Ridgeway Xmas Match - Bristol Avon Crane

I can’t believe that the last time I went fishing was on the Poppy match. A number of other things have been more important to me, and then last week the commercial house Xmas match was cancelled. I was gutted it was cancelled as I do like the challenge of a flooded river.

This match with Ridgeway was a small friendly affair where the entry money went towards prizes entirely and no pools money. I was pleased to be back out, but my bait was a bit pongy as it was what I had bought last week! Still I was expecting, rather hoping, that it would be a chub match on the feeder so smelly bait is not a problem.

I got drawn on the peg below the high wall, so not such a long walk and my new 4 wheel Preston shuttle got me there in no time.

It’s an easy peg to get in to but it’s not been great in the winter leagues. It was bombing through fast and boily till halfway. After this the river was smoother and a little slower. I did think it was chub or bust.

I had 2 pints of casters, 1/2 pint dead red maggots, dendra’s, lobworms and a few live maggots. It meant I was going win an open ended feeder approach, normally I’d of gone on a maggot feeder, but as I said I was using last weeks bait which was for a flooded river. It seemed I needed a very heavy weight to hold 3/4 across the river of 60g.  A size 12 N60 to 0.17 powerline completed the set up. 

We started at 10am and I had a few 2 minute casts to get a bit of bait in, no bites on a bunch of maggots so tried double dendra and at 10:20 I had my first drop back bite and landed a 12oz chublet. It was 25 minutes later that I had my next bite this time on half a lobworm, a very similar size chublet. After this I started to get a bit of a problem with a snag, I didn’t get a bite for an hour but I reeled in once with no bait left. Then at about 11:30 whilst on the phone to Glenn Bailey I had a bite that banged the tip but no drop back. I thought that was odd but when I picked up the rod I was snagged up, the feeder was stuck. Eventually I got it free and saw the hook was opened out, I reckon the chub hooked itself but as the feeder was stuck it buggered the hook. 

Not long after I lost a hook in the snag, and I realised I needed to fish a different spot. I don’t like doing this but had no choice, so I came shorter to just past middle. This was better though still an odd snag but not bad ones. It took me till about 1pm to get my next bite, a brilliant drop back with tip straight and slack line…. But no fish on the hook 🙈. The lobworm was ripped to pieces and I was gutted to not have hooked the fish. Worse was to follow when another bite was missed. I changed the feeder to a lighter 50g size and it would just about hold on this shorter line. But I missed another big drop back WTF was going on I thought. I then had another chublet in the net which was welcome. After this fish and the previous quick flurry of bites I had no signs again. 

At 2:15 another bite came and this was on and I had to give line initially, it was a powerful fish but it didn’t find any snags and I got it in the net, definitely over 4lb. Next cast another bite and a 8oz chublet. Sadly that was to be the last action of the match.

As it didn’t take me long to pack away I wandered upstream to meet the scales. Craig Pinker was top weight with 11lb made up of 3 nice chub and a 1lb of bits, he was on the last but one peg in the little ashtip which is one of the best chub pegs at the crane this year. However, his weight was only going to be good enough for 2nd as Ali Gibbs had a catch of a lifetime on the Avon. He was on the last peg in the first field which in normal conditions is left out. Today it had a nice slack and some perch decided to reside in it. Ali had 3 perch and a small chub on a maggot feeder, then he added 4 more perch on a lobworm on a float. 7 perch and a chub doesn’t sound amazing I know, but they weighed 18lb 12oz and the biggest perch was 3lb exactly! What an awesome catch, well done Ali.

My 5 fish weighed 7lb 8oz and so the big chub had to be 4 1/2lb we thought. My weight was enough to get me third and I picked up a nice set of 4 bottles of wine. Many thanks to Steve Dumbleton for running this match and getting a great array of prizes. 

I was glad to get back in the warm as I had the wind in my face all day and I did start feeling a bit chilly as the sun went behind the clouds late on. Not sure what is happening on the fishing front next weekend we will see.

Poppy Match Bristol Avon

It’s that time of year again when nigh on 100 anglers fish to raise money for the Poppy Appeal. Due to high tides this match was pegged 60 pegs newbridge and the trees, 15 pegs at Swineford and 25 pegs at the Crane. I pegged out Swineford and thought the river looked lovely here. Various people were asking me where I wanted to draw the next day, my reply was the three pegs by the pumphouse at Newbridge and Swineford. There have been chub showing by the pumphouse and that’s why I fancied it.

After an early night I woke up before my alarm on Sunday and was soon at Fry’s pavilion for the draw. Pools paid I caught up with a few people who I hadn’t seen for ages; Mike Shellard, Harry Muir, Nigel Wyatt, to name just a few. After the citation and 2 minutes silence Ray Bazeley got the draw underway. I was probably only about six or seventh to draw and pulled peg 9, this was I realised the first peg behind the pumphouse and one of the pegs I wanted. Wow that was lucky, but now everyone was saying I would win it, Shaun Townsend said if no bream fed I would win it. Well we would see, but I was excited.

No long walk for me as I could park by the pumphouse, but I needed some time to get my platform and box into the water, I wanted to get out as far as possible to keep any hooked chub away from the reeds (Rich Lacey had told me he had lost 5 in them on the last match here).

I set up a 4AAA waggler with 0.13 powerline to a 16, a 12BB crowquill with same line and hook, also a maggot feeder. My neighbours for the day were last years winner John Fuidge below me another great chub peg, and Jack Jones above me on 20, no chub here but Jacks a class angler and I expected him to catch a few.

We started at 10am and I began on the waggler fished about 5 feet deep as far as I could feed maggots and casters. It was a slow start with no bites and then I had a small roach and dace, not the target species. Paul Benson came along for a walk and at 10:20 I hooked a chub and got it out it was maybe 1 1/2lb. That steadied the nerves as I was hooking a lot of leaves which were a pain, and having to let lots of rowing boats keep me out of the water!

Ten minutes later and its brother was in the net. I then hooked another chub that felt a little bit bigger, but the hook pulled out right at the net. Paul carried on down the river and left me to it. Probably took another 20 minutes to get one of 2lb and then I pulled out of another at the net!! Disaster this time as the waggler went up in a tree and I snapped it. I had to put another waggler in the adapter and replace some shot, and I upped the hook length to 0.15.  This was a good move as my next two chub were close to 3lb. But I was fishing 3 or 4 maggots on the hook trying to avoid small roach which were a pain and still taking the bait! I tried corn on the hook but no bites. 

I think I had 7 chub halfway through the match, but was stepping up the feed to try and get the roach to bugger off, but it proved futile. I foul hooked a chub in the tail and eventually pulled out of it, this was the end of chub action and I flogged the waggler hard for just small roach, even going back to 0.13 but it made no difference.

I had tried the crowquill in close and over the waggler line, no chub on this but I found a number of roach were now feeding in close. I decided to take these fish and put something in the net and had a good 45 minutes on them. Back on the wag it was still difficult but I spent the last 15 minutes on it, and with 7 minutes left I had another 2lb chub to get to 8 chub

The match was over, I had a nice day but was disappointed that the last two and a bit hours were poor for chub. However, it seemed that the chub had not really been feeding as John below me only had 2 and didn’t weigh in. I hoped that the two I pulled out of would not cost me.  The scales soon arrived and Jack was top with 12lb of small roach, my net needed two weighs and came to 23lb 8oz. I knew that I was not going to win as talk was of some bream coming out in the trees, but felt I would do ok.

Back at Fry’s and it was time for Ray to get the raffle going and then onto the results.

1st was Liam Reynolds with 37lb 8oz of bream and skimmers from the trees. Liam didn’t even have a ticket but just turned up and got one as a few people did not turn up.

2nd Steve Cox 27lb 5oz he had 7 bream in the trees, nice to see him do well even if he does wind me up about the Rovers when I see him 🤣

3rd was me and I was pleased to get a nice pick up.

4th Jon Tocknell had some bream in the trees.

You can see the top 11 weights here, a couple of them were assisted by pike which count, but some nice roach and perch to over 2lb were caught. Mostly the river fished well.

Thanks as ever to Ray and Paul and the other helpers for running the match, also thanks to Ant Milton (son of Bill) who sponsors this match and is pictured here with the top three. 

Well I can’t complain about my drawing skills today, the win was possible but those pesky bream decided to feed in a couple of pegs and fair play to Liam and Steve. No fishing next week but hopefully get out after that.

Angling Trust Winter League round 3 - Lower Bristol Avon

After a long weekend away in Benidorm last week I was refreshed and looking forward to getting back on the river. The good news was that my Thatchers team had come second on the Avon on round 2 and were joint top. 

The rain is still not doing much for the river colour but has put a bit of flow in it. Saturday morning was spent pegging Swineford and Crane with Shaun Townsend, we had to do a bit of digging too.

I got to the draw nice and early, I think most people did given that the clocks had given us an extra hour lol. After a nice breakfast in the Crown Inn I was then asked to do the draw for the team. With 4 sections up at Saltford in the trees, two at Swineford and two at the Crane I just wanted to avoid the trees.  Well that was the first bad thing to happen when I drew myself in the trees, but I thought 5 of the lads were on decent pegs. How the river was going to fish I really had no idea!

As I pushed my trolley along the river I was getting concerned as I went downstream from the arch, lo and behold I found myself on a peg that’s been very poor for a while. I just thought I would be lucky to not come last in the 5 peg section. That said I didn’t get a monk on and had to try my best for the team. My peg view.

I set up the usual stuff, 1.5g pencil float, 2g bodied float, a 2g chopped worm rig (lost the first rig in a snag plumbing up!) and a gbait feeder. I didn’t set up a float rod as time was short and the wind was bad, I hoped that would not come back to bite me.

We started at 10:30, I put a few balls of gbait on the pole at about 12m, then chucked the feeder. First quick cast on the feeder resulted in me snagging up. But after pulling for a break the snag came towards me, a great big branch as in the picture! My hook had straightened out so I had to change that, I then cast further downstream and had 6 or 7 quick casts and no snags.

No quick bites on the feeder so onto the pole, trying both rigs I never had a bite for 30 minutes. I fed my chopped worm earlier than planned and tried the feeder again. First cast and snagged again and lost the lot and had to set up again FFS!  

After about an hour team mate Guy Manton who was walking the bank got to me and said the section below was awful and Andrew Trudgian below me had 3 roach and a perch. I finally had a bite and caught a 2oz roach to cheer me and Guy up. At this point I was beating 2 in my section that were blanking. Working the rigs I took another 4 small roach before it was gone. I tried the worm line but no bites.

Back on the feeder and a few clear casts and then lost a hook then lost the lot again. Another set up and I prepared to cast shorter. Just over two hours in and with maybe 8oz in the net I was running the pencil float through with a pinkie with 22 to 0.08. I was about to give that up when I had a bite and struck to find a solid resistance and I thought another snag, but then it moved. I had a decent fish on and the no6 elastic shot out. After very tense time I was relieved to net a near 1lb perch. That was very much a one off.

Out of the blue after 3 hours I had a roach on the feeder my only bite on the tip). I smashed up another chopped rig on a snag and was cursing my luck with such a snag pit. I did catch a micro roach and micro perch in the last hour but nothing happened otherwise. About 15 minutes to go I don’t know what happened but I somehow managed to let go of my pole and the 13m section landed on my box leg, there’s a nice split in the section now which needs serious attention. Got to be honest I was not displeased when the match ended. 

I was on the scales and Sean O’Neill had the board, it would not take long to weigh in. Andrew below me had 1lb 5 1/2oz, my fish 1lb 13oz… a picture of my haul lol.

Sean had an all perch net of 3lb 14oz on worm which was a good performance. Mark Brush won the section by catching 3 late chub on worm. John Bohane had 1lb 2oz.

This meant I had 3 points out of 5 which was a result for me.

My section and the one below were awful (bar the end peg) but the rest of the river had fished its tits off. There were two sections where 16lb was last in the section!

Andy Pollard was first with 26lb of nearly all roach pegged just below Newton St Loe bridge. The angler below him Kevin Morris was second with 23lb. Andy Ottaway was 3rd from Swineford with 22lb of roach with one roach being 11/2lb. No bream were caught again.

On the team front Devises won with 31 points and my Thatchers were second with 28, just pipping DGL who had 27.

Overall points now are 

Devises 6

Thatchers 7

GBV 9

Matrix Talisman 11

DGL 12

After a rough day for me I was glad it was a team match, but my next match is the Poppy match in 2 weeks.

Open match Bristol Avon - Chippenham and Melksham

This match whist being an open was largely being run as a practise for next weekends AT Winter League, so I was here supporting my Thatchers team. The river is very low and clear and I was expecting a tough day unless I drew one of the chub flyers.

I stopped in Greggs for a breakfast baguette as the venue used for the draw was not opening in the morning. It was cold stood outside and definitely colder here than back in Bristol. I was soon stood looking at my draw, peg 24 which was the end peg at Chippenham just above the blue bridge in a peg called the copse. I had a quick word with Gary Etheridge and Mick Gale who told me I should be able to get some chublets on my peg, and whilst it wasn’t one of the best pegs there were plenty worse.

Once I found my peg I could see why it was called the copse as you’re sat surrounded by trees. As you can see I had a nice platform to sit on, it was covered in leaves as was the river.

The river was hardly moving in front of me, and I had to go to 11.5m to find a bit of flow. I set up a 1.25g pencil float for the 7 to 8 feet depth of the peg with a 18 N10 to 0.10 accu power. I didn’t set up any lighter strung out rigs as minnows can be a problem here. I put up a chop worm rig but never had a bite on it, lastly a 3AAA waggler with 18 to 0.13 powerline.

We started at 10:30 and I cupped in 6 balls of gbait with a bit of hemp and caster in at 11.5m, wasted some worms and fed maggots across and downstream which I would do regularly. I started on the pole and had bites straight away from 2 to 3oz chublets, these were straight on the bait and kept me busy for 20 minutes. As they thinned out a little I also caught the odd roach which were 2oz to 4oz. After 45 minutes it was slowing down and after trying the worm I picked up the waggler. I had a very narrow corridor to cast in due to the trees around me, and had to be careful with the distance to avoid the overhanging branches. Chublets were also obliging on this method and I had my biggest at maybe 8oz. I had a good 20 minutes on this either catching a chublet or a leaf! 

Switching back to the pole line and the rest had improved it with more chublets and roach coming steadily but it faded quickly. This is how my match panned out, switching between the pole and the waggler all match and it just got harder and harder. I didn’t get any pike trouble, only had a couple of small fish come off and caught the tree across once but got my waggler and hook back! It had been a decent day of working hard and trying different feeding and hookbaits, though maggot on the hook was best for me.

Kev Rowles had the scales and came to weigh me in first, Kev told me he might have 35lb of chub and perch! I was happy to see my fish go 9lb 14oz, especially as Kev told me it was a good weight from a peg he didn’t really like. 

I didn’t follow the scales as I didn’t want to leave my gear alone so got back to the club quite quickly. As people started to come back it was obvious it had fished hard, but there were some decent weights. Kev Rowles romped the match from a peg near the sea cadets I believe. Second was teammate Shaun Townsend who had 7 chub in the last hour on the waggler, match organiser Rob Kepner was third with chublets on the shallow peg on Prattys bend. Last in the frame was Mark Brush who had 11lb of roach at Portman Road.

I ended up 6th overall and got the section money for my troubles.  Framers and section winners and weights below.

Unfortunately neither myself or Shaun can fish the winter league next week, so we will be keeping our fingers crossed for the lads. 

Commercial House Round 3 Lower Bristol Avon

Last match on this part of the river in this league which is a shame in my opinion. After a busy work week I had not much time for prep as on Saturday it was a family wedding in Keynsham. Well it was a great wedding and plenty of booze, probably a bit too much 🤣.

I was really enjoying my sleep when the alarm went off at 7, but I was soon waking up and heading to Greggs for a couple of rolls. My pools were already paid so I had no rush, but was still in good time for the draw. Jerry Pocock was drawing and I hoped he would get me Swineford, but he drew that one himself. I was off to the crane again, but a short walk which was nice. My peg was just below the little wall, a parrot cage that was for sure, but last match there was 13lb caught on the little wall so I was happy with my peg in the section. However, there were two pegs in the lane that could be good.

A bit like last week there wasn’t much flow in close and with trees I thought I would go with bolo and waggler tactics again fished down the middle. I also set up a pole rig for fishing chop worm at 9 metres. The river was amazingly clear, and with the sun out I wondered if the fishing would be more difficult today.

I started on the bolo and again just loose fed hemp and caster and did not use gbait. First cast and I swung in a little dace and I was up and running. I was soon getting regular bites but I was missing lots of bites. I think it was dace as I had odd ones during the match. Most of my fish were coming to caster initially and I was soon shallowing up as the fish were coming up for the feed. I had a quick look on the worm for 3 small perch, had another 2 here later but that was it.

In the second hour the bites kept coming but the fish were on the small side, I had changed to maggot on the hook and also upped the feed. I tried the waggler and had bites on this and a couple of dace, but I couldn’t hit enough bites to warrant staying on it for now. I think going into the third hour I started to get the odd better roach, but they were just odd ones, then a pike grabbed one and bit me off. Over the next 10 minutes the pike tried three times to grab my fish but missed. The pike never showed again after this, but it did slow the fishing down.

Not long after this I heard some lads below chatting and laughing, I thought they were gonna go swimming, but then I heard the odd spadoosh like they were throwing big stones in. Eventually this had a detrimental effect on my peg and I was finding it hard to get bites. I decided to approach the lads and took a civil approach. Turns out they were throwing in big magnets on rope trying to find treasure lol. Thankfully they moved off below the match length, but my peg was never as good.

Another try on the waggler and more missed bites, so it was bolo all the way till 10 minutes to go when I caught a tree branch on a cast and bust the bolo rig. I deepened the waggler and caught two roach on it before the call out. I thought I had 12 to 13lb.

The scales came from peg 1 on the high wall where Sam Johnson had 8lb +, next lad had 4 1/2lb. My fish went 13lb 4oz which I was happy with though wish I could have hit more bites.  Down in the lane Sean O’Neill had 12lb and on the end peg Graham Hunt won the section with 14lb 1oz, so I ended second.

 

Back at the results news came in of a couple of outstanding weights, Jason Fearn at Newbridge about peg 28 had 38lb of chub up to 1 1/4lb on the waggler to win the match. At Swineford in the second field Warren Bates had 30lb of roach to come second, he caught on an 8m whip then on a waggler with roach up to 10oz. Section results and top overall weights are here. Although plenty of good weights again there were some areas where bites were hard to come by and a blank was recorded. To show how different it was Leigh Wakefield drew the peg I had last week. Now last week I had small fish boiling on the surface on the waggler and maggot, Leigh today had no small fish and had to fish for chub on the waggler and had some up to 4lb for 13lb 13oz. 

Right an early night needed now 😴 and no fishing next week. Next match in a couple of weeks at Chippenham.