Although I’ve only fished this match three times, it’s one I really look forward to as not only is it a sizeable match, it’s raises a lot of money for the Dorset Air Ambulance, a fantastic cause. Ilminster and Stoke were well represented as along with Nick P and Parker ‘The Pole’ who have fished it the last couple of years, Dave Pope, Norts and Dave Hilton were all fishing it for the first time.
I think there were 66 anglers fishing and at the draw there was a plethora of top river talent from all over the South West including the likes of Rich Chave, Nicky Collins, Steve Kedge, Gary Etheridge, Lee Woodhouse, Jack Stamp, Craig Fletcher, Gary Cross and Steve Maynard to name a few.
I pulled out peg 37 and asked Rich C what it was like, he said it was a great area with a chance of framing which is what you want to hear! After a short drive across a couple of fields, I found my peg and next door was Parker ‘The Pole’ so the obligatory pound side bet was agreed.
It was a cracking looking swim with lily pads and loads of little fish topping, plumbing up it was really deep close in and at the top of the peg, shallowing up to the left downstream.
I set up a 1.5 gram bodied float for the deep water plus a little light rig for fishing shallow and a gram float for chopped worm on the inside. The usual river fare on the side tray today with maggots, disco pinkies, worms, casters, hemp plus Bait-Tech Pro Natural Dark and Extra mixed 50:50.
On the whistle I cupped in a single ball of groundbait at 6 metres and a further six at 11.5 metres before putting two baitdroppers of worm by the lilies slightly down the peg on the inside. Starting on the longer line, I’ve had a small roach first chuck followed by a perch and then hooked a slightly better roach which fell off at the net.
I was getting a few bites but also kept snagging up where it shallowed up and after a promising start, I was now struggling for just the odd small fish. A look short didn’t provide any inspiration and the chopped worm line was equally disappointing. There were still quite a few fish topping so I tried the shallow rig and had a half decent rudd but it was a false dawn and although I was getting a bite every put in, the fish were tiny.
One of the match organisers, appeared behind me and said my peg can throw up bream and skimmers and they’re often caught short in the deeper water so I started a new line and fed it with chopped worm via the baitdropper. Forty-five minutes passed without any bites and then John ‘Nobby’ Moody arrived and said he was second from my peg last year with a couple of bream caught on worm at 14.5 metres across to the lilies on the far side.
To be honest, I now didn’t know what to do so just sat there going through the motions fishing worm on the short line. Eventually the float slid away but a 4oz perch wasn’t the bonus I needed and I knew I wouldn’t be winning any prizes today.
At the all out, I’d finished up with 60 fish which wouldn’t even average an ounce apiece. The scales soon arrived and it had been hard going on the five pegs to my right, Charlie on 32 didn’t weigh, Buzzer had 4lb 1oz, Steve Maynard weighed 1lb 8oz, John Gatehouse on 35 had 2lb 11oz and Steve P weighed 1lb 6oz. My fish went 3lb 3oz so at least I had a nugget to come and then the peg on my left didn’t weigh.
Back at the pub and as the rest of the Ilminster/Stoke posse began arriving back, it was a very similar story, Dave Hilton and Dave Pope both weighed 2lb 12oz, Nick had 3lb 2oz and Norts was our best performer with 4lb 1oz from peg 24.
As the results were read out, there were some great weights with the top six all recording double figures, Steve Kedge added yet another title to his very long CV with an excellent 15lb 3oz which included three big tench, Mike Withey in second place had four tench for 14lb 8oz from peg 40 in my section and Mike Hunt weighed 12lb 10oz for third. Rich Chave continued his great record in this event with 8lb 13oz for another section win. Photo credit – Richard Chave*
Rich Chave with his section winning 8lb 13oz*
1 – Steve Kedge (Somerset Angling) – 15lb 3oz
2 – Mike Withey – 14lb 8oz
3 – Mike Hunt – 12lb 10oz
4 – Tony Scott – 11lb 14oz
5 – Sean O’Neill – 11lb 5oz
Sections
Pegs 1-6
1 – Neil McPhillimy – 4lb 2oz
Pegs 7-12
1 – Dave Northam – 7lb 6oz
Pegs 13-18
1 – Lee Woodhouse – 6lb 9oz
Pegs 19-24
1 – Craig Fletcher – 6lb 1oz
Pegs 25-30
1 – Martin Barrett – 7lb 13oz
Pegs 31-36
1 – Buzzer – 4lb 1oz
Pegs 37-42
1 – Tony Cinicola – 9lb 2oz
Pegs 43-48
1 – Ian Dunlop – 10lb 2oz
Pegs 49-55
1 – Richard Chave (Colmic) – 8lb 13oz
Pegs 56-61
1 – Mike Marsden – 7lb 2oz
Pegs 62-69
1 – Jack Stamp – 5lb 7oz
To be honest, it was probably a massive opportunity missed on my part as I was on a great peg but my lack of experience on the river and not knowing the pegs has really showed today. A great event as always and I believe over £2200 was raised for the air ambulance which is just fantastic.
The Nugget-O-Meter jumped to £436 thanks to generous donations from Norts (£5), Nick P (£2) and a quid off Steve P.
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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