River Parrett – Novice Shield – 7th September 2025

For the final Stoke match on the Parrett, due to fixture clashes, people away on holiday etc, we had a rather depleted turnout of only eight anglers but on the plus side it meant we could cherry pick the better pegs. Saying that, I didn’t really fancy numbers 5 and 13 so was over the moon when I pulled out peg 9, a great swim that I’ve always wanted to fish but have never drawn. Going into this match, my points total of 46 meant I couldn’t be caught so after coming close several times, I’d finally get my name on the coveted Memorial Shield. There was still lots to play for though with the Novice Shield up for grabs and there were still several of us in contention for the Aggregate Trophy (total weight over the six matches) with myself on 15lb 5oz, Norts (14lb 14oz) and Dave Pope (14lb 13oz) so very close with just 8oz separating the three of us.

My swim certainly looked the part with lots of cover across and a huge branch in the water downstream, we were in for a wet day though with heavy rain forecast and while we were setting up we had some thunder and lightening. On the whistle I started down the middle with a 0.75 gram rig and single maggot on the hook and soon had a minnow to avoid the blank. Double maggot was next but minnows were being a pain, single caster didn’t deter them and they were even having a go at double caster which was a bit of worry.

Then the float buried and plenty of elastic came out on the strike before I netted a nice chublet around 8-10oz and I started getting regular bites from some decent dace, odd roach and gudgeon. Another chublet the same size as the first one put me on 2lb 8oz after sixty minutes and as 3lb is normally enough to frame, I was doing okay. With two hours gone I was up to 4lb courtesy of two more chublets plus dace and gudgeon and thought perhaps a tinge of colour was responsible for it fishing well.

It was all going rather well but then I hooked a fish that snapped me, I thought it was probably a chub but next chuck I landed a 10-12oz trout so perhaps that was the culprit. Bob Newbury turned up for a walk and reported Dave Pope on peg 5 was getting a few, while he was with me I had another two chublets to put me on 5lb plus and surely this couldn’t last! A few more smaller fish followed but I was starting to have to chase them round a bit. I laid the rig in upstream but it didn’t settle so I struck and it was solid before a decent fish shook it’s head a couple of times before heading towards the far bank, I plunged the pole under the water but everything went slack and when I inspected the rig, the actual hook had snapped!

With an hour and a half left, bites slowed right up and I only managed a couple more fish so decided to spend the remaining time on the worm to see if I could catch a bonus eel or chub. Picking up my heavier rig with half a dendra on the hook, I was just in the process of sticking the pole between my legs while I chopped some worms up when black hydro started streaming out, I chucked the pole back as quickly as I could but to no avail and the fish had found sanctuary under the far bank cover. I had to pull for a break and with robust kit on I knew it wasn’t going to end well and I lost the lot!

It took me a while to sort another rig out and I fed some chopped worms and casters down the middle via a bait dropper. I started getting lots of indications but missing the majority which I think were probably down to minnows although I did manage a nice dace, two chublets plus a gudgeon and then with five minutes to go, a lovely slow positive bite resulted in a 12oz eel which was a nice end to the match. I finished up with 33 fish (chublets, dace, roach, gudgeon and that eel) plus minnows and had really enjoyed it but was hoping those lost fish weren’t going to prove costly.

After packing up, I walked up to watch the weigh in, Dave P had 3lb 5oz, Danny on peg 8 weighed 2lb 6oz, my fish went 7lb 6oz and then Cliffy on 13 had loads of small fish for 4lb. When the scales got back from the second field, Mike Goad had weighed 5lb on 29, Derek DNW’d after not feeling well, Norts on 18 had 2lb 2oz and Dave H weighed 1lb 3oz. Photo credit – Chris Norton*

Dave P on peg 5 weighed 3lb 5oz

Danny had 2lb 6oz of chublets, dace and roach

I had a lovely day catching chublets, dace, roach, gudgeon and an eel for 7lb 6oz

Cliffy had loads of small fish for 4lb on peg 13

Mike had 5lb of chub and roach from peg 29*

1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 7lb 6oz
2 – Mike Goad (Stoke) – 5lb
3 – Cliffy Gaylard (Stoke) – 4lb
4 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 3lb 5oz

So I finished the series on a high with my biggest Parrett weight of the year which meant I won the Aggregate Trophy as well. I picked up £30 for winning on the day and dropping my worst score (7), I finished up with 49 points out of a possible 50.

Final Memorial Shield standings

Jamie Rich – 49 pts (7)
Dave Hilton – 43 pts (4)
Dave Pope – 42 pts (5)
Derek Goad – 41 pts (0)
Mike Goad – 39 pts (0)
Chris Norton – 37 pts (0)

your best five results from six matches count towards the trophy (dropper in brackets).

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