Sunday 18th August - pleasure session Crane Section Bristol Avon

I have made myself available to fish for Cadbury Angling in the Commercial House League this Autumn / Winter, there will be 4 matches on the Bristol Avon and 2 on the Kennet and Avon Canal, it remains to be seen if I get the call up for all or just a few of the matches. The first match is on the Crane and Jack Whites sections of the Bristol Avon near Keynsham, the stretch is controlled by the Bristol and West of England Federation, Clevedon is a memeber Club so I had access to it for free.There was an Inter Club up at the Swineford end today but would not come down as far as where I wanted to fish.I had intended to fish the middle of the Crane but after an hour or more walking up and down the bank and dismantling the trolley 3 times I could not get a decent swim as they had all grown over, I did try hacking a couple out but by the time I got to the waters edge I was still too high off the bank so I ended up walking all the way back down and found a comfortable swim just opposite the old Soap Works where there is now a boatyard and a whole community living on barges.

This is where I ended up very comfortable.

I have fished in and around this peg before but many years ago and had good bags of roach on the pole. So the pole was set up at 13 meters which reached the middle of the river and the main flow, rather than use a pole float I set up a crow quill, 10BB and a No.6, hook size 8 mirco barb and the rig was just tripping bottom at 12 feet. I mixed up a kilo of Noire and a kilo of brown crumb, a nice sticky mixed for when hemp and caster is added stays together quite good and does not break up on the way down. That was it, 'simples' I put 4 balls in via the pole cup just in case it would be hard, first trot down with red maggot, float buried and a 4 oz chublet was swung in, this patteren repeated itself for the next 5 or 6 trots the went quiet. 2 more balls went in and the bites starts coming again but I was getting bitted out with bleak. I had the odd fish over the next hour but nothing big. I went for hemp on the hook and immediately had a roach about 4 oz and then a few more. A guy came up to me and asked if I had seen a bank stick as he thought he left it behind last Friday, 'no mate' but how did you get on, 'lots of roach on hemp and tares' I knew I sould have brought tares. I tried double caster and did get lots of bites resulting in some roach but mainly chublets. At around 2 o'clock I was starting to get a steady stream of small fish then as I was bringing one in, a pike from the deep grapped it, didn't think 6 elastic could stretch that far on a match top 3 but it did, eventually it let go. Over the next 2 hours I counted 8 takes by pike inbetween landing the odd fish. I did manage to land one, some how the 18 hook found it's way into the side of its mouth so it could not bite the line. I had a cracking day, lots of bites, the excitement of the pike and on a river that I absolutley love.

A walker kindly took this pic of the catch as I was packing up. Overall I had around 8 lbs of bits and the pike was approx 5lb ish.

The pike that did not get away.

Not sure what I am doing next weekend, unlikely that I will fish the Monday match at Acorn, I also have some builders in this week so may have to clear up after them but we'll see.

Advance Notice - Open Match August BH Monday

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club will be running an Open Match Monday 26th August on Paddock Lake Acorn Fishery Kingston Seymour.
Draw 09:00.
It will be a turn up & fish, no booking required £20 all in.
We intend to close the lake completely for the match, fishing will be 1015-1615 if anyone does require info they can email adrianbaker71@hotmail.com

Clevedon Club Match Durleigh Res Sunday 11th August

Match Secretary sent out a few texts concerning this match and was struggling to get the numbers due to people on holidays and others committed to the SW Super League on the Bristol Avon at Newbridge. In the end he managed to get 9 including 2 new members. The Ranger was good as well as he charged us £80 instead of the regular £120 for the Lodge Bank. I had gleaned some info prior to the match of James Gunter who won the last match a few weeks ago with 58lb of bream, micro and 4's by way of the method feeder with 8mm banded on the hook. It goes against the grain a bit with me fishing this way but hey ho. The other alternative was roach fishing, 52lb of roach was 2nd last time. On the day all 9 turned up, it was a fairly relaxed afair peg 1 would be just past the sailing hut and then everyone else paced out 25 meters after that, so plenty of room. I drew peg 9 which is a fairly good area, the res was very low and you needed to wade out and set a platform up or extend the seat box legs, the wind was up and blowing into the corner of our bank, theis coloured the water so was looking good. Kev Perry and Andy Hembrow were fishing, these guys fish here at distance but have the rods and reels to do this were as the rest of us use conventional river rods.Carp today would count as their true weight and those fishing at distance were expected to do well. I set up my method rig and a waggler rod, why I do not know when I planned to fish top 2 but on the day for roach, my thinking was to stick it out for bream, only the top two were being paid out. I had clipped up at about 50 meters using a 30 gram feeder and picked my far bank marker, this would be comfortable enough given the wind factor. On the all in I set about putting a bit of bait in first, 5 casts with no hook bait, on my 3rd cast with pellet on the hook the tip went round (I was surprised at this, mainly due to lack of confident in the pellet)and I landed a small skimmer about 8 ozs. I had a few more bites in quick sucession but was difficult to hit them, on reflection I should have used braid. Match Secretary Aide was next to me and he also was getting skimmers. I did catch quite a few hybrids some of them bumped off due to the distance being retrieved and on a barbless hook. I could also see new member (who new what he was doing) fishing the top 2 and getting a roach a chuck. At the halfway mark I shouted to Adie to see how he was doing, 'a carp about 6lbs and a couple of 3lb' was his reply, didn't see him catch them which proves I was concentrating! At the all out I was first to weigh, I thought maybe 8lbs but the scales went 12lb 8oz.

Ivan 12lb 8oz

Next to weigh was Adie, he had a nice net of silvers including some hybrids and a carp that was very thin, Adie said he came in really easy and he didn't know it was a carp until he got it near the next, he weighed 28lb dead.

Adie 28lb

New member and local lad Adam Palmer could hardly pull his net out, all roach, it looked like he had used a trawler, just a massive net of silver bars, mos to them around 3 - 4 ozs, it took two weighs for a fantastic 61lb 14oz, I did not get a pic as it was hectic and I was weighing in but here is the man himself.

Adam 61lb 14oz

The weights were as follows:

1st Adam Palmer 61lb 14oz

2nd Adie Baker 28lb

3rd John Page 24lb 9oz (nearly all roach)

4th Kev Perry 14lb

5th Mike Fairless 13lb 8oz

6th Ivan Currie 12lb 8oz

7th John (the duck) Wolstencroft 10lb 1oz

8th Rich Fogg 9lb 6oz

9th Andy Hembrow DNW (snag pit swim)

Durleigh has changed this year roach seem to be the better option than sticking it out in the hope of getting bream.

Press report for local paper as follows:
 ‘Adam Takes Command’
Royal Marine Commando Adam Palmer used all his local knowledge and skills to win the latest Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club Match which was held on Durleigh Reservoir just outside Bridgwater. Conditions looked good for bream but at the end of the day they failed to show in any numbers. Adam Palmer read the conditions right and took a bit of a risk going for roach at the outset and he was rewarded with a massive 61lb 14oz winning bag of them made up of fish between the 3oz to 4oz range, it is estimated he caught approximately 250 fish all at 4 meters fishing and feeding caster. Second was Match Secretary Adie Baker with a mixed bag of fish including a carp around 6lb for a total weight of 28lb, Adie fished at distance using the method feeder. Third was roofer John Page with a mainly roach bag for 24lb 9oz.

Press report Clevedon Club Match 4th Aug Woodlands Lake

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club returned to Woodlands Lake Chiltern Trinity just outside Bridgwater for their latest competition. Anglers fished in changeable and sometime fierce conditions but kept focused on the match resulting in 11 of them weighing in over 50lb each, the lowest weight was 30lbs. Popular baits used on the day were Pellet, Luncheon Meat and Paste fished on the pole. Top angler on the day and who won by a considerable margin was Paul Nichols who from peg 31 caught a magnificent 154lbs 10oz of carp. Second was newcomer Simon Ryall who from peg 14 on the opposite to the winner weighed in 104lb 8oz. Third was regular framer Nick Harvey just three pegs away from Simon with 89lbs 8oz. On the silver fish front top weight went to Mark ‘the paste’ Walsh with a nice net of skimmer bream for 26lb 5oz, second in the silver fish category was Mark Bromsgrove with 19lb 8oz.

                                   Paul Nichols coached and sponsored by Darren Nudd and below                                                         Mark 'the paste' Walsh

Saturday 3rd August Chippenham AA Open upper Bristol Avon

The Clevedon Club has a Match today on Woodlands Lake Trinity Waters but I did not fancy it. I did find a river match run by Chippenham AA, I have fished their waters before and done reasonably well, good head of roach and chub, access is also ver good. The draw was 13:00 with fishing 14:30 - 19:30 so a late return home. On arrival at Riverside Drive I met up with kev Williams the Match Secretary who informed me only 10 had booked in but this was increased to 12 before the draw, not that it mattered to me as a days fishing always comes first with a bit of an edge to it. One of the anglers who booked in late was Gary Etheridge a very experienced river angler who has enjoyed a lot of success fishing for silvers. Another reason why numbers were a little low was because the usual Devizes Anglers were fishing the Div 2 National. So back to the match, I asked if waders would be needed and was informed that all the pegs had platforms. I drew peg 30 and was told it was the scaffold peg! when I got there I could see why. A number of scaffold bars were positioned in the bank and clamped to allow access down to the platform it was quite hazardous as the banks were wet so carefully does it to get all the gear down. A chat to a couple of loacals about the peg told me it was about 5 feet deep in the middle shallowing up to 3 - 4 feet on the far bank. Bream sometimes show on the next peg downstream but unlikely todsy. I set up a wag at 3 foot for across, the pole at 10 meters and a tip rod that was never used. Bait was mag, caster and hemp with some worm, a kilo of Noire was also mixed up. At the all in I balled in on 10 meters (only 4 small ones) and set about the wag attack sparying caster and hemp, lots of bites and very small chublets, bleak and roach in the first hour and a half (about 2lbs worth) then it stopped. I kept topping up the 10 meter line but kept the wag line going hoping they would come back (I thought about 10lbs would win it). Then disaster as I cast out the line caught in a branch behind me and I broke the top eye of my rod (about 1 inch so repair or insurance job? not sure yet). So out on the pole line and first put in the float buried and a 6 oz perch was netted. I kept getting the odd fish but nothing exciting. At 18:00 it was if a someone sounded the dinner bell and the roach came on, in that last hour and a half I put 4lb in the net. At the weigh in I put 5lb 15oz on the scales, the angler above me had 6lb and the one below 5lb 12oz so very tight and I was reasonably pleased with my efforts. The match was won from one of the first pegs (early 20's) with 22lb made up of 2 chub and the rest roach, not sure of the anglers name but a local. Kev Williams the match secretary was second with 15lb of roach from the other end all caught late in the last half of the match. I'd love to go back there but their next open is New Years Day! Day tickets are avialble, check out their web site http://www.chippenhamac.org.uk/ Backto work tomorrow, I think we have a match on Durliegh next week.