Acorn Fishery Saturday Open (Paddock Lake).

A return trip to Acorn for there latest open, I stopped off for a great breakfast roll from the burger van set up on strode road in Clevedon arriving early as normal, I had a wander around before the draw & it appeared fish were showing in some areas, Fourteen of us fishing after a couple of no shows & again Walshy was left to peg the match, I et the normal keen ones have there pick before I had my go, I wasn't to disappointed to draw peg 7, Normally peg 6 near the bridge is used but I could fish that direction if need be & I could go as far as the corner of peg 5 but it was a fair distance at 15mts. Plenty of options with lots of open water but with all of us spread out we all had the same. It was a lot colder in the air today & I predicted around 70lb would be a good weight even though peg 11 produced over 130lb on Tuesdays open, I had a 4x12 malman on 0.17-0.13 & a 16 hook to fish the top two plus two back towards peg 6 & would use the same rig to fish 12mts towards peg 8 a couple of metres off the bank in the same depth of water around 4ft, It was shallow in-front of me tight to the bank at 14mts around 2ft or so but thought it would produce so set up a 0.2g rig on 0.17-015 & again a size 16 hook, Finally I had a 0.4g rig to fish off the point towards peg 5 & found a flat area just over 14mts around 3ft deep.

For company I had Tim Whitchurch on peg 9 who fancied his draw with the island in range at 12mts or so, Chris fox below him on peg 11, & Walshy the other side of the bridge peg 40, My day would mainly involved around pellets, On the all in I fed some hard 6mms on the 12mts edge line, fed some hard 8mms & 6mms off the point & a small amount of the same down my right edge a metre off the bank.

I started across to the island cad potting a few micros & 4mms with 4mm expander on the hook, By the time I had fed some lines Tim & Chris were already netting fish"  I expected some early signs but after 15mins I knew it wasn't right, I decided to try my short line back towards peg 6 as Tim & Chris were into fish again, I started with a bigger 6mm expander on the hook, Straight away I had a bite which resulted in a 5lb carp so off the mark' I had a tiny hand size tench & a carisso?? so after fed another better amount & tried the 12mt inside line.

Nothing here so over to the point of peg 5 with banded hard 8mm pellet. No early signs of fish here which surprized me as I had it down as a banker area, Back down the edge on the short line & a couple of fish around 3lb were added before more nuisance small fish, I couldn't seem to string a few bites together other than down the edge, I decided to feed a decent amount of micros tight over in the shallower water with a few hard 4mm's added, I thought I had a round 18lb after 90mins but knew Chris & Tim were ahead at this stage, I had been pinging a few hard pellets off the point & started back on the deck with hard 8mm, I missed what seemed to be proper bites but saw signs of fish so got a shallow rig out, I spent 4omins or so trying to get it to work but it wouldn't happen, Shallow I couldn't get a bite & on the deck I would wait ages then foul hook a fish, I wasn't going anywhere at this stage...

Back down the edge & another 3lb carp & a decent F1 then nothing, we were over halfway through & I had to hope something would happen, I noticed a fish move in the shallower water across so went back over with 4mm expander, I had a few indications before having a 3lb carp but was missing bites, I switched to a bigger expander just touching the deck feeding a few hard 4mms & micros each put-in with a cad pot & waited for a proper bite.

This seemed to work a treat' It wasn't fast fishing but I was soon adding fish between 3-4lb & appeared to be doing ok from what I could see as Tim & Chris had slowed up, I found it best to feed a few hard 4mms with the catty over the top to draw a few fish but as soon as I found the fish to come off the deck fed a better amount with a larger pot & leave it a few minutes. With around an hour to go the wife turned up after visiting the mother in law who lives close by, Not to say she jinxed me but the next 30mins were a mare! I lost two fish at the net for around 9lb" managed to hook the far bank vegetation but luckily didn't trash the rig' & put one fish in the net around 1lb"  I got my head back together for the last 45mins Adding a few more fish to 5lb in the closing stages. I had around 50lb on the clicker but think I missed a couple after the stress time". I gave Dan a hand with the weigh-in as he had a customer just as we were about to weigh so started with Walshy on peg 40 who finished with 21lb odd, We had are own thoughts when Harry said this morning that are missed friend from above Charlie Barns had told him how to win the silvers today on a Ouija board" Perhaps Charlie was thinking of someone else as Harry didn't trouble the scales"! Lol, On peg 36 Steve Rolfe put 58lb on the scales which was the top weight with me last to weigh, I had 3lb odd of silvers & my first carp net went 39lb odd, The next net went 31lb so I finished with 74lb to make it three open match wins here in a row so chuffed with that even more so when I picked up £90 in winnings!" An enjoyable match here again today, I have a lot of faith in expanders in the cooler conditions , I tried to make hard pellets work today but it wouldn't happen, Even on my short line all I fed in the end was the odd hard 8mm but could only get bites on the bigger expander, enjoy this type of fishing when you don't need massive weights to win & can always claw your way back if you have a slow start. The silvers weights were effected again in the cooler conditions with Jack Jones taking the spoils with 12lb odd, Off to Shiplate Tomorrow for a match on both Canal Lakes.

Full results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 7, 74lb 14oz.

2nd Steve Rolfe ( Team Poppetts) peg 36, 58lb 10oz.

3rd Chris Fox (Maesknoll Angling) peg 11, 52lb 4oz.

4th Glen Calvert (Sensas 88) peg 21, 49lb 8oz.

5th Tim Whitchurch (Team Poppetts) peg 9, 45lb.

6th Andy France (Cadbury Angling) peg 13, 29lb.

Silvers -

1st Jack Jones (P.I.Thatchers) peg 31, 12lb 2oz.

2nd Mike Owens (Sensas 88) peg 24, 10lb 2oz.