Summerhayes Open Sellicks & Lily Pool.

Another trip to Summerhayes on the cards today as I was hoping to fish the spring league starting at Viaduct but with commitments coming up for the super league starting in June it meant I would miss a few matches so it was a pointless option really, Traveling on my own today I still managed my hilltops breakfast bumping into a few anglers who were going to other venues, chatting over breky I've been informed that Thyer's Angler Brian (Anteater) Slipper will soon be adding his kit to eBay shortly after taking a battering from the opposite sex from the next peg at yesterdays match on Avalon fishery" Mint! Although I would decline his seatbox as it would be better suited to antiques roadshow..!

Arriving at the fishery see a good turn out as owner Pete told me their were 26 fishing meaning there would be 17 pegged on Sellicks and 9 pegs on Lily pool which is yet to convince me so I was praying for sellicks again. Into the draw and Kev Perry whipped in-front of me, At the café he was moaning the place down about drawing lily pool and I didn't laugh to much when he did along with Nick Harvey who I have my regular quid with so all I had to do was avoid it myself? Bargin" peg 17 Sellicks, The same peg I had last time this lake was in when I had a good day catching 67lb' Result!

Of course I got all the banter, Flyer, Drawbag, Golden balls, ect ect, but its funny when until 2 weeks ago I hardly heard it mentioned! funny that lol. Arriving at my swim the conditions seemed pretty much the same as the last match except the wind was from the north making it feel much cooler so would this make a difference? I new over to the far bank at 15mts there was know flat spots to fish on as it seems to drop straight down to 4ft or so, So again I would put my faith in catching shallow across on a 4x10 chanti on 0.13-0.11 & 18 808,

Next up was a 4x12 Chanti on the same line and an 16 808 hook to fish at the bottom of the far slope and at 7mts off to my left which was the same depth at around 5ft. Last of all another 4x10 rig to fish just past the weed again down the edge towards the empty pallet.

For the fun of it I had a £1 with Mark on the next peg as the last time he took me on for a quid he told me he had done well so I chucked back 25lb only for him to end up having the last laugh by only weighing 13lb" so I wanted my nugget back!

 (Weightwatchers Mark )

I started the match by feeding a small amount of 6mm meat down towards pallet, fed a small amount of corn at 14mts at the bottom of the slope, half a 250mm pot of meat on the 7mt line off to my left & being different a whole pot of hemp" at 5mts off to my left. Starting across with a 6mm hard pellet on the hook with the rig set about 18'inches deep I didn't feed anything to start with which was a good job because as normal the minute the match started the breeze picked up I wasn't expecting a hectic start but it took me 40mins to put my first carp in the net of 4lb after I started to feed hard 4mm over the top with the catty' but had noticed further up the lake Alvin Jones was already catching well fishing tight over with corn on the hook from what I could see, I had a look on the 14mt line with corn but after 5mins I topped it up and went back to fishing over to the island. A couple more fish on 4mm hard pellets at 12inches deep tighter to the island but bites were hard to come by, I couldn't get any indications away from the far bank but was getting the odd fish but as time went on it was getting harder and the fish seemed to shy away from bait being fired at them and after 3 hours it was time to try and get some fish going on my other lines I had been feeding regularly  whilst pinging a few 4mm pellets over to the island to pinch the odd fish when I could. Starting on the 7mt swim with a single cube of meat on the hook I missed a slow bite before having a skimmer on the next put-in but that was it, I tried a big piece of worm over the hemp line but didn't have a sign so new I would have to rely on catching a few more carp from across to the far bank and hopefully my banker swim down to the pallet". It was time to give it a try so starting on a single 6mm cube set at dead depth I didn't have to wait long as another 4lb carp followed by a 2lb fish were added before I rested the swim re-feeding a small amount. Going back across to the far bank I had a fish straight away but again it went dead.' Going into the last hour I had noticed a couple of fish swirling down the edge at bits of meat which had caught up on the weed and was getting liners but no bites so I switched to the shallower rig down the edge around a 1ft deep which saw one quick fish before they spooked again. I really thought the far bank swim would switch on but it just didn't happen and I ended up just taking two more fish closer to me down the edge one shallow the one on the deck.

I ended the day with 10 carp for which I thought would go 30lb odd but had seen Alvin catch all day along with Steve Jackson on the next peg to him who was hooking carp whilst trying to catch silvers' the fish certainly wanted to be out of the wind it seemed as the guy to my left struggled for a couple of fish as did Mark so at least my £1 was safe!. I caught up with the scales on the early pegs of Sellicks where there had been two 40lb weights, Over to lily pool and Steve Kedge did well from peg 7 finishing the day with some bigger carp taken on meat to lead the way with 50b odd, Back around to my lake and Glyn (Wormhead) Wickham did well again on the silvers front with 25lb which took the win before it was my turn to total 38lb, Alvin was now favourite and did well taking most of his fish all from a flat spot about 2ft deep against the far bank on corn over pellet to end up winning the day with 64lb.

 Winner Alvin Jones.

 Silvers Winner Again Glyn Wickham.

 

 

In hindsight it may of paid to take some time out and searched around to see if I could find a similar spot in my swim but there didn't seem to be any numbers of fish wiling to feed in the cooler wind across on the far bank so I'm not sure it would of made much difference? With Glyn taking the silvers prize it meant I snuck into 5th place so got £18 back at least along with Mark and of course Nick's' I had a free day. I've Booked into the bank holiday two-day festival here next week with the first day on Sellicks & Longs the next then it will be a change of scenery for a while leading up to the super league starting on the huntspill.

Full results -

1st Alvin Jones ( Alvin's Car care) peg 20 Sellicks, 64lb 6oz.

2nd Steve Kedge (Somerset Anging) peg 7 Lily, 50lb 12oz.

3rd Aide Bishop (Summerhayes) peg 7 Sellicks, 47b 3oz.

4th Martin Addicott (Summerhayes) peg 5 Sellicks, 45lb 13oz.

5th Glyn Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 15 Sellicks, 38lb 11oz.

6th Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 17 Sellicks, 38lb.

Silvers-

1st Glyn Wickham 24lb 5oz.

2nd Nigel Wickham 11lb 7oz

3rd Mark Broomsgrove 10lb 11oz.