I missed the first round of this League due to returning from Ireland. The lads done ok finishing 2nd on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain.
The remaining 5 matches are on the Lower Bristol Avon, one of the finest stretches of river in my opinion offering great fishing at this time of year.
The draw for this match and the remaining ones are at the Crown Pub in Keynsham opposite the Rugby Club and they are great hosts.
Sensas Nomads Team for today was ....
Chris Hook, Sam Johnson, Mike Withey, Leigh Wakefield, Brian Melksham and myself.
The stretches used for todays match were Swineford, Crane and Jack Whites with the pegging as follows:
Pools paid and Team Sheet submitted a little late than most I thought but not really as we were called out second to draw.
I put my hand into the bags of doom which put us on the following pegs ......
Sam A5, that's what I wanted he said.
Chris B4 a fairly average peg
Brian C1, we thought he was well above the bay opposite the old Soap Works but he wasn't so very average.
Mike D3 which used to be good and still is if there's a bit of colour and extra water but not today
Leigh E2, not bad and a good chance of a weight using the whip
Me F1, no idea of it's form.
Off we went with the scales and boards, we are doing the weigh in every match as it keeps continuity and at least the scales will be returned by the same team.
I parked opposite the Scrap Yard down near the Marina as I had hoped you could still get access to the field but its a double gate now so had to go back toward the Lock Keeper pub and down towards the old Fry's Chocolate Factory on the opposite bank.
After receiving help negotiating a Kissing Gate I was soon at my peg. It was a long and I mean a long way down to the water as most are at Jack Whites so out came the rope to help me scale down the bank (several times with all the gear).
I got set up nice and comfortable with the platform in the water. It looked nice with tree cover right across and lilies on the near side.
I left my pole behind and only took running line gear plus a whip.
It was only about 3 foot at 6 metres but right across against the trees it was more like 7 foot with a deep hole in-between a gap in the trees then it shallowed up just downstream.
So ...... 6 metre whip with a 2 gram float fishing maggot or caster over ground bait with caster and hemp. Maggot down the middle on a 3 gram bolo, waggler across in front of the trees and a feeder for the deep hole right across.
On the all in I fed about 8 feeder fulls of chopped worm and caster into the deep hole, a couple of golf balls of feed on the whip line and a pouch of maggots down the middle.
Starting off on the whip I was soon into small dace and roach but they were small. I put in a couple more balls and the better dace turned up but only had a few and they disappeared, couldn't get them back despite regular feeding with loose hemp and caster, I was still firing in maggot down the middle at the same time.
After about 40 minutes I was going nowhere so had a look down the middle on the bolo. A few better roach were caught but they really were not having it and the peg shallowing up towards the end didn't help either, in hind sight I should have set up a stick float.
About an hour and 15 minutes had gone so picked up the Feeder rod with a worm and maggot on a size 14 and cast it into the deep hole. It only took a few minutes and the tip bounced , I struck and was playing a decent fish, half way across aI could see it was a skimmer of just over a pound, lovely and more please I thought. A few more casts produced a perch of about 10oz and a stamp roach, then it went quiet.
I decided to feed some loose caster and hemp right across whilst trying the middle again. After 15 minutes and a couple of roach down the middle I went across with the waggler. I had the odd bite which produced a few dace and bleak but no roach.
There were no bank walkers and no phone calls so I couldn't tell how the river was fishing.
I was still lightly feeding the whip line, the middle and the far side which kept me busy if now confused at times lol.
It was a case of swapping between the lines nicking a few fish here and there,
The waggler line during the very latter part of the match was best as some roach turned up and even had a couple of puppy chub.
The all out was called at 15:15 and I scaled the bank again to get my gear up before heading downstream to start the weigh in. Andy Britt met me near the end peg and said he had a nightmare match saying he had about 4lbs, he also said one of his team had a big bag of bream at Swineford.
My section was quite tight and the end peg pipped me but second in section for the team was ok. Everyone had roach, dace and perch to make up there weights except Kev below me who had a lovely 3lb plus chub.
I saw Leigh and Brian on the way back to the van, Leigh had 6lbs and 2 points and Brian had 3 points so not great.
Back at the Crown I caught up with the rest of the guy's.
Sam had 11lb at Swineford but was bridesmaid to two big bream weights and got 3 points, Chris had 6lb odd and 2 points and Mike bombed out having only 1 point, it happens.
Top weight of the day went to Bathampton's Rich Lacey who made no mistake on A2 at Swineford catching 66lb of slabs, the peg below him had 30lb of them.
Top man Rich Lacey.
3rd on the day with a 30lb bag of roach and dace on the whip from E1 was Lee Warden.
Lee Warden
Team wise we need to play catch up and it's possible.
All was not lost though as Sam and Chris picked up for coming first and second in the Knock Out last year and Leigh for top in team.
The river fished it's head off, here's the match report from Vince Lunn........
The 2nd round of the Commercial House League 2022 was fished on the Bristol Avon from Swineford to Jack Whites. The river was clear with bright conditions. It fished well with 9 double figure weights and 22 of the 30 anglers catching at least 6 lbs
The winner of the match was Rich Lacey fishing for Mosella Bathampton. Drawn on the outfall at Swineford, he started on the feeder and had a few perch before catching his first bream after 40 minutes. Sticking on the feeder with
double worm, he finished with 16 bream for 66 lbs 7 ozs
2nd was Paddy Merrett fishing for the Crown.
He was on the peg below Rich and also fished the feeder over with worm. He had 6 big bream. He also caught a few smaller fish on the waggler for a weight of 33 lbs 10 ozs
3rd was Lee Warden of M & N Electrical. He was drawn on the 1st peg at Jack Whites, above the fence. He fished a 5 metre whip with castor on the hook and fed hemp and castors to catch roach, dace and chublets. He finished with 151 fish for 30 lbs 13 ozs
4th Kev Dicks - Mosella Bathampton - 25 lb 2 ozs
5th Nick Coles - Mosella Bathampton - 19 lb 6 ozs
6th Jeff Surmon - Midland Spinner - 15 lbs 8 ozs
With 4 section winners, Mosella Bathampton won on the day to take an 8 point lead overall
Teams on the day
Mosella Bathampton 23
M & N Electrical 19
Midland Spinner 18
Sensas Nomads 15
Crown 15
League positions
Mosella Bathampton 45
M & N Electrical 38
Midland Spinner 37
Sensas Nomads 36
Crown 22
Bit of a pleasure session on the Kenn tomorrow with hemp and maggot.
