acorn fishery, paddock lake, weds open

24 fishing today which is a good number for a wednesday, it probably helps being only 30 mins from bristol and with the ever increasing fuel costs i think it is going to be a venue on a lot of peoples radar,s this year, also it helps that its got parking behind nearly every peg so the walks are between 5 and 20 mtrs, not even i use my trolley, those days of walking 5 or 6 fields up the river with my kit on my back are a distant memory, and with the weight of my kit now i dont think i could manage it any way, i think i would need an iron lung when i reached my peg,
another plus with this venue is that it is wide open so it is possible to keep an eye on whats being caught by the other anglers so its possible to change what you are doing to iether keep in touch or change to silvers to try and get some coin, and there do seem to be plenty of silvers to be had as nets of up to 50lb of mainly skimmers have been taking the silvers money,
as bristols andy bryant wasnt here to draw for me i let bristols other challenger to slimmer of the year, leyton palmer draw for me, and he gave me 33 which is a bridge peg, i drew it last year and came second off it with lots of small fish (carp)fishing double caster to the far side, but recently the carp have been more than happy to munch on hard pellet, so that was the main attack today, so i set up the usual suspects, a 4x8 for over on top of the shelf, for 6,s over 4,s. a 4x14 for by the bridge but i intended to fish hard 8,s over 8,s by the bridge to try and get some quality as the fish under these bridges can be proper squeekers, a 4x12 for about 2mtrs off the far bank and down in front of empty pallet 32, and a caster rig (.4grm)for top 4 in front, the 4x12 down the shelf rig didnt produce a thing so that wont be mentioned again, for company i had bristol karaoke and bread specialist on 34 which is the other side of the bridge and 2 pegs to my left was up and coming younster joe mcmahon being annoyed by his mentor from his car window(his dad martin), at the start i fed all areas with a cup and started by the bridge with an 8mm in the band, i started getting indications staight away ,missing some unmissable bites, , 20 mins in and i was behind already with joe having 2 or 3 carp and bob the bread having a couple also andy france and tom thick on 2 and 4 were catching well, after 30 mins i got off the box and made up a shallow rig as the float was beginning to move about a soon as i fed but apart from 2 missed bites that was a none starter, so with an hour gone i was blanking and well behind a lot of people, so i went over up on the shelf with a banded 6 and lo and behold i was straight into carp and thats were i stayed for most of the match, by feeding 3 areas along the far bank and switching between them i kept pace with the anglers who were catching the best, i did try the caster line a couple of times which gave me 3 small tench plus some skimmers and roach but most of the time was spent across, and i think i ended up with about 35 smallish carp for what i hoped would be 75lb ish
1st on the day was the consistent tom thick who had 99.7 off peg 4 mostly on pellet up on the far shelf
2nd andy france 96.13 peg 2
3rd robert gullick 93.13 peg 15
4th tony rixon 86lb peg 33
5th gary mewdell 78.9 peg 36
6th ed wynne 71.12 peg 5
silvers went to martin pettifer on peg 12 with 38.13 of mainly skimmers on soft pellet and caster