Acorn Fishery. (Clevedon A.A v Shiplate Farm Fishery).

A match with a slight difference for a change with Shiplate's owner Steve Oliver & Clevedon's  Aide Baker getting together to arrange a friendly match between the two fishery's, Although the match was to be run on an open basis it swelled the attendance to 29 fishing and the top 12 weights from each side would decide who came out on top, Nothing at stake but still the enjoyment of fishing against others. Guesting for Shiplate Farm I was looking forward to a better day than my visit from yesterday hoping to avoid the same area which seen me struggle to put a run of fish together, Not trusting my draw hand I let Mark Birdseye do the honours for me today which saw me end up on peg 8, It wouldn't of been my first choice as I felt I would be cut off from the pegs either side of me along with peg 5 opposite which is directly across the front of me but arriving at my swim it wasn't as bad as I thought as I had the option of fishing towards the island on my left at 15mts putting me in the slightly deeper water at around 4ft deep which I felt would be ideal as I didn't think the shallower water tight over to the far bank would produce as well but we would see?

Not having an inside swim as such with Andy France on peg 7 and Gary Flint on peg 9 my next option was to fish a swim at 5mts in the open water which was around 6ft deep.

Keeping it as simple as I could I set up a 0.2g AS1 float on 0.13-0.11 for with an 16 808 hook for the long line and a 4x12 Chanti on 0.15-0.13 and an 16 PR434 hook, it was all about pellets for me today, soft pellet for hookers along with micros and 4mm for the far swim and 4 & 6mm pellet on the short line. Starting the match I fed half a large pot of 4mm on the 5mt line and began at the bottom of the far shelf across with a 4mm expander on the hook just cad potting a few micros over the top with a cad pot attached, The first 45mins saw me put 6 carp in the net from 2 - 4lb but and although at this stage Andy & Gary were a couple of fish up from the shallower water across I wasn't to concerned, As I had expected after an hour or so things began to slow down around the lake and I couldn't see to many fish being caught, I had seen this pattern before were a few early fish show then its a case of picking odd fish of for the rest of the day until things improve again late in the day.

A look on the short line with a 6mm expander saw one carp of 4lb but early indications told me they weren't their in numbers so it was back towards the island, It wasn't hectic but I was still adding the odd fish by fishing a couple of different area's, The trick seemed to be feeding a few micro's to draw some fish into the swim then switch to feeding hard 4mm's to avoid foul hooking fish and to stop them coming up in the water, Their seemed to be a few fish chasing each other around but they seemed more interested in spawning than taking any bait so I didn't attempt to try and catch them shallow, Switching between the two lines I was able to keep putting the odd fish in the net and felt things were going my way at this stage as Andy was now struggling and I was a few fish up on Gary who was mainly fishing the method feeder" across to the far bank at 12mts in the shallow water.

As expected things seemed to get better in the last 45mins with my far line coming good' only feeding after catching to avoid drawing to many fish into the swim at anyone time worked a treat and in the last 15mins I had 4 in 4 put-ins for around 15-20lb, As expected a few fish got there heads down late on but I couldn't see what had been caught at the opposite end of the lake, by the time the scales arrived at are end Jonny Page was winning with 59lb but I felt I had more than that with around 70lb in the net but I don't count or add up as I go along so who knows", Further around and Steve (Peanut) Howell on peg 37 who had suffered a nose bleed due to a change of fishery! lol, had done well mainly catching down his inviting edge to weigh 77lb odd,

Steve Howell. 

 

Lewis jones on end peg 6 by the bridge had 67lb before Andy put 36lb on the scales, My turn and I was slightly out on my guess but not to far away finishing up with 86lb odd which turned out to be enough to take the spoil's so a pleasing result after a couple of near missis lately,

 My Winning Catch'

 

Just to top things of are top twelve weights were easily enough to see off Clevedon's anglers so pride at stake went are way' I picked up £100 so a good day all-round and a bit of a confidence booster going into the big Maver match at viaduct fishery next Saturday, 

Full results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 8, 86lb 12oz.

2nd Steve Howell (Shiplate) peg 37, 77lb 8oz.

3rd Lewis Jones (Drennan Thyers) peg 6, 67lb 2oz.

4th Gary Flint (Cheddar) peg 9, 61lb.

5th John Page (Weston) peg 29, 59lb.

6th Kev Perry (Sensas Thyers) peg 23, 57lb 8oz.