Kings Sedgemoor Drain (Commercial House League).

Helping the team out again today on a venue I haven't fished for as long as I can remember' but was looking forward to a change of scenery & a spot of natural" fishing again today. Traveling on my own again today I had no problem with the hilltops breakfast this morning, Strangely enough It never accrued to me until I had left it would be my last one their after closing down at the end of this coming week, Another end of an era". The draw was at puritan in the BAE site which I new how to get to but as far as finding the venues sections went that would be a different matter'. Captain Chris Hook did the draw & it turned out I would be on the second peg below Parchy' Where ever that was? & it happened to be a peg team mate Shaun Partridge drew last Sunday he managed 2kg odd but though he had made the mistake by feeding ground bait & though my best plan was to catch just over the weed a few metres off the bank with loose fed hemp & casters, I was going to follow team mate Shaun to the river as I hadn't a clue how to get there but he had to drop Sam off, I decided to follow someone else who was going my way but they drove out the entry only road & before I new it there were only a couple of cars left" Luckily Chris Parr was in my section so I managed to follow him, more by luck the judgement".

When I arrived at my swim I noticed the water was very clear & after putting my keepnet in I could see the bottom ring with ease and beyond" so wasn't so sure that catching close was going to be so productive, I did make my first rig up to fish here being a 4x14 Chanti on 0.11-0.09 & an 18 B511 hook in 6ft of water,

then I decided to have two long lines at 13mts left & right, one for fishing different hook baits over Ground-bait with worm & casters with a 0.75g rig on 0.13-0.11 & a 18 B611 hook the other with a lighter 0.5g float on 0.11-0.10 & again an 18 B511 hook with both lines around 7ft deep, For company I had Thatchers welsh oldie Nigel Evens on my left, We don't get chance to meet on the banks much these days but when ever we do we seem to draw next to each other".

Things had not quite gone to plan from the minute I arrived as after making my lovely looking light strung out rig up as I tested it to perfection I hooked a small reed shipping back which caused the rig to spring up around the top set ending up in a right birds nest resulting in me having to do it all again!.

I wasn't even really ready before the start & was hastily chopping some worms to add to the groundbait mix where I fed just two balls with casters added off to my left then fed a good helping of hemp & just a pinch of casters off to my right. I started just past the weed at 6mts but already Nigel's balling-in" approach was showing signs of small fish as his pole was flying in & out, After 15mins I was getting worried as I had no early signs off the short line, I didn't waste to much time as I had to start playing catch up so started with singe caster over the long hemp line. I had a couple of small blade skimmers & a couple of small roach before swinging in a 5oz fish which hooked my jumper & fell straight back in" followed by a 8oz fish 5mins later which slipped out my hand, hit the keepnet & again fell back in" & just to top it off 20mins later a pike snatched a another better roach which did me in the weed further down the swim snapping the hooklength!" Surely these things happen to other anglers or is it really just me??. It was a case of getting a couple of bites before you had to change depth to find more fish, Most were only a couple of ounces but from what I could see that was all that was being caught. Nigel was still ahead in the number stakes but by feeding hemp with the catty I was hoping I could draw some better stamp fish later in the day? I left my ground-bait line as long as possible but as thing began to slow after 90mins it was time to have a look.

I started with a small segment of worm on the heavier rig & after a minute or so had a proper bite which saw my hook something decent, Well for 2 seconds anyway". nothing followed so I switched to singe maggot but this just produced tiny blades so it wasn't long before I was back on caster over the hemp line, I had been feeding it with the catty & straight away I had a few more 2-3oz fish, It was hard work but I new the guy above me on the end peg hadn't had to much & Nigel was now working hard to catch more small fish but I didn't know what was being caught below him, I kept plugging away changing depth & chasing the fish, Every now & again I would re feed with a larger amount & switch to the other long line, With around 90mins to go I took a 6oz skimmer on it which had my thinking I might get a few more but it wasn't to be, I had nothing to lose & in the last hour upped the feed on the hemp line which saw me catching small chunky roach quite regular around 6inches off the deck, Well it was going well until I snapped the rig at the bulk with just under 20mins remaining", I switched to using the rig I had to fish over the weed on the long line but it just wasn't the same which resulted in just one more fish! It was only a five hour match today so at least I was kept busy for most of the day even if some of it was for the wrong reasons! I kept feeding the short line through the day & tried it a few times but all I mustered was some tiny perch" & all I caught over the long G/B line was some blade skimmers on single red maggot, The caster over the hemp/caster fed line did prove best at the end of the day, Nigel was kind enough to give me what looked like hookable hemp but unfortunately I wouldn't stay on the hook but if I fished here again would be sure to take some as it might just of caught me a couple more of the chunky roach, The chap on the end weighed 4lb odd before I put just over 6lb on the scales, Nigel finished with 7lb odd but further along their were two 9lb weights one being the section winner on the other end peg but with the league being split in two divisions I just lost out to Chris (Gappy) Parr on picking up the £50 section money. Not a bad result as I haven't fished it for so long so had to make choices along the way which was enjoyable fishing even if it wasn't that prolific".

Back at the results Thatcher's tightened their grip on leading the A division & Nomads are leading the B divison, One section was really hard with just 6oz winning it! but another section fished really well producing the top four, Leading the way was Paul (P**I) Purchase with 27lb which included skimmers & tench followed by a couple of 16lb weights. Back to Viaduct for the start of the silvers only league next Sunday, Hoping to avoid Cambell if I can help it as with the weather staying mild I think there will be an awful lot of carp taking interest on this lake in particular"