River Parrett – Colmic South West King of Clubs Qualifier – 31st August 2025

On Sunday it was another South West King of Clubs qualifier, this time on the Parrett and it was great to see a decent turnout of 22 anglers in attendance. We all met at Cartgate where Norts welcomed everyone and let us know we’d be split into two sections with the winner of each qualifying for the final in October. Draw time arrived and I was just hoping for a peg that gave me a chance, in the top section I felt you’d need to draw 2, 8 or 9 or possibly the pegs in the ‘Cricket Bat Field’ and in the bottom section I was sure the qualifier would come from 16, 18, 28, 29 or 32 (normally a great peg but it was in for the first time this year).

I delved into the bucket of doom and when I opened my hand to reveal 27 I knew it was game over as it hasn’t done anything this year, I had it in the second match and managed a magnificent 4oz (mainly small fish) although I did lose an eel that day. Saying that, although winning weights on the Parrett are normally around 5-6lb, the bottom section has been won recently with weights as low as 3lb so if the better pegs didn’t fish and I could find a few eels, there was an outside chance but I was grasping at straws really!

Nick Veale was my downstream neighbour on 28 with Steve Whatley below him and just before the start, Steve walked up and said he’d caught a 1.5lb chub on a bare hook! It’s not always a good sign though and sometimes you don’t see another one all day. On the whistle, I started down the middle and had the usual minnows along with a couple of dace, small roach and gudgeon. It didn’t take long before Nick was using the landing net for a decent roach and he was catching regularly.

With 2.5 hours gone, I only had a pound or so while Nick was still catching quite well and it was pointless me carrying on doing what I was doing as I needed to catch some bonus fish. I fed a chopped worm line and went straight over it, I had lovely bite after only ten minutes and struck into an eel of 8-10oz, it’s normally a good sign getting one early and I thought I might get a few more.

It proved to be a false dawn though and for the remaining two hours and twenty minutes I never had another indication while Nick continued to catch some quality roach and had a bonus chub, Steve also some nice fish including an eel. Terry ‘The Toast’ had the scales and came down to start the weigh in at the far end where Fieldy had struggled for 4oz on 32, Danny B weighed 10oz and then Steve W had a nice net of quality roach (he never hooked another chub though!) for 4lb 11oz. Nick V was next and had a brilliant 9lb 1oz which is the best weight on the Parrett this year and would see him qualify for the final.

Danny B had 10oz on peg 31

Steve Whatley had 4lb 11oz of roach which was second in the zone and match

Nick Veale won the match and qualified with a brilliant 9lb 1oz of quality roach and a chub

My fish went 1lb 13oz, Norts on 25 had 1lb 10oz, Mike G weighed 10oz, Dave P had 1lb 1oz and then Nick P did well on 18 with 3lb 8oz of roach, Cliffy had 1lb 9oz and Terry weighed 1lb 10oz on 13. Back at the results and the top section had fished quite hard with Russ Hilton taking the other qualification spot with 3lb 8oz from peg 9, Simon G was second from the ‘Cricket Bat field’ with 2lb 14oz, Dave Hilton continued his consistent run of form with 2lb 7oz for third and Ian ‘Bagger’ Burton was fourth with 1lb 12oz from peg 7. Photo credits – Russ Hilton.

Norts had 1lb 10oz on peg 25

Nick P was third in the zone with 3lb 8oz of roach

Russ Hilton won the the top zone and qualified with 3lb 8oz*

Section A
1 – Russell Hilton (Colmic) – 3lb 8oz – Qualifier
2 – Simon Garbutt (Colmic) – 2lb 14oz
3 – Dave Hilton (Stoke) – 2lb 7oz
4 – Ian Burton (Taunton) – 1lb 12oz

Section B
1 – Nick Veale (Milo) – 9lb 1oz – Qualifier
2 – Steve Whatley (Bristol) – 4lb 11oz
3 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 3lb 8oz
4 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 1lb 13oz

The two qualifiers were Russ Hilton and Nick Veale – Good Luck in the final!*

I did sneak a little pick up of £15 for fourth in the zone but that was my last SWKoC qualifier for this year so no final for me and it looks set to be a brilliant event so good luck to all the finalists.

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

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