Ivan's Angle: Sunday 17th December - Clevedon Club Christmas Match, Acorn Fisheries

HO HO HO and a merry Christmas all.

This was my first match since the 12th November as I have been on holiday in Devon, the Caribbean and in Norther Ireland seeing family before Christmas.

Due to the match being held on a ''Commercial'' I had to replace elastic in my power top 2's as well as tie rigs and hook lengths. A visit to Cadbury Angling soon had me with all I needed for the ''dark side''. The gear will also come into play for our Clubs ''Blind Pairs match'' on the 30th December at the same fishery.

I had been following the match results on the lake and saw that a few carp had been caught ''dobbing'' bread. I have never done this before so spent a few hours watching how its done on You Tube. There were a few different approaches to this method but it was useful to watch.

The draw and breakfast was at the Bridge Inn half a mile from the fishery and I belief 31 were booked in but 29 turned up. We opened the match up to non members as long as they were happy to pay the addition £5 and quite a few did. A large breakfast was ordered and it was not worth waiting for, ended up leaving half of it. I sat with Mark Walsh to more or less lives at the fishery and does very well, so was able to pick his brains a bit as he fished a match on it the previous day.

Match Secretary Adie Baker was well organised and the draw began just after 09:00 with rising 10:30 - 15:30 then back to the Bridge Inn for the results and prize giving plus the raffle.
As far as the cash pay-outs were concerned there were 5 section pay outs, each £50 and then the top 3 would receive Meat Hampers, everyone else would receive a prize in the form of Christmas Fare (mainly alcohol lol).
I was about a third the way down in the disorderly due to the draw bucket but well happy when I opened up my peg card to reveal peg 6. I have had this peg a few times and done well of it. You can fish to the bridge and a couple of features in the corners.

Map of Paddock Lake, peg 6 bottom left hand corner

Next to me on peg 7 was Somerset Bagger Paul Purchase who like me prefers natural venues so we were both a bit out of touch with this carp fishing lark. To my right on the other side of the bridge, peg 40 was UK Carp Champion and England Carp Team member Mark Bartlett whose family also own the fishery.

Maver Cadbury Angling Team mate Glenn Calvert wo won the match the previous day with 57lb (from peg 40 dobbing bread) came around to me and put me right on a couple of things concerning the peg as 37lb had come off it the previous day.....dobbing bread! Glenn was on peg 14 and Scott Smallwood who also fishes for us occasionally was on bridge peg 34.

The air was very still and there was a small amount of cat on our corner of the lake but soon went by the time we were due to start. Mark on the other side of the bridge did spend a bit of time clearing ice from his peg. I set up 3 rigs, one to fish bread against the middle part of the bridge, I had to put a dolly butt extension on so it was about 14 metres across. While I was plumbing up I could feel a fish rubbing up against the line. One for the middle at 11 metres and one for my right had margin. Micro's, dead maggot and eat pinkie plus the bread was in the bait tray.

I was ready when the ''all in'' was shouted but decided to go for a pee in the on site toilet as I was directly in front of the house.

On my return I pole potted in a few samples on my middle and margin lines before going across with a double 7mm punch of bread against the middle of the bridge and starting off 6 inches of the bottom. I hadn't shipped out properly when Paul next to me on 7 could be seen playing a fish straight away. I had the rig bulk shotted with 3 no. 8 at this point and one number 10 dropper. As soon as it settled the float sailed away and it was also carp on for me. The no. 11 hollow was just right and a 3lb fish was soon safely in the net, happy days. I looked around as far as I could see and didn't see any other early fish being caught. Mark on 40 was fishing right across into the corner of the bridge his side and I saw him bump a few early fish. I think about 30 mins went by before I had my second bite and I believe it was foul hooked as it came off half way across and didn't feel right. Another bite followed and I missed it, more of a liner. I shallowed up a couple of inches and started to slowly lift and drag the bait towards the right hand side of the bridge and this brought me a few fish within a 20 min spell. The angler on 39 had a couple of fish down the track and also missed a few bites (not surprised as I could see his elastic hanging out the end of the pole). Mark also had a few in the middle of the bridge, he was feeding and I wasn't.

I altered the shooting on my rig spacing them out to allow a slow fall and this worked better giving me more fish. I really couldn't see much being caught and by 2 pm thought I was in with a shout as I had 9 carp with the best part of the day to come. I had a look on my other lines briefly but not a sign so didn't waste any more time on them and went back on the bread across. I added another 6 fish before 15:30 some of them were 8lb ish and I had one just before the all out.

I estimated I had around 60lb, 11 carp in one net and 4 in the other.

Paul on 7 had 3 carp and I think Mark had around 4 or 5.

While packing up Mark came around and said you must have about 30lb, I said no, 60lb plus. He said he kept missing bites as he was watching me....lol...

Keith May who was on island peg 1 came across to his van behind me with his gear and said...how many you got ...15... (how did he know that?), he said there had been a few fish caught on the island. I couldn't tell as my big furry hat that I wore during the match blanked my view to the island out.

3 of the 4 island pegs that were in did fish ok and my peg was in with them for the section money, it was tight but I did manage the section with 71lb 4oz, peg 1 had 60lb and peg 2 had 66lb.