Sunday 3rd April - Gloucester Canal Championship

 I booked myself and team mate Chris Hook into this match last Monday. It was £25 a ticket to be paid up front and an optional £5 Super Pool on the day. Bloodworm and Joker was permitted and I was asked if I wanted any. A match pack via Gloucester Angling Centre was £18.

At this point in time it was unknown as to what Sections would be used so we declined the BW & J. Our plan was to draw a bream peg lol .... but seriously were does the cost end?  With fuel prices and the cost of tackle now it is getting too expensive.

Chris and I met in our usual haunt for breakfast, McDonalds at Hardwick. 

We then headed for the draw at Widden Old Boys Rugby Club in Gloucester. 

50 anglers had booked in and paid. We soon discovered that the match was pegged from the Woods plus above and below Hempstead Bridge, plus a section at Simms. The famous ''bend'' either side of the Swing bridge was not in.

Had we know this then we would have probably got some BW & J as Hempstead Straight can be a very tough gig.

The payout was very good .........

The draw got underway at 08:00 and it was announced that Zander count and fishing was 10:30 - 15:30.

Chris and I were about 2/3rd's the way down the queue. When it was our turn I pulled out 24 and Chris 32, both of us on Hempstead Straight so not great.

After parking up and unloading I headed down the tow path.

Welsh International / Colmic Superstar / all round nice guy Nige Evans (you can pay me later Nige) was on peg 1 immediately below Hempstead Bridge. He was smiling at this point and asked were I was heading. Peg 24 I said. Just before the Car Wash then Nige said, you'll get plenty of bites on all lines there!

The angler above me on 23 was the first one past the Rowing Club and had lots of tree's opposite. It's a great peg for bream later in the Spring. I had one bush right over to my left so that would be the area I would concentrate on for the tip.

I only set up two pole rigs ....1 at 14 metres where it was top 5 deep with a 2 gram float to help combat any tow. My other rig was a 1.5 gram at 7 metres.

Both pole rigs had 0.09 hook lengths to 20 hooks.

Ground bait was Sensas leam and black lake.

I took a positive approach and cupped in 2 big balls on each line with dead pinkie, minced worm and I mean minced plus a few caster.

Starting off on the tip (20 gram cage feeder) with liqqy bread and a 7mm punch on a 16 hook I had a little knock second cast which was encouraging. The next few casts ..... nothing. 30 minutes in a proper wrap round and nothing on the other end when I struck. I thought it may have been a liner. 

10 minutes later I had a proper roach to get me off the mark.

The angler on 23 was now on the pole and had a couple of small fish using BW & J.

I had another couple of knocks on the bread but nothing positive so decided to switch to fishmeal ground bait and dead red / pinkie. I put in 4 cage fulls before going on my long pole line.

I was expecting a bite straight away but it didn't happen. I did stick to it for about 30 minutes before putting another small ball in. I came in on the 7 metre line and had a small perch.

Peg 23 was having a run of small fish long, they looked like small perch so not a good sign.

We were about 2 hours in now, the fish on 23 seemed to have dried up and I took a look with the ground bait feeder with a dead red and a dead pinkie on the hook. A very small knock on the tip after 5 minutes didn't connect and I brought back the bait all smashed. Small fish were topping occasionally right across so I guessed it was them having a go.  I put a small worm on trying to find something bigger but no joy.

Back out on the long line and a lovely sail away bite produced a hand sized skimmer plus a roach, encouraging but that was it.

I did keep feeding the long and the short line regularly but the 7 metre line was the best. I caught an eel just as Nige came down for a walk. A big boat had come through and as he was on a narrow part of the canal it messed up his peg so he re-fed and left it to settle.

I had another eel, a couple of perch a roach and ..... a small zander !!!

I weighed 3lb 7oz. Gary Townsend below me had 4lb odd of perch mainly caught short and peg 23 had 3lb. Chris had 3lb 9oz but our section had a couple of 6lbs so no coin today.

A lot of anglers struggled today.

Young Andrew Cranston won the match of peg 10 with 13lb plus. A lovely bag of fish on Blood Worm and Joker, he's a great angler.

Next up is Round 2 of Ivan Currie v Leigh Wakefield on the Bristol Feeder Canal this Tuesday.

Wednesday 30th March - Head to head Bristol Feeder Canal

 Last year myself and team mate Leigh Wakefield had a number of head to heads on the Bristol Feeder Canal. Leigh won the series quite convincingly. We both had some great nets of dace, roach, skimmers and bream. The posts attracted a lot of interest and a lot more anglers gave the Feeder Canal a go.

I had sneaky look a couple of weeks ago and managed a few roach but mainly small dace.

Leigh and I agreed to meet up today for the first head to head, Leigh had not been fishing for a few months and it this was confirmed when he opened his bait boxes. The contents from his last outing where still in the bait boxes and resembled badly gone off porridge! He still had 3 month old casters in a vacuum sealed bag and to be fair they looked ok. I gave him some maggots and pinkie.

We met at 07:00 on Feeder Rd and headed into Kelly's Cafe for a cooked breakfast. £5 for a full breakfast and a coffee or tea was great value. After a good meal and a catch up we headed to the Canal and we were set up ready to go by 09:00.

I went on my usual spot in front of Manor Scrap and Leigh went down 35 metres or so toward Avon St Bridge, he done well there last Spring catching plenty of skimmers.

I had my new Sensas Nanoflex 3900 seat box out for the first time so would it bring me some luck?

My ground bait mix was basically the same as a couple of weeks ago with the exception of team. Just the Sensas black lake and gros gardons noire. Its a nice stiff mix and smells great. If the canal is towing hard I recommend a bit of leam as well or sived mole hill soil in order to get the ground bait down to the bottom quickly in an average depth of around 6 to 7 feet.

The canal looked spot on today with a tinge of colour and there was a light wind, a few fish (dace were topping) .

I set up 2 x 1 gram rigs both with 20 hooks to 0.09 fluro, elastics were no.3 and no. 4.

13 metres takes you to just off the far shelf and 7 metres is down the track were it is slightly deeper.

I usually let the rigs run through very slowly at 13 metres and hold back harder down the track.

One ball went in on each line to start with laced with dead reds and caster plus a few live pinkies.

Starting off long I soon had a run of very small dace and after 20 minutes the size was not getting any bigger so re-fed and came in on the 7 metre line. A sail away bite almost immediately and and I though it was a skimmer but no .... a 4 oz perch, but at least something bigger than the dace. Staying on this line I did pick up better dace but they backed off pretty quick so re-fed and back out long.

More small dace, nothing unusual about this as the Feeder can take a while to respond, so its just a case of plugging away and keep feeding.

I couldn't see Leigh catching much and after 2 hours knew I was ahead but went down for a nose anyway.

Leigh said he bumped what he thought was a bream / skimmer but in general he wasn't seeing much action.

We do get a few regulars come down to watch us as well as locals. Some of the local's are real characters if you know what I mean !

One of our fans (lol), Dave does quite a bit of fishing on the canal was the first to arrive and we passed the time of day away for 30 minutes before he went down to Leigh. Not long after I could hear them shout up and I saw Leigh playing a good fish, a big skimmer around 2lbs. Bugger I thought ... but it was still only 11:30.

On my long line I had some better dace and a few small roach but it was hard work.

The 7 metre line came on all of a sudden and I had some proper stamp roach, great weight builders but you had to rest the line every 15 minutes and re-fed.

About 12:30 I had two big roach in consecutive put in's, one went over a pound and the other about 10oz.

I knew these fish put me back in front as Leigh was catching that much after his skimmer.

The last hour was very slow but when we packed up at 15:00 I knew I had double figures.

I weighed in Leigh first and he had 7lb 8oz

My net went 13lb 4oz.

So Round 1 to me. The nest head to head is Tuesday 5th April on the same venue. 

This Sunday 3rd April I am on the Gloucester Canal fishing the Canal Championships so a good draw is necessary.

Bristol Feeder Canal, 1st session Sunday 20th March 2022

 Summary......

My earliest visit to the Bristol Feeder Canal and didn’t really know what to expect. 

As I drove into Bristol at 0800 I could see the tide was in so a good chance it would run off early in the session. Fished approximately 0915 to 1515. Wind was a pain and the flow was all over the place due to lock gates opening and closing. 

I fished 2 x 1 gram rigs, one at 13 meters and one at 7. Both had 20 hooks.

I fed small balls of Sensas Black Lake, Gros Gardons Noire and a little Leam laced with dead reds and pinkie fishing red maggot on the hook. The bait was over 2 weeks old but looked ok.

I had my first bite within 10 minutes and then started catch very small dace just off the bottom. When the flow picked up I put another 4 inches on the depth and to be honest could have done with a 2 to 2.5 grammer float at times in order to hold back harder.

I was surprised when I had a dumpy roach at 7 metres.

Managed quite a few small dace some stamp roach and a couple of perch for around 6lbs. 

Nice to see a few roach showing early and it can only get better.

The mid week session will begin week commencing 28th March and with the temperatures on the up the skimmers will move in.

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....

I'm still alive .....and have been fishing

 Looking back the last blog I wrote was over a month ago.

I have been out a few times since but haven't got on very well like many others during January / early February, I've also been decorating and helping my daughter move house.

January has been a tough month for most and I fished a small Open on the Gloucester Canal 16th January organised by Chris Jones. I think about 20 fished it and he pegged Hempstead Straight and Simms to Rea bridges leaving the bends out to make it fairer.

I drew 3 pegs upstream of Rea. it always looks nice here with plenty of far bank cover but it is the narrowest part of the canal. On the day we had bright sunshine and the water was gin clear. My section was won by NiGE evans with 8.5 ozs, 7 perch I believe. England Manager Mark Downes above Nige had 4 oz, the angler to my left had 1/2 oz, I didn't have a bite and packed up after a walk down to see how the others were doing. Towards Simms they were catching the odd small roach and I mean small. 

I packed up early.

The match was won with 6lb from the straight and Chris who organised the match was second with 4lb 2 pegs above Simms.

My next outing was a small Club Match run by Weston Super Mare AA on the Axe at Bleadon Bridge. Only 10 fished and there were 5 of us above the bridge and 5 below. The river looked spot on to be honest but looks can be deceiving at times.

I drew one peg from the end upstream of the bridge and team mate Sam Johnson was above me on the end. We all had loads of room.

Well to say it was hard is an understatement. Halfway through I had a 15oz perch on the worm and maggot feeder, sam was still blanking at this stage and the angler below me packed up. Sam took a walk and when he came back said the angler immediately above the bridge had 6 roach and that no one below the bridge had a bite. He then went back to his peg and caught a 1lb 15oz perch on the worm.

and ......thats how the match finished. Sam one the knock up, I was 2nd and the guy who had the roach weighed 13 oz, no one else caught!!!!

My next outing was on the Warks Avon at Evesham on 30th January fishing a qualifier match. I drew peg 29 which was fast and shallow, I managed one roach, one chublet and a perch for 6oz, enough said.

Sam then persuaded me to fish the Upper Brue Championship in and around Glastonbury. I had never fished or seen the venue before. It was a wild day weather wise and I drew absolute garbage again. The peg was no more than 2 foot deep and snaggy. Did not have a bite after 4 hours so packed up early again for the second time this year which is very unusual for me.

My next outing due to decorating etc was on 14th February and I pleasure fished the River Kenn above Strode Rd. I finally caught some fish, not many but the best session this year, here is the FB post....

t’s been a tough few weeks match fishing with a few ounces or nothing at all coming to the net. Today was my first pleasure session for 2 months and I chose my local river Kenn which can be a tough gig on a good day. High tide was at 0530 so a nice leisurely start at 1000. I fished peg 34 and Tony Derrick was on 35. A fairly strong upstream wind made waggler fishing difficult but I persevered and managed 2 unseasonal tench, a perch and a roach. Tony fished two feeder lines and caught some nice stamp roach and a few perch including one that went 2.14 which is a pb for him. Not a bad day after all the cold water went in the river yesterday.

Tony with his PB perch

I finally caught a few fish

Not sure when my next outing is, the weather looks rank this Sunday 20th Feb.

Tuesday 11th January - Tuesday Tenners Open Acorn Fishery Kingston Seymour

The tides on the River Kenn were not right for a bit of local river fishing so it was back to Acorn Fishery for this friendly match.

I booked in with Mike Chapman the evening before as I believe its always best to let organisers know in advance if you can.

I was there nice and early (07:45) for the draw which takes place around 08:15. There was a fine drizzle but it was mild and most were expecting it to fish well. Most of the regulars were there and I soon got talking to a chap who reads my blog and who also knows "Turtle" who travels with me to Ireland fishing. 

As we were talking the draw was done and I was informed I was on Island peg 1. Judging by past form it was not great but I though with the mild weather it would still produce a few bites.

There were only 3 of the 5 Island pegs in, 1 (me), 3 Kev Perry and 5 Bob Smith. With Bob fishing here most weeks (sometimes twice) I thought he would at least beat Kev and myself. Last time I fished here I was on 5 and won the match with 70lb.

The fishery had been well used of late with a couple of matches over the Christmas period plus every Sunday and Tuesday. There has also been a bit of wet weather so the pegs were a bit muddy despite the substantial platforms.

I have never been on this peg before but knew carp are caught on the nearside point to my right so plumbed up down this edge which was about 2 foot deep.

Right across at 13 metres against the rushes I had just over 2 foot which would be my bread sobbing area.

At 2 plus 3 it was around 3 foot plus to my right in the bowl area so planned to fish 2 area's here for silvers as no one was on 35.

So ... bread and corn for dobbing across and pinkie in ground bait for silvers and maggot for nearside edge, simples.

On the all in I fed my silvers lines with Sweet Fishmeal and a bit of Thatchers Original plus dead pinkie and finely chopped worm.

I went straight across with the bread fishing about 4 inches off bottom. I got indications within minutes and soon had a foul hooker on which at first seemed pretty placid but then took off around the corner to my right and came off.

Back out again dobbing and more liners. About another 20 minutes went by and I had another foul hooker on, how do they manage to get hooked in the tail ?. 

I was just about loosing patience with the bloody thing when it started to give up and I eventually netted it. A good fish of around 7lbs.

Another 2 carp came and were more straight forward, one about 3lb and the other about 2lb. I estimated I had 12lb in the first hour so on target.

Glancing around I couldn't see much being caught.

I decided to rest the sobbing line and have a look for silvers, it didn't take long for the float to bury and net a 6oz roach, much prefer catching these. More roach followed plus a skimmer before the bites dried up so re-fed and went dobbing again. 

No indications at all from carp on the bread or corn skin so after 20 minutes back to the silvers and fed a bit of maggot down my right hand edge for later.

I had a few more skimmers (not big) and roach fairly quickly but again they backed off. A couple of looks down the edge produced nothing. 

I heard Graham Smith behind me talking to Paul Faiers and saying Bob on 5 was having a few. At this point I more or less decided to go for silvers the rest of the match.

I was happy getting a few bites and opened up another silvers line in front of me just feeding pinkie.

Come the end my carp went 11lb and my silvers just under 6lb, neither was any good.

Bob on 5 had the best silvers net with 14lb 11oz made up of a lot of Carasso which count as silvers. Paul was 2nd in the silvers with 11lb plus which included 3 tench off peg 40.

The best carp weight was Chris Gay who I believe caught late of peg 14. Chris won the match with 44lb 5oz.

Full results as follows ....

1. Chris Gay 44-05 p14
2. Paul Faiers 41-07 p40
3. Dave Wride 36-00 p31
4. Bob Smith 26-13 p5
5. John Thompson 23-05 p24
6. Graham Smith 22-07 p37
Silver's
1. Bob Smith 14-11 p5
2. Paul Faiers 11-12 p40

The 2 day River Tone Festival which was scheduled for this weekend has been put back again due to river levels and I can't make the new date in February. I am however going to a match on the Gloucester Canal instead with team mates Chris Hook and Sam Johnson. 

Please let the draw gods be good to me.

Sunday 9th January - Weston Super Mare match, River Axe, Bleadon.

 Happy New Year all.

I did venture out on my local River Kenn on the Wednesday before this match and never had a bite. There were a lot of other anglers on the Kenn who had the same experience, but ....that's the Kenn as they say! Too much water coming off the Moors, an overnight frost and a high tide didn't help.

Team mate Sam Johnson and I were meant to be fishing the River Tone 2 day Festival this weekend but it was put back until next weekend due to the high river levels.

Sam who is Secretary of the WSM Club invited me to his Club's match on the River Axe which I fished last January before Lock Down and had a great day on the roach fishing the whip so was looking forward to it.

Sam pegged either side of Bleadon Bridge and I did favour the downstream section as this is where I had 28lb of roach. Sam had fished upstream of the bridge last Sunday and had a lovely day. High tide was at 11:30 but unlike my local river Kenn the Axe still flows the right way when the tide is coming in.

At the draw I picked out P2 which was where I favoured. 

Rain the day before and overnight had put the river up, fast flowing and coloured but Sam was confident we would catch.

Above me on peg P1 was Dominic Sullivan who said he had walked the stretch the day before and there were loads of fish topping but today there wasn't a sign of any.

I had a platform to set up on but the river would eventually cover it when the tide came in.

All of the area behind me would be under water (lucky I was a submariner!)

I set up 2 x 6 metre whips with 3 gram rigs (just in case one got trashed) and a 4BB Crowquill for trotting down the middle. Mixed up a bit of Gros Gardons and Noire to get the bait down quickly in about 4 foot of water.

We started at 10 o'clock and after 20 minutes without a bite Dominic shouted that it was not looking good as did the guy below me as they had no signs either.

About 15 minutes after that Dom had a small roach on the running line.

The angler below me also had a roach and then foul hooked what looked like a skimmer, hmmm not good.

It took me another hour to get my first bite and I missed it plus the next one. By now Dom was catching regular and the angler below was getting the odd roach by laying on.

Another 20 minutes must have gone by before I hooked my first roach on the crow quill rig but it didn't feel right as the float was too light. I got off my box and put on an 8BB one which performed much better and I had a roach soon after I stepped up.

Due to the tide coming in you had to constantly alter the depth.

I had a bonus small bream just under 2lbs right at the end of the trot which surprised me but very welcome.

Putting in the odd ball of ground bait with chopped worm and caster brought me a few more roach toward the end of the match but I knew I was out of it really. Word on the bank was the upstream pegs were really struggling. Sam actually rang me at the halfway point and said he had not had a bite.

Dominic ended up with 11lb plus of nice roach to win the match.

2nd place also came from the end peg in my section and that went to Darren Greenwood with 10lb plus.

I ended up with 4lb 14oz (5th overall) the two weights above me were 5lbs plus so not that far away after a poor start.

The best weight above Bleadon Bridge was 5lb 2oz was Jason Fern helped by a 2lb bream.

If I fished the same peg under the same conditions again I would set up a straight lead as well or a maggot feeder. I'll be on the Axe again in 2 weeks time.

Tomorrow I'm back on Acorn Fishery to sample the dark side again as the tide is all wrong to fish the Kenn the next Saturday and Sunday is the 2 day River Tone Festival down at Taunton.

So it's pretty busy on the fishing front at the moment.