I was looking forward to the weekend and two days at Summerhayes, starting with a silvers match on Saturday. Twelve fishing today which is a good number on Sellicks as it means basically every other peg in. Pete announced the draw and I really fancied number 16 (my favourite peg) or any of the middle pegs on the far side. When it was my turn, I didn’t get my wish but I wasn’t too upset when I pulled out peg 6 on the near side, a great silvers area where I did well the last time I drew it.
No chance of a nice relaxing day though as I had Somerset’s answer to Stan Boardman on the next peg!
Ear plugs required!
On the whistle I fed all my lines before having a quick go short but I don’t think it’s warm enough for that yet. 11.5 metres was next and equally disappointing as it was a slow start for everyone. After twenty minutes I had a little flicker on the float but it didn’t develop and then Tom R on my left had a couple of roach so at last things were beginning to happen.
Swapping back to the right hand line, the float sailed away and I hooked a small roach but it came off shipping back and then next put in I pulled out of another, not the greatest of starts! I had a couple of roach but then Craig went across and had a decent skimmer first chuck. My bites slowed on the right so I tried double pinkie on the left hand line, the float settled and buried. Loads of elastic came out on the strike and it felt like a decent skimmer but came off and there was a little scale on the hook.
Back out again, another positive bite and this time it felt like a properly hooked skimmer, I got down to the top kit, only for this one to come off as well and there was another scale on the hook, this definitely wasn’t going very well! There were obviously some fish there as I’ve then landed three skimmers and a roach (all hooked in the mouth) in quick succession before it slowed. Skimbob number four came from the right hand line along with a few roach but with Craig beginning to catch some nice skimmers across, I was dying to have a look over where I’d been feeding from the start.
Just before the halfway point, I’ve ventured across to 14.5 metres but it’s not happened, eventually I’ve hooked a fish that didn’t feel like a carp although it was still pulling quite hard only for it to come off before I’d seen it! It was slow going but then I’ve had a decent roach followed by a skimmer next put in and I thought perhaps I might start to string a few fish together only for it to just fizzle out.
From what I could see, nobody was really bagging although Roy up on peg 12 was getting a few and had two nice perch plus several skimmers. Craig was getting the odd nice skimmer across and Adie on peg 2 started catching after fishing long to the aerator. I was going nowhere fast so got the dolly butt out and went tighter across, a 6oz hybrid first chuck was encouraging and then I hooked what felt like a good roach but that came off as well!
Another look on the shorter lines resulted in nothing so I tried fishing past the feed and after a short wait, the float buried and I was into a big skimmer. Shipping back carefully you can probably guess what happened next and I was left cursing again as my match continued to go downhill. I did manage a decent skimmer and a nice roach at 13 metres in the remaining half an hour but I knew I hadn’t done any good today.
The scales started with Adie who weighed 9lb 7oz, Craig had 8lb 10oz and then my fish went a level 8lb. Tom had 4lb 10oz, Glynn chucked back and then Roy went into the lead with 11lb 8oz.
Craig weighed 8lb 10oz of skimmers
Roy did well on peg 12 with 11lb 8oz of skimmers and perch
Zooner and Dan T didn’t weigh, Alex had some lovely big roach in his 12lb 6oz and then it was Bill who came very close with 12lb 2oz, Nick weighed 6lb 4oz on 22 and McKenzie chucked back.
Alex weighed 12lb 6oz which included some quality roach
Bill had 12lb 2oz of skimmers and a goldfish!
1 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 12lb 6oz
2 – Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) – 12lb 2oz
3 – Roy Hughes (Summerhayes) – 11lb 8oz
A really close match with just 14oz separating the top three and back up weights only a couple of fish away. It had been one to forget for me, definitely plenty of room for improvement!
Nick and me bunged two squid each into the pot (for today and tomorrow), Craig Lyttle kindly donated a pound and one from Zooner saw the Nugget-O-Meter climb to £78.
There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling
Also I still have copies of my book available from eBay here or Amazon here
And if you could spare five minutes to leave a nice review on Amazon, it would be very much appreciated.
Next up – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
Check Out – My last match
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