Summerhayes Open Sellicks & Lily Pool.

I decided to give Summerhayes another bash today having not been at the fishery for a few months, I booked in along with good friend Nick Harvey who picked me up in plenty of time for the usual hilltops breakfast before arriving at the fishery, A good turn out again today with 24 booked in but it meant that lily pool would have an overspill of 8 anglers on it which I hoped to avoid at all cost despite the hype I have yet to see this lake produce as well as Sellicks can?.

Into the draw and I was happy to end up with peg 21 Sellicks but Nick wasn't so fortunate ending up in the middle of lily pool peg 11, There was no wind to contend with today so reaching the far bank at 14mts was easy enough where a few carp can be caught by dobbing bread around so my first rig was a 4x14 Chanti to fish at various depths towards the far bank on 0.11-0.10 and a 16 63-13 hook, a lighter 4x10 Chanti  to fish right tight into the far bank off to my left for maggot over micro and finally a 4x12 Wire Wonder to fish at 13mts in the open water were I had about 6ft on 0.10-0.08 and an 18 63-13 hook where I would plan to fish with maggot/pinkie over ground-bait.

For company I Had Tackle UK's Scott Russell on end peg 23 who would be hard to beat so would switch to targeting silvers if as expected he took some early carp? on peg 20 I had local Alan Jenkins? who said he planned to target silvers so would make for an interesting day?.

At the all-in I fed one large ball of Ground-bait with a few pinkies & casters Added on the open 13mt swim, a few micros and dead maggots tight into the far bank off to my left. Starting on a decent size punched piece of bread just short of the far bank around 6inches off the deck, I was soon searching around without any success but as I expected Scott had 2 carp in the net from along his inside bank in the first 15mins also on bread, After another 30mins of changing depth and searching around I still hadn't had a bite even trying maggot on the swim tight to the island and when Scott netted two more carp from his longer line near the aerator my mind was soon made up it was to be a switch to targeting silvers with the hope of adding a few carp along the way?

Starting with a red maggot on the hook on the deeper 13mt line I soon had a small roach so blank avoided' followed by another before I had a better fish on which turned out to be a Crucian of a 1lb and soon after a Goldfish of the same size both what counted as silvers today' so a good start! In the next 30mins I had 2 skimmers before I added a 2lb carp which seemed to disturb things so topped the line up with another ball before trying the carp? swims again. Still Nothing on either so after 20mins I went back on the silvers line expecting some bites straight away, Nope" I had myself wishing I hadn't been so keen topping the swim up so soon but after trying around the fed area I started to catch the odd fish being mainly net size skimmers, I had to work the rig and wait for bites but from what I could see nobody else was catching silvers, Scott's flying start had come to an end adding just a couple more carp and Alan was yet to catch so with a couple of hours left and bites becoming hard to come by I decided to start another open water swim off to my left at 14mt the same way I started the day and spent the rest of the match pinching the odd fish off each, It worked for the carp as well adding 3 more by the end of the match with most of my fish falling to single maggot or pinkie, The last hour was hard but I did manage a couple of better skimmers late in the match (Not just Viaduct this happens then!) and estimated I had around 11lb of silvers to go with my 4 carp. I caught up with the scales on Lily pool, And the top silvers weight was 10lb odd of small roach taken by Sam Powell, Back to Sellick's and no weights of silvers as most had caught carp from the fancied 'Lily Pegs" After a couple of none weigh's it was my turn and was pleased to finish with 13lb odd of silvers which was enough for top place to add to my 13lb of carp.

 (My Silvers)

 

There were a few fish caught on the expected pegs on Sellicks but overall the weights were very close, the going was hard but I had a really enjoyable day again which suits my style of fishing adding £43 to the jar. Overall winner on the day went to Tackle UK's Ashley (Sorry didn't get your second name) from peg 14 on Sellicks with 31lb of carp caught on bread from across and down the edge. Cant go without saying that Rodger Russell found out that he lost out for a 3rd place pick-up in the silvers by a pike over 6lb caught by Tony Pointing from Lily pool which count as silvers! It was removed and although missed out he took in good stead, Eventually" lol. 

Overall Results -

1st Ashley (Tackle UK) peg 14 Sellicks, 31lb 10oz.

2nd Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) peg 15 Sellicks,  30lb 13oz.

3rd Rob Birch (Summerhayes) peg 16 Sellicks,  30lb 3oz.

4th Scott Russell (Tackle UK) peg 23 Sellicks,  29lb 8oz.

5th Dom Sullivan (Maver/Cadbury Angling) peg 21 Sellicks. 26lb 9oz. 

6th Gary Webber (P.I.Thatchers) peg 13 Sellicks,  24lb.

Silvers - 1st  Dom Sullivan (Maver/Cadbury) peg 21 Sellicks, 13lb 9oz.

                2nd Sam Powell (Exeter) peg 4 Lily Pool, 10lb 9oz.

                3rd Tony Ponting (Shiplate Farm) peg 13 Lily Pool, 7lb 1oz.