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

It was back to Acorn today for this friendly match, Guesting for Shiplate farm the score stands at 2-0 to us & we were keen to kept a clean sheet' Its all a bit of fun but if nothing else it boosts the attendance up, We had 27 fishing which is a good turnout with the top ten weights from each side deciding who takes the spoils on the day. I was traveling alone today but did manage to find the burger van open today so a nice cuppa n roll was had before arriving in plenty of time to have a good wander around paddock lake, Their were plenty of fish moving in the margins at the top end of the lake & seemed to be a lot of fish moving on the noted bridge pegs up in the water, I fancied peg 9 as I've always done well of it & its only a short distance to the island but with Steve (Peanut) Howell & Timmy Lewis in attendance the chances of them drawing it is very high', Trust me never mention good draws to them".

Into the draw & I was happy to find myself on peg 7 which just so happened to be where I drew on the bank holiday Monday open so not only did I still have the same rigs I fancied it for a few as the breeze was blowing into pegs 7 & 6'.

Same as before I had a 0.2g AS1 on 0.15-0.13 to fish towards the far bank at 13mts in 3ft of water a couple of feet off the bank,

A dibber rig to fish tight in between the stick-ups right over which was very shallow but can produce a few on some days, A 4x12 Chanti to fish in the deeper water on 0.15-0.13 & a 18 wide gape pellet hook which was around 5ft deep & finally what I thought would be my banker rig to fish at 10mts towards the empty pallet on a nice flat spot a metre or so of the bank in 4ft of water between myself & Peg 9",

And guess who was on that? Steve Bloody Howell.." Thiers a surprize...!.

I started the day feeding some hard 4mms & A few 6mm expanders down the inside line, Fed some corn in the deeper water & few a few hard 4mms by hand down both sides of me at top-kit length. I started the day across at 13mts feeding some hard 4mm's & Micro Pellet over the top & missed a bite straight away, But as normal the wind had increased the minute the match started & trying to get the rig to stay still long enough to induce a bite was proving impossible so after 20mins I switched to fishing the dibber rig on a longer line tight to the far bank feeding a few 4mms via a cad-pot with a hard 6mm pellet on the hook. I had a couple of signs of fish but still nothing so switched to paste on the hook but this also failed to produce. 45mins I still hadn't put a fish in the net so sooner than I would have liked I switched to the 10mt inside line with a 6mm expander on the hook.

In the next 30mins I hooked four big fish, All which turned out to foul hooked, I had been potting in then waiting for bites but switched to cad potting smaller amounts of 4mm's with the cad -pot over the top as it was towing back at me in the wind. Finally I managed a 3lb fish just after midday so finally I was off the mark but over 20lb behind Peanut & Brian (Anteater) Slipper opposite me on the point peg 5 both who were catching a few across to the far bank.

I had been feeding my inside topkit lines from the off & had resorted to feeding a good pot of pellets down to my right in the hope some fish would settle their late on? I gave them an early look but never had a sniff, The deeper water line gave me one bite on the corn all day which I still missed', so most of my match was spent swapping between the 10mts line & my top-kit, I managed to snare a few fish here late on but apart from that it was just the odd fish from the 10mt line to keep me interested, I ended up feeding another at 12mts close to the pallet with a pot of micros & tried a worm over the top but it only produced another foul hooker. I was one of the early ones to weigh & was quite pleased to end the day with 51lb odd considering my bad start", Peanut had managed to catch from his far bank most of the day finishing with 71lb odd which was enough to win the section, Their were a few close weights in the end but Brian just managed to finish on top with 89lb odd catching most of his fish down the edge on paste over pellet. Back at the results & Shiplate's top ten weights were enough to make it 3-0 in the friendly stakes so a good result there. It was hard day for me really but when I did manage fish they were of decent size just a shame they didn't seem to want to feed as well here than the last time I fished it but that's the way it go's'.

Not sure what my plans are for next weekend but probably going to spend Saturday with the good wife who never moans about my time on the bank bless her x.

Full Results -

1st Brian Slipper (Sensas Thyers) peg 5, 89lb 2oz.

2nd Russ Pecker (Thatchers Tackle) peg 22, 89lb 2oz.

3rd Kev Perry (Sensas Thyers) peg 36, 79lb 4oz.

4th Matt Roden (Clevedon A.A) peg 21, 79lb.

5th Steve Howell (Shiplate Farm) peg 9, 71lb 12oz.

6th John Hawkins (Wormheads) peg 13, 71lb.