The first post of 2023......

I have not fished many matches this year hence the lack of activity on this Blog.

I did fish a match on the Gloucester Canal back in early January but I basically went, drew peg 31, sat in the rain for 5 hours and caught very very little as you do on that peg. the 40's dominated as usual.

I also fished a Clevedon Club match on the River Kenn recently, drew the wrong area and blanked as did 9 others around me.

I have however had my best winter on the River Kenn. It's not comfortable fishing as you need to stand in the mud due to the level being dropped to half its depth (average 3 to 4 foot in winter, Dec - March).

I have adapted a few bits of tackle of make it more comfortable especially my waterproof side tray with broom handles!

The last few years I simply used a ground bait bowl on a ring combined with a broom handle but everything got we when it rained. This way is much better and you can bring a long more items down to the water with you to save climbing up and down the bank, the top of which is generally at head height.

I prefer neoprene chest waders due to the rise and fall of the tide plus they are warmer than ordinary waders.

Like I said the roach fishing has been out of this world as well as good catches of tench and big perch.

I was lucky to catch roach of 2lb 15 and 2lb 13 in the one session which won the Canal and River Trust catch of the month for January.

The following week I had another going a level 2lb and another of 1lb 10 in a lovely mixed bag.

The most tench I have had this year in a session has been 4, lovely fish which go some on the waggler.

The River Kenn fished best late January to mid February after the previous heavy rain. The fish like a bit of flow and tripping a 2.5 gram waggler through a few inches over depth and feeding red maggot seems to work best. Two years ago in February I had 11 tench for 52lb when it was minus 2 degrees.

In terms of total weight in a session on the Kenn I have had around 40lbs twice this winter.

I have had a couple of session when I have blanked searching out new area's and a couple of sessions where I have just caught the odd tench but worth the wait and enjoyable.

 

It was nice to see some of the Club's new and younger members on the river this winter James Howell took this little video of me catching a tench.

Sunday just gone I fished the Lower Bristol Avon Champs, Newbridge to the Tree's at Saltford organised by Ben Rendall and Dean Harvey.

Team mate Sam Johnson and I booked in for this one even though it's usually feast or famine.

There had been some 50 / 60lb weights recently and a report of 120lb recently in the area.

The draw was in Stothert and Pitt Rugby Club Car Park from 07:45. On arrival there were some very good hardened river anglers there from across the West.

When the draw got under way Sam and I were about a half way down the queue. Ben took the money and Dean was in charge of the draw bowl. When I opened my paper peg card I was delighted to see peg 8 which today was permanent peg 18. This peg has real form and you can park behind your peg, the only trouble is the Rowing Club is directly opposite.

Sam drew down Newbridge straight somewhere which is a iffy area but ....Warren Bates did have 26 bream down there somewhere on the waggler during the week!

Off we went and I did manage to park behind peg 18, lovely.

I had loads of time and managed to gain some information concerning where to fish as I had never drawn it before.

I had 4 loaves of liquidised but Derek Coles who is a bream human hybrid advised me to just use ground bait as the bread might spook the bream in the low clear water. Sam said the same.

I took their advice and mixed up Sensas Black Lake and Sensas Black River 50/50, a really nice mix.

I had plenty of worm, maggot and caster. Only set up 2 feeder rods both with 25 gram feeders, 6lb main line and a big 14 hook to 5lb hook length, proper hauling gear.

Below me on peg 20 I had Bridgwater Angling Centres Shane Robinson, above me on 16 was Bristol Avon legend Tim Ford and above Tim on 14 was match organiser supremo Ben Rendall. What a line up.

As I was setting up another angler who was behind the Pump House came up and asked if I had a spare Landing Net Handle. I did and loaned him it.

Fishing today was 1030 - 1530 and I was ready with an hour to go. 

It was dry, hardly any wind but was very cold.

There wasn't much activity over at the rowing Club and those that were there were pretty mature people, it's the learners that cause the issues as well as the safety boat.

The whistle went and I cast a maggot and worm cock tail into the middle, I left it for 5 minutes before bringing it in and re-cast. Same again, another 5 minute cast and re-cast, left it a bit longer this time and the tip went round, bream on. The fish was around 4lb and Tim saw me get the net out.

Darren Gillman came down the bank and was behind Tim for a while and then came down to me. I told him I had one, Darren said Tim had one as well. He stayed around for a while between me and Tim and when he left I think we had 9 bream each but when he saw me net a couple he thought that my fish were a bigger stamp.

I wasn't putting a lot in the feeder as the fish were clearly there but did cast regularly, well I had to as I was basically getting a fish every 10 minutes.

Dave Micklewright also came for a walk along the bank. Dave had been down in the Tree's section and said it was poor so packed up.

He watched Tim and I catch for a while and reported that Ben was getting a few but Shane down on peg 20 wasn't catching.

Towards the end of the match Shane did start catching.

Tim came down for a pee behind my van and said he was stuck on 17 bream, I said I was on 22 and had a second net in.

Well the bream feast continued and I ended up with 32 of them, what a day, my best on the Bristol Avon.

Ben was first to weigh and put 85lb on the scales.

Tim was next and had a total of 91lb

Me next and thanks to the guys for the help getting the nets out and putting fish back.

I ended up with 159lbs.

Shane on 20 had something like 6 fish for 43lbs.

What a day over 4 pegs.

Overall.......

1st Me - 159lbs

2nd Tim - 91lbs

3rd Ben - 85lbs

Iv'e even got St. Patrick shining down on my head here lol

I was meant to pleasure fish the Kenn today but the snow stopped that. There was also meant to be a knock up at Newbridge tomorrow (Thursday) but that's been cancelled.

Next up is a small Club match on the River Kenn this Sunday.

Sunday 13th November - Bill Milton Memorial Poppy Appeal Open, Bristol Avon, Newbridge - Chequers

This match attracts anglers from all over the South West and beyond, even anglers who just fish Commercials most of the year come together to support this worthy cause. 

As usual the organisation was superb and lead by Ray Bazely and Paul Benson with support from a number of others who regularly give up their time to ensure the match is a success.

Team mates Sam Johnson, Leigh Wakefield and I bought our tickets some time ago from Rich Lacey who promotes the match and sells them during the Sensas Bristol Commercial House League.

I met Sam at McDonalds on the Bath Rd around 06:45 before going to the Somerdale Pavilion on the old Fry's Chocolate site at Keynsham which is a great location for the draw.

We met up with Leigh and paid our pools. 100 pegs today and completely sold out.

The pegs were well spread out with decent access and parking for such a huge match.

We thought there would be a big bream weight today and Newbridge would be the place to draw especially after the rain in the week. Some of the pegs at Chequers could throw up a weight as well.

Brian Lloyd from the British Legion read the citation and after the 2 minutes silence the draw got under way. Sam was early in the queue while Leigh and I were a little way back.

I drew 62 and initially I was quite excited but then thought you idiot its not permanent peg 62 at Newbridge your up the Crane which I didn't really want. Leigh was also up the Crane upstream of the High Wall. Leigh and I briefly caught up with Sam before he went and found that he was on permeant peg 59 at Newbridge 20 something in todays match and where I had a 31lb bag of bream and roach in a league match a few weeks ago.

It was only a couple of minutes drive for Leigh and I to park up before heading up the Crane. The only person ahead of me up the Crane was Dean Harvey and I caught up with him on the gate just before the Little Ash Tip field. We helped each other with the gear over the style. Dean had helped peg the match the day before and said we were both in the Big Ash Tip Field so another fence to go over. Dean was on 63.

Once I got to my peg I recognised it as I had 27 lb of roach from it a few years ago in a league match.

The bank was a bit steep but steps were cut out and I was able to get my platform in the water and set up nice and comfy. 

I had take the pole with me but it wasn't an option today so just set up a 4 gram bolo, 2 feeder rods, one maggot and one open ended.

The river looked spot on although a bit pacey.

I had already pre mixed up 3 kilo of ground bait consisting of Sensas black river, gros gardons noire and a little black magic. Before adding more water I put 4 pints aside for the open ended feeder before adding more water and a little lean for a real heavy mix to get it down to the bottom in the 9 foot deep swim.

8 balls laced with caster, hemp, dead reds and a little worm went in a third the way out followed by 6 feeder fulls of caster and worm just past the middle and downstream for bream.

I started on the bolo with the 16 foot rod and had a roach straight away on the size 18 B560 to 0.11. I started to spray red maggot up against the boat opposite.

I was catching fairly regular not huge roach but good weight builders if they continued to stay. I was surprised to see Ray and Paul come behind me about 40 minutes in. They watched me for a while and said I was doing it right as most of the others on the Crane were just fishing the feeder and not catching.

To my right going out a good rod length was a sunken reed bed and after about 2 hours while I was bringing a roach alongside it from downstream I had a pike attack. Pike count in this match but I had no chance of landing it took me back into the reed bed and bit me off.

This was the first of many pike attacks.

I put a few more balls in a bit further out to try and keep away from the reed bed on the retrieve and it worked for a while before the pike cottoned on.

Changing to loose feeding did give me some respite but also meant I had to trot further down the peg to connect with the fish.

I still had been spraying maggot across and took a look on the bolo, it was easy to cast the 4 gram rig across as the wind was light.

The float went under and it was a chub just over a pound. No more followed but I had some roach.

Up until the last 30 minutes I just chopped and changed the bolo down the middle and across. The last 30 minutes I put the maggot feeder across by the boat looking for more chub but it didn't happen.

I ended up with 11 lb 9 oz which was 2nd in the section to Jon Tocknell who had 12 lb 14 oz.

my bag

Jon Tocknell

Dean was making a few phone calls and found that the bream hadn't shown at Newbridge or anywhere else. The Tree's section had fished really hard as did Chequers.

I caught up with Leigh back at the van and he said he had 7lb odd helped by a small pike.

Back at the Club I spoke to Tim Ford briefly and when I told him my weight he said I might frame as they were paying the top 10.

Well I didn't make the top 10 but Jon did so got the section by default and ended up one out of the main money so 11th out of 100 isn't bad.

Sam done really well coming 2nd overall with 15 lb 12 oz.

Paul Issac's won from the Jack Whites section with 19 lb 1 oz and Kev Dicks was 3rd with 15 lb 2 oz from behind the pump house at Newbridge.

The top three, well done chaps

Results including section winners

Ray announced that over £2000 had been raised but today (Monday) I see that the figure now stands at £2780.

Up to fish a qualifier at Evesham on Wednesday and working on the River Kenn with a few guys on Friday doing repairs to pegs and pruning.

Sunday 23rd October - Sensas Commercial House League Rd 5, Bristol Avon Newbridge

We were hoping for some rain before this match and we got it just in time, not a lot but enough.

Going into this round we were 3 points clear at the top and needed to do the business to maintain our position.

I checked all my rigs during the week making sure I had enough to fish top 5 with 2.5, 3.0 and 4.0 gram floats in case it was pushing through and to cover the deep pegs.

The pegging plan was published the day before which is always useful and we were going to be well spread out.

Team today was ...

Me

Sam Johnson

Leigh Wakefield

Dave Lewis

Jan Van Myzak

Brian Melksham

When I left home it was hammering down but due to stop around 1030 and then hammer down around 1600.

We were about 3rd to draw and I picked set 1 out of the bag of dreams, then D for the individual sections.

This put me on D4 (a long walk), Sam E3, Leigh F2, Jan A1, Dave B5 and Brian C2.

Arriving at Newbridge the Farmer had his pumpkin picking event all set up and one of his marshals sorted us out for parking to make sure we didn't obstruct the visitors today, it was well organised.

The walks can be long at Newbridge but all on the flat and no gates, note to self though ..... don't have too many layers on ! 

Walking past Paul Purchase on the way down he asked me what I thought, I said I think its going to be a bream river later, he agreed.

The peg was comfortable even though it was about 3 metres off the water.

There was a slight tinge of colour and the flow was about 2/3rds the way across.

I plumbed up with a 2.5 gram rig set at top 5 and found it was about 15 foot deep at 7 metres with a nice clean bottom. My top set had a black 8 elastic in it for swinging those roach and hitting the bite at depth. That'll do I thought with the target being roach and maybe a skimmer or two. 

I only set up a couple of feeder rods in addition to the pole, one with a 25 gram feeder and the other had a 30 gram.

I planned to ball it in at the start on the pole line and had 2 kilo of Sensas River and 1 kilo of Sensas Gros Gardons pre mixed. For the feeder I had 50 / 50 Sensas River and F1 dark.

I put 8 jaffa's in on the pole at the start with half a pint of caster and hemp mixed in then 3 down the middle with worm and caster.

I did expect to catch on the pole straight away and I did, a nice 4oz roach. The first hour was really positive, loads of bites and fish but as usual they tailed off a bit. Putting in a couple of egg sized balls again brought them back which doesn't always work but was soon catching stamp roach again and a couple of blade skimmers and hybrids. 

Just before the 2 hour mark I phoned Sam who said he was still catching roach but it was very slow. I told him how I was doing and didn't know wether to have a look on the tip. He said it would be worth a look.

Ten minutes later I cast the 25 gram feeder out with double worm on a 14. I started to chop up some worm when out of the corner of my eye saw the tip go forward and then drop back. Bream on, couldn't believe it.

It was a stretch to net it but was soon in the keep net.

Next cast same again within a matter of minutes and another 4lb bream, boom !

Soon after Shane Caswell came down, he was 3 pegs upstream. He said he was catching roach on the pole but had spoke to Mike Goodhind above me who had 5 bream ! He also said Andy Richings above him was having a few. 

That information made me stay on the tip the rest of the match but I did keep feeding the pole line just in case.

I was getting plenty of knocks on the tip from small fish and did catch the odd roach and perch.

Around 2 o'clock I had a good bite and thought I had hit it too late but wasn't the case as bream number 3 was netted.

The river was getting more coloured and thought that would be it. 30 minutes before the all out I had another bream so was well happy.

I packed up and started to weigh in from the peg below me. Craig Amos had a nice net of roach and a small bream for 11lb 8oz so I knew I would have at least 2 points.

Craig then weighed me in. We weighed the bream first as the scales only go to 20lb. My 4 bream went 17lb 10oz and the roach and other went 13lb 7oz giving me 31lb 1oz.

catch shot of my 4 bream

I then went up to weigh in Mike, it looked like he didn't have any any more bream and some of them were smaller than mine. Mike weighed just over 23lbs

Shane was next and managed one baby bream on top of his roach for just under 14lb.

Andy 2 nets Richings was next and it took 4 weighs to give him a magnificent 81lbs

section board, over 160 lbs between 5 anglers

Andy with part of his match winning bag

I managed 3rd overall on the day but as a team we bombed out. Only one match left and I think the best we can do is finish 2nd. Well done to the Bathampton boys today, great result.

Full match report from Vince Lunn below..........

The 5th round of the Commercial House League 2022 was fished on the Bristol Avon at Newbridge. The river started quite clear but coloured up a little bit after the heavy overnight rain. It’s was mainly dry and mild during the match.

The river fished well again with 14 double figure weights from the 26 anglers. Only 1 angler had less than 6 lbs.

The winner of the match was Andy Richings fishing for Mosella Bathampton. Drawn on peg 48 he fished the feeder 3/4 across and caught around 20 bream and skimmers on a variety of hook baits. He weighed 81 lbs 9 ozs.

2nd was Andy Pritchard also fishing for Mosella Bathampton. He was on peg 40 and caught 2-3 lbs on the crowquill in the first hour. He then fished the feeder 3/4 across in the slacker water. With worm on the hook he caught 9 bream to finish with 33 lbs 4 ozs.

3rd was Ivan Currie of Sensas Nomads who was drawn on peg 59. He fished the pole for the first 2 hours catching 13 lbs of roach, hybrids and perch. He then tried the feeder and had 2 bream quickly on double worm so he stayed on it, catching 2 more bream at the end of the match. He weighed 31 lbs 1 ozs.

4th Paul Purchase - M & N Electrical - 27 lbs 15 ozs

5th Mike Goodhind - M & N Electrical - 23 lbs 9 ozs

6th Steve Skelton - M & N Electrical - 19 lbs 12 ozs

Mosella Bathampton had a good day, dropping only 2 points on the day and taking the lead overall in the league. M & N were 2nd on the day and move upto 2nd in the league, 7 points behind Mosella Bathampton.

Teams on the day

Mosella Bathampton 28

M & N Electrical 23

Sensas Nomads 17

Midland Spinner 15

Crown 3

League positions

Mosella Bathampton 107

M & N Electrical 100

Sensas Nomads 99

Midland Spinner 92

Crown 45

Sunday 16th October - Sensas Commercial House League Round 4, Bristol Avon, Swineford to Jack Whites

 On to Round 4 of this friendly league and we were back on the same pegs as a couple of weeks ago. Going into this round we were lying 2nd one place behind Bathampton and there wasn't much in it points wise with the other teams as well.

Leigh and I had gone to Swineford a week prior to this match on a Wednesday for a bit of a dable trying to catch chub. Leigh went in his winners peg and went in on the first peg into the second field. I was all set up ready when all of a sudden a wasp nest behind me came to life so had to vacate the peg quickly. Leigh had a nice net of chub and I had loads of perch on the Outfall right over on the tip.

I informed the peters for this match about the wasps and it was left out.

Draw was at the Crown again who continue to look after us very well.

Team today was.....

Me

Sam Johnson

Leigh Wakefield

Jan Van Myzak

Dave Lewis

Andy Cranston

I think we were last buy one to draw and ended up with average pegs.

Dave A4, me B3, Sam C5, Leigh D2, Jan E1, Andy F5.

Jan was on a great peg for the whip and Andy was on an end peg, I had a feeling they would do well.

When I parked up at Swineford Kev Boltz and Jerry Pocock said I was on the chub peg, a flyer. But .... I wasn't, Lee Warden was on that and I was the peg below. Dead water across and shallow down the middle.

I just set up a waggler, 3 gram bolo and a maggot feeder.

At the all in I put 3 balls down the middle and started feeding caster and hemp on the edge of the dead water. Going right over was not really an option as it was very very shallow and weedy.

First run down with the bolo I had a 2oz roach and then some dace but after 30 minutes nothing which was worrying. I put another small ball in and went over on the wag. Bleak, bleak and more bleak which was very frustrating.

Back on the bolo I had a few perch, another bad sign but at least it was something. A quick look with the feeder containing caster and hemp with double red on the waggler line just gave me more bleak when I managed to hit the rattle of the tip.

I was going absolutely nowhere on this peg and became very frustrated.

I got up and set up a whip to fish at 6 metres and started loose feeding hemp and caster. It took a while but eventually caught a couple of roach around 4 oz. It wasn't fast but felt I couldn't do anything else.

I ended up with 5lb 1oz and last in the section. Leighton Warden had 6lb off the end helped by a big chub in the last knockings, Kev Boltz had 7lb below me, Lee Warden had 15lb off the chub peg and Andy Pritchard had 5lb 15oz above him. So apart from Lee's chub weight it was pretty close.

If only I had gone on the whip earlier !!!!!

Walking back I caught up with Dave who was in A section, he weighed 12lb 3oz and managed to snare a bream giving him 3 points from 5 but that was OK and he nicked a point from Kev Dicks fishing for Bathampton.

Jerry Pocock had a great day in A section taking over 30 lbs of skim bobs on the peg that Leigh had 2 weeks previously, Leigh had 31lb of chub then. Just goes to show you can't always call it.

Back at the Crown the results came in from the rest of the lads.......

Sam done ok from the bay opposite the Soap Works and took 3 points with 9lbs 4oz, Leigh was on the high wall and also took 3 points with 7lb 11oz despite cows going in the river. Jan came back with a section winning 14lb as did Andy with 21 lb 14oz plus 2nd in the match.

21 points in total gave us a Team win on the day and we are going into match 5 at Newbridge with a 3 point cushion.

Jerry enjoying a pint after his victory

Andy with a great net of whip caught fish

Here is the match report from Vince Lunn.............

The 4th round of the Commercial House League 2022 was fished on the Bristol Avon from Swineford to Jack Whites. The river was still clear and low with bright conditions. It fished well again with 15 double figure weights from the 30 anglers.

The winner of the match was Jerry Pocock, fishing for Midland Spinner. He was drawn on the first peg in the 2nd field at Swineford and fished the pole over groundbait. In the first hour he had about 4 lbs of small fish and then after that, 8 to 12 ozs skimmers moved in and he caught these for the rest of the match to finish with 30 lbs 6 ozs.

2nd was Andrew Cranston who was guesting for Sensas Nomads. He was drawn on the last peg at Jack Whites and fished an 8 metre whip and put in 8 balls of groundbait at the start. He caught roach most of the day on castors, feeding odd balls of groundbait, hemp and castors. He weighed in 21 lbs 14 ozs.

3rd was Paul Purchase fishing for M & N Electrical. He was drawn on peg 6 at Swineford and fishing a long rod with bolo float 2 rods lengths out. He fed groundbait and loosefeed to catch mainly roach all day, plus a couple of 6 oz skimmers. He weighed 17 lbs 14 ozs.

4th Nicky Johns - Mosella Bathampton - 16 lbs 9 ozs

5th Lee Warden - M & N Electrical - 15 lbs 1 ozs

6th Jan Mazyk - Sensas Nomads - 14 lbs 2 ozs

Midland Spinner won on the day with 21 points. Sensas Nomads were 2nd with 20 points and take the lead overall. It’s close though with only 5 points separating the top 4 teams.

Teams on the day

Midland Spinner 21

Sensas Nomads 20

M & N Electrical 18

Mosella Bathampton 16

Crown 15

League positions

Sensas Nomads 82

Mosella Bathampton 79

M & N Electrical 77

Midland Spinner 77

Crown 42

Sunday 18th September - Bristol Commercial House League Round 2, Lower Bristol Avon

 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.

Sunday 6th March - Lower Bristol Avon Champs, Newbridge to Saltford

 Ben Rendall and his mates organised this annual end of River Season match and advertised it some weeks ago. A few of us Sensas Nomads team members quickly booked in which was a good move as Ben ended up with a reserve list as originally there were only 40 pegs but he managed to extend it to 45.

It is a popular match as there is the potential to land on quite a few bream prior to them spawning (if you are on the right peg of course).

Sam Johnson, Chris Hook and I met in McDonalds at 7, it's been a while since we did that together as there have been no matches on the river for a few months.

I was going to try out some new Sensas Bream ground bait given to me by Matt Parsons at M5 mixed in with a bit of Bream 3000. The new ground bait has small bits of red and yellow pastoncino which is a very sweet biscuit mix.

I also had 5 boxes of Sensas ground bait for Ben who fishes for Nomads on the Wye.

The draw was at 08:00 in the Globe Inn Car Pk which is halfway between Keynsham and Bath so nice and handy for the two access points to the river.

Pegging today was as follows.....

1-5 little field
6-10 pumphouse
11-15 start of straight
16-20 straight 
21-25 bend upto permanent peg 50
26-30 ends on permanent peg 61 
31-35 newton St loe bridge downstream 70s
36-45  trees permanent 116-138 

The draw got under way and I was about halfway down the queue. I pulled out peg 1 plus scales and board! Definitely not the area to draw as above Newbridge is too shallow this time of year for the bream especially after a few cold nights and the river would be much faster as well. So fishing for the Section it was. Chris was at the top of the straight, Sam was down in the tree's an area I fancied.

In my Section of 5 I had, me peg 1, Rich Lacey peg 2, Mike Shellard peg 3, peg 4 unsure who the angler was and on the end Paul Purchase, so a pretty good line up of river anglers.

My peg looked ok to be honest, the pace was ok, a bit of colour and comfortable.

Fairly simple set up today which was a 30 gram ground bait feeder for down the middle, 4 gram bolo for a rod length out (16 foot rod) and a straight lead or maggot feeder for down the nearside over the bolo line.

Worm, caster, maggot, dead red and pinkie on the tray.

Fishing today was 1030 - 1600

I put 5 big jaffa's down the middle at the start and a couple of smaller balls of Sensas gardons noire in on the bolo line. I started off on the bolo hoping to get a few roach. Well 20 minutes in not a bite despite loose feeding maggot but gave it another 10 minutes as I could trot quite a way down the peg and felt sure I would get a few, I didn't so that gear went up the bank and it was out down the middle with the feeder.

Just before the first hour was up Rich below me came for a walk, he told me no one in the section had a bite.

I was putting bait in on the feeder every 5 minutes and at precisely 1200 I had 2 little knocks and a drop back. I hit it and felt a bream on the end. It was a good fish and fought hard in the current. It was a relief to net it. A good fish about 5 pounds.

I had just chucked out again when Sam rang me. He had caught a few small roach and said Chris had pulled out of a bream.

Rich came up for another walk and I told him I had a bream, he said Paul on the end had bumped one but also caught one as well. A few about I thought?

It would be pleasing to say I caught more but did not have another bite. Rich below me didn't have a bite, Mike on 3 had a small roach but didn't see the bite, peg 4 had a couple of roach and Paul didn't have another bite either after his bream.

Only Paul and I weighed in for obvious reasons, I weighed Paul first and his fish went 5lb 1oz.

Paul walked up with me to weigh mine which went 5lb 9oz so the fish he bumped cost him.

Team mate Dave Lewis had a cracking roach over 2lbs just above the Norfolk Reeds.....

It was a bitterly cold day and a lot struggled.

Dean Harvey won the match with 8 bream and some roach from an early peg in the Tree's.

Sections and overall results as follows....