Match number four was back at Summerhayes and we were on Sellicks this time, only eight booked in for this one and I was top of the list again. After drawing number 5 for the golden peg, I once again managed to avoid it and 18 was my home for the day, a good area although I did think a frost overnight might mean a slow start.
We got underway and with only a few minutes on the clock, the float sailed away resulting in a little foulhooked 3oz crucian and when I had a small tench not long after, I was hoping it might be better than I first feared. Those two fish proved to be a bit of a false dawn and over the next couple of hours, I only managed a few roach and from what I could see it appeared to be fishing hard.
Moving out to 13 metres where I’d been pinging maggots was a complete flop with no bites, adding another section resulted in a couple of nice roach but before I could get too excited I then hooked three carp in as many chucks, landing two of them. It was just very occasional bites and over the next couple of hours I only managed another little tench, a hybrid, a 4oz skimbob, a roach and two carp.
Rob B on 13 had three big skimmers while Nick had two plus some roach so I was a long way behind them on silvers but I hadn’t seen many carp caught and as this stage I was probably winning the match! Then with an hour and a half left, I started to get the odd bite and had my first big skimmer followed by a 1.5lb tench which was a nice bonus. Nick also had a tench and with just 15 mins remaining, Mark Leahy over on the golden peg started catching the odd carp down the edge.
Trying double pinkie added my second big skimmer and then with literally a minute to go, the float went and I was into another decent fish, I shipped back very gently and netted my third big skimmer after the whistle. I hoped I’d done enough to win the silvers and thought there was a chance of winning the match with my four carp plus silvers versus Mark’s five or six carp.
My optimism only lasted until we got to Bill ‘The Bream Master’ Hopping on peg 3 who had four big skimmers plus some little tench and quality roach for a brilliant 15lb 10oz of silvers, then Mark actually had eight carp for 28lb 7oz plus a few silvers for a total of 31lb 8oz and I was pretty sure I didn’t have that.
Bill had the top silvers weight with a brilliant 15lb 10oz of big skimmers, tench and quality roach
Mark Leahy won the match and golden ball with 31lb 8oz (although there wasn’t much in the pot after Dave had emptied it the previous day!)
McKenzie chucked back on 8, Rob weighed 6lb 5oz , Nick had 8lb 11oz and then it was my turn and to stand any chance I needed my four carp to weigh 20lb but the digital display read 17lb 11oz and I knew I’d be just short on both fronts, my silvers went 10lb 14oz for a total of 28lb 9oz. Glynn on 21 had lots of little tench for 8lb 7oz and Bruce H on 24 weighed 7lb 4oz of silvers.
1 – Mark Leahy (Summerhayes) – 31lb 8oz
Silvers
1 – Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) – 15lb 10oz
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
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Next up – Revels
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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