heading towards Bath.

Here is the Team sheet, not bad at all ......

Although Chris was 2nd in his section he picked up the section by default due to Andy Richings winning the match. So a good day with 5 of us picking up cash again, Leigh was 2nd in the match and our team won our division. Sam and Chris are through to the final round of the knock-out so with way you look at it one of our guys have won !

I would have been 7th overall as well.

Leigh with his 2nd placed bag.

That man Andy Richings can draw and made no mistake from a bream area weighing 26lb plus.

Not sure who took his photo but they need to go to specsavers.

I am thinking of pleasure fishing Llandegfedd on Wednesday and perhaps a Clevedon Club Match on the River Kenn next Sunday.

Here is the full match report and results courtesy of Vince Lunn .....

The 4th round of the Commercial House match was fished on the Bristol Avon at Newbridge. The river had a little bit of colour and it was mild with bright conditions.

Winner on the day was Andy Richings of Mosella Bathampton B with 26 lbs 9 ozs. Drawn on peg 44 he caught 3 to 4 lbs on the pole and then had 6 bream on the feeder 2/3 rds across, with worm on the hook.

2nd was Leigh Wakefield of Sensas Nomads with 20 lbs 8 ozs. Drawn around peg 77, he fished the pole over groundbait at 13 metres and caught chublets, roach and skimmers on red maggot. He then fished the feeder over the same line in the last 2 hours and caught 2 bream.

3rd was Rob Jones of Preston Innovations Thatchers with 16 lbs 7 ozs. He was on peg 107 and caught 2 bream on the flat float along with 2 big roach and some small fish. He caught them on worm and dead maggots.

4th Rob Manns - Preston Innovations Thatchers - 13 lbs 2 ozs

5th Tim Ford - Preston Innovations Thatchers - 12 lbs 10 oz

6th Andy Britt - Mosella Bathampton A - 9 lbs 14 ozs

Preston Innvoations Thatchers dropped only 1.5 points on the day to extend their lead in the A division. In the B division Sensas Nomads won, to close the gap on the leaders Mosella Bathampton B.

Teams on the day;

A Div

Preston Innovations Thatchers 16.5

Mosella Bathampton A 11

M & N Electrical 7.5

B Div

Sensas Nomads 15

Mosella Bathampton B 13

Midland Spinner 8

League positions;

A Div

Preston Innovations Thatchers 58.5

Mosella Bathampton A 49

M & N Electrical 35.5

B Div

Mosella Bathampton B 55

Sensas Nomads 49

Midland Spinner 40

Knockout draw for the next round:

Sam Johnson vs Chris Hook

Sunday 3rd October - Newbridge Open

 Dean Harvey assisted by Derek Coles kindly ran this match on behalf of Ben Rendall as he is away fishing in Ireland.

With much needed rain forecast during the days before it was going to be an out and out bream match so only packed 2 feeder rods and a long rod just in case.

I stopped off in McDonalds at Emery Rd for a coffee and a breakfast roll. Just after I ordered a couple of Deliveroo Drivers came in asking for their orders only to be informed by the young manager they were not ready and it all kicked off despite the manager saying he had only 3 staff on duty. For such a young person I think he handled it well and yes they had to wait but moaned the whole time in broken english, it was quite entertaining really but I didn't let it show.

When I arrived at the Pump House at Newbridge a few anglers were already there. I spoke to Dean who said he had 21 booked in and he had spread the pegs out between the Little Field and the Norfolk reeds so some would have a bit of a walk. 

I was about 3/4 way in the draw and pulled out 39 which is not a bad peg. For the second time in as many weeks Mike Weston was below me on the next peg (46). We had plenty of time as fishing was 10:45 - 15:45.

As expected I was ready with an hour to spare, I didn't bother with the long rod. One feeder rod had a 30 gram on it and a 1 metre hooklength, 0.16 to a preston size 14 N50 hook. I set the other one up as well with a maggot feeder and a size 16 hook in case I wanted to go under the trees looking for chub.

I was well prepared today with 1.5 kilo of worm, 2 pints of caster, 1 pint dead red, hemp and live reds.

With 50 minutes to go I took a walk down to Mike who was still setting up. He had a waggler set up plus a pole and feeder. He also had a lot of space between him and the next angler downstream. The river looked spot on for bream but would they feed?

It was nice to fish as an individual and not for a team, it was all or nothing for me today.

On the all in I started casting 3/4 the way across every few minutes and put plenty of loose offerings in my mix of dark f1 and sensas river. After 20 minutes I started to get the odd little rattle on the worm and maggot hook bait and soon found out it was perch. I had a few all around the 4oz mark.

As the end of the first hour was approaching the tip bent over and it was bream on, it took 3 casters. It did feel a good fish but I'll never know how big it was as the hook pulled out went I got it down the inside.

"oh dear" I said to myself......

I kept putting the feeder down the same hole with generous amounts of particles and at 14:00 I was into another bream on a small piece of chopped worm and maggot. I landed this one and had another the following cast! I was expecting another few but it didn't happen.  I did foul hook a big bream and got it to the net before the hook came off its belly.

With 10 minutes to go I had a big drop back and hooked into what I thought was the bottom but then it started to move. it stayed deep and I was thinking barble, carp or a big pike. It went downstream at pace but I managed to turn it and get it to the top, it was a massive eel. Netting it was a bit hairy as it was in the net then out, back in then out etc etc. I did manage to net it but due to the steep bank and distance to the water it nearly came out on the the way up.

By the time I had sorted it out and put it in the keepnet it was the end of the match.

I was assisting Mike weigh in from 46 to 24 so packed up quickly. 

Mike had a great day catching 8 bream and some bits which weighed 38lb 13oz.

Mike with a smile on his face.

I thought he would frame with that today so was hoping I beat the others in the section for a default section win.

My net went 11lb 08oz if you zoom in you can see the big eel (top left in the net).

My bag was the next best in the section but didn't know if Mike would frame.

My section board

When I got back to the Pump House were the cars were parked the Farmers son was kicking off about the parking on his field. The parking was no different to what it has been for years and its only a bit of ground which nothing grows on. I think he was cheesed off as someone (not an angler had driver right across his field. Dean handled it pretty well and parking is permitted in future but not on his side of the concrete path.

It turned out the section below me fished really well with Andy Richings having a great 75lb plus from peg 50.

Andy with part of his catch

2nd was Warren Bates with 39lb 07oz and Mike Weston was 3rd so section win by default (again).

John Tocknell was 4th with a great mixed bag weighing 32lb 15oz including a big roach.

John Tocknell.

Here are the other two section boards, great fishing.....

Little Field

End Section downstream

Next week is Round 4 of the Commercial House League at Newbridge so lets hope we get some more rain to keep the colour in the river and perhaps less angry people about!