Summerhayes Fishery Longs Lake,

Back to Summerhayes longs lake today as the venue has been fishing well of lake which has helped swell the attendance and with 25 booked in it makes for a good match, Travelling with long time friend Darren (Bigbird) Greenwood today and we stopped of for a nice hilltops breakfast on route before arriving at the fishery in plenty of time for a wander around and a free cuppa before the draw. I wasn't to worried were I would end up today but when peg four was in my hand I was having my doubts as this area hasn't been to good for frame weights so far his year but fish have fins and anything can happen. On arriving at my peg I found out pegs 3 and 5 weren't in today and the annoying part was to fish the far bank into the bay was a full 16mts although the pegs either side were a maximum of 14mts tight to the bank! I planned to start the match at 14mts in-front of the rushes where I found just over 3ft of water as I had a feeling the fish would move across into the wider bay area after a while so I set up a 4x12 chanti on 0.13-0.11 with an 18 PR478 to fish a 6mm cube of meat and an identical rig but with a hair rig hook length in-case I had trouble missing bites. A smaller 4x10 in-line dibber was set up to fish into the bay at the full 16mts which was only around 18inches deep but already the pollen on top of the lake was beginning to build up here which meant seeing the float was going to be awkward? Another rig to fish in the open water on my top 4 again to fish meat on the deck and finally a rig to fish towards both empty pallets as tight in as I could get which was still around 4ft deep so my shallow rig for across would be used here if the came up in the water. for company I had Ray Wickham on peg 2 who was going to target the lakes silvers and Aide (Puff The Magic Dragon) Bishop on the corner peg 7, Darren had draw peg 16 which also was 16mts to the island.

At the all in I feed some meat and hemp down both my inside swims and a small ball of crushed expander and 6 pieces of meat onto the 13mt line in-front of the rushes. I started the match on the 5mt line with a single cube of meat feeding just half a dozen cubes over the top, With nothing happening after 10mins I was soon on the 13mt line again with meat, Two skimmers and two pastie carp in the next 45mins followed but I was already having trouble with liners and false bites and a try with the shallow dibber and hair rigged meat made no difference so I had no choice but to switch to the 16mt line in the shallower water. I did manage a couple of fish before the pollen blew right in where I was fishing making it impossible to spot the float and I wasn't until I tried to the left of the bay I realised it was snaggy and I couldn't get the float to settle at all and by now Aide had caught a few fish across to the island but was now having foul hookers and Nick Chedzoy on peg 1 was having a few fish as well as Andy Hembrew on end peg 39 to his right.

I tried the 5mt swim again without success so decided to have a look down the edge sooner than I planned but I didn't spoil much with no early indications, I was getting nowhere by now and knowing the fish were over in the shallow water made me switch to a banded 6mm pellet on the hook and take the chance I could hook some fish without seeing the float as such by firing some 4mm hard pellet over the top, again this worked for a couple of fish before they spooked and I had to rest it again. Now this is where the fun began as I decided to have a look down my inside again towards the right hand pallet after a couple of minutes without a bite I decided to pour a cuppa and feed some meat down to my left by hand so I rested the rig on the reeds with the rig still in the water, No sooner had I turned to throw some meat in my pole shoot off the reeds with a fish attached heading for the pallet" I franticly reached out to attempt to grab the end of the pole but completely missed it and fell head first in the lake!!!, After a bit of wading I managed to reach the end of the pole only to find the

fish had gone around the pallet and snapped me as it charged for Rays Inside line" Marvellous!...

I clambered out total wet though to the laughter of all those present and it didn't take long for the news to spread around the whole lake' although I was thankful it was lovely and warm so I had chance to dry out so after putting my boots in the sun and my socks on my seatbox legs" I was ready to try again..

I re-fed the somewhat spoilt inside line but after all the commotion needless to say my inside lines didn't really produce except for a couple of fish going into the last hour, It was a shame with the pollen and poor light I couldn't fish the 16mt line properly and it wasn't until the last 15mins a shadow was cast on the swim and I had two fish in the last two put-ins! A bit of a disaster day for me really but except for my pants I was nearly dry at the end of the match" I did weigh-in though  and ended the day with 21lb odd to take a quid off Birdy and (Trolley Thief) Nick Harvey, Winner on the day went to Andy Hembrew with 50lb catching long and short on his inside swims with a variety of baits ahead of Nick Chedzoy on the next peg also catching down his edge finishing with 40lb, The silvers went the way of Ray Wickham with 13lb catching mainly on the worm over groundbait.

 Winner Andy Hembrew.

 Full Results -

1st Andy Hembrew  (Clevedon A.A?) peg 39, 50lb 15oz.

2nd Nick Chedzoy (Preston Innovations Thatchers) peg 1, 40lb 13oz.

3rd Martin Heard (Summerhayes) peg 9, 40lb 11oz.

4th Jim Jenner (Summerhayes) peg 35, 38lb 5oz.

Silvers -

1st Ray Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 2, 13lb 8oz.

2nd Bruce Hunt (Tiverton) peg 26, 9lb 12oz.

 

The lake fished harder than of late probably due to the fish getting ready to spawn but it was a close match and everybody had a few fish, Back for round 5 of the Acorn league next Sunday and looking forward to it.