I had intended to do ten matches in twelve days but was beginning to feel a bit ‘fished out’ and in need of a lie in (plus the never ending crap weather certainly wasn’t helping!). So today’s trip to Revels would be the ninth and last match of my fishing extravaganza. After meeting PTP at Greggs for breakfast we made the short trip across the border into Dorset.
When the draw was announced I was relieved to hear Trendles wasn’t being used this week with the 17 anglers being spread over Main and Dead Tree lakes, I just needed Dean to pull me out a decent silvers peg now. I was fairly near the top of the list and he delved into the bucket only to reveal a ball with the number 16 on it and my heart sank! It’s a noted carp swim and probably my least favourite peg on the lake.
Baz Morgan got number 12 on the opposite side of the island to me (another great carp swim which is probably my second least favourite peg) and Wayne Cooper was on 14 (or would have been if he hadn’t decided to go and fish Middle lake instead!). Parker ‘The Pole’ got drawn up the arm of the lake on peg 10, also not the best area for silvers.
There was a little glimmer of hope though as Rich Chave did win the silvers off my peg last year with 10lb of small fish. My mood was further lifted when I got to the peg and there were quite a few fish topping.
I set up my usual 0.2 gram Bobbies to fish two lines at 11.5 metres, one straight out and the other angled towards a little island on my right. It was pretty much the same depth of around 2ft all over the peg. The side tray contained just maggots and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark. My game plan was just to fish single maggot and get my head down catching lots of bits and bobs and then swap lines and start new ones as and when carp became a problem.
On the whistle I fed a little loose groundbait on a top kit line just to give me somewhere to start while the longer lines settled, they also received modest amounts of gb along with a few maggots. Kicking off short I had three gudgeon in as many chucks but it was short lived, adding a section resulted in another gobie but that was it. 11.5 metres was next and it took a little while to get an indication but a positive bite resulted in a fair bit of elastic coming out. In the shallow water I could see it was a skimmer straight away, not a huge fish at 4oz but I’d be more than happy catching them.
My great start continued with two more skimbobs along with a roach, and it was a bite a chuck. Swapping between the two longer lines, it was lovely fishing with a couple more skimmers, lots of little perch with the odd better one up to 8oz along with gudgeon, roach and rudd. Going into the second hour I was still catching small fish quite well but no more skimmers so I tried putting in another little nugget of gb on the right hand line but it didn’t have the desired result.
I was still catching well but now mainly from the other line where I was just toss potting maggots and flicking the rig past the feed would result in a couple of quick fish. The first four hours were lovely and just flew by, I’d only hooked two carp as well. Of course, then from the weather being nice, the wind got up and it began lashing it down.
Bites were becoming less frequent and although not unexpected, hooking more carp meant my catch rate was going in the wrong direction as they wrecked the shallow swim. I tried feeding new lines at 11.5 metres to the left and right and was getting very odd fish to keep things ticking over until the end. The rain was relentless for the last couple of hours and I was drenched by the final whistle. I finished up with 114 fish which averaging 1.5oz apiece should give me 9-10lb and hopefully be enough to get in the frame.
As the scales would start with Dead Tree and then work their way around Main, I would be one of the last to weigh so packed most of my kit away and then had a coffee as I walked round to see Baz. He’d had the rain and wind straight in his chops and along with suffering from carp trouble, he’d also had a few shocks off the electric fence during the day!
As Jason and Dean arrived, I had a quick look at the weigh sheet, Bob C was leading the silvers with 7lb 2oz from peg 42 and Terry Dell had the best weight so far with 48lb 2oz from peg 11. Baz had chucked his carp back and his silvers went 3lb 14oz, then it was round to me, I didn’t bother weighing my three carp and was well chuffed when my silvers weight was called at 10lb 11oz. The last two pegs were Neil Saxby on 20 who had 16lb 3oz of mainly carp and Dave Litchfield weighed 4lb 15oz of silvers on 21. Photos courtesy of Revels*
Terry Dell had the top weight with 48lb 2oz from peg 11*
I won the silvers with 114 fish for 10lb 11oz
Rich Butler was second overall with 36lb 3oz from peg 51*
1 – Terry Dell (Revels) – 48lb 2oz
2 – Richard Butler (Revels) – 36lb 3oz
3 – Terry Lenny (Revels) – 31lb 6oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 10lb 11oz
2 – Bob Crispe (Revels) – 7lb 2oz
3 – Steve Sudworth (Revels) – 6lb 6oz
I had a nice pick up of £40 to finish off my match marathon on a high, apart from the weather it had been really enjoyable, nine matches on six different venues, collecting an envelope six times. My best result was probably today and the most enjoyable was fishing the feeder at Dillington.
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
#sponsoredpost #affiliatelinks
