For my first match of the New Year it was back to Revels but once again, the weather was awful and forecast to get worse as the day went on – great! I met Parker ‘The Pole’ at Greggs in Yeovil for breakfast and we bumped into Norts who was also stuffing his face!
When we arrived, there were only three other lunatics anglers who had turned up so we decided to have a draw and choose on all lakes. Steve got first choice and went for peg 44 on Dead Tree where Paul Wyatt did well in the last match. I was next and went for 55 on Middle (well I was never going anywhere else was I?), saying that, Neil Saxby said 56 is the better peg so after checking it was ok, I moved one peg to the left. Neil went for 51 on Dead Tree, Hugh peg 1 on Main and Stu decided on 20 (Main).
As I took my kit to the peg, it soon became apparent I’d made a bit of a tactical error as the wind and driving rain was straight in my chops! I should have picked 54 on the opposite side which is down over the bank and the wind would have been off my back – doh! Steve on the other hand looked nice and comfy and even had his brolly up!
I was finally able to set my box down on the fabled Middle lake!
I only set up one rig, a 4 x 12 Preston F1 Maggot with a bulk and two droppers for two lines at 10 metres plus another at top two plus two. The side tray contained maggots, disco pinkies and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
Neil shouted the all in and I fed 10 metres straight out with a little nugget of gb and then the other two lines a little more positively. Starting with double pinkie on the hook, I thought I might catch quite quickly but after 10-15 mins I haven’t had an indication. Just as I started to think a struggle might be on the cards, the float buried and a small roach got me up and running. Another 1oz roach next chuck and then a decent one that needed netting.
It was a bite a chuck from roach and perch, I toss potted in a marble of groundbait and switched to the other line and first put in I hooked my first skimmer, a nice 8oz fish, a couple of roach followed before I had a slightly smaller skimmer and at this stage it felt like a good weight was on the cards. In recent matches 6-7lb has been winning the silvers and I was well on target to do more than that.
After an hour I had a look on the short line and had a chunky perch and then a lovely roach and it was all going rather well. I did hook a fish that felt like a small carp but it came off and that was the only one I hooked all day.
As we approached the halfway point, the rain eased off (which was very welcome) but the wind ramped up a few notches and switched from being in my face to blowing from right to left (not so welcome!). There were branches coming off the trees and I was now struggling to hold the pole at 10 metres and any semblance of presentation had gone out the window. Rather than risk getting sections broken by flying debris I made the decision to pack the rest of my pole away and just fish top two plus two for the rest of the match.
While I was fannying about doing that, Parker ‘The Pole’ emerged from under his brolly to answer the call of nature and I enquired how he was doing, he said he was catching decent skimmers and roach and had 60 fish for probably 10lb already! At this stage I was on 54 fish for around 5lb and had some serious catching up to do.
To be honest, I’ve caught well in spells, perch and some lovely roach but not the skimmers I needed and I could see Steve was netting fish regularly. With ten minutes to go I finally hooked a decent skimmer only for it to come off and then had two more net roach before the all out. I ended up with 90 fish which I thought would go 8-10lb but knew it wouldn’t be enough. The scales arrived at Steve first and I went to have a look at his fish, he weighed 6lb 13oz of carp and then had a lovely net of skimmers, quality roach, perch and even a chub for 15lb 8oz.
Parker ‘The Pole’ had a lovely day to win the silvers with 15lb 8oz
They went to weigh Neil next and he had 38lb 15oz of carp, Hugh had done well with 44lb 1oz on the feeder and then it was me, my fish went 10lb 4oz and then Stu had 43lb 2oz so despite the weather, the ponds have fished really well. Thanks to Revels for the photos*
Neil had 38lb 15oz on peg 51*
Hugh weighed 44lb 1oz of carp on peg 1*
I had a nice days fishing (apart from the bloody weather!) to weigh 10lb 4oz
Stu on peg 20 had 43lb 2oz*
1 – Hugh Roberts (Revels) – 44lb 1oz
Silvers
1 – Steve Parker (Ilton) – 15lb 8oz
So I’ve finally got on the elusive Middle (although technically I’ve still not drawn a peg on it!) and I’d love to fish it again in more favourable conditions as I’m sure I’d have caught more skimmers if I could’ve fished longer. Also it was great to see such a great net of fish come from peg 44 as it’s rarely used and it’s just one of the reasons I love fishing Revels, it’s full of surprises, loads of little nooks and crannies to be explored.
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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