In previous years this match was known as the Commercial House League Christmas Match but is now in memory of Brian Britt who was involved with the league for many years. Brians daughter Nicola and son Andy donated a trophy to be fished for every year in his memory.
Access to the town waters in Bath is difficult now due to the Clean Air Zone and residents parking only extended to 7 days a week. It's a real shame as the town stretch is quite prolific.
There was 26 booked in originally for this match but 3 anglers pulled out. They probably looked at the weather forecast.
I was surprised when I left the house that there was no frost but it was cold, 2 degrees. I had joggers on underneath the jeans and a couple of layers on under the fleece.
Due to the parking and access issues in Bath the match was pegged between Bathampton and Claverton so no parking issues.
I really didn't fancy Meadow Farm. There were a couple of decent pegs either side of Meadow Farm bridge but didn't relish the walk back up the hill afterwards.
The pegs at Bathampton fished ok in the final league match in November as did the pegs at Claverton.
I got to the Crown in Keynsham around 7:30 after being up in the night a few times with stomach problems, really didn't want a breakfast so declined that but they were able to sell the one I had booked.
Paid my pools etc and bought some raffle tickets, the prizes were donated by the Crown Pub which was brilliant of them.
I was about 6th to draw and pulled out peg 19. Quite happy with that as it was at Claverton halfway between the bay and Ferry Lane bridge.
Fishing today was 10:15 - 15:15.
Off I went the long way around to Claverton avoiding the Bath clean air zone (up over Haycombe and Combe Down), it takes about 25 minutes.
I parked up in the car park, unloaded and proceeded down to the canal bridge which you have to go down the side off through 2 gates. When I got to the bridge Andy Cranston was going to unload his trolley but I said with a bit of help there's no need. Between 3 of us we helped each other down the side of the bridge onto the towpath.
The pegs were well spaced out and Paul Purchase was right in the middle of the turning bay which is a good area for skimmers when there is colour and I mean colour (brown), it wasn't clear today but not that coloured either.
I soon got to my peg were a guy was sitting pike fishing, he had only been there 10 minutes and went off without any problems.
I was a bit high off the water and there was only one feature across, a den of twigs and a couple of over hung bushes but there was a little gap in the middle. The canal was quite narrow here, 8 sections to the far bank so easy enough. Depth down the track was about 4 foot and right across in the feature was about 2.5 foot.
A 4 x14 for bread down the track, a 0.4 choppy float for in the feature with worm / caster and a 4 x 14 for the far shelf with pinkie.
While tackling up I had a visitor ........
That robin stayed around me all day and even landed on my knee !
Back to the match .....
After putting in one cup full of liquidised down the track I fed some sloppy minced worm and caster over to my snaggy feature and a few pinkies in ground bait at the bottom of the far shelf.
Starting of on the punch down the track the float was motionless for 5 minutes. I fed a little more bread but didn't make any difference. Jan Van Myzak was to my right and was fishing the same, he shouted down "I think we are in trouble". After 20 minutes I knocked it on the head.
I went over onto the worm line, a bit too easy for my liking but needs must. I had about an inch of red worm on an 18 and the float soon dipped and headed off. A micro perch which I thought was a daddy ruff at first, it was about 1/2 an ounce.
Back out and the same again, really bagging now lol. A few minutes passed and a boat went through so re-fed some more worm slop and a few pinkies on the far shelf as well as a pot of worm down the track.Went back out over the worm and had a better perch, well I say better, it was about 2 ounces.
It went quiet again so had a look over the bottom of the far shelf. I didn't see the bite but bumped a fish when I moved the float, didn't think it was very big though.
Over the worm line again and a few more micro perch.
Jerry Pocock came walking down and said they were all blanking to my right and he walked on down to see how they were doing. He came back and said Andy Cranston had about 6 oz as did Andy Britt and that was it. When he was there my float went under and the 5 elastic came out. A jack pike of about 2lb which bit me off eventually.
A few more perch came in spells and then Andy Britt came down for a walk off the end peg above Ferry Lane. He asked me what I had. I said about a pound, with that he said your winning the match. Meadow Farm and Bathampton were struggling.
The end of the match couldn't come soon enough as it was now freezing.
Andy Cranston came down on his way back to the car park and stopped to watch me weigh, he had weighed 1lb 4oz and that was about 30 perch and a roach on bloodworm and joker.
My perch and a minnow sized dace went 1lb 6oz which was top weight at Claverton.
Back at the Crown I found I was 2nd in the match with Kev Boltz catching a 2lb perch when he lifted his float 30 minutes from the end! Better to be lucky than good Kev lol.
Kev with his trophy and prize presented by Nicky and Andy
Here is the full report and results by Vince Lunn .......
The Sensas Commercial House Xmas match has been renamed this year to the Brian Britt Memorial match, as Brian was involved with running the league for a long time.
It was fished on the Kennet & Avon canal from Meadow Farm to Claverton (22 pegs).
Thanks to Angling Direct for donating some prizes for the raffle. Also thanks to Cameron Malin for donating some nice engraved glasses for all of the winners.
The winner of the match was Kev Boltz (Midland Spinner), who was pegged 1 to the right of Claverton bay. In the first 4 1/2 hours he managed to catch only 1 micro sized perch. With 30 minutes to go, he was fishing a small piece of worm on the inside when he lifted the float to try another line, but hooked into a large perch. After a bit of a battle he had the perch in the net which gave him a winning weight of 2 lbs 0 ozs.
He won the Xmas hamper and is also the first angler to get his name on the memorial trophy!
2nd was Ivan Currie (Sensas Nomads) who was drawn 4 pegs to the left of Claverton Bay. He had a decent feature over and fished really tight to this with small red worms over chopped worm. He caught lots of small perch to weigh 1 lb 6 ozs.
3rd was Andy Cranston (Sensas Nomads) who was drawn next to Ferry Lane bridge. He had all of his fish on bloodworm, catching mainly perch next to the concrete wall on the inside and then right over on the far side. He weighed 1 lb 4 ozs
4th Nicola Goodhind (M & N Electrical) - 12 ozs
5th Shane Caswell (Midland Spinner) - 8 ozs
6th Andy Britt (Mosella Bathampton) - 6 1/2 ozs
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