Sunday 28 October 2012

Sunday 28th October Woodland Lake Trinity Waters

Not much to say about today, very hard only ended up with 10lb but better than some who realy struggled. Started of with 2 fish on the bread then a tench in the margins - that was it!

Press report below.

Clevedon Freshwater Angling Club kicked off their winter programme of competitions at Trinity Waters just outside Bridgwater. Anglers were not only glad of the extra hour in bed but also the rise in temperature from the previous day. As usual competitors were greeted with complimentary tea and coffee on arrival and orders taken for superb breakfast rolls which were delivered to the anglers pegs an hour into the match. An hour into the match it was evident the fish were going to be hard to come by with just a few anglers catching despite feeding cautiously due to the flat calm conditions and the water still very cold. Andy Hembrow had fished the venue during the week leading up to the match and used up to date information to assist him win the match. Andy pole fished at 14 meters straight out in front fishing no more than 1 foot deep in 10 feet of water using pellet on the hook and spraying pellet at regular intervals for a magnificent 161lb of carp. Second and over 100lb behind was club match secretary Barry Fowler with 42lb 1oz, Barry had some quality carp backed up with some silver fish caught on the worm. Top silver fish net went to Mark Barlett with 12lb of bream, skimmers and roach.


Pic below of Andy Hembrow with part of his catch.



Tuesday 23 October 2012

Sunday 21st Oct River Avon Swineford

This was meant to be an interclub between Clevedon, Frys and Frome Vale. Only Barry Fowler and I turned up from Clevedon, 5 from Frys and 4 from Frome Vale.
The river had been high for a couple of weeks and was running off nicely but still had a lot of pace. Dean Harvey and I pegged it and everyone had some slack water some more than others but thats river fishing for you.
I drew peg 3 with a little slack and barry drew peg 1 which is permanet peg 2, Barrys peg looked like the one to draw but personally some of the pegs around 5, 6 and 7 appeared to have more potential.
I had slack to my right but it had a lot of mini wirls as the current pushed into the bank and back out again.
I set up 2 feeder rods, on ewith a 42grm and the other with a 30grm.
View from my peg below.

I had 1.5 pints of caster and worm plus some reds. Second chuck down to my right I started getting small knocks, after a few misses I hit a roach then a dace and a few more roach all in the first hour. To cut a long story short I only ended up with 10oz.
Dale Harvey had about 12lb of pike! and nothing else, pike did not count!!!!
The top weight was Dean Harvey with just over 5lb of nice roach, pic below.



Dean caught most of his fish on the float, he did have a lovely piece of slack water. On reflection I should have laid on a rod length out with a 12BB crowquil but hey ho. Barry on peg 1 weighed in 1lb 10oz.
Still nice to be back on the river, 2 anglers also caught some nice brown trout.
Not sure about next Sunday, Frys are holding a match on their stretch of the Avon so could be tempted if Clevedon don't have a match, according to my calender its Trinty Waters but yet to be confirmed.

Monday 15 October 2012

Saturday and Sunday 13th / 14th October River Kenn and Apex Lake

Saturday;
I got a call on Friday to inform me that the Clevedon Inter Club Match with Frys AC had been cancelled due to the Avon being in full flood. It was the right call as the banks can be dangerous under normal conditions.
My wife went to Weymouth with her mum and brother for the weekend so I planned to go out somewhere on both days.
I fancied fishing the River Kenn again after my success a few weeks ago and didn't think the river would have been affected that much by the recent rain. I was also toying with fishing Bristol City Docks at Baltic Wharf or Apex Lake in Highbridge.
After doing a few odd jobs on the Saturday morning I headed down to Cadbury Angling and picked up some caster and maggot, I already had plently of worm and groundbait. I had intended to go the long way round to the shop to look at the river on the way but decided against it, surely it would be fishable. Wrong!
I got to peg 5 and could not believe it, the river was rushing through and at the lowest I had ever seen it. I was going to go on one of the local lakes but saw 2 big fish move above the outfall. That was it, I tackled up with just the feeder and fished a whole worm on a 14. It was hard work with all the weed etc but I did manage an eel about 1 hour in. Soon after I caught a glimpse of someone on the bank behind me and did not take that much notice until I heard something along the lines of..... '' never seen the river so low but there is a mad irishman fishing peg 5'', I turned around and it was John aka 'the duck' Wolstencroft! I caught 1 more eel while John was there.
John was looking for somewhere to fish on Sunday and after a short debate we agreed to meet at Apex the next morning for a days silver fishing. John went off about his business, I stayed until 2.30 and packed up.

Sunday;
Up bright and early on the Sunday morning at 6.30 to meet John in the car park at Apex at 8.00. I looked out and the car was covered in frost, bugger! I let the dog out and to be honest it did not feel too bad.
On the drive down the M5 the temperature changed between 2 and 2.5 degrees. I got here about 8.00, John was already there and unloaded ready to go, he had not been out for a few weeks either. A quick chat about where to fish and we decided on going around the back of the lake, I pitched up on 29 and John on 30, the pegs did not appeared to have been fished recently.
Both of us took a simple approach today, a light feeder set up for the first hour, 1 pole rig (although John set up 2 the only difference being elastic strengths). 18 hooks and 0.10 hook length. Feed would be caster in a dark groundbait mix and worm, caster, maggot on the hook.
We started fishing around 10 with both of us cupping in some caster etc, john was fishing 11 meters, I opted for 14.

View of my peg

First cast in with the feeder I got knocks straight away which I was not expecting, there was hardly andy ripple and we had a bright blue sky. John also had bites straight away and was soon putting a small skimmer in the net. I soon followed with a skimmer and some roach but they were hard to hit. After an hour John out the pole out and I could see he was getting bites every put in but was bumping a lot of fish due to the size of them. I stayed on the tip for another 30 mins or so and put a decent 12oz roach in the net.
Out on the pole line around 11:15 and I to got bites straight away, caster and crumb were put in with via the kinder cup and a proper ball via the pole cup every 20 mins or so. I soon had quite a few skimmers and som better samples, it was great to fish a match top 3 with a preston blue hollow elastic, proper fishing. John also ha a few better samples. We both had to chop and change hookbaits to keep the fish interested but they did respond to feed every time.
We packed up around 4.00 and just after an isolated heavy showerm the wind had picked up as well.
John weighed just over 13lb, pic below.



No ducks today for John but there was a grebe on a suicide misson in his peg toward the end of the session.
I weighed in just over 20lb and only beat John due to having some better samples. My camera has been playing up and John took this pic of me while I was looking down, he had another reason for taking the pic too quickly as he was probably still dizzy after falling of my platform backards!




Apex Lake is on the North Somerset Anglers tab, it's not a commercial and there is a good head of silvers in it as well as carp, it is a great winter venue and has easy access, most pegs have platforms. The average depth is around 5' to 6'.
All in all a great day, thanks for the company John.
Next Sunday we are due to fish an interclub on the Avon at Swineford, river conditions permitting.

Monday 8 October 2012

Clevedon Charity Match Report for 7th October

As stated previously I was unable to fish this event but Chairman Steve Bonwick and Scot Smallwood sent me so info for the press resports.

The event was held to support Cancer Research UK and was a complete sell out, 40 pegs spread over two lakes at the Plantation Fishery Kingston Seymour. The match was also sponsored by Ecolab, Cadbury Angling and Veals of Bristol. I believe there were 20 pegs on each lake and overall individuals paid out on each lake with runners up which is fair.

Big Carp man and Commercial Match angler Mark Barlett won off the main lake with just over 162lb of carp mainly on the pellet waggler with Brian Slipper second with 152lb caught on the pole shallow.
On the smaller lake (formally Horseshoe) seasoned all rounder Kev Perry won with 74lb, Kev caught long down the margins on meat and paste, second was Paul Nichols with 41lb.

Each year money is raised by asking people to guess the winning weight with 50% of the takings going to the person who guesses the nearest. P Hill guessed 162lb 5oz and won £235.

Overall the event raised £625.

Winners pictured below, Mark on the left Kev on the right.


Not sure if we have an inter club with Frys AC on the Avon this comming weekend if we have I'll be there.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

No fishing this weekend either!


I did not fish last Sunday mainly because I was knackered after a heavy week at work with lots of travelling involved, I also had to go to Leicester on the Saturday.
I was looking forward to fishing the Charity Match our Club is running on both lakes at Plantation but had to pull out today due to going away for the weekend as my wife starts a new job the week after which in turn affected our plans, hey ho. Hope to fish against Frys on the Avon on the 14th though. Another bit of good news is that Ireland is booked for Sept 2013, going back to the Anglers Rest in Ballyconnell run by top angler and ex irish international Francis McGoldrick.



Sample of roach and hybrid catches from last years trip

Steve Vernon

Himself



Cheers