Sunday 28th February - River Kenn

February has almost been a 'write off' for me with rivers in flood and having the dreaded lurgy cold and cough. Feeling much better I was keen to get out on the bank and on the River Kenn which has been fishing it's socks off. 7 loaves of liqqy had been in the bait fridge for a few weeks but OK and a 2 week old pint of maggot and caster (still sealed) and in good condition meant no bait bill. It's always important to check the tides for the Kenn as you need it to be running for any chance of success. High Tide was at 10:00 a.m. so no rush to get out of bed. I headed off around 9:00 and there was a bitterly cold wind, car temperature gauge showed 3.5 degrees but much colder due to the wind chill. I had a look at an area we call the 'cross waters' first where the old Kenn and a couple of ditches from the moor converge but it was pissing through so on to the town area. I stopped on Kenn Rd Bridge to have a look and it did look good, a couple of fish topped and the pace was nice even though the tide had not peaked. I was going to go upstream of Kenn Rd. bridge but saw that our car park gate was unlocked to decided to go below instead and out of the wind a bit.
I decided to settle in on the peg Scott was on a few weeks ago when he had his 11 bream and managed to position my box in a fairly solid area on the mud flats.

I was fishing for around 10:15 and the tide meant the river was more or less completely still and only the downstream wind making the waggler move. I decided to try the tip after 30 minutes after no sign of a bite even though I had been feeding bread regularly and fishing punch on the hook. Out went a small cage feeder with liqqy and a big piece of flake on a 14, again nothing. It must have been around 11:30 when Simon Carvallo came down the bank for a walk and sat behind me for a short while. Si informed me that a couple of anglers fished it the day before and blanked whereas another couple fished above Kenn Rd. Bridge and bagged up on the whip.
I picked up the waggler again and feed a few casters with double red on the hook, I suppose it must have been 15 minutes afterwards I got a couple of little dips on the float before it went under. The strike was met with solid resistance and I mean solid, at first I thought it was a big perch or a pike but Simon predicted a Tench. It did not give up easily and sure enough it was a Tench around 3lb.

It's been a while since I caught a River Tench and was most welcome.
That was it, no more bites, not a sign of a fish at all so packed up around 14:15.

We are running an Open on the Kenn on Sunday 13th March, details to follow.

Sunday 7th February - Clevedon FWAC Plantation Lake Winter Series

I was not part of this three match winter series as I could not fish them all. I did turn up on the River Kenn hoping to target the bream and big roach but did not even get the kit out of the car as it was in full flood and went home to do a few jobs instead.
I did turn up an hour before the Clevedon Match finished to take some pictures for the Press Report. Most anglers were struggling due to the weather, here's the report for the local paper.

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club continued with the second match of their Winter Series at Plantation Fishery Kingston Seymour. Despite the threat of storm Imogen which was beginning to make its presence known 20 hardy souls attended looking to gain or increase their points following the first match a couple of weeks ago. Due to the wind direction and strength presentation of bait with a float was extremely difficult resulting in most of the anglers reverting to ledgering techniques in order to keep the bait still. Drawing a peg with an island feature is an added bonus at this time of year as the fish tend to shoal up within the marginal cover they provide. Club stalwart and Life Member Kev Perry drew favoured peg 4 which had the end of an island straight in front of him. Kev used the feature and his experience to the full putting 70lb 14oz of carp together using a simple popped up bread approach which was enough for first place. Almost directly opposite Kev on peg 31 which provided the winning weight in the first match was Simon Carvallo who used a method feeder and pellet approach for 63lb 12oz of carp up to 5lb and second place. Third on the day was consistent angler and Royal Marine Craig Tucker with 51lb 12oz. The Club would like to thank Plantation Fishery for the use of their lake.

 Kev landing carp number 17 of 19

Simon Carvallo was only a couple of carp behind but pleased with 2nd place

1st    Kev Perry 70lb 14oz

2nd   Simon Carvallo 63lb 12oz

3rd   Craig Tucker 51lb 12oz

4th   Mike Owens 49lb 2oz

5th   Dan Dymond 46lb

6th   Mark Birdseye 31lb 6oz

Sunday 31st January - Viaduct Teams of 5

This was my second visit to Viaduct in the the Teams of 5 series. I agreed to fish the first two and young Lewis Walker will fish the last three. I knew I would be on Cary lake and have never ever fished it but picked up a few bits of info over the past few weeks. I was told the draw was crucial on this lake (isn't it the same everywhere) and they had lost quite a few silvers a while ago plus the carp are generally bigger. The guys asked me to do the draw for them so went ahead and was first in as Don had paid the pools earlier in the week. I came back with the numbers and the look they gave me was enough to melt an iceberg, the numbers did not mean anything at all to me. Chris had a good peg on Campbell and was the only happy bunny. I had 80 and was told its absolutely crap, thanks for the motivational speech lads lol. Most anglers who walked past me gave out appropriate amounts of sympathy although one angler spent a few minutes with me pointing out where my best chance would be, fair play and thank you.
Chris also come up from his peg and tried to console me and I talked a couple of options through with him.

Peg 80

Given that is was about 2' deep on the pole line and about 1' in the margins if I was lucky I decided to set up a waggler for silvers and just a bomb rod for out as far and cast in the direction as advised. I was set up with 30 mins still to go.
The anglers either side of me did not seem that overjoyed either so my target was to try and beat them.
The all in sounded and I went straight out on the bomb with meat as far as I dare, the water had some colour in it so the bread was left in the bag. While keeping an eye on the tip I fed casters via the catty at a few points for the waggler on a regular basis. About 15 mins in I was just topping up the catty pouch when the tip began to go around really slowly, liner I thought but hit it anyway. I connected with a solid munter and managed to stop it going around the left hand side of the spit and after a nervous few mins netted a right lump hooked failrly in the mouth. The angler 2 pegs to my right had a couple on the waggler casting to an areator while the angler in between remained fishless.Through the trees I could see them catching a few in the mid 80 pegs which was to be expected. Anglers on the far side were also netting a few.
After 2 hours without anymore indications on the bomb (tried corn, bread, maggot) I gave the waggler a try with double dead red and had a small skimmer about 8 oz. That'll do me thinks but it went quiet again. I searched around on the waggler throughout the remainder of the match picking up the odd small roach and skimmer inbetween having a look on the bomb. With 30 mins to go I decided to put on a small cage feeder with bread on the hook and first cast the tip went around and produced a skimmer about 10 oz, shortly after another followed (should have tried this earlier). That was my match. I weighed one carp for 9lb 8oz and silvers went 3lb 7oz for 12lb 15oz beating the anglers either side by a considerable margin so don't think I could have done any more.

Here are the whole results:

Not sure what's happening next week.... any river matches on anywhere or natural venues anyone?
Otherwise I will go on the Kenn, tides and weather permitting.

Sunday 24th January - 'knock up' River Kenn

At Clevedons AGM last Thursday night Scott showed us some pictures from his sessions on the River Kenn recently, big roach, he also was telling us about the bream he had caught as well, all on bread. I said I was going on the Kenn this Sunday and a few others became interested so we advertised a 'knock up', probably the maximum coming would be 6. Sunday morning came and we ended up with 3, Chairman Steve Bonwick, Scott Smallwood and myself. We met in Kenn Road car park and debated where to fish. I suggested the car par stretch as you were less likely to be disturbed by dog walkers and we were right on it. We drew straws for a rover and the shortest straw had the first pick of the approximate 10 pegs. I was left with the last straw which happened to be the shortest and opted for a peg bang smack in the middle, Steve chose a couple of pegs above the footbridge nearer the car park and Scott went to the further downstream peg.
Just as we were loading the trolleys a young lad came down the bank with a carp trolley and a few rods on it. He had a day ticket and it was his first time on a river! We asked him what he was fishing for and he said carp and pike. OK....... there have been carp caught in the Kenn but they are rare as rocking hourse poo. We told him what we were up to and he settled in on the nearest peg to the car park to spin for pike. I had not unloaded all my gear when I caught site of him with a small pike. He had one second cast and was having trouble getting the trebles out so I gave him a hand taking them out through the back of the gills.

Ben Tidcombe with his first river fish

Ben came across as a very polite young man and was asking quite a few questions which has made the club decide to offer a £5 season ticket to juniors from the April.

So.... on the the old timers (well me anyway). We chucked a £10 er in each, winner take all and began to set up fishing 10:00 - 15:00. The high tide was around 07:00 but at 09:00 it was still pended and had not run off yet. Scott said it would by the time 10:00 came around. Steve opted for the long pole to hand approach with maggot, I set up a small 3AA waggler and a cage feeder rod intending to fish bread. Scott had a whip, waggler and feeder with bread being his main bait as well.

My peg when the water was at its maximum height for the time of year

Scott was right... by the time it was 10:00 it was begining to run off. I fed a couple of golf balls of bread down the middle and started off with double 9mm punch on a 16. After a few trots and regular feeding I had my first roach, it was so good to be back on a river. I looked down towards Scott and saw a big bend in his feeder rod, jammy bugger had a bream with 10 minutes and a few others straight after. I started to get roach regular and the pace of the river became much faster as it ran off, controlled by the sluice gates on the sea wall. What you need to remember (and I didn't for about 20 minutes) on the Kenn when it does this and if you are fishing a float the depth needs to be altered as it becomes shallower. The most effective way to is to hold back the waggler as if you are fishing a stick float (some people reading this may ask ''whats a stick float, bit like young Ben when he asked how do you control a float when the water is moving). 

Kev Perry came down and was not fishing but told me Steve was getting a roach a chuck on the maggot, he sat behing me for a while see a few dectent roach come to the bread before moving down to Scott. Match Secretary Adie Bake came down after his lad had finished football and was amazed at two of the roach I caught while he was there, proper dog roach, fin perfect and well over a pound.

I had a slow spell between 13:00 and 14:00 before getting them back further down the peg. Kev came past again about this time and said Scott had about 10 bream!

Just before 15:00 the wag dipped and I struck as usual expecting another roach and the line went solild with the bream like nodding on the end of the line. By this time the water was about 2' 6'' deep and I soon saw it was a good bream around 4lb. Sadly it came off about a landing net length out in the faster water.

Scott came up with a smile clearly having had a good day. He had 11 bream and about 10lb of roach, I said I must have 20lb of roach so we walked up to Steve to weigh in. Steve had also had a good enjoyable day catching every put in on the long pole to hand.

Steve with his 14lb of roach

I just fell 8oz short of 20lb but look at those roach

Scott with part of his catch 66lb of bream and 10lb of roach in total

Between the 3 of us we had over 110lb!!!!!!!!!

Scott used 6 loaves of liquidised bread with bread flake on the hook. I used 5 loaves of liqqy and double 9mm punch. Steve used maggot and fed maggot.

If you are thinking of fishing the Kenn and are not a memember you can but a day ticket at Cadbury Angling in Congressbury, Olivers in Clevedon, Veals in Bristol. Check the tide times, best to fish after a high tide so the the river runs sea wards during the session. Bread is a classic bait at the moment and you do not have to have the liquidised that fine (but cut off the crusts). Be prepared to get a bit muddy, but its worth it.

What a great day.

Press report - Clevedon Club Match 17th January

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club commenced their Winter Series of three matches which are all being held on the prolific Main Lake on the Plantations complex Kingston Seymour.  There was a good turnout of twenty anglers despite the weather and due to a very cold night on the Friday cat ice was formed on the lake the day before the match. Thankfully a slight rise in temperature saw it disappear but none the less and due to the cold clear conditions the draw would be very important. Match Secretary Adie Baker did have some luck drawing peg 31 with a cast to the back of an island where the carp usually congregate. Concentrating in this area for the whole match and  ledgering a variety of baits with popped up bread being the most productive he broke the ton barrier weighing a magnificent 101lb 14oz for first place. Not that far behind was regular match framer Lance Tucker who weighed 85lb 10oz using similar tactics for second followed by Nick Harvey with 58lb 10oz. It total and despite the winter conditions a total of 383lb of fish was caught by the top 6 anglers.

Sunday 17th January - Viaduct Teams of 5 League

I was asked if I was interested in fishing this league by Team Captain Chris Hook. I have not fished the venue for about 15 years and am aware there are anglers in the league that virtually fish nowhere else. In the end I agreed to fish the first two and team mate Lewis Walker would fish the last three. 19 Teams of 5, 95 anglers in total spread over 5 lakes and rotate on the lakes as the league progresses.
Trouble is with the first match you don't know which lake you will be on until the draw, after that you can sort of prepare a bit more.
I had been looking at the weather reports all week but on the day it did not resemble anything that was forecast even by the Saturday. On the Saturday itself cat ice was over the lakes but by the Sunday morning it had gone and there was light rain, temperature was not too bad. The car park was absolutely rammed by the time the draw came around and due to all the wet weather we have had most anglers and their tackle looked as if they had just finished taking part in the 6 Nations, mud everywhere and on everything.
Don had been framing on a regular basis at the venue so he was sent to draw for the Team and came back with peg 1. This put me on 110, Campbell Lake, a corner peg and one that Chris had bagged up on a few weeks ago putting 100lb plus in the net. He took me to the peg and pointed out where to fish.
Plan was to fish the lead with bread, corn and meat and feed nothing. I set up a wag to fish halfway with the same bait, a skimmer rig at 13 meters and a heavier rig again at 13 meters down the left hand edge for munters. All the lakes were full and there was very few empty pegs, The water was clear and very cold and out in the middle I had barely three feet.
On the all in I cast straight out with popped up bread and waited. Andy Neil opposite me done the same and must have landed on a carps nose having one withing a couple of minutes. After a couple of casts and within 15 minutes I had a wrap around as well and was glad I was on a 0.15 hook length as it went off like a rocket in the shallow water. I hit a snag bringing it in and thought I had lost it but after giving some slack it swam out,  a nice 6lb er. A few carp started to be caught and most were getting liners. The lad on 112 was starting to catch well on the wag and Andy Neal continued to catch on the lead. The angler immediately to my right was casting a lead to the aerator and nicking the odd one on the meat. I tried meat and added another one around noon. I had fed the left hand margin with a bit of meat and corn to gave it a go. After about 10 mins the float slide away and a carp was hooked on the meat, it was around 5lb but went straight in the brambles. A bit of gentle tugging saw it come out and it was carefully played to the net. Within the next hour on the same line I lost another two and the area went dead due to the disturbance. So with just over an hour to go I decided to stick it out on the lead. It was a good call and two more were caught on the meat and that was it.
While packing up the jungle telegraph was telling me a lot had struggled and a few had bagged up. No surprises there then due to the time of year and the temperature.
I put just over 29lb on the scales and was rewarded with 10 points out of a maximum 19 so could have been worse. Team wise we finished 13th, not great but not a blow out like some, difficult day.

Team results, individuals and section as follows:

Teams on the day

Individuals

Sections

No match planned this weekend so far, will definitely be out somewhere, perhaps the River Kenn or the Tone. Next Viaduct match is the weekend after when I am due to fish Carey.

Sunday 10th January - Somerset Teams of 4 League Bridgwater and Taunton Canal

This was the last match in the series. It was the reserve date due to a match on the River Tone being cancelled before Christmas. We all were hoping the Tone would be fishable for the last match but it was not to be and a real shame. So the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal it was then and down at the Taunton end again as there are not enough fishable pegs at the more prolific Bridgwater sections. The team of 4 was Sam, Sean, Glen and myself. The draw was in the Princess Royal Pub again not far from the County Cricket Ground and the Sections were already on display.

3 Sections were put in at Creech St. Michael where I got lost last time and it did fish quire well with lots of roach showing, although last time there was only one section in.
The 4th Section was somewhere called Charlton, I didn't want o draw this area as I was sure to get lost again. Chris Parr (aka Gappy) put it in as he was finding it hard to identify a Section without too much pull on it and colour due to all the rain so a bit of an unknown to us.
Guess which Section I drew..... yep 'Charlton' peg 47 but hey I had a postcode so what could possibly go wrong! Setting off out of Taunton on the Bridgwater Road I was soon (according to Sat Nav) driving across fields due to a huge brand new development that was not on my Sat Nav yet. Getting back onto a recognised road I came across a sign saying Charlton something and a stop and a chat with some lady joggers in very (very) tight lycra confirmed there was indeed a canal at the end of the road.
Parking was fine and I was soon on the canal bank with Mike Owens downstream of me on 48 and Steve Kedge upstream of me on 46, above him was Gappy who confirmed our end of the Section was better than those around the bend but not sure if the roach would show.

Some views around the peg as follows:

Flooded fields behind me and cars were actually driving directly behind us as there were houses at one end.

Very pretty area looking downstream

 

Peg 47 looking across

Tactics were in very simple, bread punch down the track over liqqy and worm or maggot over chop for far and near shelf. Lcould see Mile and Steve setting up light wagglers and a whip. Apprarently they set up a wag just in case they have to chase fish down the peg. I didn't have a wag with me and I do not own a whip (must get one though) and I have note the value of a wag on this venue (due to flow).

I know I lost valuable time on the last canal match due to not having a whip missing out on an envelope by a few grams.

I started off on the punch and soon had a couple of blades and very small roach but after 30 mins noticed fry were scattering and jumping out of the water probably being chased by perch or pike so I put on a maggot in the hope of catching a perch. Instead I got bleak after bleak after bleak and more bleak. I looked around and could not see much being caught so stuck with it. Gappy then took 2 decent perch fishing across to the bottom of the far shelf and I heard Steve on 46 chopping up worm on a regular basis. Steve then took what looked like a huge perch to it was over my worm lines for a look. Not a sign over my worm line throughout the match. I even tried a tail of a worm jigging it all over the peg, a bit like dobbing bread but nothing. Steve then took another good perch and lost one about 30 minutes from the end.

I had the scales so saw the whole Section. The pegs around the bend from Gappy fished really hard with one angler weighing in 100 fish for 600 grams others were not much better with 1kg 100grms being the best.  Just above Gappy and on the bend was Brian Slipper who had a large number of small fish for 1kg 300grms  think (gave him 3rd in the Section) next was Gappy with 2kg plus mainly made up of those 2 early perch. Steve Kedges perch were right lumps and he put 3kg plus for a runaway Section win. I had 900 grms which was about 6th out of a 12 man Section. Mike above me had just over 1kg for 4th.

On refection and had I knew what the Section was going to be like I would have sat it out with the worm, although there were only 4 perch caught. 

The other Sections fished a lot better with 7kg winning overall backed up by 6kgs and 5kg weights made up of quality roach and some big rudd.

We finish 6th on the day out of 12 so ok ish and 10th overall in the League but we have learned a lot about the T & BW Canal. One of the Sensas Team won the League not sure which one as there was about 3. We did walk away with some groundbait and towels provided by Sensas M5 so thanks to them as well as Gappy and his mates for organising the events.

Next Sunday I am at Viaduct for the Teams of 5 League. Not confident as I have not fished there for about 15 years and have no idea of the pegs, should be interesting.