With some time off over the Xmas period, I booked into lots of matches starting with a festive fixture at Acorn where there was a fantastic turnout of 31 fishing. Des welcomed everyone before announcing the draw and with Zoe holding the bag, the usual scrum for pegs ensued. I got in quite early and pulled out number 22 by the bridge on the far side, it’s been a decent area for carp and silvers in recent weeks so hopefully I’d get a few bites.
Driving round to my swim, I had my usual next peg neighbour, Andy Gard, on the other side of the bridge and Keith Ray was on my left. I set up a Preston Innovations F1 Maggot and a Drennan 0.4 gram Pencil for two lines by the bridge at top two plus two and 10 metres plus the same in open water to my left. The side tray contained maggots, disco pinkies plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 and Dark groundbait.
On the whistle I fed all four lines with a little nugget of groundbait and a few pinkies before starting at 10 metres on the left. Keith went down the middle and had a chunky perch first chuck, followed by another and then had one pushing 2lb! I missed a couple of nice bites before hooking a decent fish that I thought might be a big tench but turned out to be a 5lb carp. Not long after I had a foulhooked skimmer and when Andy got off the mark with a big perch it was looking like we’d be in for a good day.
No more bites to the left so I’ve tried by the bridge next, I missed a bite first put in and then hooked a fish that I got into open water before the hook pulled. The next indication resulted in a little carp, that was followed by a 6oz perch but then I couldn’t get a bite so it was time to switch lines again.
No indications from either of the short lines so back out long and couldn’t get a bite there either! It wasn’t just me either and after a promising start, Andy and Keith were both now struggling as well. I kept rotating round my four lines and then out the blue, the float’s gone under on the short line to the left and I had a skimmer. Not long after I’ve had a little tench and was hoping I might be able to put a run of fish together but that was it.
With around an hour to go, I tried feeding just loose groundbait via a tosspot and had my third skimmer from the short line and I also missed two bites before it died again. Back long I’ve bumped a roach and also had a couple of indications which I didn’t connect with and that was it.
After packing up, I poured a cup of coffee from the flask and had a chat with Andy, he’d only had one bite all day from that perch so it had been tough going. When the scales arrived, it had been really hard along our side, Chris Gay had 33lb 6oz on 15, Gary Bowden weighed 14lb 12oz, Mark B on 18 didn’t weigh, Mo on 19 had 3lb 14oz, Andy’s perch weighed 2lb 2oz, my two carp went 6lb 2oz and the silvers (three skimmers, a tench and a perch) added 2lb 4oz, Keith chucked back and then Mark Broomsgrove on 26 had done well weighing 39lb 13oz.
Back at the results and Martin Rayet had the top weight on the day with an excellent 57lb 11oz from peg 39, Paul Elms was second next door on 40 with 52lb 10oz, Jerry Salisbury was third with 50lb 9oz from peg 12 and Des had the best silvers weight with 7lb 12oz from peg 33.
Zoe and Acorn had very generously put up a load of prizes for a Xmas draw and I was lucky enough to have my name drawn out and I won a Preston hooklength box.
1 – Martin Rayet (Acorn) – 57lb 11oz
2 – Paul Elms (Acorn) – 52lb 10oz
3 – Jerry Salisbury (Acorn) – 50lb 9oz
4 – Bob Smith (Acorn) – 44lb 13oz
Sections
A – Graham Smith (Acorn) – 33lb 3oz
B – Chris Gay (Acorn) – 33lb 6oz
C – Mark Broomsgrove (Acorn) – 39lb 13oz
Silvers
1 – Des Shipp (Preston Innovations) – 7lb 12oz
2 – Bob Gullick (Mosella) – 6lb 3oz
Nick and me both stuck £2 in the pot and the Nugget-O-Meter is now up to £30.
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 – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
Check Out – My last match
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