Sunday 18th October - Frome AA Open, River Frome Lullington

 I had booked into this match a few weeks before as there was nothing else on and with the chance of a bit more water in the river it could fish OK. 

I fished the second of the rejuvenated Frome AA Opens back in September when the water was low. 6lb won the match assisted by a big bream and I picked up a section by default with just under 3lbs.

A few of the guys in the Club had been out clearing more swims, taking out fallen trees and putting a new gate on the entrance to the Factory Field where the matches have been fished. 

08:30 Draw in Lullington Lane and when I arrived there were a couple of familiar faces giving it a go, Mike Shellard and Tony Scott. I think there were around 18 booked in.

I was second to be drawn and ended up with a short walk to peg 4 right behind the Factory on the opposite bank commonly known as ''Canteen Corner''. 30 years ago this peg on a bend used to throw up big bags of roach in the winter and I think the highest weight was around 42lbs.

Back in the day there was a wall instead of the metal shuttering and it was a lot deeper right across. When the sun shone on the water you could see a rocky bottom so very very shallow. The deepest part was down the middle at around 2.5 foot, the depth was the same under the near bank trees.

The bank wasn't great so I went back to the van and got my waders to get in the water and take my box down to use as a table and to attach a bait waiter.

The pole was out of the question today so set up a small 3BB avon, 2BB stick and a maggot feeder.

I loose fed caster and hemp down the middle and also fired some under the trees. 

Starting with maggot on the hook it was minnow, minnow and more minnows no matter how many maggots I put on. 

I had a couple of trots down under the trees which was a bit dodgy due to risk of snagging in the low hanging branches plus I couldn't always see the float.

More minnows but I did take a few small chublet's no bigger than 2 ozs.

Tony Scott came up for a walk and was experiencing the same but also said someone below was catching chub and had lost a few as well. Tony said he was just going to go back and sit on a lobby for chub.

I persevered and took a roach and a couple of dace as well as a trout before the all out.

Quite a frustrating day and a bit disappointing to be honest but it was the same for a lot of anglers.

I weighed 1lb 10oz (without the trout). 

5lb 12oz won the match (chub), Mike Shellard had a mixed bag for 5lb 9oz and Tony nailed a chub plus his bits for 4lb odd and third.

Ah well.....

Pleasure fishing somewhere on Wednesday and the 5th round of the Commercial House League on Sunday (Bristol Avon, Swineford and Crane).

Sunday 23rd August - Frome AA Open, River Frome (Somerset), Oldford.

 When I was up at Evesham last Wednesday I asked Gary Cross if there were any matches on this weekend, he told me Frome AA were running an Open and he was going.

I knew they had their first match in years a few weeks ago and it fished hard with a single bream winning it. I had nothing else on and I'd rather fish a match than go pleasure fishing if possible.

I made some enquires and managed to get the organisers number in turn getting the final space. They were only putting in 16 pegs due to some trees coming down. Laurie Magee and a few others from the Club are trying to get the matches up and running again on the Frome but a lot of work needs to be done cutting out swims.

I used to fish the Frome a lot 25 years ago, it's really a winter venue and has a good head of chub, roach and perch.

I found the draw location OK, a field just off Lullington Lane. The draw was 08:30.

Remember when we used to draw by the side of the road or in a field.

Only one gate to get over and everyone helped each other get the gear over.

While I was waiting for the draw I managed to glean a bit of info although given the nature of the river every peg could be different, its a proper Mr, Crabtree water. There was some flow and a tinge of colour so I hoped the roach would feed.

Laurie got the draw underway and started with the person who was last to book in ... me.

Permanent peg 19 was my fate and a fairly long flat walk. I couldn't see what the other pegs looked Like as I went across the field corner to corner.

My first impression was ... not a peg you would run to.

No cover across and it looked very shallow with marginal weed. There was a bit bed of stick up just downstream covering 3/4 of the river.

Plumbing up with a 1 gram float I had about 4 foot down the middle and a clean bottom. 20 hook to 0.10.

It was about 18'' deeper 5 metres out and I had a over hanging trees just below me. I also used a 1 gram float for this line as well but put on an B611 18 to 0.11 to target perch with worm.

A 2bb stick was also set up but not used.

I cupped in 3 balls of roach and river laced with hemp and caster and then put in 3 bait droppers full of choppy on the inside and left it.

Starting of on double maggot down the middle I had a 2 oz chublet straight away. After that it was minnow alley the bed of the river must have been black with them.

After 15 mins I fed another ball and had a 3 oz roach and then a few micro chublets before getting pestered by minnow.

I took a look on the inside with half a dendra and the float sailed away....err...minnow wtf!

Double red...minnow! 

I thought there has got to be perch under that tree so fed more choppy.

Heavy loose feeding with hemp down the middle got me more minnows but now and again using double caster I had the odd small roach, and I mean small but bigger than minnows.

Looking down to pegs 20 and 21 I didn't see much action so just got my head down.

The worm wasn't working on the inside so drip fed red maggot which gave me a few gudgeon and after the halfway match snared a 4 oz perch, about time I thought.

Another followed shortly after and I also had one down the middle.

With 20 minutes to go I looked down to see the angler on peg 21 net a good fish.

The scales came down to me and best in my section was 1-10

I weighed 2 - 12, peg 20 had 3 - 12.

The fish that I saw the guy on 21 net was a bream of around 5lb boosting his weight to 6 - 4 and enough to win the match.

Gary Cross was second with 4 - 12.

I ended up with my section money by double default !

Full results below...

No plans to fish this week just doing prep for the Wychavon Final at Evesham on Saturday.