Dillington Pond – Ruthie’s Cup – 15th June 2025

For round two of Ruthie’s we were at Dillington and after finishing second in my section at Hebditch’s, nothing other than a win would do today as I’m sure you’ll need maximum points or there’s an outside chance three wins and a second might sneak in. Pegs 1 or 2 are normally the swims to draw so when I opened my little folded bit of card to reveal 21 it was pretty much game over.

In round one, Nick Veale won on peg 2 with 32lb of skimmers and chub and you normally need big fish to do well so I just set up a couple of rigs to fish two lines at 13 metres. On the whistle I fed the right hand line with two balls of groundbait and then the left swim got two full pots of casters, corn and hemp. I kicked off with double red maggot just to see if I could get a bite but it was a slow start for everyone.

Craig (on peg 2 of course!) was first off the mark with a small fish and I eventually opened my account with a little perch but with the best part of an hour gone, not a lot was happening. Rob over on peg 1 landed a decent skimmer to go into the lead and then not long after added a second. At this stage I had the grand total of two perch for 4oz so switched to corn as I needed to find a bonus to stand any chance of doing well. After losing a couple of fish, Craig finally managed to catch a decent skimmer and it felt like the writing was on the wall already as I was still waiting for my first bite on corn.

With ninety minutes gone, my float sailed away only for me to strike into thin air and over the next couple of hours, I missed several really good bites which was far from ideal as only two skimmers was winning the lake! Rob then added a third and Craig doubled his tally while it looked like Parker ‘The Pole’ opposite on peg 5 was having a similar day to mine. As we passed the halfway mark, another positive bite but this time I actually managed to connect with it and landed a 3lb chub after steering it through the channel in the lilies.

Next chuck I missed a bite and all of a sudden I was interested again, shipping back out, the float buried and I was into another, this time though the fish snagged me in the lilies and despite adding sections and changing the angle etc, it was solid and I had to grab the elastic and pull. Thankfully I got the rig and everything back (minus the fish) but was cussing myself for not tiring the fish out in open water before taking sections off one at a time (schoolboy error!).

Rob and Craig had slowed up while I was still getting quite a few indications and thought I might be able to still get a result here, I then hooked a big fish which just tore through the lilies and snapped 0.15mm! I initially thought it was a carp but might well have been a large chub. Not long after in a virtual carbon copy, I hooked another fish that just kept going to my right and did me in the lilies again (ouch!), this wasn’t going well.

I switched to a top kit with black hydro in and the next bite resulted in a 2lb skimmer that didn’t pose me any problems, a few more fish were beginning to show now and Rob had a chub while Craig got beaten up by a couple of carp but also landed one that he tried kidding us was 2lb but it looked considerably bigger. With around an hour to go I noticed Mr Parker netting a couple of better fish too.

As it was a hot day, loads of chub and the odd carp could be seen swimming about in the upper layers and in a bid to make something happen, I started to loose feed maggots and casters and was laying the rig in more often. The float buried on the drop and I struck expecting a roach but elastic streamed from the pole tip, I played it out in open water and then removed sections one at time before netting a nice chub (which is what I should have done earlier). A second not long after had me thinking I was on for a strong finish but that was the last of the action for me. Craig landed his second carp and still had time to lose another while Rob had a big skimmer just before the all out.

Steve P had the scales so we went round to weigh him in first, he had two big skimmers, a chub and a lovely tench for 10lb 3oz, Craig’s two carp probably went 12lb between them and along with a couple of skimmers, he had 15lb 14oz which would win the section. Rob weighed 13lb 2oz and then my three chub, a skimmer plus two little perch put me last in the four pegs with 9lb 7oz, not a good day.

Parker ‘The Pole’ had 10lb 3oz which included a lovely tench

Craig had two carp and two skimmers for a section winning 15lb 14oz

Rob weighed 13lb 2oz of chub and skimmers

Three chub, a skimmer and two little perch for 9lb 7oz put me last in the four pegs

Group 1 (Dillington)
1 – Craig Lyttle (Stoke) – 15lb 14oz
2 – Rob Cox (Ilminster) – 13lb 2oz

Group 2 (Clivey)
1 – Luke (Haines Angling) – 42lb 1oz
2 – Nick Veale (Milo) – 28lb 10oz

Luke (standing in for Hainsey) won the Clivey section with 42lb 1oz

Nick Veale was second with 28lb 10oz

Terry ‘The Toast’ had 24lb 14oz

Group 3 (Private Pond)
1 – Steve Harvey (Stoke) – 23lb 10oz
2 – Danny Blunn (Stoke) – 22lb 9oz

Steve Harvey won his section with an excellent 23lb 10oz

Danny B was second with 22lb 9oz

Norts had 21lb 3oz for third in the section

Harry weighed 12lb 11oz which included a nice perch

Group 4 (Hebditch’s Pond)
1 – Andy Burns (Stoke) – 77lb 2oz
2 – Chris White (Stoke) – 65lb 12oz

So with two rounds gone the only anglers still on a perfect score are Andy Burns and Craig Lyttle followed by Nick Veale and Hainsey on three points and Danny Blunn and Norts on four. As for me, my league is over already although if I could fish that match again, I’m sure a little light shallow rig would have worked for those chub.

The Nugget-O-Meter had one of it’s best ever days with amazingly generous donations from Chris White (£5), Chris Norton (£5), Nick Payne (£10) and Craig Lyttle who gave me £10 from his winnings as the total soared to £355.

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