Summerhayes Fishery Open (Sellicks Lake).

Failing to book in anywhere else Jonny Page, Simon Ryall & Myself decided to take a trip to Summerhayes, Reports were the lake had been fishing ok so I expected a few fish to be caught, We had are normal breakfast stop off before arriving to find 20 booked in, Their are only 23 pegs on this lake & the last visit here drew peg 9 & with an empty peg either side I still struggled for 19lb odd so was hoping to avoid this area with my preference for the far side of the lake or one of the lucky ones to have some room. No such luck today after a nice peg yesterday I thought I was asking to much ending up on peg 10 which is the narrower end of the lake with 13mts getting me over to the island, All sounds good but the far bank has been stripped right back to nothing so no cover as such just bare bank, I didn't fancy it at all to be honest as peg 9 was in with 8 being empty as was peg 11 being the end peg of are bank so I was trapped in the middle. I didn't have many options as the pegs are close here so first up was a dobbing rig for the far bank, A rig to fish down the track being a 4x12 Chanti on 0.15-0.13 & an 18 Silvers fish hook & finally a rig to fish tight to the far bank where I found a flattish area around 4ft so again had a 4x12 Chanti on 0.13-0.11 & an 18 808 hook.

I started the day just dobbing a small cube of meat along the far bank in what room I had, After 15mins without a sign of fish I decided to try on the deck with a 4mm expander to start with feeding a few micros over the top with a cad pot, I finally had a small 10oz carp then 15mins later I had a fish around 4lb on hard 6mm pellet, things were really slow for most but further up the lake on the wider pegs they were catching from the off, I was trying every thing I could to try & induce a bite, The line down the track failed to produce a bite all day as did a new swim off to my left I fed with hard 4mm's & some Micro's so no more about them' the dad n lad team either side of me had taken a fish from down their margins but the decided to fish facing me & theirs only around 12ft between us" I had been feeding small pinches of bait here hoping to try it late in the day but now it had been totally claimed' I had a day trying just about everything I could think of, I managed two more carp from the far bank one deep & one shallow on meat & lost 3, One in a snag, one foul hooked, & one bigger one for no reason'.

Not a good days fishing but with a chilling breeze from the north blowing down the lake put the fish right off.  Mark Lehay on peg 5 in the wider water caught a few carp towards empty peg 4 down the edge before taking the bulk of his fish across to the far bank on mainly bread to finish with 45lb odd to win with ease today so well done to him Silvers went the way of Ray Wickham from peg 17 with 7lb odd so lower weight all around. Shame I couldn't of had another good day but that's the way it goes but I sure will be glad when it warms up enough they start competing for food. Back to The Sedges next Saturday for the second round of the pairs & my turn to fish Brick Lake, Judging by yesterdays results a corner peg will do nicely".

Full results -

 1st Mark Lehay (Summerhayes) peg 5, 45lb 6oz.

2nd Mark Hannon (Summerhayes) peg 14, 26lb 3oz.

3rd Simon Ryall, (Weston s mare) peg 7, 24b 2oz.

4th Ray Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 17, 22lb 8oz.

5th Jonny Page (Weston s mare) peg 12, 20lb 2oz.

Silvers - Ray Wickham, 7lb 7oz.