Fishing ??

Clattercote fish-in.

The annual get together of friends, most of whom are former members of Fishing Magic, an angling website, took place yesterday.
The origin of this meet up/fish-in was an annual "match" to remember a fellow poster and friend who sadly died.
A trophy for the winner of the Keith Culley Memorial Match, is presented in an hostelry close by.
The match itself started as pole only but as developed into an any method.
As far as I can recall it has always taken place at the Clattercote reservoir, which is about 22 acres and built in the late 1700's to supply the Oxford Canal. Close to Banbury in Oxfordshire.


Never having match fished I usually go along for the ride, as it was, and usually end up fishing with generally no idea, it was much the same on this occasion..
So after a 7:30 full English at the Brasenose Arms in Colpreddy we set off for the fishery.
The reservoir was noticeably lower than I can ever recall, some five or so feet below the jetty style pegs, in good times it is lapping at the base of the jetty. The 20 odd of us fished the north bank towards the western end.
As usual for Clattercote,it's open to wind problems and we were treated to a gusting westerly all day long which wouldn't have helped with presentation for my preferred float fishing method
So, the match itself was dominated, by methods such as baggin' waggler and sinking baggin' waggler!!!
I have no idea how to use these tactics, and didn't have the floats anyway, so stuck to a distance ledgering approach.Sometimes open end feeder and most of the time with the method feeder.

baggin'waggler

Andy Nellist was on the peg next to me and chose for the first time ever to try out the sinking baggin' waggler.
It appears to be quite a technical piece of kit ,as it needs some finite adjustment of weight to ensure that the float, with a "cage feeder" attached at it's base and filled with ground bait, sinks following the splash down and releases  the ground bait, the hook bait  drops down through the cloud of groundbait, the float then rises when the ground bait is released! It's a constant casting method.
After a few curses Andy almost yelled eureka, as his adjustments seemed to show some sign, to him, of being perfect, and low and behold, every time he made this exclamation, and he had to adjust the weighting after every fish, he was into a carp within seconds of splash down, and was catching fish that weighed about 6lb on average.
Andy's view and I have to say mine also, is that the carp are effectively trained to the dinner gong, possibly at the expense of most other methods. Not my cup of tea I'm afraid.

Nigel get's the trophy from GrahamMarsden

Anyway, Andy got second place with about 80lb of carp, but it was won by the organiser Nigel Connor with in excess of 90lb.
After the weigh in, it was back to the pub for a couple of pints and sausages and chips and the presentation.
Once again a great day out meeting old friends.


Barbel Challenge update
After a blank,barbel double wise on the Loddon , 8 rivers catching off 6.
The team moved onto the Kennet, for three doubles
The score is now 13 doubles off 9 rivers,  fish of 11lb 9ozs, 10lb 11ozs and 10lb10 ozs  were caught before they moved off to their current venue the Colne.
Just for clarification, one double per river was the basis of the sponsorship,although donors can pay for each double if they wish.
Donations will still be gratefully received.www.justgiving.com/jerry-gleeson