Sunday 12th August Clevedon Club match Horseshoe Lake Kingston Seymour

Back on the bank at last, it seems to have been ages since I wet a line. While in Norway I was itching to do some flyfishing for salmon and trout and at approx £4 per day it would have been great value for money, I must return. Anyway back to the Club match, 14 booked in and 13 turned up, a couple of guys went down and fished the Frys AC match on Durleigh, not sure of the weights but Andy Hembrow said the levels were still high despite him leaving his hosepipe on for a week! Horseshoe or the Match Lake as it is named now looked spot on with lots of fish and I mean lots of fish cruising around as well as lots of evidence of bottom feed activity, recent reports suggested it would 'fish its head off' with Steve Bonwick predicting a lot of people would need 3 nets! The pegging was done prior to the arrival of Glenn Calvert and Paul Faires and they were asked to review the position of the pegs, I think they done a good job with plenty of room for everyone. We also had a new member 'Smudge Harvey' pictured below, I would have got a better picture but he was attacking me at the time, must have known I was a postie!

At the draw I pulled out a peg along the split which is a favoured area and about halfway up and on the right hand side with plent of deep water out in front and a good left hand edge. I decided to keep it simple today and just had soft & hard pellet, paste and meat. I was about 10 mins late in starting beacuse my rigs were either too short or too long. At 14 meters I had about 4 feet so decided to feed hard 6 mm and fish banded on the hook, in the middle about 8 meters out it was about 5 feet so was going to use soft pelllet or meat over micro, down the edge I had a nice 2 feet of water which was to the paste attack.

First put in down the middle I had a skimmer about 1lb 8oz and had a few more in over the next 40 mins, lots of missed bites and every time the kinder pot of micro's went in there was lots of feeding activity. I then had a good run of small carp up to about 1lb 8oz with the odd foul hooked bigger fish coming off. Meat also played it's part on this line with quite a few fish, I saw little point in going over to 14 meters when ther was enough fish at 8 meters. I had been feeding the edge with hard 6 and 8 mm, first 4 put in's I had 4 carp, it was now 2 o'clock and I could see lots of activity in this margin but kept foul hooking and bumping fish. A switch to a lighter elastic resovled this problem. Word on the bank was some anglers were struggling I knew I had had a lot of fish but they were small in comparison to the zoo creatures swimming around on the surface and not feeding. I weighed in 47lb 10oz, 7th on the day.

1st was Brian Slipper who put over 120lb on the scales, Brian had quality fish, pic below.

2nd was Paul Faires with just over 97lb, Pual had one net of pasty size carp and another net of bigger fish caught in the latter half of the match down the edge, pic below.

3rd was Rod Wooten with just over 79lb, Rod probably had more fish than anyone else but of a smaller stamp.

Top silvers of the day went to Glenn Calvert with just over 10lb, I think he beat me by aound a pound, there was only one place for silvers today. Glenn is pictured below with his carp net, this boy knows how to pose for a pic and looks more alive at the end of the match compared to when he first turned up (maybe that's his secret).



It was a good day out and I estimate between 450lb and 500lb was put on the scales, press report is below.

No slip ups for Brian

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club stayed close to home for their latest fishing competition and held it on Horseshoe Lake which is part of the Plantations complex at Kingston Seymor. On arrival lots of big fish could be seen cruising around in the warm humid conditions and seemed oblivious to the bankside activity as anglers arrivied andprepared for the day ahead. Steve Bonwick the club chairman predicted a big weight and he was not wrong. Drawn toward the top end of the split was Sensas Thyers angler Brian Slipper who took full advantage of a good peg and pole fished varous baits to his right and left hand margins for a magnificent 120lb 13oz of quality carp. Second was his team mate Paul Faires who was fishing more or less opposite Brian and used similar tactics for a total weight of 97lb 12ozs. Third was 'Mr. Consistent' Rob Wotton who had probably more fish than anyone else but of a much smaller stamp but never the less weighed in a respectable 79lb 8oz. Top Siver Fish net of the day went to Glenn Calvert with 10lb 5oz. The 14 competitors weighed in 450lb overall (all fish were returned to the water after weighing). If you would like to know more about the club please go to http://clevedon-fwac.webs.com/

1st Brian Slipper 120lb 13oz

2nd Paul Faires 97lb 8oz

3rd Rob Wotton 79lb 8oz

Silvers Glenn Calvert 10lb 5oz

Next Sunday we have a match at Shitlake  Shiplake Farm, report will follow.