It was an unusual start to my Birthday as I would normally go fishing on my own and to somewhere I had never been before. Partly true as I had never fished the Bristol Avon at Tithe Barn Bradford on Avon. It was the inaugural 100 pegger organised by Airsprung Angling and Wests Tackle
Earlyish start and whizzed across the Salisbury Plain. The straw faggots standing sentry like on the newly Harvested fields were enjoying the drying August sun.
After an hour of blissfully clear roads I was at the Kings Arms some of the lads were already elbow deep in a huge fry up and I booked in with Bill, Hippy and the boys.
Well done to the organisers corralling that amount of anglers was like herding cats but before we knew it we convoy bound for Bradford on Avon over the bridge at Staverton and on we went in a rush to get a limited parking space as close to the river as possible. Chris the pony Rushton had once again bleeted he never draws end pegs ( Pinnochio nose) and had pulled out peg 1!!!! Oh to draw like him.
I was peg 26 which was apparently a good peg. Mike told me the Bream occasionally came this far up as he went on down into the 30's. Several people said I had a good Bream peg and having never fished the stretch before I had to believe them.
Unfortunately I had a tree in the water right in front of me which would make landing fish interesting. But in general it was 10 to 12 feet deep and not moving. I had brought everything with me and a variety of bait; but increasingly it looked like a "ball in " job and feeder over it.
The match began and I tried the "bolo" to start in the hope the 5 gram would pull through but to no avail. I gave that up as a bad job, by which time most had filled it in and as the ripples settled their feeders , clipped up, landed in synchronised artillery fashion.
I did waste three fruitless hours trying to emulate the guys below me; but my tip remained steadfastly still. I was panicking a little nothing in the net. So out came the pole and in went the bait dropper hemp and choppy. The rigs was placed above the hempy oil slick and several minnows and bleak followed. 21 minnows later I had, had enough of that got out the acolyte 14 footer and pinged a waggler two thirds away across to the only minuscule flow I had. Bronze maggot hit the water and slid away and a Roach came to hand, followed by two tiny 50 p skimmers and another Roach. I fired a pouch of mixed caster and bronze , buried a hook in a caster and pinged it out again. But that was it no more fish. 20 trots through changing depths and shotting patterns saw me settle on near the bottom as two Perch came to hand. However after a blank 30 minutes I was back on the feeder. The guys below me had around a pound like me with an hour to go. So I wasn't the only man struggling. I couldn't see up stream but bank walkers said others were struggling except a few in the higher pegs who had Bream/
I really hoped it was one of our guys.
45 Minutes to go and the guy 2 pegs down had a Bream and a proper one at 8.5 lb. Followed by another, so with his near pound of bits had 11.5 lb, The Bath angler below me lost an eel of around a pound, but had a couple of bonus roach under his rod tip in the last 10 minutes.
Me I weighed a paltry 1 lb 10 oz as the fabled Bream didn't show. Put this down to experience and I would fish it differently next time. Too many Bleak and Minnows its all very well seeing the float dip but there is no weight to tiny fish.
So back down the road to the Kings Arms and everyone is patting Magic Mike on the back, for getting 9 Bream for 40 lb 8 oz and winning the match. Some say he is not quite Magic Mike (Channing Tatum) but I don't know could be a twin.
Mike wins the Gold medal and poses (Middle) with the silver and Bronze medal winners.
And thanks to Miles winning weights backed by good weights from others ( not me) in the Team Pewsey win the match. Mike rightly accepts the trophy and the lads join him for a winning team photo. Thanks guys a nice Birthday present for me to be part of the winning side.
Big thanks to Andy Fox etc and to all the organisers a long but enjoyable day.
See you next week
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