Sumners Pond - Xmas Eve

I've not fished the Match Lake at Sumners for over a year and was really looking forward to fishing a different venue, so much so that I even put another keepnet in my net bag as I hoped to catch a few fish and had recently only been taking a large jam jar to Willinghurst to keep my catches in !

With only 10 of us on the lake, the pegs were nicely spaced and although I don't think anywhere is fishing well at the moment, we were all expecting to catch a few. With the peg not being permanently pegged, it is always difficult to tell people where you have drawn but for those that know it, I ended up on the far end of the 2nd island on the right hand bank ! The Peg is often referred to as "The Long Peg" or "God's Peg" as you used to have to fish 16.5 metres to reach the island and it is a peg often frequented by Steve Gardener in matches. Whilst it is a very good peg you used to sort of perch yourselves in the mud and rushes before and after a lot of moaning from Mr G (cos he kept getting his box muddy) the owners put in a proper platform for him !

However, the only draw back is that they dug the bank back a bit to make it a nice secure bit of banking and you now have to fish 17.5 metres to get tight over. Just what I wanted when I've got a bad shoulder !

I set up three pole rigs, one to fish tight to the island in 2 foot of water, One to fish in the deeper water at 16 metres and a paste rig at 12 metres at about 2 o'clock. In previous seasons you could catch proper carp on paste but after catching one or two you were invaded by small crucian carp and they bashed the bait about until one finally manged to get the hook in it's mouth. Last winter the crucians aveaged about 6 to the pound and were a right nuisance, however, I'd heard that they'd netted the lake and taken thousands of them out. This turned out to be a bit of a bluff, as they may have reduced their numbers but there are still enough in there to make paste fishing impossible, except in the shallow water tight to the islands where the crucians don't seem to go.

Anyway, I started the match by switching between the two long lines, fishing corn on the hook and just using a small pole cup and cupping in 8-10 grains each put in. Although it was quite slow, at least I had a few indications, a chub of about a pound and a 3lb carp on my island line were my first fish and in the next hour I added a couple more carp on the deeper rig plus a couple of small tench and crucians. In hindsight, I wish I'd set up a small waggler as the wind was ok and no matter what anyone says, fishing 17.5 metres with any pole isn't easy and despite having a G10 I was finding the shipping in and out quite hard work - especially for a former office worker !

There were a few carp being caught around the lake but it looked like being a battle between Terry Molloy opposite me, who was catching at 9 metres on corn and Guildford Angling Centres Luke Sherriff and Pete Franklin both drawn a couple of pegs to my left.

Although I expected the peg to get stronger as the match progressed, nothing really happened for me and despite trying different feeding patterns, nothing seemed to make a difference and I just had the odd fish every now and then. The highlight of the day was when I had a fighting fit 2lb barbel (aren't they lovely fish), especially as I was the only one to catch one.

Terry Molloy was catching well as the match neared it's conclusion and came storming through to pip the Guildford boys with 10 carp and some silvers for 53-4-0, closely followed by Pete with 52-4-0 and Luke with 46-13-0 of method caught carp.

Personally, I finished the match with 7 carp, 4 chub, 1 barbel, 4 small tench, some crucians, two aching arms and a shoulder that hurt like hell ........which all went 29-8-0. So, not the result I had hoped for but a few fish nevertheless and all caught in extremely good company.

Result

Terry Molloy 53-4-0
Pete Franklin 52-4-0
Luke Sheriff 46-13-0
James Maddox 38-4-0
Mick Keeper 37-0-0
Dave Pearson 29-8-0
Terry Maddox 20-12-0
Brian Wharton 18-8-0
Donald Garnish 16-0-0
Ian Covey 12-12-0

Have a great xmas everyone and I'll report on sundays Total Fishing Southern Xmas match at Old Bury Hill's Milton Lake next week. I hope the weather forecast is wrong cos at the moment it says the temperature is going to be 2 degrees !