River Huntspill Practice Match.

Firstly I do apologise as I have a pleasure session on Shiplate Farm & yesterdays match on Goodiford Mill fishery to up-date about but couldn't connect to a network for some reason until now so will add through the week, On with today & it was another practice match on the spill" before the next round of the super-league next Sunday, Travelling on my own today I stopped off for a hilltops breakfast before making my way to laburnham house for the draw, Strangely enough I found myself parking around the back off the premises which Don used to frequent, He fished here for years with some found memory's so top of my thoughts again this morning. A few of the team were also fishing again today in preparation to next week which was good to see & another good turnout for the river/Drain?. I happened to be near the front of the draw for a swift exit & found myself on peg 76 being the section above Woolavington bridge, A little bit of a walk due to the electric pylons before the pegs started but it wouldn't make much odds as I was smack in the middle with Team Captain Chris hook on one end peg & Thatchers Gary Webber on the first peg in the section being peg 80 which won the section in last weeks super-league with 18lb odd so both of them would be fishing for the win on the tip today.

A nice comfy swim again today with just a slight breeze off are backs but a change in the conditions were due by the start of the day with rain forecast & the wind to increase? 

     I planned to start the match on the feeder in the hope of snaring a bream or a few skimmers whilst feeding the pole line up, I set up my maver 12ft tip rod to fish 2/3rds across with 5lb main line to a 0.13 hooklength & a 16 B611 hook, A 0.4g PB1 on 0.13-0.11 & an 18 B520 hook & A 4x16 Wire Wonder on 0.15 to 0.13 & again an 18 B520 hook both to fish at 13mts in approx. 5ft of water with my main target being eels over loose fed maggots & casters, The lighter rig being used if conditions didn't change. I had a quick wander before the start having a chat with Stretch" & Middy backed Sam Powell who was next to me on peg 77 who wasn't going to try the feeder just relying on the pole to produce silvers so it would be intresting'. 

I started the day feeding 10 feeder loads of chopped worm, casters & red Squatt's onto the feeder line before attaching the hook-length starting the day with a small piece of worm tipped with a red maggot on the hook whilst starting to feed the pole line with the catty, It took me 15mins to feed it & I had my first fish after 45mins being a 4oz skimmer on a bunch of squatt's, I had another smaller fish just after but after 85mins it was time to drop in on the pole line as their didn't appear to be anything bigger in the area at present.

Starting with maggot on the hook I didn't have to wait to long for my first eel around 10oz followed by a smaller sample & a couple of small perch in the next 20mins before I rested it again & had another few chucks on the tip. Another 20mins or so still didn't produce a thing & I had just switched back to the pole line when Chris came wandering down, He hadn't had any signs of bream & reckoned Sam's 6lb of bits next door was about the best weight, I new I only had around 3lb but felt if I could latch into a few more eels I may be able to catch up but we couldn't see each other due to the trees, The next eel I had managed to be over 1lb followed by another of 10oz or so, I didn't want to force the swim to much so when I felt they had backed away had another try with the feeder. This was none productive as I never had another fish on it, with an hour to go I thought I would leave the feeder line until the last 20mins or so & catch as much as I could off the pole line, Oddly enough apart from the odd small perch I hadn't had silver fish all-day on it but in the last 45mins I added the odd 4oz hybrid & a few rudd of similar size as-well as a couple more eels, I ended up with around 12 eels but some were very small together with my bits & reckoned on having around 7lb? Sam came up to say he thought he had 8lb or so but I was sure I didn't have that, Chris was first to weigh but didn't find any bream or skimmers finishing with 1kg odd , Sam was leading the way with his net of small fish for 4kg odd before my turn. My total went 4kg 900 so it was just enough to beat Sam & even better enough to take the section as not much was had below me.

Back at the results & it turned out it wasn't a big weight affair today as top on the day was former Fisho Mania Champ & recent Irish festival winner Kevin Rowles took the top weight from peg 84 below Woolavington bridge ending the day with 8kg odd mainly caught on the feeder, Their was a 7kg & 6kg in second & 3rd so a few more eels would of pushed me close to the main frame but the £50 section monies was welcome. Really enjoyed the day, Its quite odd not being able to see your fellow anglers but forces you to make decisions you may not other wise make, Nice to put a few riggler's together again today & to see I still have the snake charmer magic" Lol. Back here next week to help the team out in the Super-league so looking forward to it.

Full results -

1st Kev Rowles (Thatchers P.I) 8kg 250g.

2nd Clive Branson (Nomad's) 7kg 050g.

3rd Martin Barrett (Thatchers P.I) 6kg 050g.