Welcome to my fishing blog… July 2023
July 30th – RiverFest Qualifier, Warks Avon – Billy Vs Roach Vs Predator
Now why on earth would anyone want to get up at 4.30 am and travel 80 miles? For a RiverFest Qualifier of course. So, this was to be my last RiverFest Qualifier match on the Warwickshire Avon, at Stratford and I was prepared to give it everything. I had spent most of Saturday getting prepared and I had all bait angles covered. I also had all methods covered too I think, with a waggler rod, a stick float rod, 2 feeder rods, a 6 metre whip and my trusty 16-metre Maver pole. All I needed was the perfect draw…
I arrived at the New Inn, Clifford Chambers at around 7.45am in plenty of time for the 8.30am draw. Some of the guys were having a cooked breakfast but I was content with just a fresh cup of tea. I got chatting with a couple of the locals who told me that the chub were a bit shy in coming forward lately, although they were sure that a chub catch would win from somewhere, probably Manor Farm. They said the river looked spot on but could have done with a bit more colour, which is always the case on any river.
Well, it was soon time for the draw but the guy who announced the rules, and then information about the pay-outs, sections and zones had everyone confused because the pegging was different to the permanent pegging and nobody seemed to know where they had to go. So, if they were confused, you can imagine I was totally bamboozled. I drew peg 20 at Seven Meadows and was told to park in the field at Stannells and walk from there. I knew where Stannells was because we had a club outing there a couple of seasons ago.
When I arrived and parked up in the field, some anglers were still trying to figure out where their pegs were. Some of them were in the wrong field and had to go find some other access point. I had to ask one of the local guys where my peg was and he pointed me in the right direction. It was about 100 yards from where I had parked and I had to walk along the most uneven bit of track you could ever imagine. In places, it was so narrow I almost upended and slipped into the river. When I finally got to my peg, I was quite relieved and… it did look very nice.
I was 100 yards away from peg 21 and about 30 yards away from peg 19 so I had lots of room. As I studied the peg I could see there was quite a strong flow at about two-thirds the way across, indicated by a stream of fast-flowing leaves. At halfway there was very little flow and right up to that point the river was flowing backward. I ruled out the pole due to the high bank behind me and the fact that I would need to get out to 16 metres just to reach halfway. So, I decided on a waggler setup plus a stick float setup plus a feeder rod with maggle feeder. Despite carrying 3 kilos of it to my peg, groundbait wouldn’t come into play.
The river was very clear and so I chose 0.11 and 0.13 hooklengths and size 20 and 18 hooks on the float rods with a size 16 for the maggle feeder setup. After plumbing and casting a lead across the river, I reckon I had 6 to 7 feet of water to play with. After a couple of casts with both float rods, I decided to start with a 6BB waggler and then go onto a 9BB Crowquill Avon float if that didn’t work. My feeder rod setup was a 35-gram Drennan blackcap blockend feeder with a 3-foot-long tail. Chub was to be my target species with roach as a backup.
I had brought 4 pints of bronze maggles with me so I had plenty of ammunition. Bronze maggles work best on the Warwickshire Avon for some reason. I was already to go by 10.30am but fishing times were 11.30am till 4.30pm so I went for a walk down to peg 19. The guy on this peg was local and had fished his peg several times before. He told me that roach were the target for our pegs as the chub hadn’t been showing in club matches. His peg looked very different from mine. There was a steady flow from bank to bank so it could be fished all over. Well, the grass is always greener eh?
Here we go!
Back to my peg and it’s all-in. I lobbed out the feeder close to an overhanging willow tree, which was the most likely-looking area for chub. My plan was to give this 30 minutes and if there were no signs of chub then it would be onto the float line. I was firing maggles upstream all the time I was on the feeder in preparation for a forthcoming waggler attack. Well, the feeder line produced 1 very small roach and 1 very small perch, so enough of that. I picked up my waggler rod, baited up with a single bronze maggle and cast right over. The wind was picking up a bit now so this was quite a challenge.
I gave the waggler about 40 minutes, during which time I had caught 5 small roach. It was now raining and the wind was getting stronger, blowing right into my face. Bait presentation on the waggler was becoming increasingly difficult with the wind, so up the bank it went and now onto the stick float rod with a 9BB ‘Topper’ Croquill Avon. I was able to get quite a long way across the river with this and hold back against the flow, which was working a treat. After about 15 minutes I had 2 roach and my first pike attack and lost a quality roach to a fair size snapper.
With 2 hours gone, I only had around 2lbs in the net but the Crowquill was proving the best method as I had so much more control. Another pike latched onto my roach and I netted it. It was about 3lbs and rather than put it straight back, I decided to put it in another keepnet. At least that would be one predator taken out of action for a while. I started to put in less feed as I thought this was attracting lots of small fish and subsequently the pike. However, it had a negative effect as I wouldn’t get a bite unless it put out a pouchful of bait every cast.
Well, the last 2 hours were a battle of wills between me and the pike. I lost several more fish to pike and I landed 2 more crocs around the 3-4lb mark, which went into the spare net out of harm’s way. All in all, I must have had 7 or 8 pike attacks, which is really frustrating. I have had days like this on the Crane at Keynsham where the pike have totally destroyed the swim but they are obviously there because the roach are there. In the last 20 minutes, I decided to give up on that line and try the inside with worm for perch. I chopped up some worm and chucked it in, I put a half worm on the hook and lowered it into the swim. I had a 12oz perch right away.
On the next drop-in, I had another smaller one about 6oz and then I had… another pike. This one was about 2 lbs and I lost it at the net, not that it mattered. Well, that was it, match over. I packed away my gear, which was all soaking wet by now and so was I. A couple of guys came down and asked if I knew who had the scales. I didn’t, but it seemed to be taking a long time so I walked up to peg 19. The guy on this peg reckoned he had about 8 lbs including 2 really big perch of about 2lbs each. As I was there, the guys who were on pegs 17 and 18 walked up asking about the scales. Anyway, peg 18 reckoned he had 7lbs and peg 17 said he had about 5lbs. I think I had about 5lbs so it wasn’t looking good for me and the section.
I walked back to my peg and there was still no sign of the scales. A few minutes later, the guy from peg 17 came by with all his gear. He had put his fish back because peg 16 was admitting to 7lbs and so he was well beaten. Besides, he had to drive back to Cardiff and was fed up waiting in the rain for the scales. Well, I had to get back to Bristol and I was fed up waiting too. With better weights than mine in the section, I too decided to throw them back and go home. It’s just as well because the result sheet proved my 5lbs wouldn’t have come anywhere and 7-10-0 won the zone. I must admit I was glad to get home as my clothes were still pretty wet. That’s another major event over for me this season, which only leaves the Poppy match in November.
Until then it will be club matches and opens every week. My next match is the Kingswood Legion V Alcove AC match at Whitehouse Farm. I went and had little practice on silvers fishing yesterday and had about 44lb from Georges Lake, so look out Alcove, here I come! I’ll keep you posted.
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About me
January 2023
February 2023
March 2023
April 2023
May 2023
June 2023
July 2023
9th – River Avon, Staverton Meadows
16th – Windmill Fishery, Westerleigh
23rd – Whitehouse Farm, Earthcott Green
30th – Warks Avon, Stratford-on-Avon
August 2023
September 2023
October 2023
November 2023
December 2023
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June 2022
July 2022
August 2022
September 2022
October 2022
November 2022
December 2022
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