In my opinion this has been one of the best series of the league for a few years. Although only 5 teams of 6 this year the contribution and support by everyone has made the 2022 league a great success.
A big thanks to Nicky and Mike Goodhind, Andy Britt and Vince Lunn for the behind the scenes work and organisation on the day of each match. Thanks must also go to the staff at the Crown Pub in Keynsham for hosting the draw and the results over 5 matches and the 37 Club in Puriton who hosted the first match on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain.
A few new faces fished the league this year which is great to see and will help the league to continue.
Due to various issues which couldn't be helped my Sensas Nomads Team struggled for anglers this year but we were covered for each match thanks to Baz Bright, Jack Jones, Andy Cranston and Dave Lewis.
Team fishing isn't for everyone but although you always want to come back with good points this league isn't serious enough to get too annoyed if it doesn't work out on the day.
The league itself was very tight this year and there were some great individual performances. The Lower Bristol Avon fished its head off although some of the pegs at Swineford and Jack Whites are getting very dangerous which could put off new teams joining, something that needs to be looked at for next year.
The draw at 08:00 sharp worked well and with an amendment to the fishing times (1015 - 1515) gave everyone a chance to park and set up.
Todays match on the Canal was pegged as follows:
The George Bathampton A & B Section
A1 Start of bay
A2 White gate
A3 Flag pole
A5 Tree swing (rope)
B1 Opposite tree between boats
B2 start of bay
B3 after bay reeds
B4 before wires
B5 after wires
Claverton C, D & E Section
C1 -C5 Claverton towards Bath around bend, all 5 in a row.
D1 Claverton towards Ferry Lane near bench
D3 This side of bay
D4 Far side of bay
E3 & E4 either side of wires
E5 Ferry Lane
Dundas Turning Bay towards Diggers F Section
F1 – F5
Our Team today was.....
Me, I drew B5 above the wires at Bathampton (end peg)
Brian Melksham who drew A1 start of turning bay opposite Bathampton School
Sam Johnson who drew C2 which is not a great area
Jan Van Myzak (our dutch international) who drew D4, can be a great peg
Leigh Wakefield drew E3, not bad
Dave Lewis F2 at Dundas, right area
Off we went to Bath then, not far from Keynsham but I have suggested if we fish the Canal next year we do the draw a bit nearer to the venu plus a lot of us had to go the long way around to avoid the congestion charge in Bath.
I parked in the George Pub Car Park in Bath which Nicky had kindly agreed with the Manager as long as we scanned our reg in before we left after the match.
Brian's peg looked great opposite the School and he has fished here a few times so I expected him to do well.
Due to moored boats the pegs were well spread out and in particular mine and Neil Mercers.
It was a nice morning but due to lash down with heavy rain later.
My peg was in-between 2 boats but still plenty of room and they didnt look as if they were going to move during the day.
I was surprised to see the water so clear which was likely to be a problem. A nice bit of depth right across for choppy lines (approx 2.5 foot), 3 foot at the bottom of the far shelf and about 4 down the track, the same rig done under the boat to my left.
Various canal rigs were already set up with the appropriate hooks to save time and no adjustment was required.
At 1015 I cupped in 2 golf balls of bread down the track, fed 2 choppy and caster lines tight across and a soft ball with dead pinkie at the bottom of the far shelf.
Starting off on the bread line with 6mm punch I expected it to sail under pretty quick ....... nothing, not a sign even by slightly lifting and dropping. 15 minutes in and still not an indication. I put a white pinkie on and still no response. I fed another pinch of liquidised and it didn't make any difference. When the bread went in you could almost see it on the bottom. I gave this line a good 30 minutes but no joy.
Going across on one of the choppy lines with a worm head the float sat motionless, I was now very concerned. Nothing on the other choppy line either so re-fed more worm.
Just over an hour had gone and I had a look at the bottom of the far shelf with a fluro pinkie. The float went under and a barely half ounce perch was swung in. Not a good sign and no more bites there after 10 minutes.
I went back over the worm line while the tow was pulling towards Bath and let a worm tail run through all the way down the peg against some reeds. Under it went first time and a perch of around 4 oz was netted. I had another 3 small perch while the tow remained.
2 hours had gone so I phoned Sam, he was also struggling. Neil came walking up from the peg below me and said he only had a couple of small perch, Nicky below him had one and the others below were struggling as well.
So section wise at this point I was doing ok. Given that everyone seemed to be having a nightmare I decided just to go all out for perch.
Finely chopped worm was fed on all lines including under the left hand boat and the worm dobbing began lol.
The lifting and drooping did work in a fashion as I ended up with 1lb 9oz which got me 3 points from 5. The section was won by Shaun Townsend with 3lb plus maily small roach and Paul Purchase had 2lb 3oz of mainly small roach late, the roach caught were small even by canal standards.
In A section Shane Caswell won it with 9lb 7oz of mainly roach and our man Brian done the business catching 8lb 11oz for second in section.
Leigh done the best in our team taking 4 points from 5 with 5lb 14oz, Sam had 2lb 15 for 3 points and Jan and Dave blew out giving us a total of 16 points which wasn't good.
I haven't seen the canal fish that bad for ages but without any colour it was always going to be hard. The only place there was colour was at Dundas and the top 4 weights came from there.
Vince Lunn was at Dundas and made no mistake catching just over 13lbs of nice skimmers and roach to win the match.
Vince with his catch.
Here is the match report from Vince from the leagues facebook page.............
Having a pleasure session on the River Kenn on Wednesday then the Poppy Match on Sunday.
Tight lines all.
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