Plantation Fishery - Match Lake - Clevedon Club - 10/11/13

A first for me today, a trip to Plantation's Match lake in Kingston Seymour. A venue I had only seen pics in blogs and  a quick glance across the lake from the bridge.
I had gathered that the hot/best/flyer pegs tended to be island ones, with pegs 7, 8 and a few in the 20's being most consistent.

Well after a late night/early morning, I had little sleep before the 6:30am alarm was due to wake me.
I also had to take Mrs W. to work in Weston on the way up (and get her on the way back), so I had planned to drop her in Weston at around 7:45 and get to Plantation at 8-ish. Alas this went wrong, little did I know that Weston is being dug up and put back in a better state, well the roads are it seems.
So I got the car loaded and had a cuppa before setting off, as we approached junction 21 we could see cones....the north bound slip road was closed, so my foot pressed a touch harder on the accelerator and it was up to the next junction, and back down the M5 to the south bound exit at Weston. An extra 20 miles thus far!!.....we got into Weston at 8am. I left the wife and made my way back towards the M5, the road was closed, so the diversion was taken....all out to Banwell and then onto the A38, then back into Congresbury.......gggrr....a few extra miles driven and more time taken, I expected to be late but luckily, I arrived at the car park at 25 past.  As it turns out, the slip road on the M5 northbound should have been open at 5am, but they hadn't opened it!!

I went into the café and the draw was made, Nick Harvey wasn't present, he was told or thought it was a 9am draw. So we drew his peg first.
I drew my ticket about halfway along he array of hands and pulled out peg 33, this meant bum all to me, I had not ever seen any blogs or results which had this peg written on it, but everyone told me it was a waste of a peg, the worst peg in the match if not on the lake....Pagey and co pointed me in the direction of the pegs, none of which were numbered. They said it shouldn't be in and I would possibly struggle...more joys.
The general census was that the lake may fish hard with the cooler nights and recent rains, but today it began warm enough, so much so I sat in tee-shirt until the all out when it had become rather nippy.

Anyways I found my peg and it looked ok, nothing more, it was a bay type peg off the main lake.
For company I had nobody...well I had Kev Perry behind me on peg 31 and Rich  over on whatever peg number it was - probably peg 37?, well it was the point of a spit opposite the end of the island.

Peg 33....Plantation Match Lake

 



My focus was always going to be fishing for silvers, well unless I drew peg 7 that is.....so I had with me a couple pints of caster, some 4 and 6 mm pellets for in the band, some micros and expanders and I mixed up some groundbait. Lastly I had some worm for chopping. Caster had been doing well on here from reports, so this was my banker bait.

 

Rig wise I set up my 3m whip set at 2.5ft deep, this is now my usual go-to silvers rig at the start of a match, more through enjoyment than anything, but it does me ok.

I also set up 2 identical 0.4g NG floats for 11m in front left (in line with blue keepnet) and in front slightly right (in line with silvers net). The left hand side was a couple or so inches shallower, and was baited with mostly micros, the right-hand side was for groundbait with caster on the hook. Both lines were for the skimmers, which apparently run to over 2.5lb and maybe a few roach.

I also used the un-banded rig for over my whip line as the depth was the same. A chopped worm/caster line down my right margin was assembled, this was tried a couple times without even a sniff.....

 

The all-in was shouted and I potted 3 walnut sized ball of groundbait over that 11m line, a decent cup of wetted micros over the other 11m line. A small helping of CW&C down to my right

I began on the whip and after 5 or so mins I had a roach of maybe 3oz, then nothing for a bit before a similar sized roach was plonked in the keepnet, by the end of the first hour I had 4 or 5 roach around 3-4oz each, most people were struggling from what I could see, except Rod Wootton over on peg 39? who after a quiet period on the long pole line had switched to the margin and started catching a few carp.

 

The next hour or so only bought me a few more roach, mostly on the whip, though 1 from the groundbait line gave me false hope as this was only 1 of 3 fish from open water all day for me. The roach were all same sized and if they had stuck around in numbers were good weight builders, but that is a big IF...

By the time 2pm had arrived, I maybe had 2lb of roach. So I quickly set up another rig for tight into 2 new margin swims, one to my left at 11m towards the empty peg and another to my right, closer in than the original cw&c line. Both lines were dealt big helpings of caster and worm, with the left margin given some loose groundbait.

Word had it that Paul Faires would easily win the silvers as he'd had some skimmers of a big size and Glen Calvert was doing ok. Also Rod had landed a good few carp, and the pegs in the 20's behind me had produced a few, along with plenty of foul-hookers from what I could hear. Peg 7... the hot peg...had Mark Bromsgrove on it, and he was doing very well, so 1st and 2nd seemed between him and Rod. Elsewhere a few carp were getting caught, but I really didn't know where people were at with the silvers, but I thought that maybe a couple decent ones or maybe a perch of a couple pound would help me.

 

So the last hour was spent fishing the two margins, with the odd look out in front.

I would love to say that the perch and skimmers had arrived, but I cant, I landed 3 more roach and two lumpy carp, both on double caster, one of which was landed on skimmer gear within 15 seconds....it was around 12lb came from the right hand edge swim, the smaller from the left towards the empty swim. Both were an unwelcome bonus, but beats waiting for nothing as the silvers were notable by their absence.

The all out sounded and I knew I hadn't done anything to worry the pay-outs, but felt I had done ok given the peg. The last hour saw Kev behind me boost his carp tally to around 6 and Rich over on the point swim had topped his carp tally to 4 or 5. Rod had a quiet last hour from what I gather. Lance Tucker on peg 5? had landed a few carp during the match and had done ok.

The temperature had dropped noticeably and the fish had slowed as well in the last hour. So much so that I had to put my coat on as soon as I got off my box.

 

I loaded the car and wandered back to get my catch weighed, everyone commenting how hard and disappointing the day was. There was 2 sets of scales, so weighing didn't take long.

First I plonked my couple of carp on the scales, they totalled 18lb 6oz.

My roach weighed in at 3lb, giving me 21lb 6oz.

 

Elsewhere Mark Bromsgrove won the match (peg 7 - 78lb 40z), Rod Wootton (p39 61lb 4oz) was 2nd, Lance Tucker 3rd (36lb 8oz p5) and 4th was Brian Slipper (p12 28lb 8oz).

Silvers was won by Paul Faires with a great catch of 15lb 8oz, 2nd silvers was Glen Calvert with 7lb 4oz.

 

Weigh Sheet....No peg numbers.

 





So all in all it was a hard day with most struggling at times, the weather was pleasant enough for November, but I enjoyed it and will be keen to go back at some point.

 

Next up for me is a match on the River Parrett, a venue I have not fished for around 18 years...cool...roach fishing....let the rains keep away a bit more this week.

 

Until then, stay safe and have fun.

Lee

 



Avalon Teams of 3 - Avalon Fisheries - November 3rd 2013

Today was the 1st round of 6 matches. A teams of 3 event, with my partners being Paul Wharton, a guy who generally doesn't fish many (any) matches, and James Withers, a bloke who talks a good match, but doesn't get out to fish much (bless him), but not and bad angler really....Nice guys though..lol.

We have 11 teams for this series. With pay outs pretty well spread and quite generous, we wanted to do well. But there are 30 other anglers who are very capable. The likes of Rich Coles, Vic Bush, Tom Mangnall and Eric Fouracre were in attendance. Coupled with some of the guys who fish with either Clevedon and Pawlett clubs and a few regular framers at Avalon it was going to be tough...

Anyways, after a rainy, windy, stormy and nippy night, I arrived at the fishery at around 8:10, plenty of time before the half past 8 draw. The lakes looked 'weathered' and we were unsure what to expect.
I took my team-mates' pools money off them and went and paid our dues.

After a bit of banter and chitter chat about how we expected it to fish, the draw was made.
Now it was down to the team captains to pick their section and this, coupled with pre-determined pegs, saw an angler from each team in the corresponding peg of each section.

I drew section B, peg 2. Meaning that James had C section peg 2 and Paul was in A section peg 2.
These translated into permanent pegs 19, 32 and 3 respectively.
We all made our ways to the pegs, well wishing each other, hoping the 'team' does well.

I arrived at peg 19 and surveyed the scene, a slippery platform of decent size (phew), some far bank cover and ok-ish looking margins. I had to my right Keith Clapp, who was the 1st peg in my section. To my left I had silvers specialist Ron Stark, then Vic Bush and Rich Coles (another silvers angler), finally I had John Dursley as the last peg on this bank, the rest of the section were the other side of the island and out of sight.

My peg....Peg 19

 

The corner of the island - Peg 19

 

 

I had made up a few rigs on Saturday and went about setting up my tackle, the usual 3m whip was assembled, a lead/8mm pellet rod to cast to the point of the island as I could not get close out in front due to the overhanging trees. I also assembled 3 top kits.

1 for down towards the reeds in the edge to my left, this was for chopped worm/caster. The same rig was also used for 7m in front slightly to the left, again using chopped worm and caster.

Another rig was for soft pellet fished half depth or so. This was to be used over the 13m line where I set up a 0.6g NG decker float for soft pellet over wetted micros, but fish will often come off bottom when using micros as feed.

I also set up a pellet wag as a few fish were moving near the surface in other swims. But alas I cast this up a tree, re-tackled with a lighter float and promptly hooked a carp of 12 or 13lb on a bare hook, before the whistle....not a good sign..!!

 

The all in sounded at 10:15 and I potted various baits to the designated swims and loose fed some caster for the whip line. My 1st half hour was spent on the lead, with no joy. There was not even any swirls from small fish on the whip line. No blowing on the pole lines and the weather was all over the place, windy, calm, rain and sun. The fish looked to have been put off by the multi-seasonal conditions.

Meanwhile Keith on peg 17 was landing a few carp by fishing into the calm off the end of his island.

Vic had landed a carp. Me and Ron were struggling.

 

For the next couple of hours I rotated tactics, only picking up odd roach and rudd on the whip. The lead and waggler tactics never produced a bite, and the pole only gave 2 little fish over the 7m worm line. At around 12:15 I had a look over the 13m line with a 4mm Bait Tech expander and the float went under, a carp was hooked, and after a spirited scrap a 7lb fish was netted. Soon after a second carp followed, though this one was around 3lb. Then things died again.

 

The next couple hours was spent rotating swims, though there was a little more blowing over the long line. I picked up the odd small fish on the 7m and whip lines. I couldn't buy a bite down the edge and gave that up.

2pm came and I reckon I had around 2.5lb of bits and 2 carp for about 10lb. But I was well behind Keith who had a good few fish early on in the match and possibly had 30lb in his net. I was maybe a little ahead of Ron who wasn't catching consistently either. Vic had landed a few carp, maybe 5 or 6, plus some silvers, but by my reckoning he was plenty behind Keith.

 

Another look over the long line produced my 3rd carp, a 4lb fish. I had also figured that by firing a few 4mm pellets over the float bought a response. The last hour bought me 3 skimmers of maybe 12oz each and I did lose 2 foul hooked carp in 2 drops, both were of a decent stamp.

Things died for me in the last hour, but Ron did land a carp, as did Keith. Vic also had a few fish and I could hear Rich and John had landed some fish. It was going to be close on my bank, in my section, for 3rd and lower, as I guessed Keith and Vic were possibly the 2 tops spots.

I did see my team-mate James land a couple carp on the pellet wag over on peg 32 (you can make him and Jonny Page in my 2nd photo), but I was unsure on how he was doing.

 

The all out sounded and I was really unsure on what I had, 3 carp and 4lb of silvers were what I guessed at being 18lb.

I packed up and waited for the scales. I was unsure of the weights in section A, but Keith weighed 35lb 11oz to go into the lead overall and obviously top spot in B section.

After Keith it was my weigh, my 3 carp went 15lb 7oz and silvers weighed 6lb 4oz. 21lb 11oz total.

 

I loaded my car and headed back for the results.

 

It turned out it was a low-weight match, but pretty fair and lots of close weights.

 

1st on the day was Keith Clapp with 35lb 11oz peg 17

2nd was Matt Harris, 34lb 7oz from Peg 42

3rd was (by default) Paul Wharton with 32lb off peg 3

 

Silvers winner was Eric Fouracre, 17lb 13oz of mostly skimmers, from peg 7. He did have 15lb 4oz of carp for a total of 33lb 1oz, which was 3rd top weight.

2nd Silvers was Keith Builder from peg 16, his silvers weighed 10lb 5oz.

 

The top team on the day (by weight) was Sedges, the team of Jamie Cook plus Keith and Phil Clapp.

2nd team on the day was my team Woolavy Wanderers.

Both teams had 26 points from a total of 33.

 

Pay Outs and Team Results

Section Results.

 

So all in all it wasn't a bad day for me, 4th in section and my team came joint first on points, losing out on weight to the Sedges team. Paul Wharton also picked up £40 for his efforts, well done buddy.

 

The next round of the series is December 29th, maybe it'll be tougher, but given this country's weather conditions, you can never be sure it will actually be much colder.









 

Next up for me could see me at Plantations Match lake with the Clevedon Club next Sunday.

Until next time, take care and have fun

Lee