Today was the 2nd round of Clevedon's Saturday series, held on Acorn Top lake.
The lake is not one I have seen before, well since the late 90's, but apparently it has been filled and re-dug and extended etc since then. After a quick look at the results of the recent-ish series held on the venue, the top lake looked more even with lots of skimmers and roach present. Carp would be needed to win though.
The weather was warm, but the wind was iffy blowning from the 'new end' towards the entrance end of the lake, so presentation would be tough at times.
The half past twelve draw saw 11 of us picking from the hat. I pulled peg 7, two pegs to the right across the bridge. On my right I had Adie Baker and on my left I had Paul Faiers.
Arriving at the peg I saw that I had bare bank(which was where the bundles of ducks and geese get in and out of the water!!), but getting a bait there would be hard due to the wind, which was blustery and from my left. I was set back a bit compared to Adie and to reach the far bank it was 13m near the grass and 14m to the bare bank bit.
I set up 3 rigs, 1 for shallow banded pellets on a 0.2g NG dibber type float, this rig was tried once, but didn't produce for various reason(mostly the wind). The 2nd rig was a 0.3g NG margin float, banded 6mm would be the bait for this, mostly across to the vegetation and bare bank areas across. This same rig would do for my r/h margin where the depth was the same, but the margin never gave a bite. Both were on 0.18>0.16>size 16 B911. Slack middy 14-16 elastic.
Finally the 3rd rig was for targeting the silvers, a 0.4g Maver model for soft pellet or maggot at topkit plus 2 sections infront and slightly right. This would be fished over a very cloudy groundbait laced with micros and a few 4mm offerings and maggot. The water was shallow all over, around 3ft deep. Line was 0.16>0.12>size 16 B911-f1 hook. Middy 8-10 was my elastic choice, set soft.
At the all in I cupped two loose balls of GB onto the silvers line, some 4mm pellets at 13m by the vegetation and catapulted some 6's towards the bare mud(most went on the grass-fed the ducklings),
I started on the silvers line and was into rudd and roach upto 6oz right away, on double maggot. I stuck at this for an hour or so and kept a few fish coming. I topped up every 4th fish with a toss pot of cloudy groundbait and micros.
Elsewhere Adie had a few silvers as had Paul, but further down to my right I saw a few carp landed and that end looked more and more likely to do better. I needed carp to get near the top 3, which was the payouts for the day. I tried the longer lines, but getting presentation was hard, but I stubbornly stuck at it, too long methinks, but never mind.
The 2nd hour was quiet for me, though Paul to my left had landed a few carp amongst his silvers, Adie was landing plenty of skimmers and I could see Rod Wotton getting a few carp on peg 10, but Mark Broomsgrove on the end peg 11 was struggling as was Nick Harvey on peg 5 and the chap on peg 9.
Into the 3rd and 4th hours I started to up my feed hoping to draw some carp to my shorter line, and I had re-started a new line at 11m out in front, I had dumped 3 pots of 4mm pellets there hoping that any fish that had been drawn to my original feed at 13m + 14m would move back to the new line.
By now Paul was catching a lot as was Adie and Rod, I was unsure on the far end on the lake from me as I couldn't see, but peg 1 looked fishy when I arrived as the wind was pushing into the reeds down there. I thought I was on around 10lb of silvers with 90 mins to go. I guessed Adie was on about 25lb and Paul nearly 35lb, so I was miles behind.
My 1st drop over the new line did provide my single carp, but again I sat over that line too long, but in reality I had no chance of coming anywhere, the carp were not in my area, neither Adie's either as he had not had any.
In the last hour I gave the silvers line another go, upping the feed of 4mm pellets, using maggot or soft 4mm pellets, but all I had was skimmers and roach. Hard banded pellet only gave 1 skimmer and a roach. I did try across when the wind dropped, but it only gave up a skimmer.
At the all out I guessed it had 15lb of fish. But the carp never arrived and this meant that I would be down the weights.
The weigh-in was done and the results were as expected, those I could see doing well had done so, as had Chris Fox on peg 1.
Results:
1st - Chris Fox, peg 1, - 66lb 14oz
2nd - Rod Wotton, peg 10, - 64lb 12oz
3rd - Brian Slipper, peg 3, - 55lb 6oz
4th - Kev Perry, peg 4, - 52lb 4oz
5th - Paul Faiers, peg 8, - 43lb 4oz
6th - Phil Deacon, peg 2, - 34lb 13oz
Top silvers weight was Adie Baker with 30-odd pound of silvers from peg 6, a great weight of mostly skimmers.
So in hindsight, I should have sat and fished for the silvers as I think I could have had 30lb of these.
I found out that Paul had been using meat, although I had some prepared, I never really tried it. Something to remember for next time.
Next up for me I a match tomorrow at Landsend, then the River Kenn next sunday(another 1st time venue).
Take Care
Lee
Note to self....don't wear trousers with holes in the pocket, I found my self a few quid lighter as all my coins must have fell out when wandering around watching the weigh-in.........Wally!!
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