River Brue Champs – 2nd February 2025

Regular readers will know there are several venues I fish a lot and I love going there as much as possible but I also like to try a few new things and step outside of my comfort zone every year. I’ve done all sorts from Fish ‘O Mania and Club Angler of the Year qualifiers to fishing different venues and also occasionally trying to catch new species like grayling and mullet. More recently it’s been silvers qualifiers and I’m also hoping to have a crack at some of the South West King of Clubs matches this year.

I’ve heard so much about the Brue Champs over the years and it’s one of those iconic matches I’ve really wanted to fish but it always seemed to clash with something else. This time around, I saw it advertised on Facebook and with no matches on the Isle at the moment, I thought I’d give it a go. In it’s heyday I believe it used to attract turnouts upwards of 200 and although those days are long gone, it’s still a decent size river match.

I’ve only ever fished the Brue once many moons ago, back when I used to fish with Barney Crockett and Adrian Green and if my hazy memory serves me right, it snowed and I only caught a single roach! I also seem to recall, I’d chucked the tip out with bread on the hook and was at the top of the bank answering the call of nature when I looked back to see the tip wang round but the fish had long gone by the time I reached the rod!

I was really looking forward to it apart from the tales of long walks and obstacle courses! Also not knowing the stretches or what the hot pegs were might be a hindrance but Rob Birch, who fishes the Brue a lot, very kindly said he’d put us right.

The morning of our latest adventure soon arrived and I met Nick P and Parker ‘The Pole’ before heading to Glastonbury, we made good time and found the pub where the draw was taking place.

We were the first ones there and as people began arriving, there were lots of faces I recognised from all over the South West including regular journeyman Steve Maynard who’d made the long trip up from Cornwall. After breakfast and paying our pools, it was time to draw, Steve P opted for a short walk at Barton Road and then Nick pulled out a peg in the 30’s (Cowbridge) and I was on peg 4 at Lydford.

Chatting to Rob he said I was in a decent area but the upstream end peg (number 1) was the fancied swim. I didn’t have a clue where I was going but Rob found somebody for me to follow, cheers mate. When I got to the river, it looked nice with pace and colour although talking to the anglers on either side, they said as well as the end pegs we were just off the noted swims ‘The Laurels’ (number 7) and the one above.

My swim had a couple of trees on the far bank with some overhanging cover which looked really chubby and hopefully held a few fish. I set up a 1.5 gram pole rig to fish across to the cover and a stick float for down the middle. Just maggots, casters and Bait-Tech Aniseed Hemp on the side tray.

On the whistle I started on the stick float down the middle with double maggot on the hook but after half an hour and no indications, I was soon across on the pole. A further fifteen minutes passed and I hadn’t seen a fish caught yet and honestly thought I was going to blank.

A little dig on the float peaked my interest and although it didn’t really develop, I struck anyway and a decent amount of elastic came out. I shipped back carefully and netted a chublet around 12oz, there were no casters in it’s throat which I took as a good sign and thought I might get a few more.

It didn’t happen though and the next hour or so was uneventful, then the guy above me struck into a fish on the stick which turned out to be a trout and then Phil below me hooked two in quick succession. They obviously don’t count but perhaps a few fish were beginning to feed now.

A few people were walking and apparently as predicted, peg 1 was catching a few fish but it sounded like the rest of the section was really struggling. I had another go on the stick and had two trout so that was enough of that and would spend the remaining time on the pole hoping for some chub.

As time ticked by, it was looking less and less likely but I stuck at it as over the years, I’ve caught a lot of chub late on in matches. With around half and hour to go, I glanced away from the float and when I looked back, it was nowhere to be seen! I struck into a fish but trout number three wasn’t the result I was hoping for. Just before the end, I had a decent bite and swung in a little 1oz chublet.

Peg 1weighed an excellent 9lb which wouldn’t be far away today as by accounts, the river had fished hard, Paul Purchase on 2 had 1lb 3oz, the angler above me only had one trout, my two fish went a massive 13oz and Phil had three or four tiny fish but didn’t weigh.

Gary Cross on 6 had 2lb 7oz, the guy below him weighed exactly the same and the end peg above the bridge had 7lb+. I didn’t go back for the results but Simon Garbutt (Colmic) added the Brue Champs to his already impressive CV with a match winning 9lb 14oz – well done mate.

Nick P very kindly gave me £2 and along with my two squid the Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £118.

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