Welcome to my fishing blog… September 2022

September 18th – Ken Davis Memorial Match, Whitehouse Farm

This match is held in memory of Ken Davis, who was an Alcove Club bailiff and a thoroughly nice guy. Ken was a bailiff at the same time as I was and we often met on the banks of the Lido for a chat about certain unsavory characters who were members at the time and forever causing problems by flouting the rules, especially those concerning alcohol. Unfortunately, an element of the same mentality still exists among the membership. Well, let’s not get started on that right now. There’s a time and place to rant and it’s not here.

So, this match should have been held at the Fishponds Lido but due to the condition of the lake with biofilm on the surface, it was switched to “good ‘ole” Whitehouse Farm. Never lets us down and is always willing to please. So glad we took on this water when we did. It used to be a day ticket water but because of its location it was quite hard to find and so never really made any money. When we heard about it we offered the Farmer a deal he couldn’t refuse, which meant a regular income for him without having to do very much. When we asked if we could dig out another lake, pound note signs lit up in his eyes, and so Margaret’s Lake came into being.

I’ll never forget when Bill Croom, who was then the Club’s Chairman, gave instructions to the excavators about how the lake needed to be dug out etc. I then went along one day to see how the work was going. I was met by an Irish gentleman on a digger, who just kept saying “right you are sir” to everything I asked. Next thing we knew the lake had been dug and lined and the crew had disappeared from the site leaving a very shallow area of the lake that for most of the year is almost unfishable… anyway I do digress.

So on with the draw. I drew peg 8 on Margaret’s Lake, a peg that has eluded me for years. The last time I drew this one, which was about 4 years ago, I won… so I was looking forward to seeing how this match was going to develop. Being at the productive side of the lake, there is an easy island chuck and a nice inside edge with lots of cover both left and right. I first set up the obligatory maggot feeder rod. This was a Tyson 12 ft feeder rod with a Shimano 4000 reel loaded with 0.15 Matrix Horizon mainline. The feeder was a 25gm Drennan maggot feeder. I prefer the oval blockned type for fishing against the island as it is less likely to roll down the slope. A simple helicopter rig with a size 16 LWG Guru barbless hook tied to a 12 inch, 0.15 hook length. 

Also, I set up a pole ring to fish full depth at 8 metres. Full depth here is about 6 feet. I expected the real damage to be dome down the margins and for this I use an old Garbolino 8 metre pole to a 24 hollow elastic. This could tow a bus and I’ve landed many 20lb plus specimens with it. So at the all-in I chucked out the maggot feeder half expecting to latch into a chub or two. First fish was a roach about 6oz. Next chuck and nothing. So out again and this time the tip flew round and I was into what at first I thought was a big chub, they go to over 4lb in here. However, it turned out to be a carp of about 4lb. A couple more casts and then a chub but this one was long and lender and probably weighed just over 2lb. Then a small perch. The first hour was up so now it was time to try the pole line.

I cupped out a small ball of micros and a few casters then went straight over it with a grain of corn on the hook. On the second put-in, I had a nice F1 about 2lb, followed by 2 skimmers each of around a pound. Then it went quiet so back out on the feeder line. A couple more roach showed up but little else. I decided to abandon the feeder and focus entirely on the margins now. Unlike commercials where the carp tend t come in during the last hour, you can catch down the edge on both Margaret’s and George’s lakes right from the start although I tend to leave them until 2 hours have passed. 

I fed some micros to both sides with a few grains of corn over the top to my right-hand side and some 8mm pellets of meat to the left-hand side, as far under the bush as I could get. I was getting indications right away but it was a full 20 minutes before I hooked anything, which just happened to be a perch of about 8 oz. Undeterred I went in again. My rig for the margins consisted of a 0.2gm Chianti float to 0.25 Guru N-Guage mainline. At the business end, I had a size 14 Guru Super XS eyed hook tied to 6 inch, 0.22 Guru N-Guage hook length. This is a seriously strong rig, which is just as well…

I carefully lowered the rig into the left-hand margin and my single pellet of meat was accepted right away. Carp on! It bolted under the tree but I managed to persuade it to come out into open water, where after about5-6 minutes it surrendered. It was obviously a low double so I unhooked it and carried it round to Tony for weighing. It went 11lb 12oz and propelled me into a good position based on what I could see being caught all around me. An F1 was to follow but that was it. I finished up first on the day with a total of 32-12. Tony Welsby, the match secretary was too close for comfort though with 32-5. Well, you only need to be ahead an ounce to win don’t you?

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January 2023

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June 2022

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September 2022

   3rd – Acorn Fisheries – Clevedon

   11th – RBL Match – River Avon – Staverton

   18th – Whitehouse Farm – Earhcott Green

   25th – RBL Match – B&T Canal – Taunton

October 2022

November 2022

December 2022

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