After several days of gorgeous weather, the forecast for today wasn’t so good with rain and lower temperatures but as always I was really looking forward to my Tuesday trip to Revels. I met Steve P for breakfast in Yeovil before we headed to the fishery. Tony C arrived as we were getting some bait and then when we pulled into the car park and Gareth Lennox (who I haven’t seen for a long time) was there so it was nice to have a catch up.
The draw time arrived and we headed up to the shop to see where we’d be spending the day, this week Main and Dead Tree lakes were being used. When my name came out, I was on peg 41 on Dead Tree and nobody was quite sure how it would fish as it hasn’t been used for a while. Steve P got 7 on Main and Tony was on 16. My swim was on the opposite bank and when I got there it looked lush with loads of options and I was the only angler over there so loads of room. The lake also had a nice tinge of colour which would help with it being shallow.
Loads of options (and room!)
Regarding rigs and bait etc, I do apologise if it’s getting all a bit repetitive but I’ve been fishing venues with similar depths and the Guru AR’s are superb for shallow water so I set two 0.3 gram versions today. The depth didn’t really vary all over the peg at around 18 inches, so both rigs were identical. The side tray contained the usual maggots (dead and alive), casters, pinkies and some Bait-Tech Special G Dark and The Juice groundbait.
The whistle went and I fed some loose groundbait on three lines, at 11.5 metres in the gap between the islands, at the same distance in the open water to the left and lastly at 10 metres in the middle to the right. I started with single red maggot straight out and with it being a bit of an unknown quantity, I thought it might be a little wait for the first bite. Alan W over on 49 foul hooked a carp first chuck that came off and then Gareth next to him netted a decent silver so the early signs were encouraging.
I had a couple of indications before catching a nice roach, next chuck I had another followed by a gudgeon and it was a bite a chuck. Alan was getting some nice skimmers and then I had two in quick succession, I also hooked into a fish that tore off and Mr Winsper had a little chuckle that I was into a carp but it turned out to be a foul hooked decent skimmer. I was toss potting in small amounts of loose groundbait and firing maggots over the top and just feeding casters over the 10 metre line.
Trying the left hand line for the first time I had more roach and another skimbob but then pulled out of one. Alan was also catching really well but lost several decent skimmers which led to a few choice words! Swapping between my two longer lines I had a really good first two hours and although I was doing well, there wasn’t much between Alan and me.
I’d been feeding casters since the start on the right hand line and with a third of the match gone, I had my first look, it took a little while to get a bite from a chunky roach but then had a brilliant spell with each roach bigger than the last. With light elastic, I even had to stand up to net a couple of 10-12oz roach. I did bump one and then hooked a better fish which wasn’t a carp but the hook pulled and bites slowed after that, I did have another nice skimmer but decided to rest it.
It was still a bite a chuck on the two longer lines but I was getting roach whereas although Alan wasn’t catching as quickly, he was landing skimmers and it was still too close to call. I did hook and land a couple of small carp but they weren’t being too much of a pain. The lad on 48 was getting the odd skimmer on corn and then had a chub on the feeder.
I had another nice spell on the caster but I couldn’t seem to catch any more skimmers. With two hours to go, Alan was catching really well but my catch rate was going in the wrong direction. Trying the caster line again only resulted in a small perch so I went back on the two longer lines and just got my head down catching smaller roach.
The whistle went to end the match and I’d had an awesome days fishing, my clicker was reading 107 fish (8 decent skimmers, roach, perch and gudgeon), I thought I must have more than last week so probably 15lb+, maybe a bit more. During the match there had been some great banter and both Alan and me were sure the other had caught more. The scales arrived at my peg first and my two carp went 3lb 4oz and then I pulled my silvers out and it was a lovely net of fish. Jason called it at 20lb 7oz and I was well chuffed although I still thought Alan might just pip me.
20lb 7oz of silvers, my best day at Revels yet
I carried on packing up and the scales headed off to weigh the rest, peg 48 had 5lb 3oz, and then it was Alan’s turn, there was lots splashing and then he shouted over that I’d done him, he weighed 17lb 8oz, another fantastic net of silvers. Gareth had 6lb 12oz and then peg 52 didn’t weigh.
By the time I’d finished packing my gear up and got back to the car park, some of the others had started arriving back, Tony had suffered a bit of a nightmare, losing several carp and snapping a number five section. It sounded like Main lake had actually fished quite hard, Rich Butler was the top weight with 31lb 11oz from peg 10, Terry Lenny was next best with 23lb 9oz from peg 11 and Steve P was the top silvers weight with 11lb. So I’d done it again and my combined weight of 23lb 11oz was actually second overall on the day! Thanks to Rich Butler for the photos*
Terry was second with 23lb 9oz from peg 11*
Steve P was third in the silvers with 11lb from peg 7*
Overall
1 – Richard Butler (Revels) – 31lb 11oz
2 – Terry Lenny (Revels) – 23lb 9oz
3 – Paul Lancaster (Revels) – 21lb 1oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 20lb 7oz
2 – Alan Winsper (Alan’s Angling) – 17lb 8oz
3 – Steve Parker (Ilminster) – 11lb
I picked up £40 for winning the silvers and it’s been my most successful month ever, although fishing twice, sometimes three times a week helps! I’m loving the fishing here so much, all the lakes have so many nooks and crannies with different features in every swim. So far I’ve been on a different peg every time apart from drawing 14 twice, so every match is an adventure! The weights are always close, take the main frame today with just a couple of carp between first and fourth and less than 3lb the difference between the top two silvers weights.
I’m just gutted I’ve only got one more Tuesday before going back to work five days a week! I think my good run is probably about to end as I’m headed down to bandit country on Thursday to fish against The Tart and the Torquay mob on their home turf.
There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling
I still have copies of my book available from eBay here or Amazon here
And if you could spare five minutes to leave a nice review on Amazon, it would be very much appreciated.
Next up – Lake View
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
Check Out – My last match (below)
