After a really nice match on Thursday I was back at Acorn two days later for the Charlie Barnes memorial which I always look forward to as it’s silvers only. When it was time to draw, I pulled out peg 7 which wouldn’t have been my first choice, Paul ‘Castaway’ Faiers was on the island again, peg 2 this time which has been a great area for the ide recently. Nick P drew peg 23 and my neighbours for the day were Kev Perry on 6 with Andy G on my left.
That’s the closest I’ve got to the island this year!
Rigs, bait and my approach all had a very familiar look to them and on the whistle I fed my lines before starting across to the island. First chuck I had an ide although I didn’t see a bite and when I went to move the rig it was on. Next put in I’ve hooked a fish that I thought was a carp so shipped back quickly and started stripping elastic through the side puller only for a cracking 1.5lb perch to pop up, so a decent although slightly haphazard start! The anglers on the island were directly in my line of sight and Paul F and Dave M were already catching an ide a bung. Nige Bartlett on 5 (the best carp peg in the South West) was hooking lots of fish, unfortunately the majority of them didn’t count!
I was getting a few bites and had a small roach, followed by a 4oz eel and then landed my first carp (so five different species in as many chucks) but I wasn’t getting as many ide as I was hoping for and it was a similar story for Kev. After an hour I’d only managed to add a couple of ide and another eel to those early fish and from the anglers I could see (apart from Dave and Paul), it looked like it was fishing quite hard.
With indications now very sparse by the island, I’ve dropped in on the 10 metre line and caught three ide but was waiting ages for bites, switching to the other line at the same distance but in open water to my left, I had two little skimbobs and a roach but it just wasn’t happening. Carp were beginning to be a pain so I tried double disco pinkie on the hook and toss potting in half a dozen at a time and when I had a nice 1.5lb tench, I thought perhaps I was on to something but then I’ve hooked three carp in as many chucks to put an end to that idea!
A first look short was a resounding flop and similarly, another go across at 13 metres only resulted in a small roach and a couple of missed bites. With half an hour or so left I decided to spend the remaining time on the top four line and finally with five mins to go, the float slid under and I netted a pound skimmer just before the all out. I finished up with 20 fish (8 ide, 5 roach, 3 skimmers, 2 eels, a perch and that tench). Des and Zoe soon arrived with the scales, Graham S on peg 1 had 11lb 8oz, Paul weighed a brilliant 27lb, Dave had 13lb 9oz and Nigel struggled for 6lb 8oz after being carped out. Photos courtesy of Acorn*
Graham had 11lb 8oz on peg 1*
Paul had a fantastic 27lb of ide and skimmers*
Dave M did well on peg 4 weighing 13lb 9oz*
Kev P had 7lb 12oz, my fish went 10lb 7oz, Andy G weighed 7lb 4oz and Glenn had 3lb 6oz on peg 10. Gabe chucked back, Mo had 1lb 13oz, Mike W weighed 6lb 9oz and then Jo did well on 16 to win that section with 9lb 6oz. Foxy didn’t weigh, Simon D on 19 had 6lb 11oz, Matt V chucked back, Nick P had 10lb 15oz, Mike weighed 4lb 7oz on 25 and then Tony P went into second place with an excellent 17lb 4oz on 27.
Kev P weighed 7lb 12oz on peg 6*
I had 10lb 7oz of ide, roach, skimmers, eels, a perch and a tench*
Andy G weighed 7lb 4oz on peg 9*
Jo won her section with 9lb 6oz on peg 16*
Nick P did well winning his section with 10lb 15oz*
Tony P was second on the day with an excellent 17lb 4oz*
Eddie had 10lb 13oz, Mark Roberts on 31 weighed 11lb 6oz, Rod chucked back and then young Ben B did well on 34 with 15lb 7oz which was third on the day, Sue F had 5lb 13oz, Harry didn’t weigh and Rich L on 40 had 8lb 8oz.
Eddie had 10lb 13oz on peg 29*
Mark Roberts won his section with 11lb 6oz*
Ben Brooks was third on the day with 15lb 7oz*
Sue F had 5lb 13oz which included a lovely tench*
1 – Paul Faiers (Sensas 88) – 27lb
2 – Tony Ponting (Acorn) – 17lb 4oz (Q)
3 – Ben Brooks (Acorn) – 15lb 4oz
Sections
A – Dave Manning (Acorn) – 13lb 9oz (Q)
B – Jo Wingate (Acorn) – 9lb 6oz
C – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 10lb 15oz
D – Mark Roberts (Acorn) – 11lb 6oz
Another great match to remember Charlie, well done to Paul for being the latest name on the trophy and Acorn donated the peg fees to the Poppy appeal which was a lovely gesture for a brilliant cause.
There were also two qualifiers for the Ace of Acorn Silvers Final so well done to Tony Ponting and Dave Manning who were the latest names to be added to the list.
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
And if you could spare five minutes to leave a nice review on Amazon, it would be very much appreciated.
Next up – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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