Upper Thames AT team champs (Winter League)

chavey · #1

Hello all, you may have noticed that the heading has changed since last year as unfortunately, our previous league, the HW&D came to an end after at least 28 years ( thats how long I have fished it, on and off )

So this year 2 of the remaining teams, My lot, Garbolino Blackmore vale and Andover. have joined in the Upper Thames Division. This year we have one match on the Thames, 2 on the Bristol Avon and 3 on the K&A canal. We fished the first match yesterday and here are the results:
Round 1 of the Upper Thames AT Winter League
Fished on the Thames at Radcot and Lechlade, 2/10/10 7 teams of 10

After a few days of heavy rain the river had a touch more pace than the previous week’s practice match but was no more than a few inches higher. And because of this the river fished well with all of the top six recording double figure weights.

Winner on the day was Paul Andrews of Devizes, with a mostly roach net of 15.0.0 Paul was on D3, the first peg above the road bridge at Lechlade and caught his fish on the pole over groundbait.
In second place on peg A6 again at Lechlade was Mark Treasure of Daiwa Gorgon League, Mark weighed 14.1.0, which consisted of 2 or 3 better skimmers to go with his roach net.
Third was Andover tackle dealer Mike ‘ Buzzer’ Bernten, of Garbolino Blackmore Vale, Buzzer was pegged 2 pegs above the winner and had an all roach catch of 13.0.0
Fourth Place went to Steve Nadin of Garbolino Blackmore Vale who was pegged on up stream end Peg A1, which in Steve’s own words; ‘looked like a peg Mr Crabtree would have fished!’ Steve had an all roach net of 11.7.0.
Fifth was Daiwa Gordon League’s Andy Pollard who had the top weight down on the Radcot sections, Andy was pegged below the bridge at Radcot on K6 and weighed 11.2.0
Sixth place was Andy Powell of Team winners Mosella Lobby’s. Andy was Pegged at the bottom of c section, opposite the car park at Lechlade and was the final double figure net of 10.8.8

Individuals:
1st Paul Andrews, Devizes 15.0.0
2nd Mark Treasure Daiwa Gordon League 14.1.0
3rd Mike Burntsen Garbolino Blackmore Vale 13.0.0
4th Steve Nadin Garbolino Blackmore Vale 11.7.0
5th Andy Pollard Daiwa Gordon League 11.2.0
6th Andy Powell Mosella Lobby’s 10.8.8

Last years Runners up Mosella Lobby’s got off to a fine start recording 50 points but all the pre match talk was about last years champions Daiwa Gordon League had a poor day coming 6th out of the 7 teams fishing,

Teams on the Day:
1st Mosella Lobby’s 50
2nd Devizes 46
3rd Colmic Talisman 45
4th Garbolino Blackmore Vale 42
5th Andover 38
6th Daiwa Gordon League 36
7th Swindon Isis 20

I'll Blog my match later this evening, as I did last year

joffmiester · #2

good lad chavey shame about your old league folding

chavey · #3

yeh its a shame Joff, it was the first one I fished as a 15 year old, (how many 15 year olds do you see doing the leagues now??) and although I have fished about 6 others (and all of them have now gone) the HW&D was the one which held more memories for me. Quite fitting that I won the last ever match an it was held on my favorite venue,Pewsey The real shame is that there will be 2 less teams in the semi because of it this year.

chavey · #4

Ok you’ve seen the results above, here’s my match:
I drew peg B1 at Lechlade which was 2 pegs above the wires which didn’t look too inviting as the far bank was bare due to all the trees being cut back there quite recently. The weather was horrendous, rain and heavy wind, and I wasn’t looking forward to the next 5 hours.
But I levelled out my Milo box and got a rig out to check the depth. The peg was about 5 ½ ft deep and about 18-20M wide so I settled on these rigs:
1. 1grm Sensas Jean- Francois-0.12mm Garbo- line, olivette and 3 no 10 droppers 0.08mm bottom to 20 tubertini series2 hook and no 4 latex Fished just touching bottom at 11m, but also plumbed up just 3 sections out hoping for a few gudgeon perch and roach early on.
2. 1.5grm Sensas Jean- Francois-0.12mm Garbo- line, olivette and 3 no 10 droppers 0.08mm bottom to a 20 tubertini series 2 hook, no. 4 Latex Fished just off bottom at 11M
3. 2grm Cralusso Torpedo flat float -0.14mm Garbo- line, olivette and 3 no 8 droppers 0.10mm bottom to an 18 Drennan super carbon maggot hook no 5 Elastic - fished about a float lengths over depth at 11M
4. 1.5grm Garbolino DC 18 -0.18mm Garbo- line, olivette and 3 no 10 droppers 0.16mm bottom to a 14 Drennan wide gape hook, matched to white hydrolastic Fished touching bottom for chopped worm 9M but down the peg with chopped worm
5. 14ft Map ultra II light rod with a 3AAA waggler with 4 no8 and 2 no9 shot down the line 0.14mm mainline to 0.08mm hooklength and a 22 B560 hook
My mix of Groundbait was VDE World Champion, Black Secret, Supermatch and brown crumb mixed with VDE pigeon sh*t

And at the start I made up 8 double handfuls of Groundbait with 150ml of casters and a handful of frozen pinkies and on the whistle balled the lot in at 11M, dropped a ball onto the inside line and baitdroppered some chopped lobs and casters onto the 9M angled line.
I started the 1.5 gram rig over groundbaited line but never had a bite, so I switched to the1grm rig on the inside and had my first fish an 1oz roach after ½ an hour, By the start of the second hour I had 9 fish, for about 10-12oz all on the inside, and despite trying over the groundbait all I eventually had was 1 nipped maggot, which was pleasing as at least it showed there were some fish in the area. I tried the chopped worm next and had 2 2oz perch after 15 minutes of trying, and by the end of the second hour my tally was 14 fish for just over a pound, not very exciting. I felt there were fish at 11M but due to the horrible down stream wind the bait wasn’t being presented well enough for the fish to have a go. So I put the flat float out, within about 20 seconds of it being lowered in and held still the Bristle eased under and a hearty strike resulted in a fair bit of elastic coming from the pole and then a 10oz roach eased over the net, an 8oz next put in followed by another 10ozer the next chuck I’m sure they had been there all along but the steady presentation of the flat float was all that was needed. More roach followed but none the size of the first 3, Unfortunately the start of my catching corresponded with the worst of the weather and the pole was being juddered about in the wind. I dug out a gentleman’s rest and tried to hold it still with the top section of the pole submerged, but the wind become too strong and how my pole never broke is a mystery? So I relented and picked up the waggler. And after juggling the shotting around and trying to drag more and more line on the deck managed to catch 2 more 4oz roach. The last ½ an hour saw the wind drop and by about 10 minutes after the final whistle it was as flat as a which’s t*t ! Typical
Overall I fed 4 more times with the pole cup at 11M with balls of the sticky groundbait containing loads of casters, I also loosefeed hemp over this line and right over. But only used about ¾ of a pint of casters and about the same of hemp.
At the weigh in I though I might make 4lb but after weighing everyone in, the forfeit of drawing peg 1 I was a little worried as everyone bar one had over 4lb with Ian wheeldon of Lobby’s having 5.5.0 and John Bohane of Tailisman on the peg above me weighing 7.12.0 thanks mostly to 3 1lb+ skimmers in the last 20mins on the tip, I put mine on the scale and amazingly my 4lb went 5.10.0 for a section second. I was pleased with that result after such a slow start and felt good to eventually sort a method that sorted a few fish out, but was frustrated that the wind hampered my match but I suppose everyone could say that.
Next round is on the Bristol avon at chippenham and Sutton benger, in 3 weeks time, but 1st we have practice match next week and the Danny Bohane Memorial Match on the K&A at Devizes in a fortnight to fish.

chavey · #5

a couple of pics, one of my catch and the other showing the swim, note the nice far bank cover!! I was the only peg in the section in which the far bank trees had been cut down!!

chavey · #6

catch pic

joffmiester · #7

spot on mate

#8

Nice one Chavey - an interesting and informative read as usual

Mullarkey · #9

nice one chavey, always a good read.

None on the bread?

diddy · #10

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm black secret.

chavey · #11

Thanks guys,Mullarky, don't worry I'll have some on the punch before the league is finished
spot on Diddy, Black secret, I don't think you can beat it for roach,

#12

Black secret and super roach !!!!!!!!!! top mix for redfins, especially with bloodworm/joker

diddy · #13

black secret and supermatch is my fav at the mo.

joffmiester · #14

funny both of you are sponsored by VDE

#15

Funnier than that mate ! the stuff actually works !!!!!!

joffmiester · #16

Funnier than that mate ! the stuff actually works !!!!!!

dog sh#t would work the way you've drawn this year

but to be fare secret and supermatch has been the top of VDE list for years i've not seen black secret around here black supermatch but not black secret

#17

Some useful stuff comes out of these reports for us mere mortals to take on board

diddy · #18

i get mine from holland joff.

joffmiester · #19

i get mine from holland joff.

when i fished the Quorn Queers i never had a bag of VDE it disappeared somewhere

in fact we never got fu#k all
i used to get it from Holland as well diddy all in foreign packaging still got a bit in the corner somewhere behind the sensas

the black secret, i take its just dye added to it

diddy · #20

seems different to normal secret, finer.