Sunday, November 10th (Remembrance Sunday) – RBL Poppy Match, Bristol Avon, Chequers to Newbridge

The river looked practically perfect for this annual fund-raising event and the weather was as good as it gets at this time of year. So, what could possibly go wrong? More on that in just a moment… On Thursday 7^th November, I fished a ‘catch and move’ silvers-only match on the Top Lake at Windmill Fisheries. Here’s how that one panned out…

We had 10 anglers on this match including all the usual suspects. This was the second time I have fished this lake and I was looking forward to bagging a few big skimbos. Last time I was drawn in the far right-hand side corner and got plagued by carp for most of the day, so I defo didn’t want to draw that peg again. Luckily, Dave had left that one out today so I was relieved to know I wouldn’t be there again. So, into the drawbag I delve and out pops peg number 5, which was at the far end of the lake from where we had the draw.

It was a bit of a struggle navigating the sloping track on the way round there and I nearly tipped my barrow over a couple of times. When I finally arrived I was pleasantly surprised to see I had a lot of open water out in front of me. By that I mean I had lots of room on either side and out in front with no obstacles to contend with. I was tempted to set up a waggler but resisted and instead set up 2 pole lines. I had one at 11 metres and one at 9 metres with a 4.5-metre whip, ready to search everywhere else.

My plan was to fish 2 lines with different groundbaits and hookbaits to see which line would produce the better fish… if any. On my 11-metre line, I used worm and Sonubaits Fishmeal groundbait plus a few micros, with worm or worm and caster on the hook. On my 9-metre line, I fed Dynamite F1 Swimstim with Fishmeal and a few micros. Hookbait choice for this line was maggles and pinkles. On the whip it was simply loose-fed maggles and a single maggle on the hook. On the all-in, I dumped out half a pot of groundbait to both pole lines and then picked up the whip.

It must have been 15 minutes before I had my first bite on the whip, which was a small roach. After 30 minutes I had only 3 fish on the whip and so I abandoned this method for the time being. Next, I took a look on the 11-metre line with dendra and caster. I was soon rewarded with a small skimbo of around 6 ounces. I had a couple more before it went dead. Not to worry… onto the 9-metre line with double red maggles to a size 18 hook. It took a good 10 minutes before I had a small roach and then a micro perch. Well, after an hour I had about a pound of fish in the net but Mick Gale on the next peg to my right had at least twice that with some quality skimbos.

I decided that the 9-metre line was not working and so I concentrated solely on the 11-metre line, alternating baits with worm, caster, maggle and pinkle. Surprisingly, flouro pinkle was proving to be the best bait today. I had caught some better skimbos on pinkles including my best fish of the day, which was a skimbo nudging 2lbs. However, things began to change. I had to wait a long time for a bite, which has always made me wonder whether there was a carp in the swim. There was!

As I hadn’t had a bite for a while I put a dendra on the hook and immediately hooked a carp. It shot out toward the centre of the lake leaving a tell-take wake behind. I put on a new hook and tried a maggle but nothing. So, a quick look on the 9-metre line with double maggle and then another fooking carp on! FFS! 2 carp in 2 put-ins. So, back onto the longer line with pinkles and a couple of tiny skimbos before hooking yet another carp, which bolted for the centre of the lake.

It was time to give it a rest and try the whip again. I only had 2 micro roach on that before going over the long line with a very positive approach. A big cup of groundbait followed by 2 dendras on the hook. I don’t think the bait hit the bottom before I had yet another carp on. This went to my left and muddied Andy Greenham’s swim before I managed to drag it back and get it under control. About 10-15 minutes later I slipped my landing net under a 16-pounder! Not bad on a number 5 elastic.

Well, I’ve been in this situation many times before and so my only option was to start a new swim. I came in a little closer at 7 metres and dropped in a nugget of worm groundbait. Then I went over that with half a dendra on the hook. Nothing was happening and so I lifted the rig and dropped it back in. The float shot under and FFS… I had another carp on. This one went to my right and tried to get into a reed bed. I don’t think Mick had noticed it churning up his margin but it came off anyway after a few minutes. So, what do I do now? There seemed to be carp everywhere.

Well, I went back onto my 9-metre line with a single pinkle, hoping the carp wouldn’t notice such a tiny bait. That worked for a while as I had 2 small roach before… another final carp. Game over! I ended up with just 6-6-0 for nowhere, which wasn’t surprising. Well done to Paul (Barney) Barnfield who won the day (again) but I can’t remember what weight he had and it wasn’t posted on the Windmill Facebook page. Well, I think that’s the last of the silvers matches for now, which is just as well. I’ve had enough of all that malarkey.

Bill Milton Memorial & Poppy Appeal Match

All 100 tickets were sold and most of the entrants turned up to fish this annual fund-raising extravaganza of a match. So much work goes into organising this event and so on behalf of the Kingswood Royal British Legion Angling Club, I would first like to thank all those involved including Ray Bazeley, Paul Benson, Ben Rendall, Anthony Milton, all the peggers, the contestants, Nicola Goodhind and everyone else involved in making this event a huge success.

So, I wasn’t feeling great on Sunday morning. I had my Flu and Covid jabs on the previous Friday, spent most of Saturday suffering from flu-like symptoms and was still feeling some of the effects on Sunday. So, what I didn’t want was a long walk. I knew I just wouldn’t have the energy for it and I think the river gods took pity on me… but they also wanted a laugh in return…lol. So, I met up with club mate, Jason Pitman, for the draw and we discussed peg preferences before Brian Lloyd took care of business by reciting the exhortation followed by a 2-minute silence.

Then we lined up for the draw. I drew peg 91, which was at Chequers and meant I could drive across the field to my peg… whoopee! Jason drew at Newbridge and had a very long walk. When I got to my peg I was pleasantly surprised to find I didn’t need a rope or waders and the peg was relatively flat with lots of flat space around me. Whoopee again! I had Tony ‘The Legend’ Rixon on the next peg so no whoopee for that one…lol.

Well, we all knew that bream would probably account for a place in the frame today and chub might show in numbers too, on certain pegs. I’m convinced that there are bream in every peg on the Chequers stretch so I had no choice but to set my stall out for them as a priority. Today was defo going to be a feeder day and so I had a groundbait feeder rod set up, which could also double as a maggle feeder rod if needed. The only other rod I set up was a waggler rod for fishing right over and up in the water. However, I hadn’t seen a single fish rise while I was getting ready so I wasn’t too hopeful on that method.

The river was quite clear so on the all-in I didn’t do my usual 6-feeder bombardment with my ‘Ireland’ feeder. Instead, I used a medium (5 section), 25-gram cage feeder, complete with a 30-inch hooklength and a size 18 microbarb hook. I was casting to about two-thirds the way across the river in around 10 feet of water and I gave that a full hour without a bite. Not a twitch, not a sniff, not a fish fart. Zero, nilch, nada! And I still hadn’t seen any fish topping… anywhere!

So, I reached for the waggler rod. I had been loose feeding on the same line right from the off so surely there would be a little fat, greedy, pucker-lipped chub out there scoffing everything I was throwing at him. Nope… there wasn’t and I persevered for an hour on that. Then I had a call from Jason who was over at Newbridge. He hadn’t had a bite either. FFS! What was going on? Well, back on the groundbait feeder and still nothing. So, I changed to a maggle feeder and tried a bit further across… still nothing.

Well, it was time to go for a walk and see what Tony was up to. I was stunned to learn that Tony was catching chub, right over on the maggle feeder. The difference between his swim and mine was he had far bankside cover with a series of trees and bushes. I didn’t have any and neither did Mike Shellard on the next peg down and he hadn’t had a bite either. Now, Tony could catch fish in a puddle in the middle of a multi-storey car park but today, those few trees were all that was needed to give him the edge. With such clear water, those trees provided a safe haven for a few chub and Tony knew that. Fair play.  

Well, with that I had a decision to make. Pack up and go to the pub or change tactics altogether and go big. I was on the scales so packing up early would have put Tony on the scales. Well, I’m a very caring gentleman so, I considered packing up… lol. Then I opened a tin of sweet corn and spent the last 90 minutes going for carp or barbel. There are a lot of carp in this section, which used to be controlled by a carp syndicate, and the odd barbel comes out every now and then. Well, my final efforts were in vain and at 14.35pm precisely, I threw in the towel… I had been well and truly defeated. This was only the second time in over 40 years that I have blanked in a Poppy match. Blah, blah, moan…

As I was on the scales, at least I got to see how much fun everyone has had in my section. Tony assisted and was winning his section until we got to Gerry Welsh, who pipped him by 10 ounces. In the last section of 5, there was a 32-8-0 from peg 96, which included 3 pike for 17lb. (Personally, I don’t think pike should count. We don’t count them in our RBL matches). Anyway, he framed with that net finishing 4^th,, which gave the section to Dave Target who worked hard to put together a nice net of roach, chublets and perch for a total of 17-0-0. No bream had showed up so going for bream was obviously the wrong decision for me today.

The match was won by John Fuidge who found a large shoal of big bream in residence on peg 1 (the outfall) at Swineford. He had 5 bream in his first 5 chucks and 18 within the first 90 minutes. That truly is a “red letter” day! He finished up with an incredible total of 161-4-0. In second place was Andy Richings who put together 106-8-0 from peg 59 at Newbridge, followed by Derek Cole finishing in third place with 90-6-0 from the bottom of the Trees area at Newbridge. Well done to all the framers and section winners and well done to everyone for competing and helping to make this event one very big special occasion. More than £3000 was raised for the Poppy Appeal. You are all winners!

Well, no mid-week match for me this week as I have sh*t loads of work to catch up on but I’ll be out on Sunday 17^th for the first of a series of 6 Winter League matches at Whitehouse Farm. Will it be my time to get lucky? Keep you posted!

If you enjoyed reading this blog then be sure to join the Fish Wag Facebook group HERE for blog updates. Please Like and Share… it’s appreciated! Check out my older blog posts below…