After the first leg on the Parrett we were 11 points behind Stoke which put them in a great position and I thought it might be too big a deficit to claw back in the return fixture. The 26 anglers would be split over Dillington and Coombe with the former my home for the day.
We met at the bowling club for breakfast and banter before Rob announced the draw and the two teams of piscatorial gladiators were keen to do battle. I pulled out peg 16 which I don’t think I’ve ever fished before, it wouldn’t have been my first choice but it can throw up some chub and skimmers.
When I got to my peg, it didn’t look great as there were loads of floating lilies after the swim clearing the day before to make sure there were a enough pegs. 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 and just a single pole rig for 14.5 metres where there was a decent depth. On the side tray were red maggots, hemp, casters, worms and corn plus Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark and Pro Nat Bream Dark.
On the whistle I had ten chucks to put some kit on the feeder line and then cupped in two balls of groundbait followed by a full pot of casters, corn and hemp on the 14.5 metre line. Starting on the feeder with three dead reds on the hook, I began getting quite a few knocks and taps which I suspected were from small fish.
With all the floating lilies, I was never sure whether I’d cast on top of one or not, also in peg 16 there’s a stream that comes in on the left and it just pushed all the crap round in a slow moving circle that eventually built up against the line and pulled the tip round. After an hour and a half all I had to show for my efforts was a tiny perch that had hung itself.
I could only see a few anglers on the opposite bank with Nick Veale, Tony C and Fieldy all landing a couple of skimmers or chub. A brief look on the pole was a waste of time thanks to the lilies so I decided to stick it out on the feeder and changed to hair rigged corn instead of maggot.
At 12:20, the tip pulled right round and I carefully played a decent 2.5lb skimmer to the net. With over three hours to go, I felt sure I’d get a few more but that was the only bite I had and by the end I was fed up with scooping out lilies and leaves with my landing net!
I quickly packed up and with Cliffy (Stoke) chucking back on peg 17, I was first to weigh in our section and my skimmer and perch went 2lb 8oz. Mike G (Stoke) on peg 5 had 2lb 7oz, Craig L (Stoke) weighed 8oz (mainly small fish) and then Nick P (Ilminster) on peg 2 had a lovely net of fish for 26lb 4oz including a stunning chub of 5lb 6oz.
Mike G weighed 2lb 7oz on peg 5
Craig L had a mixed bag (mainly small fish) for 8oz on peg 3
Nick P weighed 26lb 4oz which included a lovely chub of 5lb 6oz
Bagger Burton (Ilminster) on peg 1 weighed 2lb 4oz, Dave N (Stoke) had a lovely day on the waggler and pole catching four chub and four skimmers plus roach for 19lb 7oz although he also lost four chub as well. Dave P (Stoke) on 20 had chub and skimmers for 7lb 10oz and last to weigh in our section was Leighton (Ilminster) on peg 18 who had two carp and ten skimmers for 28lb 5oz to win the section and lake.
Dave Nash weighed 19lb 7oz of skimmers, chub and roach
Dave Pope had 7lb 10oz on peg 20
Leighton with the lake with 28lb 5oz of carp and skimmers
Hainsey (Ilminster) on peg 13 won the other section with 12lb 2oz of chub and roach, Fieldy (Ilminster) was second with four chub for 9lb 3oz and Tony C was third with 8lb 1oz from peg 7. Thanks to Jake Woodard for the photos*
Hainsey won the other section with some nice chub for 12lb 2oz*
Fieldy had four chub for 9lb 3oz*
Tony C weighed 8lb 1oz on peg 7*
Nick V on peg 8 had 6lb 11oz*
Jake on peg 11 weighed 4lb 14oz*
Dave Phillips had 3lb which included a nice chub*
Oscar (Rob W) on peg 10 weighed 1lb 9oz*
Back at the results and Les (Ilminster) had the top weight at Coombe with 24lb 9oz which included some lumpy carp, Rob (Ilminster) was second with 10lb 12oz from peg 10 and Derek Goad (Stoke) was third with 4lb 14oz from peg 5.
Section A – Dillington
1 – Leighton Cox (Ilminster) – 28lb 5oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 26lb 4oz
3 – Dave Nash (Stoke) – 19lb 7oz
Section B – Dillington
1 – Chris Haines (Ilminster) – 12lb 2oz
2 – Graham Field (Ilminster) – 9lb 3oz
3 – Tony Coubrough (Ilminster) – 8lb 1oz
Section C – Coombe
1 – Les Braunton (Ilminster) – 24lb 9oz
2 – Rob Cox (Ilminster) – 10lb 12oz
3 – Derek Goad (Stoke) – 4lb 14oz
After the scores were totted up, we’d won on the day with 86 pts to Stoke’s 48 pts which meant we’d retained the shield for another year.
Final scores
Ilminster 129 pts – Stoke 102 pts
Thanks to a fiver from the Grand Wizard at breakfast the Nugget-O-Meter hit £488 which is just fantastic and with a couple of matches to go before I hand the money over to Chris, I’m sure we’ll reach £500 again.
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 – Todber Manor
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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