Another trip to one of my all time favourite venues although I was a little disappointed when I got there and it was on Main and Trendles again. The draw got underway and as I was near the top of the list, I didn’t have long to wait to see where fate was putting me this week, Dean had a rummage in the bucket and pulled out 25 for me, yep, Trendles! To be fair, it’s probably the best silvers peg on the lake and in recent matches its framed twice with weights around 10-11lb although I still felt you’d need to be on Main to win.
Duffers was my neighbour on 27 and the side bet score currently stands at 2-2. My peg looked gorgeous although there were quite a few carp cruising around. 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.
Lovely looking peg
On the whistle, I fed a little groundbait on the longer line and then started short loose feeding maggots straight out and to the left. I had a nice roach first chuck and was getting a bite every put in from roach, little perch and gudgeon plus the inevitable crucians/F1’s/small carp.
After the first half an hour, I had 20 fish on the clicker and Duffers said he was on 19, so nothing in it at this early stage. With sixty minutes gone I was up to 36 and if I could maintain that catch rate, I’d get to over 200 fish which would give 11-12lb (in the last match I had 131 fish for 5lb 13oz). It wouldn’t be as simple as that though, as I was expecting bites to slow up and carp to become more of a problem as the match wore on.
It was neck and neck between Duffers and me but then he netted a bonus 12oz skimmer to go ahead and when he had another not long after, I was already pinning my hopes on a couple of chub putting in an appearance. Although Trendles isn’t my favourite lake (regular readers may have picked up on that!) it’s rammed with fish and fishing maggot you get a bite every put in but trying to avoid little carp is the problem.
Adding a section and fishing past the feed resulted in a couple of fish but with half the match gone I was chasing the fish around and my catch rate was going in the wrong direction. I noticed Duffers was into yet another carp but it struck me he was playing it very carefully and then he netted a cracking 3lb tench to forge even further ahead and I now needed snookers!
Swapping round my lines, I was getting odd fish and did strike into a nice roach around 5-6oz that I didn’t want to risk swinging but as I reached for the net, it came off! To be honest I knew I was well behind my neighbour and going through the motions a bit. Then with 15 minutes to go, I hooked a fish that didn’t feel like a carp so I was playing it carefully (like I had with most of them just in case!) and this time a chub around a pound popped up! I safely netted it and although I thought it was case of too little, too late, it would help make my weight respectable.
Now this is where my wheels came right off, because chub can be twisty little buggers and I’ve always advocated transferring them to the keepnet using the landing net. So why didn’t I do it? As I grabbed the fish and went to drop it in the net, it wriggled and in agonising slow motion went the wrong side of the nets rim and I’d basically just chucked my long awaited bonus straight back in the lake! What a plonker!
Although I had a couple more roach, my head was gone and I finished up with 136 fish. The scales were with me first and my bag of carp all sorts weighed 21lb 2oz and then my silvers went 6lb 7oz which was a bit less than I’d hoped. Darren had 23lb 9oz of carp and then a fantastic net of silvers weighing 13lb 13oz and I’d been right, royally duffed up by Duffers! To be fair even without his tench and skimmers, he still would have given me a battering, so I paid him a well deserved nugget.
I had 136 fish for 6lb 7oz*
Duffers had a brilliant 13lb 13oz of silvers which included a lovely tench*
Terry L on 29 had 40lb 10oz which included two nice tench, Wayne C struggled on 33 for 2lb 8oz, Terry Dell on 36 weighed 29lb 4oz and Adrian Hayes had 32lb 10oz on 38.
Terry L weighed 40lb 10oz on peg 29*
Down on Main, Andy Miller continued his blistering run of form with yet another win, this time with 59lb 8oz of carp from peg 11, Slimline Al was on peg 8 again but had to settle for second this week with 46lb 3oz and Mark Sheppard was third with 42lb 6oz from peg 9. Bob Crispe was second in the silvers with 10lb from peg 2 and Neil Saxby did well with 9lb 3oz for third on peg 21. Photos courtesy of Revels*
Another win for Andy Miller, this time with 59lb 8oz from peg 11*
Slimline Al was second with 46lb 3oz from peg 8*
Mark S was third with 42lb 6oz from peg 9*
Bob C was second in the silvers with 10lb from peg 2*
Neil Saxby on peg 21 was third in the silvers with some nice skimmers for 9lb 3oz*
1 – Andy Miller (Revels) – 59lb 8oz
2 – Alan Winsper (Alan’s Angling) – 46lb 3oz
3 – Mark Sheppard (Revels) – 42lb 6oz
Silvers
1 – Darren Duffield (Ilminster) – 13lb 13oz
2 – Bob Crispe (Revels) – 10lb
3 – Neil Saxby (Revels) – 9lb 3oz
Although a really disappointing day for me, my peg was definitely worth more and I haven’t got it right. I should have fished further across and waded through the carp (and not chucking back chub would have helped!). Today also highlighted why I love it so much and driving home deflated, I can’t wait to go back again and have another go!
What makes Revels so intriguing and addictive for me is that not only are all the lakes and individual swims very different, throw into the mix on match days, things like carp anglers on the best silvers pegs and vice versa means you never know what can happen.
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 – River Parrett
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
#sponsoredpost #affiliatelinks
