On Sunday we were back at Parrett Works and after a lovely breakfast at The Ranch (thanks Kirsty), it was soon time for the draw. Once again, I managed to avoid the pegs on my wish list when I pulled out number 2 which was in for the first time this season.
I set up a couple of rigs, a 1 gram bodied float to fish down the middle and a 0.5 gram DH16 for fishing across to the far bank cover. Today’s side tray contained maggots, casters, worms and Bait-Tech Super Seed Aniseed hemp.
The swim looked nice but plumbing up there were loads of underwater roots across and the depth was all over the place down the middle. Dave P was on peg 1 and got us started with a toot on his whistle. I cupped in some hemp and casters at 8.5 metres in the deep water and went straight over it with single red maggot on the hook. It took a few minutes to get my first bite and I was expecting a minnow but was surprised when a bullhead was the result!
My next fish was a little roach but then I started catching minnows so put double maggot on and had another roach and a gudgeon. It didn’t take long before minnows became a nuisance again, caster was next for a gudgeon plus more minnows and then double caster which finally seemed to deter the little blighters. I had a nice 4oz dace down the peg and then tried above the feed, the float buried and I was into a decent fish, it didn’t tear off and was plodding about until a lovely roach around 10-12oz was safely netted.
Next put in I had one of 6oz and was getting quite a few bites landing three more roach and a dace. With an hour and a half gone, I was well pleased with around 2lb in the net, there was regular splashing coming from Dave’s swim so he was obviously getting a few as well. I did hook one fish which I initially thought was an eel but I actually think it was decent foulhooked roach or dace but it came off anyway.
Adding a section and going further across I did have an 8oz eel but also snagged up a few times. A couple of bank walkers reported that it was fishing hard and apart from Dave and me, most people were only catching minnows and gudgeon. As the match reached the halfway point, I was only getting the odd minnow so I decided to introduce some chopped worm and fish for eels for the remaining two and a half hours.
I buried the hook in a caster and held the float back in the flow while I chopped up some worms, casters and maggots. While I was doing that, the float sunk from view and I had another 8oz eel which hopefully meant there were a few about. After feeding three lots of worm via a bait dropper, I put half a worm on and was expecting to wait a little while for a bite but only five minutes passed before the float slid away and on the strike, I knew straight away it was another eel.
I fed some more more worm and it didn’t take long before I was into my fourth eel and starting to put a decent weight together although I was sure bites would slow up. Over the next hour, I had four more eels and was putting in a small bait dropper of chopped worms after each one. Going into the final sixty minutes, it did slow up and when I went a further half an hour without anymore indications I decided to feed it again.
Another fifteen minutes ticked by and I was beginning to think that was my lot when the float went under, I counted to three before striking and I was into another but as I shipped back, it came off!! I couldn’t believe it and sat there chuntering away, gutted and sure that was going to cost me, I was praying for one more chance and then with only five minutes remaining, my prayers were answered as the float tip sunk from view.
Loads of elastic came out on the strike and I really wanted to make this one count but the same thing happened again and I didn’t get another chance. Thinking about it afterwards I did wonder if perhaps I’d overdone it with the feed and they had so much worm crammed in their gobs, they weren’t taking the bait properly. I finished up with 8 eels, 7 roach, 2 dace, 3 gudgeon, a bullhead plus minnows and I’d really enjoyed that as I was expecting it to be a struggle.
I’d tied up some size 18 Feeder Specials to 0.12mm Colmic Teck Stream during the week in case I had to fish for eels and I have to say after hearing lots of good things about the line, I certainly wasn’t disappointed, it ties up lovely and didn’t let me down.
Colmic Teck Stream line, awesome stuff
After packing up, I went down to watch the weigh in and get some photos, Nick P on 16 had 1lb 12oz, the Grand Wiz weighed 1lb 8oz, Danny B on peg 11 had 2lb which included two eels and then Mike G on peg 8 went into the lead with a chub, an eel plus small fish for 2lb 15oz.
Danny B on peg 11 had 2lb which included two eels
Mike G had a chub, an eel plus some small fish for 2lb 15oz on peg 8
Derek G had 1lb 9oz of small fish on 5 and then my fish went 5lb 12oz, Dave P was last to weigh in our section and had 3lb 3oz of roach, dace and chublets.
Derek on peg 5 had 1lb 9oz of small fish
I had really nice day catching eels, roach, dace, gudgeon, minnows and a bullhead for 5lb 12oz
Dave Pope on peg 1 was second in the section with 3lb 3oz of roach, dace and chublets
Back at the results and Hainsey came back with yet another great result, this time from 28 with some quality roach plus lots of minnows and gudgeon for 4lb 9oz, Cliffy was second with 2lb 4oz from peg 29, Bob Newbury had 2lb for third from 20 and Dave Hilton was fourth with 1lb 10oz on peg 25.
Section A
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 5lb 12oz
2 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 3lb 3oz
3 – Mike Goad (Stoke) – 2lb 15oz
4 – Danny Blunn (Stoke) – 2lb
Section B
1 – Chris Haines (Haines Angling) – 4lb 9oz
2 – Cliff Gaylard (Stoke) – 2lb 4oz
3 – Bob Newbury (Stoke) – 2lb
4 – Dave Hilton (Stoke) – 1lb 10oz
So a really enjoyable day for me, I picked up £35 for winning the section and was well chuffed to get my name on the Axminster Cup for the first time. The number of eels caught today was a real eye opener and while in previous matches, I’ve gone for them as a bit of a last resort, they’ve got me out of jail three times and I do wonder if perhaps they might be a viable target to fish for. I know Nick Chedzoy has done well catching eels on a couple of occasions and I remember Russ Hilton doing a really good weight of them on peg 10 before.
Thanks to lots of kind donations from Chris White (£5), Hainsey (£3), Rob Cox (£2), Norts (£1), Nick P (£1) and me (£1), the Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £343.
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 – Acorn
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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