I had booked nine of us in for this practise match for the following weeks super league.
I travelled down with Luke and driving down we went through the usual pre match tactical discussions on what each of us would target.
After a nice buffet breakfast at Laburnam House, I drew peg 86 which was to the left of Woolvington Bridge.
After a moderate walk through the fields I got to the peg and was a bit disappointed to find I was perched 5ft up off the water with a sheer bank so no way of getting down.
That is the only drawback with the Huntspill, it can be a lovely venue with some great Bream fishing, but the banks can be very high making life awkward.
With this in mind I decided to go all out on a feeder approach and set up two rods, one with a 20g cage feeder loaded with 4lb braid and a 0.12 hooklength for the big chuck right across. The second one was a smaller 14g feeder on a line at about 20m.
When the whistle went I started by hand balling 5 balls of ground bait on the short feeder line before putting a few casts over on the long line.
It was very slow fishing however and after an hour the angler to my left walked down to see if anyone had caught yet. Team mate Clive Branson was to my right and had caught a few small Roach on the waggler otherwise that was it. I was bite less as were most in the section.
I'd had a few small taps on the ling line but nothing worth a strike so decided to up the loose feed in the feeders in the hope that would bring a few in. I added caster and maggots in good quantity to the next few casts and it did result in a bite. Sadly it wasn't a bream, but a decent eel of about 1lb that at least broke the duck.
Unfortunately that was as good as it got for me and I didn't have a bite for the rest of the day, despite alternating swims, feeding patterns hook lengths and time in water. A guy a few pegs up had walked the match with 50lb of slabs fishing maggot on the feeder, but the rest of the weights were low. Clive ended up with half a dozen small Roach and a daddy Ruffe, and most of the people in the section had struggled to break 1lb.
It was a blazing hot day however and conditions were pretty bad for Bream fishing. Despite this it was still worth going as we gained a lot of info in readiness for the team match next Sunday.
When I got home it was nice to see that I had a little birthday party arranged for me in my Mum and Dads garden with the family, and to top it off a cracking fishing cake to go with it!
Nice end to a challenging day!
I travelled down with Luke and driving down we went through the usual pre match tactical discussions on what each of us would target.
After a nice buffet breakfast at Laburnam House, I drew peg 86 which was to the left of Woolvington Bridge.
After a moderate walk through the fields I got to the peg and was a bit disappointed to find I was perched 5ft up off the water with a sheer bank so no way of getting down.
That is the only drawback with the Huntspill, it can be a lovely venue with some great Bream fishing, but the banks can be very high making life awkward.
With this in mind I decided to go all out on a feeder approach and set up two rods, one with a 20g cage feeder loaded with 4lb braid and a 0.12 hooklength for the big chuck right across. The second one was a smaller 14g feeder on a line at about 20m.
When the whistle went I started by hand balling 5 balls of ground bait on the short feeder line before putting a few casts over on the long line.
It was very slow fishing however and after an hour the angler to my left walked down to see if anyone had caught yet. Team mate Clive Branson was to my right and had caught a few small Roach on the waggler otherwise that was it. I was bite less as were most in the section.
I'd had a few small taps on the ling line but nothing worth a strike so decided to up the loose feed in the feeders in the hope that would bring a few in. I added caster and maggots in good quantity to the next few casts and it did result in a bite. Sadly it wasn't a bream, but a decent eel of about 1lb that at least broke the duck.
Unfortunately that was as good as it got for me and I didn't have a bite for the rest of the day, despite alternating swims, feeding patterns hook lengths and time in water. A guy a few pegs up had walked the match with 50lb of slabs fishing maggot on the feeder, but the rest of the weights were low. Clive ended up with half a dozen small Roach and a daddy Ruffe, and most of the people in the section had struggled to break 1lb.
It was a blazing hot day however and conditions were pretty bad for Bream fishing. Despite this it was still worth going as we gained a lot of info in readiness for the team match next Sunday.
When I got home it was nice to see that I had a little birthday party arranged for me in my Mum and Dads garden with the family, and to top it off a cracking fishing cake to go with it!
Nice end to a challenging day!