After a short interlude for Xmas Day, it was back to Summerhayes for the Boxing Day open. I thought there might be a few there, keen to get out after stuffing themselves with turkey but was a little surprised to see 24 names on the list which was a great turnout. In complete contrast to the last match, the lake was flat calm and there wasn’t a breath of wind – heaven!
The golden ball today was number 13, a great silvers peg and one I’ve drawn several times this year but I was near the bottom of the list and it had gone when my name was called. I pulled out peg 5 on ‘Cyanide Straight’ which wouldn’t have been my first choice but hopefully I should get a few bites.
No waves and white horses this time!
I set up a little 0.1 gram Colmic Elsa for two lines at top four and a 0.2 gram Bobbie for 11.5, 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 short lines and 11.5 metres with nuggets of groundbait and a few pinkies and began pinging a few maggots across. Alex was over on peg 9 and had a small roach first chuck. It took a couple of minutes for my first bite which was a decent 3-4oz roach. I was getting regular indications swapping between the two swims and with sixty minutes gone I had 12 fish including some net roach and a little perch for probably 1.5lb.
Just as the second hour got underway I hooked a better fish which turned out to be a 10-12oz skimmer and as I was expecting 8lb to be a good weight today, I was off to a good start. Alex was still catching well although he was also hooking a few carp. Things began to slow on my short lines so I started a new one at a top kit plus three and had a couple of roach but it wasn’t hectic.
With two hours gone and bites on the shorter lines now few and far between, it was time to have a look at 11.5 metres where I’d been feeding a couple of areas. Swapping between the two lines, I had a nice run of quality roach and a couple of 4oz skimmers before it slowed. Moving to 13 metres I had a decent 10oz skimmer first put in followed by a slightly smaller one, some more chunky roach and a carp.
Another quick look short was fruitless so back out to 13 metres and the rest had done it some good as I had another half decent skimmer and a hybrid around 8oz. Once again bites petered out so I added the 14.5 metre section and was hoping for another little flurry of fish but it hasn’t really happened. By trying several different spots along the island, I had the odd decent roach and one 4oz skimmer to keep my catch rate ticking over until the end of the match. I finished up with 48 fish which at an average of 3oz apiece would give me 8-9lb, hopefully a bit more with those bigger skimmers.
The scales started with Nick on 37 who’d done well turning to the ‘dark side’ and weighing 42lb 7oz, Anika on peg 2 had 22lb 14oz, Kev O weighed 10lb 5oz, my silvers went 10lb 4oz and then Wes on 7 had 14lb 4oz.
I had another really enjoyable day catching skimmers and quality roach for 10lb 4oz
Alex weighed 28lb 7oz which included 5lb of silvers, Alfie on 10 then went into the lead with 44lb 1oz of carp. Mark had 24lb 8oz, Dave P chucked back on 13 and then it was Adie who was admitting to double figures so I was sure he’d beaten me but when he pulled his net out it looked very close and the scales settled on 9lb 13oz. Big Bad Bob on 17 had 12lb 6oz and Heardy weighed 30lb 2oz of carp on 19.
The next few pegs didn’t weigh and then Parker ‘The Pole’ had 19lb 8oz on 28, Alan H on 30 weighed 27lb 4oz, Rob D had 4lb 6oz of silvers on 31, Rob B chucked back, Bruce H had 3lb 10oz of silvers. Dan T on 35 had some big skimmers and a nice tench for 7lb 2oz and then Chris Whitham next door had two nets of carp for a convincing victory when he weighed 83lb 4oz.
Dan T had some nice silvers (and a green) for 7lb 2oz and third in the silvers
Chris continued his rich vein of form with 83lb 4oz of carp for a comfortable win
1 – Chris Whitham (Summerhayes) – 83lb 4oz
2 – Alfie (Summerhayes) – 44lb 1oz
3 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 42lb 7oz
Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 10lb 4oz
2 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 9lb 13oz
3 – Dan Taggert (Summerhayes) – 7lb 2oz
A great Boxing Day turn out
I picked up a very handy £75 for winning the silvers and it was so nice not to have been blown inside out all match for a change!
£2 each from Nick P and me took the Nugget-O-Meter to £63.
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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