Revels on Tuesday was the destination for my fourth match in as many days and after Dean drew me two cracking silvers pegs on my previous visits this year, I was sure I was due a duff one today. Part of the appeal for me at Revels is that you never know which lakes or pegs are being used until you get there and even after the draw there are usually some intriguing permutations like silvers anglers drawing the more carpy pegs and vice versa. Of course the unpredictability of fishing also means that sometimes even the more fancied silvers or carp lakes don’t fish as well as expected so nothing is ever a given and that’s why I love it. Throw in reasonable pools/entry that is split equally between overall and silvers, fantastic mid-week attendances with a great bunch of people and it’s a winning formula, I just wish I could fish it every Tuesday!
20 anglers fishing today and when my name was called I mentally prepared myself for a carpy peg on Main so was delighted when Dean pulled out 53 on Dead Tree for me, it’s the end peg and although I’d have preferred to have been further to my right, I really fancied it.
I set up the usual little 0.1 and 0.2 gram rigs to fish two lines at top five and a couple more at 11.5 metres. On the whistle I fed all my lines before starting on a top kit by the reeds on the inside. Dave S on 49 had a decent skimmer first chuck fishing short and then added a second quite quickly whereas I hadn’t had an indication yet! After ten minutes I’ve gone out on the top five line and a nice positive bite resulted in a decent skimmer but at this early stage it was quite hard going. I was catching some roach and perch swapping between the two top five swims and then a lovely 12oz hybrid was a nice boost.
The short lines continued to yield odd fish including a decent skimmer but it was fading as we reached the three hour mark so I had my first look on the 11.5 metre line where I’d been pinging maggots and really thought it was going to be good but never had a bite! Back on the short lines I had a little blade followed by a pound skimmer but then couldn’t get a bite there either. Dave had slowed up as well so he cupped in some groundbait before going for a walk to see how Main lake was fishing.
On his return he said it was a similar story down there with nobody bagging on silvers, back on his box he shipped out and had another decent skimmer first put in which I was sure put him well ahead of me and I needed to find some more skimmers. I went long again but wasn’t expecting much after not having a bite when I first tried it, the float settled before sailing away and I had a nice skimmer, another four followed in fairly quick succession with one around 1.5lb. It slowed up so I came back short to rest the 11.5 metre lines and had two more skimbobs but we’d also reached that time of day and I hooked three carp in 20 minutes.
I did manage one more 4oz skimbob before the end to finish up with 50 fish which I hoped would go around 8lb but I didn’t think there was much between Dave, me and apparently Mark Sheppard on 46 had also done well. The scales started over on 41 with Roy W who had 25lb 11oz of carp, Mark’s silvers weighed 7lb 3oz, Ade Hayes on 48 had 13lb 1oz (including 5lb 11oz of silvers) and then Dave had 7lb 11oz of mainly skimmers. Faz on 51 weighed 10lb 3oz of carp and silvers before the scales reached me, it was close but thankfully the digital display settled on 9lb 6oz to put me in the lead for the time being with the other lake still to weigh. Photos courtesy of Revels*
My 9lb 6oz of skimmers, roach and perch was enough to win the silvers*
Back at the car park and Main had fished hard with Jon Bass having the best silvers with 7lb 2oz from 16 (a great weight from that peg), the overall weights were crazily close with Derek Purchase taking the verdict with 59lb 7oz while Dave Chidzoy and Scott Cousins were both just ounces behind on 59lb 2oz!
Derek Purchase had the top weight on the day with 59lb 7oz from peg 21*
Dave Chidzoy was close behind (as was his friend in the photo!) with 59lb 2oz*
Scott Cousins was joint second with 59lb 2oz from peg 22*
1 – Derek Purchase (Revels) – 59lb 7oz
2 – Dave Chidzoy (Revels) – 59lb 2oz
2 – Scott Cousins (Revels) – 59lb 2oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 9lb 6oz
2 – Dave Stanbridge (Revels) – 7lb 11oz
3 – Mark Sheppard (Revels) – 7lb 3oz
Another really enjoyable day and I had a nice pick up of £50 plus a nugget from Adrian Hayes helped the charity total up to £307.
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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