River Parrett – Huntsman Cup – 6th July 2025

After a decent start to my river campaign and the quest for my Holy Grail (The Memorial Shield) in the first match, I was hoping for more of the same in round two. A lovely breakfast in the Ranch set us up for the day (thanks Kirsty) and then it was time for the all important draw. Only 11 of us fishing today and all the usual pegs were on my wish list, Mike G only went and pulled out 29 again, Norts moved down one from last time to 28 and I got his peg (27) which I was fairly happy with as he’d weighed 2lb 4oz but had also lost a chub and a big eel so hopefully there were a few decent fish about.

My peg looked nice and plumbing up it was a bit deeper at the top (like 21 the other week) and I really fancied it for a few eels. As I think I mentioned in the previous post about the Parrett, I’ve been really enjoying fishing for the eels and catching 19 in three matches, it felt like they were a viable option in most pegs. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sure there are enough to win matches on their own and in an ideal world, you’d catch a couple of pounds of other fish before putting some chopped worm in and topping your net up with 3-4lb of eels. Sounds simple when you say it like that but one thing the Parrett isn’t, is simple!!!

On the whistle I cupped in a modest amount of hemp and caster down the middle and went straight over it with single red maggot on the hook. I was expecting to get bites quite quickly, if only just from minnows to avoid the blank, but it wasn’t happening and took an age to get off the mark with a little gudgeon. Norts was faring better with couple of decent roach in amongst the gudgeon and minnows.

I added a few minnows, another gudgeon and a small chublet but then disaster struck when I missed a bite and went straight up the tree! There was no budging it and I knew it wasn’t going to end well as I grabbed the elastic and pulled, sure enough there was an almighty THWACK and that was the end of that float! Picking up the lighter rig, I had the grand total of three more gudgeon and a few minnows over the next hour or so and this most definitely wasn’t going to plan. I did hook a slightly better fish on caster but a 4oz trout about summed up my day thus far!

With two hours gone and only ounces in the net, it was time to see if I could catch a few eels so I fed some chopped worms and casters via a baitdropper in the deeper water at the top of the peg. With worm head on the hook, I started getting indications but couldn’t hit them so I suspect it was minnows or small fish. I tried three maggots which resulted in a gudgeon so that was enough of that. Another two hours passed and my earlier confidence that I would catch eels was appearing rather misplaced.

I’d been feeding worm regularly which finally seemed to have fed the small fish off and then with just sixty minutes remaining, I had what looked like a proper bite, I counted to five only to strike into thin air! I lowered the rig in again and the float went straight under, this time I connected and it was obviously a decent eel. It shot off downstream and then stopped, I could see it was good size fish, 1lb+ and it came to the top tied up in a figure of eight. I unshipped at the top kit and readied the landing net only for it to bite me off just out of reach and I felt sick!

After putting on another hooklength I was still hopeful of getting another chance but I never had another bite and knew I’d blown right out today. We went down to weigh Mike in, he’d struggled for most of the match but found a few fish late on for 1lb 8oz, Norts had done really well and had 3lb 8oz which included some quality roach, I weighed 4oz (mainly small fish!), the Grand Wiz on 25 had 1lb 2oz and then Nigel who was fishing his first match with us weighed 3oz.

Mike had 1lb 8oz on peg 29

Norts won the section with 3lb 8oz

The Grand Wiz had 1lb 2oz for third in the section

Back at the results and the top section had fished a bit better with Dave Pope on 16 winning the match and trophy with 5lb, Derek G was second with 3lb 12oz from peg 9 and Dave H on 18 had 2lb 1oz for third.

Section A
1 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 5lb
2 – Derek Goad (Stoke) – 3lb 12oz
3 – Dave Hilton (Stoke) – 2lb 1oz

Section B
1 – Chris Norton (Stoke) – 3lb 8oz
2 – Mike Goad (Stoke) – 1lb 8oz
3 – Chris White (Stoke) – 1lb 2oz

After two matches, Dave Pope has a perfect score with two section wins followed by Mike G who is just a point behind and then Norts on 17 points. As for me, given that the series was won with 48 points (out of a possible 50) last year, I’m already in a very precarious position as I’ll need to drop this result and there’s no more room for error in the remaining four matches which is a big ask! There are such small margins in match fishing, if I’d landed that eel, I’d still be right in the mix and confident in my approach but as it stands, losing it might have put paid to my chances for another year.

The Nugget-O-Meter passed £400 thanks to a very generous £5 from Norts (plus the pound he had off me), £3 donated by Nick P and a nugget from the Grand Wiz, the new total is £403 which is just fantastic!!!

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