This match reminds a lot of West Country anglers of Roy who sadly passed away much too early a few years ago following a stroke. He was a very popular character on the local Match Circuit. Two memories I have of him is trying to draw bream away from me at Newbridge (he didn't and was the first to congratulate me on the win) and the other is giving a cyclist a "bollocking" for passing him on the inside when he was indicating to pull over at Rea Bridge on the Glossy, guess who won the argument.
Gloucestershire Match Ace Steve Long aided by Dave Clapton (Library photo's below) have been running a Match on the Gloucester Canal (a venue Roy loved) in his memory since his passing in order to raise money for the Stroke Association.
The match is advertised quite early and is always held between Christmas Day and the New Year. I have fished all but one of them and as the 28th did not impact on any last minute family Christmas plans I booked in 2 weeks ago. Team mate Chris Hook was also booked in.
I arranged to meet Chris at McDonalds in Hardwick around 7 a.m before going to the Draw at Widden Old Boys Rugby Club. I was there before 7 and shortly after was joined by Jon Tocknell before Chris turned up.
We were at the Rugby Club in plenty of time and eagerly waited for the draw, team mate Andy Thomas also turned up. 40 plus anglers were booked in and the pegging was from Hempstead Bridge to permanent peg 65 at Netheridge. There were quite a few boats on Hempstead Straight and the last couple of pegs on the old bend but generally all pegs were in.
Those that are familiar with the Glossy know that pegs 45 - 49 and 62 - 65 would be the favourable draw.
Steve called everyone to order and explained the procedure and rules for the day (not everyone listens) before getting on with the draw.
Chris and I were probably a third the way from the front of the queue and it was pleasing to see most of the scales and boards had gone before it was our turn to put our hand in the tray of dreams.
Chris pulled out peg 30 on the Straight and I had 43, hmmmmm. Andy was on 59 which is a bit of a bugger peg.
I have never draw 43 before and knew I was close to the "pegs of breams" but not close enough. At best I thought if all of the pegs on the bend framed then I might pick up a default section win.
I parked at Netheridge OK for the short walk to 43. It's always hard walking past the likes of 48, 47, 46 and 45 and there were some good anglers on them. As I approached my peg I saw Jon Tocknell on 44.
A pretty stiff breeze was blowing up the Canal and there was a fair bit of colour in it.
I set up a 20 gram bread feeder for straight in front of me about a meter from the far bank tins, hair rigged 7mm discs on a 16 would be the first rig in the water trying to get some early fish. I also set up a 25 gram ground bait feeder for fishing dead reds or live maggot / pinkie on a 16 B560 about 5 meters to the left of the bread line.
Due to the strong breeze I only set up a pole line at top 7 with a 2 grammer. At this length it was still almost top 5 deep which I was happy about as on the "Bend pegs" it is also this depth close in and fish frequent the inside line toward the end of the day.
The "all in" was shouted at 10:00 and I cupped in Sensas Black Lake and Leam on my pole lines ( 10 and 2 o'clock) laced with dead reds, dead pinkie and a little chopped worm.
Starting off on the bread feeder I was expecting a bite, not right away but at least 20 minutes in. Nothing!
I saw Jon swing in a small fish on the feeder.
Still persevering on the bread I gave it a good 50 minutes and not a single indication.
So time to give the ground bait feeder a go, mix was Sweet Skimmer and a little Thatchers Dark with just a few dead reds and pinkie with double red on the hook. Well another 20 minutes went by and nothing. Jon had a net fish on the feeder but was now having a look on his short pole line.
It wasn't long before he had a couple of net skimmers so it was time to follow suit.
The float reassuringly went under and I had a hand sized skimmer so blank avoided. 2 more small ones followed before it went dead. Jon however had added another couple of net fish.
I re-fed the lines again and put a bit more worm in before having a look on the gb feeder again.
Time was going on now and word from passers by suggested it was fishing hard.
Before going back out on the pole again I added a couple of inches more depth to the rig.
It wasn't long before it went under and I had a better fish a skimmer of around 1.5 pounds, phew.
It went quiet after that and once again Jon was into a fish on the pole.
The pole seemed to be the way to go today so got my head down and just patiently waited for a bite feeding very little but topping up both lines. The wind had dropped a lot now and Jon was up setting up a longer line (this did pay off for him as he nicked a few more skimmers). I did as well and bumped a couple as well late in the match. There must have been fish moving through on the inside as I got a few liners as well.
I have thought quite a lot about the match and how I approached it. I would certainly do a few things differently next time I draw in that area.
From nowhere at the halfway stage I managed a respectable 8lb 11oz.
Full results as follows, Jon was last in the frame and on reflection I could have possible made the frame as well, next time eh.
1st Neal Pickering peg 47
17-10-0
2nd Charlie Vallender peg 36
14-10-0
3rd Andy Jane peg 64
13-8-0
4th Jon Tocknell peg 44
12-9-0
Section winners:-
60-65 Pete Goulding peg 62. 11-0-0
54-59 Geoff Knight peg 55. 3-0-0
48-43 Nigel Baker peg 45. 11-2-0
42-37 Andrew Richings peg 39. 11-3-0
36-31 ade Baldwin peg 32. 5-3-0
30-25 Shaun grange peg 26. 9-11-0
1-6 David Clapton peg 3. 3-15-0
In total £420 raised for the Stroke Association.
Well that's it from me for 2021, my next planned outing is the River Tone 2 day Festival on 8th and 9th January which is a sell out.
Happy New Year all and all the best for 2022.
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