River Parrett – Mrs Williams Cup – 27th July 2025

For the third round of the Memorial Shield we were on the Kingsbury section which I have a real love/hate relationship with, on my first ever visit back in 2020 I drew an end peg and won the match with 4lb but haven’t got near one since! There was a great turnout of 17 for this one with the majority meeting at the Ranch for breakfast before heading to the river. After losing an eel in the last round my challenge for the series was faltering and hanging by a thread already, another bad result and it would over for another year.

We all parked up in the first field and I really fancied number 4 which is the first peg below the bridge but when the draw was announced, it went early with Dave Hilton the lucky recipient (I can see where Russ gets his drawing arm from!). I delved into the bucket already dreading the result but when I looked I’d only gone and got number 1, the upstream end peg, that’ll do! Apparently it wasn’t as far up as the swim that had won several matches the previous two years and it sounded like it was near the peg I’d drawn the last time I was above the bridge in 2023. I was a bit disappointed as I’d struggled for 2lb 6oz that day although I did win the section money by double default!

As I drove up the field, I passed Mike G on peg 3 and the Grand Wiz on 2 and could see I was on the same peg but it had been cut out a little further up above the tree, it looked lovely and I really fancied it. The club had done a brilliant job cutting out and clearing the swims so a massive thanks for all their hard work. A couple of fish topped as I was setting up and at one stage there was a decent roach near the surface just in front of me and I couldn’t wait to get started.

I started on a top kit with single maggot and caught a minnow to avoid the blank before adding a couple of sections and inching the float down towards the tree. There were obviously a few cabbages there as I snagged up a few times so buried the hook in a caster and tried the top kit just in front again, as there was a bit more flow under my feet. I had a bite and some elastic came out before I swung in a foul hooked gudgeon! Next chuck I had a small roach followed by a better one around 3-4oz and it felt like there were a few fish there.

Flicking the rig in again, it buried straight away and I struck into a good fish which I think was a chub but it didn’t have to go far to reach the cabbages, snagging me solid and I had to pull for a break. For the second river match running I had that horrible sinking feeling I’d blown it even though there were still 4.5 hours left! I couldn’t get a bite short now and where I thought I’d catch, towards the tree on the right, was equally uninspiring.

There was a hole in the cabbages opposite so I put the plummet on again and there was a decent depth and it felt relatively weed free so I started pinging some casters and hemp in there and also slightly to the right across on the edge of the cabbages. I buried the hook in a caster and went in the hole, after a short wait the float sunk from view and on the strike a decent fish tried burying itself under the far bank, thankfully it came out and a chublet around 8oz was very welcome.

A couple of 2-3oz dace were next but following that quick flurry of fish, I had to wait ages for another bite and already it felt like I’d have to rest that swim after catching a couple. I spent the rest of the match swapping between that line, the edge of the cabbages and the short top kit swim catching some nice roach and dace. At one stage a fish topped in the flow to my left so I pushed the pole up there and had a nice dace straight away. Next put in I missed an indication and then had a real faffy bite that looked like a minnow attacking the bait, I struck and it felt like I’d hooked a cabbage or weed as it was starting to come up slowly, then all of a sudden there was the unmistakable juddering of a big eel.

With only a 0.09mm hooklength and all the cabbages, I knew there was no chance and so it proved when it bit me off. I couldn’t believe it, all the matches I’ve fished at Kingsbury and I’ve never hooked a big chub or an eel and then today I’ve hooked and lost both! I’ve caught odd fish for the remainder of the match including another 8oz chublet on the top kit to finish with 34 fish which I hoped would give me around 4lb, a really enjoyable day but I just knew those lost fish would be costly today.

As I had the scales I went down to Mike who had 1lb 14oz, the Grand Wiz weighed 1lb 9oz and then my fish went 4lb 14oz before I drove down to weigh the rest of the section. Dave Hilton had done well catching loads of small fish for 3lb 1oz, Nigel on peg 5 had 1lb 2oz, Dave P weighed 1lb 10oz which included a decent eel, Parker ‘The Pole’ had 4oz (mainly small fish), Fieldy weighed 1lb 1oz on peg 8 and Nick P had chucked back.

Mike G weighed 1lb 14oz on peg 3

I had a really nice match weighing 4lb 14oz of roach, dace and chublets

Dave H caught loads of fish for 3lb 1oz

Nigel had 1lb 2oz on peg 5

Dave P weighed 1lb 10oz which included a decent eel

At the results, the other section had fished quite well with Dave Ball winning the match from the far end peg with 5lb 14oz, Derek G was second with 4lb which included a big chub, Rob Cox had 3lb 12oz and Cliffy weighed 2lb 5oz on peg 16.

Section A
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 4lb 14oz
2 – Dave Hilton (Stoke) – 3lb 1oz
3 – Mike Goad (Stoke) – 1lb 14oz
4 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 1lb 10oz

Section B
1 – Dave Ball (Stoke) – 5lb 14oz
2 – Derek Goad (Stoke) – 4lb
3 – Rob Cox (Ilminster) – 3lb 12oz
4 – Cliff Gaylard (Stoke) – 2lb 5oz

I picked up £35 for winning the section and I’d really enjoyed that but as I suspected those lost fish have cost me the match. 10 points keeps me in the mix for the Memorial Shield for the time being, current standings as follows,

Dave Pope – 27 pts (7)
Mike Goad – 27 pts (8)
Jamie Rich – 26 pts (7)
Dave Hilton – 25 pts (8)
Derek Goad – 24 pts (6)
Chris Norton – 22 pts (5)

it’s very tight at the moment and your best five results from six matches count towards the trophy (dropper in brackets).

Another brilliant day for the Nugget-O-Meter thanks to amazing generosity from Rob Cox (£5), Norts (£5) and Chris White (£5) as the total shot up to £477.

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