Weight – 7lb 9½oz
Catch – 74 Roach, 12 Hybrid
Weather – Freezing fog to start. Bright later on but still cold
Match – Trowbridge AC Xmas match – 7th overall, 2nd in section
So where to go? My clubs Christmas match at Ivy House was cancelled due to a frozen lake. Therefore, I had 2 choices, either Lands End or on Marks recommendation, Barton Farm at Bradford on Avon.
Although we had a day of thawing temperatures yesterday, I doubted it would be sufficient to clear the ice completely and thawing ice going into an already cold lake didn’t sound inspiring. However the issue with the river, was whilst it looked perfect leading up to the weekend, Saturdays rain could see salt from the roads, being washed in.
In the end I didn’t fancy breaking the ice, so Barton Farm it was and my fears about salt in the river were unfounded. Speaking to Mark via e-mail during the week, he thought there would be 30-40 fishing, but as it turned out 23 turned up, with the cold weather obviously having an impact.
I used to fish the river regularly, preferring the upper reaches, but Barton Farm is a slow deep stretch between Bradford on Avon town centre and the Avoncliffe weir. I drew peg 16, which on the day was 4 pegs after the path splits up to the canal. Looking back at my records, the last time I fished the river was 4 years ago and I was up against a few good locals who fish the river regularly. Mark drew peg 15 which was 1 away from where he won his section last week with 5½lb. Credit the organisers who were generous with the pegging, so everyone had plenty of room, although there were a couple of pegs that were hampered by overhanging branches.
Tactics for the day would be focused on the pole, plus the waggler fishing the far side as a back up. Not fishing the river for quite sometime required sorting out my kit. I dusted off an old 14ft rod for the crowquill and some 2.5g drennan carbo floats, which would be ideal for the 12ft deep swim. I also dusted off a box of river hooks (those with barbs on!), settling for a size 22 B520 attached to .08 bottom.
12 balls of groundbait (2 parts Black Lake, 1 part River & 1 part Black Hemp Frenzy with a pinch of caster and pinkie) went in at 12m. The 1st 10mins was getting used to fishing with so much line attached to the pole and swinging in a rig on the top 4. However after my first fish I started to get into a rhythm, fishing the rig overdepth, holding back and letting it go though the swim slowly, brought regular bites mainly on single or double pinkie, I didn’t have anything on maggot.
3 hours into the match I was up to 60 fish and as yet hadn’t topped up. I was told that the fishing would slow down after 3 hours, but I was still catching and based on the bank walkers was doing OK. Therefore decided not to bother with a top up in case it killed the swim. Mark in the meantime had less roach than me, but fluked a 3½lb bream (do I sound bitter! – lol) and enjoyed a bit of gloating.
With 90mins left my swim started to slow, catching only ½oz fish and as is always the way, just I was about to top up I had my best fish of the day - a 10oz roach. Rather than top up I thought I would try the waggler. I had been feeding ¾ of the way across, but unfortunately I didn’t have any bites, despite varying the depth looking for chublets.
So back to the pole and I started to catch again, before the swim really died with 30mins left. With nothing to lose I topped up with 2 balls. This brought 5-6 fish quickly before the swim died again.
At the weigh in you could tell we were fishing a river match when I given a ½oz. haven’t seen one of those for a long time.
The top 3 all came from the section below me.16lb won, with 2x 12lb weights 2nd & 3rd. These weights were made up of all roach, but proper roach not the small ones that resided in my part of the river. Mark won my section thanks to his bream with 9lb 9½oz.
Overall, a very good match, bearing in mind the freezing conditions, with most people getting a few fish.
The presentation at the Blue Circle Social Club (Westbury) was 1 of the best I’ve seen, loads of prizes. As well as picking up my section money by de-fault, I collected 6 bottled of Hardy wines, which will keep Sue happy.
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