The Xmas Matches are coming thick and fast as I’ve booked into five this year (which might be the most I’ve ever entered although one of them isn’t strictly a Xmas Fayre with prizes etc). As always there was a big turnout for this one with 38 anglers fishing and it’s a rover/walk off/draw and choose style match where you pull a number out the bucket and that’s your choice of the swims with all the available pegs marked on a white board. It’s also a rolling draw so if you pull out number 1 you can choose your peg and off you go, if you’re number 10, you have to wait until 1-9 have been drawn and so on.
When we arrived there were still quite a few low numbers left in the bucket including number 3, so I delved in whilst confidently predicting I was about to pull out that very ball…… Well it had the number 3 on it, the trouble was it also had the number 2 attached to it! On my wish list had been 15 and 30-35 on Longs, 16-22 on Sellicks but I knew they’d be long gone by the time it was my turn to choose. I hung around drinking coffee and admiring all the festive Xmas hats and jumpers on display as all the favoured pegs were being crossed off on the board. When my name was finally called, I was surprised to see 27 on Longs was still available which I claimed and was fairly happy with.
Zooner was looking particularly festive and full of good cheer!
We also had The Grinch (aka Alan Jenkins) in attendance
Nick Chedzoy was on the other side of Toby
For company I had Toby Burrell on 29 and Dave Bull was to my right, there were odd small fish topping as we were setting up so hopefully we’d get a few bites. On the whistle I fed all my lines before starting short, it took twenty minutes to get my first fish which was a chunky 2oz perch. Next chuck I had a little skimmer followed by a couple of roach and another skimbob but before I could get too excited, the bites just stopped.
On the longer line I missed a bite before bumping a fish and then pulled out of one shipping back which was far from ideal! I managed two small skimmers and a roach before it died, back short I had a couple of fish and then a decent roach across to the island but it was already looking like being a really tough day. Toby and Chedz next to him had only caught a carp apiece and I hadn’t seen Dave, Rob Birch or Steve Collins (on 18 and 19) catch much either.
Rotating rounds my lines for the remainder of the match, just a couple more small fish were added to my meagre catch and I only foul hooked one carp all match and that came off. Dan T and me were tasked with weighing in Longs and as per usual we started at the top end, Martin Billett weighed 3lb 2oz on 37, Big Bad Bob had 5lb 6oz, on ‘Cyanide Straight’ Steve M didn’t weigh, Mark Webber had 5lb 6oz and Glynn caught a 1lb of silvers.
Ian Brooks on 7 had the top weight so far with 13lb 3oz of carp, Mick Blake DNW’d and then Alex weighed 3lb 10oz of silvers on 13, Nigel Wickham had 3lb 7oz which included a lovely perch, Rob B didn’t weigh and Steve C had 2lb. Steve A on 22 recorded a DNW, Dave B weighed 1oz and then I had 1lb 5oz (mainly small fish), Toby had 1lb 9oz, Nick C weighed 7lb 8oz and then Adie on 32 had 7lb 13oz which included 4lb 12oz of silvers. Parker ‘The Pole’ took a nugget off me with 2lb 3oz, Pete D didn’t weigh and Hollywood had 3lb on peg 36.
Steve Collins weighed 2lb (mainly one carp)
Nick Chedzoy had 7lb 8oz on peg 30
Back at the results and it had fished hard for most with the exception of Dave Romain who annihilated the match from peg 3 on Dennys with a massive 150lb 7oz of carp, Mark Leahy was also on the same lake finishing second overall with 23lb 7oz and Henry Hadden was third with 21lb 14oz from Big 8. Top silvers weight on the day was Nigel Jackson who had 7lb 13oz of skimmers and roach from peg 3 on Sellicks, Bruce Hunt on Big 8 peg 3 had some nice chublets, quality roach and a decent perch for 4lb 12oz which was joint second in the silvers with Adie. Photos courtesy of Summerhayes*
Dave Romain won the match by a rather large margin with 150lb 7oz of carp from Dennys*
Nigel Jackson had the top silvers weight on the day with 7lb 13oz from Sellicks*
Bruce Hunt was joint second in the silvers with 4lb 12oz from Big 8
1 – Dave Romain (Summerhayes) – 150lb 7oz
2 – Mark Leahy (Summerhayes) – 23lb 7oz
3 – Henry Hadden (Summerhayes) – 21lb 14oz
Silvers
1 – Nigel Jackson (Summerhayes) – 7lb 13oz
2 – Bruce Hunt (Summerhayes) – 4lb 12oz
2 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 4lb 12oz
After the match all the anglers enjoyed burger and chips cooked by Terri and Pete so a big thanks to them and then there was the prize giving. I had plenty of time to enjoy my food before my name was called out and I added another tin of Quality Street and a Terry’s Chocolate Orange to my stash of festive treats. There were also a random draw for two lovely Baileys hampers which went to Toby and Nick P.
Bailey’s Hamper winners
Toby Burrell
Nick Payne
I would like to say a massive thanks to Pete and Sally for all their hard work organising a great match and sorting the prizes and also to Roy Hughes for helping with the draw, weigh in etc.
A pound from Zooner plus Steve P gave me back the one he took off me saw the Nugget-O-Meter reach £107.
As I won’t be getting up to date with the blog posts anytime soon I’d like to take this opportunity to wish everyone who reads the blog, A Happy New Year, stay safe, tight lines and please keep reading in 2026. I must also say a massive thanks to Bait-Tech and Colmic for their continued support.
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 – Acorn
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
#sponsoredpost #affiliatelinks
