Sunday 20th December - Clevedon Christmas Open, Paddock Lake Acorn Fishery

Last year we doubled up with the SW over 55 Club for our Christmas Match but this year it was run as an Open. It did attract 34 anglers but with one dropping out we ended up with 33 which by today's standards is very good and just right on the 40 pegs available on Paddock Lake (one of our current waters). Payout was fr top 4 and 4 sections, 3 of 8 and 1 of 9. I had been looking at the results during the last 3 weeks from the Over 55 Club which regularly fish the venue and came to the conclusion that 30lb to 40lb would be needed to frame. The few times I had fished the venue this year under match conditions I had done well and from a variety of pegs. I had it in my head that I would want peg 6 or 40. The draw commenced on time (08:30) and I was about halfway in the rabble of a que. Some of those into the draw bag ahead of me looked not best pleased with their draw.... not me when I pulled out ping pong ball number 6 (the power of the mind is a wonderful thing especially from an Irishman)  and I had parked almost behind the peg as well before breakfast... happy days I thought.
I won off peg 6 earlier in the year but that was in the summer, I like the peg because there are plenty of options as well as space.

Peg 6

For company on peg 7 I had long serving club member Andy Law who enjoys coming to the odd match and done well on the Christmas Match last year. Andy had a spare peg to his left so the both of us had enough room. I set up 3 rigs, 1 for the far shelf right in the corner between the bank and the bridge where there was about 2' 6'' and a stretch of about 13.5 meters, 1 for the bottom of the far shelf straight across at about 12 meters where it was about 3' 6'' and finally 1 for up against the middle of the bridge where is was around 4' 6''.  My far margin rig also was good enough for my nearside which I did not target in the end. I had lot of different baits with me but only ended up putting micro pellet, 4's and live maggot on the tray.

The all in went about 5 minutes early which took Andy and I by surprise. No worries I was more or less there and took my time doing a few final adjustments before feeding all of my lines with micro and red maggots. For the first 30 minutes i had to fish in the shadow in the middle of the bridge as the sun was blinding me if I went across to the 2 lines straight in front of me. I had a couple of dips but did not connect with anything. The angler on the other side of the bridge on peg 40 appeared to be having the same problem. Kev Perry on 39 had 3 or 4 carp in the first 30 - 40 minutes though and was taking an early lead. The sun finally allowed more visibility for fishing straight across but it wasn't ideal and I had the float shotted right down. I tried the bottom of the far shelf first and drip fed a few and I mean a few more micros in, I wasn't sure if the float went under or not but struck anyway and the number 11 hollow came racing out, its been a while since I hooked a carp but took it steady and landed a common of around 3lb. Visibility became better as the sun went round and I got the odd knock before the float went under suffering a few foul hookers which I didn't land, just a couple of scales. I done a minor adjustment to the rig and caught a few more carp all around between 3lb and 4lb. Looking around I thought I was doing quite well as far as I could see and Kevin had slowed up. I started to get quite a few knocks but without the float disappearing so decided to shallow up. This made the difference and I had a good run of fish. At around 13:00 it went a bit quite so went all the way over on top of the shelf by the bridge and soon had one around 3lb but that was it from there. I knew the carp were moving along the bottom of the shelf so decided to stick it out there for the remainder of the match which was a good move putting a few more fish in the net as well as loosing a few along the way. Banded pellet in various sizes was the method, the maggot brought me nothing.

The all out sounded at 7 mins to 15:00 by mine and Andy's time pieces! Andy thought I had done enough but I wasn't sure as we couldn't see the bottom end of the lake very well.

The scales in my section (pegs 1 to 9) started on island peg 1, Bob Warren didn't have many fish but they were big fish and went 30lb 12oz, Nick Harvey also on the island done him by 2oz with 30lb 14oz, they were the best two weights off the 5 island pegs. My turn came and I knew I probably had more fish than the island pegs but they were a smaller stamp. Pleasingly mine went 45lb 8oz but Rich Lovering in my section on peg 10 done me by 2lb 8oz. 

My 45lb 8oz

As the weight sheets were handed over to Match Secretary Adie Baker on the bank I had a quick look and it was confirmed I had done enough for second place, those lost fish had cost me but Rich had probably lost some as well. 

 Winner Rich Lovering

We all went back to the Bridge Inn in Yatton for the prize giving, raffle and chip butties however the bread I had for bait was in better condition than the plastic stuff supplied  by the Inn. There were great raffle prizes alough I won bugger all! I did pick up £55 cash, £30 Tesco Gift Card and a bottle of plonk for 2nd place.

John Sallis and his partner took control of the raffle but there were so many prizes John lost the plot toward the end calling out ''green 652 pink'' wtf lol.

Well done to Adie and Steve for organising the match and thanks to Cadbury Angling and Reel Fun for donating prizes.

Top 4 as follows:

1st  Rich Lovering Cotswold Angling 48lb 

2nd Ivan Currie Maver Cadbury Angling 45lb 8oz

3rd Mike Owens Sensas Thyers 31lb 8oz

4th Nick Harvey Sensas Thyers 30lb 14oz

Here are the positions and weights on the day (one angler DNW)

There may be a knock up on the River Kenn on 27th Dec but it is unlikely I will fish as my daughter is home from Uni. The next match for me will be the Boxing Day Pairs on 3rd Jan which is on Paddock ;Lake again.

Peg 6 or 40.... Peg 6 or 40...

Finally folks have a great few days off over Christmas.