Thursday 1^st January 2026 – The Hangover Match – Kennet & Avon Canal, Bradford-on-Avon

Happy New Year to you all! – Well, for me, Christmas was, as usual, disappointing, underwhelming and not worth the festive paper it’s wrapped up in. On top of that, I spent more than 2 days, including Christmas Eve, with stomach cramps culminating in projectile vomiting and some kind of soupy anal gushing disorder, which was all very unpleasant. I perked up a little on Christmas Day and managed to keep a very small dinner down before a further, less spectacular bout of the “Delhi Belly” struck again 2 days later. Thankfully, I had fully recovered in time for New Year’s Eve and was gagging to get out on the bank of the Kennet & Avon canal for the New Year’s Day Hangover Match… Here’s how my day panned out…

There were 40 anglers booked in for this one (crazy fools!) and 38 managed to show up for the event. I met up with club mate, Jason Pitman, in the Bradford-on-Avon railway car park and chatted to a few others, including Phil (Phil’s matches) and Lee Gregory. Rich Whitmarsh got the draw underway in a timely manner and so it was off to our respective sections to see what awaited us. Jason had drawn the end peg at the turning bay on the Beehive stretch and I had drawn at Tythe Barn. Both areas can produce well in normal conditions. I was hoping to be able to park in Pound Lane, but the cars were bumper to bumper all the way along. So, I had to fork out £7.50 to park in the car park, which is nothing short of fooking blatant highway robbery, courtesy of Wiltshire County Council.

On my way to my peg, I came upon Lee Gregory again. He had drawn peg 23 and I was on peg 20. I couldn’t resist a pound bet with him, but soon regretted it when one of the Airsprung AA lads came along and told me that the bream were tightly shoaled up in pegs 22, 23 and 24 and that one of those pegs was sure to produce a winning weight today. When I got to my peg, it was half frozen, although the lid was quite thin and easy to break. However, the half that wasn’t frozen was next to a pair of moored boats on my right and I reckoned it was a couple of degrees warmer there and so that’s where I intended to start.

There wasn’t any boats immediately to my left and so that’s where the ice was thickest. I decided not to break the ice at this stage, as it might disturb any resident fish to my right. I thought I’d drop in a rig next to the boat and if I didn’t catch within 20 minutes, then I’d think about gently breaking the edge of the ice with a pole cup. So, on the very first put-in, at about 4 metres out, and with a single pinkle on the hook, the float immediately sailed away and I was in. Wow! I wasn’t expecting that. It was a good skimbo and well over a pound, but it soon meandered over to my left and then went under the ice. All I could do was hold on and watch and wait as my number 4 elastic got pulled out further and further. Eventually, the fish began to come toward me and I could see it was a foul-hooked 2-pounder, which was hooked in the side. I gently coaxed it to the surface, reached down to grab my landing net and then at that moment the hook pinged out. FFS!!!

So, out I went again. With 2 pinkles on a size 20 hook to a 0.10 hooklength, I carefully lowered in the rig to exactly the same position as before. Within a minute, the float dipped and I was in again. It was another skimbo, but smaller than the first one, only this time it was properly hooked in the mouth. Well, what a great start, I thought. I cupped in a tiny ball of liquidised bread with a few pinkles and then went in again. Another skimbo quickly obliged, but this one was only about 6 ounces. After that, I had a couple of small roach but no more skimbos, so I began to carefully and quietly break the ice over to my left. I fed a line on my left at 4 metres with bread and pinkles and I also fed a line at 9 metres out in front with Bait-Tech Pro Natural Dark groundbait and a few maggles.

I began catching a few small roach from my left-hand swim on a single pinkle or single red maggle hook bait. At this stage, I thought I was doing quite well and reckoned I had close to 2.5lbs in the net by the end of the first hour. Then a boat turned up and wanted to moor in the open space where I was fishing. I had a few choice words for the boat owner who said something like, “you effing fisherman, you think you own the effing canal” – We do, don’t we? Well, that was the end of that swim and for a good hour or so, it put paid to my fishing as I couldn’t get a bite anywhere. Then a boat went through, broke up what was left of the ice and stirred up the bottom. The added colour was welcome as I felt it was just a tad too clear earlier.

Well, soon after that, I began catching again from both my 4-metre line to my right and on my 9-metre line out in front. I was catching on maggles, pinkles and punched bread, but it was all roach and they were all quite small. Word came down the canal that pegs 23 and 24 were having it off, just as predicted earlier. Also, someone up the other end of the canal had caught a couple of good skimbos. So, my early advantage was wiped out. Now, with about 90 minutes left on the clock, the boat pikies to my left started up their generator, which was deafening. They also began smoking weed, which was making me feel quite light-headed. Then, 30 minutes later, the occupants of the boat on my right lit a coal fire. The smoke from the fire was billowing out of the chimney pipe and blowing straight at me. It was choking me and blinding me and made it virtually impossible for me to see my float.

By this time, the foot traffic had increased substantially and it was all getting a bit too much… I think I had maybe 3 or 4 small roach in the last hour and at that point, I really didn’t care anymore. I was glad when the match was over. I ended up with just 3-7-0 for 13^th place, but some anglers in other sections fared much worse, not even seeing a bite all day! Jason was the last man standing in his section and was more than happy to lay claim to the loot with his 2-4-0 total. He finished in 18^th place. In first place, on peg 24, was Richard Wills, who found 29-13-0 of quality skimmers and small bream. I’m not sure who came second… Oh yeah! It was Premier Angling’s Lee Gregory, on peg 23, who wasn’t too far behind with 26-07-0 and he also picked up an extra quid from me. In third place was Rod Dunford, who weighed 23-12-0 and in 4^th place was Dave Webb with 11-00-0.

Well done to all the framers and well done to Rich and Phil for organising the match. I guess we’ll do it all again next year.

Well, that was the only fishing I managed to get in over the Christmas break. I did have a go on Sunday, 4^th, on the Feeder Canal with Jason, but after more than 2 hours without a bite in the sub-zero temperature, we came to our senses, packed up and went home. I was booked in for the Costcutter Open at Windmill on Thursday 8th, but that one has now been cancelled. I’m hoping the weather will allow us to fish the next round of the Alcove Winter League on Sunday, 11^th… keep you posted!

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