We were on Longs again for Sunday’s open and for once I managed not to oversleep and enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast at the bowling club. 22 fishing today so a good turnout, I was fairly near the top of the list and well happy when I pulled out number 7 next door to where I had the top silvers weight last Sunday. Also Alex won the silvers open the previous day with 17lb+ from peg 8 so hopefully I was in the right area.
Only a slightly different view from last Sunday!
I set up a little 0.1 gram Colmic Elsa for two top five lines, straight out and angled toward the lilies on my left and also at 11.5 metres plus 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.
We got underway and I fed the shorter lines with modest amounts of gb and a few pinkies before starting at top kit plus three straight out. I pinged some maggots to the island and when I looked back the float was nowhere to be seen and a small fish opened my account.
Hoping I was in for a good day, I shipped back out but this time the float just sat there. Alex over on 32 was already into his stride and catching well so after another ten minutes without a bite, I tried by the lilies earlier than I would have liked. Several tiny fish quite quickly was encouraging but it was short lived. Just being patient, a positive bite resulted in the characteristic jagging fight of a little tench and a gorgeous little 4-6oz tinca was netted.
Compared to the previous day, it was bitterly cold and apart from Alex catching silvers regularly and Adie on 33 next door netting carp, as far as I could tell nobody else was catching much at all! Adding a section I’ve gone further along the lilies and the float settled and went straight under with tench number two.
Next chuck I had another, then a tiny roach followed by my fourth tench and I hadn’t fed anything on this new line yet! No more indications so I tried the other short lines again with zero reward. I wasn’t panicking yet though as I thought 7-8lb would be a good weight today so if I could just put odd decent fish in the net, I wouldn’t be far away.
After two hours I had my first look on the 11.5 metre groundbait line but couldn’t get a bite there either! 13 metres towards the island was equally uninspiring so I added the 14.5 metre section and went tight to the far bank. I was expecting an instant response after feeding it from the start but nothing and 7lb was starting to look like a rather distant target!
Trying different areas along the far bank, eventually the float’s gone under and I’ve had a small roach but it was far from fast and furious and over the next hour or so, I’ve only managed a handful of little roach and one tiny 1oz skimmer.
Nick came for a wander with around an hour to go and said young McKenzie on 19 was catching small fish and Bill on 13 had some half decent skimmers. By now I was back fishing by the lilies hoping a run of bonus fish would come to my rescue. I did manage three more little tench but also hooked (and lost) three carp.
With five minutes to go, Glynn on peg 11 hooked into a big 2lb skimmer and then just before the all out had a goldfish (which count) and any faint hopes I had of sneaking into the frame disappeared. At the final whistle, I had 19 fish on the clicker plus a few tiny fish I hadn’t counted.
Pete started the weigh in with Mike B on 37 who had 19lb 10oz of mainly carp, then Zooner had 2lb 9oz of silvers on 39 and Steve Collins weighed 16lb 2oz on peg 1. Heardy went into second place with 19lb of carp, Alan J didn’t weigh and then my fish went 3lb 11oz.
Hollywood on 10 had 15lb 8oz of carp before Glynn went into the silvers lead with 4lb 12oz but it only lasted until we got to Bill on 13 who’d done well to weigh 8lb 5oz of skimmers. Parker ‘The Rod’ had one carp of 8lb 6oz, James C chucked back on 17 and then McKenzie had loads of small fish for 5lb 9oz.
Bill was second in the silvers with a good net of skimmers weighing 8lb 5oz
Nick P and Dan didn’t weigh in the bottom corner which is the place not to draw at the moment, Craig L had a carp of 4lb 1oz and Lee S on 27 had 9oz of silvers. Tom R weighed 10lb 3oz of mainly carp, Chris W came close with 19lb 8oz of carp on 30 and then Alex had a nice net of silvers for 10lb 6oz which was the top weight.
Alex won the silvers with a brilliant weight on the day of 10lb 6oz
Adie Bishop had done really well fishing very long (19 metres) to go into the overall lead with 47lb 4oz, Rog C had 9lb 1oz and then last to weigh was Kev ‘O who had 26lb to take second spot.
Adie won on the day with an excellent 47lb 4oz of mainly carp
Kev ‘O was second with 26lb from peg 36
1 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 47lb 4oz
2 – Kev ‘O (Summerhayes) – 26lb
3 – Mike Blake (Summerhayes) – 19lb 10oz
Silvers
1 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 10lb 6oz
2 – Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) – 8lb 5oz
3 – McKenzie Wickham (Summerhayes) – 5lb 9oz
So a tough day for most but there were still some good weights recorded.
The Nugget-O-Meter had another brilliant day thanks to £2 from Zooner and pounds from Nick P, Craig L, Dan T and me saw the total shoot up to £104.
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 – Acorn
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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