Sunday 9th December - Clevedon Club Match Rushcombe Lake

''What a load of Bullocks''

This was my first outing in a month and although not a huge fan of Rushcombe Lake at this time of year I was looking forward to wetting a line.
It was a 08:30 draw and I got there about 08:15, as I drove up towards the car park I saw that the Match Lake had been closed off and I could see a lot of the Frys AC guys. Was this to be an interclub instead? Not so Frys were running their own match and there were only a few of Clevedons anglers, namely 7! Which is poor and has been the case for a number of months, it also appeared there was some confusion with the booking but was not a problem as there was plenty of space and hardly any pleasure anglers.
Paul Faires pegged out and we were all huddled at one end but 4 pegs were put on the island which in my expericene always fishes better. I didn't draw on the island and I had Mark the 'paste' Walsh to my left and John the 'duck' Wolstencroft to my right. On the island was Paul Faires, Glen Calvert and Ady Baker.
It was going to be rock hard, the water was clear, down about a foot (how can this be given the rain we have had) and there was a chilly wind coming straight up the lake and into the face of Walshy, at the end of the match he looked like he had been on holiday for a week lol.
Simple rigs today (for everyone), 0.09 or 0.10 to a 20 or 18, little or no feed and dead or live maggot or punched bread on the hook.
At the beginning a few of us had bites from brown goldfish fairly quickly but then nothing. I think Ady caught a carp about 40min into the match and then don't believe he had another bite!!!
I caught 5 brown goldfish all day, Walshy caught a couple and John Wolstencrof who got his head down and fully concentrated almost right to the end blanked, not a bite.
On the island it was a different story, the press report below covers it.

Slow day on Rushcombe

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club members took advantage of a break in the recent adverse weather conditions and fished a match on Rushcombe Lake which is part of the Bullocks Farm complex at Kingston Seymour. A biting wind combined with low and very clear water made it a difficult day for most and bites were a premium. Competitors had to use ultrafine lines and small hooks and minimal feed to induce the fish into taking the bait. Glen Calvert took full advantage of a reasonable peg and put together a decent catch of small carp for a winning weight of 14lb 9oz. Glen pole fished to far bank features but in the closing stages of the match took two better fish from a halfway point and caught on dead maggot. Paul Fairs and James Gunter fought it out for second place with Paul just edging James with 7lb 8oz of small carp caught on bread to James 7lb 4oz.

1^st Glen Calvert 14lb 9oz

2^nd Paul Faires 7lb 8oz

3^rd James Gunter 7lb 4oz

Glen with his winning catch.

Next outing is the Clubs Christmas Match 23rd Dec on Acorn and Plantation, 20 pegs on each.

Bank Holiday Monday 7th May Clevedon FWAC Ruscombe Lake Bullock Farm

Well another wet start but it did stay dry for us to set up and there was the odd bright spell during the day but when it decided to rain in rained. I ended up with 25lb 10oz, carp on the meat at 11 meters across halfway up the shelf. I had a good first hour and a good last two hours in between it went dead. 1st on the day was John Woolstencroft who fished a tidy match for 43lb (meat) pic below, last time I took a pic of John he was trying to land a duck.

2nd was the photogenic Adie Baker with 41lb 12oz.

3rd was Barry Fowler with 32lb 12oz, pic is a bit blury because Darren aka 'Nuddy' in the background unfocused the camera lense!



Press report as follows - Anglers Mail, North Somerset Times and Top Peg.

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club fished their latest competition on Rushcombe Lake which is part of the Bullock Farm complex in Kingston Seymour. This was a rescheduled match due to the horrendous weather conditions the previous week end but Bank Holiday Monday was not that much better. Anglers stuck it out for the 6 hour duration and everyone caught. Top weight on the day came from seasoned match angler John Woolstencroft who fished meat across to far bank cover at 11 meters and then nearside margins during the latter half of the day for 43lb of quality carp. Second and not far behind with 41lb 12oz was Assistant Match Secretary Adie Baker who from peg 5 pole fished scopex flavoured maggot across to the far shelf. Third was Barry Fowler with 32lb 10oz. Next match is at Woodland Lake Chiltern Trinity on Sunday 13^th May, for more information visit http://clevedon-fwac.webs.com/

1^st John Woolstencroft 43lb

2^nd Adie Baker 41lb 12oz

3^rd Barry Fowler 32lb 10oz

4th Ivan Currie 25lb 10oz

Lets hope the weather is better for next week.

Sunday 29th January Bristol Post Office club match Rushcombe Lake Bullocks Farm

The Bristol PO Angling Club hold one match a year at Bullocks Farm in January and have always booked Rushcombe Lake as you can usually get a few few bites this time of year due to the high numbers of small fish. The previous two years have seen us having to break the ice but not so today although it was not far off being frozen, some of the puddles in the car park were frozen over. Driving over to Bullocks which only takes me 15 - 20 minutes tops the temperature outside according to the car was 0.5c. I was looking forward to a breakfast in the cafe to set me up for the day. The draw was at 09:00 so leaving home just before 08:00 gave me plenty of time. On arrival and to my horror the cafe was not open! I drove around to the Rushcombe car park and most of the usual faces were already there, the legend that is Andy aka 'the turtle' or the tucksmaster' was in charge of proceedings, Andy said the cafe would be open at 10:00 so we would fish 10:15 - 16:15 which gave us a chance to grab a bacon buttie before fishing although not sure about the 6 hour duration for the match. 13 turned up in the end and we handed over £15 each, Andy said he would pay the top 3 and 2 sections, all the pegs were shifted from the straight over to the island as the word was this was the better area, Ben the owners son allowed us to use every other peg as there were only a few anglers around on the whole complex.
I was third to draw and out comes permanent peg 44, talk prior to the draw favoured peg 40 so initially I was fairly pleased. A lot of work appeared to have been carried out on the banks and the majority of pegs had little or no far bank cover which was not good given that the deepest part of this lake is only 3 feet.
I set up 3 rigs, one for the usual 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock lines at the bottom of the far shelf a 4 x 10 to 0.11 main line to a 0.09 hook length with a drennan 18 pellet hook, one for down the track and just short of out in front of the 2 empty pegs either side of me, again a 4 x 10 as there was no wind at all with 0.10 straight through to an 18 drennan pellet hook and finally a margin rig to fish about 6 meters to my left and a similar set up to the down the track rig. On the bait tray was liquidised bread, 4 and 6 mm expander, dead reds, wetted mirco and some corn.
The whistle went as I was returning from the cafe scoffing a large bacon and sausage bap, I just sat on my box and finished it. I cupped in a small amount of micro feed on each line and went over to the 2 o'clock far bank line first with a small piece of bread, after about 2 minutes the float sailed away and the result was the fish below.

There used to be loads of these in Rushcombe, commonly known as 'carrots' but talk is the cormorants have had a feast on them as they tend to swim around in big shoals near the surface so are easy prey. I won a winter match once with over 18lb of them, this one was about 6 ounces. Well at least it looked as if there would be a few bites today, the previous weeks match was only won with 4lb. I then went over the 10 o'clock far bank line and had a couple of dips but no proper bite. The time was 10:30 ish and that would be my last indication for the duration of the match. To my left 2 pegs away was Paul Pitts who  caught small carp steady all day feeding nothing and presenting to a far bank bush that had been spared the harsh pruning, branches were in the water so I guess they were all shoaled up tight in this refuge area. Looking around no one was really catching at all and there were a few walkers. Andy came around at 15:30 and suggested we finished the match at 15:45 instead of 16:15 there were no objections.
Weighing in first was Ian Swanborough, he was not going to bother but glad he did as his 3 oz gave him a section by default!!! Andy Bryant also won his section with 7lb 8oz, he had a good peg (52) by the bridge, before he weighed in he gave the on lookers a run down of his peg and his match performance, the picture is taken with his back to me as it's more complimentary (sorry Andy), for once he was 'fishing in the right place'.

The match was won from the other side of the bridge to Andy by Dave Evans who again had a few features that had not been pruned back, Dave had slightly better fish than Paul to my left.
Overall it was a hard day, only half the field weighed in but as usual the company and banter was good.

1st  Dave Evans 27lb
2nd Paul Pitts 21lb 13oz
3rd Mouse 8lb

Next Sunday there is a Clevedon Club Match on Woodlands Lake which is part of the Trinity Waters Complex just outside Bridgwater.