Tuesday 7 January 2014

Sunday 5th January - Commercial House League Round 5 Kennet and Avon Canal Bath to Claverton

This was the last but one match in the series and a text from Team Captain Chris Hook (great surname for an angler)early in the week confirmed I was in the Team. The final 2 matches were scheduled for the Kennet and Avon Canal from Darlington Wharf in Bath to Diggers up near Claverton. I cannot remember the last time I fished the Canal so had to do a piece of homework on Canal fishing and look at old reports from various fellow bloggers on how it was fishing.
I was asked if I wanted some bloodworm and joker but as I never fished it before gave it a miss. Instead I planned my approach with bread, pinkie, caster and chopped worm. Picked up my bait on Friday afternoon, total cost £7.50, bargain. Due to having to take my daughter back to Uni in London on the Saturday I stayed up late and tied 6 rigs for the Canal using 0.09 and 0.08 dia line with 20 and 22 hooks, wasn't sure of the depth so done a few at 4.5 feet and a some at 3 feet. Bread from the previous week was already in the freezer so by 11 p.m. on the Friday I was ready. Weather forecast in terms of temperature was OK, rain forecast for around lunchtime and winds light to moderate. After reading some of the most recent reports I knew it was going to be a mixed bag with some sections fishing good and others extremely poor. On the Sunday I was up and out the door by 7 a.m. as the draw was at 8 a.m. I arrived in good time and had a couple of bacon rolls with a cuppa and met up with the others although Sam and Sean arrived just on the draw due to thinking it was 8.30, anyway a full team which is crucial. Team today was Chris Hook, Sam Johnson, James Gunter, Lewis Walker, Sean and myself. Looking at the individual results after 4 matches I was 35th out of 78 and 2nd in the Team, not bad as I had to miss a match. Our Team Maver Cadbury Angling was 3rd in B Div due to crashing on the Avon back in Nov. So a lot to do today with only 2 matches left. Chris done the draw and placed me in C Section which was at Bathampton a fairly mixed area, personally would have preferred to be at the end of the match stretch at Claverton. I was one of the last to leave the draw HQ, not sure how this happened but it did so was faced with a parking problem at Bathampton, I am not good at parking but did manage to get in a very tight space, luckily the angler I parked closest to was not worried about getting into his boot to load until I came back myself. There were a lot of boats on the Canal moored up due to the river being in full flood and these boat owners also have cars and take up the normal parking area's anglers use. I got to my peg, C9 which was situated between 2 moored boats, 1 hadn't moved for years so that was good and the other had some coming out the chimney, the owner was not moving either, happy days. The peg looked good with a bramble hedge for far bank cover, 13 meters would reach the far bank. The towpath is extremely busy with walkers and cyclists so you have to ship back the pole along the side of the Canal rather than straight back which is really awkward but at least you don't get your pole broken. In C10 was a Cardiff Nomads angler who nearly had a cyclist go head first over him pole as she only saw it at the last minute due to him shipping straight back, the odd thing it he did not do anything different afterwards! Here is the view I had across and the boat upstream the pile of scrap it the start of the mooring ropes of the boat downstream.








A kingfisher kept going up and down, more on it later. 3 rigs were set up, bread on top 3 in front, track lines at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock and a far banker I was just about ready when the all in was shouted. Fed all lines first, bread in front, chop and caster at 10 and 2 and caster and pinkie across. First put in with bread the float sailed away and a small roach was swung in , 2nd put in another then dead so thats it for this line. Fishing pinkie down the track produced some more fish almost instantly but did not hammer it so lightly refed and went acorss after an hour. Again put in and the float sailed away before settling and nich 3oz raoch followed by an 8oz skimmer. I chopped and changed lines all day getting regular bites. I was bringing a small roach across the top when suddenly the kingfisher came up the canal and divied at it but it did noty get the fish. I have had this before with seagulls but never a kingfisher! Most of the fish were in the 1oz to 2oz range but was happy getting bites and catching I could see the CardifF Nomads angler was struggling. Most of the fish came on the 13 meter line but it was a real pain shipping to one side and very slow apart from the 8oz skimmer I had no bonus fish. The rain persisted down as per the forecast and the wind got up as well but thankfully only lasted about an hour. At the all out I had no idea what weight I had due to the size of the fish. Our Team had the scales and Cardiff Nomads the board. We weighed from 13 back, first 4 weighs top weight was the Cardiff Nomads angler with 1lb 11oz! and the pegs looked no different to mine. I was 5th to weigh and put 3lb 5oz on the scales so at least I would not be bottom. The weights got better towards the lower pegs and top weight was 5lb 12oz in my section / Div, I ended up 2nd in the section so job done for the Team. I was the first member of the Team back at HQ soon followed by Lewis who had had a good first hour with 5 skimmers, as the others came back there was more good news .... as follows.
Chris 1lb 2oz Section 1st
Sam 6lb 12oz Section 1st and 6th overall on the day.
Lewis 6lb 8oz Section 1st and 7th overall on the day.
Ivan 3lb 5oz Section 2nd
James 2lb 15oz Section 2nd
Sean 2lb 6oz Section 5th

What a result and put us top on the day and in the League top of our Divison but very tight. So one more match to go, can we stay at the top and fish against the bigger guns next season. I think Lewis is only in his early 20's, maybe not even that so it's good to bring on some young blood, here he is.



So looking forward to Sunday. See Tim Fords blog for his experience on the day.

 http://cluckerspeg.blogspot.com/

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