It was Summerhayes on Sunday and after struggling on Sellicks last week, we were on Longs so hopefully we’d get some bites! A good turnout of 19 anglers including Hainsey and Dom Sullivan who I haven’t seen for ages.
Pete got the draw underway and the golden peg was 37 which had won the previous days silvers match. I was fairly near the top of the list and for once, didn’t draw the bonus ball as peg 8 was my home for the day. It’s a great carp peg and I’d have normally been disappointed but Adie did well recently on peg 9 fishing towards his right and had a lovely net of silvers including quite a few tench and crucians.
Nick drew 36 again and would be fishing for carp while Roy was on the golden peg. The lake was flat calm and with nothing topping, I thought we might be in for another tough day. My peg has the point of the island opposite and a bed of lilies to my right in the corner which is why it’s such a good carp swim.
I set up a little 0.1 gram Colmic Elsa for top two plus two angled to the right, top five straight out and a 0.2 gram Bobbie for 13 and 14.5 metres towards the island. The usual side tray with lots of maggots, disco pinkies and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark groundbait.
On the whistle, I fed the two shorter lines with nuggets of gb and a few pinkies and began pinging a few maggots across. Starting on the top kit plus two line angled to the right but away from the lilies for obvious (carpy) reasons, I was expecting to wait a little while for my first bite. After ten minutes and no indications, I moved out to the top five line but the float remained stubbornly buoyant while Adie and Dom on ‘Cyanide Straight’ and Bill ‘The Paste’ on 10 had all caught several little skimmers!
With half an hour gone and nothing in the net, I tried fishing by the lilies and toss potting in a few pinkies, finally the float went under and a tiny roach flew out the water on the strike but at least I’d got off the mark. I still couldn’t get a bite on the other short lines so started a new swim at 11.5 metres and went back by the lilies to let it settle.
The next bite resulted in a fair bit of elastic coming out and I just knew it would be a little tench which was a nice bonus, or it would have been if it hadn’t come off at the net! I did start getting a few bites from roach and a couple of little tench but also knew it was just a matter of time before the inevitable happened. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the float flew under and a carp was on, luckily it swam into open water and then even better, the hook pulled out!
A few more fish followed before I hooked a second carp, this one buried me right in the middle of the lilies and I felt the hooklength give way but everything was still solid and I had to grab the elastic and pull, praying I wouldn’t lose the rig or elastic! Thankfully I got the rig back, attached to a lily stalk. After all the commotion, I decided to leave it for five minutes and had my first look at 11.5 metres. I could see the others still catching odd silvers and was sure I’d catch on this new line but couldn’t get a bite!
As we approached the halfway point, I had four little 3-4oz tench plus some roach, all from the lilies but bites were slowing up and from what I could see everybody was now struggling apart from Nick who was bagging on carp and Hainsey on 34 who was catching a small fish every chuck.
I still couldn’t get a bite from the other short swims or 11.5 metres so I’ve gone across to the island. It took a while to catch but I started getting the odd better roach and had three of four before bites slowed. Back by the lilies, I had another two little tench, some roach and also landed my first carp. That set the scene for the rest of the match and I’ve swapped between the two lines nicking a couple of fish from each.
Going into the last hour I had to go to 14.5 metres tight to the far bank to get bites and I continued putting odd fish in the net to the final whistle. I finished up with 38 fish (8 tench, 1 crucian, 2 little perch and 27 roach) plus that carp. As we packed up, Pete began the weigh in and when the scales arrived, a quick look at the board revealed Adie was leading the silvers with 4lb 7oz followed by Dom with 3lb 2oz.
My fish went 7lb 2oz which I hoped might get me in the frame but apparently Hainsey had over 140 fish so I thought he’d beaten me for sure. Bill weighed 3lb 7oz of skimmers and then Hollywood on 12 went into the overall lead with 44lb 11oz of carp.
I had another nice day catching tench, roach, perch and a crucian for 7lb 2oz
After loading the car, I caught up with the scales as they weighed in the last few pegs, Dan T on 33 had 2lb 3oz of silvers and then Hainsey had loads of small fish for 5lb 13oz. Last but not least was Nick P who’d had another successful foray over to the ‘Dark Side’ to win with 62lb 4oz of carp and I think he’s beginning to like peg 36!
Hainsey had loads of fish for 5lb 13oz and second in the silvers
Nick had the top weight on the day with 62lb 4oz
1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 62lb 44oz
2 – Ian Williams (Summerhayes) – 44lb 11oz
3 – Steve Collins (Summerhayes) – 37lb 12oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 7lb 2oz
2 – Chris Haines (Haines Angling) – 5lb 13oz
3 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 4lb 7oz
Both Hollywood and Steve C failed trying to win a place for Craig in the Champion of Champions final! Photo credit – Steve Collins*
I had a nice pick up of £60 for winning the silvers and pounds from Zooner, Dan T and Oscar plus 50p from Nick P took the Nugget-O-Meter total to £92.
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 – Todber Manor
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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