Sunday 9^th November – RBL Poppy Appeal Open Match – Bristol Avon – Chequers To Newbridge Section

Tickets for this annual charity match were sold out many weeks before the event, which just goes to prove how popular this particular match is. 100 tickets were sold and anglers came from afar afield as Birmingham in the Midlands and Monmouth in South Wales. The money raised from ticket sales goes toward the Poppy Fund but the organisers, Ray Bazeley, Paul Benson and others are always able to swell the coffers by holding a raffle with prizes donated by local tackle shops and a few small local businesses. The event is sponsored mainly by the local building company, Project, and Estate Agents, DW Smith. This year, the event has raised well in excess of £3,500 for a much-deserved cause. As chairman of the K&H RBL AC, I would like to thank anyone and everyone who was involved in any way.

The draw took place in the Pavilion building, which is situated in the grounds of the old Chocolate factory at Keynsham. I noticed many familiar faces there, all looking a little older, and yet still up for the challenge. In some cases, just getting to your peg is the biggest challenge of the day. Our Club secretary, Brian Lloyd, stepped up to deliver the citation, which was followed by the mandatory 2 minutes’ silence. Then it was time for the draw. I was a long way back in the queue and there couldn’t have been more than a dozen peg numbers left when I finally got to draw my peg. It ended up with peg 91 and I was on the scales, but at least I didn’t have too far to walk. My peg was on the “High Wall”, which is near the end of the first field at Keynsham, so I was going to be a little high off the water. I had a 4.5 metre keepnet with me, so no problem there but there was a loose tree trunk right below me, which had been tethered to the bank from one end.

The tree trunk made it a bit awkward to get my net in the water, as I couldn’t go over it. I had to lay my net in at an angle so that it fell between a tight space between the trunk and the bank. I couldn’t help but notice how clear the water was, but at least it had a nice steady pace on it today. Well, I was pretty sure there would be no bream caught from this section and I can’t ever remember any bream coming from this particular peg anyway. So, I set up a Crowquill Avon float rig, set at 10 feet deep for running down the middle and a feeder rod for fishing a maggle feeder about two-thirds across. I also, half-heartedly, set up a 4.5 metre whip for a bit of close in fishing. I didn’t have any high hopes for the whip, as nothing was moving on the surface.

I can remember a few nice chub coming from this peg during a club match a few years ago and so on the all-in, I decided I would start off on bomb and bread right over. I gave that about 20 minutes with no takers and so I went back out with a maggle feeder. I tried several areas for about an hour, but didn’t get a single indication. That was a bit worrying. So, out came the whip for a good 20 minutes searching the inside line up to about a third of the way across the river at depths between 2 feet and 6 feet. I had nothing on that either and it was almost halfway through the match already. It wasn’t going well. A few anglers began walking about and it seemed as though the fishing was very patchy, with some anglers catching and others struggling for bites. This was a situation that I wasn’t totally unfamiliar with…LOL!

My next move was to fish the Crowquill down the middle. I had been firing out a few loose maggles during the course of the day and so I was hoping the middle swim was by now, well primed for a few bites. After a few trots through, I finally got a bite and swung in a small roach. It was at this point that  I realised I could have a problem if I latched onto a big fish because the tree trunk would hinder netting it. If it happened to be a big chub, then I would have no chance at all of getting it into the net. Well, undeterred, I carried on but had no more bites on maggle. A change to caster brought an immediate response from a better roach. Then, for the next hour, I caught roach and perch sporadically but still had less than 3lbs in the net.

With about 40 minutes to go, I couldn’t get a bite for love nor money and then I noticed a big swirl on the surface. At first, I thought it might have been a pike, but soon after, the tell-tale sign of bubbles signalled the end of my day’s fishing. I watched the bubbles go across the river and sure enough, a head popped up out of the water. Mr Otter was in residence once again. He dived back under the water and I watched the trail of bubbles heading toward me. The otter then surfaced right by the tree trunk just below me. He had a rest on the trunk before diving in and scouring the river bed once again, surfacing a little further down and resting on the lower end of the tree trunk. All I could do was watch and weep. It was game over for me, so I began packing up with 20 minutes to go. A few anglers had already walked past with loaded barrows and the guy on the next peg had left an hour earlier.

Well, I was on the scales and I wasn’t sure whether to walk up to the next available angler and get him to come a weigh me or just chuck back. I did chuck back once before and could have won my section by default as the section winner on that day, framed. As they pay sections of 5, I decided it was probably worth weighing as I had nothing to lose. The next angler to me was Tackle Shop Manager, Matt Challenger, who was a good 50 yards away. As we walked back to my peg, he told me he had about 10lbs, which included a big pike. Personally, I don’t think pike should count in river matches. Our club doesn’t allow them in our matches. I can remember many years ago, when I was fishing in a Winter League match on the river, I saw an angler wrap some silver paper above his hook… Hmmm, I wonder why?

So, I weighed in just under 3lbs for nowhere, beaten by Matt and his pike. The top man in the 10-peg section was river ace, Andy Greenham, with over 12lbs of roach and perch. The winner on the day was Liam Reynolds with 38-08-0 from Newbridge. Liam managed to find a few nice bream and skimbos for a convincing win. Well done to him and well done to all the framers and section winners, including lucky lads, Jason Pitman and Andy Gard… LOL! See you all again next year… hopefully!

Well, my next match is at Windmill Fisheries on Thursday 13^th, where I’ll be doing battle with some wily carp (in my dreams!)… LOL! Then it’s Whitehouse Farm on Sunday 16^th for the first round of the Alcove AC Winter League. Surely my luck will change soon? 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 tab”

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…