Sunday 13^th July – Kingswood RBL Club Match – River Avon, Staverton

A bit later than usual, here’s a quick catch-up on my last 2 matches…

On Thursday, 10^th July, I fished yet another Costcutter Qualifier at Windmill Fisheries. You’re probably getting as fed up reading about my misfortunes on this venue as I am in writing about them. So, I’ll cut a short story to the bone and just highlight the details. What happened was…  I drew peg 8 again. I didn’t do any good on this peg 2 weeks ago and I was under no illusions about faring any better this time around. I set out my stall the same way as last time and fished the same baits. It was paste at 6 metres and worm at 11 metres. I only had 2 small carp and 2 good skimbos on the worm after 4 hours! Yes, 4 hours! So stuff that I thought… Then I decided to fish meat down my right-hand edge and feed a little Scopex groundbait… Bingo!

Within 15 minutes, this edge was alive with fish. I began catching and losing fish at virtually every put-in. Missed loads of bites and had tons of liners, but still only ended up with 55lbs come the all-out shout. If only I could have caught fish from this edge right from the start. Well, I knew I was well and truly beat as word got round that Adrian Davies, the “Method Maestro” had about 150lb from peg 18 and peg 16, which was the winning peg the week before, produced another 100lb plus weight. So I was left clinging on to the hope of a possible top silvers place with my 2 big skimbos that went 4-15-0. Well, I even missed out on that one too, beaten by 2 ounces by Jeff Grant’s 5-1-0. Jeff also qualified with his magnificent 137lb catch.

Well, I think there are only 2 qualifiers left to go now, so it’s looking like I’m going to miss out this year. The next one is in 2 weeks’ time I think, as there is a club match on the Match Lake next Thursday. What will be will be.

Staverton – A deliciously deceiving stretch of river that hides many secrets

It was the club’s second river match of the season and the Bristol Avon at Staverton was the venue. And it was fooking HOT! With over 30 degrees C, I had to spend all 5 hours under my brolly. Anyway, this is a beautifully picturesque section of river with the only access being through a horse training/stable yard, so no dog walkers to contend with. There is no motor boat traffic either, only a handful of canoes that come by, usually well before we get underway. We did, however, have a paddle-boarder this time, the first we have ever seen on this stretch and I don’t think we’ll see him again LOL. So we had 11 club members turn out for this one, which was a Pairs Match and also counts for the individual points aggregate. I have been paired with Alan Maggs, last season’s club champion and an especially adept river angler.

So, we had the whole 80-peg stretch to ourselves, but that doesn’t really mean much as every peg looks distinctly “chubby” and looks are deceiving. However, parking behind your peg and fishing in absolute tranquil surroundings is the upside. The downside is its lack of quality fish, apart from the big chub, which are so difficult to catch. A 2-3lb net over 5 hours is pretty much par for this venue and will typically consist of bleak, tiny roach and a couple of perch. One bonus fish could make all the difference here. So, I drew peg 10, which was permanent peg 54. Anyway, it looked okay apart from a small patch of lilies right in front at about 10 metres. I had 10 feet of water in the middle and it was about 24 metres wide at its widest part with a few overhanging willows.    

My plan was to fish a whip at 4.5 metres for bleak at about 2 feet deep with maggles. Also, a 13-metre line at full depth for roach and a feeder/bomb right over beneath the trees. I was using my new Matrix MTX 3 V.2 pole today on the river for the first time. I have only used it 4 times in all since I bought it back in May. So, on the all-in, I started loose feeding maggles and with a single maggle on a size 20 hook, I began catching tiny bleak. Then I got plagued by minnows and so it was 2 minnows to every 1 bleak and I soon got fed up with that. I cupped out a small ball of River Black groundbait, laced with a few dead reds and chopped worm. Then I went over it with a live red on the hook. The bait was getting ragged before it got to the bottom, so I changed to a 1.5 gram float and bulk shotted 12 inches from the hook. I also started using a dead red on the hook, alternating with a section of worm.

This was working okay as I began catching some small roach, but they were only 1-ounce size fish, so it was quite frustrating. Then, after about an hour on this, disaster struck. The number 4 section on my brand new pole just broke in my hand as I was shipping back. [More to come on this issue later as I’m currently in touch with the supplier over my grievance – keep you posted on the outcome.] Moving on… so it was back on the whip only to be tormented by more minnows again, so I spent that last hour of the match fishing a bomb right over with corn or worm on the hook, but there were to be no bonus fish today. I ended up with a pathetic 1-2-0 for all my efforts. What a shocking performance! It’s a good job Alan has my back, as his 3-8-0 second-place net helped to boost our pairs tally. Well done to Jason Pitman, who won the match convincingly with a total of 6-8-0 from permanent peg 25. Our next river match is at Barton Farm, Bradford-on-Avon, on September 14^th, but I have several other exciting matches to get through before then.

As there isn’t a Thursday match on the Windmill Match Lake this week, I decided to go to Harescome Fishery near Stroud on Tuesday. The match was held on Donut Lake and I did… fairly okay. More on that in my next blog. This coming Sunday, I’ll be fishing a match at Ivy House Lakes, near Swindon… keep you posted.

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