AAF Gp2 Match 4, Bristol Avon, 18/2/15

I was in charge of pegging this match as I know the stretch quite well, so it was a 0500 start for me and then a long walk along the whole match stretch, fortunately I had done a recce at the weekend so I knew roughly what pegs I would be putting in and that mnade the whole process a lot simpler.

I arrived at the draw venue in good time to find it still shut so it was a case of getting my bait for the day off Dave and then finding a coffee in Café Nero.  Whilst I was waiting in the queue the rest of the lads descended upon the hapless staff who were after a quiet morning.  I explained the pegging and we did the draw in the café as Wetherspoons had let us down, I ended up on A9 on the shallows then Ben was along the dead stretch and Daz along the line of trees so it wasn’t a great draw but I was hopeful especially after all the time had spent on the run up on the river.

As I drove from the draw venue my van started to make a funny noise of the rear end and I knew I had a problem, but as always I drove on to the car parking before checking it out. There was a large bolt sticking out my rear tyre so since it wasn’t life threatening I got my gear out of the van and went to my peg.

This was my view for most of the day as the swim is 2 ½ feet deep and on this occasion it was quite heavily coloured there was only 4-6 inches visibility so this was not ideal for the wag which is how I would have liked to approach the venue.

Tactics for the day though were a 3m whip for minnows and gudgeon over groundbait, I still set up a 2 swan truncheon wag to fish over depth ¾ of the way across, a maggot feeder and finally a lonk ledger to fish bread for the first ten minutes as I saw a chub or barbel roll in my swim as I was setting up.

So at the all in I fed a small ball of groundbait at 3m, and cast out the link ledger, I then got to watch Carl on the next peg bosh in 10 balls of groundbait, so that was most of the big fish spooked for a while, but I started to feed the wagler anyway.

After two hours nothing had happened so I phoned Pez up to moan about how hard the river was fishing, and I only went and moaned a pound and a half chub on, I followed this up with about 10 minnows on the whip and then a couple of hours later in the space of three casts on the tip I missed a bite, lost a trout and landed a 1lb chub. (All whilst moaning on the phone)

That was then end of my action and my 2 chub and 10 minnows were 1.39kg and enough for 2^nd in section and 3^rd in the match. The team came second which was a great result, considering the draw, and we are now within striking distance of the Nomads.  K&A in a couple of weeks but I am working away so cannot practice.

Thanks to the guys who helped me change my wheel and thanks to wilts council!!!!!!

What would I do different?

1.       I would have liked some pellet to try on the tip for the first hour.

2.       Other than that it was a good day, perhaps I should have not bothered with the wag but by loose feeding I felt as though I was pulling fish up from downstream of me.

A Couple of cheeky practices

With the next group match happening on a stretch of river that I hold dear to my heart, well I had my first barbel, river carp and 30lb river bag from the stretches around Chippenham so I know them quite well. It was because of this that we decided that I should try and get the team down there as many times as possible on the run up to the event.

My first trip saw me sat along riverside drive in some truly horrendous conditions and I ended up finding a swim on the back of the wind and fishing a stick float taking about 5lb of half decent roach and some dace. I was using a 6Xno4 lignum stick in the 5 foot swim and found that the fish were not that line shy so I could get away with a 0.1mm hooklength which is always handy when there are a few chub and perch about.  I also found that having a no.12 split shot halfway along the hooklength improved bite registration no end and caught me more fish. This session was cut short by work phoning and me having to go back in to sign some paperwork, I wasn’t best impressed.

The next session saw me going to Melksham as I had a ticket for this stretch and it fishes similarly, again a lignum stick was my weapon of choice and I shotted it with over 20 strung no.8 shot, I struggled this time due to my choice of swim and it deepened off before shallowing up and this caused dramas on finding the feeding fish, it was also quite snaggy and this cost me a few hooklengths, I also tried the link ledger but the swim was far too snaggy for it to work and it just frustrated me more.  I still managed a few chublet, bleak and a couple of nice roach, but don’t try to swing everthing to hand!!

The next session was a week later and I took  Jim along Monkton park to help him get to grips with the waggler, Jim set up the waggler and I set up the kitchen sink on the next peg up.

Jim had a nice day catching quality fish on the wag, I had a swim fill of tiny chub and struggled to put any fish together, I tried the feeder, Bolo, stick wag and ink ledger, caught on them all for 2.5kg.

My bag

Jims Brilliant net

Jim had 5kg + all on the wag and learnt a lot.

What would I do different?

Find out after the next group match.