Sunday 27th September - Clevedon Club Match Woodlands Lake Trinity Waters

I was in two minds whether or not to fish this event but halfway through the week sent Match Secretary Adie Baker a text to confirm my attendance. Woodlands is a decent sized venue and a pretty fair one at that with  a good head of silvers as well as the carp, pole, waggler and straight lead all work as well. The weather on the Saturday was glorious and another good day was forecast for the Sunday. Clear skies on the Saturday night meant it would be cold over night and the early part of the Sunday morning. With this in mind I put in some bread to fish 'popped up' style. I had read a report a few weeks ago were an angler done very well on the method even though it would normally be a winter tactic.
Got to the draw in plenty of time just behind Club Chairman Steve Bonwick who was running the match today in Adie's absence with the help of Club Secretary Barry Fowler. 15 were booked in and it was good to see some old faces and a couple of new members as well. The draw was pretty civilised and no diving in or pushing (think they were still in shock over the Wales v England game).

I pulled out Peg 27 which I was happy with as I believed it had form. It was also nice to see the new Peg Cards provided by Cadbury Angling.
For company I had Nick Harvey on 26, 28 was vacant and on 29 was SensasThyers Captain Lance Tucker. I decided to keep it simple to day with a pole line at 14 meters with banded pellet on the deck and another banded pellet rig for both margins. A shallow waggler rig and a straight lead rod were quickly assembled from the ready rod bag. The only bait I had was pellets and a 70p small white loaf.
On the all in I fed the two margins with micros and wetted 6mm and then went straight out on the popped up bread in the middle of the lake feeding 6mm with the catty on the 14 meter line while waiting for the tip to go round (I hope). Lance started off on the waggler shallow and had an early carp, Nick next door also started on the straight lead as did a few others around the lake. After 30 mins I could not see that anyone had caought except and those on the straight lead went on the pole. It was not looking good even though there were a few fish showing on the surface. I continued to feed pellets on the 14 meter line and pinged a few 8mm in the middle of the lake every few minutes over the lead line. I suppose it was about 45 mins before the tip went around and a 3lb common was netted. Another 20 mins passed before it went around again cloely followed by another. At this point in the match I still could not see anything being caught. Nick asked if I was catching on the bread and I confirmed I was. Lance came down for a walk which indicates how hard it was. I decided to stick it out on the bread and continued to put the odd fish in the net over the whole day. I did try the pole and wag breifly without success. On the all out I felt I had done enough to frame at least.

Barry Fowler was first to weigh and put some quality carp together for 40lb of an early corner peg.

Rich Heatley had a run of fish late for 45lb 10oz

New member Matt Roden went into the lead with 49lb from the bottom corner peg

There were a few lower weights over the next few pegs and then it was me, all carp on the bread for 72lb 6oz

Lance or Nick did not weigh, on the peg after Lance was new member Mike Pickering with a personal best perch.

Mike with his nice perch

Fellow Royal Mail colleague Paul Fairs was last to weigh in from corner peg 33 which he did not fancy but caught some right munters of the pole and pellet for 69lb 10oz

Results as follows....

1st      Ivan (the bread) Currie 72lb 6oz

2nd     Paul Faires 69lb 10oz

3rd     Matt Roden 49lb

Silvers

Andy Deavereax    11lb of nice skimmers

Weigh sheet

Another club match next Sunday at Avalon

Dave Fowler Snr Memoral Charity Match River Kenn 20th September

I could not fish this match but here is the Press Report:

There was an excellent turnout for the Clevedon Freshwater Angling Clubs annual Charity Match in memory of club founder Dave Fowler Senior which was held on the river Kenn. Leading up to the match the river had been fishing well producing good nets of fish to pleasure anglers. A bright day, clear water conditions coupled with a mid-day tide made the fishing really difficult and fish were hard to come by. Jeff Surman drew peg 30 just below Strode Road and fished the long pole all day with maggot on the hook enticing two big bream and a smaller skimmer for a match winning 11lb 12oz. Paul Faires was second with a bag of small fish for 6lb 13oz followed closely behind by Paul Randell with 6lb 3oz for third place. Mike Owens won the ‘Guess the winning weight’ prize by only being 1oz away. More importantly £630 was raised for the charity Men Utd v Prostate Cancer. The club would like to thank the Blue Flame for their hospitality, Ecolab and local angling shops Veal’s, Cadbury, Oliver’s and Reel fun for their sponsorship.

Winner Jeff Surman (right) being presented with the Charity Shield by Chairman Steve Bonwick

Ireland 2015 - Arva

First time staying in the Arva area of Co. Cavan and our base was the Breffini Arms which is a 2 star hotel but more than adequate. The hotel is also the HQ for the Arva Festival which was on at the same time but we chose to pleasure fish and get aquainted with the area.
First couple of days we fished Gullado Lake and had easy access to what is known as the narrows but still 100 meters or more across.

Steve with a nice bag of mainly roach

25lb of roach and hybrids on the pole at 14 meters

Tony struggled a bit at the top end of the narrows mainly because Andy (aka Turtle) was talking to him non stop for 6 hours, Turtle had a bit less, he don't like his pic taken.

For the next 3 days we concentrated on the deeper part (30 feet) of Glasshouse lake and kept to the same swims as it was noted for bream and a couple of ex pats were there as well giving us advice.

My peg on Glasshouse for 3 days

Steve connected with a bream quite quickly but would there be more>

Tony netting a skimmer

Difficult day 1

I managed 1 half tidy fish, rest were skimmers

Tony stuck at it and had a few skimmers

After his connection was fixed Turtle was in contact with the rest of the world or was it the porn channel!

Day 2 on Glasshouse was a little better for me

On the Friday we fished Town Lake in Carrigallen which was only about 7 miles from Arva, we took a look at it late Thursday afternoon and were informed a couple of anglers had bream out on a point, there was evidence of ground bait in a couple of swims. Sadly on the day the fish only showed for Steve.

3rd in the John Smiths 1996  Steve with some of his tidy skimmers

Turtle also beat me off the platforms much to his delight.

Just 5 minutes walk if that from the hotel was the huge lake Garty and I decided to fish it on the last day (Saturday as we had a night crossing), the other guys declined. Reports suggested it was full of roach and only around 5 feet deep. I did set up the pole but at 14 meters it was only about 2 feet deep so set up a waggler instead and found around 5 feet at around 25 meters with a 3AA wag. I had a great few hours putting 13lb of quality and I mean qualty roach in the net.

Town end of Lough Garty

My catch of quality Garty roach

As an overview of the Arva Festival, here are the final weigh sheets as you will see a lot struggled

A couple of the team also fished the Inniscarra Festival at the same time and anglers down there also struggled. Still and enjoyable week away and rubbed shoulders with Kev Ashurst.

We were also keeping an eye on Steve Ringers Facebook concerning the World Pairs and saw on the last day on his way to the venue he got taken out by a Royal Mail Van. I was tempted to ask to stay for another week to do the investigation! Thankfully no one was hurt and Ringer Bros cleaned up anyway.

Not fishing the Clevedon Charity Match tomorrow due to family committements.

Off across the water

Within 10 hours I will be heading off to Cavan for a weeks fishing with 3 mates and I am just about ready.
Anglers within the South West please note the following....

Details can be obtained by telephoning Adie Baker on 07988736722

The Kenn has been fishing really well with good mixed bags and there are bream showing if conditions are right. Go on give it a go and support this worthy cause.