Now in its sixth year, Bob’s match is one I’d love to win but so far, second is the closest I’ve come. It’s rod only in honour of Bob and I really enjoy fishing the feeder as it’s something I don’t do much of. Due to the date clashing with several other matches, we only had ten booked in and then this dropped to a disappointing eight after a couple more pulled out as we approached the weekend.
Most of us met at the bowling club for an excellent breakfast and then it was time for the draw, I got Parker ‘The Pole’ to pull out a peg for me, I was hoping for 1, 2 or 7 but got number 9 which I was fairly happy with but didn’t think I’d be getting my name on the trophy this year.
I set up my 11ft N-Gauge rod with a little plastic cage feeder, twizzled boom and a size 14 Guru Pole Special to 0.14mm Colmic Teck Stream. On the side tray I had red maggots (dead and alive), casters, worms, corn plus Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark and Pro Nat Bream Dark.
The start time arrived and I had five chucks on a line straight out and then fed another angled to the left more positively. I had an indication first cast on the negative line and then the tip flew round but on the strike rather than the solid resistance of a decent skimmer, I was into a much more energetic smaller fish which I just knew would be one of those little pasties. Several more followed but with a combined weight of around a pound I was already a long way behind Leighton over on peg 18 who had a similar number of fish but his were skimmers averaging 2lb apiece!
Switching to the other line, another little carp was disappointing, next chuck the rod nearly got pulled off the rest and I feared the worst but this time it was the intended species, a nice 2.5lb skimmer. I was hopeful they might have moved in but over the next couple of hours it was quite hard going with just two small 3-4oz skimbobs, a nice roach and a couple more little carp added to the net.
Apart from Leighton who was bagging, the only other anglers I could see were Ashley on 14 who had one decent skimmer and Ian Burton on 17 who was catching lots of small fish on the waggler. Jake came for a walk and said while he was watching Leighton, he’d seen Nick over on peg 2 land several good skimmers so he was also doing well.
I tried worm and had a few indications which I think were small fish so I put on a shorter hooklength with hair-rigged corn but that didn’t really work either. In a bid to make something happen, I made a little sloppier mix of groundbait and switched to a window feeder. I intended to give it three quick chucks before going back to a cage if there was no response.
The first two casts were pretty uninspiring and I was on the verge of reeling in and swapping back to a cage feeder and longer hooklength when the tip pulled round before dropping back and then started going again. I safely netted a 2lb skimmer so had to have another chuck and it wasn’t out long before the rod was nearly ripped off the rest. As I picked up I knew it was a carp and thought it was going to snap me at the line clip, thankfully it stopped and I managed to gain some ground and it was fairly well behaved before I landed a 3lb mirror.
I was hoping for a nice run of fish but no more bites and I spent too long on it really before going back to a cage feeder for the last hour. Leighton was still catching skimmers steadily and putting together a decent weight. During the last sixty minutes I did have a skimmer of a pound plus a much smaller 3oz sampler and another little pastie.
After packing up, I took some of my kit back to the car before Leighton and me started the weigh with Dave P on peg 1, he had a carp and big skimmer for 7lb 1oz, Nick next door had a lovely day catching 14 skimmers and few little carp for 23lb 1oz, Big Frank on 5 didn’t weigh but had lost several decent carp on 8lb line and Steve P had been carped out as well.
Dave had a big skimmer and a carp for 7lb 1oz
Nick had a lovely net of skimmers for 23lb 1oz
My fish went 11lb 4oz which Ashley said would be enough for third but as he’d had five decent skimmers, I was sure he’d beaten me and so it proved when his fish weighed 12lb 7oz. Bagger Burton on 17 had 10lb of roach and perch but had lost a bream which was costly. Leighton was last to weigh and his 17 skimmers and a few little carp went 35lb 9oz, a brilliant weight and the best so far for this match, well done mate.
My fish went 11lb 4oz
Ashley had five decent skimmers and some bits for 12lb 7oz
Bagger Burton had 10lb of roach and perch on the waggler
Leighton had the top weight on the day with a brilliant 35lb 9oz
Bob’s daughter, Eve came to present Leighton with the trophy and it’s always lovely to see her and the family (especially as she brought homemade cake which went down very well with everyone!). There was another nice surprise as well, Hurf came to watch the weigh in and presented Eve with a lovely wooden plaque for ‘Bob’s Swim 17’.
1 – Leighton Cox (Ilminster) – 35lb 9oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 23lb 1oz
3 – Ashley Tomkins (Tackleuk) – 12lb 7oz
Two more generous donations from Chris White (£5) and Norts (£2) who joined us for breakfast took the Nugget-O-Meter total to £414.
I also had a lovely e-mail from Eve which she asked me to pass on to everyone who fished and supported the match,
‘Hi Jamie,
I just wanted to say thank you for organising the 6th fishing match; it really does mean so much to me. And I would be really grateful if you could forward this email to all the other chaps too. Honestly, you couldn’t want to meet a more lovely, generous and genuine bunch of blokes. I know that Dad will be somewhere, watching on and in total astonishment that a) a fishing match had been set up in his memory and b) that 6 years on and it is still taking place! And to be presented with that oak plaque was just the icing on the cake.
Many thanks and kindest regards,
Eve x’
The anglers raised £40 on the day which Bob’s family requested be donated to Burnworthy House care home so thank you everyone (as soon as I’ve been in touch and made the donation, I’ll update this post).
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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