Kennet and Avon Teams of 4, Round 2, Great Bedwyn

So it was time for the epic journey up to the Cross Keys pub in Great Bedwyn, once there the traditional bacon butty and a brew were dispatched. John the captain did the draw again and managed to give each of us exactly the same sections as last time, I was in a peg that was 200m to the left of the last peg I fished in section B, B13.

It was typicl of the bottom end of the stretch with a gap in between two boats opposite and a decent depth close in, I decided upon a 4 prong attack that saw my normal bread line going in at about 4 feet deep on a 2+1 line. Due to the depth of the peg however, I decided to fish my squatt line in about 3 1/2 feet of water at 11.5m, I set up two rigs for here: 1) a 0.4g DS14 on 0.10mm mainline to a 0.07mm bottom and a 24 B590, this was for fishing on the deck so had no.3 elastic and a bulked shotting pattern. 2) A 4X7 Mick Bassett on the drop float on the same line and hook but with a strung styl shotting pattern and no.2 Vespe elastic. I also plumbed up a worm line at 14.5m down the track to my left and right and a backup bread rig against the downstream boat in cast things got difficult.

At the all in I fed the normal Bread close and 4 balls of groundbait with squatt, hemp and caster in it at 11.5m; I also put a few worms in on both of my worm swims. I put a 4mm punch on the hook and had a look in close, it took about 4 minutes before my first Roach was swung to hand and after 45 mins I had only had 10 fish from it (including an 8oz hybrid) so I refed and that only gave me another coupe of fish so I was soon onto the squatt line where by working hard I was able to keep putting some fish into the net all the time. I had no indications on my worm lines but boat traffic saw paid to them and I spent 15mins trying under the boat across on bread for 4 Roach but it was not quick enough and the tow was proving to be problematic. The end could not come fast enough and after the end pegs doing the biz the weights through the middle of the section were quite close, to the left there was about a pound and a half, to the right 3lb 8oz and I weighed in 5lb 8oz. This gave me 6^th in section and when we got back to the pub it turned out that again we had a single blowout, with the rest all getting middle of the section. If he had cot 4 more points the team would have got 3^rd or 4^th so it was close but no cigar again for Vespe Army A.

Next time my worm line will go in across and I may try to concentrate on catching a couple of skimmers, this is because 8oz would have seen me 4^th in section!