Back to part of my fishing roots today, Clevedon's Xmas match which was traditionally held on the River Kenn, now moved to Plantation Lakes, as it seems unlikely there would be much interest in getting covered in the Kenn's renowned grey mud, even though, by all accounts it's fishing well at the moment. My previous best in this match is a second place, so a good draw today would be needed to try and get the elusive win.
The draw was delayed, it seemed as if there was pegging by general consensus going on, finally the tickets went into the bucket and a ungentlemanly rabble wrestled for the chance to draw one of the coveted flyers. No need for me to get excited, the bay, peg 33 found it's way into my hand, I can't recall it ever winning a match and it used to be a good silvers peg, but even they don't seem to live there in the same numbers now.
The bread I bought on the way down to the match, along with the lead rod was unlikely to get used, although I did set it up, just to try out a rod I bought yesterday, a 10/11' Tournament. Three rigs would suffice, two NG gimps a 0.3g to fish the open water at 11m and a 0.25g pencil for the short line, which used to be very productive on this peg. Lastly, as the wind was forecast to be strong and gusty, I set up a 0.4g MW cane diamond.
I fed two pole lines with a cup, one at 11m of to my right, using Paul Faiers on 38 as my line up marker and one at 11m straight in front, the line in front fed with micro's, the RH line fed with maggot. Caster into the short line and close margins, then a couple of chucks with the lead, not so much as a liner on there, so up the bank with it. It took half an hour or so to get my first bite, a perch about 8oz, this on maggot over the micros. A switch to the RH line and a decent skimmer graced the net, before that went dead. Straight back in front and a small carp gave me the run round as it was hooked just outside of the mouth. That was it, no more bites from either of those lines, I didn't manage a bit from either of the short margins or short line and it was tough going. Kev Perry came round for a walk from Horseshoe lake where he was blanking and he wasn't alone, he must have brought some luck, as I'd got off my box and made up a rig to fish 16m round the margin, just past peg 34, this brought another small carp.
Dobbing 3 white maggots saw me foul another, but it came off straight away, a try with bread was a total waste of time and switching back to maggot brought one more carp. That was to be my last bite, as we then had a wind and hailstorm, tricky to hold the 16m whilst it was going on, a look round the other lines was biteless and the last 20 minutes when it calmed down again, was also devoid of any action.
I guessed that Paul Faiers had just beaten me, as he had 4 carp and two tiny roach, watching him play and land a tail hooked carp on 0.10 and six elastic was the highlight of the day, even though he just edged past me with it.
My perch and skimmer went 2.08 and the 3 carp 13.02, so 15.10 in total, for 6th in the match and on the lake. Gawd knows what prize I'll get as Faierzy and Glenn were propping up the bar as I left, with them getting a a lift home, they'll no doubt have a pint or two........so perhaps asking them to get my prize was a mistake!!! I had to go as the new puppy had been at home a few hours by herself.
Run away winner was John Wolvenscroft from peg 8 with 14 carp on bread/liccy in the feeder. A special mention for Lance Tucker who blanked on the sought after peg 7 - although he was far from alone, I think there were 7 blanks from the 31 fishing and some pretty low weights. There were 20 pegs on the Main lake and 11 on Horseshoe, top six all from main lake, best weight from Horseshoe was Rich Lovering, 15.05.
1. John Wolvenscroft 64.10 peg 8
2. Don Sutherland 25.08 peg 31
3. Paul Nicholls 19.12 peg 1
4. John Page 19.04 peg 18
5. Paul Faiers 16.09 peg 38
6. Chris Fox 15.10 peg 33
Silvers
1. Mike Owens 6.14 peg 12
2. Brian Slipper 5.03 peg 23
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