For my first match back, it was a trip up the M5 to the brilliant Acorn Fishery for another of Chris Fox’s opens. Nick and me drew 25 and 24 either side of the concrete bridge which can be good for silvers.
I set up two Preston Innovations F1 Maggots to fish 11.5 metres straight out, to the right down the middle and top two plus two. A nice and simple side tray with casters, maggots and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark groundbait.
On the whistle, I fed the line down the middle with a big pot of casters and then the other two swims with groundbait and maggots. I started at 11.5 metres straight out and had a little 10oz tench quite quickly which was hopefully a good sign. Nick caught a couple of decent skimmers and then I had a second tench, this one around a pound and a quarter.
I wasn’t getting loads of bites but my next fish was a decent skimmer, followed by a 3lb tench from the caster line. Nick was getting odd fish as was Mark Broomsgrove on my right. A lovely 4lb tench from the 11.5 metre groundbait swim put me on around 12lb at the halfway point which was okay as around 25lb has been winning the silvers in recent matches.
I did pull out of two tench and came back with slime all over the line and then hooked a decent skimmer but as I shipped back it snagged me and came off leaving me attached to a rig complete with a plummet on the end! It was too close to call between Mark, Nick and me although apparently, Martin Rayet over on 38 was admitting to 20lb+ of skimmers.
With around two and a half hours to go, I had my first look on the top kit plus two line but despite there being lots of fizzing, it took ages to get a bite although another 4lb tench was worth the wait. Next chuck I hooked a fish that tore off and had me thinking it was a carp but actually turned out to be a lovely 2lb perch.
With two hours left, I thought I’d get a few more fish but only added one more skimmer and began hooking quite a few carp while Nick landed two more tench which I was sure put him ahead of me. At the all out, I only had nine fish (five tench, three skimmers and a perch) plus a few small roach I hadn’t clicked and some carp.
As the scales on our side made their way up the bank, the ever consistent Gareth Boycott was leading overall with 162lb 2oz from peg 15, Paul Faiers had 12lb 12oz of silvers and then Mark B had 17lb 14oz. My carp weighed 28lb 10oz and then my silvers went 19lb 9oz which I knew wouldn’t do any good today and then Nick had 23lb 8oz.
Back at the results and Gareth had to settle for second as Neil M just pipped him with 163lb 11oz from peg 10. Martin weighed an excellent 36lb 14oz to win the silvers with Dave Manning just behind on peg 40 with 35lb 11oz. As neither went in the silvers superpool, Nick picked up £15 by double default.
No catch shots this week so here’s a picture of the Acorn goats!
1 – Neil Morgan (Acorn) – 163lb 11oz
2 – Gareth Boycott (Acorn) – 162lb 2oz
3 – Bob Gullick (Acorn) – 155lb 2oz
Sections
A – Simon Stacey (Acorn) – 146lb 12oz
B – Chris Fox (Acorn) – 77lb 9oz
C – Matt Hamilton (Milo) – 121lb 4oz
Silvers
1 – Martin Rayet (Acorn) – 36lb 14oz
Thanks to £2 each from Nick and me, the Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £441.
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 – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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