River Parrett – Autumn Triple Round 3 – 9th November 2025

Going into the final round I was actually leading the series but with Derek only two points behind and Dave and Danny also in close proximity, anything could happen and after drawing number 10 last week I was praying for a better peg this time. After breakfast at The Ranch it was soon time for the draw and with eight of us fishing, there were only three pegs I really didn’t want (10, 11 and 13). I delved into the bucket, grabbed a milk bottle top but didn’t look straight away and as people started writing their names next to the peg numbers, rather ominously the space by number 10 remained blank and I had a horrible feeling what was coming!

Even more worrying was that two of the anglers right on my tail in the league had drawn great pegs, Derek and Danny were on 16 and 18 and I really felt there was good chance of my slim lead being overhauled. Dave P proved the draw definitely wasn’t rigged as he was on 11 which is nearly as crap as the peg I suspected I had. Anyway, after I’ve built it up, it’ll come as no surprise that I opened my fingers and 10 was staring back at me for the second match on the trot and I was gutted!

It is a different photo from last week (honest!)

When I arrived at my personal parking space behind peg 10, the river looked in great condition again with a tinge of colour but unlike last week, I didn’t see any fish top as I was setting up and I was already fearing the worst! We got underway and two gudgeon in the first couple of run throughs was encouraging but before I could get too excited, the minnows moved in and even double caster only resulted in the very occasional gonk. After a couple of hours, Nick wandered down from peg 8 and said he was only catching minnows and it was a similar story for Fieldy who was between us on 9.

I thought if it was fishing that hard, I might as well just fish maggot and try and keep putting something in the net although I had that nagging doubt that surely somebody had to be catching a few better fish. It was a real struggle and I wasn’t even catching very many minnows, I tried fishing a top kit to hand but never had a bite there, then out the blue I had two dace and pulled out of one at the top of the swim but next chuck I had a 8oz trout and that was the end of that! I did notice Nick netting a fish so I had quarter of an hour fishing worm with the heavier rig hoping for a get out of jail eel but never had a bite on it.

For the remaining time I carried on putting minnows along with a couple of gobies in the net to end up with not a lot and I was sure I’d finish well down today and fall at the final hurdle for the Autumn Triple trophy. After packing up I went to watch the weigh in and Nick had found two small chub and some bits for 1lb 13oz, Fieldy had a chub and some dace for 1lb 12oz, my mixed bag of two dace, twelve gudgeon and minnows went 1lb 3oz and then Dave P had 11oz.

Nick had the top weight on the day with 1lb 13oz (although he didn’t look very happy about it!)

Fieldy was just ounce behind in second place

As we waited for the others to come back, I was trying to work out the points permutations, if Derek finished first or second he’d beat me and Danny could tie with me on points which would then go down to our aggregate weights. Derek arrived and said he’d weighed 1lb 2oz so I’d actually gained a point on him and then looking at the sheet, Harv weighed 14oz on peg 13, Chris White had 1lb 11oz on 14 and Danny had caught 1lb 4oz so he’d pulled a point on me but I’d hung on to win the series with 24 points followed by Derek and Danny who both had 21.

1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 1lb 13oz
2 – Graham Field (Taunton) – 1lb 12oz
3 – Chris White (Stoke) – 1lb 11oz
4 – Danny Blunn (Stoke) – 1lb 4oz

Final Autumn Triple standings

Jamie Rich – 24 pts
Danny Blunn – 21 pts
Derek Goad – 21 pts

I was well chuffed to get my name on another river trophy this season and even though the fishing had been rock hard today, the weights had been incredibly close, just 2oz between first and third and the same margin separated fourth to sixth! Looking at the top four weights in all three rounds, pegs 9, 14 and 18 framed every match, peg 8 won twice and peg 4 was third in the first match.

The Grand Wiz donated a fiver and with £2 each from Nick P and me, the Nugget-O-Meter total rose to £34.

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