River Kenn, 13th September 2009

Clevedon v Frys was the occasion for this visit to this fantastic roach venue, although it can be very temperamental, the roach don't always play ball.

The draw was organised at Warren Farm holiday park, so with the prospect of a breakfast, I got there in plenty of time, Paul Faiers walked in just behind me and we got our breakfast and sat down. There was some fuss behind the counter, apparently you only got three items for your £3.50, we kept quiet as we'd both blagged extras of black pudding & beans from the young girl serving and got away without paying extra. We were joined at the table by an unhappy Ray Bazeley, "bloody £3.50 for beans on toast, robbing bastards, I'm going to say something". He never did, we consoled him with the fact that he had subsidised our grub.

Kev Perry walked in looked at the breakfast counter and didn't bother, one too many pints of that Thatchers appetite suppressant, at the Blue Flame last night, Kev?

The Match was pegged from the outfall to the motorway, every other peg, with a couple of extra peg gaps between the sections, peg 76 revealed its self when I drew and opened the folded ticket, I wasn't too disappointed, but would have preferred to be below Strode road. Paul had drawn 42 and Kev peg 80, Ray had drawn up in the eighties.

The brambles on the opposite bank didn't quite go up far enough, so I had the usual quota of spaniels and fat labs swimming in the peg, not that I think this had any bearing on the outcome. With a strong downstream wind and a clear river, I did have my doubts, but started well, catching several roach and a skimmer in the first 20 minutes, then it died, completely, nothing I did would get a bite. After about 2½ hours, I was on the verge of walking up to Kev, when I saw him coming down towards me, he had one chub!!

Kev stayed for a few minutes chat, then walked on down to see what was happening, he came back clutching 2 slices of bread "scrounged from the Fry's bloke", as Dave Baker was catching on bread. A short while later, Kev's good lady walked up the bank, unbeknown to me with more bread for him - are bait deliveries allowed??.

I decided to stick it out with worm on the hook and picked up a couple of small perch, a proper perch of approx 2lb or so and a bream that was pushing 5lb, to give me 9lb 8oz and the section by default, Dave Baker taking the last frame place with his 12lb odd of bread caught roach. I'd looked at my freezer full of liccy and thought about bringing it, but dismissed it as unnecessary this early in September, big mistake. Kev weighed over 11lb all on bread in the last couple of hours, although Ray pipped him for the section.

24lb odd won from the outfall ( sorry can't remember who), a couple of 16lbs and a 15lb completed the frame, which were, Simon Carvallo, Paul Faiers and Paul Nichols.

A few beers after and the classic line from Kev. " Did you see that blonde that walked up with her dog, I told her if she came back I'd give her a good f*****g," she said "that would be nice,", then Kev says, " but it wouldn't be a new conquest as I already have"

Are there any birds in Clevedon, Kev hasn't serviced??



Just to prove to myself that I wasn't miles away from getting it right, I went back today, fished peg 24 with maggot and caster and had well over 20lb of roach and perch to 1lb, the water had slightly more colour in, than those pegs in the 70's and 80's, is that all the difference was, the wind was still hard downstream and the sun came out and shone as yesterday.

The Kenn is an enjoyable river to fish, but its many moods still catch me out, 35 years since I first fished it.