Thames Teams of 6, 14/9/14

It was a pilgrimage back up to the Swan at Radcott for the Thames Champs this week, 17 teams of 6 were in the pot fighting it out for the title.  I was fishing for the Southwest Nomads and the team also consisted of John, Dave, Kev, Ian and Trev so we had a half decent team, all we needed was a good draw. John managed to deliver on that front and all but one of us were close to the end of a section, I had E15 and this turned out to a couple of hundred yards upstream from where I was last week. In the middle of a field of cows I found my peg and was quite disappointed that I didn’t have a feature but as people turned up it appeared that I had around 8 pegs downstream without a person.

Looking at and plumbing around the swim I decided on a simple plan of a pole line in the flow, a worm line against the reeds to my right and the waggler across, there was a nice little depression just downstream of my peg and this is where I decided to put the groundbait at 11m.  I was ready well before time even though I had set up 2 rigs for roach, a rig for hemp the worm rig and I also set up a feeder rod just in case it was really hard or a breakage.

Bait was simple as well with a couple of pints of maggot, caster, worm, hemp and some groundbait, I also had some pinkies tucked away in reserve just in case it was a tiddler day like last week, this all tied in with the rough team plan of catch as many fish as you can in 5 hrs.  As the all-in was called I cupped in 6 balls of groundbait at 11m and fed a pinch of worms and caster in next to the reeds, I shipped out over the pole line and ran a maggot down the swim, on the second run through I was greeted by a gudgeon, next run a small chub, I thought I was I for a good day when I had another chublet and small roach all within the first 15 minutes and then it was time for the first boat of the day. As soon as it passed I dropped my bait into the still churning water and the float buried, as I struck the elastic poured out of the pole and I knew that I had something special on, judging by the head shakes it was another chub but his time much bigger but I will never know as it swam off downstream and the 0.08mm bottom was not man enough and parted.  I was gutted but carried on, I rested the main line and took a few small perch from the worm line but that died quickly like last week. I topped up both lines and tried the feeder to no avail for 15 minutes so it was back onto the main pole line again.

This is where the day started to go wrong as I could not catch enough numbers of fish from that line and they were all about 60 to the pound I decided to try and make something happen so I topped up with 3 balls of groundbait with no feed and then left this to settle by chucking the waggler out. I managed 2 small chub over the next 15 minutes but it was hard work and again the fish seemed to back off, this wasn’t helped by most of the boats that were coming through chugging over my waggler line. Anyway, I persevered and swapped between the pole and the wag for the rest of the match, I managed a couple of wasps of the worm line, they were about the same size of the hookbait, and then it was a case of getting my head down on the tiny fish from the pole line.

The last hour was better with a 3oz perch on the wag and another a bit bigger on the worm line but really I was happy to hear the all-out.  I was frustrated and fully expected to be last in section as the scales started their journey up the section, I was really rueing the lost fish. I weighed 3lb 4oz again and this was enough for not last so far and I beat the guy to my right which is always nice, I drove up the section after packing up asking others how they had done and it seemed as though I would be about halfway up the section, so I felt a little better.

Back at the pub I reported in and the rest of the team arrived to give us an idea of where we had come and it seemed as though we had done alright, but due to work commitments I had to disappear off before the results were read out. A text later told me that we were 4^th by a point, so yes I regretted that lost fish but there is always next year.

What I would do different:

In future I will be stepping up my hooklengths at the beginning of a match and lightening up if I have to after that.  That is all.

07/09/2014 Thames Open

It was off to the Swan Inn at Radcot for the Thames open and the start of the natural season for me, I picked John up at some ungodly hour, we had breakfast at Maccy D's and still managed to arrive in time for the draw. Looking around at the draw there were plenty of good anglers on this one so it was definitely going to be a learning experience, I stuck my hand in the draw bag and out popped Clansfield 92. As it transpired this was the second last downstream peg today and involved driving through 3 fields to get to, usually this would be a good thing but I had to drop John off at the other end of the match stretch, on the plus side I was parked behind my peg 30 minutes after the draw so I had a good run.

I used a bolo to plumb up and found all the depth was at 5-7m and then it gradually got  shallower up to about 3ft just before the far bank weed started off the far bank.  All the features near this swim are upstream of it, and apart from the slight weed it is featureless. 

With this in mind I set up a groundbait line at 11.5m, a worm line  at 5 sections and a waggler for across. I was faffing around for a while so was only just ready at the all-in and I fed 6 balls of groundbait containing Caster, Hemp and dead pinkie, I then cupped 20 worms on the inside line and started on the pole line.

I had 2 small dace on maggot so swapped to caster and had a quick run of small roach, these were quickly replaced by tiny dace, gudgeon and bleak so aftre 15 minutes I put in a small ball of feed rich groundbait to see if that would bring the roach back, whilst this settled I tried the inside line and had 3 small perch and 8 wasps for close to a pound all in 15 minutes, then the crays arrived, I refed half a bait dropper and went long to find micro fish and this was then the rest of my day.

I tried the waggler line and this saw me start to catch numbers of tiny chub but it was short lived a big barge went through my swim and killed it dead. I tried the whip but could not get enough numbers of fish to make it worthwhile.

The inside line was good for an odd wasp and I could catch tiny bleak and dace on the pole with pinkie , ffortunately had been feeding hemp on the pole line all day and managed two 2oz roach on hemp in the last 10 minutes, then the all out…. Thank God.

End peg to my left had 4lb 15oz, I managed 3lb 4oz with close to a hundred fish…. I spent too long trying to get better fish for any more weight. The guys weighing in both had 3lb 7oz so a couple more roach or another 30 mini fish would have seen more section points. I didn’t follow the scales as I had to pick John up but later found out that I was last in section.

What I would do different:

I only set up a 1g rig for the pole line, I would have set up a 0.5g float as well to give me more options.

I would have balled in at the start to try and attract more roach into the area.

AT WL Rd 1 River thames, 02/10/2011

This match coincided with the hottest October in donkeys and we were pegged along fields that were used as park land by the locals, the drive up was uneventful and I had John on board the fishing mobile again so I was really happy when we both drew at Lechlade. I had peg A1 which was just downstream of a building called the round house, the peg numbers had been drawn on Lollypop sticks so finding the swim was the first problem. I found a pleasure angler sat in mine so I asked if he would mind moving upstream slightly and he did laughing as he watched me try to figure out the best place to set up my box. I decided to sit in the water slightly but it left me sat in the left hand extremity of a cattle drink with a 4 foot concrete wall next to my left ear, there was A2 at the other end of the cattle drink 25 yds away but with the lack of flow that was plenty far enough. He had a wooden bridge just downstream of his peg with a rope swing, and there were signs of people all around us (empty cider bottles and general litter).

On plumbing up I found about 7 feet down the middle of the river and 6 feet under the far bank willows at 16m, so I set up the same rigs as last week for the middle line with a 1g Classic 2 for bagging, a 0.8g DS14 for trotting through and a Inter 1 for Hemp. I also set up a 1.5g modified Trio for fishing worm across and also a small waggler on a 4m whip and a waggler rod for down the peg. At the all in I fed 8 balls of ground bait on my 13m line and proceeded to start catching small dace quickly before the bleak appeared and my day mainly consisted of finding the best way to present the bait that the dace would take before the bleak. I found that by feeding a small ball of ground bait I could get a quick run of Dace before the Bleak would return and I would have to top up again. The worm line only produced a few small dace slower than on the Main line and I also spent some time looking for bleak on the whip. I found a size 18 hook best with a single pinkie and was feeding small nuggets of sloppy Super cup every cast on the whip line saw catching very quickly.

It would have been a nice day if it had not been for the people who decided that this was the area that they would waste their day in the sun swimming and jumping off the bridge.

It certainly made things interesting, and the fact that several people further downstream had problems with people stealing kit out of carryalls and holding top kits for ransom for money or water and basically being obnoxious really ruined my day. I ended up with 7lb 4oz that was enough for third in section but I hope that I never have to go there again when the sun shines!!!!!!!

AT WL Prac, River Thames

Unfortunately for me this match meant a 0500 start as I had to pick John up from Andover at 0630 and the draw was at 0800, we made it with time to spare even with a stop for breakfast. We paid our money and managed to have a chat with the rest of the team about the venue, the general consensus was that you would need roach for section points, bonus fish for individual glory and that there are a few bleak along the river. I was reliably informed that the best pegs were all of the Radcott down pegs and the bridge at Lechlade, so I stuck my mitt into the box and pulled out Radcott Down, peg 1!!!. I was a bit excited so I bundled John into the van and dropped him off at Lechlade (3.5 miles away) before driving back to unload my kit, I needn’t have worried as it only took about 15 minutes as the road in between was quite nice and I was able to follow Barry on the way there and Nick on the way back. It actually took me longer to walk to my peg as the car park next to the river had been locked, but I made it to my peg at just before 0900.

First job was to roughly plumb the peg so out came the Bolo rod and stick float, this showed me that at around 11m I had about 8ft, this continued across to about 14.5-16m where it started to shallow, it also got shallower the closer in you came and was around 5-6ft a rod length out. The depth was pretty constant as far down as I could cast so now I could set up my box and start a plan.

My plan was to fish a groundbait line at 11m; a worm line at 5m and a waggler across, Groundbait was a simple roach mix that I planned to put some damp leam in to add weight and cloud in the clear water. My first rig was my bagging/holding back rig, 1.5g on 0.11mm mainline to a 0.1mm bottom and an 18 B511; this was set on No.5 elastic through 3 sections of my Z9 and set touching bottom with the ollivette 15 inches from the hook and all the droppers as a second bulk at the top of the 6” hooklength. Rig 2 was my running through rig, with 8 ft of water and a strengthening wind I decided on a positive float so set up a 1g DS14H on 0.11 mainline to a 0.098mm bottom and a 20B511, again on No.5 through 3 sections. This rig was shotted with a bulk of no.8 shot and no 10 droppers, although they later changed to no.12’s. Finally I decided to set up an OTD Hemp rig so a 0.3G inter 2 was set up with 0.11mm mainline and a 0.08mm bottom to a 20B511, This was set on no.5 through 3 sections again and was shotted with spread styls throughout the full 8ft depth. My worm rig was a 0.5g float on 0.15mm mainline to a 0.13mm bottom, this was set on No.6 elastic through 3 sections as I had left all my proper elastic top kits at home, but since it was mainly a backup line I was not too worried. Finnally I set up a 14ft waggler rod with 2.5lb mainline to a 4bb Browning loaded waggler and a 0,1mm bottom with a 20 B611 for fishing Caster across.

At the all in I potted 10 balls of groundbait with Caster, hemp  and pinkie onto my 11m line and went straight over the top with my bagging rig, this gave me 4 roach until my first of many bleak appered, I tried changing to my running through rig with caster and also went back out with my bagging rig and 10 inches from olly to hook but all to no avail, bleak were proper smashing me up and I had no come back. I looked at the situation and decided to slip a grain of hemp onto my running through rig after just 40 minutes, third run through and bingo, my first hemp roach. For the next hour I caught roach between 2 and 6oz (usually the smaller ones) steadily but I decided to rest the swim and have a look on the inside line for some perch. I fed with about 6 worms and 20 caster  and caught small perch straight away, after 5 fish though the swim went quiet and some bubbles came up, I thought  it would be a cray but a slight bite and lift saw 20 feet of no.6 pouring across the river and a 3lb Tench was stuck on the end. I was amazed in the fact that the bite had been so slight but the fish was deep hooked so I took 2 inches off the depth, refed and looked for a few more roach on the long line. The rest had done the swim good and I had a quick run of net fish before the swingers came back, it was in this spell that Phil my bank runner tipped up and gave me the good news that the rest of the section was fishing hard, so just to keep on putting fish in the net. I rested the long pole line a few more times with 2 more Tench and a few perch and roach coming on the short line and only bleak showing on the waggler but come the end of the match I felt as though I would have 12-14lb depending on how big the Tench were. I was on scales for the 4 pegs below the bridge and my job was made even easier by only two of them having been drawn.

I weighed the guy on peg 3 first and he had 20lb 8oz made up of 2 Bream for 9lb, some half decent perch and some roach. I thought he had battered me until I lifted my net out of the water; 19lb 1oz was my final weight and consisted of 60 non bleak fish including 3 Tench. I was well chuffed as I thought that this would be enough for 2^nd, then at Lechlade car park Richie off the bridge had taken 21lb of skimmers , so third? No, another 20lb weight had come from up at Lechlade again skimmers so I came in 4^th out of the 53 odd anglers and would have been second in my section of 2!!!!

I learnt that hemp and tares are a good way around bleak, don’t forget your proper top kits even on the river and a few other bits about presentation and feeding. I caught my PB River Match weight and all I need to do now is repeat it in rd 1 of the winter league next week.