Emerald Pool Silvers Match.

A change of scenery for a match today with owner Alan allowing us to fish the main lake at this fishery just outside Highbridge, After a breky at hilltops with a few of the others it was off to the lake to arrange the pegs and With the forecast to be gale force winds and heavy showers I decided to change the pegging slightly to accommodate us in the most sheltered areas of the lake, With 13 fishing today we still had plenty of room as we were evenly spaced as we didn't know where the best place would be?  At the draw I let young Lewis Jones do the honours for me ending up on peg 6 the far side of the lake in the open water.

My swim.

For Company today I had Darren (Big Bird) Greenwood on 5 so a pound was struck with him & Olden day Avon Bait supreme Charlie Barns on peg 7 who loves his silver fish bashing, and with my previous trips producing good catches we were all hoping the fish would give us a good day. I planned to keep it as simple as I could as I new if it did fish well it would be those who could keep them coming who would gain the advantage so one rig to fish at 11mts on the deck in 5ft of water with caster over groundbait and pinkee being a preston 0.3g PB2 and a 4x10 chanti to try and catch shallow should conditions allow, both on 0.13-0.10 and an 18 PR490.

I started by feeding the 11mt line with 3 balls laced with caster and a few pinkee and one big cupful of wetted loose groundbait over the top to add some attracting cloud, I also Decided to feed a line where I could feed by hand so kicked off the swim by cupping in some pulped worm and caster at 5mts were I could feed caster easily. Starting on the long line it wasn't long before I started to catch some small skimmers on red maggot but knowing I had to catch a bigger stamp I changed to single caster on the hook and loose fed over the top by catty, It still wasn't fast fishing but  I started to get some net size fish and looking around those I could see others were also catching from the off, Well most of us" Except for Birdy next door who was struggling at 13mts to put anything together and soon saw him swap to his 7mt line with a whip" and caster,

This is where my match was to make a dramatic change as for the next 30mins I watched him take a fish a chuck all of net size and although I was catching they weren't of the same stamp and it was certainly beating me in the speed stakes so after 10mins out on the shallow rig and only one fish it was time to come on my short line with my depth rig. It was only about 3inches shallower on the 5mt line so after a quick alteration I started on single caster and as soon as the rig had settled it had gone and shortly after a nice 1lb roach was netted, No fluke as the bites kept coming from hybrids roach of all sizes and the odd tench to a 1lb plus, I even shouted up to Charlie who was stringing a few together what were his thoughts and he replied' I've Died and gone to heaven!"

I Felt Birdy was still catching faster on the whip so upped my feeding by hand to twice a cast in the hope of stealing some fish as the day went on and it seemed to improve stamp of fish for a while, with no more tench showing I decided to feed some more worm and caster on this line via a big pot to draw some to the swim, It did seem to work as I managed three more on the worm In the next hour up to a 1lb along with some nice hybrids and roach.

With two hours to go Glynn Wickham had been for a wonder and said all the pegs below me had around 30lb and Jamie Rich on the car park bank was catching well and had 120 plus fish so there was all to play for and for the remainder of the match I stayed at 5mts both sides of me swapping between both lines to keep fish coming of all sizes on single caster or worm loose feeding quite heavy by hand right up till the all out.

On the weigh in it was obvious there were going to be some great weights and starting the ball rolling was Nigel Wickham despite Having a moan about the peg at the start weighed a great 78lb , next up was Big Bird who had a nice all whip caught 43lb, I had two nets in and with silvers in each I didn't really have any idea to what I had but after two weighs my total weight of 98lb 14oz was a cracking days fishing and enough for first on the day.

part of my catch .

the whole lake fished well on the day and the lowest weight being 23lb everyone enjoyed a marvellous days fishing with plenty off bites. picking up a nice £70 I can thoroughly say it must rate as one of my best days ever despite the gods throwing everything it had at us.

2nd Nigel Wickham.

                         3rd Barry Fitchew

 Birdys whip caught net.

Results -  1st Dom Sullivan,  Maver/Cadbury Angling 98lb 14oz peg 6

                2nd Nigel Wickham,  Summerhayes 78lb 7oz

                 3rd Barry Fitchew,  Pole Repairs 55lb 2oz

                4th Wayne Blake,  Bristol  46lb 2oz

                 5th Jamie Rich, Against men and fish/Burts Baits  44lb 10oz

                6th Darren Greenwood,  Shiplate Farm 43lb 1oz