Clivey Fishery – 14th September 2025

After really enjoying fishing Clivey back in July as a guest in Stoke’s Golden Oldies match, I jumped at the chance when there were some spaces available for the Committee Cup. A few of us met in ‘Spoons for breakfast but it was a bit disappointing as they didn’t have any bacon and an extra sausage just isn’t the same! Then it was on to the fishery, Dave P was in charge of proceedings and said he’d be paying the top two in carp and silvers. I drew peg 9 again which I was over the moon with and hoping for a similar day to the last time.

So a very familiar view and I saw no reason to approach it any differently, the same rigs were assembled and the side tray featured the same selection of fishy treats. On the whistle I fed two lines at four sections and another at 11.5 metres with little worm bombs before starting on a top kit to hand. Unlike the last match, I couldn’t get a bite short while Nick P to my right on 6 got off to a much better start with several small fish and a little tench while Derek G next door had a skimbob on the waggler.

With 15 mins gone, I was still not off the mark so moved out to four sections and began getting a few bites but pulled out of a couple of fish before finally depositing a roach in my silvers net. Swapping between the top four lines I was catching roach, rudd along with odd skimmers and much like the previous match, began hooking quite a few carp and was getting most of them out.

I did have one big 3lb skimmer but wasn’t getting as many silvers as last time although there seemed to be more carp showing. As we hit the two hour mark, sport seemed to slow for everyone so I had my first look at 11.5 metres and although I was getting bites, it was mainly carp, I manage a couple of roach but also pulled out of what felt like a decent skimmer.

Nick was also hooking lots of carp and from what I could see, Fieldy on peg 2 was catching fairly steadily and I didn’t think there was much between us. As we neared the end of the match, I’ve come back in on the top four lines and had a nice finish with some quality roach, an 8oz tench and several more small carp. After packing up I took some of my kit back to the car and went to watch the weigh in but actually missed Nick who had 6lb 1oz of silvers and his carp went 37lb, Fieldy weighed 3lb 2oz of silvers and 36lb 2oz of carp and then Mike G on 15 had 5lb 6oz of silvers and 22lb 12oz of carp.

Graham had 36lb 2oz of carp

Mike G weighed 5lb 6oz of silvers

Dennis H weighed 4lb 10oz of silvers and his carp went 8lb 2oz, Dave P on 12 had 3lb of silvers and 10lb 12oz of carp, the Grand Wiz weighed 15lb 13oz of carp, my silvers went 10lb 13oz and my carp weighed 39lb and then Derek G had 1lb 4oz of silvers and 2lb 2oz of carp.

Dennis had 8lb 2oz of carp

The Grand Wiz had 15lb 13oz of carp on peg 11

My silvers weighed 10lb 13oz

Carp
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 39lb
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 37lb
3 – Graham Field (Taunton) – 36lb 2oz

Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 10lb 13oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 6lb 1oz
3 – Mike Goad (Stoke) – 5lb 6oz

Committee Cup winner
Mike Goad – 28lb 2oz

So I picked up £40 for winning the carp, Nick won the silvers by default and then Fieldy and Mike were second in the carp and silvers respectively and Mike was also the winner of the Committee Cup. Another great days fishing so a massive thanks to Chris and Helen for allowing us to fish their lovely lake.

The Grand Wiz donated a very generous £5 and with £2 each from Nick P and me The Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £566.

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