Welcome to my fishing blog… August 2023
August 13th – Alcove AC Match, The Clamp, Henfield – A low Life Scum Peg
I hadn’t fished The Clamp since April this year so I was looking forward to this Alcove club match. There were 13 anglers for this one so it was a little tight in the car park but everyone managed to squeeze in. The lake had a distinct greenish scum on the surface down toward the bottom end and there was quite a bit of debris floating on the surface. That’s what you get when a lake is totally surrounded by trees. Nevertheless, I was hoping to be drawn anywhere down the bottom end from peg 6 to peg 12 and hopefully opposite the small island.
Everyone had arrived early so we got the draw underway a bit earlier. The trusty hand of fate gave me peg 7, which is the last peg on the left-hand side. I was happy with that. To my right, I had Kev Murch for company. He had a nice reach to the island in front of him. To my left was Steve Dawson who had the whole bottom bank to himself. Steve Brown and Jason were opposite me. I had fished my peg several times before so I was quite familiar with the underwater terrain. My main line of attack would be to target the skimmers at 10 metres slightly to my left with worm.
I also intended fishing the same distance well over to my right with 4mm expander pellet over micros and a shorter line at 7 metres with groundbait and maggles. I had a nice long edge to fish to on my left, right up to the end of a very large sunken tree trunk. The tree had fallen into the lake some time ago and was way too heavy to get out so the branches were cut off and the remaining trunk was pushed over to the edge out of the way. I would target carp here with corn.
On the all-in, I cupped out a small worm bomb on the 10 metre line to my left and a half cup of micros to my right. On the shorter line, I cupped out a small ball of Sensas 3000 Black Lake groundbait. Then I made a cup of tea and watched everyone else for 10 minutes before going over the worm-baited swim with a half dendrobena to a size 18 hook. The hooklength was a 0.10mm AccuPower. I was willing to go to 0.8mm if it got hard. So, on the first put-in, I had a small roach about 2 ounces and then a skimmer about 12 ounces on the next drop.
Then nothing. I put a single red maggle on the hook and tried it but no takers on that either. That was strange as I was expecting a run of skimmers from this swim. So, a look over the bed of micros to my right with a 4mm expander pellet on a size 18 hook to 0.11mm hooklength and… nothing… not a sniff. Meanwhile, Jason was catching some good skimmers opposite me and Kev had a couple too. So, I put some more chopped worm in and tried again. The wind was picking up a bit now and the scum was clinging to my line and my float. I had to remove a no. 10 stott so I could see the float tip above the scum.
Well, I persevered and I had a couple more skimmers but it was painfully slow. I changed to a size 20 hook and a 0.8mm hooklength with a tiny bit of worm, which brought a few more small skimmers and roach but it just wasn’t happening for some reason. I was thinking maybe it was the scum on the surface that was affecting the fish and putting them off feeding but then Steve Dawson was catching okay and he had a scummy peg too. I couldn’t figure out what was going on.
I tried the shorter line with maggle and had a few small roach from this line before that too died a death. With that, I picked up the margin rig and baited with a half worm and then swung the pole right round to my left at 8 metres into the left-hand margin. I had a string of small chub right from the off until the bites stopped. Undeterred, I put a grain of corn on the hook and had another small chub but nothing more. So now it was ring the changes time. You know how that goes… when you go around trying all the lines again with a range of different baits. I think I picked up a couple more small roach and I had a lovely little crucian from the short line on maggle.
Well, I was falling well behind the others now and so I had to go for carp if I was to stand a chance of getting anywhere in this match. For the last hour, I was totally focused on fishing my left-hand margin with worm and corn. I reckoned I had about 4lbs in the net but would need a 6lb plus carp to be able to push the opposition to one side. Well, I kept trying to get closer and closer to the sunken tree trunk without getting caught up in the overhanging vegetation. After a couple of attempts, I managed to get within a few inches of the end of the log and the float quickly disappeared out of sight.
I missed that bite because I was concerned about getting tangled up in the undergrowth so I shortened the lash to just 4 inches. I cupped out 6 grains of corn as close to the log as I could and I dropped my rig right over the top. Seconds later, the elastic was being pulled out of my top kit as I struggled to get some side strain on the fish. By the time I angled my pole into position, the carp was under the tree trunk and was now in the gap between the trunk and the bank but I was unable to shift it. It went deeper and further down the edge of the bank until I couldn’t see it any longer and now the rig was solid. I just had to pull for a break.
With a vital carp now lost all I could do was try again for the remaining 10 minutes but my efforts were in vain. It was all out! Well, it was a very disappointing day for me to be honest as I fully expected this swim to deliver some quality skimmers like it has done for me in the past. Was it the scum? Was it the floating debris? Or was it just bad angling? I don’t know but there just didn’t seem to be a lot of fish in the area. I ended up with only 4lbs 10oz for third in the section. Another bad day at the office.
Well, next Sunday I’ll be going somewhere VERY different… the Gloucester Canal! This one is my Kingswood Legion Club’s AwayDay outing. We’ll be fishing a private stretch of the canal controlled by Stroud Angling Club, where you can park behind your peg. It doesn’t get any better than that. If the weather is fine I’ll make a video of this one too… keep you posted.
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January 2023
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May 2023
June 2023
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August 2023
13th – The Clamp, Henfield, Nr Westerleigh
20th – Gloucester Canal, Southfield Farm, Hardwicke
27th – Georges Lake, Whitehouse Farm
September 2023
October 2023
November 2023
December 2023
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