I was supposed to have been at Acorn on Saturday but another named storm hit the South West resulting in a red warning issued and the majority of matches were called off. It was the sensible day thing to do but I must admit I’ve never been so bored as it’s the first Saturday in a long time I haven’t been fishing. I didn’t leave the house all day and just basically watched as most of my fence panels got blown down, I also didn’t have any food in and all I had to eat was some slightly stale cornflakes and dry toast!
My weekend didn’t improve when I overslept and had to rush around loading the car etc, I didn’t even have time to do a flask. I was a bit late meeting the others for a disappointing Greggs breakfast as my Sunday continued to go downhill fast! Then it was off to the village hall in Ash where the draw was being held.
There were 31 anglers fishing today spread over the river and lakes 2 and 3 at Ash, I’d gone for lake 2 again as it holds some quality silvers. The river contingent drew their pegs and headed off followed by lake 3 and then it was our turn. I grabbed a ticket and when I opened it, peg 6 on the bottom bank was my home for the day.
When we got there, it was a lot windier than I was expecting and with Ash being quite exposed and flat it was looking like we were in for an uncomfortable day. For company I had Hainsey on 5 while Nick P was the other side of me. I had hoped we might have the wind off our backs but it was hitting us at angle and with the long pole pretty much a non starter, it would be another day of fishing top kit plus two for me. Part Time Priv lived up to his name when he took one look at the conditions and went home again!
It was windy!
On the whistle I fed some groundbait and maggots and went straight over it with double red maggot on the hook. Nick had a roach quite quickly which hopefully meant we’d be in for a good day and followed it not long after with a carp. Despite really struggling to hold just four sections of pole, I began catching the odd carp and most people seemed to be getting a few.
Every now and again, Nick was able to briefly go longer and would be rewarded with a decent skimmer but then disaster struck when the wind blew his pole roller over a snapped his number four section. He managed to telescope it through but the same thing happened again not long after and then he did the hat-trick when he snapped his number 7 to make it an expensive day.
I was hoping the wind might actually calm down a bit, but if anything it got worse and the conditions were just horrible. Foulhooking carp became an issue and despite trying to keep the rig still by laying more line on the bottom, nothing really helped. I didn’t have any skimmers but did have three roach with one lovely fish of over a pound and I’m sure if we could have fished long sensibly, there would have been some really nice nets of silvers.
Towards the end, it got very cold, I started to get the shakes and I think everybody was relieved to hear the all out. I finished up with 16 or 17 carp plus those roach. Fair play to Part Time Priv who came back to do the weigh in on lake 3. After packing up I went to give Norts a hand and get some photos. Dennis on peg 1 had a nice net of skimmers on the waggler for 10lb 7oz plus some carp, Parker ‘The Pole’ had his first ever ton plus bag with 100lb 5oz, Norts weighed 78lb 7oz and then Terry ‘The Toast’ had 117lb 11oz which would win the lake.
Hainsey weighed 47lb 1oz, then my carp went 74lb 11oz and my three roach added 1lb 14oz, Nick had 65lb 14oz (including 9lb 1oz of silvers), Les weighed 34lb 8oz and Rob Cox had 39lb 15oz.
Dennis had 10lb 7oz of silvers on the waggler
Parker ‘The Pole’ had his first 100lb+ weight
Norts was third on our lake with 78lb 7oz
Terry ‘The Toast’ had the top weight on the day with 117lb 11oz of carp
I had 76lb 9oz of mainly carp
Nick P weighed 65lb 14oz (including 9lb 1oz of silvers)
Then it was back to the Bell Inn, Ash for the results and a lovely buffet before the prize giving. Nick Chedzoy had the top weight on lake 3 with 114lb while Neil Purchase needed just a single chub of 1lb 3oz to win the river section. As always Cliffy did an awesome job with the prizes and selling raffle tickets, I was lucky enough to win twice and added even more chocolates to my pile of goodies. The Grand Wiz and Dave White cleaned up and could barely be seen behind their impressive mounds of festive delights!
Pond 2
1 – Terry Morgan (Stoke) – 117lb 11oz
2 – Steve Parker (Stoke) – 100lb 5oz
3 – Chris Norton (Stoke) – 78lb 7oz
Silvers – Dennis Hawkins (Stoke) – 10lb 7oz
Pond 3
1 – Nick Chedzoy (Stoke) – 114lb
2 – Craig Lyttle (Stoke) – 102lb 3oz
3 – Rob Wylde (Stoke) – 91lb 14oz
Silvers – Dave White (Stoke) – 1lb 3oz
River
1 – Neil Purchase (Stoke) – 1lb 3oz
2 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 4oz
2 – Derek Goad (Stoke) – 4oz
Lots of very generous donations to the Nugget-O-Meter today and thanks to Nick P (£5), Craig Lyttle (£5), Rob Cox (£2), me (£2) and Chris Haines (£1), the total shot up to £17 and is off to a great start already.
It was another fantastic Xmas match and events like this don’t just happen without an awful lot of hard work behind the scenes so a massive thanks to Chris Norton, Chris White and Cliffy for organizing, getting prizes etc, the people that did the weighing in, The Bell Inn, Ash Village Hall and of course all the anglers themselves who make it such an enjoyable match to fish. If I’ve forgotten anyone please forgive me and thank you too!
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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