Stoke Pond – Ruthie’s Cup – 17th May 2026

For Ruthie’s Cup this year we were up to twenty anglers, so five per group to be split over four venues with each group visiting the different lakes once. The draw for who was in which group took place a week prior and I was in with the two Nicks (Payne and Veale), Danny Blunn and Stu Aplin, a great bunch of lads and for round one we were at Stoke Pond. Also, for my sins I’d been designated Group Captain which meant I had the ‘pleasure’ of being in charge of the draw and doing the weigh in.

We all met at Cartgate for breakfast before doing the draw, I scattered the tickets on the table and after the others had picked theirs, I had the remaining folded piece of paper. The club have done loads of work on the pond including cutting out a new swim in the reeds between 3 and 4 and creating several other pegs taking the number to 18. The best pegs used to be 3 and 4 and I was delighted when I saw I was on the former. Stu was on 4, Danny drew 5 (the old 4), Nick P got 15 and Nick V was in 18.

The pond looked good with a few carp swimming about and I thought we’d be in for a good day. In the corresponding fixture last year, I’d caught well pinging 6mm pellets so that was my plan again today with rigs set up to fish on the deck and shallow at 13 metres.

With everyone ready and raring to go, I shouted the all in before shipping out and regularly pinging pellets while lifting and dropping the rig. It took a few minutes to get my first fish which was a little pastie, then I had one of 12oz and next chuck hooked a decent fish (the average stamp is around 2-4lb). I got down to the top kit and it wasn’t doing much, just plodding around when all of a sudden the 0.15mm hooklength parted! The next two fish were safely netted but then I hooked another and once again got it under control before something gave and instead of a 4lb carp I was attached to a rather large branch!

At this early stage I wasn’t too concerned but then couldn’t get a bite and it sounded like the pond had switched off, I’ve gone by the reeds to my right and eventually hooked what felt like a slightly better fish, I got it away from the reeds and had it going round in circles under my feet, it looked a decent 5lb+ fish too. A couple of times I’ve had it virtually in the net only for the hook to pull out and my match was rapidly turning into a disaster.

Nick V said he’d caught early but now couldn’t get a bite and Stu wandered up from peg 4 and said he’d snapped a pole section and was now fishing for bits on the whip and apparently Danny had suffered a breakage too. With two hours left I opened a tin of corn and started fishing in front of the reeds and tapping a few grains in. I had two little pasties quite quickly and then was into another decent carp which I got into open water only for everything to go solid. Adding sections to change the angle, there was movement and then something gave and I came back with a reed on the hook as the day went from bad to worse.

I was getting quite a few indications and another three pounder was netted, I got snapped by one and landed a decent carp along with a few more pasties and a roach. At the all out, I was sure Nick V had beaten me but hadn’t seen the other Nick catch much and thought there was a chance of sneaking second in the section. After packing up I went round to weigh Nick P in and he’d actually caught 8 carp plus pasties for 26lb 12oz and I knew I didn’t have that. Nick V just edged into the lead with 27lb 10oz and then my fish went 18lb 4oz. Stu had 17lb 14oz (including loads of bits for 3lb 3oz) and Danny weighed 14lb 3oz.

Nick P had 26lb 12oz for second in the section

Nick V won the lake with 27lb 10oz from peg 18

Stu weighed 17lb 14oz on peg 4

Danny on peg 5 had 14lb 3oz

So I finished third which effectively ended my chances in the league after the first round as with small sections, you normally need a total of 4 or 5 points to challenge for the title. As the other results started coming in to the WhatsApp group, there’d been some cracking weights recorded on the other ponds, Norts (ex Club Angler of the Year) had the top weight at Dillington with 41lb of bream and chub from peg 2 (photo courtesy of Chris White*), on the private pond, Dave Phillips edged a close section with 20lb 6oz and Dave Nash topped the lake at Coombe with an excellent 36lb 2oz of skimmers, tench and crucians (photo credit – Terry Morgan**).

Group 1 (Stoke Pond)
1 – Nick Veale (Milo) – 27lb 10oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 26lb 12oz

Group 2 (Dillington)
1 – Chris Norton (Stoke) – 41lb
2 – Roy Worth (Stoke) – 20lb 12oz

Norts had the top weight at Dillington with 41lb of bream and chub*

Group 3 (Private Pond)
1 – Dave Phillips (Stoke) – 20lb 6oz
2 – Craig Lyttle (Stoke) – 20lb 2oz

Group 4 (Coombe Farm)
1 – Dave Nash (Stoke) – 36lb 2oz
2 – Terry Morgan (Stoke) – 25lb 7oz

Dave Nash won the section at Coombe with 36lb 2oz of crucians, tench and skimmers**

A really bad day at the office for me as I made a right mess of a great peg although a combination of factors contributed to my downfall, I felt I was a little unlucky losing three fish to unseen snags, rubbish netting cost me another and I didn’t make the switch to corn early enough.

At breakfast, kind donations from Norts (£5), Craig Lyttle (£5) and Rob Wylde (£1) took the Nugget-O-Meter up to £370.

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