I arrived at the lake to see that John Wolstencroft, Scott Smallwood and Dave Stephenson already present and chatting about various things, especially how well the River Kenn has been fishing, plenty of roach and rudd, but the bream catches have caught the eye, check out the club's Facebook page Clevedon FWAC.
I had decided to fish for the silvers today and bought baits to suit, micro's, groundbait and expanders. Also some caster and maggot for the whip were in my bag.
However, as it turned out we only had 11 guys as there was a superleague match on the Huntspill, so the usual Thyers faces were not present.
This meant that we'd only have top 3 pay outs and no silvers pool......bugger!!
The draw was made, I wanted to have the last peg and hoped for pegs 5, 19 (end peg) or maybe peg 7, with 19 being the obvious choice as it was sure to show in the overall results.
Anyway, Vic let me have the last ticket (I think) and it was peg 16, not a peg I have fished before, but one I wasn't too unhappy with, though peg 17 looked better as it was the end of the island. Peg 16 is also probably the narrowest peg on the lake and the island was maybe 20m away, but the reeds meant I couldn't get as close as I would have liked.
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| Peg 16, Avalon Fishery. |
For company I only had Darren 'Nuddy' Vowles who was on peg 17. Further along, on peg 19, was Paul Nichols and to my right on peg 13 was Steve Bonwick.
My main areas of attack would be the pellet waggler cast as close to the island as the wind and reeds dictated, I also set up a shallow pole rig for 14.5m in front. A depth rig too fish banded pellet over this line was made up, but only gave me a skimmer, so no more on that then.
A margin rig and a paste rig were assembled, but other than a stray tench on the paste I never gave them more that 10 minutes during the match.
Baits were 6 and 8mm pellets and a sort of paste I made from wet 6's and groundbait (it turned out ok!). I did have some maggots and casters, but they were bird food!
The all in sounded at 10am and I deposited a big pot of 6's at 6m for paste over the top, some 8mm baits went over to the reeds courtesy of a catty and lastly I began feeding 6mm pellets over the long pole line via the catapult.
My match began ok on the wag with 4 baby carp in half an hour, but like last time I was down here, bites were hard to hit and the fish were swirling at the feed and hard to nail. They still pulled as strong and used the reeds as much as possible as hooklength cutters!!
By the end of 90 minutes I had 6 small carp in my nets and a couple decent hybrids, further along on peg 19, Paul Nichols had been catching most casts on the pellet wag and had switched to the pole shallow and kept the fish coming, Nuddy on peg 17 hadn't had any carp as of that point, but had lost a waggler to a tree and was doing his best to catch something, but it was slow,
As we approached 12pm I took a look on the long pole line, where I had seen a few fish swirl at the feed, plus it was fizzing like mad, so I eased off the feed amounts as I find too much fizzing isn't great when shallow fishing.
Twenty minutes on this line gave me a few roach and hybrids, sadly only 1 carp of around 4lb. This line wasn't fished again as I pretty much chose to stick to the waggler for the rest of the match.
The halfway point of the event was soon upon us and I had upped my total of carp to 8, though a couple small 1lb stockies were also netted. So I had perhaps 25lb or so.
Nuddy had one carp and a few silvers. Paul on p19 was emptying it!! I couldn't really see anyone else and nobody had taken a walk up so I guess they were doing ok.
I continued to feed my long pole line, but things didn't seem right there, only the odd swirl, so I stayed on the waggler, but had switched to a 6mm pellet in the band and lengthened the hooklength in hoping for a slower bait fall, this seemed to work and I began getting a few more fish. Though I did have to keep busy, which I what I like, and I was re-casting every 10 seconds or so, feeding every 3rd cast. I stopped feeding each cast as the fish began to follow any feed that went too far and they were sucking up tight to the island where I couldn't get my bait due to over hanging reeds.
Nuddy had a few more silvers and a couple little carp from his margin and I kept an eye on how he was doing here.
With 90 minutes left in the match it seemed peg 19 had won as he must have had 100lb or more in his nets, I was on 12 carp, maybe 32lb in total. A couple looks on my pole lines gave me a big fat nothing so it was back on the wag!
A ghostie of 6lb was a welcome bonus, but the fish began coming more regularly, this also increased my lost fish, these were simply lost as the 0.20 hooklengths were being run through the green reeds and breaking it. It was hit and hold stuff and these fish do tend to tear off at a million miles an hour.
Nuddy had also given up and decided to go and sit and watch Paul on peg 19.
At the all-out Nuddy had told me that Paul had easily 40lb in the last hour while he was sat there, so guessed him to have 180lb, I thought maybe a bit more.
I ended up with 20 carp, 5 or 6 of them being 1lb stockies, so I guess I had 60lb or less.
I admitted to Vic as he walked by that I had my usual 40lb in my net....which was true!!
I packed my stuff away and was soon down watching Paul weigh in, he had some decent lumps in his nets, plus plenty of small stockie sized carp.
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| Paul Nichols, part of his 175lb+ catch (p19) |
Darren 'nuddy' Vowles weighed next on peg 17, his few carp and 5lb of silvers gave him a level 15lb.
Next up was me, my silvers weighed 7lb 6oz, half of which was that tench. My 1st carp net went 42lb 3oz, my 2nd net went 40lb 5oz. So my 40lb in a net was spot-on, I just didn't say 'nets'. So 89lb 14oz was a very decent total. Slightly more than expected.
I left the scales to continue along the bank, but Vic was sure my weight seemed ok for 2nd.
I loaded the barrow and soon caught back up with the weighing in, and my net was still second as we got down to peg 7, Simon Ryall put 40-09 on the scales to temporarily move into 3rd, top bagger Andy Hembrow on peg 6 DNW'd much to some amusement.....Adie Baker on peg 5 troubled the scales with 44lb exactly. Last up was Scott Smallwood, he scooped the 3rd place pay out with a 45lb 13oz catch from peg 3.
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| Weigh Sheet |
1st, peg 19, Paul Nichols, 175lb 3oz
2nd, peg 16, Lee Williams, 89lb 14oz
3rd, peg 3, Scott Smallwood, 45lb 13oz
So all in all it was a fair match, with the winner being the exception. My late run of fish boosted my weight, but my faffing with hook baits, feeding and presentation definitely worked for me.
I fed around 4 pints of 6mm pellets and 3pts of 8's over the course of the match and lost around 7 fish to the reeds and 2 hook pulls. My holiday fund gets a bit more added to it, which is nice. But it was an enjoyable day.
Next up for me is a match on Viaduct's Campbell Lake, with the PSV guys.
Until next time, take care.
Lee
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