On Saturday we headed up the M5 for another of Chris Fox’s opens at Acorn, we had breakfast in the Bridge Inn which was really good and then got to the venue with plenty of time to spare. Chris announced the draw and I went into the bag quite early this week and pulled out number 24 by the new concrete bridge on the far side, happy with that as the bridge pegs are normally good for tench.
It’s probably one of the narrowest pegs at Acorn and there were carp everywhere which was a tad worrying and I had visions of it being carnage today. I set up two Preston Innovations F1 Maggots to fish 10 metres straight out, the same distance but angled to the right down the middle and top two plus two. Nice and simple side tray with two pints of casters, maggots and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark groundbait.
We got underway and I fed the the 10 metre and top four lines with groundbait and maggots before big potting casters down the middle to the right. Immediately the two longer lines erupted with bubbles which did nothing to allay my fears of foulhooking lots of carp. I started at 10 metres with single red maggot on the hook and after a short wait I missed what looked like a proper bite only to foulhook a carp at mid depth but thankfully it wasn’t on long.
The next two indications resulted in a couple of nice tench around a pound apiece and then I was into what felt like a big fish but it came off and I suspect it wasn’t hooked in the mouth. It was looking like being quite a slow first sixty minutes but a three pounder was very welcome and then one of 4lb put me on 9lb after an hour.
A decent leaping skimmer slipped the hook but I was starting to get a few more bites and switching to the caster line, I had a really good second hour with several more big tench taking my tally up to 22lb. I kept expecting sport to slow or carp to spoil the party but neither happened and as hour three came to a close I probably had around 39lb and it felt like a really big weight was on the cards.
Heading into the second half of the match, I was waiting longer for indications on maggot so tried single caster and had three little tench in quick succession but then couldn’t get a bite on either of the longer lines so it was time to have my first look short. I thought I’d get a quick response as I’d been feeding it since the start but it took a fair while to get a bite and a big skimmer came flying out of the water and promptly fell off!
The next four of five bites all resulted in carp so I tried the other lines again but from doing really well, I was now struggling. Shaun on peg 22 to my right was catching some big skimmers along with some nice tench and I didn’t think there was much between us. Carp were now being a proper nuisance for me and I was landing most of them but putting them straight back.
I tried toss potting in just 6-10 casters and I’m not really sure it worked but I did manage a few more small tench, a couple of decent skimmers and a nice roach before the all out. Shaun was admitting to 40lb+ and I thought I had somewhere around 45lb but we’d have a wait to find out as we would be the last two weighed in.
I went to see how Nick on peg 16 had done and he said he’d chucked back 25lb of silvers, while we were chatting, the scales made their way round the lake. As they reached our side I went to have a peek at the board, Chris Telling was leading the silvers with a nice weight of 42lb 3oz from peg 6 and top so far was Mark Williams with a massive 337lb 8oz from 9.
Gareth Boycott on 13 went into second place with 275lb 8oz and then there were several 100lb+ weights before we got to Shaun, his two nets went 43lb 9oz and then it was my turn, my first weigh was 22lb odd and the second net added 25lb something for a 48lb 3oz total and first place in the silvers. Photo courtesy of Gareth Boycott*
Gareth was second with 275lb 8oz of carp from peg 13*
I had some lovely big tench and skimmers for 48lb 3oz
1 – Mark Williams (Acorn) – 337lb 8oz
2 – Gareth Boycott (Acorn) – 275lb 8oz
3 – Martin Thomas (Acorn) – 250lb 1oz
4 – Gary Bowden (Acorn) – 216lb 13oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 40lb 13oz
I had a nice pick up of £80 including the silvers superpool and it had been a lovely days fishing.
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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