Acorn Saturday Open (Paddock)

Off to Acorn today for the weekly Clevedon A.A match and with the forecast of a nice day a few were expected to dust of there kit off and return to the bank for a spot of fresh air if nothing else, 16 fishing today and a friendly pools of £12 gave me time to chat with team mate young James over a cuppa and a bacon sarnie had us hoping for a bridge peg as the resent form shows these to be more consistent of late and after seeing Steve Howell this morning he advised me to pick my peg with my left hand so into the draw out comes 38 which was the last place I wanted to be if truth be told as nobody had caught from it in the last few matches as they tend to be by bridge peg 40 at this time of the year and Darren Vowles was certainly smiling having draw it and it being todays bonus peg" to boot. obvious for me then, just beat Darren and i'le be alright, Simples'?

Sometimes when you don't draw the more fancied pegs you hope for it some what makes it easier to go about your day I believe as you don't have the pressure on to produce the goods the 'hot' pegs do, I planned two fish two swims to left and right around two metres out from the bank 9mts to either side and a the same rig to fish the bottom of the far shelf, all lines being the same depth at around 5ft deep so a 4x12 chanti on 0.11-0.10 and an 18 808 was assembled, another rig with a 4x10 chanti on 0.10-0.09 and a 20 808 was set up to fish on top of the shelf at 13mts in 3ft of water which I expected to have most indications on very late in the match.

My main feed today was going to be 4mm expanders fished over damped micro and hard 4mm's for across whilst I would feed caster and corn on my left on the shorter line and hard 4's with a few expanders to my right short line . Both lines were fed with a good handful of each before I cupped a nugget of micro with a sprinkle of loose offerings and hard 4's at the bottom of the far shelf, Starting with a tiny freeze cad pot attached containing two expanders and around 10 micro's up onto the top of the shelf I was looking for the odd fish quickly whilst my other lines settled and after an hour and a couple of dinks I had a carp of around 4lb but with no other signs except a brief tussle with a foul hooker I topped it up with a tiny amount of micro and switched to the bottom of the far shelf with 4mm expander and had a 3oz skimmer before I missed a quick bite but then nothing despite trying maggot and corn on the hook.

Another small nugget and a few expander re-fed the line before I tried up on the shelf again and another carp on pellet of 2lb was added but by now the wind had picked right up making it nearly impossible to hold the pole still so I had to change plan , I decided to cup in a palm full of bait on top of the shelf hoping to hold any passing carp to stay in the swim and have a look back over when the wind allowed, starting with double caster on the left short swim saw no indications and a try with corn didn't produce so a switch to the right hand swim with an expander saw a positive bite and another 4lb fish, followed by 2lb & 5lb fish so by looking around I was already making an impression as I hadn't seen much caught and Darren on the flier' only having one fish.

By now 2hrs had passed but I was now confident I would catch some more fish over if the wind was to drop into the last hour so now I new I had two lines to pinch fish off when ever possible, No more bites short made me top it up with another palm full of micro's and hard 4's before trying my best to hold the pole still long enough to induce a bite across but they didn't seem to want be in the shallower water so after trying the bottom of the shelf  for 10 mins without success I was back on the short pellet swim and another fish first put in was landed and after 10 more mins I attached a cad pot and began dripping in some micro and 4mms over the float and shortly after I had a nice 6lb common before it went quite again, by now I had an hour to go so I new if I was going to catch some more over it was going to be now so another top up short had me reach for the shelf rig, By now Lewis Jones had come down to see how we were getting on and was behind me as explained how I felt I was going to catch over and no sooner had I layed the rig in and emptied a micro amount of feed I was connected to a bigger fish and a minute later a 7lb common was netted' (I love it when it goes to plan) the same happed next put in and a 4lb fish was added then it went quite again so I swapped between both the long and short line ending the match with 11 carp which I thought was going to be their about from the pegs I could see not having that much,

As I thought the fishing had been hard and my 45lb was enough to take top weight and a win on the day with £40 added to the wallet to help which goes to prove you don't always have to be on the good pegs to get a result its how you approach it on the day and by fishing lighter lines and rigs can help as you have to make it look as natural as the feed to the fish, many of my bite came today just after the rig had settled or after I had lifted and dropped the rig a little. what was nice to see today we had a female angler in the name of Maria Green fishing who made my day by beating Darren Vowles & Dave Smart Either side of her so they wont get much stick next time will they" Go Girl!'

 Maria's Catch 10lb.

 My catch.

 

 Overall results                           

1st Dominic Sullivan (Maver Cadbury Angling) peg 38, 45lb 10oz

2nd  Paul Nicholls (Clevedon A.A) peg 11, 27lb 8oz

3rd Gabrial skarba (Acorn) peg 22, 23lb 8oz

3rd Lee Waller (Acorn) peg 34, 23lb 8oz. 

Top silvers

Paul Faires (Clevedon A.A) 11lb 2oz