Welcome to my fishing blog… September 2023
September 10th – Kingswood RBL AC Club Match – River Avon Chequers Stretch – Abseiling The Slippery Slope
With several members on their summer holibobs, another on sick leave and a couple of AWOLs, we were down to just 9 hardy souls for this late summer river match on the Chequers stretch of the Bristol Avon. It’s probably just as well because we had some major swim clearing to do before we could get the draw underway, as most of the pegs were completely overgrown. Sadly, some of the pegs on this stretch are becoming increasingly difficult to navigate, making a rope an essential piece of kit these days. If you don’t need your rope to abseil down to your swim, you can always use it for something else, depending on how your day goes… I’ll leave you with that thought for a moment.
Okay, so moving on… This was the first round of our annual knockout competition, in which everyone who enters has to weigh in to qualify for the next round. It was also the next round of the Pairs Challenge and the season’s rolling individual aggregate, so plenty to go for. Due to the swim clearing the draw was a little later than usual and for this one, I drew peg 7. I thought I had drawn peg 4 because there was a number 4 on one side of the bottle top and a number 7 on the other… hmmm… Bewildering, bemusing and very perplexing at such an early hour of the morning. Someone had to explain the situation to me.
So off we went… at least we were able to park behind our pegs, which is a big advantage. When I got to my peg it was obvious I was going to have to do a little more swim clearing. Also, due to the steep slope of the bank, it was obvious I would have to try and get my box into the water. All easier said than done. I spent 40 minutes cutting water irises and setting up my box. All my kit had to be taken down to the bottom of my peg bit by bit with one hand hanging on to my rope. Oh! Don’t anyone tell me again how sad it is that anglers are deserting the rivers for the safety and convenience of the lakes.
So, with 35 minutes of the match already gone, I was finally ready to bag a few kippers. This particular stretch has a good head of bream and that was to be my main target. I had set up a feeder rod for fishing a groundbait feeder two-thirds the way across the river. Also, a waggler rod to tackle the flow, which was also about two-thirds the way across, and a short 6-metre pole-to-hand setup. I started by putting 4 feeders full of groundbait in before putting 3 red maggles on a size 16 hook. After an hour, all I had was one small perch. A switch to worm and caster brought another small perch but although I persevered for more than another hour, there was no sign of bream.
Now with over half the match gone already, I put down the feeder rod and picked up the waggler rod. I baited the size 18 hook with a single red maggle, fired out a big poutchful of maggles and cast over the top. On the second run through I had a bleak. I adjusted the shotting so the bait would sink quicker but another bleak followed. I gave this approach a good 30 minutes before getting snagged up on the undergrowth behind me. As my box was in the water, the whole depth of the bank was behind me, which made it difficult casting so it was inevitable I was going to get caught up in the greenery at some point.
I was getting pretty frustrated at this point and seriously considered packing up. I only had about 8-10 ounces in the net and there were only 90 minutes left. So, I picked up the short pole and started feeding hemp and tares. I was getting little enquiries but no proper bites, so 20 minutes later I gave up on that too. I carried on with the pole but now started feeding maggles with a single red to a size 20 hook and 0.8mm hooklength. Finally, I caught a 4-ounce roach and then another followed by an 8-ounce perch. After about 15 minutes of feeding, it was virtually a fish a chuck with some chunky perch, the occasional decent roach and the odd chublet coming to the net.
So I was well perked up now, wishing I could have had another couple of hours on this method but with time running out fast, a pike decided to gatecrash the party and steal away my last precious 5 minutes. That was it… all over… and in hindsight, if I had just targeted small fish right from the off with my short pole to hand, I’m sure I would have had a terrific day. I simply wasted too much time fishing for bream that just were not there or were not interested in feeding but that’s a chance you take. Winning matches is very often all about making the right decisions on the day.
Well, all was not lost. My mad last-hour spree bumped up my weight to 4lb 12oz, which was enough for second place in the match. The winner was Jon Amato who wisely targetted the small fish with a whip to put 6lb 9oz on the scales. Well done to him and a lesson learned for me. My next match is on the Lido, in Fishponds. This small lake/pond is stocked with carp, F1s, crucians, tench, bream, roach, rudd, perch and pike. I have a kind of love-hate relationship with this place, which is a long story going back about 38 years or more and a story for another day. As usual, I’ll keep you posted.
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10th – Bristol Avon, Chequers, Hanham, Bristol
24th – Bristol Avon, Staverton, Wilts
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