Sunday 19th April - Clevedon Club Match Paddock Lake Acorn Fisheries Kingston Seymour

On the Saturday prior to the match a few of us met up at our Lake (Paddock) to do some maintenance. I got there about 09:00 and Rob Fogg and John Sallis was already there sorting out the ride on lawnmower and strimmer. John was getting harnessed up and then off he went doing the edges. I swept the platforms and too over the strimmer later from John as his hands were playing up. John does not fish much these days so fair play to him for turning up.

John Sallis

Rob was in charge of the mowing or did he just want to practice for when he gets a mobility scooter later in life.

Rob Fogg, there is a similarity to Noddy!

A few others turned up, Pete Johnson, Bob Newton and Steve Bonwick. Steve and I painted the last bridge and by the time 13:00 came the Fishery was really tidy. Some work to do on a couple of platforms but will contract that out.

So... on to Sunday, match day. Draw was at 08:30 and we were meant to be fishing against a Bristol Club (BRM FC), I think they had 10 but wanted to fish on their own and not enter any pools so they were allocated 10 pegs in a row (30 - 40ish). Another small Bristol Club (Muller Rd Buses) had booked 10 pegs as well so they were given pegs 20 - 30 leaving the 17 Clevedon members booked in 1 - 20. This is the most I have seen on the 40 peg lake so would be interesting. Given all the above the draw was 15 mins late as Bev in the on-site cafe had a full house to cook for as the Frys Club were on the top lake. I had all the ping pong balls in a small rucksack and at the halfway point asked match secretary Adie Baker (who was not fishng today) to draw me a peg. Adie pulled out peg 6 which is not to be sniffed at, the peg has good form and a very short walk. I had never fished it before  but knew were to concentrate on. 

 Peg 6 my office for the day

For company on peg 7 I had Pete Johnson who had helped with the maintenance the previous day. Below Pete Mike Owens and Kev Perry were also on good pegs plus in form angler Nick Harvey was on island end peg 5 (another peg with form). 

The sun was out from time to time but there was a bitter cold easterly wind gusting at times. I only took pellet and paste with me. Plumbing up I had about 3 foot at 13 meters straight across towards the end of the bridge which met the island and exactly the same depth more or less the same distance at the other end of the bridge. I set up 2 identical rigs to fish banded pellet just in case one got smashed up saving time, no messing about 0.13 straight through to a 16 drennan wide gap carp hook. At 8 meters straight out in front I had about 5 foot and planned to fish soft pellet over micro. A paste rig was set up as well for the long lines. Fishing was to be 10:15 - 16:15. The money was well spread out with top 3, top silver and 3 sections.

On the all in I fed mixed micro and wetted 4mm over the two long lines and just micro at 8 meters. I started long straight across lifting and dropping an 8mm on the band and started to get a few indications. Carp were moving all over the place and it appeared they were getting ready to spawn. After five mins the float buried and I had a foul hooker on which I lost at the net. Back out again and before the float settled the end of the pole bent round and I was playing a pasty about 2lbs, properly hooked and was soon in the net, I had about 5 carp in the first hour straight across all the time feeding with the caty down to my left on the other long line. They were not big but I was content enough as I could see not much was being caught around me. I kept switching between 8mm and 6mm on the band. A look down to my left hand swim in the second hour produced a fish stright away followed by quite a few foul hookers which I did not land, very fustrating. I continued to swap between both long lines all day feeding about half a pint of micro via the kinder cup and about a pint of wetted 4mm via the caty. The 8 meter line was not fished and a few put in's with the paste had only small roach attack it. 

I was trying to keep a count of the weight as there is a 70lb net limit (I don't usually have this problem) and at about 14:30 thought I better use my silvers net for any further carp (it was empty and I could not see me catching any silvers anyway). just in case. At the all out I thought I must have around 70lb ish.

The scales started in my section on peg 9, Mike Owens was first to weigh and had 40lb 8oz in total including silvers of 1lb 8oz. Pete next to me had only a couple of carp and did not weigh. My estimate was almost on the nose and only 6oz out weighing 70lb 6oz.

Part of my 70lb odd

The scales went onto the 3 island pegs next, Nick on peg 5 also done well weighing 63lb 2oz.

My weight was enough on the day for 1st place.

Results as follows....

1st Ivan Currie (Maver Cadbury Angling) 70lb 6oz

2nd Nick Harvey (Sensas Thyers) 63lb 2oz

3rd Dave Stevenson (Clevedon) 42lb 7oz

Silivers Mike Chapman 4lb 9oz

A Section Mark Walsh (Clevedon) 18lb 3oz

B Section Kev Perry (Sensas Thyers) 36lb 8oz

C Section Mike Owens (Sensas Thyers) 42lb 8oz

The local Labrador had some fun at the end of the match with Nick throwing its toy into the lake.

To avoid getting wet I stepped back and fell over onto my backside not seeing a beagle behind me causing much amusement.

No fishing now for a couple of weekends, off to Norway on holiday.

Sunday 12th April - Summerhayes Open

Following release from House Arrest after the Easter Weekend I was keen to get back on the bank. I was drawn to Summerhayes again despite a 60 pegger planned for the Saturday. I booked in for the Sunday Match on the Wednesday and at that point only 6 had booked in but was assured more were likely to book in later. The draw was to be at 09:45 with fishing 11:00 - 16:00, Sellicks was to be the lake but Lilly included if over 17 attended. I arrived at the venue around 09:20 and there was already a full car park and others still arriving as there was nothing else on around. I think the final total was 25 so Lilly would definetly be in. Speaking to Kev Perry in the car park he was keen to show me some a picture of some nice golden trout he caught down at Hawkridge Res best one at over 7lb. Like me Kev enjoys a bit of fluff chucking for a change so I must get back down there soon.

So .... on to the draw and it appeared most were hoping to avoid Lilly Lake. I have never seen it let alone fished it but anglers who had already drawn it were on a downer before they started. I drew Lilly, so did Kev and fellow blogger Jamie Rich. 8 pegs were put in on this lake and to be fair they were well spread out. Jamie did inform me there had been some big bream stocked in the lake recently and the numbers varied between 7 and 17 depending on who you asked. Jamie was a couple of pegs to my left and round a corner whilst Kev was on the other bank at 13:00, most anglers could see what would be going on. My peg (5) looked ok with some reeds to the left and they were twitching on a regular basis but I have been tempted here before and lost gear and became very fustrated. So the plan was margin to the left and two lines at 13 meters at 10:00 and 12:00 where the depth was pretty even and about 5 feet.

 Lilly peg 5 my Office for the day

On the all in I cupped in some meat and 4 mm pellet down on the margin in 2 places, some mirco on the 10:00 line and started on banded 6mm feeding hard 4's straight out in front. At this point the wind was blowing straight in my face and very strong at times making presentation difficult. I had a couple of dips but not resistance at all on the strike but I stuck at it for 40 mins or so as the angler to my right was fishing a waggler and managed a small carp. I kept the feed going in and was still continuing to get small dips. I had a similar top kit set up but with a straight no 16 drennan carp for fishing soft pellet so gave it a go still feeding hard 4's. Within 10 mins the float dipped and te no. 10 elastic came out but the fish did not race off, it soon became apparent it was a decent bream of about 4lbs, happy days. Another 20 mins or so passed and I had a slightly smaller sample. I think by this point Jamie had one as well along with a few bits. I decided to rest the line now and have a look in the margins with meat, again a couple of odd dips and then the float sailed away and the culprit snagged me, should have seen it coming. I lost the rig but set up again and had another look. With 10 mins I had a carp on but it was foul hooked and all I landed was a scale. I tried the 10 o'clock line for the first time around 2 o'clock I had been topping it up all day and was expecting to get a few fish after they gained some confidence but it just did not happen. Kev had started to put a few fish in the net mainly sticking to the banded pellet approach straight out in front of him, he had a couple of bream as well. The angler to my right was concentrating on his right hand margin and was also starting to put a few carp together.
I fed a new line short at 8 meters as I saw Jamie had a few silvers short including another bream and fished soft 4mm for the majority of the remaining 2 hours were I managed a few carp (small) and some bits. Although it was a difficult day in many respects and a poor draw I did get my head down and enjoyed it.
On Lilly the results were as follows by peg.

2    33lb 12oz
4    29lb 6oz
5    20lb 2oz    (me)
7    22lb 14oz  (Jamie)
8    21lb
10   DNW
12   33lb 8oz (Kev)
14   DNW

So not a awful let in it.

Jamie has the full results results on his blog http://againstmenandfish.blogspot.co.uk/ and as you will see Sellicks fished much much better and the winner also had the Golden Peg!
Team mate Dom Sullivan also had a good day coming 2nd so check his blog out as well http://caughtshortsullivan.blogspot.co.uk/

Next up is a working party on Acorn on Saturday followed my a Clevedon Club Match on the venue on Sunday.

Summerhayes 29th March and Acorn 4th April

Getting a bit behind with updates concerning my outings due to workload and family business resulting in a lack of energy but hopefully past that now altough I have a busy year ahead.

Summerhayes 29th March.

I took the plunge the other week and booked into the Summerhayes Fishery Open on Sunday 29th March, I knew it would be on Longs Lake so a chance of some of the 70 odd big bream they have stocked (4lb - 5lb fish). What I did not plan was to fish in a hurricane. I did have a chance to catch up with semi professional blogger Jamie Rich (Against men and Fish) and a regular at the venue.
Jamie has a fair bit of info on his blog concerning Summerhayes so I thought I would be as prepared as I could and I had been on the Fishery twice last year. I drew peg 39 which was the golden peg as well so no surprise that I ballsed it up.
I did fish the traditional micro and soft pellet approach about 10 meters out on a couple of lines but only had a few small skimmers and foul hooked a carp which spat the scale back at me. Down to my left near the big white sign with the Fishery number on it that you can see from the M5 motorway I fed a few wetted number 4's by hand and the noise did attract a few fish from under the sign very very late in the match and I managed to snare 4 of them giving me a combined total weight of just over 11lb and way (way) down the weights on the day. It was hard to concentrate and keep an eye on your gear throughout the 6 hours in the heavy winds which changed direction.
The results overall on the day were surprisingly good, Jamie has the full results (and he did ok himself) on his blog http://againstmenandfish.blogspot.co.uk/

Clevedon Open Saturday 4th April

Clevedon had a Club Match on Sellicks Lake at Summerhayes on the Easter Sunday, I could not fish due to a family gathering so booked in for the Clubs Open on Acorn which will be held every other Saturday now. 4 from the Team had booked in so we had a good presence within the 17 that entered and were well spread out over the 40 pegs avoiding a few pleasure anglers.
I don't know what it is about this lake but it appears to be very nice weather wise everywhere else until you arive here. A stiff breeze was around making presentation at distance a little difficult. I was on island peg 4 and Thyers Captain Lance Tucker on 2 so we had a fair bit of space. I had a decent skimmer after 10 minutes on soft pellet over micro at the botttom of the far shelf but that was it across for the whole match. A few more smaller samples in the middle came to the net but nothing to speak of.
Peg 5 was to my left and I had fed number 4's by catapult down towards the pallet. I fished banded 6mm or 8mm over this line after a couple of hours and managed a good run of carp, lost a few as well (foul hookers). Lance put a steady number of fish in his net throughout the day catching mainly across, not sure what he was using as hook bait but I suspect it was soft pellet as he had a nice net of silvers plus carp to win the match with 64lb. I done ok with just over 42lb for 6th on the day but felt as I should have won it had I tried the nearside earlier and at variance distances.
Team mate James Gunter was 2nd and another team mate Dom Sullivan was 3rd.
Results below and see Dom's view of the match on his blog http://caughtshortsullivan.blogspot.co.uk/

Undecided about this weekend ... Summerhayes?