Summerhayes Fishery Weds Open.

Off to summerhayes for the second time this year and after a quick call to owner Pete this morning I was informed the match was to be on Sellicks Lake today for a change which is a lake I like as it takes a fair bit if working out through the day, A free welcome cuppa with the other guys before the draw saw former fisho mania champ Steve Jackson put on his bright orange suit to take the micky out of Dave Bull who apparently has been turning up to watch people on the matches although it could be somewhat off putting and a few regulars have said he has killed there swims when he turns up"

 Jacko'

Back to the draw and I end up on peg 23 which was the peg I had draw last year when I was here which I ended up winning the match off of with over 100lb on the worm and caster but that was September time and I new that wouldn't work today as it was a lot cooler and the water wouldn't be anywhere near the temperature it was then, There are a lot of options on this peg but I didn't plan to fish to many lines causing me to complicate things so a rig to fish tight into the far bank being a 4x10 Chanti on 0.13-0.11 and a 18 PR478 at the business end which I had a small flat spot to fish on around 2ft deep.

    

   (This rig was used to fish to the bare bank in centre of pic) my next rig was to fish amongst the stick-ups to my right towards the next pallet where I planed to feed it heavier later in the day with groundbait and dead red maggot cupped in loose, and finally a rig to fish at 5mt in the open water on the deck with meat in 5ft of water  with a 4x12 chanti again on 0.13-0.11 and an 16 PR478. For company today I had venue regular and Bridgwater tackle shop manager Steve Kedge on peg 21 so I new it would be wise to keep an eye on him as he fishes here a bit although on tackling up I noticed he had the same plans as me as where to fish, (great minds think alike so they say").

At the all in I cupped in a palmful of hemp and around 10 cubes of 6mm meat onto the 5mt open water swim, and a cupful of wetted groundbait with dead red maggot in amongst the stick-ups, I didn't want to feed here right from the off but Kedgey had also plumed up near the pallet and I didn't want him to have it all to himself and felt I had nothing to loose. Starting right over with a whole worm and a cadpot with some wetted micro and hemp in I could push the rig up against the bank the tosspot the bait over the float, with less than 5mins gone I had a 3lb fish in the net for a good start but two more fish foul hooked and lost then some small perch pulling on the worm saw a switch to a 6mm expander on the hook which seemed to avoid the attention of the small fish and get me two more carp before things went a bit quite, Another change of bait to a 6mm cube of meat saw the same result so I gave the swim a rest and tried amongst the reeds with a whole worm which didn't take me long to hook a better fish which I managed to steer out ok but as I went to net it at around 8lb I caught me off guard and bolted under the pallet snapping the hook length! by now I had 6 in the net but had lost 5 so after a small bout of turrets I topped the inside up with another potful and went back across.

It wasn't fast but I was getting the odd bite and adding fish to 4lb at intervals so I stuck at it until I couldn't get any signs only feeding after every fish with some micros and hemp with the cadpot, Steve had managed a couple of smaller carp from the 5mt line on meat but was having to wait a long time and although he was a couple of fish in front at this stage I had managed a few larger fish over in the shallow water  so felt I was doing the right thing by waiting for bites and putting the odd fish in the net, I did try in the stick-ups and after getting another out I managed to lose it again" I felt they weren't having it well on this line maybe because the swim was quite close to me so stuck it out over for the rest of the match tight to the far bank and I was right in thinking some bigger fish would show late as I had a couple to 8lb by switching baits between worm, meat and expander.

The weigh-in started on the opposite bank with Jess Jordon on peg 3 totalling 75lb also having a good day catching across on meat, Next to push Jess of top spot was Alvin Jones down on fancied peg 13 in the lily swims with a great weight of 100lb mainly catching on his inside towards the next peg amongst the lilies, I was last to weigh and with the help of 3 skimmers for 4lb added to my 73lb of carp was enough to take second place on the day so £30 quid back as Pete does spread the payouts well, Top silvers went the way of Steve Jackson on peg 19 just sneaking it and because he was on the golden peg you win half the pot if you top silvers weight on the day so lucky Steve was to have an added payout' All £5 of it as it was won on the last match! lol.

 Alvin Jones.

 My Catch.

 Jacko"

 

 

Full Results -

1st Alvin Jones (Alvin's Car Care) peg 13, 100lb 15oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Maver/Cadbury Angling) peg 23, 77lb 9oz.

3rd Jess Jordan (Summerhayes) peg 3, 75lb 8oz.

4th Steve Kedge (Somerset Angling) peg 21, 57lb 9oz.

Silvers -

1st Steve Jackson (Garbolino) peg 19, 11lb 7oz.

2nd Aide Bishop (Summerhayes) peg 11, 11lb4oz.