Summerhayes 50/50 match, Longs Lake, 17-4-17

On the bank holidays Summerhayes have started to do a 50/50 match at a cost of £26 as opposed to the usual £21, well I think I am not so keen on this idea as you pay your dues, which basically puts £9.50 or so into each pot of pay-outs (carp only, silvers only) but you cannot double bubble.

So in reality you have 3 choices, 2 are straight forward in that you fish for carp or silvers for the 6hrs, the 3rd option is a little more of a chancer in that you could set your stall out for the hypothetical perfect match, catch a few quick carp, then some silvers, then plunder the carp and hope you have covered your arse by securing a pick-up place in either or both (no double bubble). This option for the most part, as I see it at Summerhayes, would more than often leave you a little behind the pace in either category, especially at this venue where the carp are averaging 2-3lb or so and the silvers is often won with about 10-13lb. At some venues, Viaduct springs to mind, you catch plenty of silvers on carp lines and vice-versa and people frame in both with 'accidentals' on reasonably regular basis.
I don't know, I need to get my mind around it, or rather the fact you are chucking a tenner in a pot you have no intentions of trying for maybe? If you could double up then it would all make sense.

Maybe we need to start going down the optional silvers route at matches more so? So rather than £20 all in, say make it £15 and £5 optional or even do a 50/50 split, peg fee and two equal optionals? Actually this is something I have been thinking about more recently, on clubbies I can see the default and no double bubble making sense as the spread payouts keeps anglers interested, but on opens, I don't know. It also seems to be a 'South-West' thing too, as I cannot remember seeing the silvers pools having separate pots up north?
I see Windmill, Viaduct and Avalon and some Sedges matches allow double bubble, except sections money (understandable).

Thoughts? I think I have confused myself....also don't the silvers anglers get the short straw by paying a larger chunk of entry to the overall monies or does the fact less people are targeting silvers negate that?......You should all sleep well tonight xx

Anyways I digress, back to my match. Only 9 of us as the Wickhams had ventured to Shiplate where Glynn did well.
I drew peg 8 on Longs, I don't have a clue if it is good or what is the target, silvers or carp?
It looked fine, but only odd plippy roach showing. But apparently the pegs 1-5 had been ok for silvers and 14 to 17 better for carp. Plus the roadside is consistent for the carp.

Peg 8 Longs

My 2 edges were reedy and looked more hazardous than I would like, those little carp are like mad and will dive into them right away (as I found out). The island was between 13m and I had 14m to the point of it.
Jim Jenner was over on peg 3 and to my left I had 2 empty pegs as 11 was next in.

A few rigs, one for silvers off in the direction of Jim (groundbait) and at the same angle to my left (micros).
An edge rig for both sides and tight over using meat.
A shallow pellet rig for across, off the point of the island and at 2+2 in front.
A deep pellet rig for 2+2 and off the point of the island where the depth was the same.

At the all-in I fed the spots in the peg and for some reason I was convinced I would catch on the short pellet lines.....an hour spent on this gave me 2 carp, one shallow, one on the deck. Jim had caught a couple and lost a couple fishing across. It was soon the 2nd hour....
I could see the reeds on my left full of fish, so I tried here but was landing as many as I lost and it was getting tedious, landing maybe 5 or 6 in quick succession including a 6lb bonus.
The fish were soon on edge and bites came less frequently and when I did hook one they'd be a smidgen quicker into the reeds.
A look down my right gave me a couple but it was not so busy with activity.

A few ventures onto the silvers lines only gave me a few roach and a 6oz skimmer, so I semi-binned them as it was 3hrs in and I guessed it would be a struggle to get 10lb from them, carp came from them though....!! But I looked to be well behind Jim, Bill Hopping and a couple of guys over on the road bank had gone for another net....I was and had too many quiet spells all round.
The next couple of hours was just spent picking up odd fish from the edges and off the silvers line, the short-pellet line had a few bubbles, but I tried there without action either on the deck or off. I decided with 90 minutes left to feed meat over my pellet line. So a cup of meat went in and the array of rigs went back on their winders and I was left with a solitary short meat rig.
My clicker showed a shade over 40lb.

The last 80 minutes or so went well as I just sat on my meat line and had fish regularly until the all-out, my clicker in the 1st net showed 70lb and probably had 20-30lb at the most in the second net, but I knew I never had what at least 3 others had so I tipped the fish back. But I had learned a few things during the day for sure.

I helped Pete with the weigh-in, and as expected it was Bill who won the carp pot, and the silvers was won off the golden peg so they had a nice £96 bonus....

Results:
Carp:
1st, Bill Hopping, 145lb 12oz, p17 (1st carp payout)
2nd, Roy Hughes, 140lb 13oz, p34 (2nd carp precedent)
3rd, Martin Addicot, 121lb 14oz, p30
Silvers:
1st, Mark Lehay, 9lb 9oz, peg 19 (golden peg and 1st silvers payout)
2nd, Roy Hughes, 8lb 3oz, p34
3rd, Rob Birch, 7lb 2oz, p37 (2nd silvers payout by default)

weights

So an interesting day, frustrating I suppose, I spent too long faffing and trying to make things work when maybe I would have fared better doing what I finished up on. Hindsight.....!!

Apex next Sunday with the Pawlett crew, I hope it fishes like I know it can, but I think with around 30 on there it will be patchy.

Until then, sleep well....

Lee

Avalon Teams of 3, Final Round 16-4-17

No fishing for me on Friday or Saturday, so it was a Sunday and Monday combo for me this last long weekend.

Sunday, well it was the final round of the Teams of 3 at Avalon, Myself, Steve and Eric Fouracre had really nothing to play for just try and nick some of the money on the day. Sadly that never went to plan.
The weather was rather blustery and in general. windy, but at least it was set to stay dry.  Some teams were not present so there were a few anglers covering their spots including Dom Sullivan, Matt Culpin and Jonny Page.

Steve drew our pegs, I was on 44, usually a decent peg having won a couple rounds and has a gap with boards on the island. Eric was up on 26 which has been a consistent peg and Steve on 11 which can be good for silvers.

Peg 44 at Avalon

A lead rod and pellet wag were ready, then I made a silvers rig to fish over 2 lines (micros on one, groundbait on the other), a topkit rig for caster down to my right and a rig for down next to empty peg 45.
For company I had Keith Bilder on my right and Tom Thick on my left, I also had my good buddy Paul Wharton in my section on peg 48 in the corner and I had a quid with Mr Culpin on peg 37.

My shortened version of the day went like:
1st hour, nothing except a few rudd down the edge and one lost waggler.
2nd hour I had a single carp on the drop on my silvers rig, only a small 3lb fish. Plus a skimmer and 2 roach.
3rd hour gave me nothing as everyone except Paul down in the corner struggled at this end of the lake, Tom had 3 carp, but decent ones plus a couple big skimmers. Keith had 5 carp,
4th hour saw me land a  carp on the pellet wag, but it was nigh on impossible to feed and you couldn't keep the rig still in the wind, so it was a case of thrashing the water to a foam, both me and Tom were doing this.
5th hour saw another single carp, I didn't bother with the silvers as Vic across on peg 9 was getting a decent skimmer each drop and looked on for 30lb.
Last hour was fishless. Tom ended up on 3 also and 2 big skimmers, Keith had 6 or 7 carp and Paul had nearly 70lb and probably won the section. I had 3 small carp, 2 smallish skimmers and 1lb of bits.

I packed up, but collected a quid from Matt who didn't weigh, but my quid went to Tom, who promptly gave it to Shawn Kittridge......
I didn't watch most of the weigh in, but the sheet showed 23, Tom Mangnal have 90lb+ and 24, Luke Pester (who's drew some pegs this series) on 24 have 115lb. Jamie Cook had 57lb+ and there were a few 30lb-ish sort of weights.
I cant remember what I had, I thing my 3 carp went nearly 14lb and 3lb or so of silvers. Which was not last in section, but may have been 2nd or 3rd last, I don't know. Eric and Steve never faired much better in their sections.

Results:
1st Luke Pester Fu Fighters 116.07 peg 24
2nd Tom Mangnall Mosella UK 93.11 peg 23
3rd Paul Wharton Thyers 68.15 peg 48
4th Jamie Cooke Sedges 57.13 peg 19
5th Paul Lock Happy hookers 45.10 peg 30
6th Vic Bush Mosella UK 40.15 peg 7

Silvers
Vic Bush, Mosella UK, 32.10 - peg 7

Teams
1st - Mosella UK - 27pts
2nd - Thyers - 23pts
3rd  -Fu Fighters - 20pts -165.06
4th - Sedges - 20pts - 109.03
5th - Somerset Carpenters - 17pts
6th - Happy Hookers - 14pts

Final League:
1st: Fu Fighters 41pts
2nd: Sedges 36pts
3rd: Thyers 35pts - 410.10
4th: Mosella UK 35pts - 399.07
5th: Somerset Carpenters 33pts
6th: Mosella Gold 32pts
7th: Over 50`s 27pts
8th: Happy hookers 13pts
9th: Doddys 10pts  -147.01
10th: Wickham wanderers 10pts - 144.02

Overall champion was Luke Pester, Fu Fighters - 45pts

So a rather let-down series for us after going close last year, but some pants draws early on defo cost us and it can be hard to fight back. The top 3 spaces went to corner pegs, which can happen in windy conditions, like it had been for a few days.
Well done to all, especially the top 3 teams and Luke. Plus well done to my carp-disliking mate Paul on coming 3rd.

Until next time, take care.
Lee

Pawlett Match, Sedges, Silvers only. 10-04-17

The annual Silvers match at The Sedges began in warm and sunny conditions, the warmest day of the year and the carp looked very active.....It didn't end very warm though, but the carp were definitely active!!

32 of us lined the 40 pegs of Brick and Tile Lakes, leaving only the corners out on each lake, I had a natter with a few peeps before the draw. I wanted, needed, to be on Brick Lake, as I cannot seen to catch well enough on the silvers front on Tile, but I enjoy Brick and I am more comfortable and confident on that lake. A whole bunch of very tidy anglers fishing the match including some decent silverfish anglers, John Fuidge, Ziggy, Mark Leader and the usual suspects such as Vic, Eric, Mr Parkhouse and the Clapps to name but a few.
Into the draw basket, fingers crossed, out pops peg 28.....On Tile. Bummer. I actually, again, deliberated not fishing. I didn't fancy Tile to compete with Brick Lake when it comes to the overall placings so a double negative for me. Still it was dry and the sun was shining.

Arriving at my peg I could see plenty of carp, a number that seemed to increase during the day.
I had Nick Selway on peg 29 and Kev Crouch on 28.

Peg 28 on Tile Lake

4 top kits were assembled, giving a few of Dean Townshend's (DT Floats) a whirl. Pencils in 0.2g on a couple of rigs and the new-ish F1/silvers Titan (bendy titanium wire) in 0.6g and 10x no 11's.
The 1st Pencil was for down my left edge where I would feed caster by hand, hopefully snare a few roach and maybe a decent perch or a rogue tench.
The 2nd Pencil was for fishing up in the water at 13m using caster and maggot as hookbait. I would fish this over my initial groundbait deposit where the 0.6g rig would be used on the deck. Loose fed casters would be lightly fed over the top via the catty. This spot was off slightly to my left.
Lastly the lighter 10x no11 rig was set up using a banded hook for hard pellet, 6mm, over an initial feed of micros and I would ping a few 4mm pellets over the top. It was the same depth over each line, opening my options a little.
Also I had the same depth (give or take an inch or so) at 2+2 where I fed corn, but it stayed fishless.
My pencil rigs were made up on 0.16>0.11>Guru F1 pellet hooks in size 18.
My deep rigs were on 0.16>0.11>18 LWG or B911 for the hair rig.

All-in, 4 balls of groundbait cupped out long, 1/2 a cup of micros out long slightly right and a few casters and maggots dropped down my left edge.
Out with the shallow rig and I soon had a small roach in the net saving a blank. The lake in my area was calmer and loads of carp could be seen all over the place. It was a slow 1st hour, I think I only put 3 or 4 small roach in the net on the shallow rig and a solitary 4oz skimmer that came to caster on the deck. But it looked like more than the guys each side of me.

It took a whole 90 minutes before I hooked my 1st carp of the day, I think by the end of the day I had landed 15 and lost a few to hook pulls, at times they were taking casters as soon as they hit the surface and take my hookbait before my rig had been lowered in.
So after my carp flurry I managed 3 or 4 more skimmers shallow, one was around 12oz-1lb but the usual size was 4oz or so. A perch of 4oz and a couple roach also took a liking to my caster shallow tactic.
All the while I was feeding a few casters down the edge and pinging pellets long over that line, but I only ventured over the pellets once and hooked a carp, so that line was pretty much left along and u hoped the carp stayed there, or headed elsewhere!!

At the halfway stage it seemed the lake wasn't fishing great for silvers but the odd decent skimmer and very odd tench had been caught. I think I had around 3lb in the net and Kev had overtaken me with some nice skimmers on his short line. Nick was struggling properly.
I persevered fishing my caster and maggots up and down in the water but never managed a non-carp species on the deep rig. A few roach sand odd skimmer from 6oz to 1lb found my keepnet in between the carp.
So with an hour to go I was behind Kev and Nick had begun to get a few skimmers and was possibly level or just ahead of me. I decided to look down the edge, nothing happened so I potted in 3 cups of groundbait as a last resort. 10 minutes later a couple roach topped down the edge so in I went with a single caster, the float went under and a carp was hooked...! Duly netted and released I had another look and had a roach, next look I had a decent fish on and luckily it was a bream of perhaps 3lb, then I had a second of similar stamp. Another roach and another pot of groundbait.
A quick on the long shallow rig saw 3 carp hooked even without feeding...the last netted after the all-out. I reckoned I had around 8lb, as did Nick and Kev, but I hoped the last couple of bream took me ahead of them, Keith Clapp was said to have had 14lb+ from further back to my right. Brick Lake, as expected had seen a few guys catching well enough. The best we on Tile could hope for was a section win.

I packed the kit away and waited for the scales. I found them weighing in Mark Watts a couple pegs to my right, the scoresheet had Keith Clapp putting 14lb 15oz on the scales.
Mark never weighed then Kev had 11lb+ before I tipped my silvers into the sling and registered 14lb 6oz.
Nick had 9lb+, most of which came in a 20 minute spell late on.

I didn't follow the scales but caught up with them towards the end of Brick Lake and I could see a good few nets of 15lb, 17lb, 19lb, 20lb, 28lb and then Ziggy put 29lb+ on the scales to take the honours on the day.
I was 4th on Tile behind Keith 14-15, Paul Homewood 14-07 and Jamie Parkhouse 17-03. Nowhere overall.

Results:
1st, Ziggy Slowinski, 29-12. Peg 17
2nd, Pierce Furlong, 28-02. Peg 12
3rd, Vic Bush, 21-09. Peg 5

Weigh Sheets

So a nice day really, kind of enjoyed it despite my own initial despondencies. The fishery is a quality fishery and the weights were pretty fair throughout.
I was really impressed by the new floats and I also tried some Nick Gilbert micro bore laccy, both the 4-8 and 6-10 and they handled the carp pretty well considering and it was very nice on the silvers, I will be getting some of his lightest micro-bore at some point and some more of the 4-8 for sure.

Not sure where I am on Friday/Saturday/Monday, but Sunday is the last round of the Avalon Teams of 3, nothing on the overall front for us to fish for so it is down to on the day winnings for us.

Until then, have a great long weekend.
Lee

Summerhayes Rover, 2-4-17 (plus Viaduct Fisho...)

I will start off with my very brief summary of the April Fool's Fisho qualifier.
I drew peg 62, not a great draw by all accounts but maybe a chance of some late meat fish, but with 61 and 63 in it wasn't a convincing outlook. I spent 10 minutes debating whether to bother fishing, but I decided to spend 300 minutes in pursuit of a pipe dream.

Lodge lake peg 62

300 minutes later, no carp, plenty of silvers and some wet gear, I was soon heading home.
Will done to Bob Giles who won, only just, ahead of Lee Farmer and the man-in-form Craig 'trig' Edmunds.

Onto today, I decided, well as a family we decided, that I should go fishing, so I ventured back to Summerhayes for their open, a rover format match this week, draw the order you choose your peg in.
I arrived to be greeted by Gareth Lennox and Glynn Wickham. I said hellos to the rest of the guys, paid my pools and collected 3 nets not just 2.
A quickish wander around the complex with Gareth and I quizzed him on a few of the pegs etc as he has fished here a lot more than my half a dozen or so times.

Onto the draw, I pulled 12 which meant I was second last in choosing my peg. I fancied peg 11 on Sellicks, maybe peg 9. Peg 6 and peg 12 on Longs were my 2 choices on that lake, but as it turned out Martin Addicot and Bill Hopping chose 12 and 14 on Sellicks, which to me meant I would go elsewhere. So when it came to my turn I said Lily peg 4. Chris Boulton won the midweek match from peg 9 on the lake, but they are moving fish out of here into Sellicks and Longs as they are joining Perch Pit and Lily together to form a bigger Speci carp lake.
I was the only one in the match on the lake, but had 2 guys set up to my right on peg one and peg 14 (?) and then a couple of the carpers on Perch Pit behind me would fish on and off in peg 6.

Lily Peg 4 left hand edge

Lily Peg 4 right hand edge

Lily peg 4 at Summerhayes

For bait I had 6mm and 4mm pellets, 8mm meat plus some corn. I had some paste, groundbait and 8mm pellets with me, but they remained in the carryall.
4 rigs assembled all on 0.18>0.14>B911 hooks in 18 and 16's.
The 1st rig was full depth pellet rig for 14m. 2nd was a shallow/slapping/mugging rig for 6mm pellet over the same line at 14m.
The next rig was one for tight to my bank 6m down the right hand side where it was a good 3.5ft deep or more, this same rig doubled up for down to the left around 1mtr off the bank in line with the outside of peg 5. Both meat and corn used on these lines.
Lastly my usual meat rig for 2+2.

The all-in was called and I fed a big pot of 4mm pellets long and 1/2 a cup of corn and meat down the right edge and similarly down to the left before I began on the short meat line.
15 minutes passed and the 1st carp was hooked and landed, the fish in here average around 2lb so that's what I clicked.
No bites were forthcoming so half an hour in I went out long and on the depth rig, but other than baby rudd and minnows it was all quiet, a few liners and a couple foul hooked fish lost saw me on the shallow rig and soon after the 2nd carp of the day was netted, again a false dawn and other than a few foulers and missed bites it was slow going. Yet Bill Hopping up on Sellicks had been netting fish regularly.
A 3rd carp came, to the short meat line but we were nearly 2hrs in.
A look down the right edge saw a couple fish, 3lbers netted, but it was a wait for bites and it was a similar story down the left, but I kept plugging away and binned the long pellet lines.

Hoping to force the issue a bit more I started to feed the short meat line a bit heavier and started pinging pellets tight to the near bank to the left where I had spotted a fish or 2 slurping in the weeds.
30 minutes passed and a few more fish on the short meat line and a couple from the deeper left hand swim.
We were into the last couple of hours and my clicker showed 36lb, which was around 18 fish. But little did I know that things would at least pick up for me as I swung my shallow pellet rig 6m down to my left in the shallower water and it buried right away, then my 2nd, 3rd and 4th fish came in quick time, I fed another decent helping of pellets and went on the short meat line and another flurry of carp were added to my nets and as my 1st clicker got to 63lb I began my 2nd net and I kept popping fish in there by switching between the 2 lines.
Of the last couple of hours I couldn't get a bait in quick enough at times, especially on the short meat, I missed a few bites and foul hooked a couple. But the last 20 minutes or so saw me struggling again, only a rudd and 2 carp came in this period.

The all-out was called and from what I could see, well it was only Bill I could see properly, I was plenty behind him, though he did admit he saw me catching well late on, so perhaps his first couple hours could make a difference. My clickers showed 63lb and 62lb, though the 2nd one I was sure I had had a double click and I said to Ady I reckoned it should read 52lb not 62lb.

My gear at the car and I followed the scales from Mr Lennox on peg 23 Sellicks, he also had a quiet 2hrs at the start but then found a few willing fish and ended with 80-odd pounds, then Bill had 142lb from peg 14 on the same lake. Martin Addicott had 80-something from p12.
The scales made their way to me and my clickers were again working as my 1st net totalled 62lb 13oz and my 2nd was 53lb 5oz for a total of 116lb 2oz. I let the scales go on their way and I went and loaded the car etc.
Longs hadn't fished great for the carp with 73lb the top net off there from peg 12, but the silvers was won with 16lb+ by Mark Lehay off golden peg/draw peg 20, so he got half of the golden peg pot which gave him £55. So I managed 2nd place and a few more pennies for my sins.

Results:
1st, Bill Hopping, 142lb 15oz. p14 Sellicks
2nd, Lee Williams, 116lb 2oz. p 4 Lily
3rd, Gareth Lennox, 88lb 15oz. p23 Sellicks
4th, Martin Addicot, 82lb 14oz. p12 Sellicks

Silvers,
1st, Mark Lehay, 16lb 8oz. p20 Longs
2nd, Ady, 9lb 3oz. p36 Longs

So another enjoyable day, generally plenty of bites and no need for hauling lumps all day, which makes for a nice day in my book. If only the first couple of hours were a little more busy and I had a few more fish. Hindsight eh!!

Next weekend I am venturing to the Big One show on the Saturday before Pawlett's silvers match at Sedges, which by all accounts had switched on for carp.....the joys.

Until then, have fun,
Lee