Sunday 29th January Bristol Post Office club match Rushcombe Lake Bullocks Farm

The Bristol PO Angling Club hold one match a year at Bullocks Farm in January and have always booked Rushcombe Lake as you can usually get a few few bites this time of year due to the high numbers of small fish. The previous two years have seen us having to break the ice but not so today although it was not far off being frozen, some of the puddles in the car park were frozen over. Driving over to Bullocks which only takes me 15 - 20 minutes tops the temperature outside according to the car was 0.5c. I was looking forward to a breakfast in the cafe to set me up for the day. The draw was at 09:00 so leaving home just before 08:00 gave me plenty of time. On arrival and to my horror the cafe was not open! I drove around to the Rushcombe car park and most of the usual faces were already there, the legend that is Andy aka 'the turtle' or the tucksmaster' was in charge of proceedings, Andy said the cafe would be open at 10:00 so we would fish 10:15 - 16:15 which gave us a chance to grab a bacon buttie before fishing although not sure about the 6 hour duration for the match. 13 turned up in the end and we handed over £15 each, Andy said he would pay the top 3 and 2 sections, all the pegs were shifted from the straight over to the island as the word was this was the better area, Ben the owners son allowed us to use every other peg as there were only a few anglers around on the whole complex.
I was third to draw and out comes permanent peg 44, talk prior to the draw favoured peg 40 so initially I was fairly pleased. A lot of work appeared to have been carried out on the banks and the majority of pegs had little or no far bank cover which was not good given that the deepest part of this lake is only 3 feet.
I set up 3 rigs, one for the usual 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock lines at the bottom of the far shelf a 4 x 10 to 0.11 main line to a 0.09 hook length with a drennan 18 pellet hook, one for down the track and just short of out in front of the 2 empty pegs either side of me, again a 4 x 10 as there was no wind at all with 0.10 straight through to an 18 drennan pellet hook and finally a margin rig to fish about 6 meters to my left and a similar set up to the down the track rig. On the bait tray was liquidised bread, 4 and 6 mm expander, dead reds, wetted mirco and some corn.
The whistle went as I was returning from the cafe scoffing a large bacon and sausage bap, I just sat on my box and finished it. I cupped in a small amount of micro feed on each line and went over to the 2 o'clock far bank line first with a small piece of bread, after about 2 minutes the float sailed away and the result was the fish below.

There used to be loads of these in Rushcombe, commonly known as 'carrots' but talk is the cormorants have had a feast on them as they tend to swim around in big shoals near the surface so are easy prey. I won a winter match once with over 18lb of them, this one was about 6 ounces. Well at least it looked as if there would be a few bites today, the previous weeks match was only won with 4lb. I then went over the 10 o'clock far bank line and had a couple of dips but no proper bite. The time was 10:30 ish and that would be my last indication for the duration of the match. To my left 2 pegs away was Paul Pitts who  caught small carp steady all day feeding nothing and presenting to a far bank bush that had been spared the harsh pruning, branches were in the water so I guess they were all shoaled up tight in this refuge area. Looking around no one was really catching at all and there were a few walkers. Andy came around at 15:30 and suggested we finished the match at 15:45 instead of 16:15 there were no objections.
Weighing in first was Ian Swanborough, he was not going to bother but glad he did as his 3 oz gave him a section by default!!! Andy Bryant also won his section with 7lb 8oz, he had a good peg (52) by the bridge, before he weighed in he gave the on lookers a run down of his peg and his match performance, the picture is taken with his back to me as it's more complimentary (sorry Andy), for once he was 'fishing in the right place'.

The match was won from the other side of the bridge to Andy by Dave Evans who again had a few features that had not been pruned back, Dave had slightly better fish than Paul to my left.
Overall it was a hard day, only half the field weighed in but as usual the company and banter was good.

1st  Dave Evans 27lb
2nd Paul Pitts 21lb 13oz
3rd Mouse 8lb

Next Sunday there is a Clevedon Club Match on Woodlands Lake which is part of the Trinity Waters Complex just outside Bridgwater.

Tuesday 24th January Fish for a tenner open Acorn Fishery Kingston Seymour

The Tuesday fish for a tenner opens at Acorn have been running all through the Winter and are organised my Mike Chapman from the SW Disabled and over 55's Angling Club. Not sure why they are advertised 'fish for a tenner' as he took £12.50 off me! I later learned that £2.50 was for the Silver Pool. Starting off from home at 08:15 for the 09:00 draw the weather was ok temperature wise but there was drizzle and a bit of wind not too strong but it would be worse on the moor where the fishery is located. I arrived at the cafe on site at 08:35 and there were quite a few anglers already there tucking into breakfast. This is the first Tuesday match I have fished here, a quick look around and soon identified a few familiar faces (roll on retirement, some of these guys fish 3 times a week). I came across Andy Smith who I had not seen for years, Andy used to (not sure if he still does) run the old Severnside League made up of Post Office and Telecom employee's but later became known as the Avon Commercial League, in the main fishing the Avon above Bath and up as far as Melksham plus the odd match on the Gloucester as well as the K & A Canal, I was surprised to seem him on a venue such as this as he used to be an out and out river angler. Today there were 19 anglers in total.
Into the draw bag and out comes ping pong ball number 18, not brilliant to be honest but 19 anglers across 40 pegs would give everyone a spare peg so you never know.
I was going to walk but given the rain I decided to drive to the peg as did everyone else, I could use the car to shelter from the wind which was getting quite strong. I set up 3 rigs, one to fish at 10 'clock and 2 o'clock at the bottom of the far shelf approx 11 meters out and 5 foot deep, one to fish up the shelf straight in front at 13 meters with 4 foot of depth and one down the track 6 meters out with about 6 foot of water, all rigs had 0.10 hooklength to an 18 maver invincible. I intended to fish a variety of baits on all lines but feed only a small amount of micro with a few casters via a kinder cup. There was a match the previous Sunday so a lot of feed would have gone in. On my right on peg 16 I had Andy Smith who appeared to have only set up a waggler rod (told you he was a river angler), I didn't know the guy on my left but he had a bridge peg which are sought after this time of year.

View from my peg

The whistle went at 10:00 and I fed all 3 lines except the one at 2 o'clock, I went over to this line first with just a single maggot to see if anything was about. Keeping the line out but dragging it slightly from side to side I had a bite after 15 mins but did not connect. I went out again and put a few micro's in the pot which produced a bite almost straight away and a 6oz skimmer was in the net, back out again and nothing, re-feed as before and again nothing. I put the 6 meter down the track rig out with maggot and it sailed away first time, another small skimmer, next put in I hooked into something big, felt like a big carp which as foul hooked and came off, bugger. Net over on the shelf with corn which produced a good skimmer about a pound, nice, then a small pasty carp then it went dead again. I did try the 10:00 line but it did not produce a bite all day. I put a few maggots in the kinder pot and tried the 2o'clock line again, the fish responded and I started to put a few skimmers in the net with a couple of tiny roach but there was only an hour left. I had a decent last hour but was probably too late although as far as I could see no one had really bagged up.

At the weigh in I had 6lb 9oz of silvers and my carp went 1lb 2oz, I beat the anglers either side of me and I was top in the silvers at this point with about 6 to weigh in. I asked Mike how many he was paying out for silvers he said just the one due to having under 20 anglers. Three from last to weigh in was the Somerset Legend that is Charlie Barnes, Charlie weighed in 7lb 2oz! I was one skimmer away.

Top weight on the day was that man again Dave Wride who had 10 carp for 38lb 10oz, that's 3 pick ups in a week.

1st Dave Wride 38lb 10oz

2nd Mike Owen 29lb 7oz

3rd S Belcham 29lb 6oz

Silvers

1st Charlie Barnes 7lb 2oz

2nd Ivan Currie 6lb 9oz

It was a hard day for everyone just wished I sussed the skimmers out earlier. There is a Bristol PO match on Rushcome Lake at Bullocks Farm on Sunday so I hope to fish it all being well.

Sunday 22nd January Clevedon Club Match Plantations Horseshoe lake

This match was scheduled to be fished on the main lake at the Plantations complex but had to be switched to the smaller Horseshoe lake due to only 9 being booked in. Apparently an open had been arranged on the nearby Acorn Fishery which had affected the number of attendees. I was not concerned as Match Secretary Barry Fowler had done the decent thing and sent us a text a few days beforehand.
The draw was to be held in the main car park due to high levels of soft mud on the approach to Horseshoe but a couple of anglers still drove their vehicles and one ended up being pushed out at the end of the match. Why don't people listen to good advice?
Anyway I paid my £20 to Barry who informed me we were now down to 8 anglers due to Darren (aka Nudd MBE and venue expert) having to take his daughter to a party. No worries, it's a day out and there would be loads of room for everyone.
Into the sensas draw bucket and out comes Peg 2 (permanent peg 3) not my favourite area to be honest but would have to make the most of it. On arrival I had James Gunter to my right on peg 1 and Dave Baker on permanent peg 5), James has drawn this peg 4 times in 5 matches and done well.

View from my peg

I set up 3 rigs one to fish at 6 meters out in front for silvers, one at 11 meters for silvers and one at 13 meters to the island for carp. Both silver rigs had 0.10 and a drennan 18 silver fish pellet hook at the business end, the carp rig had 0.13 straight through to a maver mt6 16 with a few 10's as bulk and one 10 as a dropper. I fed all 3 lines at the start the short one with liquidised bread, the long silver one with green swim stim and caster and the carp with wetted micro and a few dead reds. I fish the bread fish and after 30 mins with regular feeding not an indication. Straight over on the long silver line with double dead red the float slowly goes under and a 1lb perch is my reward, nice. By this time James was blanking and Dave had a couple of roach. Out again and a small roach, then another and another, I was topping up the feed via a kinder pot. I rested the long silver line and fed the near one with caster and went over on my carp line with corn, no response from anything, I changed between dead red and live maggot, no movement at all. Back out on the long silver and few more roach give themslves up then a nice skimmer around 2lb. I rested this swim and came in on the short line again and had a few roach. Dave had a few small carp and James was also begining to catch including a carp around 6lb. Needed carp if I was to stand a chance so back over with double maggot, I did not have to wait long for a bite which resulted in a small carp around a pound and then a couple more, I foul hooked a better one around 3lb which messed up the swim but did land it. The rest of my match continued nicking a few fish here and there, I knew James had more than me but I had more than Dave. The usual bankside rumours and the jungle telegraph indicated that Simon Carvello had a few fish and the far leg of the Horseshoe had produced a few good weights.
Weighing in started on my bank, Simon Carvello on the end had 26lb 2oz, some really big perch and skimmers plus small carp around a pound, next to weigh was Phil Nash who had a similar bag to Simons but beat him by an oz! Dave Baker did not weigh, I weighed 11lb 12oz and James had 18lb. On the far leg of the lake Barry weighed in 14lb plus next to him Rob Fogg pictured below with his catch had 44lb 8oz.

Next and what seemed to be miles from any other angler was Dave Wride who said he had more than 40lb. Bloody right he did there were 3 nets in the water 2 carp and 1 silver! Dave weighed in 126lb 4, only 1lb 14oz was silvers. Dave caught all day on expander over 2mm pellet at 11meters. What a catch on a January day and on a lake that a lot of anglers ignore. Dave is pictured below with part of his catch.

1st - Dave Wride 126lb 4oz
2nd Rob Fogg 44lb 8oz
3rd Phil Nash 26lb 5oz

I have a week off now and may go to the Tuesday tenner open at Acorn, decorating permitting.

Sunday 15th January River Kenn Clevedon

With no Club event on this weekend I was in two minds whether to go out or not. I had a busy week behind me and a night away from home up in Northampton. I passed through Clevedon on the way to Congressbury on Saturday so I stopped to have a look at the river. The pegs toward the sea wall looked very inviting, the colour and flow appeared to be spot on as well. I remember in March 10 Kev Perry took 77lb of bream off peg 4 on bread.

So that was it then I would go on the Kenn the next day, come on you bream!
Sunday came and I got up just before 09:00, no point in rushing had a bit of breakfast and liquidised a loaf of bread. I was loaded up by just before 10:00 and headed of to Olivers in Clevedon for a few maggots, I had some worm from a few weeks ago. It's handy having Olivers close by, he opens about 07:00 and closes around 12:00 I believe.
I arrived on the bank about 10:30 and set up on peg 4, it did look nice, although it had been a cold start the sun was soon making it feel more comfortable and there was a light downstream wind, the tide was almost at its height as well so a run off and steady flow should be spot on for the waggler. The wag was set up, 3AA float to 3lb line and a 0.09 hook length with a 20 hook. I also set up a small cage feeder, to a 0.10 hook length and a 16 on the end. I was looking forward to the session.

View from my peg

I started off by putting a few balls of bread in down the middle which was about 4 foot deep and fired a few maggots across toward the bottom of the far shelf which is about 2.5 to 3 foot, I kept feeding both lines but put the wag up the bank after an hour as I did not get a touch. An hour passed on the feeder with bread and again no indications. I tried the bread in the feeder with double maggot on the hook but again the tip was motionless, I did have a smashed / stretched maggot at one point so there was at least one fish in the swim. Back on the wag again far bank and down the middle, not a sausage and that's how it ended I'm afraid. The Kenn has been good to me over the years but this year has been a disaster for most anglers and you would be luckly to find anyone fishing it. Back in October I won a Club match with 3 perch for 8oz!!!! (that was worth almost £10 an oz).

Next week we have a club match on Plantations again so need to draw up a plan this week, is it take a chance on carp or just go for silvers no matter where I draw - we'll see.

Sunday 8th January 2012 - Clevedon Club match Plantation main lake, Kingston Seymour

I generally look forward to fishing the main lake at Plantations, in the past it has been pretty good to me. My best ever match weight here was 98lbs of carp in January 2009 on the straight lead and corn. What made it even more special was the lake was covered in thick ice on arrival and had to be broken with a rowing boat before we could start fishing. I only came second on the day, Craig Tucker won with 137lb of the next peg on straight lead and bread.
Today was a full house, 20 fishing even though there are 40 pegs. Mark Walsh turned up on spec but had to be turned away, so he headed off down the road to Bullocks Farm. Quite a few of the Sensas Thyers guys turned up (also Clevedon Club members) along with some other very capable anglers so drawing the right peg (whatever that looks like) is always important. So having paid the annual Club membership fee of £5 and £20 to enter the match including pools I was looking to get a few quid back today.
Match Secretary Barry Fowler was in charge of proceedings (Barry gets a lot of stick but he does a good job, plus I don't see anyone else volunteering to organise the events). Into the scrum around the draw bucket, manage to get my hand in and out comes peg 25, 26 was not in, neither was 24 and I had the choice of an island chuck. To be honest I was quite happy and didn't waste much time getting to the peg. I had Paul Faires to my left on 27 and Glenn Calvert to my right on 23, both very good anglers and usually hard to beat.

View from my peg

Glenn was always going to go for silvers given that he was in a bay with no island chuck, Paul's peg did have a lot of form for carp just of the point of the island and in front on the pole for skimmers and roach.

I set up a small method feeder for use with a hair rig, a waggler to fish banded pellet and one pole rig to fish for silvers at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock at 13 meters. At the all in I feed a small amount of wetted micro and a few casters on the pole lines then out went the method with wetted mirco in the mould and  piece of corn on the hair rig. After 10 mins the liners started and again and again after each cast for the first 30 mins, I heard Paul on 27 was experiencing the same. Next cast the hair rig was left outside the mould which resulted in a half hearted but positive pull round and a 3lb plus common was in the net.

Ah ah cracked it, how wrong could I have been. After another fruitless hour the method rod goes behind me and I try the wag with 8mm banded, I had been firing out 8mm over to the island as I had noticed some fish blowing and even coming to the top. Casting was awkward because of the trees behind me and it wasn't long before I snapped off after catching a branch on the cast. Out comes the pole with double dead red and I bump a decent skimmer, back out and I foul hook a carp which comes off, things are starting to go wrong. The anglers I could see were not catching a lot so I refocused and after a few more put in's had one of the Planataions big perch about 2lb (they have been caught 4lb and over). I continued to catch the odd roach and small skimmer but by now I could see Glen on 23 doing quite well on silvers, Paul on 27 was also sticking to the pole and getting a small roach each cast.

It was quite hard and catching 1oz or 2oz roach was not the action I was looking for so I tried the method and wag on the odd ocassion but not a sausage.

The highlight of the day was watching John Woolsencroft (prob wrong spelling of his surname) try to land a duck after hitting it on the back with his method feeder, I managed to get the camera out in time although he was a bit far away to zoom in properly, judging by his sign language to me he does not appear to be happy (lol)

Anway the weather was kind and it was great to fish the first match of the year, I didn't trouble the scales too much with 7lb 14oz, either side Paul and Glen weighed in around 12lb of silvers, had I stuck to the pole would prob have not been that far away from them.

The other side of the lake fished much better with Richard Healey wining the match.

1st Richard Healey 57lb 5oz peg 4 or 5

2nd Dave Baker 33lb 4oz peg 30

3rd Mike Owens 31lb 12oz, not sure which peg

Silvers

1st Mark Bromsgrove

2nd Paul Faires

Next Club match is 22nd January, back on Plantations, need to sort myself out and stick to a plan.

1st outing of 2012 - Apex Lake Monday 2nd January

I wasn't really sure whether or not to fish over the New Year long weekend or even where to go but bought some maggot and caster plus some bream 3000 from Cadbury Angling on New Years Eve just in case, I had some worm plus various pellet, corn and some green swim stim in my bait store at home. In my mind I was thinking Apex Lake would be a good choice as I have had some decent winter bags there in the past but just don't seem to get around to fishing it as often as I would like. After a relaxing day on the Sunday due to waking up with a mild hangover I went to bed and set the alarm for 7:20am on the Monday. Got up within 10 mins of the alarm going off and looked out to find the weather did not appear to be too bad. By 08:45 I was in the car park unloading the car, The wind was typically blowing towards the housing estate from the sea and the temp guage in the car stated 6.5 degrees, the wind made it feel a bit colder. I decided to put all the bream fishing best practice and theory to the test and fish into the wind, I settled on Peg 3 which has plenty of water in front of it. On the way round I noticed one angler was fishing in the 'no fishing zone' but did not ask how he was getting on. Another angler was on Peg 6, he had been there about 2 hours with nothing to show and suggested most anglers had been struggling of late. I looked at his end rig and saw a 10mm white hair rigged bolie being buried in among some groundbait, I didn't suggest to him that his chances of any action would be limited. Back to Peg 3 I decided it would be a one rod attack and set up my trusty 11.5ft drennan medium feeder rod with a 1.5oz tip, 3lb reel line, a small cage feeder and a 3 foot trace of 0.10 preston power line to an 18.
I mixed up some bream 3000 and swim stim, 50/50. On the bait tray was 1/4 pint of dead reds, 1/2 pint caster and 1/4 live reds plus I cam across some near death pinkies in the bottom of the carry all.
Cast out 3 times with a few casters and pinkies in the feeder at about 35 - 40 meters and clipped up. After about 20 mins a skimmer about a pound is safely snared by 2 dead reds, the bite was postive and set the scene for the rest of the session. Within a few more casts a decent skimmer about 2lb graces the net again on 2 dead reds, the the heavens opened and the wind got worse but with my head down still concentrating on the rod the tip goes around and stays there, carp me thinks but no, picking up the rod the typical feel of a good bream and a real beauty at around 4lb. Two other anglers turned up opposite me with their backs to the wind and brollies up, very comfortable but only saw them catch one fish between them in the 4 hours I was there. I continued to catch skimmers every so often and missed a few bites as well. On one occasion I cast out and before the feeder hit the water the rod was suddenly pulled skywards, I found myself playing a duck, the line was screaming of the reel and in an effort to stop the reel double handle going around I cut my index finger and brused the nail, the duck escaped non the worse for wear unlike me, that was worth £250 on you've been framed! I packed up at about 2:30 but no one was about to take a picture of me with the catch so just quickly laid them out on the grass and took a snap before returning them safely to the water, overall a good days fishing which is often the case when not properly planned and done on the spur of the moment. Overall the fish weighed between 25 - 30lb. Apex Lake is controlled by North Somerset AA, day tickets can also be purchased in most local tackle shops and Veals (the old Thyers shop) is open in Highbridge on Sunday mornings I believe. I will certainly be back to Apex soon.