Welcome to my fishing blog… June 2022

June 26th – Lido, Fishponds, Bristol

The Lido is a small lake owned by Alcove Angling Club in Bristol, and this match attracted a full-house turnout of 14 anglers. The Lido is a bit of a strange venue in that it has a good head of fish but locating them can be quite difficult at times. It doesn’t help that the lake bed undulates so much and therefore the depths can be anything from a couple of feet to around 16 feet. Plumbing up can be a real challenge. There are 2 “hot” pegs on the lake one being “Smithy’s swim” and the other “The pontoon swim”. It’s called “Smithy’s” after an angler named Bill Smith (now deceased), used to fish this one particular swim almost daily, with his loyal dog and best friend Ben by his side. The pontoon swim is so-called because a large timber raft, which used to belong to a bankside pub (now demolished), is sunk there on the lake bed.

So, back to the match. I drew the ‘Tree swim’, which is to the right-hand side of “Smithy’s swim” and can be a good draw… sometimes. However, not today. I plumbed up at 11 metres right in front of me and found a flat spot in 11 feet of water. This was to be my “throw away” swim. I then plumbed up on the same line of sight at 7 metres in 8-9 feet of water. There was quite a lot of weed on the bottom but I intended to fish up in the water here. Next, I plumbed my left-hand margin to find 6 feet of water here, right next to an overhanging tree. Finally, an inside line to my right, up against some lily pads, and in 4 feet of water would be my “hope to get a tench” swim.

At the all-in I dumped a jaffa-size ball of Black Bream supercrumb groundbait on the 11-metre line, a medium-size cup full of casters to my left-hand swim, and then some micros and 4mm pellets to my right-hand margin. I started on the 7-metre line at 2 feet deep with a single maggot and loose-fed maggots over the top. After 30 minutes I only had 4 small roach on this line. So, it was on to plan B. I put 2 red maggots on a size 18 Guru F1 maggot hook and lowered it down into my 11-metre swim. A minute later and the 0.4 gram Chianti float sailed away followed by a frantic netting job as an 8-ounce skimmer dived into a dense weedbed, which was situated right in front of me and extended out by about 4 metres.

I managed to free the skimmer, which was followed by 2 more in quick succession. Then nothing for the next 10 minutes, so time to try my left-hand swim. This isn’t really a margin swim due to overhanging branches, which protrude out for about 4 metres. There’s nothing straight-forward about fishing this swim, what with weed beds, overhanging trees and lily pads to contend with. Anyway, I baited the hook with a single caster but nothing. Next, I tried maggot and finally pellet but not a sniff down that line. So, onto my right-hand margin swim with expander pellet. Again, nothing. I tried a single maggot here and had 5 small roach.

Well, then it was a case of trying all 4 swims again with a variety of baits to see if anything had turned up. Unfortunately, it hadn’t. I could hear lots of splashing from the 2 swims to my left as tench after tench was hooked and landed. To my right, I could see everyone was struggling as I obviously was. I’ve had lots of frustrating days on the Lido and this was to be just another one of those days. During the last 2 hours of the match, I didn’t get a single bite. Whenever I have days like this I always say, “never again” but I still end up fishing these matches. I guess I’m a bit of a masochist at heart.   

The match was won by my teammate Kevin Murch with a nice net of tench weighing 15-5-0 from the ‘Pontoon swim’, second was Steve Brown with 8-8-0 from ‘Smithy’s swim’. My effort for the day produced a measly 1-10-0, which begs the question… why do I do this???

I bet you’re so glad you stumbled across my blog now, aren’t you? 🙂

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January 2023

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June 2022

   12th – Whitehouse Farm, Earthcott Green

   19th – River Avon, Crane, Keynsham

   26th – Lido, Fishponds, Bristol

July 2022

August 2022

September 2022

October 2022

November 2022

December 2022

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