Sunday 30th March - Clevedon Club Match Shiplate Farm Main Lake

This was my first outing for about 4 weeks and it was to be my 3rd visit to the Main Lake at Shiplate Farm, I have done ok ish in the past but never enough to frame. When you look at the match results for this fishery most of the good weights appear to come from either of the two canal lakes. It can also be very peggy and today was no different. 16 were fishing today and Rob Fogg was in charge of proceedings. Draw was at 09:00 to give people a lie in due to the clocks going forward. Into the draw basin and I pulled out Peg 12, so around the far side for a change. The weather was glorious and most were in polo shirts. The wind usually catches this lake due to its position but it was more or less flat calm for the first half, it did get up later on and was straight in our faces on the far side which affected the presentation and most struggled in the last few hours. Fellow Maver Cadbury Angling ( http://www.cadburyangling.co.uk/)Team mate (Commercial Branch lol)was fishing the open on West Pool and gave me a few of his special soft pellets to try, and I did catch on them, plus they stayed on the hook better than mine. After talking to Andy he advised me to stick to 13 meters and just fish soft over mirco. So 3 lines were set up with 2 similar rigs and a couple of heavier carp set up's in case the lumps moved in (but they seldon do for me).

set up on peg 12 with plenty of room

So 3 lines fished all day on soft pellet over micro, for a change I stuck to the plan. 4 carp were landed on 5 elastic and I had 6lb odd of small skimmers, total weight 27lb ish and  10th over all, 4 anglers DNW.

Lewis Jones won the day with 63lb 14oz of a kind of end peg with a natural bank (instead of big stones), all carp down the edge except for 1lb of silvers.

Lewis Jones

Noted peg 1 produced 2nd place, rarely out of the frame this peg, on it today was Rob Fogg who fished mainly corn down to his right for 55lb 15oz of lumps.



Rob Fogg

3rd place was Clevedon legend Kev Perry who drew peg 13 and after getting advice from Lewis Jones fished 8mm hard pellet all day over pellet at 14 meters to net 53lb 14oz.



Kev with his catch

Another team mate James Gunter had a decent days fishing trying out his new drennan pole and bagged this nice net of silvers for 15lb odd.



James Gunter

Although a decent net, Mike Owens on the next peg had a great day and took the 1st in the silvers place with 32lb 10oz.



Mike Owens

So let that be a lesson to me, must try harder. Woodlands Lake at Trinity next week.

Still catching up on sleep, work and what's been happening on the angling front while I have been away

I got back from Thailand last Sunday night after a 12 hour flight from Bangkok, prior to boading the plane at Bangkok we had an hour flight up from the Phuket region. It has more or less taken me up until now to recover, a busy first week back at work did not help either. In addition to this going from 34 degrees to 9 or 10 was hard. Our outbound flight from Heathrow was on 1st March and heres who I met while waiting to board the plane.

Really nice guy and we talked about some of his extreme fishing programmes as well as the funny side of fishing, he was telling me that the Discovery Channel are taking on the rights to the programme so lots more to follow from Robson. I should have done an interview for Jamie Rich http://againstmenandfish.blogspot.co.uk/
Only saw him again waiting to get his passport checked the other end, no doubt he went Business Class.

While on holiday I looked high and low for a proper fishing charter but most of them catered for tourist with either hand lines or sharing a fishing rod for 15 mins at a time, not me really,there was another commercial type fishery but grossly overstocked and over priced.
Overall the holiday was fantastic and I would put it in my top 3 of all time. I have to say the Thai women play 'ping pong' different to us lol, that was a whole new experience.

On checking my e mails last week I had these two pictures sent by Clevedon Club Secretary Scott Smallwood, both he and Simon Carvallo had a good last day on the river Kenn. Check Simons catch out, 45lb to 50lb of roach from peg 98, yes roach and some real dog's among them.

and Scotts tench.....

Who said the River Kenn had no fish!!!!

I did not go out today as I had a few jobs to catch up on as well as some work, but did manage to get the Fly Fishing gear ready as Chew opened yesterday so a visit needs to be planned soon. On Wednesday we have a Maver Cadbury Angling Team meeting to discuss the forthcoming SW Super League, with matches on Gloucester Canal, Huntspill, K & A Canal and the Bristol Avon, can't wait. Next Sunday there is a club match at Shiplate Farm so hope to attend that.

Still catching up on the other blogs so look forward to reading them - tight lines and good to be back (I think).