River Parrett – Autumn Triple Round 1 – 19th October 2025

I love the matches on the upper Parrett during the Summer months, it can be tricky but it’s interesting fishing trying to catch the 3lb which is normally enough to get you in the frame. Stoke hold a series of three matches in the Autumn (hence the name!) and as I’ve never fished the river this time of year, I thought I’d give it a go although the forecast was awful with strong winds and heavy rain predicted all day.

After a cracking breakfast at The Ranch, it was time for the draw and we were all in the first field today, I fancied pegs 8, 9, 16 or 18 but pulled out 14 which is one I don’t think I’ve ever fished before. Parking behind my peg, it looked really nice and I’d be relatively sheltered from the wind unlike poor Parker ‘The Pole’ on 11 who’d be in for rather a blustery day!

I set up 0.75 and 1.5 gram rigs with the heavier version for fishing the worm for eels as I really fancied it for a few with a tinge of colour and a little pace to the river, although leaves might prove to be a bit of a pain. On the whistle I started down the middle with single maggot on the hook, first put in the float dipped and a gudgeon got me off the mark. Next chuck I had a little dace before the inevitable minnows moved in. Changing to double maggot and then caster made little difference but two casters slowed the little blighters up a bit and crucially I was getting the odd gudgeon and also had a bonus 8oz chublet along with a net roach.

After an hour I had 14 fish (plus minnows) for around a pound which was a great start and a third of the way to my target. The second sixty minutes was a bit slower but I was still ticking over with quite a few big gobies, the odd little dace and a nice 6oz roach. It was still raining hard and there were loads of leaves coming down the river and at one stage there was a loud splintering noise as a tree came down and I was grateful I was fairly sheltered.

My game plan was always going to involve having a go for some eels with worm as I really enjoy fishing for them and they can be proper weight builders but while I was still getting regular bites from gudgeon and occasional small roach, I was happy to keep putting fish in the net. With ninety minutes to go, the minnows finally buggered off and it was a gonk a chuck on single caster (and they were a good size too) and then I hooked a better fish that I initially thought was a chub but turned out to be a cracking 8oz roach.

I decided to just stick with it and see if I could get to 64 fish which would give me around 4lb and I felt that wouldn’t be a million miles away today. Typically with 25 mins to go, bites slowed up and then I hooked a better fish but it had spots on and wouldn’t be going in the net, it probably also explained why I’d stopped catching. I did manage a couple more gudgeon to finish with 60 fish (and I probably had around the same number of minnows), a really enjoyable day apart from the weather!

Derek on 18 had the scales, so I went down to weigh him in and he had a lovely net of roach which went 3lb 15oz, Steve H on 16 had loads of small fish for 1lb 10oz and then it was me, I thought it was going to be close but my fish went 4lb 10oz. Parker ‘The Pole’ was next and I honestly didn’t expect him to still be there as he’d have been battered by the weather all day so fair play to him. His peg was like a disaster area though and he’d managed to get three sections of pole stuck together, a top kit jammed and his landing net handle was also not coming apart in a hurry, with three of us (two pulling and one in the middle) we got all his kit unstuck. He also had some cracking roach and weighed 3lb 7oz, a brilliant net of fish from a swim I wouldn’t have fancied.

Derek had some quality roach for 3lb 15oz

Steve H weighed 1lb 10oz on peg 16

I had a really nice day (apart from the weather!) catching loads of gudgeon plus some nice roach, dace and chublets for 4lb 10oz

Parker ‘The Pole’ did well on peg 11 catching some decent roach for 3lb 7oz

Fieldy was the last angler on our weigh board and he had a big chub around 2.5lb and some smaller fish for 3lb 8oz to just pip Steve. Back at the results and Danny B on 4 had the best weight in the first five pegs with another great net of fish weighing 3lb 11oz followed by Dave P with 1lb 6oz, Cliffy with 1lb 2oz, Mike G had 11oz and Nick P chucked back on peg 2. Thanks to Mike Goad for the photo*

Graham had a big chub and some smaller fish for 3lb 8oz on peg 9

Danny B weighed 3lb 11oz of roach, dace and chublets for third place on the day*

1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 4lb 10oz
2 – Derek Goad (Stoke) – 3lb 15oz
3 – Danny Blunn (Stoke) – 3lb 11oz
4 – Graham Field (Taunton) – 3lb 8oz

So the river fished really well for most and I felt a bit sorry for Steve who had done brilliantly as normally 3lb 7oz would get you in the frame. It just goes to show there are lots of decent roach in the river but conditions need to be right for them to show. I picked up £40 for winning and had really enjoyed that, I’m looking forward to round two although with the weather getting colder, we could be in for a tough match.

Nick P and me got the Nugget-O-Meter up and running again with £2 each so it’s on £4.

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