Sunday 27th December - Clevedon Blind Pairs, River Kenn

 14 Booked in for this match and everyone turned up despite the weather. Storm ''Bella'' hit us the night before and dumped a load of rain across the West Country. When we arrived for the draw the Kenn was dirty and pushing through quite a bit plus it was pretty cold. Shame really as the day before the river was spot on.

Match Secretary Adie Baker paired up the pegs above and below Strode Rd Bridge and when my name was called out I was given peg 22 not bad at all under normal river conditions. I was paired up with the angler on 38, another decent peg and Dale Sutor had that. A quick chat with Dale and off we went.

I was expecting to have to stand in the mud but the river was only a couple of feet below the bank so decided to stay out of the water.

I had a big overhanging tree to my right so this would be where I looked first. Loads of debris coming down but in addition to the feeder rod I set up a 6bb crowquill to inch it down the inside. Worm and maggot would be used but also had a pint of caster just in case.

The line and bait had to be cleaned off every time I reeled in and after 2 hours not an indication on anything. 

A couple of bank walkers confirmed it was fishing hard with just the odd small roach caught plus reports of a small tench above Strode Rd.

Jeff Beasley below me on 20 had 2 small roach at 5 meters and Barry Fowler 4 pegs above had 4 roach on the stick float.

The second half of the match I went right across with the maggot feeder where there was a bit of a slack and positioned the rod more or less vertical to avoid the weed coming down. 

I had one of the maggots mouthed when I brought it in and that was the only evidence of fish in the swim. 

So .....blankity blank for me along with half the field, my partner Dale had one small roach.

Andy Law came walking up with the scales and couldn't believe I had blanked. Andy did as well but his partner John Sallis had caught a bream and a small carp, that would be the winning pair then I thought.

Back at the results John and Andy were indeed the winners picking up £60 each. John had been on 36 and after walking the bank having a moan he went back to his peg and put the straight lead out down the inside with 4 maggots on an 18 and caught the bream, small carp and a roach.

John Sallis with his winning bag

The winning pairs John and Andy

Full results as follows....

1st John Sallis & Andy Law 6lb 8oz

2nd Kev Perry & Matt Davis 1lb 9oz

3rd Steve Bonwick & Paul Nichols 12oz

Well that's it for 2020 despite the ''lock downs'' I have fished more than ever and it's been a busy year blogging.

The highlight for me this year was qualifying for the Evesham Festival in my first season of trying, I hope to give the qualifiers another go this year.

I was booked in for the Roy Carter Memorial on the Glossy tomorrow but that's been cancelled by the CRT, given the guidelines I was not able to go out of my tier 3 area anyway.

It looks like i will be under house arrest in North Somerset for a while now so will try and fish the rivers Kenn and Axe plus Acorn Fishery over the coming months.

Happy New Year to all my readers.