Sunday 8th April Clevedon Club Match Woodlands Lake Chiltern Trinity

Today kicked of the Clevedon Club new events calander. The first match was on Woodlands Lake which is part of the Trinity Waters complex near Bridgwater. I have probably only fished the lake about 8 times over the past 3 years and have had mixed success, the most I ever weighed here was 58lb of carp up in the water for 2nd, I had a 1st back in February when it was freezing with 9lb and I have won the silver pool before with just over 22lb of skimmers. 19 Anglers today which was good given it was Easter Sunday and we had 4 new peple turn up as well. We were greated by the lovely Misha and her dad John with free tea and coffee just before the draw, they really make you feel welcome here and they put in an awful lot of effort and continue to develop the fishery.
08:30 draw and I pull out Peg 3, crap and not known for its bagging potential. A match was held on Good Friday and the top weights we were told came from the other end of the lake, great. To be honest my head was down and as Aidie Baker walked past me he made the comment ' you can't draw well on here can you Ivan' stating the obvious I know and was of little comfort. Anyway lets get on with it and keep it simple. 2 rigs straight in front at 14m, one with a banded maver16mt6 and one with a straight maver mt5, depth was about 10'. Margin rig for both left and right maver 14 mt5 for fishing the meat or paste and about 3' deep.
I was almost set up and Paul Faires came around for a walk, stopped by me and said this is not normally very good Ivan, or words to that affect, I was just getting over my mild depression as well! Must have been a tactic!!!!!
All in and I went straight out after baiting up all lines with mirco and 4mm, I had on of tescos finest prawns on the hook, after 10 mins the float dips and the 12 elastic leaves the pole slightly, an near 1lb roach comes to the top? After a while same again (on the prawn) but this time a 10oz skimmer! I had one foul hooked carp after and that was it for the 14 meter line. Kev Perry on peg 5 had a couple up in the water so I set up a shallow wag but after 30 mins an half a pint of 6mm and with nothing to show back up the bank it went. Paul Faires on 29 was having a field day catching carp up in the water on meat.
There was now just over 2 hours left and I started to see some bubbles in the left hand margin. First put in on meat I had a carp about 4lb, I stuck with it and had a few more including a zoo creature of about 8lb. I ended up assisting with the scales and there was only one set, it took ages. Anway Paul Faires won it, pic below with his catch and the press report is copied below. I ended up with just under 31lb, all in the last 2 hours or so, I finished in the top 10.

Clevedon Fresh Water Angling Club began a new series of events by holding a competition on Woodlands Lake which is part of the Trinity Waters complex at Chiltern Trinity near Bridgwater. Despite the Easter holidays 19 anglers competed in the variable weather conditions. The top half of the lake was bathed in sunshine and a light breeze while the anglers in the bottom half faced a head on chilly wind. On peg 29 was Nailsea Postman Paul Faires who had a red letter day and weighed in a magnificent 83lb 6oz, a first class performance. Paul pole fished luncheon meat up in the water at 13 meters straight in front feeding 4mm carp pellets for the majority o his catch although towards the end of the match he took a few fish from the lake margins.

Second on the day and from the opposite side of the lake was venue expert Andy Hembrow who caught on various methods and weighed in 54lb 8oz. Third and not far behind was Clevedon Match Secretary Barry Fowler who pole fished 13 meters out in front using maggot, worm and pellet on the deck for 53lb 11oz of which 21lb was made up of quality skimmer bream.

The next match is in 2 weeks time at Bullock Farm Kingston Seymour. Full details of Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club can be found at http://clevedon-fwac.webs.com/

1^st Paul Faires 83lb 6oz

2^nd Andy Hembrow 54lb 8oz

3^rd Barry Fowler 53lb 11oz

4^th Tim Lewis 53lb 9oz

2 weeks time we are on Ruscombe Lake at Bullocks Farm, not sure about next week yet.