South West WL, Rd 2, Newbridge

So it was a drive through a sleepy Bath city center at 0730 for me followed by a meet for the second round of the South West WL on the Bristol Avon. My team again was Premier Amalgamated and even though we had been joined by fellow Fosters Team Army stalwart, Kev, we were still down 2 anglers come the draw. I was team captain for the day and due to the fact that we had waited so long for the last 2 anglers we were the last to draw so I couldn’t even use my magic drawing hand.

Kev was sat on the bridge itself so had the chance of a good day, I was on permanent peg 24, and this looked good for a few of the target species but I ended my match near enough whilst setting up. My Z10 had been delivered a couple of days before and I was soon sat on m y box plumbing up a couple of rigs for a long roach line and a short lobworm line at the base of the near shelf 10m downstream. I also decided to try and catch bream or skimmers out of my peg so set up a groundbait feeder to fish just short of the far bank foliage. I was ready for the all-in even having had to mix two different groundbait mixes without a drill as I had left it at home, but as it sounded out went 8 babies heads on the pole line followed by 8 cricket balls onto a line just short of the far bank tree line.

I shipped my 2g roach rig out onto the longer line and managed 4 fish in 5 run downs but then the swim started to wain almost straight away and by the end of the first 30 minutes I had only managed another roach and a couple of small perch. I decided to give it a couple of small balls of groundbait and then chucked the feeder across the river, this was a nonstarter really and only produced 2 small chublet and a few small perch all day, and I spent a long time on it in between the canoes.

Speaking of canoes, I don’t mind sharing the water with other people but they were sooo bloody minded it was unreal, on more than one occasion I was unable to cast or fish due to a line of boats coming through or they would stop in front of you for a rest/chat….. Not too happy.

Back to the fishing, the pole gave me a few perch on the short line, including some wasps on half a lobworm and I was able to scratch a few more roach from on the pole line but at the end I was glad to finish, especially after not putting a fish into the net for the last hour.

The all out was called and after a wait the scales arrived, the two downstream pegs had pound weights, Andy power had 7lb odd mostly on the wag and the guy to my left had 8lb+. I had guessed at 3-4lb and was spot on with about 3 1/2lb for third in section. Kev walked up to see me after he had weighed and he had managed a section win with 8lb 10oz I think, and we had another second in section in the next section, unfortunately the missing anglers cost us and we were the strongest team on the day propping up the whole table, this last also put us into last in the league.

Off on exercise for a few weeks now so I will let you know how I get on when I am back.

What would I do different?

I should not have balled in on the feeder line, it had been a cold night, I should have gone softly softly to see if any fish were there.

I should have set up a crowquill/ bolo for the pole line so that I could explore more of the swim, the guy downstream managed a few nice Hybrids on the crowquill over the pole line.

Should have set up a wag to fish across as it appears that it was a better wag peg than bream peg historically. 

South West WL, Round 1, Crane and Swineford, Bristol Avon, 5/10/14

Since I left had Browning Andover in the summer I had been looking for something to do this winter, I had been looking at a couple of small winter leagues but it appeared that they didn’t want new teams entering so myself and a few others were all at loose ends. However a few weeks ago a message popped up on facebook from none other than Mark Harper from PI Thatchers asking for anglers to compete in the AT South West WL, I jumped at the chance as I have never fished this part of the Avon before and fancied the challenge of going against the likes of PI Thatchers and Maver Batheaston on their own territory. I was also promised lots of info so who could refuse that offer?

I could barely sleep the night before I was that excited, even with the added stress of moving house the next day, but it was not long until I was trying to park up at the draw venue, unfortunately the owners of the rugby club had heard that I was coming so they had not opened and we were all parked up the main road. Not ideal.

As I walked towards the main throng of people I bumped into a few friendly faces from all over the south of England, including Colin Gittens from Premier Angling, James Carty who is now fishing for PI Thatchers and many many more.

It turned out that the team I was fishing for would be an adhoc team under the premier angling banner, it included Colin and the team plan that we decided on was to catch as many fish as possible in 5 hours. I missed the team getting called for the draw but soon found that I would be sat on peg f5….. It meant nothing to me either at the time. I got given some rough directions but I decided to follow the first car I could to the main car park for ease.  Mark was trying to sort me some info on my peg but I was basically told to fish for roach as I was an end peg and that I might get a couple of chub on the wag under the far bank tree. This was good enough for me and I was soon winging my way to my peg as I was envisaging a massive walk, I was wrong and it turned out that I was the closest peg to the car park. Things got better when I got to my peg as you can see from the photo.

My plan was quite simple and I plumbed up a waggler rig first, well when I say plumbed I set it to 11ft deep and noticed that it had a few feet to go so I left it at that for a start, I used a 4 AAA insert waggler and put a 0.10mm bottom to a size 18 hook in case of the chub. Next was the pole and on plumbing up I found the flow was at 14.5m, with just over a top 5 of depth a 1g pencil and 2g round bodied floats were set up for that line, again with decent hooks and bottoms after the Thames the other week. Finally I set up a small maggot feeder to fish tight across just upstream of the tree tight to the brambles, as this was an out and out bonus fish rig the hooklength was 0.14 to a size 16 hook and I had it about 3 feet long for the start.

I was ready for the all in and once it was called out went 8 cannonballs onto the pole line at 14.5m with little feed in followed by 3 cupped balls laced with caster and hemp, I then sent the feeder across towards the brambles whilst trying to get my eye in with the catty. The wind was deceptive and I was cussing the fact that I could not get the bait far enough across the river when on my third cast on the feeder the tip bounced back. I struck and a good fish headed straight for the tree taking a little line, I managed to turn it and after a few hairy moments near the net a 4lb chub was soon being transferred to the keepnet. It was an awesome start and with shaking hands I rebaited and cast back out towards the far bank, 5 minutes later and a twitchy drop back saw a 6oz perch joining the chub. What a start, I now chinned off feeding maggot on the waggler line as it was difficult to remain accurate and so that I could reserve my maggot for the feeder line, I also reduced the size of the feeder with the idea of casting more often to keep the bait falling through the water.

After only another ten minutes another positive bite and another chub was hooked and carefully played across the river, and this continued until just after the hour mark I had 3 chub and a couple of perch in the keepnet for about 11lb. It had started to quieten down and I was getting indications from small fish so had a quick look on the pole, this was a good idea as I had 5 roach in 5 put ins, they were around 8-10 to the pound so I decided to swap my elastic up from a no.5 to a tight no.6 so that I could swing them more easily. It worked well but after 15 minutes disaster struck and my 14.5m section shattered inside the 13m section and this prevented me from fishing at full distance on top of my groundbait line. I decided to start feeding as close to where I had balled as possible so added a half butt onto the 13m of pole and rested it by chucking the feeder back across.

I had a quick indication that I missed and then the next cast I lost a chub in the tree when the hook bent out of shape, it was a 14 B560 so I swapped it to a 14 Carbon feeder and also made some floating maggots to offset the extra weight of the hook. As I had lost a fish I went back on the pole and had a quick run of roach and so my day carried on swapping between the pole and feeder trying to eek as many fish out as possible. I had managed another chub mid match and then the fishing dropped of and in the last hour was hard but I did lose one more decent fish on the feeder in the last 30 minutes when it ran in a weed bed under my rod tip.

The all out was called somewhere in the distance and I reckoned I had 15-18lb of fish, depending on the size of the chub, as the scales reached me the Thatchers angler on peg 1 had managed 16lb odd of perch and chub, then there was another double figure weight and then the 2 pegs upstream of me both struggled with 2 pounds and odds a piece. I pulled my net out and it felt good, 17lb 9oz good in fact and this was enough for the section.

Back at the car park I managed to claim my £1 side bet from James and then it was into the pub for the results. Thatchers won it by 3 points over Bathampton, and I managed to win the match by all of 5 ounces.

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENT?

Not a lot really, maybe I should have spent a little more time on the pole trying to sort out the roach?

I also should have started on a stronger hook as I was not fishing for bream but it fortunately didn’t cost me.

And I will try not to break my pole again in future.