Summerhayes Silvers Match, Friday & Pleasure Session, Taunton & Bridgwater Canal.

Friday saw me take a trip back to Summerhayes for the start of their silvers only qualifier with the match winners going to a final sometime in Oct, Bit disappointing with only eight fishing including Team Mate Gabo so it would be run as a rover match although we only had the choice of Longs or Sellicks Lake, ended up with sixth choice which would rule out the me ending up around the high 30 pegs on longs which I fancied to produce as someone was bound to go on there & the rule was you all have to have an empty peg either side, Sure enough When Gabo had 2nd choice opting to go on peg 34 it ruled out anyone going on peg 35 or 33 & with Gary butler going below him I wasn't quite sure were to go? I haven't fished Sellicks for some time so didn't know how it was fishing for silvers so chose peg 38 on Longs looking down the lake from the carpark which is the narrowest bit being only 12mts to the far side.

I set up a 0.2 pencil float on 0.11-0.10 & an 18 F1 maggot hook to fish maggot on the hook if needed but hoped to catch on soft pellet really so had a rig on the same line with a size 16 F1 pellet hook, The depth was pretty even at around 4ft so had a line at 10mts left & right down the middle around 6mts off the near bank, I plumed two lines across at 11mts which was a bit un-even but did find a couple of flat areas.

At the start I fed a ball of casters & dead reds to the left down the track & a small ball of micros & some 4mm expanders to the right, I fed a small ball of G/bait across slightly right with some micros added & some oose micros to the left hand side across. I started the day down the track to the right with 4mm expander which was inline with Gabo from where I was sat, This wasn't a good thing as he soon netted a couple of decent near 2lb skimmers & was getting plenty of indications by the look of things' I did have a bite which was a blade skimmer after 30mins which came off then I couldn't get a bite here, It didn't help with the wind changing direction blowing right round the bend at me which was getting stronger", I had a look on maggot on the other track line but no signs here so time to go across on expander starting over the micros, One bite here in ten minutes which turned out to be a small carp" Over to the ground-bait fed line again with expander but I just could not catch a thing..

Rob Birch was around from me on peg 2 & was catching smaller skimmers across to the sheltered far bank where he was & Jeff Sparks below him was getting a few fish, It took me nearly two hours to get bites", I started to cad-pot neat G/Bait across in the deeper water & from nowhere had three skimmers on the trot for around 2lb so at last something in the net, I kept adding the odd nugget & after another 20 blank minutes started to get a run of had sized skimmers, I topped up after every two fish or as soon as I couldn't get any signs, I kept having a quick look on the other fed lines but not a bite on anything to my left hand side across or down the track, I even started a new line infront the next pallet but not a sign, I managed a 1lb skimmer from down the track back towards Gabo but had to ditch this line as the wind had got up that much the rig was just towing back at me to much even with line on the deck, I began to feed the odd tiny nugget of damp micros down the track just past my top kit in the hope of a few ate fish here, I kept working the far line but they kept drifting out the peg, I began to catch the odd carp but usually when I went back on the same line I would get a bigger sized skimmer soon after, Going into the last hour I was beginning to make in roads on Gabo & Rob who's swims had slowed up a little, With an hour to go I dropped in on the short line I had been feeding & had a 12oz hybrid straight away, Soon followed by a 1lb skimmer before a carp put an appearance in", I fed another small amount before back across to add acouple more skimmers to 8oz. In the last 45mins I added a skimmer over 2lb short with a few more to 10oz on the far line. I new Gabo had caught well at the start but didn't do much in the last few hours apart from play carp" I was first to weigh & was pleased to finish with 15lb odd considering I was miles behind at one stage. Gabo struggled later in the day but did enough early with his big skimmers to finish with 17lb odd & we thought that was the way it would stay but we forgot Dan Pither who was late arriving had chosen to be the only one on Sellicks Lake, He was admitting to 10lb but was a bit out finishing with 16lb odd" This meant it pushed me out the money but a close match in the end which resulted in Gabo taking his place in Octobers Final.

Full Results -

1st Gabriel Skarba (Mosella) peg 34 Longs, 17lb 2oz.

2nd Dan Pither (Royal Marines) peg 2 Longs, 16lb 10oz.

3rd Dom Sullivan (Mosella) peg 38 Longs, 15lb 1oz.

4th Jeff Sparks (Summerhayes) peg 4 Longs, 13lb 4oz.

5th Rob Birch (Summerhayes) peg 2 Longs, 12lb 6oz.