Rocking on Chew

Fishing competition report for Chew, 15th September 2026

The third round of the championship was held at Chew on the 15th September, and sadly only 8 members could be with us on the day.  We battled with the elements!  The drizzle early in the morning happily cleared up by the time we started fishing at 9am.  Boats set off eagerly.  However the wind soon came up, leaving us gently - and not so gently - rocking, and shipping some water if anchored. 

The contestants spent much of the time aiming for the more clement conditions and hopinig there would be some fish there.  Some chose to drift with a drogue, others anchored, mostly between Villice Bay and the cages.  The stiff westerly - north westerly breeze seemed to move round all day but did not let up.

Jim started off on a bright note, with 3 fish in the boat by 10:30 before his partner had even had a pull, but Steve soon worked out that a floating line was the order of the day and soon overtook him. 

Lunchtime came, and the scores were Steve, 4 fish, Jim & Denis 3 each, Dave Price & Terry one each, and the others still looking for a first fish. Dave Glen regaled us with an epic story of a fish brought to the boat only to break Nick’s landing net, and Gary explained why his knot had broken whilst playing a monster.

The afternoon was even more blustery, and Steve added 2 more fish, Jim one (but lost 2), Dave Price 2 and Terry one.  Nick finally caught a fish just before finishing time at 5!  At the weigh-in we were joined by Bob & Pat, as well as Janet.

The final scores were:

Results:                                                      

Pos'n Name                       Lbs  Oz  

1      Steve Coles             17    4     

2      Jim McLaughlin      10    8     

3      Dave Price               8                 

4      Terry Feest              7      12   

5      Denis Wilmot          6      12   

6      Nick Boyd              2      4     

We caught 19 fish, averaging just over 2 ¾ lbs each. 

The biggest fish caught was a monster pike by Denis, but that did not count! The best trout by a good margin went to Steve with a 4 ¼ lb beauty of a fish, fin perfect and bright silver, but as he won the day's competition the big fish prize went to the runner-up, Terry, at 3lbs 7oz..        

The boat results were:

          Boat                                            Lbs        Oz  

Steve and Jim                      27    12   

Terry and Denis                  14    8     

Dave Price & Gary             8                 

Nick and David Glen          2      4     

So  Jim had the boat prize.

These results led to a change to the top of the leaderboard, with Steve moving up 3 places from 6th to third in the overall standings, so the table, with one round left on the 14th October is;

`Pos'n Name  Weight

1      Jim McLaughlin      40 lbs 13oz

2      Denis Wilmot          38 lbs 6oz

3      Steve Coles             35 lbs 11oz

4      Dave Price               28 lbs 9oz

5      Dave Glen               21 lbs 0oz

6      Bob South               18 lbs 15oz

7      Terry Feest              17 lbs 2oz

8      Chris Leat               13 lbs 3oz

9      Dave Green             8 lbs 14oz

10    Nick Boyd              7 lbs 8oz

11    Len Harris               5 lbs oz

12    Gary Williams         3 lbs 14oz

13    Dave Wheeler         2 lbs 8oz

14    Simon Reece           2 lbs 4oz

So, a tight run-in to the final round – with Denis unable to come to Blagdon on the 14th, will Jim’s 5lb 2 oz lead be enough or will Steve or Dave Price make a late run??