After a tough day last Saturday, I was back for another go and although I only had five roach for 8oz that match (mainly small fish!), with just 2lb 3oz winning, you’re only ever one bite away from winning. As quite a few of the fish were caught on the feeder, I made sure I had my 11ft Guru N-Gauge Feeder Rod with me this week.
Breakfast was excellent as always and then it was time for the all important draw, I was hoping for a peg in the middle of the lake and was well happy with 67. The near end hasn’t been great in recent matches so only two pegs in there today with Lee Jan on 63 and Paul B on 65. Adrian Dew was my right hand neighbour on 68.
I set up a Preston Innovations F1 Maggot for 13 metres plus a 0.2 gram rig to fish through the water and a little two hole cage feeder for across to the far bank. On the side tray I had the usual disco pinkies, lots of maggots and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
Although it was slightly warmer than last week we were in for a wet morning with rain forecast until lunchtime. I thought it might fish a bit better than last week with probably 10lb to win and 6-8lb to frame. We got underway and I had two chucks across to put a little feed in and then the right hand pole line received a walnut of groundbait with a few pinkies while I just loose fed some maggots on the left hand swim.
I started on the feeder with double disco pinkie on the hook and was expecting it to be a case of waiting for the odd bite. A rattle on the tip quite quickly was encouraging but several people from peg 69 upwards had already caught on the pole and feeder. I was getting a few knocks on the tip but no real positive pulls so after an hour I had my first look on the right hand 13 metre line. A few minutes passed and then a lovely bite resulted in a big skimmer coming to the top but as I went to ship back, it came off!
Next chuck, I bumped one which was far from ideal although hopefully it meant there were a few fish there, of course I then couldn’t get a bite! I tried the maggot line but no indications and I was just about to go back on the feeder when the float went under and I was into a decent fish which turned out to be a cracking ide around 10oz. My next fish was a tiny roach that was on when I moved the float! I picked up the light strung out rig and really thought I’d start catching some more ide but it hasn’t happened.
Then out of the blue, the float buried and I was into a better skimmer, I shipped back carefully and netted a nice 2lb+ fish. Another roach followed and I thought I’d be in for a steady day but then I couldn’t get a bite again. At this stage, Lee, Paul and Adie still hadn’t caught but all the anglers to his right were landing fish regularly including several nice tench.
Despite swapping between the two pole lines and the feeder over the next couple of hours I didn’t add to my four fish although I had a bite I hadn’t seen when I reeled in and both my pinkies were mashed. Adie got off the mark with a nice ide on the maggot feeder and then added two more in quick succession. The two guys on my left still hadn’t caught and I couldn’t get a bite anywhere whereas Adie went on the pole and had three skimmers and another ide but it was short lived.
For the remainder of the match I went through the motions but didn’t have anymore, Lee and Paul never had a bite and Adie had seven or eight. The scales started with me and my four fish went 3lb 2oz, Adie weighed 6lb 2oz and then Nick King on 69 had a lovely net of big skimmers/bream for 19lb 8oz with one of 5lb 5oz. Photos courtesy of Todber Manor*
Nick had the top weight with 19lb 8oz which included some lovely bream to 5lb 5oz*
Graham Potter weighed 11lb 2oz, Ade West on 71 had 16lb 2oz which included a nice tench, Michael Hall went into second place with 17lb 8oz, Matt Skyme on 74 had 8lb 3oz and then young Jack Copp did well weighing 6lb on the end.
Ade West was third with 16lb 2oz from peg 71*
Michael Hall was second with a nice net of fish for 17lb 8oz*
Jack did well on peg 75 weighing 6lb*
1 – Nick King – 19lb 8oz
2 – Michael Hall – 17lb 8oz
3 – Ade West – 16lb 2oz
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
