Andrew Quarmby gives his account of the final round of the Avon Valley Winter League, where he enjoyed a very memorable day’s fishing on the Basingstoke Canal.

Fishing for Drennan Bordon for the last round of the Avon Valley Winter League, I turned up to find I was on a proper flyer – the end peg in the turning bay at Ash Wharfe! This peg is around 25m wide and is known to be good for skimmers.

Given the peg I was on I was aiming to go out with a bang! I assembled two positive rigs for fishing bread punch. These were set up to fish at 6m in the central track and at 13m at the top of the shelf (it was the exact same depth from 13m to 16m).

Both had a 0.09mm bottom to a size 16 hook with a soft 1-5 solid elastic. A waggler for fishing further across and a negative bread rig for the 13m swim with a smaller size 20 hook were also assembled in case it was hard. As there was a cold easterly blowing down the canal I was uncertain what would happen.

A full 250ml pot of bread kicked off the 6m swim. No bites for the first five minutes and, just as I was starting to worry, I had 10 skimmers and six big roach in 30 minutes!

The rest of the match was pretty simple, swapping between the two positive lines. Every time I topped up it got slower, so I found the best solution was to completely fish it out first.

The icing on the cake was a cracking 3lb tench with all its winter colours. I even managed a few fish on the waggler late on. I ended up with 24lb 11oz to win the match by quite a distance. The team also won on the day, together with the league, and I ended up 3rd out of 100 anglers in the individual points league. Happy days!

Drennan Brass Head Punches are available in two sets: Small (2.5mm to 7mm) and Large (7.5mm to 11mm). The brass head cuts cleanly into a slice of bread and a special slot allows for quick and efficient hooking. They are ideal for targeting all kinds and sizes of fish throughout the winter months; a time of year when punched bread really comes into its own!