River Parrett – J. Irish Trophy – 2nd August 2026

Round four of the Memorial Shield and I was still just about in contention but would need three more section wins to stand any chance. After breakfast we all assembled at Parrett Works for the draw, I pulled out 21 in the second field which isn’t a bad peg but as you’re up against 28 and 29, I felt winning the section would be a tall order. Dave P and Nick were on 5 and 13 respectively in the top section and I wouldn’t particularly have fancied their pegs either.

My swim looked nice and I set up rigs for down the middle and across, when I drew it last year I caught quite a few eels so would have another go for them at some point today. On the whistle I started with maggot on the hook but minnows were being a pain so it wasn’t long before I was on caster but that didn’t deter them so I put two on which helped a bit. I had a couple of gudgeon followed by a small chublet and then next chuck hooked a big fish, I immediately swung the pole round parallel to the bank and shipped back. Thinking I was winning I lifted the pole up to see where the fish was but it had gone under some crap on the far bank. Despite changing the angle etc, it was solid and the fish long gone so I had to pull for a break – gutted.

I did have a chublet not long after and then struck into another decent fish which straight away I knew was an eel, with only a 0.09mm hooklength I thought I had no chance and felt sure it would bite me off. Thankfully luck was on my side this time and I safely netted a good fish around a pound which settled me down a bit after losing that chub. As the halfway point approached, I wasn’t getting many indications (apart from minnows) and had only added one more little chublet so decided to feed the worm line.

With half a dendra on I had a chublet quite quickly followed by my second eel and when I had another not long after, with two hours left, I thought I’d get a few more. The next positive bite resulted in my usual trout and then from getting quite a few indications, I couldn’t get a bite and over the next hour or so, I only had one gudgeon. Nick wandered down with around thirty minutes remaining so I thought he must be struggling but he said he probably had 6lb!

With just quarter of an hour left on the clock, I hooked a fish that I thought was trout so was very pleasantly surprised when a 12oz chub popped up. The next bite was from a trout that performed some aerobatics before coming off and I had another indication that didn’t develop and then the final whistle went. My final tally was 3 eels, 4 gudgeon, 1 chub and 4 chublets (plus a few minnows) which I thought would go around 4lb.

I had the scales so along with my glamourous assistant Bob, we headed down to start the weigh in with Derek G on 29 and he had a lovely net of quality roach for 5lb 5oz, Nigel C next door also had some nice roach for 2lb 12oz, Dave H on 27 weighed 1lb 10oz, Harv had struggled for 4oz (mainly small fish), Cliffy also had 1lb 10oz, Norts weighed 14oz, Bob had a pound and then my fish went 3lb 6oz (less than I thought) for second in the section.

Derek had some quality roach for 5lb 5oz

Nigel weighed 2lb 12oz on peg 28

Cliffy had lots of small fish for 1lb 10oz

Norts weighed 14oz (mainly small fish) and I’m not quite sure what face he’s pulling! (blowing us a kiss or howling at the sun, you decide!)

I had 3lb 6oz of eels, chub and gudgeon for second in the section

Back at the results and Nick had slightly over estimated but still won the section with 3lb 13oz, Wayne C was second with 3lb 5oz, Jack W had 1lb 15oz for third and Dave P was fourth with 1lb 5oz from peg 5.

Section A
1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 3lb 13oz
2 – Wayne Cooper (Stoke) – 3lb 5oz
3 – Jack Warner (Stoke) – 1lb 15oz
4 – Dave Pope (Stoke) – 1lb 5oz

Section B
1 – Derek Goad (Stoke) – 5lb 5oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 3lb 6oz
3 – Nigel Clark (Stoke) – 2lb 12oz
4 – Cliff Gaylard (Stoke) – 1lb 10oz

I picked up £25 for second in the section but despite a decent result, I’d fallen a point further behind Nick who now needs one good result from the last two matches to win the series.

Two rounds to go and Nick has still only dropped one point with the chasing back a long way back,

Nick P – 39 pts
Dave P – 34 pts
Jamie R – 34 pts
Wayne C – 33 pts

£2 each from Nick and me helped the Nugget-O-Meter reach £497.

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