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.