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CLEVEDON
Tony V came over to my place for around 5.30am, so that we could be at Clevedon for around 8am for the annual IAC fish-in..... Drove down in about two hours, to be greeted with almost clear skys and a light wind from the N/NE. Our first disappointment, was that the cafe opposite the pier was closed, and apparently only opens at the weekends :-(
Despite the lack of a caffeine infusion, I decided to sort the bait that had been sitting in my car boot overnight..... we had a range ... from the fresh lug and rag from Bills Bait and Tackle (Dover, Kent), along with wrapped yellow tails from Den's Tackle(Hythe, Kent) both fresh and some that I'd kept a week for dabs, plus the white rag, that Clive (from Bill's) had very kindly given me.....
We were allowed onto the pier just before 9am, and paid our toll of £3.50 per rod in the shop next to the entrance.... walked onto the pier, to find that Dave Huxley was already there.. had a chat and started setting up .... as Dave was placed in the third span from the end, Tony and myself spread out on the second and first respectively..... the water was low, with High water not expected until around 4pm....
Decided to use the two rods, with a rotation of 2 long flowing wishbones, one with 2's the other with 2/0's, and a 3 hook clip-up with 1/0's, baited with the assortment of goodies already described, or combinations there of ... although I did tend to favour the lug and rag.....
As we set-up, others started to slowly arrive, such as Phil V, Paul Davies etc....
Started fishing... with the water so low, really hoping to pick-up an odd dab.... Dave came around, and collected a couple of quid each from 5 of us who entered a little friendly comp..... heaviest bag takes all..... using the Clevedon Club size limits..
The strong tidal flow is not a problem (assuming you take 170g grip weights), as the pier cuts across it at 90 degrees....
9.45am..... pull up a crab .... wow .. SO THAT'S WHERE MY BAIT WENT!!!!!
10.40am: my first fish ... 7" pouting on the wishbone cast to the right (ie down tide) .. returned it, by hooking it under the gills on the wires of the lead, and gently lowering it .. unfortunately it managed to somehow wriggle off ... fell virtually all the way down to the water ...... RIP ... looked at Phil V, and just shrugged, there was nothing else to say...
11.15am: ..... pulled up another fish .. this time a 10" dab, again on the right side .. thought I may loose it, as it surfed the waves some distance out, as I pulled it in against the tidal flow ..... something that happened on a number of occasions to Dave Huxley throughout the day....
11.29am: Pulled up a 5B.Rockling .... something Dave said was a novelty on the pier... however, the old addage, that if your catching rockling, then there is bugger all else to catch, blazed across my mind... and I said so ...... got a nice close up of the head, but the overall body shot was poor .. camera decided to focus on the bench wood, rather than the fish, and in the light conditions I failed to notice on the LCD... :-(
Thing were very slow after that .. had a few bites.. but missed them ......
1.10pm: double shot of crab!!!!!!!!
1.25pm: managed to pull up an 8" dab, again from the right on a wishbone.... decided to give up with the 3 hook rig, and just use the wishbones....
2.15pm: Dave had told us that there were NO snags ..... but I managed to find the only one .. a small rock area about 50yards out ...... to make matters worse, I had a fish on the end.. could feel it pulling .. very frustrating .... lost the wishbone, and thus the fish.... :-(
2.40pm: 12.5" whiting on the right ... decided to use both rigs on that side as this seemed to be taking the fish......
3.05pm: 9.5" whiting ... returned for another day....
3.15pm: Double shot of whiting.... one of 11" and the other of 9.5" .. returned the smaller fish....
Looked over to see Dave pulling out a couple of double shots, but they looked to all be undersize....
3.50pm: 11.5" whiting....
4.05pm ..... tried some of Tony's mackerel as a tip-off for the lug, and dropped it straight down... got a really nice bite..... up comes a nice sized whiting of 1lb or so .. only to drop off about 10ft clear of the water ..... I said a few blue words, and continued ...... exactly the same thing happened again 10 minutes later .... AAAAAAHHHRRRR!!!!!!!!
Stopped at 4.30pm:, and managed to haul up a double shot of crab ... summed up the day nicely I thought!!! ;-)
Everyone had packed up and gone, except Dave, Tony, Phil and myself .... the grand weigh-in consisted of Dave with 14oz (2 whiting) ... Tony (who hadn't entered the comp) with 1.5lb (3 whiting, taken in the last half hour or so!!!!), and 1.14oz of my catch with 3 whiting and 2 dabs....
Packed up, and drove Tony and myself back to London ... nothing like fishing one side of the country one day, and the other side the next, to make you really want to get some zzz's......
Despite the lack of fish it was a great day, and really nice to be able to chat with people face to face....
Update:Reports from others.....
DaviesP2@Midas-Kapiti.com Paul Davies
"1 poor cod untold crossed lines and a plethora of crabs"
shonet@yahoo.com Andrew Rawlingson
"1 pout (approx 4 inch) 1 whiting (approx 8 inch)"
smarley@rpms.ac.uk Steve
"From the London seven,
I got a 9in Dab and two pin whiting
Andy blanked
Shashi got a pair of 8in dab
Jay a pin whiting and a 14oz whiting. It's true, women almost
always do get the best fish.
John got 3-4 tiny pout
Andrew has already reported his, not sure what Graham got."
vilches@dircon.co.uk Tony Vilches
"Apart from the odd pin whiting and pouting, I caught 2 decent
whiting and a modestly sized pout.
Total weight was 1.5 lb."
P.J.Vossler@exeter.ac.uk Phil Vossler
"Sum total; two undersize Whiting & one birds nest."
"The fish had a good old laugh at us but being in such good company was compensation enough for me!"
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