Sunday 12th January - Commercial House League Final Round Kennet and Avon Canal Bathampton to Claverton

This was the final round of 6 for the Commercial House League which has used the following venues, 3 on the Lower Bristol Avon, 1 on the Upper Bristol Avon and 2 on the Kennet and Avon Canal between Bath and Claverton. 13 Teams of 6 were in the competition this year, 78 anglers per match which just goes to prove there is still (thank goodness) an appitite for fishing natural venues. This was the first time I had fished this league and with a newly formed Team (Maver Cadbury Angling. To say I enjoyed it is an understatement.
The effort that is put into organising this league was second to none and the hospitality offered from the Stoddard and Pitt Rugby Club where nearly all the draws and results took place was fantastic. I also met up with some old friends and made a few new ones. The League is made up of 2 Divisions A and B, the 2 Teams that finish in the top 2 in Div B get promoted to Div A, so I guess the bottom 2 in Div A get put into Div B, lol had to write that train of thought down (my excuse is I come from Ireland). Here is the League positions before the last match.

As you can see we were lying in 1st place but with only half a point to spare from the next 2 teams and not much from the team in 4th place, talk about tight.
We did win the previous weeks B Div league on the canal and were pretty upbeat even though it was much colder and there had been a hard frost unlike last week. When the draw was made Chris our team captain came back with peg 13, oh dear. I am still trying to work out how individuals are placed, the team captain does not do this as there is some form of rolling section allocation so we were all in different sections as opposed to last week, even then the pegging was changed with Darling Warf left out and the pegs over the aquaduct at Claverton put in which are very good. I was place in E Section commonly reffered to as 'diggers'. A quick exit from the draw was in order so as to get parked ok.

Chris and I had to park in the same area, diggers yard so I followed him. When we got there you couldn't swing a cat in the car park, it looks like some sort of boat maintenance yard with supplies also provided for the huge boating community that now live on the canal. We both decided to exit the yard and park in the layby 300 yds back towards bath as did a few others, it is dangerous as its on a fast road, taking up most of the carriageway with angling trolleys is not the safest thing to do but we made it back down the road and onto the canal.
I got to my peg after a very long walk, thank goodness its all on the flat. First impression was 'this looks good', here it is.

E13

Directly behind me someone had erected a kiddies swing from the branch of a tree so you can guess how many families stopped when walking along the towpath on a crisp winters day!

When I plumbed up I had about 2 feet over on the far side but the bottom felt like concrete so no real natural shelf, in the middle I had about 4 feet. I fed a couple of different lines on the shelf and the middle, chop and caster far side, chop and dead pinkie in the middle at 10 o'clock, bread at 12 o'clock and groundbait and dead pinkie at 3 o'clock. The canal was very clear and I was sure I could see the bread on the bottom. After 15 mins no bites and the guys on either sid of me said at the same time this was going to be rock hard. Over the course of the 5 hours I had 10 ruff and 2 very small perch. Nothing on bread and next to nothing in the middle. On peg 1 in F section he weighed in 27 fish for 13oz, I weighed in 12 for 5oz and the angler to my right weighed in less than a pound. I think you would describe that as a rock hard day. I was not last in the section as one of the teams lying 2nd to us DNW!.

I met Chris back at the car and he had won his section with 2lb 9oz. When we got back to the Rugby Club the rest of the guys gave us their results, Lewis had weighed in 6lb odd of skimmers from F Section for 2nd in section, we also had 2 x 2nds and a 4th. It looked promising but it was so tight prior to going into the match any one of 4 teams could win our Div.

The results were anounced and we won the day in our Div again, then the overall position for our Div were given, 6th place Cardiff Nomads, 5th Chippenham Angling, 4th Thornbury Angling, 3rd Frys, 2nd DWB and 1st Maver Cadbury Angling. What a result and sees us fishing against the big guns next year.

Here is our team result for the series.

I missed a match and had a bit of a bummer on this one but believe me those 5oz made all the difference in a tight finish.

On the day 14lb odd of skimmers came from F Section as expected, there were quite a few blanks as well.

Thatchers A won the A Div and fellow blogger Tim Ford (who has had a great river season) won the individual league so well done to him.

See Tims view of the match and league at http://cluckerspeg.blogspot.co.uk/

Next match is a Clevedon Club Match on Apex Lake Highbridge this Sunday.