Sunday 29th December Clevedon FWAC Boxing day blind pairs Plantation Main Lake

I believe when I first joined the Clevedon Club back in 2008 the Boxing Day Pairs Match was held on Boxing Day. I was never free to fish on Boxing Day itself so it was a welcome change when it was moved to the first Sunday following. I spent a few hours drying out my gear from the last match just before Christmas and sorting out a few rigs for the pole and hair rigs for the straight lead. The alarm went off around 06:45 and I got up striaght away as I was looking forward to getting out for some fresh air. The car was part pre-loaded so it was just a case of having some breakfast and load up the remainder of the gear. I looked outside and it was white with frost, one of the hardest I have seen this year so started the car up to de-frost, the temperature said -1 but it felt a lot colder and it was difficult to open the rear doors.

This was the temperature at home

As I headed towards Clevedon and Kingston Seymour there was a noticeable improvement and it had risen 2 degrees (get the shorts out, not).

Match Secretary Adie Baker was in the car park with a couple of other guys when I parked up around 08:00. Adie had a full house of 22 anglers and anyone that wanted to fish was accommodated. 22 Pegs on the lake is just about right. At 08:30 the draw was called and Adie set the ground rules, 2 sections of 11, if you won your section you would get 1 point and so on so the pair with the lowest points would win. Payout would be for the top 3 pairs and fishing 10:00 - 15:00. Pairs were indicated on the peg cards. I was about the halfway mark to draw and this is what came out.



I had peg 1 and the scales plus paired up with whoever drew peg 27.

It didn't take too long to find out who I was with as I heard the dulcet tones of Darren Vowles (aka Nuddy) asking who had peg 1. Darren looked pleased to have drawn with me, neither of our pegs were what you would call match winners but on a very cold day like it was a few surprises might be thrown up.



Here is a map of the Lake, as you can see Darren had an important island chuck on 27, I had open water set back and a bay, 43, 42,41 and 40 are not used.

Peg 1 can be iffy and unpredictable but Paul Nichols done 3rd off it with 19lb odd in the previous weeks Christmas Match fishing a small method feeder across to what was peg 42. Darren also pointed out where to fish and so did Paul as he was heading to his peg, fair play to him.

This was my view looking across the peg, the target area was to be in line with the cone and slightly to the right of it about a meter out from the bank as there was a lot of snags.

The water was very clear, it also doesn't help when there is a footpath immediately behind the area you are going to fish. I set up 2 pole rigs at 13 meters for fishing at 10:00 and 14:00, one with white hydro and one with maver no.5, 4 x 14 floats, to 0.11 and a 0.10 hooklength to a drennan wide gap 18. I had a small method rod set up as well for fishing to the cone area with micro's and banded pellet. It was about 09:45 when I decided to go to the car and get my drennan soft feeder rod in order to set up a straight lead for bread. I was just about ready when the all in was called. Brian Slipper was to my left on peg 3 and Mark Walsh was on 39. I fed both pole lines with the same, dead mag, micros and a little green swim stim. Neither of those lines were used during the match although I did top them up a few times, the method was not used either.

On the straight lead rod I put on some double punched bread on the hair rig, the hooklength was about 6'' to a 16 drennan wide gape and cast toward the cone. Soon after I had what looked like a liner, the next few casts were the same. About 30 mins in a more positive pull round (not a wrap round) came and I hit it, it went solid an soon an angry carp was on the other end going all over the place. It did not take long to control it and soon it was in the net, about 5lb in weight. I probably brought it in too quick (this was only my 3rd carp since June due to concentrating on the rivers. I went back out to the same spot and had a few more liners which was encouraging. Another 30 mins passed and this time I had a proper wrap round which nearly took the rod out of my hand. I had only been leaving the bait out for about 5 mins and shaking it off as a way of gently feeding the area. This carp was only around 2lb and came in quite easily despite the fierce bite. At this point I had not seen anyone else in my area catch so decided to stick with it. As I was looking around I could see Brian to my right was fishing 16 meters as I checked his float it dipped and he was into a carp which he landed after about 5 mins on light elastic. Mark Walsh also took one out in front of him about 11 meters. I had another half-hearted bite shortly after the lead hit bottom, I struck and due to the amount of line still sinking I thought it might just have been a liner until I took up all the slack and had a right lump on. I took my time with it and netted it just before the keep net about 2 feet under the surface, lovely. It was about 12:30 now and I had 3 carp, the liners had stopped so decided to take the lead off and put on a very small cag feeder with liquidised bread in it, nothing, no indications either after about 4 casts. Back out with the striaght lead and a wrap round and carp number 4 was netted, another good fish. Mark caught another and so did Brian, I added another 2 to finish up with 6, I guessed for about 30lb ish, happy with that and no one else around me had anywhere near that.

Adie came down from peg 4 to help with weighing in, he told me Paul Faires up on peg 8 had bagged up and apparently his partner for the day Kev Perry had a few fish on peg 25. We weighed me in first, 28lb 5oz, so not far off my estimate.

My 28lb 5oz

Brian to my left ended up with the 2 carp for 7lb odd, Adie had I think a couple more pound than me off peg 4, Rod Wotton had 15lb odd on 5, Rob Fogg had 1 carp. We then came to Paul Faires on 8, whi had a perch 2lb 2oz and then 2 weighs for his carp, caught on the wag with caster and bread on the straight lead for a total weight of 83lb 4oz.



Paul with his final weigh, his partner Kev, weighed in 44lb 12oz, bread on the straight lead.

Nick Harvey up on point peg 19 also done well putting 73lb 3oz of carp in the net on hard pellet fished to the island, unfortunetly his partner Rich Lovering blanked.

Nick with some of his lumps

I finally heard Darren my partner ended up with 2 carp, his section fished really hard, I thought we had missed out.

Back in the car park Adie done the results, it was no surprise Paul (left) and Kev had won it, here they are, all smiles, fair play, maximum points in their sections.



2nd Pair was Rich Healey (left) and Mark Bromsgrove, pic below.

Darren (Nuddy) and I sneaked in 3rd pic below.



A well run match, hard but fair. Next up for me is the Commercial House League next Sunday on the Kennet and Avon Canal.

Happy New Year to all.