For the penultimate round of the summer league, we were back at Coombe and it was my turn on pegs 4, 5 or 7. In all four matches so far, peg 5 has been the one to draw, winning the section every time. After a lovely brekkie at the bowling club (thanks Charlotte) it was time for the draw and I had the last ticket in our tub which turned out to be number 4. I wasn’t too upset as it would have been my second choice after 5 and any chance of winning the league had long gone for me anyway.
Andy S was on 7 and not happy as he was in the chasing pack behind league leader Frank and needed a section win to stay in contention. Bish was on 5 and elsewhere the other two coveted corner pegs were taken by Leighton (peg 1) who had now done the hat trick and drawn all three and Fieldy opposite on peg 10.
I set up rigs for top four plus two lines at 11.5 metres and a simple side tray contained maggots and worms plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark. On the whistle I fed the short line with a modest amount of loose groundbait and some maggots and then the left hand long line with a wormy mix and the right with gb and maggots.
Starting short, it took a few minutes to get my first bite from a lovely crucian around 6oz and then it was a bite a chuck from skimmers and more crucians, just lovely fishing. Andy opposite got off to a great start with a nice tench first put in on the tip and then had three carp quite quickly to put him in a commanding position in our section. Bish was getting a few and from what I could see most people were catching.
After an hour I had 20 fish for around 5-6lb all on single maggot and I was toss potting in a few maggots every put in and some loose groundbait after every other fish. The second sixty minutes was slightly better with 22 fish although I did lose a carp. The pond normally switches off after two hours and although it slowed, I was still getting indications and got to 47 fish after 2.5 hours.
I’d been keeping the longer lines topped up so fed the shorter swim again and had my first look at 11.5 metres. After a few minutes a positive bite resulted in a nice skimmer and it felt like a decent weight was still on the cards. Trying the worm line I never had a bite although I did pull out of a decent fish on worm over the the groundbait line. I got to 57 fish and then the long line just died a death, another look short was the same and from doing really well I now couldn’t get a bite and it was the same for Bish and Andy whereas the anglers to our right were still getting odd fish.
Les had a couple of eels but also got beaten up by several carp and Terry landed a decent carp and some skimmers on paste. Our ex Club Angler of the Year, Norts, on peg 8, was hooking some nice skimmers but had several come off shipping back which prompted lots of swearing and looking to the heavens for divine inspiration!
I tried slopping up some groundbait, fishing past the feed, starting new lines etc but after a great first 3.5 hours, I never had another bite for the remainder of the match and nor did Bish or Andy. Leighton called time and after packing up we went round to start the weigh in with Fieldy on 10 who had 10lb 2oz of tench, skimmers and crucians, Les weighed 17lb 12oz which included a couple of decent eels and then Norts was one fish short with 17lb 3oz.
Fieldy on peg 10 weighed 10lb 2oz
Snake Charmer Les had 17lb 12oz
Norts weighed 17lb 3oz of skimmers and crucians
Andy had done brilliantly on unfancied peg 7 with 30lb 3oz which would win the mini section, Bish had 7lb 15oz and then my fish went 20lb 5oz. Terry didn’t weigh on 3 and then Nick pipped me with 20lb 6oz before we got to Leighton who had made no mistakes to win the lake easily with nine carp for 66lb 6oz. I picked up £15 for fourth on the lake.
Andy won our mini section with 30lb 3oz which included three carp
Bish had 7lb 15oz on peg 5
I caught really well in the first half of the match to weigh 20lb 5oz
Nick had 20lb 6oz on peg 2 for third place
Leighton weighed 66lb 6oz of carp to win the lake
Coombe Farm
1 – Leighton Cox (Ilminster) – 66lb 8oz
2 – Andy Saunders (Sharp MG) – 30lb 3oz
3 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 20lb 6oz
4 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 20lb 5oz
Dillington had fished relatively hard with Rob Cox winning with 18lb of chub and skimmers from peg 1, Jake was second with 16lb 4oz, Frank had 8lb 12oz for third from peg 7 and Parker ‘The Pole’ took fourth spot with 7lb 8oz. Thanks to Rob Cox for the photos*
Rob won the lake with 18lb of chub and skimmers on peg 1*
Jake was second with 16lb 14oz of skimmers*
Big Frank was third with 8lb 12oz from peg 7*
Parker ‘The Pole’ on peg 9 had 7lb 8oz for fourth*
Hainsey weighed 6lb 4oz on peg 5*
Dave Phillips had 5lb of skimmers on peg 2*
Bagger Burton weighed 4lb 8oz on peg 17*
Neil P had 3lb 14oz on peg 14*
Dillington
1 – Rob Cox (Ilminster) – 18lb
2 – Jake Woodard (Ilminster) – 16lb 14oz
3 – Frank Woodard (Ilminster) – 8lb 12oz
4 – Steve Parker (Ilminster) – 7lb 8oz
With one round to go, Frank is the only angler with four section wins followed by four anglers on five points. Going into the last round, if Frank wins his section he can’t be caught but if he doesn’t there are several anglers waiting in the wings who could tie with him and have a superior weight advantage,
Frank Woodard – 4 pts (dropping 2) – 72lb 2oz
Andy Saunders – 5 pts (dropping 2) – 198lb 2oz
Jake Woodard – 5 pts (dropping 2) – 114lb 2oz
Les Braunton – 5 pts (dropping 2) – 90lb 7oz
Rob Cox – 5 pts (dropping 3) – 119lb 2oz
Chris Haines – 6 pts (dropping 2) – 77lb 2oz
Leighton Cox – 6 pts (dropping 3) – 192lb 12oz
Nick Payne – 7 pts (dropping 2) – 73lb 7oz
Chris Norton – 7 pts (dropping 3) – 111lb 2oz
Jamie Rich – 7 pts (dropping 3) – 92lb 3oz
The Nugget-O-Meter did well again today with £3 from Norts and £2 each from Rob Cox, Nick P and me to take the total to £249.
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 – Revels
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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