On Sunday it was down to Revels for a Stoke AA charity match although there was a disappointing turn out of only 9 anglers (possibly down to a combination of Mother’s Day and people on holiday). Fair play to Norts who was originally booked in and had to pull out but still turned up to do the draw and paid the pools/entry fee plus an extra fiver for the charity. It was nice to see Andy Downton for the first time in ages and he also donated another £5 to the pot – very generous chaps!
We were on Middle and Trendles today and although I’ve often said I don’t like the latter, I really enjoyed fishing it in the Xmas match and it’s normally good for lots of bites from all sorts. Norts said it would be the top two overall and silvers today and I was hoping to be on Middle for a nice days silvers fishing but of course pulled out 33 on Trendles, a peg I seem to draw a lot.
I set up a couple of 0.1 gram Colmic Elsa’s to fish three lines at top kit plus two and had lots of maggots, pinkies and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark on the side tray. Dave P got us underway and I fed three short lines with a little groundbait and some pinkies. I started on the left hand swim and had a roach first chuck and was getting a few small perch and gudgeon swapping between the three lines. Rob C across on 29 had a decent roach, Dave P landed an early carp and both Nick and Dave N were catching small silvers.
The last time I fished Trendles, I caught really well on maggots with loads of little crucian/brown goldfish/F1’s along with the odd carp and was hoping for another busy match today. After a little run of small silvers, I had my first little carp followed by a crucian and it felt like the swim was building nicely. I’ve caught quite well for around an hour before it went quiet and I should have known what was coming next! Sure enough, the float buried and as I struck, yellow hydro streamed across the pond and with a light hooklength on, I was sure I’d be saying ‘bye, bye’ very shortly.
The fish nearly reached the far side but then it stopped and I gained some ground on it, apart from weeding me a few times, it was actually fairly well behaved and despite a couple of people suggesting I was playing to the crowd (as if I would!), I took my time as it was a decent fish and l wanted to make it count. Thankfully everything held and I managed to land a nice common around 7-8lb which was a handy bonus.
Next put in I hooked another but this time a much more modest 3lb but welcome all the same and I thought I was on for a good weight. Typically I then couldn’t get a bite and it seemed to be the same for the others as well. Andy D wandered up from Middle and said everyone was struggling down there as there was a really cold wind hitting the lake while we were relatively sheltered and after a chilly start it was turning out to be gorgeous day for us. He reported Paul Smith on 54 was probably doing the best while Wayne Cooper, who I had a pound on silvers with, only had one skimmer although it wouldn’t take much for him to beat my meagre catch of mainly gudgeon and small perch!
I tried starting new lines a section further out and had an instant response with another little carp and a crucian/goldfish hybrid thingy but it was short lived and despite doing the same a section further out, I couldn’t get a bite. We were now halfway through the match and after my good start I was now struggling while Nick was catching quite a few little carp. I needed to do something else so got another top kit out with black hydro and set up a heavier rig before plumbing up at 14.5 metres by some reeds on the end bank.
I big potted in some maggots and left it to settle for five minutes, first put in with three dead reds on a size 14 Kaizen, the float buried and I was into a fish that went berserk, after a hectic scrap I landed a 4lb carp hooked in the wing. A smaller one followed and I thought I’d bag up but then the next two fish were gudgeon! Another pot of maggots went in and after a short wait I had another carp, this worked for a couple more fish but it wasn’t fast and furious. Nick was now fishing up his edge and had several carp in quick succession and I didn’t think there was much between us.
I decided to feed a margin line and put in three pots of loose groundbait and some maggots and went back across for ten minutes, no more fish long so I dropped in short and first chuck the float went and I had a little 1.5lb carp. Hopefully I’d now be able to bounce between the two swims catching a carp from each before re-feeding and repeating the process. Well, famous last words as I never had another indication short although I did manage a few more carp from 14.5 metres. At the all out, I felt it was going to be close between Nick and me.
The scales started over with Dave N who had 3lb 1oz of silvers and 10lb of carp, Dave P chucked back, Rob weighed 6lb 7oz (including 1lb 3oz of silvers) and then it was round to me, my 19 silvers weighed 14oz (mainly small fish!) and my carp went 29lb 10oz and then it was Nick, he had 1lb 8oz of silvers and 20lb 5oz of carp.
Dave N had 10lb of carp (and 3lb 1oz of silvers)
A rare visit to ‘the dark side’ for me
A Nick selfie (also useful to keep the kids away from the fire!)
He was second with 21lb 13oz of mainly carp
Back at the results and it had been hard on Middle with Paul having the top weight with 4lb 9oz of silvers and 5lb 12oz of carp, Parker ‘The Pole’ had 2lb 6oz, Wayne struggled for 4oz and handed over a nugget and Andy had headed off for an early bath.
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 30lb 8oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 21lb 13oz
Silvers
1 – Paul Smith (Stoke) – 4lb 9oz
2 – Dave Nash (Stoke) – 3lb 1oz
So only a knock up really but it was nice day in good company and £60 was raised for the clubs charity so well done everyone who fished.
Thanks to a very generous donation of £5 from Rob C and Wayne’s pound, the Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £200.
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 – Acorn
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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