Sunday 27 October 2013

Sunday 27th October - Clevedon Club Match Woodland Lake Trinity Waters

Press report only as I did not fish the match due to returning from hols yesterday.

After a quite spell on the competition front Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club held a match on Woodland Lake which is part of the Trinity Waters complex just outside Bridgwater. Competitors battled in strong winds and heavy rain, most were rewarded for their efforts and ‘Dunkirk Spirit’, the mild conditions for the time of year did help keep anglers focused. Carp up to 15lbs were caught and only one good fish separated the top six. Top weight on the day went to Highbridge Angling assistant Tich Williams with 84lb 2oz of carp who fished pellet shallow, second was John Page with 83lb 10oz and third Kev Lawer who put 77lb 12oz on the scales. First in the silver fish category was Don Sutherland with a nice net of skimmers and roach for 24lb. The next club match is on 10th November at Plantations and there are open matches every Tuesday and Saturday on the Paddock Lake, Acorn Fisheries, Kingston Seymour (contact the fishery for details).

1st Tich Williams 84lb 2oz
2nd John Page 83lb 10oz
3rd Kev Lawer 77lb 12oz

Silvers
Don Sutherland 24lb


Titch with one of his lumps

Back to the real world

Well that's another holiday over. The cruise took us from....
Southampton to Lisbon (925 miles)
Lisbon to Las Palmas (703 miles)
Las Palmas to Santa Cruz (85 miles)
Santa Cruz to Arrecife (153 miles)
Arrecife to Funchal (301 miles)
Funchal to Vigo (699 miles)
Vigo to Southampton (675 miles)
A total of 3541 nautical miles or 4075 ordinary ones, 12 nights in total aboard the Crown Princess and what a great ship she was. Entertainment and weather was spot on except for a rainy day in Vigo, northern Spain. For those of you who have never cruised before I would recommend it, we done a late booking and got the tri for £500 each, that includes food and on board entertainment, you just need to pay for your drinks (hotel prices), and trips you wish to do at the ports of call or simply do your own thing.

                                                    The Crown Princess

So back to work tomorrow, nice early start as I am off to Sheffield (06:00 train weather permitting).

Will also have to catch up with what's been going on on the angling front and see how my Team got on in the 3rd round of the Commercial House League on 20th Oct.

While I was away I got an e mail from Roy Garland, Angling Reporter for the Bristol Evening Post, Roy has done a lot to promote angling in the Bristol area over many years. He sent me a link to his new Web Site which give up to date info and links to Angling Clubs, Matches and Blogs, here is the link  http://www.anglingpress.co.uk

Hope to get out next weekend somewhere and the Poppy Match is coming up in a few weeks.

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Sunday 6th Sept - Knock up with Frys AA, Bristol Avon Frys

I wasn't sure I would get out at the weekend due to my youngest springing a visit on us from University as she had no lessons for a few days plus I wanted to start to decorate her bedroom. At the Commercial House draw last week Dean Harvey suggested he might be organising a knock up on the Frys section of the Bristol Avon so I sent him a text halfway through the week but a decision would not be made until the Friday. Friday came and it was confirmed it was to go ahead, the draw was 07:45 in the car park of the old Frys Chocolate Factory which closed following a takeover by an American firm who promply closed it and switched production to Eastern Europe, another great british brand lost. I arrived in good time, only 7 in total were fishing 3 of the Frys guys fish in the Commercial House League so it would be competitive. £5 each in the pool so £20 for first and £15 for second with fishing 09:15 - 15:15. At the draw I pulled out 29, Dean had decided to put us in the middle of the section all in a row. The thing about the Frys section is there are a few permanet pegs by way of wooden stakes but in the main you are directed to the peg by way of a feature, Dean said I will walk down with you and show you where to go Ive, he did and even told me how to fish it...but.... there was more to come!!!!!
On the way down to the river crossing 2 fields withe Mike West for company I heard Mike say to Dean '' shall we have a look at that plant''. Plant, what's all this about I thought. When we entered the last field Dean said my peg was alongside the fence and both he and Mike walked with me. When we got to the river Mike and Dean went to one side of me, into the vegetation and down the bank a bit and started to fondle a large plant, as I looked over this is what I saw.......



For those of you who have had a bit of a sheltered life this is a cannabis plant, if you look closely it is also supported with a stake. The next picture also shows there was several more at one time but have been harvested!


I did envisage being joined by some drug dealers during the match so I left it as it was.

What's going on with my fishing lately? I have had the longest walk, the longest drive and now being placed alongside a controlled substance!

Anyway on to the fishing.... Dean advised me to set up a feeder for the far bank, deep water and the pole at 6 to 8 meters, so this is what i did. As I was setting up I had to move the gear back up the bank as the tide was coming in, it rose about 3 feet. Dean shouted out that we would now fish 09:30 to 15:30 allowing time for the tide to turn. Plan was to fish chopped worm and caster in the feeder and hemp and red maggot on the pole line in little nuggets of Noire groundbait. On the all in the tide was just about turning and I started fishing with the pole at a depth of about 14 feet with a 2.5 gramme float, 0.10 hooklength to a 18 Drennan Team England hook. I had to fish standing up as I could not put my box down due to the water being too high still. First 6 or so trots down I had a small roach or chublet, I then had to alther the depth as water ran off with the out-going tide. A couple of small perch also followed. After 30 mins or so I was able to place my box down and settled into a rythm. Bites during the first hour or so were regular but once the tide had completly run off things slowed. I could see Dean on the next peg down chopping and changing between the Crowquill and Feeder which told me no bream were showing. A shout from Dean asking me how I was doing confirmed this but he was adamant they would feed due to the deep water, I was not so sure.
I did put the feeder across for about 30 mins but no indication at all so decided to stick on the pole. During the day I did pick up the odd small fish holding back hard then letting it run on 2 different lines. At the all out I though I would have about 4lbs. At the weigh in mine went 4lb 7oz the angler above had 2lb odd and Dean below me had 3lb plus which was about average for the day. Mike West weighed 4lb 8oz, he had a couple of ozs more but I think a fish fell back in the water, it did not matter.
I did enjoy the day, good company an unusal experience with the cannabis plant, backing off for a high tide and fishing hard for bites.

1st - Mike West Frys AA 4lb 8oz
2nd - Ivan Currie Maver Cadbury Angling 4lb 7oz

That's it for a few weekeds now as I am off on the high seas on another cruise. Next big match will probably be the Poppy Match on the Bristol Avon 10th Nov but I will be out before that. Good luck to my Team mates on the next Commercial House Match at Newbridge.

Thursday 3 October 2013

Ireland 2013

5 of us travelled to Co. Cavan again this year, we have been making these trips for nearly 30 years, we have fished a couple of Festivals in the past but these days tend to go for a bit of pleasure fishing without any pressure and .... a few pints of the black stuff. For only the 2nd time in all the years we have been going we went on the Saturday afternoon ferry from Holyhead, we just about made the boarding, approx 15 mins to spare due to slow traffic caused by a big dutch lorry on the final approach to the port. The crossing was calm, we have not had a bad one yet and we arrived in Dublin about 5 p.m headed up the N3 / M3 and arrived at the Anglers Rest, Ballyconnell 90 mins later, met Francis McGoldrick (Irish International) on arrival who greeted us with the usual warm welcome. A quick check in, great meal and then up to Molly McQuires for much merryment by way of drinking and singing with live diddly dee music, fantastic, if you have never been you really need to go.
Sunday came following a late first night (we never learn) and the storms from the North Atlantic had arrived, Francis suggested we give it a miss which we ignorned and headed down to Garadice Lough a couple of miles away and fished Church shore, this was a section in the World Pairs Match the previous week. We fished from 12:00 ish to 5 ish and did manage a few fish, I was the only one that caught a bream, the bags were mainly made up of hybrids and the weights were not that great but the weather and our condition also accounted for this!
We stuck with Garadice over the next few days and had some success even though the weather remained poor. It was not until the Wednesday that conditions improved and we headed down to Bawnboy to fish Burneky Lough, this was also included in the World Pairs, it was great to see access had been improved. Its a lovely lough but exposed if the wind gets up. I had my best results here catching 76 odd pounds of roach on the waggler. Steve and Tony also had good results fishing the tip and wag. On the last day Steve and I fished the Woodford River for a few hours before heading for the ferry in the afternoon. I fished the pole with a topper float down the middle and had a nice bag of roach, perch and hybrids to 2lb, but it was very snaggy and prevented me catching consistently. Steve and I were discussing next year and maybe fish a festival in order to motivate us more and get out of bed quicker!.... we'll see. As usual good company and a great week away, here are some pics.


Dale netting a skimmer



Turtle in action, face hidden as usual

Steve with a good mixed bag, more fish in one session than he caught fishing the Kelston matches on the Avon all last year!


Nice bag of roach on the wag for me


Plenty of water to have a go at



Me with some better fish from Garadice


Steve bringing in a roach


Turtle still not wanting his pic being taken


Friday night gig in Molly McQuires


Overall a great week away