After the weather had been lovely the previous day, it was back to heavy rain and 50 mph winds for Sunday – great! Also probably due to the forecast, we had a slightly depleted turnout of 11 and Pete said it would be a rover using all the lakes. Adie was the first name on the list and got choice 10 which was also the golden ball. I was quite a way down the list and got number 6 while Nick had first pick of the pegs and went for 8 on Longs.
Some of the pegs I fancied went but when it was my turn, nobody had gone for any of the pegs along the track so I chose 32 after having a lovely day there last week. With only a few people left to choose, amazingly two of the most consistent pegs were still left so Bill ‘The Paste’ went for 36 and Adie had 30 (last weeks winner).
Looking down the lake with Adie on peg 30
I only set up a couple of rigs to fish two lines angled left and right on a top kit plus three and left the rest of the pole in the holdall. Adie was braver than me and had all his pole out although it had already been blown off the rollers as he was setting up!
On the whistle I fed the right hand swim with a small nugget of gb and a few pinkies while the left hand line was fed more positively. I noticed Nick over on 8 had gone straight down by the lilies to his right and was into a fish first chuck which I suspected was a little tench (but later found out it was a carp). Adie also got off to a great start with a couple of carp across to the island but he was already having problems with the wind.
I had a small roach quite quickly from the right hand line but then couldn’t get a bite, switching to the left, I began catching ide, roach and the odd 4oz skimbob. After the last match, I’d set my sights on 20 fish an hour which would give me around 11-12lb but with sixty minutes gone I was a little short with 15 on the clicker. I was just loose feeding maggots on the left and keeping the right hand line topped up with small amounts of gb via a toss pot but the maggot swim was definitely getting stronger and I had several little 2-6oz tench in amongst the ide, roach and skimmers.
Nick looked to be catching carp quite well despite having a bit of a ‘mare when his pole came apart and he also suffered a breakage and had some sections blown in the pond. Not to be outdone, Adie hooked a carp only for several sections of his pole to come off! Using his cupping kit he did well to drag the sections with the fish still attached back across the pond and managed to grab the top kit only for the hook to pull out at the net!
I was still catching well and added a couple more tench, a small perch and a nice crucian to my net of silvers allsorts. Bill on my left wasn’t catching as many fish but he was getting some decent skimmers and by my reckoning it was close between us. I kept expecting sport to slow up and thought I might have to try and fish longer at some point but the bites kept coming, the left hand swim was most productive but resting it and fishing the other line was key.
A nice 8oz hybrid was very welcome and a skimmer of the same size followed not long after and it was just really enjoyable fishing, of course it started to rain heavily once again and I seem to spend rather a lot of my time moist these days (which might explain the webbed feet!). I only hooked one carp all day which I had on for ages before it snapped me and I then spent even longer trying to put a new hooklength on with cold, wet hands!
With around two hours to go, I noticed Bill had began fishing up the edge and was now catching quite a few carp to go with his silvers. I continued to catch steadily until the final whistle and had 98 fish on the clicker which included around a dozen little tench.
After packing up, I went to give Pete a hand with the weigh in starting with Dan T on Sellicks 13 who had 30lb 12oz of mainly carp but also lost quite a few, Rog C on Dennys weighed 12lb 11oz while Craig L DNW’d again and I’m not even sure if he bothers taking a keepnet to his peg anymore!
Dan T had 30lb 12oz on Sellicks peg 13
Onto Longs and Kev ‘O (peg 2) went into the lead with 36lb 4oz of carp, Glynn had 4lb 1oz of silvers and McKenzie chucked back. Nick came close with 34lb 7oz (yep, dark side again) and then Rob B on 13 had 4lb 14oz of silvers which included a big eel.
Kev ‘O was in the frame again, this time with 36lb 4oz of carp
Nick weighed 34lb 7oz on peg 8
Adie weighed 33lb 4oz and needed a couple more carp for a bumper payday and then my silvers went 14lb 13oz, last but not least was Bill ‘The Paste’, he had 30lb 12oz of carp and then added a nice net of decent skimmers for 9lb 1oz and his 39lb 13oz total was the top weight.
Although the weather was pants, the fishing was lovely and I had 14lb 13oz to win the silvers
Bill had the top weight on the day with 39lb 13oz (which included 9lb 1oz of skimmers)
1 – Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) – 39lb 13oz
2 – Kev ‘O (Summerhayes) – 36lb 4oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 14lb 13oz
2 – Rob Birch (Summerhayes) – 4lb 14oz
I picked up £40 for winning the silvers and it had been a really enjoyable day (apart from the weather obviously!).
Pounds from Dan T and Craig L saw the Nugget-O-Meter rise to £151.
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 – Revels
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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