Saturday 13/10/1990 - Division 5 - National Championship - River Trent - City of Bristol

Having left Fry's AA we resurrected the City of Bristol team under the sponsorship of Steve  Robinson the owner of ICEMECH. For me this meant starting again from the bottom in division five. 

I think it was only Tony that had fished it once before in the Matchman of the year final. I happened to meet Dennis Salmon on the Gloucester Canal the then Anglers Bookie. I asked what odds he would give me on Tony. "Who" he said and gave me 200:1 so I put £10 win on him. I saw Dennis again later and he made a point of saying he was shitting it for the first half of the match as Tony was well ahead of everyone else. Unfortunately for me and Tony his peg dried up.

We had a strong River team line up pictured.

We managed to get Wayne Swinscoe the Trent Legend to help us, spending the day with him walking all the sections. Wayne did arrange it so we were by the Lord Nelson pub. Wayne certainly liked his "Dark".

Pete Sivell had brought his feeder rod to check if was up to the long chucks to the far side. At Hoveringham Pete tied on an arlesey bomb and tried casting to where Wayne suggest he try to reach. Unfortunately for Pete he didn't have enough line on his reel and lost Line and sinker mid river.

I must say Wayne's knowledge of the river was impressive - nothing indecisive with this man. Peg by peg run down giving very few options of tackle. Just set up the feeder here and cast over there into the shadow for chublets, expect bites immediately. A whip here for Gudgeon  so on and so forth - he made things easy for us. I was left wishing I lived near this river.

No actual line wetting before the big day.

I booked the Sherwood Forest Hotel for our Friday overnight stay. Most of us had to work on the Friday and met up at Tony's shop at closing time. In convoy we didn't get to the hotel until after 21:00. It was a bit posh but not too shabby for me. However, the dining room had closed. After booking in we had to go through the lounge to our rooms where residents were sat with their after dinner drinks listening to a guy in dinner jacket playing a grand piano. It was interesting to see their response watching 12 anglers walking across the dance floor with grubby fishing tackle. As always on these Nationals we signed the official secrets act - what goes on at pre-national nights stays at pre-nationals.

98 teams of 12. 1,176 anglers. Decent turn out then.

I was drawn peg B8 section Holme March Weir Field. I could hear and smell the weir but not see it. Wayne was doing the rounds trying to get to us before the start. He told me to move my box upstream 1 metre (within the rules) and fish the waggler feeding on top of the the float. Delighted to hear it was a float peg. I just set up the waggler whilst everyone around me set up all sorts. The river was very wide which meant there were anglers opposite but wouldn't be an issue.

An easy match pursued fished at 25 metres with wag and mag. I think it was second cast I caught a 1 lb Tench!!! Didn't expect that nor the anglers around me. More amazement when I had another 1 lb Tench. I then started to catch the odd decent Roach whilst all around me were struggling. Ivan Marks was helping the team on the next peg who was blanking resulting in him fishing for fry in between large margin stones. Ivan came up to me and renamed me Tinca Tinca. Some years later we drew next to each other on the Trent and he immediately announced to his large gallery he was next to Mr.Tinca Tinca. Towards the end my peg got better with the penny dropping that I hadn't been feeding enough - bugger. Anyway with a blank one side and one tiny fish the other I was please to weigh 7 lb 8 oz for 54 points.

The team finished 24th but we weren't disappointed to find out that we didn't get promoted as the following year the National was on the Gloucester Canal - Home ground for us at the time.

The national was won by one of our local teams Avon Bait. With Team Bristol coming 4th just missing out on a medal. Unlucky.

Result:

Saturday 15/08/1987 - Division 4 - National Championship - River Severn - Fry's AA

The lads were delighted that having being promoted to the National Championship third division to find it was to be held on the mighty River Severn at Worcester. A river I had yet to fish and as a running running water venue I had always fancied. I don’t know whether it was due to our enthusiasm of being promoted or that the venue wasn’t too far away that we decided to have a practice match. I don’t think any of the other lads fished the river before either. The same team was selected. We understood that our normal feeder rods used on the Bristol Avon might not be man enough. So I had a look around for something suitable and was recommended the Severn - Trent 12 foot feeder rod hand made by Mel Storey. So I rang him and lucky enough Mel was having guitar lessons in Bristol so I met him at Eastville Park. The rod had three different top sections, very impressed.

The practice match was the usual pre-national affair with a big attendance. The draw was at the Worcester Horse racing ground which the Severn ran alongside. As I had a company car at the time Dave Clutterbuck travelled with me.

Dick Derrington was running the match and before the draw he announced that a certain section would have to wait to the side until the draw was complete. As it happened I drew this section. When Dick arrived he explained to the assembled group that we would have to follow him to a new car park which we must use or risk damage to our cars from a local farmer. I have to confess I had no idea where we were going and still don’t know where I had been. We arrived at the car park and once we unloaded Dick locked the car park gate. He gave instructions how to get to our pegs pointing out a pin point of a caravan on the horizon as a landmark to head towards – we were bound to hit the river! Now I was use to long walks but this proved to the furthest one to date. It wasn’t long before the moaning started about the walk. It got worse, once we arrived at the river we couldn’t find the peg numbers until someone ventured into the thick undergrowth to get to the river's edge and found a number. We worked out from this everyone's peg. However, it was necessary for me to walk through about 20 foot of undergrowth to get to the river's edge where I found a man made wall, which was handy for me to sit on to fish. I got set up with just two Rods the Mel Storey with a maggot feeder and a stick on the 14 foot Normark float rod.

I had no idea of the species I was fishing for so started on the maggot feeder three quarters over with double maggot hook bait. It wasn’t long before I was getting tiny twitches on the tip which I was sure was bootlace Eels. I kept striking and on examination found the maggots untouched. The twitches, striking and bait examination went on for a good hour with nothing to show for it. These indications stopped so picked up the float rod and started trotting down the inside where I had been loose feeding maggot. After about an hour I hooked something decent but it come off. On inspection I had a fish scale on the hook so foul hooked. I didn’t have a clue as to the species but decided in favour of a Chub. I persevered with this for another two hours just going through the motions when I realised the noise from the up stream angler had stop, I assumed he had packed in. I sat on the feeder for the last hour and didn’t get a bite. So a blank. The scales man came along whom I followed. There were lots of blanks with Steve Gardener winning the section with 14 lb of Chub on the maggot feeder. I noticed his peg was opposite a high natural cliff with a sheer drop into the river.

So I embarked on the long walk back. Nearing the end of the last field I noticed a group of anglers and was concerned someone might be in trouble, but as I got closer I could hear laughing and joking. When I arrived there were four angler’s playing cards using their tackle boxes and side trays as a card table. Rumours’ had it that some of the card players hadn’t even made it to the river, and some had packed in early. Anyway I followed Dick back to the Headquarters thinking who takes playing cards fishing. Perhaps it’s something you do on the river Severn?

I collected Dave who I think had weighed a couple of pound. We stopped in a local Chippy and had the best part of the day.

I couldn't stop thinking about the twitching I was getting. I asked the other lads but it seemed I was the only one who experienced this. Just before the National I read an article explaining how Barbel can blowing the bait about giving tiny indications. I'm was subsequently convinced I found my culprit. In my defence up to then I had only caught them on the float. So if I experienced this again I would have to ignore such indications until I had a wrap round.

The day of the national. The location and some of details of the practice match was vague, but it got worse. I travelled again with Dave Clutterbuck to the Race course. I can’t remember what peg I was drawn but located the appropriate transfer coach. I remember the coach arriving at the river and parked on road bridge. Luckily I didn’t have far to walk downstream to my peg. I did notice a huge lock gate 25 foot highish so there must have been a weir close by. Again I had to fight through some undergrowth to get to the river and was pleasantly surprised to find a wide shingle beach in front of me which was shallow with a slack in front enabling me to wade out. The main flow was on the far bank. The setup the same as the practice match. Again I started on the maggot feeder but with some extra lead to hold over in the fast water. After a few minutes with no indications or these tiny twitches I really started not to fancy it, but stuck with it for the first hour. With no indications I was glad to switch to the stick float where I had been loose feeding maggot on the crease of the flow and first try with maggot had a Dace followed by more Dace and the occasional Roach. I then hooked a decent fish which was a very welcome 8 oz Eel. What I had learnt from these 1000 peg matches you are generally fishing for ounces rather than pounds for good team points. So I kept on with the stick adding the odd Dace and Roach by casting around the swim. I heard two stewards meet up behind me with one explaining that an angler downstream from me had a 10 lb Carp! I didn’t expect to hear that. From memory I finished with about 6 lb which would have been very good section points. No need for the playing cards!!

It now gets vaguer I don’t know how the team did the last thing I remember is dropping Dave off at home.

The Mel Storey rod remained a virgin. I did get to win a few quid with it on the Bristol Avon when in flood. However, Dad took a liking to the rod and had it on permanent loan. It now resides in my garage holding fond  memories.

Team Browning took the team honours for the second year running.