River Huntspill (Super league) Sunday 22nd July.

Well its that time of the year again" I managed to get in on this round of the super league guesting for the local Sensas 88 team ran by Lance Tucker, only seven teams of seven fishing but always the chance of landing on a few of the resident bream" the areas to be fished were a section at gold corner, Four sections above woolavington & two sections below, I had managed to have a few hours on The first section below woolavington a week of so ago & had one big skimmer on the tip & plenty of rudd on the pole but bites on the pole can be hard when their a match on for some reason? Lance came back with the draw sheet for the team & spookily I ended up on the peg next door to where I had practiced! It wasn't classed as a match winning area but I remember it being quite fair when I drew the same area last year" The end pegs tend to dominate & with Martin Barrett from Thatchers on the first peg & Dave Mickalright" for Gordon League on the other end peg we would see? I had Steve (Stretch) Sanders Between Myself & Martin Who is always good company & the banter was flowing as we all set up. Quite simple really, I planned to fish the feeder 3/4 of the way across & had a selections of baits' Worms, Red Worms, Maggots, casters, dead maggots, Squats' you name it! & set up two pole rigs, One being a 0.3g rig in 5ft of water with an 0.10 bottom to a 20hook for small fish, The other being a 0.6g rig with an 0.11 bottom & a size 20hook to fish on the deck in the hope of some eels later in the day? I started the day cupping in a small ball of chopped worm on the pole line at 13mts, & had half a dozen quick chucks on the feeder to get a bit of bait on the bottom being a mix of chopped worms, a few casters some dead red maggots & some live Squatts, I added the hook-length & started with three dead red maggots on a size 16 B611 hook, I was surprized as I had a bite after a few minutes, It was a skimmer but not massive, I had done a major weed clearing job with the cutter before the start but had odiously missed a bit" I picked my landing net up to see a 1lb plus skimmers shed the hook as the feeder went around the weed! Great Start"...

Back out I was quite confident it would go round again, It did but I was a bit quick & bumped it off straight away" Third chuck I had calmed down & was ready... That was it, No more bites' I looked around & Steve, Martin & Andy Price below me were yet to get indications. It was time to start switching the baits from bits of worm, Cocktails Or even a small bunch of red worms but still nothing. On the hour mark with nobody catching it was time to try the pole where I had been feeding a few casters over the top with the catty & topped it up twice with small balls of worm twice more, I started on single white maggot expecting it to go straight under but it took a few minutes to induce a bite, A 3oz perch" but at least I had caught' Back out & a minute later I turned to see Andy playing a decent fish on the feeder, I looked to tell Steve Just as he struck into a fish! Soon Back out on the feeder this time with two bits of dendra on the hook which I switched to a size 14 after seeing Andy Net a bream over 5lb" first cast & it landed bang on' I joked with Steve that this cast was the one to catch up, Two minutes later I was playing a better fish which turned out to be a skimmer around 2lb safely netted with no weed issues" Buzzing now as you always think your going to get another, Nope.. no more indications, I had upped the loose feed on the pole in the hope of catching eels if need be as Steve netted another decent skimmer & within 90mins gone it looked like who was going to catch the most on the feeder?? It looked like Andy's Fish was a flash in the pan as a couple of hours later it was the same result, I hadn't had another indication on the feeder & with an hour to go had a 2oz skimmer on the pole but that was it, It clouded over slightly from the red hot day going into the last 45mins & I thought it might spur a few fish to feed on the tip, It didn't happen, I even took the clip off a few times in the day to search past the feed but it didn't help, They just didn't appear to be in-front of us as martin on the end peg went from last in the section to first when a few fish arrived in his swim later in the day on his feeder line. When the match finished Andy Had added a blade skimmer to his bream I had a decent skimmer, a blade, one perch an one 2oz rudd! , Steve had finished with the two bigger skimmers & two small blades so we hadn't exactly emptied it! Dave Was first to weigh on the far end peg & fished with 6lb 4oz, Next to him Ditch had 6lb 2oz, There was a 3lb weight before Andy's Bream & 2oz skimmer went 5lb 11oz' My fish totalled a massive 2lb 11oz", Stretch finished with 6lb 3oz before Martin Who landed a bream on the whistle finished with 11lb 4oz to easily win the section, So stone last for me Lol, Theirs one thing I will say though, Gone are the days of ever putting a weight of eels together like you used too as a back up plan, There just not getting caught anymore, Are section didn't have one eel & back at the results it seemed they were void in most sections except for the odd eel at the top end of the river. Don't know what more I could of done today to try & induce some bites on the tip but most of the day was sat motionless on the tip for all of us. back at the results I wasn't the only one in the team to suffer a last in the section as Lance had the same result as Did Paul Nichols so we didn't feel so bad after, On the opposite side of the coin though WE had the top two individuals on the day" Tony Goodland won the match from further up the river with 73lb of bream on the feeder" & travelling partner Punjab! was second overall from the next section opposite him with 66lb of bream on the feeder! Well done Lads" Just a shame I don't seem to draw these breamy filled sections on this place! Lol. Thatchers won the day & are leading the league with three rounds to go, Another match on here this Sunday & two rounds on the Bristol Avon, I still enjoyed the day, Good company & we had the added bonus of a nice breeze on an otherwise red hot day, There's always the chance of a few pull rounds on the venue, We just weren't in the right section today, The section below us was won with 14lb odd but the better weights all came from further up the river, I was going to be in for this weeks round but shot myself in the foot as I pulled out hoping to pair up with Paul Nichols for the two day event at Trinity waters but his partner still wants to fish so having a weekend off this week, Tight Lines..