Covey Fisheries – Open – 25th May 2024

I haven’t fished Covey since 2021 when we used to fish the Match lake, there are several other waters on-site including Purdy’s which is a specimen/pleasure lake so doesn’t get match fished that often. I’d been seeing some exciting reports from the odd competition with bags of quality roach, rudd, tench, chub and perch up to 45lb although 25-30lb is more the norm. When I saw they were running a few matches, several of us booked in, not knowing anything about it, I have to say Ian Grabham and David Nash couldn’t have been more helpful with info.

We met at Podimore for breakfast before making the short journey to Covey, the lake looked lovely, well established with an off centre island that was closer to the right hand side. After saying hello to the regulars and paying our pools etc, it was time for the draw and choose, obviously as we had never seen the place before, we would have to decide based on the previous match results.

I pulled out choice five (out of nine) so all the fancied pegs had gone by the time it was my turn, I went for peg 6 which was in the middle of the top bank with Norts on my right and Stuart Frampton on 7, David Nash was on the peg everyone wanted, number 4.

The weights in the last match were mainly made up of big roach and rudd along with odd tench, chub and perch. With that in mind, my game plan was to feed a short swim with chopped worm while loosefeeding a long line with caster to fish through the water.

At the all in, I fed the top two plus two line by an inviting looking bush to my left with some worm before starting with a little light strung out rig at 13 metres and feeding casters regularly. I had a bite first put in but instead of a nice big roach, a tiny rudd of less than quarter of an ounce wasn’t the start I was hoping for.

Norts got off to a brighter start with several chunkier rudd on the whip while David was getting some decent fish on the waggler. I tried caster and had a couple of 4oz fish but was still getting pestered by tiny rudd and after the first sixty minutes, I hadn’t got a pound yet! I decided to have a look short with worm and after a few minutes, the float sailed away and a better fish pulled some elastic out before I netted a lovely 1lb+ roach.

Most people were catching a few, Norts had a decent tench while David was still bagging by swapping between a short pole and the waggler. I had a great spell on my worm line with some net roach and rudd plus a nice tench and even had a big crucian which went straight back as they don’t count. After a really good second hour, bites slowed so I’ve gone back long but I still couldn’t catch any quality.

Resting the short line worked though and I had another flurry of fish but also had to return another crucian and a F1 pushing 3lb. The long shallow line was still a waste of time so I plumbed up with the depth rig and fed some worm out there as Norts was getting a few long including another tinca but also lost a couple of carp. Stuart next door was having a few carp problems as well.

My first look on the long line with the deeper rig and worm and caster on the hook resulted in another big roach, a few more followed before I hooked a better fish that tore off to the left. I initially thought I’d hooked my first carp but thankfully it stopped and I was able to get back to the top kit before it snagged me in the reeds on the inside which made me think it might be a chub but after adding a section and changing the angle, it came free and was a lovely 2lb plus perch.

Apparently they were catching some nice fish on the pegs behind the island to my left but with around an hour and a half left, it seemed to slow up for most of us apart from David who had several chub on the waggler. I did manage another tench from the short line and then just before the end, hooked a rather large carp that I had on a fair while, I did get a glance at it and it looked huge before it waved a fin and just tore off snapping me.

At the final whistle, I had 55 fish on the clicker but had also caught quite a few little rudd and perch I hadn’t counted but didn’t really know what weight I had or how I’d done. Nick P was first to weigh and had some quality fish for 8lb 4oz but carp had been a pain, Duffers had got his head down catching loads of small fish on a top kit to hand and had nearly 200 for 11lb 12oz and then Parker ‘The Pole’ had 10lb 4oz which included a cracking perch.

Next was Dave who everybody thought had won and he had a lovely net of fish for 23lb 1oz, Norts weighed 7lb 12oz and then it was my turn, my fish went 19lb 14oz to put me second so far and I wasn’t actually that far off Dave’s weight. Stuart had 8lb which included two nice tench and then Jon P weighed 10lb 15oz on peg 8. Last but not least was Ian G and when he pulled his net out, he had half a dozen tench, a big chub plus loads of quality roach and rudd for 24lb 8oz to win on the day.

1 – Ian Grabham (Covey) – 24lb 8oz
2 – Dave Nash (Covey) – 23lb 1oz
3 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 19lb 14oz

I picked up £20 for third and hadn’t done too badly on my first visit but wasted too much time trying to catch through the water when I should have just fished two deck rigs short and long.

The Nugget-O-Meter had a great day thanks to generous donations from Norts (£3.50) and Nick (£3), I added £3.50 plus side bets from Norts and Duffers to take the new total to £226.

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 – Dillington

Coming soon – Lots more match reports

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