Welcome to my fishing blog… November 2022

November 13th – Poppy Appeal Charity Match – River Avon, Chequers to Newbridge

This annual charity event has now been running for 41 years. It was kicked off in 1981 by Bill Milton and Brian Lloyd. Brian kept up the organisation and running of the event for 25 years before handing it over to Bill Milton and his team, who included Ray Bazeley, Paul Benson and many other helpers. 100 pegs were put in and 93 turned up to support today’s match.

I have fished every one of these matches bar one, which I had to miss due to having the flu. I won it way back in 1983 and since then I have framed a number of times and won countless sections. It’s a match everyone looks forward to, at least all the old regulars do, as it signals the start of the Christmas match season. The event is spread out over a wide stretch of river, with noted hot pegs and quite a lot of duff ones too. One thing I have learned over the years though is you just never know where the winning peg will be

I had packed my 16-metre pole, 2 float rods and 2 feeder rods. I also had 4 pints of maggots, 1 pint of pinkies, 1 kilo of worms, some bread and 2.5 kilos of black river groundbait. I left out casters as I thought the river would be too coloured. I packed 2 keepnets and a spare landing net, just in case. I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance.

The draw was at 8am, straight after Brian had recited that most famous of passages from ‘The Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon. As usual, an eager crowd had formed, all ready to discover their fate. So, into the draw bucket went the trusty hand, and out comes peg 6, which was in the small field, or allotment field, upstream of the road bridge at Newbridge. I had drawn this one before, about 4 years ago, so I had a bit of an idea about how best to fish it. The problem we would have to contend with today would the continuous stream of rowing boats from 2 boat clubs upstream.

On arrival at the peg, the river looked perfect. A nice tinge of colour and a steady pace is exactly what every angler wants to see on a river, but would the bream show? I set up just one feeder rod for a cage feeder and a float rod with an 8BB crowquill avon float. My plan was to start at 2 rod lengths with a groundbait feeder for the first half hour. I remember the last time I fished this peg, I caught quite late on fishing close in, having spent about 4 hours fishing the middle and far side.

So, after 30 minutes I only had 3 small roach on the feeder, which was a bit unsettling. For the next part of my cunning plan, I would chuck out 6 feeder fulls of groundbait down the middle and leave this for 20 minutes while I ran the crowquill through the inside line. I caught another 5 small roach on the float and missed quite a few bites too as it became obvious that bites were going to be very shy. So out went a big 35 gram feeder into 12 feet of water.

I started with double red maggot and then began ringing the changes. 3 maggots, maggots and pinkies, 3 pinkies, worm and maggot, pinkie and maggot, worm on its own. After about 40 minutes and few missed taps I hit into a nice skimmer, which was probably about a pound and a half. This was encouraging but I needed its mum or dad to show up to the party. After about 10 minutes, I had another skimmer, which was a little lighter at around a pound. Then just a few small roach and perch. 

Well, I carried on with this until the last hour hoping some slabbies would come cruising by but it wasn’t to be. Now, with just under an hour to go, I picked up the float rod and began to search the inner 5-6 metres. I had been loose feeding here all day so was confident of a few more fish. On the first run through I had a roach of about 6 ounces followed by another two of the same stamp. Then a few missed bites followed by a heart-stopping bite that shot under the surface in the blink of an eye. After an instinctive strike, I was playing a half-decent fish. I wasn’t sure at first whether it was a chub or a perch but after a couple of minutes, I reckoned it was definitely a perch.

I really took my time with this fish as I desperately needed to bump up my weight. So, after few more minutes backwinding and forward winding plus a little bit of “oh shit for feck sake don’t lose this fecking thing”, self-talk, I managed to slip the landing net under a prime 2 pound plus perch. The funny thing is, I did put in some chopped worm on the inside and I tried worm on the hook several times but no takers.  Then, when I changed to a size 20 hook and a single maggot, Mr Perch got interested. Well, only two more small roach after that. 

As the scalesman headed toward me, I thought I had about 5 lb (being very conservative). The scales pulled round to 6lb 9oz, which on the day was okay and I was, well, fairly happy with that. I reckoned there would have been some better weights in the higher section numbers but today, for me at least, it was all about taking part in this very special event. I was just enjoying the occasion and looking forward to the raffle and a beer later.

Back at the Pavillion, (draw HQ), Brian was already there having spent his day doing chores. I bought us a beer and coffed up for a tenner’s worth of raffle tickets. We set at a table listening to Ray Bazely’s excellent auctioneering skills as he sold off some rods and reels. Then it was raffle time.  I won twice, collecting 2 tins of chockies for ‘her indoors’ and earning a few precious brownie points. Brian won too and collected a box of biscuits, alongside a free bottle of wine in recognition of providing some additional scales for the weigh-in.

Then it was time to announce the winners. Lady luck had smiled down on me and I picked up a section win worth £30. Top man on the day was Bitterwell Lake Fishery Manager, Paul Isaacs with 19lb 1oz from the Jackie Whites stretch. It was another great fund-raising event with around £3000 being raised for the Poppy Appeal.

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November 2022

   6th – Alcove Poppy Match – Whitehouse Farm

   13th – RBL Poppy Open – River Avon Waters

   20th – Winter League #1 – Whitehouse Farm

December 2022

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