Acorn Fishery – Open – 17th January 2026

On Saturday it was up to Acorn for the first time this year, 28 anglers fishing today and I was disappointed to draw peg 12 as it’s a great carp swim. It’s also one of the widest at over 16 metres which wouldn’t be ideal as the ide tend to be across to the island and of course it was forecast to be windy (just for a change!).

It was nice and calm before the start

I set up rigs to fish across, a couple of lines at 11.5 metres plus a top two plus two swim and on the whistle fed all my lines before starting over at 16 metres which was still a bit short of the island. A bite quite quickly resulted in a carp but then I’ve lost three that I suspect were foulhooked. Paul Faiers over on 7 flew out of the blocks landing several carp while Graham on 9 and Mark Broomsgrove next door to him were also hooking quite a few but suffering some losses too.

It was really hard work fishing 16 metres and I was going nowhere fast so had a look on the 11.5 metre lines and began catching the odd ide and small roach although I was missing quite a few bites. I was landing the occasional carp and there probably wasn’t much between Paul, Graham, Mark and me. Then I hooked a decent fish which didn’t feel like a carp and a lovely tench getting on for 5lb was a nice bonus. Next chuck I hooked another which felt smaller and I was playing it very carefully only for it to dive under my nets and snap me! I also had two big ide come off at the net and along with losing more carp, I was making a good job of messing up a potentially winning peg!

Swapping between the two 11.5 metre lines I did manage another tench around a pound and some nice ide but was still foul hooking (and losing) quite a few carp. It was similar for Graham and Mark although they were landing more carp than me and I felt they were ahead but not by a lot. With five minutes to go, I’ve hooked another carp and really wanted to make it count but the hook pulled, I quickly checked the bait, shipped out and the float went straight under and I was into another, only for that to come off as well!

At the all out, I was a bit gutted and sure all those lost fish were going to cost me, the scales started on the island and as they got round to us, a quick look at the board revealed it had been tricky for most. Mark Roberts was leading the silvers with 18lb 7oz from peg 1 and Steven Jones had the best weight so far with 48lb 13oz on peg 5. Then Graham went into the lead with 57lb 5oz and Mark B was only a couple of fish behind with 46lb. My silvers went 11lb 7oz and then my carp added 30lb 12oz for a 42lb 3oz total and I was sure I was just going to miss out today.

Back at the results, Graham had won it with Steven second and Howard Green on peg 24 took third place with 48lb 9oz. I had a nice surprise when Chris said I’d won the section picking up £50 and the good news didn’t end there as second place didn’t go in the superpool which meant I picked up an extra £15 (as they pay four in the superpool). The weights were really close with just 6lb 10oz separating fifth and second place.

1 – Graham Ward (Acorn) – 57lb 5oz
2 – Steven Jones (Acorn) – 48lb 13oz
3 – Howard Green (Acorn) – 48lb 9oz

Sections
A – Mark Broomsgrove (Sensas 88) – 46lb
B – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 42lb 3oz
C – Kev Perry (Sensas 88) – 23lb 4oz

Silvers
1 – Mark Roberts (Acorn) – 18lb 7oz

I was a bit gutted really, I’m sure everyone lost fish but the tench that did me under my nets was bad angling and my own fault and I’m sure a decent carp angler would have won the match on my peg today, still it was nice to finally get a little bit of superpools money back!

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