After my last match of 2024 was a bit of a damp squib, I was hoping to start the New Year with a bang but weatherwise it was looking like more of the same with strong winds and heavy rain!
Only nine of us fishing today and it would be a rover so people could choose lakes/pegs that might afford us some shelter. The golden ball was choice number 1 and when it was my turn, I only went and pulled it out! I went for 33 again as hopefully I’d get lots of bites.
A familiar view!
I only set up a couple of 0.2 gram rigs for top two plus two and the side tray contained lots of maggots, disco pinkies plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark groundbait. On the whistle I fed two lines with a little groundbait and a few pinkies per usual and got off the mark quite quickly with a tiny roach. I was getting regular bites but the lack of any quality was a tad concerning.
The wind was horrendous and by all accounts, not much was being caught so I stuck with it, adding small roach and the very occasional skimmer to the net. After a couple of hours, I was busting for the loo and on the way back I popped over to Sellicks to see how Nick was doing on Sellicks peg 1. He reported that he’d caught a couple of reasonable perch and some decent roach although Dan T on 4 had some skimmers and a big crucian for around 5lb!
The wind actually dropped but the incessant rain showed no signs of abating and when Adie on 35 had a couple of skimmers fishing long, I was wishing I hadn’t put all my eggs in one basket (i.e. fishing top two plus two). With around ninety minutes to go I began pinging some maggots across and then got some more sections out the holdall before plumbing up at 14.5 metres.
First put in I had a 3oz skimbob but then although I was getting a bite a chuck, it was the same tiny roach I was getting short, so a lot of hard work for less reward as it was obviously slower. Hooking a carp didn’t help matters either and I was going to sack it off and spend the remaining time short when out the blue I had a nice crucian around 10oz. I stayed across for the last thirty minutes or so putting small roach and the odd slightly one in the net. On the whistle, I’d clicked 45 fish plus I probably had another 30 tiny roach so quite a busy day but I knew the lack of quality would cost me.
The scales started with Nick who had some nice perch, roach and a couple of skimmers for 6lb 4oz, Dan had some big skimmers and that crucian for 7lb 4oz, Alex up on 14 had fished for silvers and been carped out losing loads, he weighed 32lb 6oz and then Roy had a cracking net of skimmers for 14lb 6oz.
Nick weighed 6lb 4oz on peg 1
Dan T had some big skimmers and a nice crucian for 7lb 4oz and second in the silvers
Alex weighed 32lb 6oz of mainly carp
Roy won the silvers with 14lb 6oz of big skimmers
Rob B had gone on Big 8 and struggled although he lost a couple of big eels, onto Longs and Dave P chucked back on 37, Adie had 24lb 5oz and then my fish went 6lb 8oz so although I was miles away from Roy’s weight, it had been close for second with just a pound separating Dan, me and Nick. Paul Homewood down on 15 was last to weigh and had done well to win with 45lb 14oz of carp on meat.
Paul Homewood had the top weight on the day with 45lb 14oz from peg 15
1 – Paul Homewood (Summerhayes) – 45lb 14oz
2 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 32lb 6oz
Silvers
1 – Roy Hughes (Summerhayes) – 14lb 6oz
2 – Dan Taggert (Summerhayes) – 7lb 4oz
£2 each from Nick P and me took the Nugget-O-Meter to £73.
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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