I was supposed to be fishing a match at Revels yesterday but with very strong winds and rains forecast, only four of us turned up so it was cancelled. Today we were booked in for the silvers open at Acorn but the weather was due to be rubbish again. After meeting Nick, Jenny and Parker ‘The Pole’ for breakfast we headed up the M5 to Clevedon.
Des announced the draw and I pulled out 34 again and to continue the trend of being on the same pegs, Nick was on number 1 for the second match on the trot while Steve P got peg 7. My neighbours for the day were Vince Brown on 32 and Paul Faiers was on my left (peg 36).
My peg was nice and sheltered at the start
I set up a Preston Innovations F1 Maggot and a Drennan 0.4 gram Pencil for lines by the bridge, straight out and in open water to the left at 10 metres plus a 0.3 gram F1 Carbon Slim for the edge to the left. The side tray contained maggots, disco pinkies plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 and Dark groundbait.
On the whistle I fed all my lines before starting at 10 metres straight out with double pinkie on the hook. I thought it might take a while to get a bite but I missed an indication quite quickly, then Nick struck into a fish but a carp wasn’t the desired result! My next bite saw me strike into solid resistance and I had it on for ages before the hook pulled.
Paul and Vince had landed a couple of fish, Nick got off the mark with a skimmer but after an hour I was still blanking. I tried by the bridge but never had a bite there so next stop was the 10 metre line in open water, a positive bite and at last a fish that felt very skimmer-like but I’ll never know as it came off and there was a scale on the hook!
It sounded like it was fishing hard for the majority with the exception of a certain Des Shipp on peg 5 who was bagging, Vince had spoken to him on the phone and he had several skimmers and a tench already! Rotating round the lines, I’ve gone short to the left and the float buried before I finally got on the scoresheet with a nice 1.5lb skimmer.
No more indications on any of my lines so I decided to sit on the 10 metre swim in open water and be patient as that area has been good to me in the past. I missed a bite and then had my second skimmer which signalled a lovely run of fish where I added another four skimmers and a pound tench. There probably wasn’t much between Paul, Vince and me at this point but then the weather decided to really let us have it and I was struggling to get presentation or even see my float at times so came in on the top two plus two line. After a short wait, the float slid under resulting in another skimmer and I was hoping I’d be able to swap between the two most productive lines for the remaining time.
Nick landed a decent perch from his edge so I had another look to the left but first put in I’ve had a 8lb carp hooked under the chin followed by a 3lb F1 next chuck! Back to the 10 metre open water swim I missed a couple of bites and came back with another scale on the hook so there were fish there, probably off bottom.
The weather was now really grim and with half an hour to go, a couple of anglers decided to call it a day. I dropped in on the short line to the left again and hooked another lump with five minutes to go and I netted a non-counting six pounder after the whistle. My final tally was seven skimmers and a tench. Paul had landed two big tench late and was admitting to 15lb while Vince had also had a large tinca and pulled out of decent foulhooked bream towards the end.
When the scales got round to us, Des had paralysed the match with a brilliant 29lb 9oz of skimmers, tench and perch but the next best weight so far was Tony Rixon on peg 15 with 7lb 8oz. Vince then had 11lb 9oz and my fish went 7lb 11oz which actually put me third for now but I knew it wouldn’t last for long! Paul’s fish weighed 16lb 5oz to go into second spot and with Stu on peg 38 chucking back, there was just Mark B on 40 left to weigh and he had 10lb 10oz to win the section. Photo credit – Des Shipp*
Des had a superb 29lb 9oz to win the match at a canter on peg 5*
1 – Des Shipp (Preston Innovations) – 29lb 9oz
2 – Paul Faiers (Acorn) – 16lb 5oz
3 – Vince Brown (Acorn) – 11lb 9oz
Sections
A – Ray Cooper (Acorn) – 6lb 1oz
B – Tony Rixon (Premier Angling) – 7lb 8oz
C – Mark Broomsgrove (Acorn) – 10lb 10oz
So apart from Des’s weight it was quite close and I needed a bonus tench or two, with hindsight I should I have spent the last part of the match fishing top two plus two as that was where Paul had his late tench.
Well one more match to go in 2023, will my year finish with a flourish or fizzle out like a soggy firework (my money’s on the latter is the weather keeps up!).
Nick and me both stuck £2 in the pot and the Nugget-O-Meter is now up to £36.
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 – Revels
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
Check Out – My last match
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