On Sunday it was the Pete Lonton Memorial Match at Dillington, most of us met at the bowling club for breakfast before heading out the pond. There was a rolling draw and when I arrived, only two balls were left in the bucket and they were both good ones, 7 and 2 which is probably the best peg on the pond and I only went and pulled it out!
With it still being mild and quite a few fish moving about, most people were expecting it to fish well and I thought you’d need 20lb+ to win today. A couple of rigs were set up to fish 11.5 metres straight out and 10 metres by the bush on the right. I had loads of bait on the side tray with casters, maggots, hemp and corn plus Bait-Tech Pro Nat Dark and Special G F1 Dark.
Fieldy was next door on peg 1
On the whistle I fed two balls of groundbait containing plenty of particles on both lines before starting at 11.5 metres with double maggot on the hook. First put in the float buried and I had a chunky 3oz roach, next chuck a small fish dropped off followed by a little perch so I put double caster on to try and avoid them.
After a few minutes, a lovely slow bite saw me strike into solid resistance and I thought ‘Here we go, lift off!’, it felt like a good fish but as I began to ship back, the hook pulled out. Not the dream start I’d hoped for while Fieldy next door had four skimmers in twenty minutes!
I did have a nice skimmer on corn and then a rather scrawny chub that looked like it should weigh 3lb but was nearer half that. From what I could see, the pond was fishing quite hard, Leighton on 21 had a couple of skimmers on the feeder but Jake by the pumphouse hadn’t had much and Andy W on 18 was still waiting for his first fish!
Fieldy landed two more to put him on six decent fish, I added my second skimmer before catching my first fish by the bush, a nice chub, and things were beginning to get interesting with nearly three hours of the match left.
Leighton was now getting regular bites from skimmers while Fieldy had a carp and it was very close between them while I couldn’t add to my four decent fish although I did miss a few bites on corn. With about an hour to go, I felt I had to do something so fed three balls of groundbait on the 11.5 metre line and big potted maggots by the bush in a bid to make things happen.
It didn’t work and while I never had another fish, Bagger Burton over on 20 had two carp on the feeder. At the all out, it was going to be close between Leighton on eight skimmers and Fieldy who had seven decent fish plus a few bits.
After packing up we walked round to do the weigh in, Andy hadn’t caught on 18, Tony C had five nice skimmers for 9lb 8oz on 17 and then Dave ‘Cannonball’ Phillips on his favourite peg 14 weighed 6lb 8oz.
Tony C on peg 17 had 9lb 8oz
Dave had three skimmers for 6lb 8oz
Parker ‘The Pole’ had two decent chub on 13 plus some roach for 7lb 7oz but had lost a few as well, Fred had gone and then Nick P had three skimmers for 6lb 2oz on peg 9. Big Frank and Rob C didn’t weigh and then my fish went 9lb 5oz.
Parker ‘The Pole’ won his section with 7lb 7oz
I had two skimmers, two chub and a few bits for 9lb 5oz
Fieldy was next and went into the lead with 14lb 12oz, Jake chucked back on 23 and then Leighton did well again with 12lb 3oz. Last but not least was Bagger Burton who had two carp and few small fish for 8lb 14oz.
Fiedly had 14lb 12oz of carp, chub and skimmers
Leighton had eight skimmers on the feeder for 12lb 3oz
Bagger Burton had two carp and a few bits for 8lb 14oz
1 – Graham Field (Taunton) – 14lb 12oz
2 – Leighton Cox (Ilminster) – 12lb 3oz
Sections
A – Tony Coubrough (Ilminster) – 9lb 8oz
B – Steve Parker (Ilminster) – 7lb 7oz
Back at the results, Graham was presented with the trophy by Pete’s son Steve, Leighton was second and Tony and Steve P won their sections. The anglers raised a tidy sum for the British Heart Foundation in memory of Pete.
Steve Lonton presenting Graham with the Pete Lonton Memorial Shield. Photo credit – Graham Field
I missed out on the section by 3oz but to be honest I’d messed up the best peg on the pond, I lost that big fish early and missed quite a few bites but I’d gone for it a bit, thinking 20-30lb would be needed to win when the pond has actually fished quite hard.
Thanks to very generous donations from Rob Cox (£7), Nick P (£2) and me (£2) the Nugget-O-Meter had a great weekend to reach £475.
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 – Revels
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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