Tough Conditions For The Feeder

Saturday was my first river match of the season, a Riverfest qualifier on the Trent at Fiskerton and Rolleston. Never seen this bit before. As soon as I drew peg 27 at Fiskerton everyone told me I was one or two pegs off the red-hot barbel area, but still had a chance of catching them. A scorching week was always going to play a big part, though, and it was really difficult for most of us.

I went extra positive with just one feeder rod and strong gear, hoping for a wallop-round bite or two. Sadly all I managed was a dace, a skimmer, a perch and an eel. My whopping 2lb was still enough for a joint default section envelope!

Well done Paul Sheehan who made no mistakes on THE peg 29 with around eight barbel for a match-winning 53lb. I don’t think the peg immediately above or below him saw a barbel either.

Must say it was a lovely bit of river, an excellently run match with lots of friendly faces and very helpful organisers and stewards.

Next day on the Gloucester Canal Feedermasters it was equally well run and once again the stewards were first class. Great to have the car park postcodes on the draw tickets too.

I’ve drawn 384 at Castle and was told it was very average with the 360s most likely to win the zone, but you never know with summer bream…

Arrived at my peg to be greeted by a swan and five cygnets stubbornly sat there and refusing to budge. Once they were finally coaxed away I had the fragrant aroma of swan poo all match. It was everywhere!

Once the swans were evicted I then had to evict a carp angler bivvied up next door. He’d not seen the match signs and had been there all night with three rods out. In his words he’d “filled it in everywhere” but only had an eel to show for it. Great.

Not quite knowing what and where someone’s heavily fed the night before didn’t fill me with optimism and I wasn’t overly confident as I tackled up. Can’t say I fished particularly well, but I’ve had a reasonable day catching 11lb. I was chip-shopped either side, but we were all way off the pace as Mike Blackmore won the zone and match with 40lb of big bream from peg 367.

Hope you all caught a few if you managed to get out. So glad that crazy heatwave’s over!