Walrow Ponds – 26th July 2026 – Against Men and Fish

Dan T has been telling me about Walrow for ages and it sounded like really nice fishing with big bream and tench and even better, no carp! I always get a real buzz visiting new venues and was looking forward to this, Nick and me met Zooner at Greggs and we followed him to Highbridge. Alongside the Silvers Lake, there are several specimen waters on site and it’s a rather impressive complex (check out the Highbridge AA website – here). If you’re not a member you can still fish the matches by paying £10 for a day ticket, pools are £20 and the payouts are really good as nothing is taken out, obviously it makes sense to join the club if you’re going to fish it regularly.

There were quite a few faces I recognised already there including Dan Squire (fresh from winning the recent two dayer), Ron Stark, Dave Nash, Dom Sullivan and Pete Curnow. The draw was announced and when my name was called I pulled out number 3 which obviously meant nothing to me. Talking to Dan T he said the pegs nearest the car park were shallower and it got deeper towards the top end. I was the first peg on the left hand side and had plenty of room with 1 and 2 not in and also 18, 19 and 20 on the opposite bank weren’t pegged either. Hopefully all the extra space would be a good thing although it did also make we wonder if it wasn’t a great area hence most of it being left out!

Plumbing up it was virtually the same depth from in close right out to 13 metres so I set up a couple of similar rigs to fish worm on the longer line and maggots over groundbait at top four. On the whistle I fed both lines before starting short, I thought I might get a few small fish while the 13 metre line settled but after half an hour I hadn’t had a bite while Dan S over on peg 16 was already off the mark with a decent bream. I had a look on my longer line and had a 6-8oz skimmer quite quickly, next chuck I had a 3lb bream and when that was followed by another, it felt like there were a few fish there.

Then I bumped one and feared the worst, it took ages before I had my third bream so I decided to feed it again and came back short to let it settle. I finally had a bite on maggot and struck expecting a small roach but loads of elastic came out before I netted another big skimmer. Nothing else short but the rest had done the long line good and I had another decent fish but also pulled out of one shipping back and bumped another! When my next fish was an eel, I thought I’d buggered it again and was going to pot in some more feed and rest it again but then I had bream number six so stayed on it a bit longer.

Odd fish were coming out around the lake but Dan S was catching well and looking good for another win, he also provided the mid-match entertainment when he hooked a big fish that led him a merry dance and at one stage it went under the floating fish refuge in the margins and then leapt back out over the rope securing it, leaving Dan in a bit of a predicament! Without hesitating he jumped into the margins, threaded his top kit under the rope and did brilliantly to land a rather large pike (which don’t count), it was weighed at 11lb and safely returned.

No more fish on my longer line so I came back short while I chopped some more worms, looking up the float was nowhere to be seen and I struck into another bream which I landed safely, it was a big fish that I struggled to get my hand round. The net limit is 36lb so with seven bream which I thought were 3-4lb plus a few bits and bobs, I put another net in as I thought I wasn’t far off that.

After potting in some worm on the long line again, I had another eel but then with two hours to go I couldn’t get a bite. I kept feeding and resting both swims but no more indications and as time was running out, I could see others netting fish and from doing well, I was now struggling. With just thirty minutes remaining, I had my eighth bream and then a few minutes later, the wind (which had been a nightmare all match) caught the pole and as it did the elastic came out! I was sure it would be foulhooked but I safely netted number nine, fairly hooked in the mouth.

Next put in I had my first roach and then with only five minutes to go, I had my tenth bream and had thoroughly enjoyed that. I was first to be weighed and thought I had somewhere between 35-40lb but my fish went 26lb 8oz so those bream hadn’t even been 2.5lb apiece! Ron on peg 5 had 7lb 11oz, Steve B weighed 3lb 13oz, Dom had 11lb 5oz, Zooner weighed 9lb 3oz and the last peg on our side, Mark Twist on 9 had 14lb 7oz (which included a lovely 5lb tench), so I’d won the section at least. Photos courtesy of Dan Taggart/Highbridge AA*

I had 10 bream, 2 small skimmers, 2 eels and a roach for 26lb 8oz*

Dom weighed 11lb 5oz of bream and tench*

Mark Twist had 14lb 7oz which included a lovely 5lb tench*

I was sure Dave Nash on 10 had beaten me as he’d caught well and at one stage went to get a third net but it turned out that was for two rogue carp that were then safely moved to one of the other lakes, his two nets went 25lb 3oz so it was really close. Nick also had a nice day with 19lb 8oz and he’d caught two cracking tench, Dan T weighed 17lb before Dan S had an excellent 38lb 14oz which would win comfortably and then Pete C on 17 had 3lb of mainly roach on the feeder.

1 – Dan Squire (Nytro/Fjuka) – 38lb 14oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 26lb 8oz
3 – Dave Nash (Highbridge) – 25lb 3oz

Sections
A – Mark Twist (Highbridge) – 14lb 7oz
B – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 19lb 8oz

Dan Squire won with a brilliant 38lb 14oz and still had time to provide us all with the mid-match entertainment!*

I really enjoyed my first visit to Walrow*

Nick won the other section with 19lb 8oz*

So I ended up second and had a nice pick up of £65 which I was well chuffed with on my first visit.

Nuggets from Zooner and Dan took the Nugget-O-Meter up to £492.

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