Fished a club match today at Cider Farm in Lympsham (Somerset).
It was my first visit to this venue and I was well impressed.
It consists of 2 Match Lakes and 3 (at least) pleasure lakes. There's also a good sized shop stocking a good selection of tackle and bait and an even better selection of cider and other local produce, the apple brandy looked especially inviting. Next to the shop is a big club house (with bar!) where you can have brekkie and the draw and results are sorted out.
Keepnets and landing net head are supplied and you don't even need to carry them to your peg- they are laid out at your peg ready for you!
Before the draw the owner went through the rules and he also came round while we were setting up to give out a few pointers. He seemed a nice chap and was obviously interested in the welfare of his fish and keen that everybody had a good days fishing.
We had the smaller of the 2 match lakes which has 29 pegs. It's rectangular with 2 islands at a distance of between 11 and 16m from the bank and an average depth of 5 feet and a shelf round the islands of about 18 inches.
I drew peg 23 which was just off the gap between the islands. I had a large clump of reeds on the corner of the island to my right at about 14.5m which was the most obvious fish-holding spot but unfortunately it was almost in peg 22 but "all's fair in love and war"
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I started the match at 13m in front of me, just off the shelf, with a 6mm "jellet" on the hook over 3mm green swim-stim pellets but not much happened really. However, the guy on my right was plundering the reed bed from the off where the fish were queueing up so it was time for a bit of poaching.
Once I started fishing against the reeds in the next peg it was a bite a chuck for five hours! All the fish were carp between a few ounces and 2lbs and I finished up with 51lbs of the blighters, although another 10lbs of them had managed to bury themselves into the far bank undergrowth - they may be small fish but they go like stink!
The guy next door beat me by a couple of pounds by picking up a few bigger fish in the deeper water "down the track", which was my own fault for putting all my eggs in one basket!
The match was won with 102lbs so my 51lbs was nowhere near but I had a really good day and have booked up for next week's open on the bigger match lake.
The only criticisms I had were that the pegging was maybe a little bit tight and that the nets that were provided weren't very carp friendly, quite a few times I had fish get their dorsal spine caught in the mesh and also the landing net was too deep for my liking.
Apart from that though it's a great venue and I reckon in a few years time, when the fish have grown a bit, it will become awesome. []
It was my first visit to this venue and I was well impressed.
It consists of 2 Match Lakes and 3 (at least) pleasure lakes. There's also a good sized shop stocking a good selection of tackle and bait and an even better selection of cider and other local produce, the apple brandy looked especially inviting. Next to the shop is a big club house (with bar!) where you can have brekkie and the draw and results are sorted out.
Keepnets and landing net head are supplied and you don't even need to carry them to your peg- they are laid out at your peg ready for you!
Before the draw the owner went through the rules and he also came round while we were setting up to give out a few pointers. He seemed a nice chap and was obviously interested in the welfare of his fish and keen that everybody had a good days fishing.
We had the smaller of the 2 match lakes which has 29 pegs. It's rectangular with 2 islands at a distance of between 11 and 16m from the bank and an average depth of 5 feet and a shelf round the islands of about 18 inches.
I drew peg 23 which was just off the gap between the islands. I had a large clump of reeds on the corner of the island to my right at about 14.5m which was the most obvious fish-holding spot but unfortunately it was almost in peg 22 but "all's fair in love and war"![
]
I started the match at 13m in front of me, just off the shelf, with a 6mm "jellet" on the hook over 3mm green swim-stim pellets but not much happened really. However, the guy on my right was plundering the reed bed from the off where the fish were queueing up so it was time for a bit of poaching.
Once I started fishing against the reeds in the next peg it was a bite a chuck for five hours! All the fish were carp between a few ounces and 2lbs and I finished up with 51lbs of the blighters, although another 10lbs of them had managed to bury themselves into the far bank undergrowth - they may be small fish but they go like stink!
The guy next door beat me by a couple of pounds by picking up a few bigger fish in the deeper water "down the track", which was my own fault for putting all my eggs in one basket!
The match was won with 102lbs so my 51lbs was nowhere near but I had a really good day and have booked up for next week's open on the bigger match lake.
The only criticisms I had were that the pegging was maybe a little bit tight and that the nets that were provided weren't very carp friendly, quite a few times I had fish get their dorsal spine caught in the mesh and also the landing net was too deep for my liking.
Apart from that though it's a great venue and I reckon in a few years time, when the fish have grown a bit, it will become awesome. [
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