For my third match in as many days, it was back to Summerhayes on Monday for another open on Sellicks. A bakers dozen fishing today which is a nice number for the lake as it’s basically every other peg so we’d all have lots of room.
Pete announced the draw and I was around halfway down the list, as per usual I was hoping to draw on the far side between 22 and 15. When it was my turn to delve into the bucket, my favourite peg 16 was still in there although I skillfully managed to avoid it but was more than happy with 20.
I set up a 0.2 gram rig for two lines at 11.5 metres and another for across to the island at 14.5 metres. Lots of maggots and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark groundbait on the menu today.
We got underway and I fed the 11.5 metre lines with modest amounts of loose groundbait and began pinging maggots across to the island. Starting on the shorter lines with single maggot, I had a roach quite quickly and then hooked a big skimmer that leapt several times before coming off.
Swapping between the two 11.5 metre lines, I’ve had a lovely first hour catching five decent skimmers plus a couple of roach and rudd. Going into the second sixty minutes, I was still getting regular bites although I did have one decent skimmer come off at the net but luckily managed to scoop it. My good fortune didn’t end there when I was into a fish that tore off but didn’t feel like a carp and a nice skimbob hooked in the wing came to the net!
I thought my luck had run out when I struck into a leaper that went airborne several times before ending up going through some vegetation on the far bank and looked to be snagged solid. With light elastic, I was sure this was going to end badly but I gave it some welly and was waiting for something to snap when it came free and I landed another good skimmer!
The third hour was similar and I was up to fifteen skimmers plus a few roach and it felt like a big weight was on the cards. Up to this point I hadn’t had any carp trouble but then hooked three on the trot. I was thinking about going across but decided to have one more go and should have known better as the next bite saw me into a lumpy fish. It was fairly well behaved and I thought I might be able to net it without too much fuss but then it woke up. I was pulling the guts out of my elastic and then there was an almighty ‘TWANG’ as it snapped and I lost the lot!
Picking up the far bank rig, I went across and after a short wait, had another decent skimmer and I was hoping I’d carry on catching well. To be honest, after a brilliant first half of the match where pretty much everything went my way, things began to go rather pear shaped. I was still getting regular bites but bumped a few, had a couple of leapers come off and was also beginning to hook more carp.
While my catch rate was going in the wrong direction, Jim J on my left was starting to catch some big skimmers on soft pellets. The last couple of hours were really frustrating for me as I would catch a couple of fish but at one stage had three leapers come off on the trot! At the all out, I’d finished up with 30 fish (22 skimmers plus rudd and roach).
After packing up I went round to watch the weigh in, Terry ‘The Toast’ on peg 2 had 47lb 2oz, Steve Collins on 4 just pipped him with 48lb 1oz, Dave Phillips weighed 27lb 3oz, Dan T on peg 7 had 11lb 15oz of silvers, Kev O didn’t weigh on 9 and then Shaggy went into the lead with 81lb 9oz on peg 11.
Terry ‘The Toast’ had 47lb 2oz on peg 2
Steve Collins weighed 48lb 1oz
Dave Phillips had 27lb 3oz on peg 5
Dan T had a nice net of silvers for 11lb 15oz
John ‘Shaggy’ Billet had the top weight on the day with 81lb 9oz
Roy Hughes had 7lb 1oz of silvers, Toby chucked back on 14, Mark Leahy was just short of second with 47lb 6oz and Big Bad Bob didn’t weigh on 18. My silvers went 21lb 2oz, Jim had 14lb and Adie threw back on 24.
I had 22 skimmers plus some roach and rudd for 21lb 2oz
Jim had some big skimmers for 14lb and second in the silvers
1 – John ‘Shaggy’ Billet (U-ZIT Bait) – 81lb 9oz
2 – Steve Collins (Summerhayes) – 48lb 1oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 21lb 2oz
2 – Jim Jenner (Summerhayes) – 14lb
I picked up £50 for winning the silvers and had another lovely days fishing although the second half had been a bit of a nightmare with lost/bumped/missed/leaping fish!
A nugget from Dan T was added to the pot as the total for the Nugget-O-Meter reached £382.
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 – Viaduct
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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