Acorn/Clevedon FWAC Blind Pairs and Summerhayes Longs Open, 30/12/17 and 31/12/17

A quick round up of the couple of matches I fished on the weekend.

Saturday was Clevedon FWAC's 'Boxing Day' blind pairs, this was opened up to all and after my car had it's MOT I had to decide what to do on Saturday and this came up, but I could not initially get on but then a text from Adie said I could as someone had dropped out. Bargain.

Only 10 of us fished it and the winds were rather strong, but dropped from 40+mph to 20-something during the day. I hadn't fished it for a long while but I do keep eyes on the results and it has generally been tricky going and the fish have seemed to moved around a bit, except the island pegs (1 to 5) where I was sure the winner would come from and where I fancied (we had pegs 2 and 4 in the match).

Anyways a bit of a natter to those I know and those I didn't before the draw was done. I pulled peg 40, bridge peg by the car...short walk. They have also cleared the hedge and filled the ditch that ran parallel with the car park so it is more exposed but looks a lot neater.
I fancied it for a few fish but got told that area was pants mid-week and a few dnw's in that area were made. My partner for the day was Andy Devereaux on peg 31.

Acorn peg 40

Bait was maggots, expanders, micros and corn, plus some bread for dobbing.
3 rigs, 1 for anywhere from topkit to 9 or 10m where I would feed and fish maggots (DT 0.3g F1/Silvers float, 0.10>20f1 hook). The 2nd rig for dobbing bread along the bridge which went biteless (DT RBS Open water 0.2g, 0.12>16b911), lastly a shallower rig which was for the far side and my margins both sides where corn over micros would be used (0.1 DT Pinger 0.14>16b911).

Well to summarise the day, it was bloody hard for all. I began slowly, like everyone but I started to get the odd decent roach on my topkit and after an hour or so I had 4 or 5 for maybe 1lb.
The second hour gave me a 1.5lb carp and odd baby roach from maggots halfway along the bridge.
3rd hour gave nothing except 1 small skimmer on the topkit.
4th hour gave me another 2lb carp from next to the bridge on maggots and a skimmer from here.
Last hour produced a couple nice roach and in the final moments a decent f1 on corn over micros at 13m in front. I reckoned on 6lb plus a few roach/skimmers and 1 perch of 1oz.
Elsewhere the 2 island pegs produced a few carp and Mark Walsh and Mike Owens had 23lb+ nets. The rest of us struggled more so and Adie on peg 37 had 1 roach from his 4 bites all day.
Mark Bromsgrove had a tench of 1oz in his 4lb catch, which was nice.
I totalled 10-14 for 3rd on the day.
Top pairs were:
1st- total 27-12 were Mark Bromsgrove (4-00) and Mike Owen (23-12)
2nd - total 25-15 were Mark Walsh (23-07) and Matt Roden (2-08)

There are photos and weigh sheets on Ivan's Blog
It was nice to get back there and I will be sure to try and get there more often.
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Sunday saw me head to Summerhayes for their open on Longs, which turned out to be a rover.
I only decided to go as Gabe said he would see me there....a little more sleep would have been more sensible.
Anyways only 8 of us and I would wait until there was 2 balls left in the tub before my go....Gabe, who was running late, would have the last one. 1st pick and last pick were those left, yep I chose last choice. Pete phoned Mr Skarba and he put himself on peg 37 when he arrived. I fancied peg 11 or 12 as there seemed to be some fish there to say the least. But that area went, I chose peg 7, which in hindsight was not too sensible as during the day the sun came out and the winds increased leaving me not being able to see my floats in most areas and the areas I could were those ii struggled to hold the pole....twat, think next time...!!

Peg 7, Longs, Summerhayes.

Anyway I enjoyed my 4.5hrs fishing in the most part as you can get a few bites at this venue and so it proved, obviously not enough as I chucked back half and hour early. Peg 11 went off like a train and had 16 carp in the first 45 minutes to an hour. As had Martin Addicott around in the 30's somewhere.
My 1st carp came after 20 minutes on dobbed bread, after 90 minutes I had 5 or 6 on this, plus 2 little skimmers.
That was that on the bread. Then the wind and sun came and I never had anything for a couple hours, peg 11 kept catching but I was enjoying myself. I then picked up a couple carp on maggots where I had dobbed bread earlier when the wind dropped for a couple minutes.
I then tried down to my left edge by some reeds and netted 4 carp from here on maggots and a few chunky roach. I had nothing on maggots short but had a run of fish down my right edge by the empty platform on corn over micros, well I say run of fish, it was 4 and lost 2.

When I packed up I had 16 carp (40lb maybe) and 3lb or so of silvers.
I loaded my car and spoke to Gabe, he had around 30 carp and some silvers but also chucked back as 138lb and 101lb were top weights I found out later on from him. Rob Birch on peg 1 or 2 had 4 carp and a few bits, a couple others struggled too. But everyone had some bites and a few fish.

My 3 rigs were all on DT RBS Opens in 0.3g and to 0.12 hooklengths and size 16 hooks.
Bait was simple maggots, micros, corn and bread, I did mix some groundbait and had some casters but the wildlife were fed them.

It was nice to get back there and have a few elastic pullers, but I must remember that to face the sun and wind in the winter is rather schoolboy, I should have learned that I wouldn't have seen anything in those conditions.

Next weekend is the next round of the Landsend So-Simple Winter League. The weather looks cooler and I am on the Speci Lake.

Until then, Take Care.

Lee