April 14^th – Kennet & Avon Canal – Billy The Bridesmaid

Here’s another 2-match report, starting with the Thursday Costcutter 500 at Windmill, where I managed to collect a few more pennies for my efforts. The Kennett & Avon canal played host to my second match of the week, with Barton Farm, Bradford-on-Avon being the chosen section. More precisely, “Stinky Bridge”, is so-called due to its location to the sewage works. Read on to find out how the 2 events unfolded…

April 11^th – Windmill Costcutter 500 Qualifier

We had 19 turn out for this one and once again I didn’t really care too much about where I would draw. What I was determined to do though was NOT make the same mistake as last Thursday by putting together a misguided, preconceived plan and then stubbornly sticking with it at all costs. Today was ‘open mind day’, whatever that means lol. One thing of note today was the weather. It was dry and quite warm so at least we wouldn’t have to endure more added pain, should the fishing not work out. So, into the draw bag I go and after a little bit of fiddling about, the lake gods kindly gave me peg 10. I was happy with that but this peg, as it good as it can be, has not really sprung into life yet.

So, last Thursday I drew peg 9 and carp were rolling out in front but not today. However, as I had 6 or 7 last time on the maggle feeder that would be my first method of choice today. The left-hand edge would be the obvious main target area of the day but I wasn’t prepared to spend a whole lot of time there if it wasn’t going to show any signs of life. Last week the angler on this peg didn’t have a single fish down the edge so that says it all. My only other line was at 9 metres out in front. This would be my silvers line come carp line. By that I mean I would start by feeding groundbait and micros with maggle or pellet on the hook. I would expect to start catching silvers but then as the day goes on I fully expected the carp to move in and dominate.

This theory proved to be 100% correct as I’ll explain in just a moment. So, on the all-in, I cupped out a large ball of 50/50 sweetmeal and fishmeal groundbait to the 9-metre line. This particular groundbait is unbranded and I’m currently testing a theory… more about that as time progresses. Next, I lobbed out a small 25-gram maggle feeder just short of the island. My 0.17mm hooklength was set at 15 inches and I had a size 16 LWG Guru hook presented with 2 red maggles. Well, I plugged away at this for an hour but to no avail. No liners… nothing. What a difference a week makes! So, I decided to put the rod down and pick up the pole. The depth at 9 metres was about seven and a half feet and there was a gentle tow from right to left. For the next hour, I fed groundbait, micros and dead reds through a cadpot only and at every put-in.

As usual, I started catching a few small roach before I latched onto a decent skimmer of almost 2lbs. I tried dead and live maggles on the hook and also soft and hard pellets but live maggles was definitely the preferred offering today. Over the course of an hour, I had about 4lb of fish in the net before everything went a bit quiet. I took this to mean the carp had moved in but although I kept rotating baits I didn’t hook into any carp at this point. While it was quiet, I had a look down the left-hand margin. First, I tried up in the water on pellets and then on the deck. A slapped 6mm brought my first carp, which was only about 5lbs. I couldn’t temp another one though until I dropped a pellet right into the reeds. That was a big mistake as not only did I lose the carp but I also lost my rig. Well, after probing the edge from 10 metres to 16 metres, both up and down. It just wasn’t happening.

So, I decided to give up on that and focus on the 9-metre line. However, I did chuck out the maggle feeder, for another quick look and hooked a carp only to promptly lose it as it shot around the edge of the island to freedom. We were now halfway through the match and my most productive line was the 9-metre line, bringing me a steady mix of silvers including another 2 big skimmers. Then as expected… the carp moved in. The first one broke me and so I changed up to a stronger rig with a number 12 elastic, 0.19 mainline, 0.15 hooklength and a size 16 hook. I alternated baits from single maggle to an 8mm banded hard pellet. I think I had 6 carp for 32lb and then another skimmer on the final whistle. I ended up with 8lb 5oz of silvers according to the results (I’m sure it was 9-5-0 though on the scales). Anyway, I wasn’t complaining. That got me second in the Silvers pool and a few more beer tokens. Happy days!

April 14^th – Kennet & Avon Canal, Bradford-on-Avon

This was a Kingswood RBL AC club match. I did expect to see about 12 or more on this one but for some reason it clashed with an Alcove AC match, costing us 2 anglers, and then we had a few cancellations due to health, holidays and other issues. So, we ended up with only 8 in attendance. We had already opted to fish the ‘Stinky Bridge’ section as you can drive to within a few metres of the canal. From there it was just a short and comfortable walk along the flat of the hard surface towpath. This particular stretch has thrown up many 20lb nets of skimmers over the years so I was feeling quite confident of catching a few today. I drew peg 3, which was a relatively short walk but the peg didn’t have much far bankside cover compared to the other pegs from 4 onwards. Nevermind, the weather was nice and warm and the forecast was for it to be dry all day. What more could you hope for… oh yeah! Some fish…

I really like canal fishing but… boats, paddle boarders, canoes, walkers and cyclists can make a session very challenging. Unfortunately, these are irritating things we just have to put up with… as long as the fish feed is all that matters. My peg was 13 metres wide to the far bank brambles. I plumbed up to find the shelf, which was a comfortable 12 metres across and 18 inches deep. The deepest part of the track was almost 5 feet at about 9 metres across, which extended for about a metre toward me before it began to shallow up. This was to be my main focus area for both roach and skimmers. I also set up a shallow rig for when the boats churn up the silt. When this happens, the fish come up in the water for a while and you can usually pick off a couple before the water settles down again. Hook sizes for all rigs today was a size 20 tied to 0.08mm Reeflo Power line with elastics sizes 4 and 6.

My baits today included red maggles, pinkles, worms and punched bread. Groundbait was a 50/50 mix of sweetmeal and fishmeal, mixed with liquidised bread at a 50/50 ratio. I’m experimenting with groundbaits and so far it’s been very interesting. More on that in a later blog. I mixed the groundbait up so that it was quite sloppy and would form a big cloud as it fell through the water… hopefully attracting plenty of fish into the swim. On the all-in, I cupped out a small ball of groundbait and liquidised bread together with a few live maggles to the 9-metre line. I had a small roach first put-in! This was followed by several more, all falling to 3mm discs of punched bread. At one point it was a fish at every put-in until a boat went through and slowed everything down. I changed the hookbait to a single red maggle and had the first of my six 12-16oz skimmers but they wouldn’t settle.

After a while, this line died so I tried going out further and managed to stay in touch with the fish, catching roach, skimmers and a couple of perch. However, 7 boats later and then into the final hour I struggled for bites of any kind. I couldn’t get bites on anything, not even a pinkle. So that was it for me. I had a very enjoyable 3 – 4 hours but I know that to get a good weight here you need to get the skimmers lining up and that didn’t happen for me today. Still, 9lb 3oz is a respectable weight to finish up with and I was happy with that, taking the bridesmaid position (whatever that is) on the day. The top man on this occasion was Kev Murch on peg 1, who caught quality skimmers from all over the place, affording to lose a few here and there. Kev put 16lb 6oz on the scales for a comfortable victory. Well done to him! Alan Maggs was third from the other end peg with 6lb 9oz.    

Well, it was certainly nice to fish on the canal for a change and I’m looking forward to getting back there on May 19^th for another pre-season club match. I’ll be back at Windmill next Thursday and Sunday, as I’m still chasing a place in the Bonanza Qualifier. Keep you posted!

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