If you read the blog regularly you can’t have failed to notice I’m fishing more matches than ever but also the knock on effect is that I’ve got a constant backlog of posts and the reports are taking longer and longer to appear online. So apologies if you’ve noticed the delay and if you haven’t you probably don’t read the blog anyway (which rather begs the question, why am I trying to explain, so I’ll stop rambling now!).
I was back at Revels for another of their Tuesday’s opens, no Parker ‘The Pole’ this week so after a quick pitstop in Yeovil for breakfast I headed to the fishery. With 17 fishing today, we would be spread over Main and Trendles and I was hoping to avoid the latter as it’s my least favourite lake for silvers. Jason and Dean got the draw underway and after a decent run of nice silvers pegs, I thought a duffer was coming my way.
I was around halfway down the list and delighted when the six pegs on Trendles went before my name was called, I wasn’t out of the woods yet though as there were still some carp pegs on Main I’d like to avoid (don’t want much do I?!). When it was my turn, Dean only went and pulled out peg 2, a brilliant silvers peg and probably the next best after 20. Rich Chave got 16 which is one of those aforementioned carp pegs I didn’t want and I thought he might be in for a torrid time as he’d be fishing for silvers.
Dave S on peg 4 was my neighbour again and I was hoping to get my own back after he gave me a battering last Tuesday. My peg looked lovely as always and there were quite a few small fish topping. I set up a 0.4 gram float for 10 metres plus a little 0.3 gram F1 Carbon Slim with spread shot to fish down the edge on a top kit and at four sections straight out. Nice and simple side tray with maggots, disco pinkies and Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
On the siren I fed all three lines with a little loose groundbait and some pinkies before starting on the top kit line. A bite quite quickly resulted in a gudgeon which was an encouraging start, more gobies and some little perch followed but the lack of quality was a tad worrying, especially when Dave had two decent skimmers in as many chucks.
I did hook a cracking roach only for it to come off at the net, I did manage one around 4oz and a few smaller samples but bites were fizzling out as we headed towards the end of the first sixty minutes. Moving out to 10 metres I was hoping for a quick response but that didn’t happen and when the float did eventually go under, I hooked a decent fish that turned out to be a stunning 10oz crucian (which wouldn’t be going in the silvers net).
I was getting the odd roach but also had a decent skimbob come off shipping back and I was going nowhere fast. Dave was also struggling and went for a wander before reporting on his return that Rich was catching small fish well. I needed to try and make something happen so fed another line at 10 metres, angled to the right with a full pot of groundbait and came back short while I left it to settle.
The top kit line yielded a few small fish and a half decent perch came from five metres but I was also hooking a few carp. After half an hour I had my first look on the new line and was into a nice skimmer straight away but it came off and the same thing happened next put in which wasn’t ideal! Thankfully the next two stayed on but any thoughts of bagging up soon disappeared when I couldn’t get a bite again. I tried repeating the process and fed it again but it didn’t work a second time.
Back on my original 10 metre, it took ages to get a bite but then I hooked a proper skimmer, shipping back I could see it was a decent pound plus fish, I got down to the top kit, reached for the landing net and the bloody hook pulled out – gutted!
I tried the strung out rig on the longer lines and had a couple of nice roach but it was short lived, going past the feed resulted in another fish and that set the scene for the rest of the match, having to keep swapping lines and rigs for odd fish. Carp were becoming a pain and I did hook one that took off and when the rig came flying back I thought the hooklength had gone but the line had snapped just below the float!
There wasn’t long remaining so I had another look short and had two net roach followed by a smaller one but then hooked three carp on the bounce! Dave signalled the end and I finished up with 70 fish which was a few less than last week and I thought I probably had a similar weight (7-8lb).
The scales weighed Trendles first and the top weight there was Neil Saxby on peg 34 with 58lb 11oz and Steve Crowford had the best silvers weight with 6lb 2oz. My accidental carp (plus crucian) net went 14lb 11oz and then my silvers weighed 8lb 13oz but I just knew the fish I’d lost today (four decent skimmers and a nice roach) were going to cost me.
I weighed 8lb 13oz for second in the silvers
Back at the results and Alan W had won on the day with an excellent 85lb 14oz from peg 12 with Neil second and Andy Miller in third with 52lb 5oz from peg 21. In the silvers Rich Chave weighed 10lb 15oz which is a brilliant weight from that peg , I was second and Steve was third. Thanks to Revels for the photos*
Alan had the top weight on the day with 85lb 14oz*
Neil was second with 58lb 5oz*
Andy Miller was third with 52lb 5oz from peg 21*
Rich Chave won the silvers with 10lb 15oz from peg 16*
Steve Crowford was third in the silvers with 6lb 2oz from peg 37*
1 – Alan Winsper (Alan’s Angling) – 85lb 14oz
2 – Neil Saxby (Revels) – 58lb 11oz
3 – Andy Miller (Revels) – 52lb 5oz
Silvers
1 – Richard Chave (Colmic) – 10lb 15oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 8lb 13oz
3 – Steve Crowford (Revels) – 6lb 2oz
Another really enjoyable day at Revels and I picked up £30 for second but that’s two weeks on the trot that Dean has done me proud at the draw bag and I haven’t really done the pegs justice!
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 – Ivy House
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
Check Out – My last match
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