Sunday 11th March - Bristol Avon invitation match

Press report which I sent off to local papers and Anglers Mail......

On Sunday 11^th March an invitation competition was held between Kingswood and Hanham Royal British Legion, Clevedon FWAC and Bristol Post Office on the Crane stretch of the Bristol Avon. The river looked in perfect condition and with warm temperatures and little or no boat traffic everyone was expecting a good day. Pike were a nuisance however and attacked a number roach prior to them being netted, one competitor even managed to land one which was around 15lb, unfortunately they did not count. Clevedon provided the overall winner by way of Paul Faires who caught small roach consistently all day using a pole, 1.5 gram float and bronze maggot or caster on the hook for a total weight of 7lb 14oz. Bristol Post Office angler Paul Pitt was not far behind with 7lb 12oz and joint third was British Legions Les Williams and another Post Office angler Leigh Wakefield with 7lb 2oz.

1^st – Paul Faires, Clevedon FWAC 7lb 14oz

2^nd – Paul Pitt, Bristol PO 7lb 12oz

3^rd – Les Williams RBL and Leigh Wakefield Bristol PO 7lb 2oz

Sections

Steve Brown Bristol PO 1lb 3oz

Julian Pinkett Bristol PO 7lb 0oz

Me, well I weighed in 3 fish for 3.5oz but in the 6 pegs above me the top weight was 1lb 2oz!!!

Pic below is of Paul Faires who just scraped a win by 2oz.

Next Sunday back on Acorn lets hope there is not a frost and I get a decent draw.

6th March Tuesday Tenner open Acorn Fishery Kingston Seymour

This will not take long.....
Given that I have the week off work I booked into the Tuesday Tenner open at Acorn. I arrived 20 minutes beore the draw and paid my £12.00! £2 was for the silvers pool, looking around I counted 18 anglers but there could have been more. A discussion with Paul Faires beore the draw suggested a peg in the 20's would be good. I draw 26, a bit too high a number for my liking 22 or 23 would have been better, Paul drew 18 and immediately stated he was going for silvers.
There had been an overnight frost and the sun was high really bright, if you look at the two pics below you will see conditions were not great (how blue is that sky)

view from my peg looking up towards lower numbers

view from my peg face on

Over the match I landed 3 carp (only one hooked in the mouth), lost 6 foul hookers, 1 chub about 1lb, 1 skimmer abouy 8oz and a small roach bumped a couple of good skimmers as well. Peg 23 on my left blanked and the peg above him did not weigh as he only had 3 carp about a pound each. I estimated I had about 8lb. I quickly walked around the lake and most people were chucking their nets up the bank. I did see a 34lb weight and there was a silver weight of about 5 to 6lbs. I established taht there would be a ew other nets of 6 to 8 carp. That was it for me so back to the peg and put mine back. A hard fustrating day with the fish not interested in feeding but then it was the same or everyone. As usual at this time of year the bridge pegs did a lot better than the others.

On the Bristol Avon again this weekend.

Sunday 4th March - interclub Clevedon v Frys Bristol Avon at Keynsham

We were meant to be on the River Kenn today but a text message from Match Secretary Barry told me it was now on the Bristol Avon, to be honest it was a bit of a relief given the poor form of the Kenn over the last year. It was an 08:00 draw so up at 6:15 and was greeted by cold rain which was forecast for most of the day, car temp indicated it was 8 degrees outside. Arrived in the former Fry's Chocolate factory car park at 07:40 and most of the Fry's guys were there (these were the hardened river anglers and not the puddle chuckers brigade). The rest of the Clevedon mob arrived giving a total match attendance of 15. Talk in the car park was that it was fishing hard. Into the hat and I draw peg 26, you'll be ok there Ivan says Dean Harvey from Fry's, that peg won it last week. With what I asked, one bream was the reply! Where is it then I said ' you see that pylon (which was about 5 miles away), just head for that and its to the left!!! The walks are long on this section of river. Loaded up my barrow and another guy says, you won't need all that, lighten up like me, he had a rod holdall, a carryall and a bucket. I'll catch you up and show you your peg as I am on 28. Off I go and got to the peg without any trouble after taking everything off the barrow and loading up again to get over a fence. About 20 min later the guy on 28 arrives looking as if he needs the air ambulance.
The peg looked pretty good with a tree over hanging down the inside, see pic below.

view from my peg

Simple set up today, a feeder rod and a waggler rod to fish the crowquill which was already set up on a winder. Usual bait for the feeder a mix of green swim stim and sensas noire with caster mixed in. Hook bait was to be maggot, caster or worm. On the float down the middle I had about 12'.

Feeder was the first line of attack and after the second cast started to get bites (rattles). After about 30 min I eventually hit one and a small roach of about 4 oz was in the net. Hit and miss bites went on for about an hour and a half then all of a sudded the tip bent straight round and a bream was definetly on, after a short fight and a bit on inward panic a fish of about 3lb was landed. Straight out again with worm, positive approach which only produced more rattles. I did try inching down the float to hit these fish but did not have one bite. I stuck it out for the rest of the match on the tip and weighed in 6lb 2oz. As you can see the rain had finally stopped.

The match was won by Mike Weston (Fry's) with a quality net of bream for 34lb 10oz, Mike was miles away so only got this pic of him back at the car park, hes a real fashion icon don't you think.

2nd was Derek Coles (Frys) and not far behind with another net of bream and roach for 31lb 9oz, pic below.

3rd was Leon Hubbard (Maver Bathampton but fishing for Frys) with more bream for 30lb 11oz, pic below with part of his catch.

From our club we had 2 section winners, Barry Fowler with 7lb 2oz of nice roach (pic below and nice teeth Barry) and James Gunter (first time on the Avon) with 11lb 09oz (3 bream).

Needless to say Fry's won the match on weight, they had the top 4 anglers weighing in 120lb, what a fantastic result from a river.

Full result..

1st Mike Weston 34lb 10oz
2nd Derek Coles 31lb 09oz
3rd Leon Hubbard 30lb 11oz
4th Dean Harvey 24lb 10oz

Sections
D Harvey 24lb 10oz
Barry Fowler 7lb 2oz
James Gunter 11lb 9oz

What a cracking day, no blanks.

Sunday 26th February pleasure session Horseshoe Lake Kingston Seymour

I wasn't sure whether or not to fish this weekend, there was no Club Match and didn't fancy travelling very far after spending best part of 2 days working in London and to be honest felt pretty knackered. A change of heart late Saturday afternoon say me rumaging through my bait store in the garage to see what I had, plenty of mirco and some 4 mm and about half a pint of dead red in the freezer. I then went on line to check out the bookings for the local lakes, Bullock Farm had only one lake booked for a match and the big lake at Plantations was also taken leaving Horseshoe free, I fancied Horshoe as there was likely to be more room. Sunday morning came, got up at 9 a.m. and cooked some breakfast, loaded up the car and arried at Horshoe just after 10 a.m. only about 6 anglers on the lake so picked a spot on the island well away from everyone else. Bit bright today and quite warm, little or no wind. Due to bait limitations it was to be soft 6mm pellet or dead read on the hook, the float was some kind of senas 4 x 14, 0.13 mainline to a 0.10 hooklength with a MT6 size 18 fished approx 11 meters out at about 4 foot just at the bottom of the shelf of the sunken island, another rig was made up exactly the same and I could fish them at 9 o'clock, 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock as it was all the same deph, lovely.

view from my peg

I cupped in some wetted micro and a few dead reds on all lines, first put in straight in front of me the float sailed away and a foul hooked carp of about 2lb was soon in the net. I had bites and fish all day on all lines except the 9 o'clock one, bet fish was about 5lb and I have 4 nice 2lb skimmers as well. It was a real treat to see the float go under on a regular basis again. A specialist angler came along and set up a couple of pegs away and had some cracking perch on lobb worm, best one almost 4lb. I packed up just before 4 p.m. and ended up with well over 50lb, the specalist angler kindly took a picture of me with my catch.

A great days fishing which didn't cost a lot as I used about a pint of micro, a few soft pellets and no more than quarter pint of dead reds.

Next week we have a club match which is scheduled for the River Kenn (oh dear)

Clevedon v Fry's Sunday 19th February Apex Lake Highbridge

Those people who stayed inside today looking out would have presumed it was a pleasant day - not so if you are fishing a lake half a mile from the Bristol Channel with a cold wind blowing up it all day into your face and you are sat in water nearly up to your knees. I have warmed up now thanks to a large Jamesons.
Not sure how today ended up as an interclub but it did with 13 anglers from Clevedon fishing against 13 from Fry's AC. We end up fishing with Frys a few times a year and the two clubs also do a ticket exchange, they are a good bunch but man do they talk all day and take the p**s out of each other.
Although there had been a frost I was looking forward to the match as I have caught on the venue in cold conditions before but that was mainly pleasure fishing, today would be different due to the majority of the pegs being put in.
Match Secretary Barry explains the pegging before the draw and who is responsible for weighing etc, the majority of us do not have a degree in 'barry speak' so chairman Steve Bonwick gave an alternative version. Fishing would be 10:30 - 16:00. Into the sensas draw bucket and out come peg 24 bugger top end of the lake with not much winter form. The favourable areas were always going to be the wider bottom end of the lake pegs 1-6 or in the 30's.
I get to my peg and to be honest it didn't look too bad, no platform though so had to extend the legs on my box which when leveled meant my feet would be in the water all day.

view from my peg

On 25 I had Bristol Docks ace and Dynamite bait backed Pete Sivell and on 23 was Match Secretary Barry.

Small cage feeder with dead red or pinkie or caster was to be the main method today and I also set up a pole line at 8 meters, no farther out due to the wind, the depth more or less all the way across was about 5 feet. To cut to the chase I had 3 fish all on the feeder for 4lb 5oz, Pete won the section with 6 fish for 5lb 2oz and Barry didn't have a bite. The best weight on the bank directly opposite us was 3lb 2oz.

Overall the match was won in the first 30 mins by Rob Garland (Fry's) with 3 carp on bread, he added a few skimmers for a total weight of 28lb 8oz pictured below.



Second with an all skimmer net was in form Clevedon angler Adie Baker with 20lb 11oz and third was Fry's AC Brian Derrick with a mixed bag for 12lb 15oz.

1st Peg 35 Rob Garland 28 - 08

2nd Peg 5 Adie Baker 20 - 11

3rd Peg 4 Brian Derrick 12 - 15

Total weight Clevedon - 43 - 08

Total weight Frys 41 - 7

Local press report on 5th February match

Sunday 5th February Clevedon Club Match Woodlands Lake Trinty Waters

It has been a busy weekend mainly due to my youngest daughters 18th Birthday, the celebrations started Friday night but the whole week prior was a nightmare as we bought her a little run around as she passed her test on Friday 13th Jan!!!!.
Anyway I dragged myself out of bed at 06:20, looked out and it seemed ok, that was until I nearly went on my backside just outside the front door. The rain had stopped during the night sometime and everything had turned to ice. I was not looking forward to the trip down to Chiltern Trinity near Bridgwater. The temp on the car at home was registering 0.5c, by the time I was going over the River Hunstpill on the M5 it was 4c, that's better methinks until I notice the Huntspill was frozen over! I arrived at the complex and noticed Wildmarsh lake was frozen solid, I did not have an ice breaker either. Only two other anglers were in the car par on arrival and I looked across toward Woodland Lake, it was not frozen! Misha and her dad had kept it clear using a rowing boat and a digger, outstanding.  How many fisheries would do this?

ice free lake

Match Secretary Barry Fowler arrives and sorts the usual things out, walks around the lake and does the peg cards. Into the Sensas Bucket and out comes Peg 2, ummm, not quite the draw I wanted but hey ho. I arrived at my peg and it was full of broken ice! Barry takes a look and allocates me Peg 1 instead as there was plenty of room.

View from my peg

3 lines today, straight lead with anything, 13 meters with a 4 x 14 fished at 12 o'clock and 9 o'clock with dead maggot, corn or soft pellet, feeding mirco and dead reds. Straight out on the bread with the lead first, I was expecting some early indications but nothing, then out on the corn and i got a few liners just as my hot breakfast roll and tea arrived at the peg, yummy. While I scoffed this nothing happend on the tip. After an hour and a quarter the rod went behind me and I tried the 12 o'clock line at 13 meters with a dead red, after 5 mins the float shot under and a carp about 3lb was soon in the net. Back out again and the float dipped a couple of times, brought it in and saw the maggot had been nipped. Put it out again, slight dip, struck and into another small carp just over 2lb, cracked it I thought, wrong, nothing for 2 hours. Between the two pole lines I had a flurry of small roach and I mean small. About 2pm on the 9 o'clock line the tip of the pole was dragged under as I watched Barry Fowler net a good skimmer, he had been having a few silvers but I could not see much being caught, I managed to keep the fish on and soon put another 2lb carp in the net. The rest of the match I kept getting the odd small roach but they were to be of great benefit to me.

My 3 carp and small roach came to a level 9lb for 1st overall and £50 quid.

me with my 9lb

2nd Barry Fowler 8lb 12oz

3rd Adie Baker 5lb 15oz

Going to have a weekend off next week as will be working away in Manchester for a couple of days. Next match is on Apex Lake Highbridge 15th Feb so stay tuned. Thanks again to the Trinity Fishers Team for an ice free venue.