Summerhayes Fishery (Weds Open Longs Lake)

With a Later draw & not back to work until next week I made the trip to Summerhayes today and did find time from a breakfast after yesterday disappointment' Arriving at the fishery no sooner as got at the car tea boy Aide was already on the ball with his banter through the hut window, Apparently I have added a 1lb or so whilst of been off, Hey ho' Bless him, At least I can lose mine! lol,  A bit of a disappointing attendance today with only eight of us fishing but at least we would be well spread out' Owner Pete decided to pay the top two overall as well as the top silvers so we all had something to aim at. Pete let me draw the bonus peg which turned out to be peg 23 then I ended up on peg 7.

The weather was a nice bright morning with a slight breeze in the air but when I got to me peg in the corner the wind was off my back so the swim was like a mirror, I could reach the point of the island with 13mts so would start here just away from the far bank in 3ft of water also pluming another line further along at 14mts in the same depth,

Rig wise I used 0.2g AS1's on 0.12-0.10 and 18 pellet hook, I didn't fancy a day trying to wrestle fish out the lily pads to my left so would feed further from them in line with the empty pallet hoping it would produce late in the day,

The rig was my favourite 4x10 chanti on 0.14-0.11 and an 16 808 hook. It was quite flat from the bank out at around 4ft and away from the danger Zone", The same rig would be used to fish in-front the pallet on my right.

It was a case of use what ever bait I had at home today so all I had was a range of Pellets, Meat & Corn with maggots or worms in sight' with limited bait I decided to feed a mix of corn and meat to my away from the lily's and a mix of corn & pellet to the pallet on my right, I fed some micros and corn along the point of the island at 14mts and started the match pretty much the same as yesterday feeding some micros via a cad pot with a 4mm expander on the hook. I would like to of said it was instant but it wasn't' all I had in the first 30mins was 3 hand size skimmers, I tried the other 14mt line with corn on the hook but didn't have a sign of fish, Martin Addicott on the end peg 2 had managed 4 carp from his inside margin we're the wind was skimming in and I had noticed Colin Wilkins on peg 11 also hook a couple of carp on his silvers line again in the open water with a ripple on it, The sun was warm and bright after a chilly night and with the swim being flat calm their didn't appear to me many carp willing to feed here?.

After an hour of trying all the lines already and only adding a 8oz skimmer off the 13m line and some tiny roach it was time to try something else, I re-plumb the far line and found a flat spot tight against the bank in 18inches of water so switched to feeding hard 4mm with the catty sticking to expander on the hook, after 15mins I had a carp of 2lb & a 12oz skimmer soon after but the fish were spooking every time I put the pole over there heads and I had to wait ages for an indication and was going nowhere fast. I had seen Colin net 2 better skimmers from the open water and decided if I was going to get anywhere it might be a better option to try and catch some silvers? I feed a ball of micro's and some 4mm in the open water at 6mts and began dropping a few 4mm just passed my keepnets trying my other lines before deciding what was best. It didn't take long for me to make my mind up as near the 2hr mark I still only had the 1 carp so I was off the box assembling a lighter rig for silvers. 

As soon as I went on the 6mm line I was catching hand size skimmers every put-in but couldn't catch anything bigger, I was lose feeding regularly 4mm over the top but this seemed to draw the attention of the tiny roach, I cut back on the lose feed and feed a small ball of micro's when the bits appeared, which seemed to bring the blades back, It was quite enjoyable fishing even though they were small but two 1lb skimmers kept me up with Colin and the hope of more as the day went on. Things were going well until the last 90mins or so when the skimmers seemed to do a disappearing act but it was soon apparent why as the carp had now decided to put in an appearance' It was a case of catch a carp, re-feed have a few skimmers hook another carp and repeat the process, I did keep trying the short line by my nets and managed another 12oz skimmer but mainly it was just small roach the were willing to feed close, I kept plugging away right up to the whistle trying to catch as many more blades as possible but the carp really dominated the last 30min which was good fun on the lighter elastic and I never lost one" I hadn't a clue what weight of silvers I had as I only had five 12oz plus fish and a busy mix of blade skimmers & roach, I was hoping for a few tench down the edge by the reeds but this didn't produce a bite, perhaps with a wider bait selection it would have improved the net of fish but it was still enjoyable.

 My Sivers net.

Martin was first to weight and finished up with 53lb odd, My carp net ended up 34lb odd but more importantly my silvers went 13lb odd, Colin put 10lb of silvers on the scales and after a few lower silvers weights john on the end peg pushed me close with 12lb odd so I had done enough to walk away with the silvers pool of £32' Winner on the day went to Craig Stewart on peg 19 with 79lb odd catching most of his fish across to the far bank on corn and a few down the inside on the same bait,

 Winner Craig Stewart.

 

A good return for me with two results in two days, but more to the point a bit of enjoyable fishing, Not sure if fishing before Sunday when the Viaduct Fishery silvers league starts but looking forward to it. 

Full results - 1st Craig Stewart, peg 19, (Summerhayes)  79lb 10oz.

2nd Martin Addicott, peg 2,  (Somerset Angling) 53lb 10oz.

3rd Dom Sullivan, (Maver) peg 7, 44lb 9oz.

4th Bill Hopping, (Summerhayes) peg 29, 42lb 13oz.

Silvers - Dom Sullivan (Maver) 13lb 1oz.