The Challenge on Clawford Vineyard

Plated mirror

The office I work in recently decided to get involved in a charity fundraising event for disadvantaged children. If you were going to raise money for charity what would you do? My fishing pal Nigel and I, agreed that rather than get roped in to the possibly life threatening activities that our colleagues decided that they were going to do, that we would raise money by doing something we actually enjoy doing.

A sponsored fish it was then, with the target being to catch 20 different species of fish in just four days – much more relaxing! We even managed to convince a number of our sponsors that we would fail miserably and that they should sponsor us for at least £ 1 for each different species. How they howled when we came round to collect the money off them on our return. But back to the story!

The venue where the challenge took place, Clawford Vineyard, is owned and run by John and Wanda Ray down in Devon. John has dug out a complex of 12 lakes, which he has stocked with Carp to 40lb+, Catfish to over 60lb, plus all the usual suspects and some interesting others! Each lake contains its own bit of interest and allows the visiting angler to try a variety of different methods and tactics.

Day 1
On a warm day at the beginning of May, we started our challenge on ‘JR’s’, the Match Lake, and had a good session with 6 different species accounted for – but all the easy ones – carp of various sorts plus roach, rudd and skimmers.

Ghostie

Day 2
Day two was more interesting, We decided to ‘go for gold’ on ‘Gregory’s’ – the ‘Golden Lake’. All the fish in there are like gold bars. We tackled up with simple waggler rigs at dead depth fishing corn over pellets. Out came golden rudd, golden orfe and golden ide. The fish averaged 6oz with specimens over 1lb. We put together about 10lb of these in no time, before the golden tench arrived and Nigel had two in quick succession. The next time the floats went out they both dipped simultaneously and we both struck into fish that were obviously not the small ones we had been catching and both of us landed golden carp of about 4lb. Then it was back to the rudd and orfe before Nigel’s float disappeared and he pulled out a fan tailed shibumkin. That left just one species to be caught from this lake – Koi carp. Try as we might we just could not find any. The schedule we had worked out said that at lunchtime it was time to move and so we did, even though the Koi had eluded us.

The sun had put in an appearance and so we decided to try ‘Clawford Lake’ home of the mighty king carp (up to 24lbs). We had noticed them rolling in the margins and thought a floater approach would be our best chance of a quick return. We approached the lake, with Nigel going to the right, while I went left. We both fired some mixers into the wind to drift towards the rushes and to our delight several big rubber lips soon appeared slurping our free offerings with gusto.

Tench

After about 20 minutes both lines went in and the mixers drifted towards our quarry. The lips came up and I struck into the first fish – only a small one of about 6lb, but it was another species. This was followed quickly by Nigel striking in to a lumpy mirror just short of double figures. The weather then turned and a thunder storm we had been watching in the distance, started to head our way so we quickly headed back to the complex and shelter of umbrellas. Still at the end of day two we had some personal bests and we now had 13 species.

Day 3
A windy day three arrived and we started on ‘Edwards Lake’ in search of blue orfe. We had some nice roach to about 1.5lb, some small ghost carp to about 1lb and some hand sized silver bream, but the elusive blue orfe escaped us. We did get a small koi and a dace which surprised us, and they counted toward our quest. By lunchtime, it was time to move, so we decided to go and try ‘Wandas Lake’. Here we had some lovely fish, with crucian carp, green tench and ide. This again threw up personal bests, one of them being a 5lb 11oz tench for Nigel.

Goldfish

At about 6 o’clock we decided there was enough time and light to go and stalk the ghosties on ‘Fletchers Lake’ using floaters. The fish duly obliged and we had seven fish off the top from 8lb to 11lb 6oz. Not huge but great fun on light tackle. With the light fading we decided to head off to get some dinner (the complex has a fantastic restaurant) and a well-earned beer. The species count was now at 19, just one away from completing the challenge. If only we had managed to catch a blue orfe, we would have completed our challenge one day ahead of schedule.

The Last Day
The final day arrived and it was going to be a hot one. With one species left we thought the easy target was to go for gudgeon on ‘Pinney’s Lake’, but the roach and rudd had other ideas, and we just could not get through them. So we headed back down the hill to ‘JR’s’ for the remainder of the day, with the option of a last go at the ghosties in ‘Fletchers’ if we wanted to. We tackled up and as a quick challenge to each other, we decided to see who could catch the most fish on the same maggot. Me, I managed a lowly three before the bait was taken, Nigel managed 18 on the whip, before he lost his maggot, or what was left of it. More importantly, in that 18, Nigel had managed to catch a blue orfe. Job done! We were able to relax and enjoy our last afternoon fishing the method feeder, taking 70 carp between us from 2lb to 8lb, plus a load of roach and rudd. Total estimated weight in excess of 200lb – not bad for a pair of amateurs!

So, if you want to catch lots of different species, or simply target large carp, or if you just want to have a very enjoyable fishing holiday with your other half (Bude and the shopping is only about 30 minutes away by car), we can thoroughly recommend Clawford Vineyard. You can find more details by logging on to the very informative Clawford website at www.clawford.co.uk