River Parrett – Mrs Williams Cup – 19th July 2026

After two rounds, my challenge for the Memorial Shield was fading already and anything less then a section win today would finish it off for this year! We met at Parrett Works for the draw and all the pegs would be in the first field for this one. As the draw got underway, Nick P delved in early and only went and pulled out 16 for the second match running! As for me, I got number 7 which I was initially disappointed with but on paper it did look like quite a fair section.

Parking behind my peg, I got my kit out and as I was setting up, a couple of decent fish topped (okay they may have been trout but I was starting to look forward to this!). On the whistle I started at four sections where there was a little bit of flow and had a couple of gudgeon before catching a 4oz roach, more gobies followed along with a little dace and a tiny chublet. Trying double caster resulted in a nice dace and a chublet, next chuck the float buried and I struck into a big fish, it shook it’s head a couple of times and was plodding about, wary of the 0.09mm hooklength I didn’t really know what to do. It then woke up and headed towards the reeds (on the left in the photo above), it reached sanctuary and snapped me. I just sat there for a few moments stunned and knew I’d messed up, in hindsight I should have chucked the pole back and used the puller kit to try and stop it, yes it might still have broken me but I’d have a least given myself a chance.

A little later I did hook another big fish and did exactly that, only for it to turn out to be a 1.5lb trout but I’m still convinced that first one was a chub. Bites down the middle had dried up so I tried the heavier rig across but only had a couple of knocks. Back on the top four line, I did have a small chub around 8oz but with half the match gone I probably only had a pound in the net so fed some chopped worm down the middle.

I started getting indications on half a dendra and had a 2oz perch quite quickly, I missed a few knocks and then had a lovely slow bite which I just knew would be an eel. On the strike it was solid and then there was the unmistakable head shaking before it swam off and at this stage I thought I was into a really big eel. I took my time with it and when it eventually came up it was a decent fish around a pound but not as big as I first thought.

Nick P came for a walk and said he was struggling but did have a 2.5lb perch and a pound roach! It sounded like it was fishing hard though, so with around 2lb in the net, a couple more eels would get me to the magic 3lb mark (although if I hadn’t lost that chub, I’d already be there!). I did hook another decent fish which turned out to be poxy trout number two and then with thirty minutes remaining, the float slid away and I had my second eel, around 8oz this time. Despite praying to the ‘Fish Fairy’, that was my last bite and I only ended up with 12 fish plus a few minnows.

I packed up and went to watch the weigh in, Dave H on peg 1 had 13oz, Nigel C weighed 11oz, Harv on 3 had 3oz (mainly small fish), Danny B weighed 1lb 15oz including a decent eel, Derek G on 5 had 1lb 4oz and then my fish went 2lb 12oz.

Dave H on peg 1 had 13oz

Nigel C weighed 11oz

Danny B was second in the section with 1lb 15oz

Derek G had lots of small fish for 1lb 4oz which was third

I had 2lb 12oz to win the section

Back at the results and Nick P had won the other section (and match) with 3lb 5oz, Bob Newbury was second with 2lb 12oz on peg 13 and Dave P third with 1lb 15oz.

Section A
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 2lb 12oz
2 – Danny Blunn (Stoke) – 1lb 15oz
3 – Derek Goad (Stoke) – 1lb 4oz

Section B
1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 3lb 5oz
2 – Bob Newbury (Ilminster) – 2lb 12oz
3 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 1lb 15oz

With three rounds gone in the race for the Memorial Shield, Nick P is in pole position and has only dropped a single point so far,

Nick P – 29 pts
Dave P – 27 pts
Jamie R – 25 pts
Wayne C – 24 pts
Steve H – 22 pts
Dave H – 22 pts

I picked up £30 for winning the section and as always it was a really close match with just ounces in it and I was gutted at losing that fish which I’m pretty confident was a chub but as I’ve hooked more trout than ever before at Parrett Works, I can’t be 100% sure. As far as the league is concerned, I’m just about hanging on in there but to stand any chance I’d need to win my section in the three remaining matches and even then, 48 points might not be enough!

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