(Clive Cunningham Memorial Match) Summerhayes Fishery.

Back to Summerhayes for this memorial match for Clive who was a regular to the fishery most weekends, Gabriel Skarba offered to pick me up and with the later draw of 9.45 we had plenty of time for breakfast on-route, When I booked in last week there were already 41 names on the list so fully expected a large turn out, I wasn't the case though as there were quite a few drop outs so it meant we were down to 23 fishing. Owner Pete Decided to peg it over Longs & Sellick's but would just pay top overall weight & top silvers on each lake. I fancied longs lake again today but when I heard there was to be 9 pegs on Sellicks \& 14 on Longs, Sellicks  sounded better for the chance of picking up money' It was Longs Lake for me though and I didn't have far to walk as I drew right by the car-park looking down the lake on peg 37, Not an area I had ever drawn before but was in for a comfy days fishing as it was only around 11mts to the far bank and I couldn't fish much further along my inside bank to my right as the cable for the aerator cuts you off,

I fancied a day back on the worm and caster and found a nice spot in-front of me tight over around 2ft or so deep so made up an 0.2g AS1 on 0.13-0.11 and an 18 Wide gape pellet hook.

A 4x12 Chanti to fish on the deck just short of the aerator in 4ft of water on 0.13-0.11 and the same pattern hook, I had a chat with a few regulars after drawing the peg and was told my right hand inside line was very un-even and snaggy so with this in mind I planned to try and catch here up in the water.

Gab hadn't draw far away on peg 4 of the same lake but I couldn't see him as such.             

I started the match feeding a swim at 13mts off to my left with some micros & Hemp fed a few chopped worms and casters near the aerator in the open water and began to feed a few hard 4mm pellets down my inside right hand bank. starting across in front of me with a section of worm on the hook feeding small nuggets of micros the first 45mins were quite slow as I had one carp of 2lb a perch and a couple of small skimmers,  I tried the other far line and the open water swim but both failed to produce & I didn't want to try my inside swim to early so had to try something else. I stuck to worm on the hook but fed a full cad pot of casters each put-in and began feeding casters over the top via the catty, it did seem to work as I soon added a couple of tench and a couple more small carp but I had lost just as much when the fish managed find the underwater cable" it seamed as the fish were happy to sit between the two cables which went bank to bank and I could only get bites within a couple of feet from them,

 It was beginning  to get very frustrating as I went through a period of trashing rigs losing fish & not putting very much in the net! I kept trying my other line across but only had a foul hooker which I lost but the open water swim still failed to produce. I could only see a couple of anglers but they seemed to be struggling, I had a look along the inside bank but still know signs of fish soon saw me back across on my far line playing knit one pearl one" with a couple of hours to go I had to try and make something happen as I felt I wasn't getting the most out of the peg, it seemed the fish wanted to stay a close to the cables so after trying my inside line close to the bank at around 8mts without anything it was time to try further along the bank on a longer swinging rig with a clear inline dibber and hair rigged 6mm pellet.

As soon as the rig landed within a few feet of the cables the elastic ripped out and I soon netted a 4lb fish, a smaller fish followed before yet again I found myself attached to the wire and another rig was trashed"

I kept trying to temp them away from the danger area but they new were they were safest' going into the last hour I had lost count of the amount or fish I had come off or the amount of rigs I had parted company with" but at least it seemed I was putting more in the net than others around me so I kept plugging away. I did manage a couple of fish on the shorter line very late in the day and also took a few shallow down the edge on the opposite side all on 6mm banded pellet but the bulk of my catch came nearer the cables but not without its cost as I must have lost close to twenty fish and trashed around 8 rigs" Another frustrating day for me but the fish new they were safer between the cables making them harder to catch and it proved difficult to temp anything off my other lines further away. I was first to weigh and although owner Pete forgot to add my two carp weights together'' which I didn't notice until back at the results, it didn't make a difference as I had heard The Paste man' Bill hopping had around 60lb with two hours to go so didn't think I would have enough to catch him up. I finished the day with 65b odd but as expected bill on peg 10 took the lake win with 77lb odd all on his favourite paste fished over to the island at 14mts.           

 Longs Winner Bill Hopping.

 

Top silvers on are lake went to owner Pete with just under 15lb.

 Pete's skimmers catch.

 

Over to Sellicks lake and the top weight went to Martin Addicott on peg 5 with 99lb again taken on paste down the track.

 Sellick's winner Martin.

 

 This lake had recently suffered from a loss of silvers but had been re-stocked with a load of small carp of few ounce's which would also count as silvers for today? as it proved a net of  mainly small carp" won the silvers? as Aide Bishop took 15b odd of them.

Aide's (Mixed?) silvers net.

 

Apart from a heavy downpour in the last hour coupled with some thunder and lightning' it was a pleasant day and fortunately it had cleared away in time for us all to enjoy a burger and some cake after the results nicely laid on by the fishery in Clive's memory bless him.

Full Results -

Longs lake -

 1st Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) peg 10, 77lb 3oz.

 2nd Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 37, 63lb 8oz.

Silvers - Pete (Summerhayes) 14lb 15oz.

Sellick's Lake.

1st Martin Addicott (Summerhayes) peg 5. 95lb 14oz.

2nd Steve C (Summerhayes) peg 17, 71lb 10oz.

Silvers - Aide Bishop (Summerhayes) peg 21, 15lb 6oz.