Coombe Farm – Ruthie’s Cup – 28th June 2026

For the final round we were at Coombe Farm, it’s a cracking silvers venue but for the last few years you’ve needed to catch carp to win and the corner pegs (1, 7 and 10) tend to dominate. In our group we had two contenders for the title, Nick Veale on 4 points and Nick Payne with 5, as for me, my challenge was effectively over in round one when I scored 3 points and I maintained that average for the next two rounds, so very consistent (consistently crap!). If Nick V won the section today, nobody could catch him so Nick P would need to beat him and do it with a big weight because it could come down to that if they (and possibly others) tied on points. Nick V wasn’t actually fishing today so super-sub Steve Chant had been drafted in and had actually won the lake in the previous round fishing for someone else.

After breakfast at Cartgate, it was time for the draw and Nick P drew peg 1 so was still in with a chance if he could tame a few of the venues large carp, Chanter got number 7 where he’d won the last match so he was obviously really happy with that and Danny was on 10 which meant Stu (peg 4) and me on 9 got the middle pegs which I didn’t mind as I should have a nice days fishing for silvers but wouldn’t be troubling the frame unless the carp had an off day.

After a short-ish drive we arrived and the lake looked nice with quite a few fish moving about. We got underway and I fed swims at top four and 11.5 metres before starting on the shorter line. I was getting indications straight away from little 1-2oz skimbobs but struggling to get any quality, caster resulted in odd decent fish but it was quite hard going. Worm was better and I started catching some lovely crucians and skimmers although Danny and Chanter had both already caught a couple of carp.

I’ve caught quite well for three hours before bites on the short line slowed up, moving out to 11.5 metres it took a while to start catching but regularly toss potting in groundbait with worm head on the hook I began getting some big skimmers along with a couple of eels. Nick P over on peg 1 was having a bit of a nightmare hooking carp but getting beat up by them in the reeds while Stu was having a similar day to me catching silvers.

As we neared the end of the match, Danny and Chanter were still neck and neck and it was going down to the wire to see who would win the section. At the all out, even though I’d had a lovely days fishing, I knew I wouldn’t be picking up again and it’s been my worst series since it began.

The scales started with Danny who had 22lb of carp and a lovely net of quality silvers weighing 26lb 4oz, my fish went 25lb 6oz and then Chanter had 54lb 14oz of carp which would win the section (and the league for Nick V), Stu had some big skimmers in his 15lb 2oz and Nick P weighed 11lb 2oz but had lost 9-0 to the carp.

Danny weighed 48lb 4oz which included 26lb 4oz of quality silvers

I had 25lb 6oz of skimmers, tench, crucians and eels

Chanter won the lake with 54lb 14oz

Stu had 15lb 2oz including some big skimmers

There were some great weights recorded by the other groups as well, another supersub, Ian Burton, was top on the private pond with 37lb 6oz which included some big bream, Oscar had 61lb of carp to top Group 3 on Stoke pond and Dave Nash did well to win the silvers group there with 6lb 4oz.

Group 1 (Coombe Farm)
1 – Steve Chant (Stoke) – 54lb 14oz
2 – Danny Blunn (Stoke) – 48lb 4oz

Group 2 (Private Pond)
1 – Ian Burton (Stoke) – 37lb 6oz
2 – Steve Parker (Ilton) – 17lb 13oz

Group 3 (Stoke Pond)
1 – Rob Wylde (Stoke) – 61lb
2 – Craig Lyttle (Stoke) – 48lb 13oz

Group 4 (Stoke Pond)
1 – Dave Nash (Stoke) – 6lb 4oz
2 – Nigel Clark (Stoke) – 2lb 9oz

The final league standings saw Nick V claim the title with 5 points, Dave Nash was second with 6 and Rob Wylde took third place with 7. The final charity total was an amazing £1800, along with the money raised from the entry fees etc, lots of the anglers donated some of their winnings along with several who made generous contributions, well done everyone. Photo courtesy of Chris White*

Nick Veale being presented with the trophy by the Grand Wiz*

So Nick Veale is the latest name added to the trophy,

2026 – Nick Veale
2025 – Craig Lyttle
2024 – Andy Burns
2023 – Terry Morgan
2022 – Chris Norton

A pound from Yorkie (cheers mate) took The Nugget-O-Meter up to £435.

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