On Saturday I was back at Acorn for the latest of Chris Fox’s matches, my last visit was six weeks ago but I’d been keeping an eye on the results and peg 40 has been the one to draw for silvers. After breakfast, Nick and me were at the fishery in good time to get some bait along with bits and bobs from the shop. 24 fishing today so a good turnout and with the work on the lake set to be complete in the next few weeks, more pegs will be available and it’ll be really interesting to see the lake when it’s complete again.
When draw time arrived, I went in fairly early and pulled out 37, a great silvers peg and one I’ve always wanted to fish but I didn’t think it would compete with 40 by the bridge. Nick and Paul Faiers drew pegs 1 and 3 on the island which can also be good for silvers.
I set up a Preston Innovations F1 Maggot for a line at 10 metres and a Drennan 0.4 gram Pencil for top kit plus two and plus one. On the side tray I had lots of maggots plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 and Dark groundbait. Chris got us underway and I fed groundbait and maggots on all three lines before starting at 10 metres.
It was an unusually slow start, no indications after ten minutes but as I moved the rig a fish was on and a decent skimmer leapt out the water several times before coming off! I then lost a foulhooked carp before having another come off at the net when the hook pulled through the knot so not a particularly inspiring start!
Paul had landed a big tench and an eel (the first one I’ve seen caught at Acorn) and Nick was getting the odd skimmer but also landing quite a few (non-counting) carassio. Mike T on 40 had started across so it looked like he was fishing for carp which would do me a favour (or it would if I could catch some silvers!).
After 45 mins, I’d only caught a couple of small carp and my silvers net was still empty! I’d been loosefeeding maggots on my other two lines and there were loads of blows coming up at top two plus two and I was just thinking about having a look when I had three skimmers in quick succession from 10 metres.
Going into the second hour I had a couple more skimmers and also lost a leaper but was waiting quite a while for bites so came in on the top two plus two line. A skimmer first drop in was a nice start and next chuck hooked a fish which I knew straight away was a tench from the jagging fight. The next hour was lovely, a bite a chuck from skimmers and tench to 3lb and when I thought I had 25lb, I started my second silvers net.
Mike had landed a couple of big tench but was mainly swapping between the margins and across fishing for carp. It also looked like Paul had switched from fishing for silvers and Nick was having carp problems if all the elastic on show and head shaking was anything to go by! I was still catching well including one beautiful tench that had to be 6lb.
Every now and again, bites would slow up a bit which normally coincided with the blows stopping but I was still ticking over with odd fish and they were all a decent stamp. With around a hour and a half left, I tipped back my carp and started my third silvers net. I ended up staying on the top two plus two line for the remainder of the match and never even tried the shorter line, finishing up with 50 fish (all tench and skimmers).
The scales took a while to get to me after Gareth had a massive 297lb 13oz on peg 31, Chad on 33 weighed 86lb 11oz, Darren Wilton (peg 34) had 115lb 5oz and Pedro on 36 weighed 65lb 1oz. Then it was me, my last net went 16lb odd, the second one weighed 24lb+ and the first net went 23lb something to give me a 65lb 15oz total. Mike weighed 133lb before the scales headed onto the island where Mark B on 5 had 131lb 4oz, Rich (peg 4) weighed 163lb 15oz, Paul had 164lb 9oz, Graham S on peg 2 weighed 224lb 5oz and Nick had 9lb 3oz of silvers but had chucked back a load of carp.
Back at the results, the next best silvers weight was Tom Thick over on 21 with 36lb 10oz of accidentals included a stunning tench weighed at 7lb 12oz!!
Gareth won with a massive 297lb 13oz from peg 31
I had a lovely day to win the silvers with 65lb 15oz
1 – Gareth Boycott (Acorn) – 297lb 13oz
2 – Neil Morgan (Acorn) – 239lb 2oz
3 – Bob Gullick (Acorn) – 234lb 9oz
4 – Graham Smith (Acorn) – 224lb 5oz
5 – Martin Tomas (Acorn) – 187lb 8oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 65lb 15oz
A lovely days fishing and I picked up £48 but I wished I hadn’t spent so long at 10 metres at the start and I also lost a couple of big tench and pulled out of a few big skimmers so a really big weight was possible today. Gareth won again and has a formidable record at Acorn, he’s always there or thereabouts and has won Chris’s league with a match to spare.
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
Also 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 – Stathe Drain
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
Check Out – My last match
#sponsoredpost #affiliatelinks
