Welcome to my fishing blog… July 2026
Sunday 19th July – Wasted At Windmill, Soul-Destroyed At Staverton & Slimed At Slimbridge
Welcome to my latest 3-match roundup, which includes my regular Thursday match at Windmill Fisheries, a K&H RBL club match on the Bristol Avon at Staverton and an Alcove AC Versus Silver Bream AC Inter-club match on the Gloucester canal at Slimbridge.
So, first off was my Costcutter 500 match at Windmill Fisheries on Thursday 9th July. With 17 fishing, it was another good turnout despite the hot weather. Having now qualified for the final in September, I was quite looking forward to fishing for silvers for a change and so with that in mind, I was hoping to draw a peg at the top end of the lake. Either peg 20, 22, 23 or 25 would have suited me just right but oh no… I had to go and draw peg 11 down the bottom end of the lake. It’s not a silvers peg plus there are tons of carp down the right-hand edge. If you want to target them then you have to be prepared to lose a bit of kit. I wasn’t going there today.
It was over 30 degrees today and I was so glad I brought a brolly with me for some much-needed shade, as I was fully exposed to the sun all day long. Anyway, my plan was to just have a day’s fishing with no pressure and hopefully catch a few silvers short. I set up a light rig for fishing at 5 metres up and down with maggles. I had prepared some tiny 3mm cubes of meat too as I have had some chunky perch and skimmers on meat in the past. My only other setup was a maggle feeder for fishing out toward the island. The big skimbos tend to hang around the edge of the island on this peg. And that was it. Keep It Simple Stupid… (KISS)
Basically, I would just be pleasure fishing today. So, here I was just pleasuring myself… LOL… catching a few perch on meat and maggles, when suddenly, the carp moved in. After 3 breaks in as many put-ins, I stopped feeding my short line and lobbed out the maggle feeder. Carp were everywhere and it was a job trying to avoid them. I had several foul-hookers on the feeder and so went back on my short line. Well, long story short… After losing endless carp and reluctantly landing 5 of them yet only catching a couple of pounds of silvers… I was bored out of my tiny mind.
I was so glad to hear the all-out shout and then get home to sink a few cold beers. So next time, if I don’t draw on a silvers peg then it will have to be a carp day, whether I like it or not. Oh yeah! Top silvers today was Kev Bush with 22-9-0 from peg 20. That’s a great silvers weight and well done to Kev.
Sunday 12th – Club Match, Staverton
This was a Kingswood RBL club match and the first match of the pairs series. So, today was all about points for the leaderboard and weights for the pairs. Our club members like Staverton, but only because you can park directly behind your peg. The fishing has always been very challenging and today was no different. It didn’t help that the river had virtually no flow, was quite clear and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky either. And it was hot… hot… hot! Well, despite all that, every peg looks like it could hold a shoal of chub and some pegs do, but the chub that live there are very wary creatures and catching one is all but impossible.
So, you have a few choices when fishing this venue. You either work hard and bash out as many small bleak as you can over the course of 5 hours or you sit it out for a big one… or you do something different. I deliberately didn’t bring any maggles with me today, so bleak bashing was not going to be an option. I brought hemp and tares, worms, bread and sweetcorn. I thought tares would sort out a few better roach and might even tempt a chub or two. Otherwise, it would be a straight lead with worm, corn or bread.
I drew permanent peg 36 and set up 2 pole lines. One at 9 metres for hemp and tares in 11 feet of water, and one at 3 metres for perch, just off the edge of some lilies, which were growing about a metre out from the bank. I also set up a feeder rod with a half-ounce bomb for fishing right over. On the all-in, I cupped out some hemp and few tares at 9 metres and then lobbed out the bomb with a large piece of bread on the hook. I had my first chublet after about 15 minutes but nothing else on bread and so I changed to worm. That brought a small perch. So, it was time to get hemping and taring.
I had a small pole pot fitted with a sprinkler lid and I filled it up with hemp and tares, so I could plop a few in along my line. I started getting indications right away but the bites were very “iffy” and difficult to hit. After adjusting the shotting pattern several times, I began to catch a few roach but the bites were very few and far between. I decided to chuck out the bomb again with sweetcorn to a tight area right across, but that produced zilch, nada, nothing. So, it was back on the hemp and tares where I had a few more small roach before the bites tailed off completely.
The final part of my cunning plan was to target the perch just off the edge of the lilies and so I chopped up some worms and cupped them in. Then in went a half dendra on the hook. I missed the first 2 bites but connected with the third one and a very valuable 4 ounce perch was duly netted. I had two more before the all-out. It had been a really tough day once again and I wasn’t sure whether I even had 2 pounds in the net. Come the weigh-in, I chalked up 2-02-0, finishing 4th on the day, just one ounce behind Leigh Wakefield and so just out of the money. Match Ace, Jason Pitman did the business once again, finishing top of the class with 3-10-0… and another quid up the Swanee for me!
Sunday 19th – Gloucester Canal – Slimbridge
This interclub match with Silver Bream AC was hastily rearranged due to low water levels at their Gall Lake, Tortworth. Purton was the first choice venue on the canal but due to essential maintenance works, the car park at Purton was closed. So, Slimbridge it was then. I last fished this section over 30 years ago and I blanked. That’s something you don’t forget in a hurry and so I wasn’t jumping for joy when I heard of the venue change. However, Alcove needed all the help they could get as only 6, myself included, were representing the club. Silver Bream had 9 and it looked like we were going to get a good hiding but then we did have our Talisman… Jason Pitman.
The car park at Slimbridge is about 100 yards from the canal and then there’s a bit of a walk depending on where you are drawn. I drew peg 5, which was another 100 yards along the towpath, so a nice little workout to get the blood running around my brain cells… for what good that would do…LOL! This is quite a busy section of canal with boats moored opposite, boats going up and down, a boat hire company nearby and a lot of walkers and cyclists about. At least it wasn’t as bad as the K&A canal at Tythe Barn. At this time of year, it’s total mayhem there.
So, I’m looking at a 40-metre wide stretch, which is 14 feet deep, quite clear and with just a little tow from left to right. The groundbait feeder was my first choice method for getting out at about 30 metres. I also set up a 9-metre pole line and a 5-metre pole line. My groundbait selection today was a 50-50 mix of Sonubaits Worm Fishmeal and Mainline Black Supreme. I made the mistake of fishing a light-coloured groundbait a few months back at Purton, which I think spooked the fish a little, so it was all dark stuff today. Worm would be my main hookbait on the feeder line with dead reds as backup.
For my 9-metre line, my rig consisted of a 2.5-gram full bodied float with an olivette about 3 feet from the hook and 3 no. 8 droppers. Maggles and pinkles were the choice bait for this line. The rig for my 5-metre line was for fishing hemp and tares in 8 feet of water. I also had bread and sweetcorn with me in case I needed a change bait on any of my lines. So, I’m all set to go and then I realised I could have done with my brolly again today. Man it was HOT!
On the all-in, I chucked out 7 large feeders full of groundbait, packed with chopped worm, dead reds and live pinkles. While I waited for that to settle, I started with hemp and tares short, but after 30 minutes I gave up on that due to no indications whatsoever. So, next I went onto the 9-metre line with double live maggles and missed a couple of very fast bites before netting a perch of around 3 ounces. But, it was all too slow. I had RBL clubmate, Alan Maggs, to my right on peg 6 and he had managed to find a small skimbo on the feeder so that was my wake up call.
Out went my 5-section cage feeder packed with goodies and a 3-ounce perch came back soon after. About 20 minutes later, I had a small skimbo of around 6 ounces but it was like watching paint dry. However, as far as I could see, everyone was struggling a bit and so I just have to keep calm and carry on. I had another look on the 9-metre line but nothing doing there so with half the match gone already, I decided to focus entirely on the feeder line come what may.
I kept bashing away with worm cocktails and finally, I hooked into something that put up a bit of a scrap. It turned out to be an eel of about a pound. I hadn’t caught an eel in over 20 years so I had forgotten what it was like to have one on my line. I used to catch them regularly on the Bristol Avon but there are very few of them about now. I hate catching eels anyway, but when there’s nothing else in your parlour you have to take what you can get. About 10 minutes later, I had another.
I then had 3 more in the space of 40 minutes and I was sure that each one weighed a pound at least. They really gave a good account of themselves and scrapped all the way to net. I missed quite a few bites, as you do with eels, but was quite happy to have landed 5 of the slippery, slimey buggers, especially with not very much being caught on our section of the canal. Well, as much as I tried, I couldn’t get any more and then the all-out shout went out! I thought I had about 5lbs but the scales said 3-12-0, which was a bit disappointing. At least one of the wrigglers looked nearer two pounds!
Well, that was it. News soon came down the line that Jason on peg 15 had over 11lbs including a tench. One of our other Alcove lads, Kev Murch, who was on peg 1, had also caught a few. It seems the end pegs fished better and all those in the middle struggled. So, a trudge back to the car park for the results and it was confirmed that “Golden Boy”, Jason had won convincingly with a total of 11-10-0. Kev Murch was second with 6-15-0 and Alcove’s Pete Watkins had 4-09-0 from peg 14 for third place. Fortunately, my bag of eels was good enough for joint 4th place and so my palm was surprisingly crossed with some welcome coin after all.
It was a great result for the Alcove lads, with 4 of us picking up rewards for our efforts. Jason also took yet another quid from me, but at least he bought me a pint in the Tudor Arms… Luverrly Jubbely! My thoughts on the day… Well, you wait 20 years for an eel and then 5 come along at once! So, it’s back to Windmill again for me on Thursday 23rd, for another day of messing about and then Whitehouse Farm next Sunday (26th), for the Ian Chapple Memorial open match, which is usually held across both lakes. Keep you posted!
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