Pavotts Mill 2007

The weekend of 26-28 Jan saw the first Navy Carp fish-in of 2007. 11 anglers descended on Pavyotts Mill near Yeovil for a 48-hour session. Introductions were made, a draw was done and everyone set off for their pegs. Each peg at Pavyotts is incredibly well equipped with the following equipment all provided in a very roomy 2 bed hut: Landing net, huge unhooking mat, weigh sling, 2 recliner chairs, gas heater and the aforementioned beds. Luxury (and no wet bivvy to put away afterwards!). All in all a top venue.

Friday evening was slow but most of us took full advantage of the local Chinese, which delivered top scran direct to your swim.

Steve, the owner has a photo album showing the layout of the lake bottom before it was filled and he is only too happy to talk you through it. The first fish came as a direct result of that info and was a 10lb 12oz Common to Si Baker on popped up fake corn cast to a previously unknown feature.

Jif Hayward in the adjoining peg took full advantage and after recasting to the other side of the feature took the biggest fish of the weekend, a 20lb 8oz ghostie to the same bait and set-up.

Jif obviously had the plum swim as he kept the sweetcorn going in and had another fish within the hour and one more that evening. One of the Booty's, Matt Harding took a tiddler from the top lake in the night but other than that it was a quiet lake other than the coots and moorhens that kept going from dusk till dawn

The remaining action was almost entirely in pegs 4 and 5 where from 1030 onwards Jif and Si steadily teased them from the depths. Si had 2 more to 18lb 8oz after casting to telltale signs in the rushes and Jif managed to bank another 4 (and lose 2 or 3) in less than an hour from his own personal hotspot.

The only other fish came to Mike Jones in peg 3 but despite the others blanking, everyone agreed that it had been a good weekend

September has already been earmarked for another visit, with dates TBC. By then the larger "Maze" lake will be open with carp to 48lb. Watch this space for details. We'll be looking at an event at Upper Tamar when it warms up a bit.

I've currently got 18 provisional names for Chilham Mill. Surely we can do better than that! There are over 50 of you that get these e-mails at the moment. Spread the word ~ RNRMAA Membership is still £10 a year, that's less than £1 a month

If anyone has any ideas for, or wants to organise an event please let us know and we'll do what we can to help if you need it.

In future ALL events will require money up front to get a name on a list. Operational dropouts will get it all back, others will have to negotiate!

Contact Si Baker or Si Gay