Sunday 27th September - Clevedon Club Match Woodlands Lake Trinity Waters

I was in two minds whether or not to fish this event but halfway through the week sent Match Secretary Adie Baker a text to confirm my attendance. Woodlands is a decent sized venue and a pretty fair one at that with  a good head of silvers as well as the carp, pole, waggler and straight lead all work as well. The weather on the Saturday was glorious and another good day was forecast for the Sunday. Clear skies on the Saturday night meant it would be cold over night and the early part of the Sunday morning. With this in mind I put in some bread to fish 'popped up' style. I had read a report a few weeks ago were an angler done very well on the method even though it would normally be a winter tactic.
Got to the draw in plenty of time just behind Club Chairman Steve Bonwick who was running the match today in Adie's absence with the help of Club Secretary Barry Fowler. 15 were booked in and it was good to see some old faces and a couple of new members as well. The draw was pretty civilised and no diving in or pushing (think they were still in shock over the Wales v England game).

I pulled out Peg 27 which I was happy with as I believed it had form. It was also nice to see the new Peg Cards provided by Cadbury Angling.
For company I had Nick Harvey on 26, 28 was vacant and on 29 was SensasThyers Captain Lance Tucker. I decided to keep it simple to day with a pole line at 14 meters with banded pellet on the deck and another banded pellet rig for both margins. A shallow waggler rig and a straight lead rod were quickly assembled from the ready rod bag. The only bait I had was pellets and a 70p small white loaf.
On the all in I fed the two margins with micros and wetted 6mm and then went straight out on the popped up bread in the middle of the lake feeding 6mm with the catty on the 14 meter line while waiting for the tip to go round (I hope). Lance started off on the waggler shallow and had an early carp, Nick next door also started on the straight lead as did a few others around the lake. After 30 mins I could not see that anyone had caought except and those on the straight lead went on the pole. It was not looking good even though there were a few fish showing on the surface. I continued to feed pellets on the 14 meter line and pinged a few 8mm in the middle of the lake every few minutes over the lead line. I suppose it was about 45 mins before the tip went around and a 3lb common was netted. Another 20 mins passed before it went around again cloely followed by another. At this point in the match I still could not see anything being caught. Nick asked if I was catching on the bread and I confirmed I was. Lance came down for a walk which indicates how hard it was. I decided to stick it out on the bread and continued to put the odd fish in the net over the whole day. I did try the pole and wag breifly without success. On the all out I felt I had done enough to frame at least.

Barry Fowler was first to weigh and put some quality carp together for 40lb of an early corner peg.

Rich Heatley had a run of fish late for 45lb 10oz

New member Matt Roden went into the lead with 49lb from the bottom corner peg

There were a few lower weights over the next few pegs and then it was me, all carp on the bread for 72lb 6oz

Lance or Nick did not weigh, on the peg after Lance was new member Mike Pickering with a personal best perch.

Mike with his nice perch

Fellow Royal Mail colleague Paul Fairs was last to weigh in from corner peg 33 which he did not fancy but caught some right munters of the pole and pellet for 69lb 10oz

Results as follows....

1st      Ivan (the bread) Currie 72lb 6oz

2nd     Paul Faires 69lb 10oz

3rd     Matt Roden 49lb

Silvers

Andy Deavereax    11lb of nice skimmers

Weigh sheet

Another club match next Sunday at Avalon

Dave Fowler Snr Memoral Charity Match River Kenn 20th September

I could not fish this match but here is the Press Report:

There was an excellent turnout for the Clevedon Freshwater Angling Clubs annual Charity Match in memory of club founder Dave Fowler Senior which was held on the river Kenn. Leading up to the match the river had been fishing well producing good nets of fish to pleasure anglers. A bright day, clear water conditions coupled with a mid-day tide made the fishing really difficult and fish were hard to come by. Jeff Surman drew peg 30 just below Strode Road and fished the long pole all day with maggot on the hook enticing two big bream and a smaller skimmer for a match winning 11lb 12oz. Paul Faires was second with a bag of small fish for 6lb 13oz followed closely behind by Paul Randell with 6lb 3oz for third place. Mike Owens won the ‘Guess the winning weight’ prize by only being 1oz away. More importantly £630 was raised for the charity Men Utd v Prostate Cancer. The club would like to thank the Blue Flame for their hospitality, Ecolab and local angling shops Veal’s, Cadbury, Oliver’s and Reel fun for their sponsorship.

Winner Jeff Surman (right) being presented with the Charity Shield by Chairman Steve Bonwick

Ireland 2015 - Arva

First time staying in the Arva area of Co. Cavan and our base was the Breffini Arms which is a 2 star hotel but more than adequate. The hotel is also the HQ for the Arva Festival which was on at the same time but we chose to pleasure fish and get aquainted with the area.
First couple of days we fished Gullado Lake and had easy access to what is known as the narrows but still 100 meters or more across.

Steve with a nice bag of mainly roach

25lb of roach and hybrids on the pole at 14 meters

Tony struggled a bit at the top end of the narrows mainly because Andy (aka Turtle) was talking to him non stop for 6 hours, Turtle had a bit less, he don't like his pic taken.

For the next 3 days we concentrated on the deeper part (30 feet) of Glasshouse lake and kept to the same swims as it was noted for bream and a couple of ex pats were there as well giving us advice.

My peg on Glasshouse for 3 days

Steve connected with a bream quite quickly but would there be more>

Tony netting a skimmer

Difficult day 1

I managed 1 half tidy fish, rest were skimmers

Tony stuck at it and had a few skimmers

After his connection was fixed Turtle was in contact with the rest of the world or was it the porn channel!

Day 2 on Glasshouse was a little better for me

On the Friday we fished Town Lake in Carrigallen which was only about 7 miles from Arva, we took a look at it late Thursday afternoon and were informed a couple of anglers had bream out on a point, there was evidence of ground bait in a couple of swims. Sadly on the day the fish only showed for Steve.

3rd in the John Smiths 1996  Steve with some of his tidy skimmers

Turtle also beat me off the platforms much to his delight.

Just 5 minutes walk if that from the hotel was the huge lake Garty and I decided to fish it on the last day (Saturday as we had a night crossing), the other guys declined. Reports suggested it was full of roach and only around 5 feet deep. I did set up the pole but at 14 meters it was only about 2 feet deep so set up a waggler instead and found around 5 feet at around 25 meters with a 3AA wag. I had a great few hours putting 13lb of quality and I mean qualty roach in the net.

Town end of Lough Garty

My catch of quality Garty roach

As an overview of the Arva Festival, here are the final weigh sheets as you will see a lot struggled

A couple of the team also fished the Inniscarra Festival at the same time and anglers down there also struggled. Still and enjoyable week away and rubbed shoulders with Kev Ashurst.

We were also keeping an eye on Steve Ringers Facebook concerning the World Pairs and saw on the last day on his way to the venue he got taken out by a Royal Mail Van. I was tempted to ask to stay for another week to do the investigation! Thankfully no one was hurt and Ringer Bros cleaned up anyway.

Not fishing the Clevedon Charity Match tomorrow due to family committements.

Off across the water

Within 10 hours I will be heading off to Cavan for a weeks fishing with 3 mates and I am just about ready.
Anglers within the South West please note the following....

Details can be obtained by telephoning Adie Baker on 07988736722

The Kenn has been fishing really well with good mixed bags and there are bream showing if conditions are right. Go on give it a go and support this worthy cause.

Sunday 23rd August - SW Super League Final Round Newbridge

Forecast did not look good for this match and for once it was spot on. At the draw the word was the river was moving fairly slowly and clear despite the rain the previous evening.  We had Darren Gillman fishing for us again today and Matt Challenger boss of Scots Tackle in Bristol helped us out due to injuries and work commitments. Captain Chris done the draw as usual and came back with the weigh boards, I suppose it had to happen sometime. I was allocated 74 which was 7 pegs downstream from where I was the previous week and below the old railway bridge. I was happy with the draw but another long walk for the oldest member in the Team. I didn't see what the others had drawn as everyone done a star burst!
I did pass Glenn Calvert on the way up the track who apparently was on a flier (aren't they all) but with a fairly steep slippy bank due to the rain which was persisting down. He had been given advice what to do and to be honest he could only follow it due to being in a bit of a bird cage.
I continued up the bank following Neil Richardson DGL who always looks as if he has the contents of his house on the barrow platform. Got to peg 74 and it was going to be a case of carefully taking all the gear down a very steep bank to get comfortable.
I did get the box in position but had to move it back about 4 times due to rising water levels. There was not a lot of flow on the inside and I had to go out about 13 meters to find any. At this distance it was just under top 4 deep and I set up a rig to fish about 9 meters out where it was just over top 3 deep. 1 grm float on each. I set up a waggler as well but never used it due to being unable to cast properly because I was so far down with the high bank and vegitation behind me. The feeder rod came out just in case.
I did ball it in at the start and wished I had cupped in instead as with a few minutes I had pike trouble. I lost numberous fish to pike in the first 3 hours no matter which line I fished on the pole and also could not believe the amount of perch in the swim. After just over 3 hours I picked up the feeder and put on maggot feeder casting two thirds across and hit a big snag. I put on a new hooklength and cast slightly further down and managed to snare a decent roach. I then had a number of chublets around 6oz up until the end of the match.
Then the sun decided to come out but I was drenched. Weigh in started and I walked down to the end of the section with the GBMV angler who had the scales. Here is the wet weight board.

If you squint you will see the section was won with 13lb plus, second was 11lb plus and then it got tight. I had 9lb 5 for 4 points.
Back at the rugby club I met up with Chris who had in his own words a red letter day catching 33lb of bream on the pole and feeder for second place.

Above are the weights by section by team on the day, a really good match and the river at Newbridge is full of fish. The colour started to come into the river just before the last hour and the bream fed on some pegs.

Diawa Gordon League won the series so well done to them and Sensa Thyers came second, we finished 6th from 7.

On the individual front we had a number of anglers in the top 20 (highlighted).

Somerset Teams of 4 start next week and first match is on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain which I have never fished.

Saturday 22nd August - Pleasure session River Kenn

With the wife away for the weekend I had a free Saturday and managed to do all I needed to do around the home on the Friday evening. I called into Cadbury Angling  www.cadburyangling.co.uk/ late Friday afternoon to get my bait for the SW Super League Match which is at Newbridge tomorrow, I had enough bait left over from last week for the session on the Kenn.
It was nice to wake up to no alarm on the Saturday and all day to myself so no rush. I arrived in Clevedon around 09:30 and was on peg 9 or 10 (not sure as peg numbers missing but there abouts). I had all the gear with me but decided to just use the waggler, it was already set up so just a case of doing the necessary adjustments. There were quite a few fish topping but decided to fish the middle at full depth to start with just loose feeding caster as the water was gin clear.

Nice looking peg

There was no wind and a little flow but I knew the wind was forecast later and high tide was around 12:00.

As expected first fish was a perch after about 20 minutes followed by a few more then it went dead. I kept at it and changed to pinkie on the hook and the roach responded ... sort off before backing off. I decided to put a few golf sized balls of GB in laced with pinkie and caster and that was what they wanted.

Plump roach

I also had some small skimmers and hybrids.

Tidy hybrid

I finished the session just after 15:00 and the spring balance went 13lb 4oz. Passers by took a pic for me.

My catch, happy with that.

Looking forward to Newbrdge tomorrow.

Sunday 16th August - SW Super League Bristol Avon Newbridge

This was the 5th match in the series out of 6 and my first visit to the Avon this season. I do like the venue mainly because of the quality of the pole fishing, usually in deep water (top 4 or top 5) with a 1grm to 2grm float at this time of year. I knew the rain we had during the week would not make much difference in terms of level or colour so was expecting quite a tough match.
Back to 7 teams of 8 this week due to no made up teams like we had on the Gloucester Canal. Cadbury Angling boss Toby came out of semi retirement to fish, we had Glen back from the Tony Rixon short pole series and £100 better off plus Darren Gillman on loan from Bathampton to help boost the team.
The draw was done and we didn't get the scales or weigh sheets, on the face of it the draw was good with Darren drawing end peg 148, Don on 54 or there abouts, me on 67 and the rest OK ish.
I decided to stay put at the Rugby Club and walk as it was halfway (a long way) whatever end you came at it..
67 was a few pegs above the old Newton St. Low railway bridge and as I passed the pegs immediately below it they did look nice. On arrival at my peg the water was a long way down a steep bank so I had to get in the water which would mean shipping the pole back more or less vertical.

Peg 67 Looking down from the high bank

It was fairly cramped down there but not uncomfortable. I found it was top 4 deep at 9 meters so decided to stick with this line for the pole although in hindsight I should have set a rig up for 13 meters as well despite the issue of shipping back up the bank and on to the footpath. I also set up a maggot feeder rod and a wag for fishing shallow.
5 big balls went in on the 'all in' and as expected the float buried first trot down which resulted in a small roach. This was the pattern for about 20 mins, I was fishing caster on the hook but the size of the fish did not improve. It then went quiet so I put on a red maggot which resulted in a half hearted bite which I hit and it went solid and the No. 4 hollow elastic took off, I was hoping it was a bream but when I got it up it was a pike of around 5lb - 6lb which bit me off after 5 mins. I was loose feeding hemp and caster and within about 15 mins started to get some perch. A couple were around the 1lb mark and most welcome. I suppose about just over an hour had gone by and an angler appeared behind me as I was landing a small roach asking if I was catching. It did piss me off as I would not do that especially with the clear water and high bank. Another angler then came behind me soon after and stood on the sky line saying I was on a peg too close to the foot path above, ffs! what is it with some people or was it tactics, I hope not.
I tried the feeder and had a roach and a few bleak as well as a short session on the wag but decided to stick with the pole as I was getting the odd bite. The last hour was not good and cost me a few points and I bumped a few perch due to their hard mouths.
It turned out my section was pretty tight and apart from the 15lb odd weighed in by Andy Powell from the first peg below the bridge most anglers had a decent days fishing. I was disappointed that my 9lb 2oz only got me 3 points from 7 but still enjoyed the day.

My Section

Our ringer Darren Gillman had a good day on the pole weighing over 18lb of roach for 2nd overall. A Garbolino Blackmore Vale angler won the match, with 25lb plus of skimmers and a decent bream on the pole. Team wise although everyone had a reasonable day it was not good enough and we are in last place.

Next week back at Newbridge for the final round.