Birmingham Anglers Association

This event was on last week on the waters above and below Bewdley. Having 78 match anglers fishing at one time might throw up some interesting pointers for non match anglers so I had a walk on the bank to see.

The water above Bewdley is different to most BAA stretches so I'm not sure how much one can read across and apply to say Arley.

Some anglers were fishing the pole or stick float. I saw a couple of small chub come out and a few silvers but not in any quantity. One decent chub came was lost on the pole.

Most anglers were onto the feeder by the time I arrived. I suspect a lot had started fishing for silvers but also fed further out to try and get barbel feeding as a back up plan. When the silvers didn't come out fast enough they will have switched.

Only 2 I saw were fishing cage feeder and groundbait, the rest were using Kamasan black caps with a 4' to 5' hook link. I think most were fishing pellet, I was well back so it was difficult to be sure, there wasn't much coming out of the feeder as they prepared to cast so I doubt they were on maggot.

Nearly every angler was fishing 3/4 of the way across the river or more. In some cases there appeared to be deeper water there but in many cases depth was pretty uniform.

I saw barbel come out in decent numbers. One was 6lb ish, the rest below that weight probably 3-4lb. Remember this was between 3 and 5 o'clock so it is possible to catch barbel during the day rather than late evening.

River conditions were poor, water level had come up about 100mm and there was a hint of colour so it was better than it has been but not by much.

First day there were a couple of 30lb weights, a 25lb, a few high teens and I reckon the average was below 10lb. Second day there was a 50lb plus, a 30, more high teens but most struggled. The last day was won with 16lb but most really struggled.

What did I learn, not as much as I'd hoped but the take away is probably fish small hooks and long tails in low water conditions. I sort of knew that already but maybe the hook needs to be a 16 rather than a 14, lighter hook length maybe. (The anglers played the fish carefully which suggest they were using light lines). I'm not convinced of the need to cast to the far bank, I wonder what they would have done if they fished from the other bank.

If this helps anyone or stimulates a bit of discussion it will have been worth posting. I'm not a match angler, I think the last time I fished a competition was about 45 years ago.