Hebditch’s Pond – Ruthie’s Cup – 1st June 2025

Ruthie’s Cup is now in it’s fourth year and HRH has taken over the reigns from the Grand Wiz with the four match series now taking place on four different venues with very varied fishing and will make for an interesting contest. Who will be the next name on the trophy after Andy Burns (2024), Terry Morgan (2023) and Chris Norton (2022). The draw for groups took place a few weeks prior and I was in with Parker ‘The Pole’, Rob Cox and unfortunately, Craig Lyttle! For the first match we were at Hebditch’s Pond.

We met at the Ranch for breakfast and were well looked after by Kirsty and Chris W who was on waitressing duties before each group drew for their pegs for the day. When it was our turn to delve into the ‘Tupperware Tub of Terror’, I opened my little card and was delighted to see I was on 5, a peg I’ve always quite fancied but in all my years of fishing the pond, it’s one I’ve never drawn!

After a short drive, we arrived and the pond looked nice with odd fish moving, obviously with just four of us fishing, we had loads of room, so hopefully we’d all have plenty of bites. I decided to keep things nice and simple today and just fish pellets with two rigs set up for shallow and on the deck. The side tray was relatively bare with just Bait-Tech 6mm Carp and Coarse pellets plus a few 8mm’s and some maggots, I did have a tin of corn in reserve as well.

Finally peg 5 at Hebditch’s!

We got underway and I shipped out to 13 metres with the deep rig and began pinging half a dozen 6mm’s on a regular basis, first put in, the float buried and a little 4oz carp got me up and running, next chuck I had a three pounder followed by more pasties and there were obviously a lot of fish there. After an hour I had four decent carp (averaging 3lb apiece) plus loads of little ones but I wasn’t getting carried away yet as you normally catch well for 2-3 hours before it switches off.

Hours two and three were similar with odd better fish among the little Ginsters, a few times I saw carp swirl so I tried the shallow rig but only had small fish on it although I did have a couple of decent carp when I swung the deep rig in their general direction. In a bid to catch a better stamp more consistently, I put an 8mm in the band but that just resulted in loads of missed bites so I decided to just get my head down and wade through the small fish and hope the odd better one comes along.

I’d seen Craig land a few decent fish but felt I was doing ok and it was literally still a bite every chuck. With five of the six hours gone, I had 16 of the better carp which I thought would go 48lb plus loads of the smaller ones at four to the pound and one lone 4oz skimmer. It was all going rather well and although I’d pulled out of a few small ones, I hadn’t lost a bigger carp all match. I saw a fish swirl so flicked the rig in that direction and the float buried, it felt like a good fish and I was taking my time with it only for everything to go slack and when I checked the hooklength had snapped so it must have gone through something.

A few more small carp followed and then I hooked another decent one, with only five minutes remaining, I wanted to make this one count so of course, the hook pulled out and I only managed one more little four ouncer before the all out. I packed up before going to help Steve P with the scales, passing Craig, he was admitting to 55lb and as I thought I had between 50-60lb, this was going to close! The Pole on peg 1 weighed 18lb 14oz and then Craig’s first net went 11lb 10oz, the big net was 46lb 1oz and then all his little pasties weighed 10lb 15oz giving him a total of 68lb 10oz and I knew I didn’t have that.

Parker ‘The Pole’ had 18lb 14oz on peg 1

Craig weighed an excellent 68lb 10oz to win our four man section

My two nets of bigger carp only went 44lb 3oz so not even 3lb each and I’d over estimated them, my pasty net weighed 16lb 12oz (which I reckon was around 60 carp!) giving me a total of 60lb 15oz and even if I hadn’t lost those last two fish, I still think I’d have been short although it would have been very close. Last to weigh was Rob on peg 8 and he had some nice carp for 24lb 12oz.

A trip to the darkside saw me catch loads of fish for 60lb 15oz

Rob had 24lb 12oz of carp on peg 8

As the results started coming through on our WhatsApp group, the four sections had fished well with some great weights (see below).

Group 1 (Hebditch’s)
1 – Craig Lyttle (Stoke) – 68lb 10oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 60lb 15oz

Group 2 (Dillington)
1 – Nick Veale (Milo) – 32lb
2 – Chris Haines (Haines Angling) – 16lb 14oz
2 – Terry Morgan (Stoke) – 16lb 14oz

Nick Veale had the top weight at Dillington with 32lb of chub and bream

Hainsey was joint second with 16lb 14oz of mainly chub from peg 1

Terry ‘The Toast’ also had 16lb 14oz on peg 21

Group 3 (Clivey)
1 – Chris Norton (Stoke) – 22lb 4oz
2 – Danny Blunn (Stoke) – 16lb 13oz

Group 4 (Private Pond)
1 – Andy Burns (Stoke) – 26lb 1oz
2 – Dave Phillips (Taunton) – 25lb

Burnsey topped group 4 with a brilliant 26lb 1oz of silvers

Dave P was second with 25lb which included some nice crucians

The Grand Wiz weighed 19lb 11oz

Roy had 16lb of quality silvers

I picked up £20 for second in my section (it’s a friendly little league and the money is well spread) but I was a bit gutted as I reckon to win the league somebody will have maximum points and it might even come down to weight.

Craig L generously donated £10 of his winnings and along with £2 each from Nick P, Rob Cox and me, the Nugget-O-Meter flew up to £311.

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