A Tuesday off work could only mean one thing, my monthly trip to Revels! A quick stop for breakfast at Greggs in Yeovil was disappointing as their toastie machine was broken and I hoped it wasn’t an omen for the day ahead. As per normal there was a great midweek turnout of 19 anglers with all the usual suspects in attendance.
I was a tad disappointed when I heard Main and Trendles were in today as I seem to keep getting drawn on the latter and although it often frames overall, it’s not been great for silvers. When my name was called, I managed to avoid going up to Trendles but 16 by the island on Main wasn’t really where I wanted to be either. It’s known as a great carp peg but can do 8-10lb of silvers which has been enough to frame recently.
I was in good company too with the other two pegs round the island occupied by Nicky Collins on 14 to my left and Rich Chave over on 12 which I really don’t like. Rob Fletcher was on 20 which is my favourite peg but I can’t get near it this year. In fact looking back at my results, so far in 2024, in the 12 matches I’ve fished at Revels, I’ve been on Trendles four times plus pegs 12 and 14 twice which gives you an idea how much the draw bag hates me!
Peg 16 again
To be fair, when I got there, although it was flat calm, there were loads of small fish topping and I really fancied it. I set up a 0.3 gram F1 Carbon Slim for the top kit to hand plus 0.1 and 0.2 gram Colmic Elsa’s to fish three lines at 10 metres. The side tray contained lots of maggots, disco pinkies and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
On the whistle I fed some loose groundbait and a few pinkies on two lines at 10 metres and just pinged a few maggots on the other before starting on the top kit with single maggot on the hook. A small perch first put in was encouraging but I then missed several bites before catching a chunky rudd although it was short lived and after quarter of an hour I only had those two fish.
Moving out to the longer lines, I began catching roach, perch and the odd little 3-4oz skimbob, it was steady rather than bagging and after an hour I had 22 fish. Rich phoned to compare numbers and he was on 25 so there wasn’t much in it at this early stage. I thought if I could get to 100 fish, I’d be close to the double figures I felt you’d need to win today.
Hours two and three saw my catch rate slow a bit but I was getting the odd slightly better stamp fish including a decent skimmer and my clicker was reading 49 so not too far off my target with 2.5 hours to go. From Rich’s regular updates I knew he was a few fish ahead but I wasn’t a million miles away.
I couldn’t see how Nicky was doing but it sounded like he was catching a few although judging by the odd expletive he was obviously hooking a few carp as well! At this point, I’d only briefly been attached to two but I was seeing more and more dark shapes between the islands and knew it was only a matter of time before I experienced some pain of my own.
Sure enough, not long after I hooked a carp which did me no favours at all in the shallow water and from getting regular indications, I now couldn’t get a bite. I added a section and flicking the rig past the pole tip, I had a couple of fish but also pulled out of a decent roach.
Carp were being a nightmare and my hooklength box was taking a battering, there were still odd small fish topping but from doing okay and enjoying myself I was now really struggling. Another look short was a waste of time, I started a new line at top four for a tiny perch and also tried going to 13 and 14.5 metres and pinging a few maggots but by the close of play, I’d only struggled up to 56 fish. Rich said he’d had seventy odd but quite a few small perch and gudgeon.
After packing up I took some of my kit back to the car and met Duffers who’d been up on Trendles, he had the best silvers weight up there with 4lb 2oz and Terry Dell was leading overall with 48lb 11oz. I wandered over to have a natter with Rich and when the scales arrived he weighed 4lb 8oz which I thought put him in the silvers lead. Nicky had a very similar net of fish for 4lb 6oz and I thought I probably had around the same but was well chuffed when I recorded 5lb 3oz.
Rich weighed 4lb 8oz on peg 12
I had 56 fish for 5lb 3oz
Fletch on 20 was admitting to 5lb of silvers so I knew he’d beaten me but I thought I might frame until somebody said Dave S on peg 7 had weighed 6lb 5oz and Neil S had 6lb on peg 4 so that was that then! As expected Rob had 5lb 13oz which included some nice roach and put him third in the silvers. Photos courtesy of Revels*
Fletch was third in the silvers with 5lb 13oz*
Mark Sheppard had the top weight with 67lb 12oz from peg 8*
Terry Dell was second with 48lb 11oz on peg 33*
1 – Mark Sheppard (Revels) – 67lb 12oz
2 – Terry Dell (Revels) – 48lb 11oz
3 – Darren Duffield (Revels) – 42lb 7oz
Silvers
1 – Dave Stanbridge (Revels) – 6lb 5oz
2 – Neil Saxby (Revels) – 6lb
3 – Rob Fletcher (Revels) – 5lb 13oz
So I wasn’t far away and it’s always close silvers weights at Revels, hopefully I’ll be able to get back down there again soon. Fingers crossed for a change of scenery away from Trendles or that island but I won’t be holding my breath!
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
#sponsoredpost #affiliatelinks
