Welcome to my fishing blog… June 2026
Sunday 28th June – A Disappointing First River Match Of The New Season & Then It’s ‘Carp On’ Again At Whitehouse Farm
I have 2 match reports this time, the first being the Kingswood RBL Club Match on the river Avon at Keynsham on Sunday 21st June. I always look forward to this first of the season river match but over recent years, it has proved to be one of my least successful. It might have something to do with always drawing halfway up the first field on a small fish peg, which just happens to be the favourite haunt of some really big hungry pike. Or, maybe I just haven’t got my river fishing head on yet, after spending 3 solid months fishing still waters, mainly for carp. Well, whatever it is, it generally improves as the season moves on.
So, we had 12 fishing today, which could easily have been 16, if everyone was able to make it. The Legionnaires, especially Jason, Clive, Alan and Ian B, had spent some time during the previous week carrying out vital swim clearing works and so I want to personally thank them here for their sterling efforts. Okay, so where did I want to be today? The top end of the second field and where did I end up? Peg 6, halfway up the first field. C’est la vie! Well, the pole was out of the question due to the high bank behind me and so it was going to mainly be a day on the whip, with some Crowquill Avon float work and a fine helping of groundbait feedering, just in case there was a bream lurking somewhere deep down in the depths.
It turned out to be quite a warm sunny day and although I set my stall out for bream early, the bright sun said no way hosé! And so, I spent a fruitless hour on the feeder, with not a single bite. So, it was onto the whip, where the resident bleak were more than happy to snaffle my single maggle offering. If you just keep feeding then they will come…they said… and they did. Hundreds of the little blighters and they were small. I mean like half ounce small. So, I changed to caster and upped my game. Now I began catching chublets and a few dace around the 1-2 ounce mark. Well, at least I was keeping busy but then after a while, I got bored.
I put the whip down and picked up the float rod, which was geared up with an 8 BB Topper float and began slinging it down the middle in 11 feet of water. I was loose feeding caster at every cast… as you do… but after an hour, all I had on that was a couple of chublets. Float fishing seemed pointless when I could catch the same stamp on the whip so, it was back to the wicked whip. However, time was now fast running out and I knew that Jason on peg 4 (The famous Boy’s Hole) peg, had caught skimbos and so I had to have another go for bream but once again, nothing showed up. So, I spent the last hour on the whip, where the fish were coming much, much slower now and then I found out why…
I had just hooked into a feisty 1-pound chub, which was the biggest fish I had seen all day, and as I was carefully playing it, a pike appeared from nowhere, swirled on the surface, and promptly took it off the hook. Robbing b*st*rd! I really needed that fish, which would have helped me claim a few more precious aggregate points. Well, that was it. I had no more bites in the last 15 minutes and I was very well aware that I had not done well today… but I still enjoyed the day on the river all the same. I ended up with just 3-05-0 for second last in my section. Not a good start and now I’ll have it all to do on the next match at Staverton, which is another notoriously difficult venue.
Anyway, well done to Ian Swanborough who won the day with a total of 12-10-0, which included a 5-12-0 bream, caught in the last 15 minutes. Second place was shared between Don Searle and Jason Pitman, who both conjured up a nice 10lb bag each. It was a pleasure to see Brian Lloyd, our club secretary walking the bank after a long absence and a warm welcome back goes to Mark James, the “Crafty Cockney” who travelled over from the Forest of Dean to join us for the day.
Sunday 28th June – Summer Match – Margaret’s Lake
This match came round just at the end of a heatwave with temperatures in the mid thirties for 3-4 days. So, it was very nice to get out and fish with rain in the air, a gale blowing in your face and temperatures back to a more manageable 21 degrees. Yep, it was quite a contrast to a 35 degrees we had experienced a few day’s earlier but very welcome, otherwise this match would have been cancelled for sure. Match attendance is still on the low side at Whitehouse, with just 11 turning up for this one, so no section payouts today. With the sudden change in weather, it would be anyone’s guess where the fish were going to be but as a general rule, fish follow the wind and so a peg with the wind in your face was probably going to be the best bet.
That meant pegs 12, 13, 14 and 15 would be the favourite pegs today. I drew peg 14, which I was more than happy with. So, I’m at the deepest end of the lake and I don’t need to fish out too far, which is just as well because the wind was a real pain in the ass. At 11 metres, I had over 8 feet of depth but just plumbing up was difficult in the wind and so I settled for 8 metres with a depth of 7.5 feet. This would be my skimmer line. For this swim, I set up a .4 (4×14) Chianti style float to 0.15 Guru N-Guage line and a size 16 hook to 0.12 Guru N-Guage. Corn over Scopex groundbait would be my first offering followed by paste. My only other pole line was to my left-hand side and as tight to an overhanging bush as possible.
I decided to have 2 lines against this bush. The first one was about a metre from the bank in 18 inches of water and the second one was about 5 metres from the bank in 4.5 feet of water. The right hand margin wasn’t worth the effort due to a dead tree stump that juts out making it difficult to get close the edge. The only other rig I set up was a maggle feeder for the island but I didn’t expect to use that much during the day due to the wind. I had Jason for company on peg 15 and Jon Amato was on peg 13. I had to keep an eye and an ear open to what these guys would be doing as they were both on good draws and they are both no slouches when it comes to catching fish on any peg.
So, on the all-in, I cupped out 3 big balls of Scopex groundbait to my 8-metre line, together with a handful of corn. I intended to leave this for an hour before taking a look. In the meantime, I focused on my 5-metre line to my left-hand side with corn then meat then paste and then maggles. All I got for my efforts was one tiny perch who snaffled a 6mm piece of meat. There were no fish topping or moving around and I began to wonder what was actually going on. I know that after a spell of hot weather, the oxygen levels tend to plummet and I thought this might be the case today. However, the wind was very active on the surface layer and so it would only be a matter of time before the oxygen level would start making its way up the scale.
Hope this is not too technical for you… LOL! I do tend to ‘study’ weather patterns and the affect it has on fish in still waters, so I know how best to approach each match. Very often I get it all wrong… LOL! But today, I think I might have got it right. Anyway, with more than an hour gone and just a tiny perch in the net, I noticed my 8-metre line was now fizzing like a jacuzzi. So, in went my rig with corn on the hook. After about 10 minutes and with no true bites, I changed to paste. This got me a few indications but nothing to get too excited about. I mean, the float rocked a little and dipped slightly but I didn’t get any positive bites and yet the swim was still fizzing. Hmmm…
I knew there were skimmers there for sure so I put on a hard 4mm pellet and lowered it in. Bang! Straight away the float shot under and soon a 2lb skimmer was gliding quietly toward my waiting landing net. It was about 10 minutes before the next one arrived. That one was a little smaller but then fizzing stopped and so did the bites. So, it was time to top up again and then take a look on my shallow line to my left. I dropped in about 10 pieces of meat and waited but after 20 minutes there were no signs of fish there. So, back out on the 8-metre lines with a pellet on the hook and another skimmer arrived. This one was about a pound. I hadn’t seem much else being caught around the lake and so I thought everyone was still trying to figure out what was going on.
Funny how my swim was still fizzing for another 20 minutes and yet I couldn’t get a bite. That was until I put a tiny piece of meat on the hook. It must have been about 3mm in size, but it soon told me what was causing all the fuss. There were skimmers in the swim alright but all that fizzing was being caused by little 3-4 ounce skimbos. I didn’t really want to spend the rest of the day catching these little blades as by now, I knew a couple of carp had been caught and so I needed to get my head down. I was pretty certain that the only area I was going to catch carp from was the shallow edge line to my left and so in went more loose meat offerings. With my trusty margin pole, I pushed my rig right under the over-hanging branches of the dense bush. I could see what looked like the entrance to a tunnel, which had probably been made unintentionally by the ducks, and so that’s where I rested my rig.
Five minutes later I’m in. It was a small carp of around 4lbs, so at least I was off the mark. Then about 10 minutes later I had another one, which was about 7lbs… so things were looking up. It took around 20 minutes to find the next one, which was slightly bigger again, at around 8lbs, but time was chugging on and I needed more carp to be certain of a chance at picking up some lolly. So, in went more loose feed and this time I pushed my rig deeper into the ‘tunnel’. Well, they were there alright. I lost the next 3 fish in a row. That prompted me to stop feeding altogether. If they wanted more meat they would have to come out and get it.
That strategy worked as I hooked and landed another one at around 8lbs but lost the next one. At this point I reckoned I had about 26lbs of carp and 5lbs of silvers… but was that going to be enough? With 20 minutes left on the clock I wanted just one more and so I reluctantly dipped into the ‘tunnel’ and soon latched onto the best fish of the day. This one was about 12lbs and I was still playing it when the “all-out” shout went out! I still wasn’t sure whether I had done enough but I was confident that I might possibly frame with over 40lbs. I hadn’t seen many carp caught but I knew that Jason on peg 15 had a couple and so did Jon on peg 14.
Well, the scales revealed my total weight was 43-06-0 and Jon was second with 25-04-0. Jason had 2 carp and some skimbos for 18-11-0 taking third place. It was a funny old day, with the carp coming on the feed late and the skimbos early. Virtually no roach showed up and just a handful of perch. Jon did have a goldfish but I don’t think anyone had any F1s or chub. So another welcome win for me but the celebrations will be short-lived as I’m off to Windmill Fisheries again on Thursday. The names on the list look like a “who’s Who” of the South West Match Angling circuit and so I’m in for a damn good caning for sure. Then next Sunday, I’m off to Harescombe Fisheries near Stroud for an open match on the Doughnut Lake. Keep you posted!
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-
Hey guys! I really appreciate you all reading my weekly blog and thanks for all the positive comments. It’s nice to know you enjoy reading about my rants, my ups and downs and my general take on events. Please keep those likes coming and don’t be shy in sharing, as all this stuff helps to keep my blog on top of the Google rankings. Cheers!
NOTE: If reading this blog on a PC, you can enlarge the images by right-clicking on them and selecting “Open link in new window” – Or you might be able to just click on the image if you’re using Windows 11.
If you enjoyed reading this blog, then be sure to join the Fish Wag Facebook group HERE for blog updates. Also, please Like and Share… It’s very much appreciated! Check out the links to my older blog posts below…
