Summerhayes Fishery Sunday Open. (Longs Lake).

Traveling on my own today I had the normal stop off for my Hilltops breakfast where I met a few off the normal lads off to the Sedges fishery for the start of the silvers league which I would of liked to take part in but two off the matches clash with the final two rounds of the Viaduct winter league' Steve Always has his dates for the Viaduct League sorted in the early part of the year & with a small bit off moving dates around them surely it would give more anglers the chance to enter rather than having to miss matches or find stand-in's? I didn't anticipate many Anglers to be booked in today & arriving at the fishery I was right with only 8 of us booked-in. Owner Pete decided to make the match a rover meaning you could chose your peg depending on which number you drew before hand, Now I still had it in my head it would be best to let somebody else draw for me so I chose Pete's Side kick & tea boy Adie to do the honours for me...

Now its quite simple just draw me a low number to stand the chance of a better choice? It was Never going to happen was it' Eight of us fishing & low & behold he chose me choice number 8!" Things must change soon hey"???. The only rule Pete has is you have to have a empty peg between each angler on the rover matches & I fancied a peg below the motorway on the narrower end, I fancied going on peg 19 but Ray
Wickham chose peg 18 before me so peg 20 it was then".

The conditions were ideal without any wind & already it was over 12 degree's so very mild compared to the temperatures through the week. I fancied either the island at just over 12mts would produce a few fish or the margin to my left between the pallets would produce a few fish?

I set up my favourite 4x12 chanti on 0.11-0.10 & an 18 808 hook to fish just off the island in 3ft of water on a couple of lines, A
4x10 chanti to fish a couple of feet deep along the edge on 0.12-0.11 & an 16 808 hook  & finally a 4x14 chanti on 0.12-0,10 & an 16 808 to fish off to my left at 13mts in the open water which was around 5ft deep. I started the match by fishing over to the island with red maggot on the hook after feeding the 13mt open water line with some corn feeding a few micro's with a cad-pot. after 10mins I foul hooked & lost a good fish but I wasn't getting the response I expected, I switched to half depth with bread on the hook & added a carp of 2lb before foul hooking 2 more, Back to fishing on the deck I had another of similar size on maggot but then I couldn't get anything but small roach so it was time for a change, I decided to try down towards the pallets so started on the bread again set a couple of feet deep, No sooner had I dropped the rig next to the reeds past the pallet I was into a fish again around 2lb followed by 4 more of similar size in the next 4 put-ins, I was just beginning to think I was going to empty it the disappeared" I tried further along the bank but couldn't get a bite anywhere so rested the swim. by now we were nearly two hours in so decided to have a look on the open water line with corn on the hook. I had a bite straight away which I missed then nothing but was confident some fish would settle here later in the day? back to the island & I added another on the deck with maggot & one on the bread half depth but the fish didn't seem to want to settle in the shallower water, I didn't have much cover over to the island which didn't seem to help so I was a case of taking the odd fish before having to come off it. back down the edge I managed another on the bread but they didn't appear to be here in numbers so decided to feed some 4mm pellets & a few grains of corn to try & draw some fish back into the swim & left it to settle. I had been topping up the open water line at regular intervals so gave it another try, I had a carp of 3lb straight away followed by one slightly bigger 5mins later before again I felt the need to top it up & rest the swim, I rotated between the lines & with a couple of hours of the match left I had 14 carp for around 30lb, Louis turned up to have a wander around & came to sit behind me, I told him I expected my open water line to switch on & as soon as I went back on it I had 4 fish in as many put-ins which were a better stamp adding nearly 15lb to my weight'. As soon as I felt the fish had backed off I re-fed it & switched lines, I added a couple more 2lb fish from down the edge again on corn, managed to add a couple of fish to 4lb on maggot from the island & added a few more 3lb plus fish from the open water line before the all-out sounded. I estimated to have around 60-70lb which I thought would be hard to beat today? & by switching around baits & swims I was able to add odd fish when others were struggling for bites, When the Scales arrived Chris Bolton on peg 15 in the corner was leading the way with 50lb odd, I had tipped around a 1lb of silvers back with an hour to go to use it for carp in fear of going over in my carp net but it proved worth while as I finished the day with just over 70lb. Back at the results I had enough to win the day picking up £49 along the way, Top silvers went to Steve Jackson from peg 33 with just over 13lb on maggot over ground-bait. For a change I had a really enjoyable day, By fishing to my strengths it proved worthwhile coming away with the result I was looking for.

 Part of my catch.

 

Planning another trip to Landsend fishery next Saturday before the second round of the Viaduct Winter League next Sunday.

Full Results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 20, 70lb 2oz.

2nd Chris Bolton (Summerhayes) peg 15, 52lb 4oz.

3rd Martin Addicott (Summerhayes) peg 12, 40lb 12oz.

Silvers - Steve Jackson (Garbolino) peg 33, 13lb 4oz.