Sunday 24th March Summerhayes Fishery Open

I was in two minds what to do as the week progressed, there was nothing on locally and I didn't really fancy a days pleasure fishing. I had thought about doing a bit of fluff chucking on Barrow Tanks which is part of the Bristol Water Resovoirs complex for some trout but talked myself out of that (its hard work and can be very fustrating). The wife has also gone to Eygpt with her mum as part of a cruise, I did suggest they consider Somalia but the look said it all. I had the whole weekend to myself but gave fishing on Saturday a rest and decided to book into the Sunday Open at Summerhayes Fishery just off junct ion 25 of the M5, I have glanced over at it many times while heading north towards home but never fished it. Pete the owner gave me the heads up when I booked in and was really helpful. The fishery has a website as well but could do with updating. So with the directions written down I was ready to go.
Heading down the M5 it was really nice, off at junct 24, right at BMW Garage, left into Marsh Lane and then it appeared I entered war torn Afganistan, the road (well it was a road at some point in time) was full of holes and the surface all broken up, next I had to go under the railway line and its the smallest tunnel I have ever driven through (had to breathe in), came out the other side and thought it didn't look right. Fortunetly a lady was out doing some gardening and when spoke to assured me I was going the correct way. Sure enough on the right hand side was the fishery, I was surprised how many ponds etc there was.
Quite a few anglers were already there some from Exeter, some faces I had seen before but cannot remember where or when. I did however recognise Jamie Rich whose blog I follow and enjoy, introduced myself and had a chat with him, I also recognised some anglers from the photo's he publishes. Into the Fishery Hut and paid my £18 (smell of bacon was fantastic).
Draw at 09:00 and I pulled peg 38 right in front of the car par and I had 2 empty pallets to my left and one to my right, in fact I was billy no mates which would suggest if the other pegs wer not in its pretty crap this end! Anyway there were a few fish showing. I set up one rig for 10:00 and 14:00 right across on the lower shelf where I had about 3', 4 x 12 Sensas CCX to 0.13 and 0.10 hook length to a 16 Maver MT6 for banded pellet, Another rig similar set up to fish the middle (it was about 4' deep) but for fishing soft pellet and finally the nearside pallet rig, which was 0.15 with a 4 x 12 straight to a Maver MT5 for fishing paste. Wetted micro and 4 mm hard to be the feed, I also had some green swim stim made up for the middle line.
Whistle went at 09:00 and I fed all my lines, it only took about 10 mins to get my first fish on the banded pellet at 14:00, a small stockie about 1lb, I then had a run of crucians then a skimmer about 2lb and so it continued. I was doing OK and keeping up with the anglers I could see. At the end of the 2nd hour the lake just seemed to switch off. Down to the left hand pallet with paste, float buried and a small carp was soon mine, back again and another, then a load of missed bites. I could see Bod Gullick on Peg 1 catching regularly from some sort of timber construction just past a disabled platform, that appeared to be the only place he could get a bite (in the shade).
I was first to weigh and had 7lb odd of silvers and 8lb of carp, total weight 15-09, rubbish I thought, next angler to weigh had 23lb, then a DNW, then 8lb, then a 52lb ish then Tom Thick with 60lb odd then hardly anything. I walked around a bit and it would appear others had definetly struggled as well.
I have to say the guys that fish here are really friendly and make you very welcome. Jamie done well setting out what he wanted to achieve by winning the silvers (must have been the irish handshake that brought him good luck), see his blog (link below) for the full result.

http://againstmenandfish.blogspot.co.uk/

I will definetly return as they have Wed and Sun opens every week. I can still hear the motorway traffic though. No pics this week left camera at home.

Sunday 18th March Clevedon Club Match Acorn Fishery Kingston Seymour

This was the final club match on the 11/12 calander, on top of this the club championship was also riding on the result, well 1st and 2nd place were taken care of and it was Match Secretary Barry Fowler and I fighting for either 3rd or 4th place (coin was also involved), going into the match Barry was lying 3rd but his position could change depending how we both faired. I arrived at the fishery in good time to have a breakfast, not the £5.50 gut buster but the smaller £3.75 model which is basically one of everything instead of two. A match had been fished on the venue the previous day and 70lb odd won it with good backing weights, matches are fished on Acorn every Tue, Sat and Sun now which is a lot of pressure, I didn't think it would fish that well. Peg 36 has been in the in form area. At the draw I pulled out peg 38, Barry drew 34 - interesting!
I have never been on this part of the lake before and was reasonably content. On my left and on bridge peg 40 was Adie Baker who had already won the club championship, Barry was the next angler to my left. Plumbing up I found a deep hole at 11m straight across and approx 6' and at 10 and 2 o;clock I had about 5', nearside margins were around 2' as the lake level was down about 2'.
3 rigs today 4x14 to 0.13 and 0.10 hooklength with a 16 mt6, either side exactly the same but shallower, down the margins 4x14 straight through on 0.13 to a 16 mt6. Feed in front was mirco and dead red, either side green swim stim, micro and dead red, margins a mix of micro and 4mm.
First put in straight across and after 5 mins with dead red on the hook a foul hooker which I landed, the fish was around 2lb. By this time Adie on peg 40 had two in the net fishing in the shadown of the bridge (he has been drawing well this year), never mind Barry was blanking. Out again and after a 20 min wait this time on soft 6mm I was in again, proper mouth hooked and about 3lb or so, Adie was still catching small carp, Barry still had not had a fish. I then tried the other two distance lines and only could catch small skimmers and baby tench on soft 4mm. Down to my right hand margin produced on a skimmer about 1.5lb. Most people I could see were struggling so I just kept adding small skimmers when I could and a couple of more carp graced the net. At the weigh in I had 8lb of silvers and 15lb of carp, Barry weighed in 12lb.
Top weight on the day was Simon Carvallo pictured below with 58lb 4oz, Simon caught very late in the match at 16m when the wind dropped on banded 6mm.

2nd was Mike Owens bridge peg 34 with 45lb 12oz, micro feed 6mm soft on the hook, pic below.

3rd was Adie Baker bridge peg 40 with 45lb 6oz! Adie caught on all sorts, pic below.



In summary Simon was on an end peg and 2nd and 3rd anglers were on bridges.
I finished 6th overall.

In terms of the club champion (best results from 12 matches).

1st Adie Baker wins £132
2nd Simon Carvallo wins £105
3rd Ivan Currie wins £75
4th Barry Fowler wins £55

Nothing scheduled for next week but will have a look around to see whats on.

Sunday 11th March - Bristol Avon invitation match

Press report which I sent off to local papers and Anglers Mail......

On Sunday 11^th March an invitation competition was held between Kingswood and Hanham Royal British Legion, Clevedon FWAC and Bristol Post Office on the Crane stretch of the Bristol Avon. The river looked in perfect condition and with warm temperatures and little or no boat traffic everyone was expecting a good day. Pike were a nuisance however and attacked a number roach prior to them being netted, one competitor even managed to land one which was around 15lb, unfortunately they did not count. Clevedon provided the overall winner by way of Paul Faires who caught small roach consistently all day using a pole, 1.5 gram float and bronze maggot or caster on the hook for a total weight of 7lb 14oz. Bristol Post Office angler Paul Pitt was not far behind with 7lb 12oz and joint third was British Legions Les Williams and another Post Office angler Leigh Wakefield with 7lb 2oz.

1^st – Paul Faires, Clevedon FWAC 7lb 14oz

2^nd – Paul Pitt, Bristol PO 7lb 12oz

3^rd – Les Williams RBL and Leigh Wakefield Bristol PO 7lb 2oz

Sections

Steve Brown Bristol PO 1lb 3oz

Julian Pinkett Bristol PO 7lb 0oz

Me, well I weighed in 3 fish for 3.5oz but in the 6 pegs above me the top weight was 1lb 2oz!!!

Pic below is of Paul Faires who just scraped a win by 2oz.

Next Sunday back on Acorn lets hope there is not a frost and I get a decent draw.

6th March Tuesday Tenner open Acorn Fishery Kingston Seymour

This will not take long.....
Given that I have the week off work I booked into the Tuesday Tenner open at Acorn. I arrived 20 minutes beore the draw and paid my £12.00! £2 was for the silvers pool, looking around I counted 18 anglers but there could have been more. A discussion with Paul Faires beore the draw suggested a peg in the 20's would be good. I draw 26, a bit too high a number for my liking 22 or 23 would have been better, Paul drew 18 and immediately stated he was going for silvers.
There had been an overnight frost and the sun was high really bright, if you look at the two pics below you will see conditions were not great (how blue is that sky)

view from my peg looking up towards lower numbers

view from my peg face on

Over the match I landed 3 carp (only one hooked in the mouth), lost 6 foul hookers, 1 chub about 1lb, 1 skimmer abouy 8oz and a small roach bumped a couple of good skimmers as well. Peg 23 on my left blanked and the peg above him did not weigh as he only had 3 carp about a pound each. I estimated I had about 8lb. I quickly walked around the lake and most people were chucking their nets up the bank. I did see a 34lb weight and there was a silver weight of about 5 to 6lbs. I established taht there would be a ew other nets of 6 to 8 carp. That was it for me so back to the peg and put mine back. A hard fustrating day with the fish not interested in feeding but then it was the same or everyone. As usual at this time of year the bridge pegs did a lot better than the others.

On the Bristol Avon again this weekend.

Sunday 4th March - interclub Clevedon v Frys Bristol Avon at Keynsham

We were meant to be on the River Kenn today but a text message from Match Secretary Barry told me it was now on the Bristol Avon, to be honest it was a bit of a relief given the poor form of the Kenn over the last year. It was an 08:00 draw so up at 6:15 and was greeted by cold rain which was forecast for most of the day, car temp indicated it was 8 degrees outside. Arrived in the former Fry's Chocolate factory car park at 07:40 and most of the Fry's guys were there (these were the hardened river anglers and not the puddle chuckers brigade). The rest of the Clevedon mob arrived giving a total match attendance of 15. Talk in the car park was that it was fishing hard. Into the hat and I draw peg 26, you'll be ok there Ivan says Dean Harvey from Fry's, that peg won it last week. With what I asked, one bream was the reply! Where is it then I said ' you see that pylon (which was about 5 miles away), just head for that and its to the left!!! The walks are long on this section of river. Loaded up my barrow and another guy says, you won't need all that, lighten up like me, he had a rod holdall, a carryall and a bucket. I'll catch you up and show you your peg as I am on 28. Off I go and got to the peg without any trouble after taking everything off the barrow and loading up again to get over a fence. About 20 min later the guy on 28 arrives looking as if he needs the air ambulance.
The peg looked pretty good with a tree over hanging down the inside, see pic below.

view from my peg

Simple set up today, a feeder rod and a waggler rod to fish the crowquill which was already set up on a winder. Usual bait for the feeder a mix of green swim stim and sensas noire with caster mixed in. Hook bait was to be maggot, caster or worm. On the float down the middle I had about 12'.

Feeder was the first line of attack and after the second cast started to get bites (rattles). After about 30 min I eventually hit one and a small roach of about 4 oz was in the net. Hit and miss bites went on for about an hour and a half then all of a sudded the tip bent straight round and a bream was definetly on, after a short fight and a bit on inward panic a fish of about 3lb was landed. Straight out again with worm, positive approach which only produced more rattles. I did try inching down the float to hit these fish but did not have one bite. I stuck it out for the rest of the match on the tip and weighed in 6lb 2oz. As you can see the rain had finally stopped.

The match was won by Mike Weston (Fry's) with a quality net of bream for 34lb 10oz, Mike was miles away so only got this pic of him back at the car park, hes a real fashion icon don't you think.

2nd was Derek Coles (Frys) and not far behind with another net of bream and roach for 31lb 9oz, pic below.

3rd was Leon Hubbard (Maver Bathampton but fishing for Frys) with more bream for 30lb 11oz, pic below with part of his catch.

From our club we had 2 section winners, Barry Fowler with 7lb 2oz of nice roach (pic below and nice teeth Barry) and James Gunter (first time on the Avon) with 11lb 09oz (3 bream).

Needless to say Fry's won the match on weight, they had the top 4 anglers weighing in 120lb, what a fantastic result from a river.

Full result..

1st Mike Weston 34lb 10oz
2nd Derek Coles 31lb 09oz
3rd Leon Hubbard 30lb 11oz
4th Dean Harvey 24lb 10oz

Sections
D Harvey 24lb 10oz
Barry Fowler 7lb 2oz
James Gunter 11lb 9oz

What a cracking day, no blanks.