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.