Clevedon v Frys, Durleigh Res, 10-08-14

Today was a match I booked into on Thursday afternoon as I wasn't sure if I wanted to fish this weekend, but I did but I wasn't too keen on it. But needs must etc.....

Durleigh Res, Looking across from the entrance.

I arrived today at around 8:15, plenty of time before the draw, which was delayed until 9am, fish 10:30 til 16:30. We had both banks booked, but were sadly low on numbers and ended up with 8 on the far bank and 7 on the lodge bank, so 120 quid for the venue meant payouts were lower than we'd hoped. It is a shame as the reservoir is a good fishery.
I dipped my nets and had a bit of a chin wag before the draw.
The draw came and I managed not to draw the expected hot pegs which were the 2 on the lawn straight after the dam wall, especially with the wind due to be pushing into that area.
I picked peg 20, the furthest walk on the day.....Mark Bromsgrove and Barry Fowler had the pegs by the dam.

After the long hike with too much kit.....why I took my pole I don't know!! I arrived at my peg, had a drink and started to set up.
I had 3 feeders set up, 1 with the method feeder using boilies or banded pellet, 1 with a pellet feeder with similar hook baits and lastly an open ended jobbie for worm, corn, caster or dead reds.
I also set up a 3m whip and a 3.5m whip for the roach.



View from my peg/

Bait was 6pts of hemp, 2 pints of caster, a large tin of corn, 3kg-ish of groundbait, wetted 4mm's for the method and a selection of hookbaits including worm and boilies.
I mixed up 2kg into balls to be fired out on the feeder line and the last kilo or so would be for fishing through the open ender and odd ball on the whip line. I mixed a pint of caster, some dead reds a large handful of corn and 1pt of pellet to the mix.

The all in sounded and I cattied the groundbait out and flicked some hemp/caster/corn on the whip line. I began on the open ender and had a couple roach on 5 dead reds before my 1st pike was hooked, it took the fish which looked like a nice skimmer....bugger.
I kept in the feeder line for a few hours, hooking at least 4 more pike, each one taking skimmers...not roach...typical. I did land a couple 12oz skimmers and a couple roach.
Down to my left a few bream and skimmers had been had, but the whip lines were quiet from what I could see.

After 3hrs or so I gave up on the feeder line, the pike were annoying, but the bream were noticeable in their absence!! I did lose a carp ( I think) that wrapped round the tip and broke the hooklength.

By this point, I had lost interest as the lad to my left was on his 5th or 6th bream and Andy Hembrow further down had a couple carp and some bream in his net. Word had it that the pegs by the dam, on the lawn area, had a good few fish with Barry Fowler sacking up.
The couple of guys, Merv Sivell being one, who were fishing the whip had caught a few, but looked like lots of  1/2oz blades were present.

So with around 2.5hrs left I decided to try the whip, and this is more or less how I spent the rest of the match.
I started off on single caster, but got plenty of baby 1/2oz skimmers, so I upped the feed and switched to corn or occasionally double caster on the hook, this bought me decent sized roach between 3 and 8oz, with odd rudd and perch chucked in too. I even hooked a carp, which didn't stay hooked for long!!

The all out was called and I guessed I had 15lb maybe which was 1.5lb of skimmers and bits on the tip and the rest whip fish.

After starting to pack up the scales made their way to me, my net went 20lb 14oz, slightly more than I thought, but a poor weight on the day, I only got to see the next weight which was 29lb of bream/skimmers caught on the method next to me. Andy Hembrow had a couple carp, one of which jumped out of his keepnet, reducing his weight by a decent margin!!

As I made the haul back to the lodge I found out that Barry had around 75lb and Mark B. 45lb or so.
The lodge bank gave a few weights between 35lb and 39lb, some roach, some bream weights.

I never stayed for the results, but I shall update them when I get them through. I wasn't last mind you, there were a couple less than mine....

In hindsight, I should have stuck to fishing the whip all day, I wouldn't have won but may have snuck into one of the other 3 paying spots. I am surprised I didn't get any amount of bream, I didn't fish badly or anything, I just think the fish had moved on the wind, especially late on, which was obvious given that the lad next to me, Andy Hembrow and Adie Baker had a dire last 2hrs when the wind was at it's strongest. The pike were a pain in the arse too....I think I hooked at least 6, maybe more, I lost track.

Next up for me is a match with Pawlett on the Huntspill at Withy Grove.

Until next time, take care.

Lee


EDIT:
Results:

1st...Barry Fowler 75lb 10oz
2nd...Mark Bromsgrove 47lb 2oz
3rd...Lance Tucker 39lb
4th...Paul Faires 38lb