A double header at Summerhayes this week starting with a silvers match on Saturday. My day didn’t get off to the best of starts when my alarm went off at 5:45 and I slept through it, I woke up at 6:30 which was when I was supposed to be meeting the others. I messaged Nick to say I was running late and then rushed around like a headless chicken and eventually got there just after 7:00. Proceedings continued on a downward spiral when I’d suggested a new burger van for breakfast and it wasn’t there! With time running out and a lack of other options we ended up stopping at Greggs to fill our rumbling tummies.
When we got to the fishery there were only six of fishing today but on the plus side, it meant we’d all be on great silvers pegs! I was third on the list and got number 31 which is a brilliant peg but I’d be looking over my shoulder all day for cars, Nick drew 35 and the next angler to my right was Nick Ewers on 28.
It was flat calm at the start
I set up two 0.2 gram Bobbies to fish two lines at 11.5 metres and across to the island at 14.5 metres. The side tray for today contained red maggots, disco pinkies, micros, 4mm expanders and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark.
On the whistle I fed the two 11.5 metre lines with micros and pinged a few maggots across before starting with a 4mm expander on the left hand line. A bite after a few minutes resulted in a nice skimmer and a steady first hour saw me catch another three 6-8oz skimmers and a couple of little blades but I missed a few bites as well.
Typically going into the second hour, the wind got up and was howling up the pond, making presentation a nightmare. I did have two fish on 2mm expanders and then a decent skimmer on maggot before pulling out of one but with my catch rate going in the wrong direction I was already itching to have a go at 14.5 metres.
After a further half an hour where I’ve put very little in the net, I shipped across to the island and had a small roach first chuck but it was hard work trying to keep the rig still. When the wind relented for a couple of minutes, I’d get bites and hooked a fish that didn’t feel like a carp but was pulling too hard to be a skimmer and a nice bonus tench around a pound popped up.
Rob Birch came for a wander and while he was behind me I had a decent skimmer before he went to see how the others were doing, on his return he reckoned I was doing well as he hadn’t seen anyone else catch. I was getting regular bites from roach and some nice hybrids but also hooking a few carp including one that tore along the far bank and went through a tangle of willow branches. A breakage was surely on the cards but the whole lot started to come before eventually the 0.09mm hooklength gave way and with the fish long gone the branches were deposited right in the middle of my peg!
Thankfully it didn’t pose me too many problems as the wind blew my newly arrived snag up into peg 32. I started feeding another area across as there were now a fair few carp swirling and showing themselves. Swapping between the two 14.5 metre lines, I caught quite well for the remainder of the match, mainly roach but I did have another three of four decent skimmers and ended up with around 60 fish.
I packed up and went to give Pete a hand with the weigh in, Tom R on peg 10 had 8lb 8oz, Bill ‘The Paste’ weighed 7lb 15oz on 13 which was also the golden peg, Alex Kerr then sneaked into the lead on 19 with 8lb 10oz. Nick Ewers had 7lb 2oz, then my fish went 13lb 12oz and last to weigh was Nick P who had 5lb 8oz although he was bitten off at the net by a big eel.
Alex weighed 8lb 10oz on peg 19
I had 13lb 12oz of skimmers, roach, a rudd and a tench
1 – Jamie Rich (Against Men and Fish) – 13lb 12oz
2 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 8lb 10oz
Only six of us today
I had a nice little pick up of £50 for winning and another £4 went into the pot courtesy of Nick and me (for today and tomorrow) as the Nugget-O-Meter rose to £106.
After the match we had the awful news that Jeff Sparkes had passed away, he’d been battling cancer for a while and I last saw him in November at the Memorial Match he organised every year. He didn’t look well that day but was in good spirits and it was nice that his close friend Roy Hughes won on the day, especially since they went halves on any winnings.
Jeff with yet another nice bag of skimmers
I’d known Jeff for probably ten years and he used to love fishing for silvers as well, taking plenty of nuggets off me during that time. He even came over and fished a few of our club matches at Dillington. Rest in peace Jeff.
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
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