I’ve been really enjoying the silvers matches on Sellicks so was looking forward to Saturday and Nick was fishing this week as well. Only seven of us and it would be draw and choose, the golden ball was number 2 and when it was my turn to draw it was still in the bucket. Alas my arm is still malfunctioning and I pulled out number 7, last choice!
My two favourite pegs went early with Dan choosing 16 and Nick (who had the golden ball) opting for 20 which left 18 and 22 (as you have to leave an empty peg). When it was my turn I picked the former and was hoping I wouldn’t regret it as Jim had caught well on 22 last Sunday.
I set up a 0.2 gram rig for two lines at 11.5 metres and another for across to the island at 14.5 metres. On the side tray were lots of maggots plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark groundbait.
On the whistle I fed two lines at 11.5 metres with groundbait and pinged a few maggots across to the island before kicking off on the shorter line. It was a worryingly slow start with the only action supplied by a foulhooked carp. Nobody on our side was setting the world alight, Nick had a decent skimmer and I’d seen Alex on 13 netting a few roach. Just before the first sixty minutes was up, I had a nice skimmer (not hooked in the mouth).
In the second hour it was still hard going, I added another skimmer, Nick had a couple more and Big Bad Bob down on 24 had started catching quite well. I was itching to go across and had my third skimmer quite quickly but it was a false dawn and I could only catch occasional roach and wasn’t even hooking that many carp. Dan T on 16 was struggling as well and only had two skimmers.
Back at 11.5 metres I had a couple more but just couldn’t string a run of fish together and my final tally of 5 skimmers and a dozen roach wouldn’t do any good today. Nick carried on catching the odd skimmer and finished up with 11 plus some roach which would be there or thereabouts although apparently Bill had caught well over on peg 4.
After packing up, I went round to watch the weigh and get some photos, Bill was first and had a great net of skimmers for 17lb 2oz, Tom on peg 6 had 4lb 5oz and then Alex had 9lb 4oz which included two lovely perch.
Bill ‘The Paste’ had the top weight with 17lb 2oz of skimmers
Alex weighed 9lb 4oz which included two lovely perch
Dan chucked back, my fish went 5lb 9oz, Nick had done really well with 11lb 12oz for second but missed out on the bonus ball and last to weigh was Bob who had some big skimmers for 10lb 7oz.
Nick was second with 11lb 12oz of skimmers and roach from peg 20
Big Bad Bob had some nice skimmers for 10lb 7oz
1 – Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) – 17lb 2oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 11lb 12oz
A disappointing day and I was left wishing I’d gone for peg 22 as it has cover across whereas I had bare bank.
Thanks to a very kind donation of £4 from Nick Payne plus £2 from me, the Nugget-O-Meter continues to climb steadily and is now at £407.
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 – Bob’s Match
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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