Emerald Pool Silvers Open.

With Darren (Big Bird) picking me up this morning we made are way to Hilltops for the formal breakfast though how birdy manages to eat the biggest on offer I don't know' Down to the fishery and with 18pegs in today some of it was goin to be a bit tight so I was hoping to draw the far side which is seeming the more favoured area to be in with it being slightly deeper and more room to play with so in went my hand and out comes peg 7 which put my by the lifebuoy on the nearside car park bank which has been producing 30-40lb weights of late so a lot to play for until I realised I had Alex Murry on the peg to my right which is not normally put in meaning as we were close I couldn't fish to my right as I would of liked and a small island prevented me going left and I didn't want to go to close to it as it looked a tad carpy"

 Most of the best weights come buy fishing short with maggot or caster so a 0.3g PB2 was set up to fish on the deck in three and a half feet of water on 0.11- 0.10 with an 18 63-13, a lighter 4x10 rig to catch through the water if possible on 0.10-0.09 and a 18 silver fish, both to fish at 5mts , and a swim around a yard off the island at 11mts which was 3 inches deeper so I could use the same rigs for both.

at the start I cupped in some chopped worm on the short line, and a small nugget of micro and a few expanders on the longer swim, starting long with an expander on the hook I had some small hybrids then a 1lb tench before a small lull which resulted in a carp of 3lb, not good', a couple more small samples saw me add another nugget of micro and switch to the caster on the short line which I had been feeding by hand soon saw me catching and although I felt I was behind I was getting the odd tench and big roach to help build my weight up but the problem seemed to be when I didn't have a ripple on the water due to the island I found it hard to get a bite which saw me having to put a section on and fish further beyond were I was feeding.

at the halfway point the match really took a swing and the lakes carp population turned on and everyone seemed to by playing one at some stage it put an end to the silvers for me and Alex for the rest of the match with us taking it in turns in Artistic display fishing of carp on light elastic but its amassing how you get them all in" we only managed to add a few 1lb of silvers each for the rest of the match as it didn't matter what you put on the hook you hooked One!

The Noted far bank produced the goods as even between the carp the silvers were still being added right up to the whistle.

For the second match in a row Nigel Garret took the win on the far side with a cracking 92lb all caught short on the maggot , And Glynn Wickham finishing 2nd with 52lb from the same bank fishing caster. It was a shame the swims died for me and Alex, as we were both catching and I ended on 32lb which was nearly all in the first three hours" still a great days fishing though with over 680lb of silvers caught between us all.   

            

  Part of Nigel's winning bag.

       Runner up Glyn's catch.

Full results- 1st Nigel Garrett (Summerhayes) 92lb

                     2nd Glynn Wickham (Summerhayes) 52lb 4oz

                     3rd Martin Heard (Tiverton) 51lb 10oz

                     4th Ray Wickham (Summerhayes) 49lb 12oz .