Sunday 28th February - River Kenn

February has almost been a 'write off' for me with rivers in flood and having the dreaded lurgy cold and cough. Feeling much better I was keen to get out on the bank and on the River Kenn which has been fishing it's socks off. 7 loaves of liqqy had been in the bait fridge for a few weeks but OK and a 2 week old pint of maggot and caster (still sealed) and in good condition meant no bait bill. It's always important to check the tides for the Kenn as you need it to be running for any chance of success. High Tide was at 10:00 a.m. so no rush to get out of bed. I headed off around 9:00 and there was a bitterly cold wind, car temperature gauge showed 3.5 degrees but much colder due to the wind chill. I had a look at an area we call the 'cross waters' first where the old Kenn and a couple of ditches from the moor converge but it was pissing through so on to the town area. I stopped on Kenn Rd Bridge to have a look and it did look good, a couple of fish topped and the pace was nice even though the tide had not peaked. I was going to go upstream of Kenn Rd. bridge but saw that our car park gate was unlocked to decided to go below instead and out of the wind a bit.
I decided to settle in on the peg Scott was on a few weeks ago when he had his 11 bream and managed to position my box in a fairly solid area on the mud flats.

I was fishing for around 10:15 and the tide meant the river was more or less completely still and only the downstream wind making the waggler move. I decided to try the tip after 30 minutes after no sign of a bite even though I had been feeding bread regularly and fishing punch on the hook. Out went a small cage feeder with liqqy and a big piece of flake on a 14, again nothing. It must have been around 11:30 when Simon Carvallo came down the bank for a walk and sat behind me for a short while. Si informed me that a couple of anglers fished it the day before and blanked whereas another couple fished above Kenn Rd. Bridge and bagged up on the whip.
I picked up the waggler again and feed a few casters with double red on the hook, I suppose it must have been 15 minutes afterwards I got a couple of little dips on the float before it went under. The strike was met with solid resistance and I mean solid, at first I thought it was a big perch or a pike but Simon predicted a Tench. It did not give up easily and sure enough it was a Tench around 3lb.

It's been a while since I caught a River Tench and was most welcome.
That was it, no more bites, not a sign of a fish at all so packed up around 14:15.

We are running an Open on the Kenn on Sunday 13th March, details to follow.

Sunday 7th February - Clevedon FWAC Plantation Lake Winter Series

I was not part of this three match winter series as I could not fish them all. I did turn up on the River Kenn hoping to target the bream and big roach but did not even get the kit out of the car as it was in full flood and went home to do a few jobs instead.
I did turn up an hour before the Clevedon Match finished to take some pictures for the Press Report. Most anglers were struggling due to the weather, here's the report for the local paper.

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club continued with the second match of their Winter Series at Plantation Fishery Kingston Seymour. Despite the threat of storm Imogen which was beginning to make its presence known 20 hardy souls attended looking to gain or increase their points following the first match a couple of weeks ago. Due to the wind direction and strength presentation of bait with a float was extremely difficult resulting in most of the anglers reverting to ledgering techniques in order to keep the bait still. Drawing a peg with an island feature is an added bonus at this time of year as the fish tend to shoal up within the marginal cover they provide. Club stalwart and Life Member Kev Perry drew favoured peg 4 which had the end of an island straight in front of him. Kev used the feature and his experience to the full putting 70lb 14oz of carp together using a simple popped up bread approach which was enough for first place. Almost directly opposite Kev on peg 31 which provided the winning weight in the first match was Simon Carvallo who used a method feeder and pellet approach for 63lb 12oz of carp up to 5lb and second place. Third on the day was consistent angler and Royal Marine Craig Tucker with 51lb 12oz. The Club would like to thank Plantation Fishery for the use of their lake.

 Kev landing carp number 17 of 19

Simon Carvallo was only a couple of carp behind but pleased with 2nd place

1st    Kev Perry 70lb 14oz

2nd   Simon Carvallo 63lb 12oz

3rd   Craig Tucker 51lb 12oz

4th   Mike Owens 49lb 2oz

5th   Dan Dymond 46lb

6th   Mark Birdseye 31lb 6oz

Sunday 31st January - Viaduct Teams of 5

This was my second visit to Viaduct in the the Teams of 5 series. I agreed to fish the first two and young Lewis Walker will fish the last three. I knew I would be on Cary lake and have never ever fished it but picked up a few bits of info over the past few weeks. I was told the draw was crucial on this lake (isn't it the same everywhere) and they had lost quite a few silvers a while ago plus the carp are generally bigger. The guys asked me to do the draw for them so went ahead and was first in as Don had paid the pools earlier in the week. I came back with the numbers and the look they gave me was enough to melt an iceberg, the numbers did not mean anything at all to me. Chris had a good peg on Campbell and was the only happy bunny. I had 80 and was told its absolutely crap, thanks for the motivational speech lads lol. Most anglers who walked past me gave out appropriate amounts of sympathy although one angler spent a few minutes with me pointing out where my best chance would be, fair play and thank you.
Chris also come up from his peg and tried to console me and I talked a couple of options through with him.

Peg 80

Given that is was about 2' deep on the pole line and about 1' in the margins if I was lucky I decided to set up a waggler for silvers and just a bomb rod for out as far and cast in the direction as advised. I was set up with 30 mins still to go.
The anglers either side of me did not seem that overjoyed either so my target was to try and beat them.
The all in sounded and I went straight out on the bomb with meat as far as I dare, the water had some colour in it so the bread was left in the bag. While keeping an eye on the tip I fed casters via the catty at a few points for the waggler on a regular basis. About 15 mins in I was just topping up the catty pouch when the tip began to go around really slowly, liner I thought but hit it anyway. I connected with a solid munter and managed to stop it going around the left hand side of the spit and after a nervous few mins netted a right lump hooked failrly in the mouth. The angler 2 pegs to my right had a couple on the waggler casting to an areator while the angler in between remained fishless.Through the trees I could see them catching a few in the mid 80 pegs which was to be expected. Anglers on the far side were also netting a few.
After 2 hours without anymore indications on the bomb (tried corn, bread, maggot) I gave the waggler a try with double dead red and had a small skimmer about 8 oz. That'll do me thinks but it went quiet again. I searched around on the waggler throughout the remainder of the match picking up the odd small roach and skimmer inbetween having a look on the bomb. With 30 mins to go I decided to put on a small cage feeder with bread on the hook and first cast the tip went around and produced a skimmer about 10 oz, shortly after another followed (should have tried this earlier). That was my match. I weighed one carp for 9lb 8oz and silvers went 3lb 7oz for 12lb 15oz beating the anglers either side by a considerable margin so don't think I could have done any more.

Here are the whole results:

Not sure what's happening next week.... any river matches on anywhere or natural venues anyone?
Otherwise I will go on the Kenn, tides and weather permitting.