Pewsey Vs Kintbury - One is un-fishable

A glorious morning followed a rough night. My wife was rough, so was I, and so was the weather.  It must have been something we ate.  It would be nice to go fishing and not have a bad stomach for a change.  It would also be nice not to draw next to Si Burden, our Pewsey President.  4 matches in a row now Si is a lovely bloke but it would be nice to look to my left and see someone different. Not Si bagging.

Today's match was a combination match of club championship as well as taking on local rivals Kintbury.

Will Kintbury be smiling at the end?  The draw gets underway and every body wanting to draw the bay where the Bream hole up.

 I held the hat and was left with two to pick from. I drew Peg 1 and Leo last had 15.  The Peg looked good on arrival although the leaves were being pushed in by the wind.  I fancied it.

Although some distance from the bay it wasn't to bad but as I tackled up, the wind was getting up and with a few boats dragging more detritus in front of me.  The match all in was called and we got under way.  The forecast pre hurricane stormy conditions have arrived, and the leaves are falling in thick blankets.

Started by ground baiting the far 4 foot line after dropping a nugget of bread on the inside four foot line. By the time I shipped back from the far line disconnected the cupping kit and put my bread rig on the leaves were literally swarming around me. The float was being dragged under in a quicksand of leaves and other twigs and to add to it branches were snapping in the stormy conditions. 

5 Minutes into the match and drawing Peg 1 was not a good thing.  In fact in the words of our glorious monarch the Queen " One is un-fishable"!!

If mate Yoda is reading, remember Burbage two years ago in Nigel Franks Winter League?  You and I could hardly fish we couldn't get our rigs through the crap on the surface.  Well it was same here mate .  Near bank to far bank and 16 meters each way the peg was un-fishable.

You can see the little gap in the leaves in the middle of the leaves.  Well the rest of my match was about lowering the rig through moving holes in the raft that swayed left to right.  Never thought I would say it but, I was glad when a boat came through, to make a gap.  The way forward was either wait for boat, cup in a bit of bait behind in its wake ship in change to rig and ship out again.  Get two fish before the raft closed in again.  It was ridiculous.  In the end it was so thick I needed a 1.5 gram rig just to get through the leaves.  If it didn't settle I new I had dragged leaves down on the hook.

A truly miserable day.  Was knowing they were catching in the bay.  Simon was now struggling on peg 2. We both agreed if we didn't have boards and scales, we would have gone home.  It was ridiculous, it truly was un-fishable.

There were 3 young Pewsey junior members to my right.  As the day went on I became a little irritated with them, they were gradually moving closer and closer to me. Continually jumping up and down and pulling their keep nets in then throwing the net in again.  I do want to encourage junior membership Pewsey club needs a future; but in the end I had to get up from my peg and go along to them.  I explained that a match was under way and that their noisy antics were not helping me in particular.  I also pointed out throwing the net in and dragging out, and throwing it out again was not the way they would catch fish.

After explaining a little river craft, like be quite, stay of the horizon sight line, and helping them a little with their rigs I went back to my peg.  They were fine for the last hour of the match, but it was all over for me.  It wasn't their fault but they did have some effect I am sure.  They really annoying thing was one of the lads lowered his rig in and the float shot away and he landed an 8 oz roach - that hurt.  Seriously though the look of joy on his face was a high point of the day for me.

The match ended thank god and Si and myself started weighing in.  Weights increased as soon as we got to the bay and the Bream started showing.

Scores on the doors.

Amazing I weighed in 1 lb 11 oz, hope its enough to close the gap on the superstars in the championship but I doubt it (6 Championship points only if I have worked it out properly).  Big PG (Golden bollocks - manages to draw a flyer every week) takes our section with 16 lb pound + of slabs.

My mate Brian Shutler who joined a couple of weeks ago, wins the second section with 21 lb 14 oz of slabs.  With Spanners picking up section with 6.7 pound.  Looks like I have picked up a couple of points on Chris Rushton, who has my sympathies as the stormy condition brought down a tree branch smashing 2 of his top kits.  Another special mention to Martin Aris with his best Canal weight showing continuing improvement.

So on the day the top 7 weights from Kintbury amount to 25 lb 3 oz, and Pewsey top 7 weights amount to an excellent 70 lb 9 oz

Top three picking up pay out for top three and top three super-pools are :

1st Brian Shuttler 21+ (middle of pic below)
2 nd Paul Giddings PG with 16+ (right)
3 rd Steve Cross 11 lb + (left)

All in the Bay and all with Bream.  Well done lads. Particularly Brian, almost beat Kintbury on his own, peg 10 is a flyer as is PGs peg 7 but you still got to catch em.

Well done lads, Winter league next week at Radstock on the Thames.

Finally the Kintbury lads asked me to tell anyone reading the blog the following match in aid of Charity.