RiverFest Bristol Avon

joffmiester · #1

Bream showed well for two of the three qualifiers in the fifth Angling Trust RiverFest qualifier of 2014 held on the Bristol Avon at Newbridge on Sunday 13th July.

Richard Chave booked his place in the final with 51-7-0 from peg 97 where he used groundbait feeder with worm and maggot to bank 10 bream after taking some roach on the bolo rod.

Runner-up John Moody also bagged a qualifying spot with second on peg 124 where he used feeder and maggot for 41-5-0 of bream.

Danny Ashington won the third section to also make it into the final with a double figure net of roach and perch.

Top six individual results
1 Richard Chave, Garbolino Blackmore Vale MG, 51-7-0
2 John Moody, Garbolino Blackmore Vale MG, 41-5-0
3 Steve Hemingray, Drennan/Sensas, 33-2-0
4 Brian Preece, Bridgnorth AS, 27-12-0
5 James Carty, Devizes AA, 27-1-0
6 C Fletcher, Bathampton, 24-6-0.

Qualifiers to the grand final on 15th/16th November on the River Wye at Hereford are; Richard Chave, John Moody and Danny Ashington.

The next Angling Trust RiverFest qualifier will be held on the River Trent, Newark d**e on Saturday 19th July.

Well done Chavey and Danny who are regulars on the site

#2

Well done Richard and Dan in the Riverfest

Top baggin' guys.

#3

Yep, well done Lads

Hope Rich gives us a write up

Mullarkey · #4

well done Rich,

four squatts on a fourteen?

wagnmag · #5

Yes a fantastic catch and well done on super bags of bream...
Our turn soon I hope Choppie..and you for the second time
I was there and was pegged in between quality.
Above me Hadrian Whittle,Kevin Rowles then below me Dave Harrell and Darren Cox...interesting stuff.
Unfortunately we all struggled a bit and Dave had 12lb and Hadrian 20lb for section coin.
My 6 lb bream at 4.15 was a welcome surprise.
Great venue and challenging fishing.

The only down side to the day was that we had No peg numbers to go by on the bank and bankside vegetation was ridiculous.The pegs had not been fished this year and myself,Dave and Darren could not even see the river from the path.
It took us all 30 minutes to find the peg..? and clear it our of nettle city.
Not sour grapes but a poor show on behalf of the organising club.
But that aside a good day in very good company and well done to qualifiers.
Good luck lads on the final.
Lets try harder on the next qualifiers.

chavey · #6

Cheers Guys, only just spotted this, I'll do a little write up for you
Rich

chavey · #7

Here goes:
I drew peg 97 , 10 pegs to the right (upstream) of the arch)at the Rugby club, know locally as 'the trees' I was a little disappointed at the draw, as I had qualified from this match last year by coming second and was about 30 pegs to the left that day, I felt I wasn't far enough down the section,and the peg had no form, in fact the organisers said it was a roach on the pole with the chance of a few small chub across sort of peg!
Undeterred I set up the usual array of pole rigs set on 4 sections of pole for a peg about 10 foot deep with a little flow.I had a:
1grm colmic jolly with an olivette on 0.12mm main line - 0.08mm and an 20 B957 for running through.
4x16 colmic jolly with spread shot same line and hook for hemp or tares
1.5grm colmic menta same line and hook over depth for slowing it down ( all with no.5 elastic)
2grm carlusso flatty on 0.16mm- 0.12 and a 16 colmic b600 for worms (no. 8 elastic)
I also set up a long rod with a 3grm sensas bolo float -0.08mm-20 for running past the pole line
But I was hoping to catch on the feeder I had 2 x 12ft MAP ultraII feeder rods with 1/2oz carbon tips, 0.18 colmic Feeder Pro line to 0.12mm-18 B560 and big Nisa feeder's with 16 grams of lead.
On the whistle (you'll like this Joff! ) I slung in 14 big balls of Sensas (told you!) gros gardon and River containing dead pinkies and casters at 13M as well as (Ready Joff?) 9 cricket ball sized balls as far as I could throw them! 3/4 of the way across. The ground bait was one I have lots of faith in and has caught me loads of bream over the last few years, Ready for this..... Sensas Bream 3000! the one with all the little yellow and red bits in it, with brown crumb (it does exactly as it says on the tin!) These balls contained 1/2 pint of casters, 1/2 pint of dead maggots 1/4 tin of corn and some frozen squatts.
I started on the pole, in fact on the whistle I always push a rig out with a red maggot on and ball on top of it, and most of the time on the Bristol avon when you have finished chucking in the Ground Bait there will be a roach on the end? But this time there wasn't so I could tell that it may be a tough day for roach, in fact it took me 5 minutes to get a bite but after a hour I only had around 20 fish in the net, but that did include a 14oz chub and a few bleak, at one point I swapped to the bolo as it was loads faster, underarm the rig out to 13m, get a bite, strike, wind like mad and swing them in!
But after that first hour bank walkers passed me and said that bream were being caught in my section, on pegs as far away as 49! but several anglers had at least one up too peg 76 So i had to catch bream to get through. I swapped to the feeder with red worm and maggot hook bait.Not really expecting any action as I had seen no evidence of bream in the peg, but As soon as the feeder hit the bottom the tip wouldn't stay still!
I struck and came back with nothing, a liner? but on the next cast almost immediately I was into something quite substantial? and soon a 5lb+ bream was in the net. I quickly ripped the hooklength off and replaced it with 0.14mm colmic stream- 14 B560, but the next 2 cast I struck and nothing? thinking that it was liners I was getting? For the next cast i impailed 2 of the biggest dendrobena's on the hook and decided not to touch the rod until it got dragged in, so as not to bump or Prick the fish buy striking at liners, this however took approximately 10 seconds!! But this time fish number 2 was number 1's big brother and was defiantly 6lb+ , its twin followed next cast on the same hook bait selection, 10 minutes and lots of tip tapping later number 4 was in the net and I had gone from probably 3lb to 22lb+ in half an hour. Bites slowed and I sat and waited for the next one, this time on 4 dead reds, before another half hour wait and 3 fish in as many casts! In the end I caught 10 bream, without losing any, but suffered a biteless last 90 minutes,I weighed 51lb 7oz after initially thinking I had just over 40lb?
Speaking to John Moody,my team mate (pegged on 124) on the phone (after the whistle) I felt that I didn't quite have enough? but Johns expert estimation of 50lb eventually came to 41 (or 47LB) Which meant I had only gone and won it! Several pints of cider later, including one for all of my team mates fishing ( a blackmore vale tradition, if you win any money) Me, John and Danny lined up for our glamour shots, some wag suggested that we looked like Fat boy 3, although I felt quite slim stood between the other two qualifiers?
So its back to the Wye again in November and another go at trying to win this great competition. Good luck to the other Forum regulars in future qualifies , I hope a few of you can join me for a curry and a drink in Hereford on the 15th of November?

joffmiester · #8

Great read chavey especially the feeding part

on the whole it just shows you on a natural venue fish can turn up anywhere . How many anglers would of done what you did and be positive .most would of turned up after speaking to someone or a few at the draw and tried to make it happen with Roach. Then called it a bad day as the roach didn't feed without ever throwing a feeder . your knowledge of this river is second to none but even you thought you were 30 pegs off .
Fishing is a challenge and taking risks in Individual matches like the river fest is the difference of winning and losing. On the other hand Danny did qualify with 10lb of small fish but how many in his section fished for bream

I follow the Evesham results the peg to peg board is brilliant . i then look at where anglers draw most are the local 10 but Choppy and Tony are friends so i look at where they have drawn more than others. i think anglers that draw near these two always think its a Hemp day and try to beat them on a method these two anglers know only too well. sometime it can work but more than often they will beat you . similar to the bronze maggot boom on the trent and drawing near John Dean Roy Henderson Swino . These anglers could always do it a little different and the results were often miles apart to the anglers around them . We all now fish amongst the same anglers week in week out simply because there are very few coming into the sport on Natural venues . looking at the results the anglers that are framing are the anglers that take the bull by the horns and not the one trying to emulate and follow these anglers
Ivans quote was if it comes into your mind do it and straight away as its no good talking about it after the event

#9

Lovely challeging River is the Bristol Avon , loved fishing it on the Div 1 National not too long ago . Lovely part of the country aswell

#10

Totally agree Dodge