There had been some brilliant silvers weights on Woodlanders, Canal and Main last week so I booked a day off work, met PTP for breakfast and then headed to Revels. We arrived early and as the usual reprobates, miscreants and rogues arrived, the banter was in full flow as always. Draw time arrived and I was disappointed to hear the 20 anglers would be spread over Main and my nemesis lake, Trendles. The first three pegs out the bucket were 6 (great silvers peg on Main), Parker ‘The Pole’ got 7 (great silvers peg on Main), Duffers was on 20 (the best silvers peg on Main) and then it was my turn……… peg 33 on Trendles (gutted).
I’d actually been on the same peg a few matches back and did a magnificent 15oz of silvers but I did fish for carp for most of that match. To be fair, the last time Trendles was in there were some decent weights around 10-11lb (which included some bonus chub and tench) and that’s normally enough to frame if it’s up against Main. It didn’t stop me being on a downer and having a bit of a moan though!
I decided I was just going to fish short with single maggot and see what weight of silvers I could do. I set up a 0.3 gram F1 Carbon Slim for top kit to hand plus a 0.2 gram Bobbie to fish a line at 8.5 metres in the open water to my left. The side tray contained lots of maggots, disco pinkies and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
We got underway and I potted in half a cup of groundbait on the longer line before starting on the top kit and feeding a few maggots. First put in, the float sunk from view and I swung in a chunky 2oz roach, next chuck I had another and I began to think this could be better than I’d first anticipated! A third roach followed but before I could get too excited, the next indication resulted in a fair bit of yellow hydro coming out and a fish going round in circles before a 6oz crucian popped up.
It was a bite a chuck although I was catching quite a few tiny gudgeon and perch along with lots of crucian/F1’s in a wide range of sizes between 1-8oz. After half an hour I had 24 silvers but the problem was I didn’t have a pound yet! Although I felt if I could keep this up, 7-8lb was feasible and if a bonus or two showed up, double figures was still possible.
I was still getting a fish a bung but the trouble was a lot of them weren’t going in the silvers net! I could catch the odd nice rudd or roach on the drop and even had a few fish on caster but the ratio of carp/crucians/F1’s to silvers was going in the wrong direction. For three hours I literally had an indication every single put in but it started to slow so I had my first look on the 8.5 metre line. A roach first chuck was encouraging but then I hooked three carp on the trot, I stayed on it a bit longer but a small perch and then a crucian didn’t help my cause much.
Back short I had a couple more roach before the non-counters moved in again, I fished past the feed and also added a section to fish top kit plus one and had my first ever Trendles skimbob, albeit a small one of 2oz. I was also landing quite a few carp and had a couple around 4lb. Just before the end I finally got my tench but at an ounce, it wasn’t the bonus I’d hoped for!
At the all out, I had 131 fish on the clicker (roach, rudd, perch, a skimmer and a tench) but wasn’t sure I had 5lb!, I also must have had at least 60 carp of varying sizes and types in the other net. Duffers came up after the final whistle and said it had been a bit of a struggle on Main and he definitely didn’t have 10lb! The scales arrived and started on the other side, Steve Crowford had 29lb 12oz on 29, Roy ‘The Bomb’ weighed 41lb 9oz and Neil Saxby on 25 had 39lb 2oz which included an excellent 10lb 9oz of quality silvers on worm.
Roy weighed 41lb 9oz of carp on peg 27*
Neil had several chub, three big perch and a nice tench for 10lb 9oz on peg 25*
I was next and the carp net went 38lb 7oz before my silvers added 5lb 13oz for a 44lb 4oz total, Hugh on 36 weighed 27lb 7oz and then the ever consistent Andy Miller had the top weight on the lake with 49lb 1oz. Thank to Revels for the photos*
A rare photo of me with a bag of carp (I reckon it’s photoshopped!) *
Serial winner, Andy Miller, did it again, this time with 49lb 1oz*
By the time I’d packed up and took my kit back to the car, they’d finished weighing in the anglers on Main and it had fished relatively hard with Adrian Hayes having the top weight with 32lb 12oz and Duffers was right, he definitely didn’t have 10lb, he had 15lb 6oz!!!!! He ought to be a politician as you can’t believe anything they say either!
Duffers won the silvers with not quite 10lb (sorry I meant 15lb 6oz!)*
John Bass was third in the silvers with 7lb 11oz from peg 12*
Mike had 2lb 8oz of silvers on peg 8*
1 – Andy Miller (Revels) – 49lb 1oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 44lb 4oz
3 – Roy Worth (Yeovil) – 41lb 9oz
Silvers
1 – Darren Duffield (Ilminster) – 15lb 6oz
2 – Neil Saxby (Revels) – 10lb 9oz
3 – John Bass (Revels) – 7lb 11oz
So I picked up £30 for second overall thanks to my accidentals although to be honest, if I’d taken my time with a couple of the carp I lost, I possibly could have won it.
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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