This year the Summer League was starting a little earlier and was basically the same format as the previous year apart from a few little tweaks. Before the first match Rob did a draw to decide who would be at each venue. For the first round, it would be draw and choose which would determine your section of three anglers for the rest of the series. Each group of three would then rotate round the sections on the respective lakes so nobody would fish the same peg or section twice which I think is a great idea.
We had breakfast at the bowling club and then headed to the lakes to do the draw so people could have a look at the pegs and decide there. I pulled out choice two and after Andy Saunders went for peg 10, I was in two minds whether to go for 9 or 8 and in the end went for the latter.
There were a few fish topping but with it being the first match, nobody really knew how it was going to fish. I set up a couple of rigs for top two plus two, 11.5 and 13 metres, the side tray had maggots, disco pinkies and worms plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
On the whistle I fed gb and maggots on the short line and at 11.5 metres while the longer line was fed with some chopped worm and caster in a small amount of gb. Starting at top two plus two line, the rig settled and just kept on going as a little 3oz skimbob took the single red maggot. A chunky crucian and a couple more skimmers followed but I was waiting a while for bites.
Moving out to 11.5 metres, I was into more little 3-6oz skimmers whereas Bish on 9 was still catching well short including a couple of nice tench and Andy was bagging up on peg 10. I had another look on the top kit plus two line and first drop in had a big 2lb+ skimmer, then a crucian before the next bite resulted in a fish tearing off which turned out to be a lovely 1.5lb tench. It was short lived though and this line died after that nice little burst of fish.
Elsewhere, Leighton was getting a few fish and Priv on peg 1 had landed a decent carp but Les, Max and Nick on pegs 2, 3 and 4 were struggling and Terry on my right only had a couple of fish. Andy then hooked and landed a big carp that went 13lb (any double figure fish were weighed and returned straight away), not long after he had another of 14lb and when he weighed a third one at 12lb, it was looking like he was on for a big weight and out of sight already.
Then after two hours, just like last year, the silvers pretty much switched off while Andy, Priv and Leighton were still catching the odd carp on bomb and pellet or method feeder tactics. I tried the 13 metre worm line but never had a bite there so tried fishing past the feed at 14.5 metres with the same result. Bish had been beaten up by a couple of carp on his silvers rig and then I hooked one that went off like a train and snapped me!
For the next two hours, I rotated round my lines but just couldn’t catch and with Andy still making regular trips to the scales to weigh lumpy carp and Bish getting odd fish, I was last in my three peg section and Les shouted across I was spending so much time looking left, I’d have neckache in the morning!
After struggling early on, Nick was starting to catch skimmers and crucians and also lost a couple of carp. Priv and Leighton were still catching the odd carp and compared to last year there were lots being hooked. With around a third of the six hour match remaining, I over wetted some gb and began toss potting in a little blob every put in just to see if a bit of cloud might help.
It sort of worked as the next bite resulted in yellow hydro streaming from the pole and heading up towards Andy two pegs away! With only a size 18 Guru F1 Maggot to 0.09mm I was just waiting for it to snap me when the elastic bottomed out but with everything at its limit, the fish stopped and kited towards the inside before heading back my way. I could see it was a decent fish in the clear water as it then went up to see Terry on my right.
By now, I’d had it on a while and was getting the odd encouraging comment from the anglers around the pond, things like ‘Stop fannying around’ and ‘I can see why you don’t fish for carp at Todber’. I was starting to think I actually had a chance of landing it and as I hadn’t been catching anything else, this fish was worth a lot of little skimmers and crucians so I wanted to make it count.
Slowly but surely (very slowly according to some!) I was beginning to gain the upper hand and after around 30-40 mins I managed to shuffle a nice mirror into the landing net. I weighed it straight away and at 12lb it was a handy bonus. Next put in, I plopped in a little more sloppy mix and the float buried, this time it felt like a decent skimmer but came off.
I’m not sure whether it was the wetted gb or the time of day but all of sudden I was getting a few bites and in the last hour I had another three skimmers and two crucians. After packing up we started the weigh in with Andy, he had a nice net of silvers for 17lb 1oz, his carp net went 26lb 9oz and the bigger carp he’d weighed and returned during the day added 57lb to give him a total of 100lb 10oz. A brilliant weight and a new match record for Coombe, well done mate.
Andy with part of his 100lb 10oz which set a new match record at Coombe
Bish had 14lb 5oz and then my silvers went 14lb 7oz and with my carp, I had 26lb 7oz. Terry didn’t weigh, Leighton had 44lb 8oz (including 37lb 2oz of carp) and Nick’s 19lb 5oz was the best silverfish weight of the day. Max had chucked back on 3, Les had 15lb 6oz of silvers and last but not least was Priv who’d also done really well with 65lb 14oz for second on the day.
Bish had 14lb 5oz on peg 9
I weighed 26lb 7oz of skimmers, crucians, tench and a bonus 12lb carp
Leighton had 44lb 8oz on peg 5
Nick weighed 19lb 5oz of skimmers, crucians and tench
Les on peg 2 had a nice net of silvers for 15lb 6oz
Priv was second with an excellent 65lb 4oz from peg 1
Dillington had fished really well with some great nets of bream and chub, Jake had the top weight with 34lb 3oz on the pole from peg 1, Ian ‘Bagger’ Burton on peg 5 was second with 27lb 10oz followed by Dave Pope with 23lb 4oz (peg 2) and Chris Haines with 16lb 8oz on peg 16. Photos courtesy of Rob Cox*
Jake won the lake with a brilliant 34lb 4oz of bream and chub*
Ian ‘Half a Head’ Burton was second with 27lb 10oz on peg 5*
Dave Pope was third from peg 2 with 23lb 4oz of chub and big skimmers*
Hainsey weighed 16lb 8oz on peg 9*
Dave ‘Bombardier’ Phillips had 16lb 3oz of mainly chub on peg 14*
Neil Purchase had 12lb 14oz on peg 16*
Big Frank had 8lb 4oz which included some nice skimmers*
Parker ‘The Feeder’ weighed 4lb 4oz on peg 18*
Rob Cox weighed 3lb 8oz on peg 7*
Coombe Farm
1 – Andy Saunders (Sharp MG) – 100lb 8oz (New Match Record)
2 – Andrew Chandler-Privett (Stoke) – 65lb 4oz
3 – Leighton Cox (Ilminster) – 44lb 8oz
4 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 26lb 7oz
Dillington
1 – Jake Woodard (Ilminster) – 34lb 4oz
2 – Ian Burton (Taunton) – 27lb 10oz
3 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 23lb 4oz
4 – Chris Haines (Haines Angling) – 16lb 8oz
After the first round, there are six anglers on one point, you can drop your worst result but obviously this doesn’t come into play yet.
Andy Saunders – 1pt
Andrew Chandler-Privett – 1pt
Leighton Cox – 1pt
Chris Haines – 1pt
Jake Woodard – 1pt
Neil Purchase – 1pt
I picked up £15 for fourth on the lake and scored 2 points in the league but with 6 points winning the league last year, you basically need four section wins to stand a chance so there’s not a lot of room for error already!
Nick, me and Rob Cox all stuck £2 in the Nugget-O-Meter which has now reached £160.
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 – Todber Manor
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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