Summerhayes Fishery Open Match.

With good mate Darren (Big Bird) Greenwood picking me up today and the match being a later draw we stopped off for a nice breakfast at hilltops and still arrived an hour early' With 27 fishing today the match was to be spread over both Sellicks & 10 pegs on Lily Pool, After a good chat and some friendly banter it was eventually time for the draw and I was hoping for a peg on Sellicks. 

I did get my choice of lake and with my consistent run of drawing the same area on this lake continued as I found myself on peg 4 again" That now means my last 5 visits to this lake has seen my run go, 4,5,4,5 and 4.! I don't mind this area as there are usually a few fish around but with it being around 15mts to the far bank it can make it hard work if there over that far?

 Peg 4.

      Seeing As I know the depths of this peg quite well by now I know it slopes off along the far bank from right to left quite steeply so after finding just over 3ft on small flat spot inline with the shadow of the tree as tight to the bank as I could get I made up a 4x14 chanti on 0.13 - 0.11 and a size 16 Pr478 hook, I planned to fish 6mm meat over hemp although local John Pear had to help me with this as Pete had sold out in the hut, He Did have a tin I could buy off him and although it wasn't my first choice being CHILLI flavour it would have to do' a lot of people ask me why I use so much hemp but I'm a firm believer it helps keep the fish feeding on the bottom longer reducing foul hookers where as micro can waft around to much when the fish are far more active as they are at this time of the year. With the weather being warm and sunny again there was a good chance the fish would come shallow so 2 x PB1 4x10 Floats were set up on 0.15 to an 18 PR36, One on a longer line to swing around the swim and one set on 2ft of line. My last rig was to fish back down my inside close to the bank near to the lily roots which was still 5ft deep, With a 4x12 chanti on stronger 0.15 - 0.13 line and an 16 PR478 hook.

 My Inside Swim.

For company today I had Roger Russell on peg 3 who was going to target the silvers and Mark Walsh on his first time visit to this lake on peg 5. At the all in I just started to throw the odd cube of meat and a pinch of hemp by hand down my inside swim and started the match over on my far line with a single 6mm cube on the hook and fed about 8 pieces of the same size meat and some hemp over the top via a cadpot, It took me 10 mins to get a bite and a small carp of 2lb was my first fish soon followed one of 3lb but after a couple of missed bites I switched to double meat an hooked one of the lakes bigger fish only for it to come off at the net" Blast!..

Things slowed down after another smaller size carp so not to put all my eggs in one basket began to catapult some meat further along the bank to my left where it went into a small bay for 10mins before trying my long line shallow rig over the top to start with, I began pinging the odd couple of cubes of meat over the top but after another 10mins without a sign I decided just to try the rig set a foot deep where I had been fishing on the deck inline with the tree and within I minute I had a carp of 4lb, Looking around the lake things seemed to be slow for others as well so I wasn't to concerned as we still had over 4hrs to go.

I did manage one more fish of this line but decided just to keep pinging odd cubes to the swim on the left rather than draw the fish further up in the water on this swim. a switch back to the deck rig across saw me add a couple more fish of 2lb before missed bites and liners became a problem so I fed the swim with a larger pole put containing a handful of meat and hemp and switched to my inside swim with double 6mm meat on the hook. After a couple of small lifts and drops the float buried and a 4lb fish was soon in the net, It did cause a bit of commotion so I carried on feeding it by hand and went back over to the far bank on the depth rig.

By feeding it heavier proved to be a bad move as it took ages to get an indication then it was impossible to connect to anything so I left it alone and tried the long shallow rig again, First put-in and I had a 5lb fish but they didn't want to stay in the area, I kept at it and did pinch the odd fish by plopping it around the swim and it seemed to get better as the day went on even missing a bite right on the whistle"

 The far line I had my fish shallow on the long line with 6mm meat. 

 I did add a couple more fish from down the edge but I think with Mark choosing not to fish down the edge towards me as he had an empty pallet to his left meant the fish backed across the inside as it was only a short distance. With Jonny Page not weighing on peg 1, Roger was first to weigh and took the silver lead with 11lb odd meaning I was next up and my fish went 38lb odd.

 My Catch.

 Mark on peg 5 put 23lb on the scales meaning I did manage to take a quid off him as well as pagey, Last peg on my bank was Scott Russell on peg 10 who also put 38lb on the scales but I pipped him by a few ounces. No higher weights came off lily pool and back to sellicks and the more fancied numbers saw Nigel Wickham on peg 13 take the lead with 50lb odd before Nick Harvey took first on the day from peg 14 weighing 66lb catching in-front of the lily's at 8mt shallow on 6mm hard pellet over loose fed 4mm.

 Winner Nick Harvey.

 A harder match today from this lake than of late for most but I did enjoy it as I like to work at my matches to find what's  best on the day. Although I only chose to fish meat today I have the confidence in making it work and all day I never used more than two tins and a tin of hemp so no big bait bills' Roger did manage to take the silvers prize today with 11lb 11oz just ahead of Gary Webber. 

Silvers winner Rodger Russell.

Traveling partner Big bird did have neck ache watching Nick on the next peg ending the day with 29lb but did take the micky when he tried to weigh his lone Rudd which didn't register on the scales"

 Birdy.

I managed to pick up £54 today and added £3 quid in side bets though I had to give Nick one back so I went in my side try and found one of his where I used to keep my plummets! High light of the day was when Martin Addicott on the far bank slipped in to his neck trying to retrieve his pole sections slipping from his roller' (Not just me who goes in then!) He did manage to retrieve them and although I didn't see the incident he told me the worst part was his wooden leg filling up with water! I didn't laugh much"

Can go without saying congratulations to owners Pete & Sally on there 24th wedding anniversary and I think you'll agree they look happy together after all this time... Then again it might of had something to do with the amount of wine they had both consumed through the day! lol.

 Owners Sally & Pete.

Full results -

1st Nick Harvey (Sensas Thyers) peg 14, 66lb 2oz.

2nd Nigel Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 13, 50lb 12oz.

3rd Dom Sullivan (Maver/Cabury Angling) peg 4, 38lb 13oz.

4th Scott Russell (Tackle UK) peg 11, 38lb 8oz.

Silvers -

1st Rodger Russell (Tackle UK) peg 3, 11lb 11oz