Sunday 16/06/2013 - Summerhay's open - Longs pond

As all the Viaduct Lakes were booked out to club matches there wasn’t an open match, So as I was impressed with the first match I fished at Summerhay’s (Junction 24 - M5) we booked in for their open to be fished on Long’s Pond which is a canal donut type Pond (not quite a snake). My first time on this Pond and I was looking forward to it as I had heard a lot of good comments about it – “20 - 30lb Skimmers on every peg with plenty of small Carp”. With soft pellet over micro the regular approach for the Silvers at 7 metres which would suit me. That said I also think it would suit the Pellet thrashers and rat hole anglers like Tony Rixon with a good few of the swims needing 16 metres to do this – a bit Landsendish. The only draw back of the fishery it is right next to the M5 and it can be a bit noisy, however I do have the ability to switch back ground noise off (except Tom Thick) when I am fishing.

 

It was nice to see Steve Jackson giving up his Sundays fishing to coach the local juniors, a good turn out too which was nice to see. Well done Steve credit where credit is due. We need more of the commercial fisheries to start junior clubs – it’s in their interest.

 

After collecting the fisheries keep nets it was into the draw fanny which does make the draw a bit longer than usual as the hands seem to be in there for an unhealthy long time. Out comes peg 12. Glenn drew peg 29, Mark15 and Martyn 36.

 

Arriving at the peg I found myself next to Glenn Wickham who was on peg 11. However, the pegs are on a corner so we were facing at 90 degrees so wouldn’t effect one another as some of the pegs are 5 metres apart. Glenn said that my peg was good at 16 metres over to the far side. I explained that might be difficult as I only carry 13 metres! I was thinking a peg for Tony. Glenn also said that there was a lot of small fish in the Pond which needed plenty of caster to get the bigger size Silvers catchable. This got me thinking that I might initially target these small fish as I wasn’t sure it was going to fish that well because of the crappy weather we have been having.

 

So I set up the Ronnie rig, a soft pellet rig using a Senses Stainey 4x14 as the depth is only 4 ½ foot, finally a margin paste rig to fish down to the pallet 5 metres away. On the whistle I fed a few dampened micro at 7 metres, starting on the Ronnie rig with caster over caster I had a few small Ronnie’s, tiny Skimmers and a small Tench before the swim went finicky, thinking that the Carp had move in I tried the paste rig only to have the small fish nose it about. Looking around I was right it wasn’t fishing that well. So time for the soft and found similarly I was getting finicky indications. I did have one decent Skimmer and a few tiny Ronnie’s and Skimmers before the swim started to fizz. The way the float was behaving I was worried that the fizz was due to the arrival of a batch of tiny Skimmers which tend to mess around with the soft pellet. I had now been fishing for 3 hours and had very little in the Silvers net and one tiny carp in the other. After trying the paste in the margin a few times I abandoned this as the water did look a bit clear for the fish to feed close in. I decide to spend the rest of the match on the paste over the micro at 7 metres so set up the same rig as yesterday. I just couldn’t believe what happened next. For the next hour it was a Carp a bung with a smattering of Skimmers and Tench. I was suddenly in a fish race and I was just about to change to heavier elastic to speed up the process when the swim started to fade. For the last two hours I caught steady but no where as frantic as the fourth hour when I reckon I caught 75% of my fish.

 

I didn’t count my Carp but I had around 20 at a guess. These weighed in at 51lb 12oz and my Silvers 18lb for a total of 69lb 12oz for an overall win and Silvers second by just 3oz; otherwise it would have been a double first.

 

The Silvers was won by Nigel Wickham (pictured right with the match winner – you do feel surrounded by the Wickham’s on this venue with Dad Roy on peg 9) with 18lb 3oz of mainly Crucian’s from peg 17. Nigel caught down the track on chopped worm over worm.

 

Mark Tanner (pictured right with 4 sections of pole that should be two sections) was next peg to me and had caught his rig in the margin undergrowth and was pulling his full 18 stone to dislodge it, but gave up and walked round and after untangling his rig did the exact same thing this time his Senses pole gave up and when it did everyone on the venue thought there was a crash on the M5 with the 13 metre pole shattering in to three – a new 5 and 7 section on the way from Tony Rixon by the next morning – excellent service. I think mark could become a good customer for Tony.

 

I will be back soon to this fishery as it does appeal to me. One suggestion is for a better set of weigh scales a they are a bit on the small size.

 

Full Result:

 

1.      Mike Nicholls 69-12-0 peg 12

2.      Bill 65-05-0 peg 31

3.      Glenn Bailey 57-08-0 peg 36

4.      Mark Leahy 54-11-0 peg 39

5.      Bruce 44-14-0 peg 7

6.      Martin A 36-12-0 peg 24

 

Top Silvers:

 

1.      Nigel Wickham 18-03-0 peg 17

2.      Mike Nicholls 18-0-0 peg 12

 

Weigh Sheet Follows: