Welcome to my fishing blog… October 2023
October 22nd – K&H RBL AC Club Match, Stathe Drain – Simply Shocking!
I was really looking forward to this match but came away very disappointed, as did many others. The week before there had been a frost and the Taunton club match results from this venue were nothing to get too excited about. Although the winner had over 14 pounds, the next weight was 4 pounds and one section was won with just 7 ounces. So, we put the poor weights down to there being a frost but there was no frost for us so the weights should have been much better right? Wrong! Our match at this venue last year produced a winning weight of over 25 pounds from peg 1. The year before that I won with over 13 pounds from a peg at the other end so we all know what this drain is capable of.
Okay, so here’s how it went for me…
Up at 5am and on the road by 6.30am for the 40-mile journey, arriving at the venue car park at 7.45am. The weather forecast was for mild weather and no rain, which is the best you can hope for at this time of year. Most of the rivers up and down the country are currently in flood due to excessively heavy rain over the past week or so. Stathe Drain is kept level by a pumping station, which pumps any extra water into the River Parret so no worries about flooding here. Everyone arrived in plenty of time and Ian Brice, our match secretary, set off and put out 12 pegs. We intentionally left out the first 2 pegs as we wanted to make it a fair match.
I wasn’t really concerned about what peg I would draw as they all look pretty much the same. So, into the drawbag goes the trusty hand of fate (my hand, my fate) and out comes peg 8. Okay, that’ll do nicely. So we set off along the bank and there to greet us was problemo numero uno. The ground was soddenly soft and our barrow wheels were sinking in the mud, which made it hard going just getting to your peg. When I arrived at my peg, I had 2 choices. Get into the water or fish from the top of the bank. As I didn’t have a platform with me it would have to be the top of the bank, which was problemo numero due. I was casting shadows all over the surface.
Looking at my swim, I decided on an 11-metre line down the middle and a 16-metre line over the far side. The rigs for both swims were very similar with a 0.4 gram pencil float and similar bulked shotting patterns. I would feed chopped worm and caster with worm groundbait down the middle and loose-feed maggles over the far side. The depth of the 11-metre swim was just over 4 feet and the 16-metre line was about 3.5 feet deep. I also set up a feeder rod just in case. On my bait tray, I had worms, maggles, pinkles, casters, hemp and tares and bread. All I wanted was a simple and enjoyable day’s fishing. Was that too much to expect? Yes!
So, on the all-in, I cupped out 1 Jaffa size ball of groundbait laced with maggles, pinkles and casters. Then I baited up with half a Dendra on a size 16 hook and lowered it in over the top. A perch, a bream, or a tench would surely stop by and grab this juicy worm yeah? No! There was not a sniff on that so I changed to single maggle on a size 18 hook. The drain was flowing steadily now and I had to add on 12 inches of line to the depth and hold back. Anyway, no bites on the maggle so a change to pinkle and a size 20 hook. Well, after an hour there were no signs of any fish anywhere.
So, I decided to try the 16-metre line with a pinkle on the hook and began firing out some loose feed to within a few inches of an overhanging tree. I tried maggle, worm, caster and punched bread here too but after another hour had gone by… still nothing. So there was problemo number tre…No bites! Nobody was catching anywhere. WTF was going on? I put a 12-gram lead on the feeder rod together with a size 16 hook and baited it with a whole Dendra. I cast this out to some reeds opposite and then made a cup of tea… and waited… and waited. Jon Amato on the next peg was now catching a few small roach on a whip but it was hard work as the wind was getting up. At that point, I gave up on the lead and went back to the pole.
Alan Maggs to my right wasn’t catching but our new boy, Steve ‘Wes’ Western, who was drawn 2 pegs down from me, had just landed a big perch. All I could do was to keep plugging away with a single pinkle to a size 20 hook and 0.8 hooklength in the hope of catching something… anything! The flow had stopped now, the wind was getting up and the sun was shining. However, the fishing was unbelievably hard and my enthusiasm had completely drained away. So Stathe Drain will always remind me now of the day I was drained of time, money, action, energy, interest, self-esteem, hope, faith and the will to live. Then all of a sudden…
Right out of the blue, I got a bite! Yes… a small roach came to my eagerly waiting landing net. On the very next put in I had another, followed by a small rudd, followed by a tiny skimmer and then 2 minnows before the whole exciting session ended as abruptly as it had started. My whole bagging session had lasted all of 5 minutes and I didn’t get another bite after that. Well, that was it, all over. The big perch went 1-10-0 for Wes and was easily enough to win the match. Jon, to my left, had fished the long whip all day and it paid off for him as he finished in second place with 1-6-0. Ian Swanborough had 5 ounces for third place and I had 4 ounces for a section win. Ian Brice won the other section with 3.5 ounces. Verdict… The worst match ever!
I was so glad when that one was over and it’s probably best to just forget it and move on. Life is just too short to get depressed over some silly old fishing match… So, I’ll get myself off to Whitehouse Farm mid-week and cheer myself up. My next match will be next Sunday when I’ll be battling it out with the ’big boys’ at Windmill Fisheries, Westerleigh. As usual, I’ll keep you posted.
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January 2023
February 2023
March 2023
April 2023
May 2023
June 2023
July 2023
August 2023
September 2023
October 2023
8th – Interclub – River Avon, Crane, Keynsham
15th – Alcove Club Match, The Lido, Fishponds
22nd – K&H RBL AC Club Match, Stathe Drain
31st – Bitterwell Lake Silvers Open, Westerleigh
November 2023
December 2023
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June 2022
July 2022
August 2022
September 2022
October 2022
November 2022
December 2022
