Summerhayes Fishery (Silvers Only) Longs Lake.

Off to Summerhayes today to fish this final silvers Qualifier ahead of the all-winners final to be held next Friday, Fortunately I've already Qualified but wanted to use today to try & get a picture of what to expect next week as I cant see the water warming up much between now & then.

Eleven of us fishing today so not a rover match this time around, Gary Butler chose the pegs for today before tea boy Aide drew the bonus peg which turned out to be end peg 35 which is well fancied, Into the draw & I found myself on peg 33 with venue regular bill hopping on the bonus peg 35 & owner Pete next to me on peg 31 as we all had an empty peg minimum, I had one of the widest swims which goes into a bay opposite at 16mts but didn't plan to go right into it as it was a bit carp territory! I set up a 4x12 wire wonder on 0.13-0.10 & an 18 PR\412 hook to fish maggot over G/Bait at 13mts, & set up a 0.3g pencil rig to fish at 9mts left & right on the same line with an 18 F1 pellet hook, I had a simple day planned, expanders over G/Bait/micros, & maggots! Simple?.

On the all-in I fed three balls with dead maggot added at 13mts, fed a nugget of micros at 9mts to the right & with a few red maggots & a decent ball of g/bait with micros added to my left at the same distance. I started on the short right hand line with maggot & had a small roach straight away, soon followed by a 4oz skimmers before I landed a 2lb carp which I told Pete was a Tench" Not long after I had a better fish which turned out to be a near 2lb skimmer so a good start! No more indications so re-fed a small amount & switched to the left hand short line, I had a couple of small skimmers before netting another decent size one' On the hour mark I thought I had around 5lb, Pete was trying to fish the wagg but was yet to catch as was Bill.

Unfortunately it was down hill from here, I could only muster the odd blade skimmer or tiny roach & after 90mins Bill started to catch the odd better skimmer, both my better fish came fishing in his direction & with the wind blowing that direction I had a feeling the fish had followed it", I wont drag on but I spent the next four hours starting a few more lines switching between the maggot & expander on the hook, It was rock hard though with just the odd blade skimmer until I started to get the odd bite on expander over G/bait at 13mts going as far left to next peg as I could, Unfortunately most seemed to be carp but I did get the odd skimmer between 4-6oz & with twenty minutes to go netted another decent skimmer which I first thought was a smaller carp!" Bill had netted the odd skimmer through the day including two better stamp fish late on & I thought he had around 12lb odd come the end, Pete had called it a day before the all out after netting just a couple of small skimmers & I thought I had around 8-9lb come the end? We caught up with the scales Just as John Fudge was about to weigh from peg 11, he had a decent day catching a few smaller stamp skimmers to finish with 11lb 14oz, That was top weight until it was my turn & Wasn't to far of today when I finished with 10lb 4oz, I fully expected Bill to come out on top but was surprized when his fish went 9lb odd. So that was it, John Won the day which saw him take his place in next weeks final so well done to him, I ended up 2nd picking up £36 & hopefully got a good piture on what to expect next week.

Overall results -

1st John Fudge (The Sedges) peg 11, 11lb 14oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 33, 10lb 4oz.

3rd Bill Hoping (Summerhayes) peg 35, 9lb 4oz.

4th Ziggy Slowinski (Garbolino) peg 13, 7lb 12oz.

5th Gary Butler (Summerhayes) Peg 26, 7lb 2oz.