On Sunday we were at Thorney Lakes for the next Stoke match and quite a few of us met at The Ranch for breakfast. On arrival we were met by the slightly disturbing sight of a domesticated Grand Wiz in an apron although I have to say he did a great job of serving us! We then headed to the venue where the car park was busy with 20 anglers booked in for this one.
I was hoping for a peg on the island and for once my drawing arm behaved itself when I pulled out peg 11. For company I had Dave Pope on my right with Steve Harvey on 9 and Hainsey on 8.
I set up a 0.3 gram F1 Carbon Slim to fish a top kit to hand by the lilies on my right and then a couple of 0.2 gram rigs to fish two lines at 11.5 and 13 metres straight out and angled to the left. On todays side tray were maggots, casters, worms and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
Dave got us underway and I fed a little loose groundbait short and on the left hand longer line and then chopped worm and caster in front at 11.5 metres. I started on the top kit to let the longer lines settle and after a few minutes, the float sailed away and a net roach was a nice way to open my account. Next chuck I had another and then a decent skimmer around 8oz, what a great start although I was sure it wouldn’t last.
The bites kept coming though, mainly from smaller roach but then I hooked something more substantial which turned out to be a 2lb skimmer! The first hour was just lovely with another big skimmer and two cracking hybrids plus some smaller fish and I probably had 10lb already. Every time I looked behind me, Hainsey seemed to be a netting a fish and Steve was getting a few as well.
Going into the second hour I’ve had a big skimmer that was getting on for 3lb plus a few small fish. Bites began to slow so with around an hour to go until the half time break and weigh in, I had a look on the longer lines. First put in I had a skimmer of 8oz or so and had a decent spell swapping between the two 11.5 metre swims adding a few more skimmers and roach although I did pull out of a few.
Dave blew for the mid match interval and Hainsey was first to the scales, he had one carp of 4lb 8oz and then a fantastic net of mainly skimmers that weighed 20lb 11oz, Steve H’s total of 7lb 10oz included a carp and some silvers, my fish went 16lb 2oz and Dave had a couple of carp for 6lb 11oz. The other two anglers in our section were John D on peg 13 who had 5lb 10oz and Dennis H weighed 3lb 4oz on 14.
Hainsey was leading our section at the halfway point with 25lb 3oz which included a brilliant 20lb 11oz of skimmers
I had a great first three hours catching 16lb 2oz of quality silvers
When we’ve had a break in previous matches it’s been hard going in the second half and today was no different. I’ve gone out long and couldn’t get a bite, eventually the floats gone and I was into a 8oz skimmer but it came off at the net! To make matters worse, even though Hainsey wasn’t catching as well as in the first half, he was getting odd fish to forge even further ahead.
I did pull out of what felt like a better fish and also lost my first carp as my match continued to go pear shaped. Dave was starting to get a few carp next door and there now wasn’t much between us. I tried starting new lines at 13 metres but couldn’t get a bite there either. Another look short by the lilies was equally uninspiring with just a few tiny rudd but I stuck with it for a bit as I was at least putting something in the net.
It felt like I was going nowhere fast but then I hooked a better fish which turned out to be a 2lb skimmer so I stayed with it a bit longer. A few minutes later, the float buried and I was into a lump but with only a 0.10mm hooklength and number 8 Slip elastic, I didn’t think it would be on long. Despite there being three lots of lilies in the swim and the fish taking me on several tours of the peg, it was fairly well behaved.
After a very lengthy battle, I netted a big fish and any double figure carp have to weighed and returned straight away, at 10lb 14oz it was a nice bonus but not as large as I thought. After that, I couldn’t get a bite short so spent the remainder of the match swapping between the two longer lines where I had a smaller carp which went in the keepnet. With about quarter of an hour to go I hooked another decent carp and couldn’t do anything with it.
In a case of deja vu, it basically just towed me all over the place and I still had it on when the final whistle went. I couldn’t get it’s head up and I was pretty sure it wasn’t hooked in the mouth, ten minutes into extra time, I finally landed another big fish with the size 18 F1 Pellet embedded in it’s wing. This one was slightly smaller at 9lb 7oz but a nice fish to finish on.
After packing up it was time for the second weigh in, Hainsey had two carp for 10lb 12oz and another 8lb 5oz of silvers to give him a total of 44lb 4oz, Steve added 1lb 11oz of silvers which gave him a total of 9lb 5oz and then my little carp weighed 4lb 10oz plus 2lb 14oz of silvers for an overall total of 43lb 15oz (an agonizing 5oz short!).
Steve had 1lb 11oz of silvers in the second half
Dave had a good second half with several carp for 15lb 2oz (total 21lb 13oz), John D added 19lb 5oz (total 24lb 15oz) and Dennis weighed 3lb 3oz of silvers (total 6lb 7oz).
Dave weighed 21lb 13oz of carp in total
Dennis had 6lb 7oz (including 5lb 1oz of silvers)
Back at the results and Nick Veale had comfortably won his section (and the match) with 86lb 1oz which included several big carp to 15lb 4oz, The Grand Wiz was second in the section (and match) with 45lb 8oz and Parker ‘The Pole’ won the silvers in that section with 10lb 8oz.
Craig Lyttle won the other section with 36lb 9oz despite a pole breakage, Roy Worth was second with 28lb 1oz and Dave Phillips topped the silvers with 3lb 15oz.
Section A
1 – Craig Lyttle (Stoke) – 36lb 9oz
2 – Roy Worth (Stoke) – 28lb 1oz
Silvers – Dave Phillips (Stoke) – 3lb 15oz
Section B
1 – Chris Haines (Haines Angling) – 44lb 4oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 43lb 15oz
Silvers – John Dursley (Enterprise Angling) – 8lb 8oz
Section C
1 – Nick Veale (Haines Angling) – 86lb 1oz
2 – Chris White (Stoke) – 45lb 8oz
Silvers – Steve Parker (Stoke) – 10lb 6oz
I picked up £20 for second in my section but in what seems to be a recurring theme for me at the moment, I seem to be falling just short (5oz short of the section win and 1lb 9oz off second overall).
Thanks to pounds from Craig Lyttle and Dave Phillips the Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £428.
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 – Dorset Stour
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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