Summerhayes Open Sellicks Lake,

Back to Summerhayes today after a nice breakfast at hilltops on route and at arriving at the fishery I was informed the match was on sellicks lake although I recon Pete the owner must of been on the red wine when I rang him on Tuesday as he told me todays match was on Longs Lake" with 21 fishing today there was only going to be 2 empty pegs on the complex which suited me as its less room for the fish to back off although Aide Bishop was having a moan before we even got into the draw! Into the bucket  for the draw and I was blessed again with my magic hand' NOT! Ending up on peg 4 which wasn't a peg I fancied after a brief wander around before the start but never the less I had to make do, With no gaps to fish into across I planned to fish as close as I dare to the far reeds as possible where I found 4ft as close in as I could get so had a 4x12 Chanti on 0.13-0.11 and an 18 808 hook, Another rig was made up with the same set up to fish at 5mts in 6ft of water where I planned to fish meat and lastly a rig to fish back into my inside swim where it was still quite deep at about 5ft.

 My Far line.

 Inside swim.

Company today was Mark Leahy on peg 3 and Jamie Parkhouse on peg 5 so I wasn't fortunate enough to have an empty peg either, At the all in I cupped around 6 cubes of 6mm meat  mixed to with wetted micro and a pinch of hemp onto the far line at 14mts and a palmful of hemp and meat down to my inside just over the reeds. I started the match at 5mts in the open water with a single cube of meat and just cad potted 5 pieces of the same over the top, I was hoping to snare an early mug fish whilst others targeted the far bank mainly with the method feeder as the wind hadn't relented from yesterday making it nearly impossible to hold a pole at any length' After 20mins on the short line and just one little dip I didn't want to try my edge swim until I had to so out on the long pole I started again with a 6mm cube of meat, and after 5mins I had a 1lb skimmer, Not what I expected but at least I had something in the net. In the next 20mins I had 2 carp of 3lb each before Disaster Struck and I played a much better fish of around 8lb to the net only for it to dive down at the last second snagging my line on the landing net losing the fish and the rig" Prat! Another rig assembled and back over cad potting a few pieces of meat and micro over the top and 2mins later I bumped a fish leaving me snagging the over hanging Vegetation and with the help of the wind ended up totally wrapped up and another rig GONE! A quick burst of turrets and I chose to still make a go of it over so rig three was assembled...

Mark next to me only had a couple of skimmers and Jamie was still fishless on the method and from what I could see others were struggling so I felt despite fighting with the wind to stick at it and after 2hrs I was up to six Carp and a couple of skimmers, Jamie had followed suit and gone out on the long pole shallow and by slapping the pole on the water caught a couple but it was short lived really, I felt that the fish weren't there in numbers so I chose to cadpot full of meat and micro and changed to fishing double meat on a size 16 PR478 and to sit and wait for a fish to turn up. It seemed to work as my total was up to ten carp but with 2hrs to go things where slowing fast and my arms felt like popeye" so it was time to have a look down the edge as Jamie had already taken one better fish down his edge towards me.

No sooner as the rig settled I was in and a fish of 5lb was added followed by a smaller  fish of 3lb before things went quite so I potted in some more hemp on this line and a few cubes of meat and left it to settle again, I spend the next half hour trying the 5mt line and the long pole swim without success due to the gales" so spent the last hour down the edge ending the day with 16 carp and a few skimmers including 1 carp on my top kit to my to my right, from what I could see not much had been caught along my bank but I didn't know how the fancied lily pegs had done down in the Calm water" First to weigh was Ray Wickham on end peg two as one was left out and he 19lb of skimmers in his 40lb total weight.

Ray Wickham Silvers Winner. 

 

Mark on peg 3 had 6lb odd of silvers before my 4lb odd of silvers added with my carp gave me a total of 63lb which I felt was good considering the conditions we all faced, Down to the more fancied pegs and Adam Palmer took the lead with 74lb and after a chat with him he told me he had most of his fish on the meat at 6mt and some late fish down his right hand edge on the same bait.

 Adam Palmer & some of his catch.

 

Nobody was admitting to much after Adam so I went to pack my kit away and back at the results I found I had finished 2nd on the day picking up £50 along the way.

 Part of my catch.

 Sometimes it pays to persevere with something and it paid off for me today and the high light off the day had to be when Jamie's hat blew in the lake for the second time and I joked if he had some hair he might have something for it to grip onto" lol .

Full results -

Adam Palmer (Maver Royal Navy) peg 12, 74lb 9oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Maver/Cadbury Angling) peg 4, 63lb 11oz.

3rd Ray Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 2, 40lb 4oz.

4th Jamie Parkhouse (Team Jinx Exeter) peg 5, 40lb 10z.

5th Phil Densle (Summerhayes) peg 14, 38lb.

Silvers -

1st Ray Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 2, 19lb 14oz.

Ray also had the added prize of £75 as he was on the bonus peg and because he won the silvers he picked up half the pot'.

On a final note I did go to Acorn Fishery for the Clevedon.A.A open but only 6 turned up mainly because nobody with sense would of entertained fishing yesterday and after an hour or so there was only three of us left, Myself, Maria Green and her hubby" I went on to win with 63lb of smallish carp down to the next pallet on hard pellet whilst Maria beat hubby again with 49lb on the pellet feeder across to the island, Being a cost cutter match I only had £30 back but it all helps, Back to Acorn For the Tuesday tenner this week and a better turn out expected and im praying this wind will let up.