I had a great job for a single man which I was told I had for
life. Alas I wasn’t single and had two sons aged seven and four so in 1980 I
decided to change jobs for something more office bound. The advantages were
being able to spend more time with the family and perhaps get more fishing matches
in. Disadvantage I lost the company car so purchased a Beetle which was to
serve me well for many years.
I was still fishing for the Golden Carp winter league team
and I had an opportunity to fish the SWWL being pegged on the Bristol Avon at
Christian Malford a venue I had only visited a couple of times so was looking
forward to it, it had some flow and stories of plenty of big Roach.
It was an easy peg to access and fish requiring just a 4BB
Ivan Marks Pacemaker (great floats), with a new type fine wire 16 hook to 1.5
Maxima hook length and 2lb main line, ABU 607 reel and Shakespeare President 13
foot rod. Bait wise it was Hemp, Casters (home cooked) and maggots.
Ray was quite close upstream so I fed down the peg casters
shorter than the hemp. Single caster on the hook and I was soon catching
quality Roach to 12oz. This was short lived as I was getting Pike trouble which
resulted in me lifting Roach out as quickly as I could. The Pike were jumping
clear of the water trying to snatch them. And this is where the chose of hook
failed me the fine wire was bending resulting in lost fish, so I changed back
to the Gold Mustad hook. It didn’t stop the Pike but I didn’t loose as many.
Ray Sims came down to find out what all the splashing was. He watched for a
while and was amazed how many Pike were in the swim Ray had just one Roach!
Unsurprisingly half way through the match the swim completely died. With an
hour to go it was my turn to go to Ray’s swim again attracted by splashing. The Roach shoal had moved upstream to Ray and
he was catching well and managed 6lb before the end, plus a few lost Pike!
I finished the match with 13lb 14oz. I promised myself I
would go back to the swim and pleasure fish it, but never have.
The angler on the bend had a 3lb I think.
Arriving back at the car I was worried when I saw lots of
Bullocks surrounding my car, as I got closer I could see them licking it. The
penny dropped I had polished my pride and joy the day before and they had taken
a liking to the polish. I got a bank stick out and managed to get in the car
and back to the results with the paintwork in tack.
Full Result:
- Godfrey Hargreaves 29-13-08
- Mike Nicholls 13-14-0
- Mike Farr 11-02-0
- Dave Clutterbuck 9-11-08
- Chris Copper 8-06-08
- Trevor Gunning 8-01-08
Media Reports:
4 comments:
Some good anglers in that frame Mike.
I was the peg downstream of Godfrey that day and all I could do was sit and watch, the pike did move his shoal for about 5 mins and I had about 4lb of them in that time, then they moved back up to him and he continued to catch to the end of the match
Comment made by Trevor Gunning on Face Book:
Remember it well Mike.....I was in the top section above you...(good job I was fit back then)...My peg was on a barren straight and looked as though it was going to be a hard day at the office with some really fishy looking bends in the section....I fished a small waggler across and trickled in bronze maggot down the nearside rushes...after an hour I was still blank so came in under my feet on the straight lead with maggot...first put in the tip went round and a chub was soon in the net....had 3 more before the end to win the section.
The Swindon boys had a top side back then, I remember they were one of the first teams to get sponsorship through Roy Light from a luggage company, and I think they were called Stevens tackle not sure.
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