I arrived for the draw early, as the ticket price included a breakfast - wasn't too bad actually, although not as substantial as a Bullock feast. General consensus of opinion was that it would fish hard, the water being gin clear, the sunny day forecast and the overnight frost.
I drew peg 14, not a peg I'd have chosen and the fact that Paul 'end peg' Faiers had drawn peg 8, the end peg in the section and the downstream end peg in the match, did nothing to bolster my lack of optimism. Kev Perry had also drawn an end peg in the car park section, it was going to be difficult to frame from my peg, best hope was for it to fish really hard.
When I got to the river, Paul & I had a chat and both thought that double figures would be a good weight, the river was flat calm, the bottom was visible 6' down and there was no sign of any fish moving.
Peg 14 is set into some rushes, these are often home to small perch and can also hold decent roach when the conditions are bright, I'd pretty much made up my mind to fish punch as a main attack and drip caster and pinkie down the edge of the rushes. I set up a 1g wire stemmed float and one in the same pattern at 0.8g, both with 0.08 hooklength and 18 B511, although I did expect to be scaling down from that.
Two rigs for the rushes, one 0.13 straight through to a 14 B611 and another with 0.08 and a 20 B511, one for worm, one for caster & pinkie. I also set a a lead rod and a waggler, intending to feed some caster right across, to hopefully snare an odd chub and any wary roach that backed away from the pole line.
Having to go out to 10m to find over 6' of water, meant that I'd have to unship across the path that the walkers, and dogs take, not ideal, but I didn't think that I'd catch closer in. At the all in I fed two small balls of liccy, one loosely squeezed, one tighter and second put in the float dipped and a 2 ounce roach was in the net - blank saved!!
To cut a long story short, the caster line across, produced not so much as a touch on my occasional look over, the rushes drip fed fed with a meagre amount of caster and pinkie, also failed to see any movement on the float, except for a moorhen (moronhen more like) that dragged the rig into the rushes and snapped the float.
After the first hour or so, I was getting bites on the punch line at 10m, but they weren't coming fast enough to build any sort of weight, I added a pinch of squatt and some hemp to the liccy feed, this seemed to slightly increase the size of the fish, but not the frequency of bites. I tried caster over the punch line, not a touch, red and bronze maggot getting the same response. Pinkie brought a small perch and squatt enticed roach, but at a even slower rate than the punch
No doubt feeding was the key (as it so often is in match fishing), had there been some colour in the water, I'd have balled it in, but not with it so clear and the lack of bites on maggot or caster makes me thihk it was right not to do so. I was topping up the liccy and hemp, when the bites became even less frequent (about ½ hour intervals), then the bites would stop for 5-10 minutes, but then the fish would come back over the feed.
As I was sat in amongst the rushes, I couldn't see any other anglers, so had no idea how the river was fishing, so just kept at the punch line and kept the fish coming, albeit slowly for the whole match. The last hour, saw the size of fish improve, but still the catch rate was slow.
The weigh in saw 'end peg' Faiers weigh in 13.08, on the next peg was James Gunter who weighed 13.13, with me next to weigh, I knew I didn't have that much and was proved correct, my all roach (and one perch) net going 10.03. Next best weight in the section was just over 3lb.
I couldn't go back to the bar for the results, as I had to get home and go to work, (deep joy), but as I was putting the gear in the car I had a phone call from Paul, Kev Perry had 25lb, Glenn (Calvert) had a 21lb odd, Paul is off to Whiteacres next week, so I wished him well and his parting shot was; "I might have known if I was pegged near you it would be crap". Once again I'd drawn 40 pegs away from the fish......
Just had an email from Jan, the Clevedon Club, Treasurer and Secretary. The match raised £904.02 for Help the Heroes and Childrens Hospice (South West), a decent sum and in the end the river didn't fish too badly. (Except my section....)
1st Kev Perry 25lb 14oz All roach on bread punch Peg 55
2nd Brian Hobson 25lb 0oz Bream & Tench Peg 81
3rd Steve Cox 23lb 12oz Bream Peg 53
4th Glen Calvert 21lb 13oz Roach Peg 51
5th Jon Gray 19lb 14oz Roach Peg 72
6th Simon Carvallo 16lb 4oz Roach Peg 42
7th James Gunter 13lb 13oz Roach Peg 12
27 Anglers Fished
Thats it until next Sunday, although I haven't found a match I fancy yet, so if anyone has any suggestions...
Thats it until next Sunday, although I haven't found a match I fancy yet, so if anyone has any suggestions...
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