25th Annual South West Trade Match, Shearwater Lake

I was lucky enough to be invited to fish the South West Trade Match, which is a yearly event organised by Mark Harper of Preston Innovations and Dave Drake from Drennan International.

These matches have taken place for 25 consecutive years, which is a credit to the men organising the event and the tackle dealers in the region who attend them.

This year we were fortunate to have Shearwater Lake, part of the Longleat Estate as our venue.

Draw and breakfast took place just down the road at the George Inn, fishing was 10.30am-3.30pm.

Simple rules to keep to, no spodding, no zig rigs, no floating baits, so essentially, conventional feeder tactics.

I drew peg 8 on the road bank, which was roughly a third of the way up from the dam wall. I had a plan of fishing the method feeder at range over a bed of bait and an option to fish passed the bait on a distance setup.

The mico pellet and corn loose feed

Bait for match was to be micro pellet and corn as the loose feed which would be fed via a large 'bait-up' style feeder as an initial and top-up feed. Baittech Karma on the method and damp micro as an alternative (which I didn't use).

Baittech Karma for the method feeder

Hookbaits would consist of dead red maggot and a range of the new Mainline Match 8mm dumbell wafters.

Hookbait selection

To enable me to fish on my bait accurately and if need be, short or past my bait I used the 'carpy' technique of wrapping stick to measure my distance and allow to fish any rod I had with me and the selected distance.

I had a plan to fish beyond the anglers around me and try and intercept fish that could be patrolling further out.

The green algae bloom which greeted us at the lake was going to hamper fishing and the lack of small fish activity proved that.


I settled my box into the water and had 1 rod clipped up at 86m (22 wraps) and the distance rod set to 25 wraps (100m). I also had a carp rod clipped up at 22 wraps with the bait-up feeder to add the loose feed.

At the whistle I began with 8 large feeders full of the micro and corn mix. Then loaded the large Drennan Method with Baittech Karma and a squirt of Korda Goo and out it went.

I was looking to re-cast every 5 minutes on this line to keep bait going in and to hopefully attract fish to the 'plop' of the feeder.

After a few casts I have a firm pull round on the tip and was into a decent skimmer, safely in the net and back out went the feeder. I continued for the first two hours of the match to regularly get bites, rotating hookbaits all the time and topping up the loose feed after an hour when the bites slowed.

The following two hours of the match went very slowly for me, a few fish was getting caught around me, Andy Lloyd two pegs up from me was catching well and I thought with my slow middle of the match he had edged ahead after going 'fish-for-fish' at the start with him.

In the last hour I caught a few fish on the long rod then back on the main area and just short of it also, kept rotating hookbaits and distance to try and winkle out a few extra fish.

When the scales came down to me I could see my section had a 95lb weight (overall winner) and a 68lb (overall 4rd). There was also a guy who fished with new Drennan Acolyte whip and caught 47lb of roach.

My fish went 46lb 6oz for overall 9/10th, I believe, the far bank and dam wall fished very hard, Mark Harper who was opposite myself, had looked very busy though the match and he finished with 73lb 4oz for 3rd in the match.

Mark Harper bent into a carp

My good friend, Kev Hewitt was pegged next to Mark. I had called him a few times during the day and he told me he was struggling on the bream front but had a couple of carp, one ended up tipping the scales to 22lb! Kev finished on 66lb for 5th overall and picked up his section money by default.

Kev's 22lb Mirror

Another of Kev's Carp

We all headed back to the pub for sandwiches and results:

1st. S McCarthy (Tredegar Angling) 95lb 8oz
2nd. Steve Collins (Tom Thick Baits) 84lb
3rd. Mark Harper (Preston Innovations) 73lb 4oz
4th. Andy Lloyd (Ivy House) 68lb

Section winners:
A: Vic Bush (Mosella) 59lb 12oz
B: Paul Sears (Homestores) 59lb
C: Mick Martin (Wilts Angling) 33lb 30z
D: Kev Hewitt (Angling Direct) 66lb
E: Tom Ince (Wests) 33lb 4oz

Hopefully I will get an invite back again next year and as with previous years the venue will be rotated so we could be at Todber, Viaduct or Witherington Farm.

Cadbury Angling Thursday Evening Open Matches Paddock Lake Acorn Fishery

Since we relocated the shop in January our fishing had taken a bit of a back seat, but we had the opportunity to run 9 evening matches on the Paddock Lake at Acorn Carp Fishery where we are now located.

The matches were run between May 4th to June 29th.

The matches we fished from 6pm to 9pm. Winning weights were brilliant, with most matches needing over 100lb plus to win with a top weight by Mark Bromsgrove of 145lb from peg 27 on 11th May.

Hopefully we can organise more matches in the near future on the Paddock Lake.

Our Shop has moved to a new home!

We've been hard at work this week in our new shop getting things all ready for our customers and we are happy to say we are now OPEN

Our new home is now at Acorn Carp Fishery in Kingston Seymour.

Our original shop number 01934 875733 still works but we will be getting a new landline number very shortly which will be 01934 830033.

We look forward to seeing you all soon at our new address!


The Cadbury Angling Team

Cadbury Angling
Acorn Carp Fishery
Lampley Road
Kingston Seymour
North Somerset
BS21 6XS
01934 830033
www.cadburyangling.co.uk
www.facebook.com/cadburyangling
www.twitter.com/cadburyangling

September Barbel Trip on the River Wye

My barbel fishing had taken a back seat of late and once I was contacted by my good friend James Marlow about the the possibilities of a September barbel trip, It was at the forefront of my mind and I was itching to get up there!

We planned to fish the afternoon through until dusk and were aiming to target an area downstream of Ross-on-Wye.

We arrived at the beat and noted only one other angler was present, which was perfect, lots of water to fish.

We looked to target a couple of swims mid-beat and work our way down stream as the day went on, ending on a peg just below some rapids.

The setup was fairly conventional for the Wye, Korum Combi Feeders in the large size, 60g and 90g, 2ft 10ft fluorocarbon hooklengths tied up with Drennan Barbel Specialist hooks.

The Korum Combi feeder did the trick!

The perfect hoobait for the Wye? I think so!

The successful mix

A few catapults full of the Source dumbells were fed into a few swims on the river and we set about mixing the groundbait ready for the first cast. The mix consisted of 2kg of Hinders Blitz Mix, 350g tin of cooked hemp, a few handfuls of crushed Source boilies and a liberal helping of 4mm and 6mm halibut pellets.

(This mix did us proud on the day, we fished all rods on feeders after the straight lead approach failed to get us any bites)





The midday sun was very welcome but very hot, we anticipated a slow start but my right hand rod nodded into life within 20mins, in the shape of the perfectly formed miniature barbel, showing the fine health of the river and the new generation of barbel is looking good!

One for the future!!

 Bites came steadily through the day and we were amazed at times the feeder had hardly settled before we had a bite, which always makes it ultra exciting. As the day went on we moved down to the swim below the rapids, both had instants takes on our first casts, then nothing else. We decided the head back up to another swim as dark was approaching and it was on our way back to the car. This change of swim worked again and James finished the day with the last barbel.

On the day we had 7 barbel and 1 chub (a PB for James at 4lb 4oz), only lost 2 feeders but I did manage to snap my rod, Doh!

Hopefully we can get back up the Wye again soon!!

A Week in Sandbakken, Norway. The Highlight of a Successful August

My new personal best 26lb coalfish

August has been a great month for me. Yet more decent barbel fishing on the River Wye and a fantastic holiday in Sandbakken, Northern Norway. I wont go on about the barbel fishing as I have posted here many times before on the subject. This season though continues to be one of my best with both good numbers of fish and some sizeable specimens too. Sandbakken is something new though, so here's a bit about my week spent there. Four of us, George, Roger, Matt and myself had been looking forward to this trip for sometime after booking it through the excellent Sportquest Holidays. Pre-trip information had told us to expect a great camp in fantastic surroundings and some decent fishing with good cod, coalfish and the chance of some nice halibut. That's exactly what we got! Sandbakken did what it said on the tin and we all had a brilliant week. Day one started well with all of us catching coalfish bigger than any we had previously caught before. These fish shaped rockets were eager to take pirks and jigs worked quickly in some deep water found not far from our camp. Day two and more coalfish were joined by cod, a couple of haddock and a few small redfish. The cod were more in to taking large shads while the haddock and redfish took a liking to feathers. Day three saw me land a halibut of 8lb, I caught it using a mackerel flapper after catching the bait on spinning gear fishing from the jetty just outside our cabin. Days four, five and six continued with some wonderful fishing and saw us catch a second halibut, a wolffish, numerous torsk and plenty more cod and coalies. By the end of the week we had taken cod to 37lb and coalfish to 26lb. All of our expectations had been exceeded. It's impossible to fault either Sandbakken fish camp or Sportquest Holidays from this experience. I would recommend anyone interested to go for it and contact Sportquest Holidays via their website www.sportquestholidays.com

Roger with the biggest of the week - a 37lb cod

Hot July Sport

Bass from Lyme Bay....

July has provided some good weather and I have been out making the most of it. I have got out to sea a couple of times aboard Outcast II, skippered by John Wallington of Devon Bass Pro Charters and enjoyed some great fishing. Targeting the inshore wrecks of Lyme Bay with both lures and bait has produced some cracking bass, some nice pollock and a single cod. John is a great guy and a day at sea with him comes highly recommended. Give him a call on 07968953184 or take a look at his website www.devonbassprocharters.co.uk On the freshwater side of things it has of course been my favourite species, the barbel, that has been the target of two visits to the River Wye at Courtfield, Lower Lydbrook. The fishing here has been truly amazing, quality and quantity. Barbel to 9lb 8oz, double hook-ups, bites before I've even had time to put the rod in the rest! It's all been happening. Check out www.facebook.com/LowerWyeFishing for information. Next month sees me travel to Sandbakken in Norway for a week of cod and halibut fishing and I have another two days on the Wye to look forward to also. I'll tell you all about it in a month from now.

....and barbel from the River Wye have kept me
busy during July

June 16th 2016 on the River Wye, Courtfield, Lower Lydbrook

June 16th, first day of the river season. For me that means only one thing, a trip to Courtfield at Lower Lydbrook on the River Wye. I've written many times before about this venue, my tackle, tactics and so on. So I'll skip all that boring stuff and get straight to the exciting part. Eight years I've been fishing here, my favourite river and in that time I've landed well over three hundred barbel, my favourite species, to just ounces shy of 10lb. Today though I caught a very special fish, a barbel that pulled the scales past 10lb, an immaculate example of the species weighing 10lb 2oz. A double! A ten! A dream fish! Finally! And on June 16th too! It doesn't get better than that! This fish means more to me than any other I've ever caught. Record catfish, 400lb sturgeon, 30lb plus carp. They were great. This is better!

Dream come true - A 10lb 2oz River Wye barbel