With me still being crap at fishing for skimmers, the one thing I needed was to draw Peg 16 on Sumners Silvers Lake as regular readers may remember that it has a large bush / tree in the water and I had 36lb of roach and perch from it last wednesday ! I know the chances of drawing it weren't good but I'd still prepared a couple of rigs for it and with much better casters this week and having sorted out the best elastic setting for it, if I did happen to draw it again I expected to empty it.
Whilst helping SG out with the draw, we got half way through and despite the skimmer fliers all coming out, Peg 16 was still lurking somewhere in the bag. I was then in a bit of a dilemma, do I sit and wait for the last peg as I usually do or should I get in now before someone else gets MY peg ? Being brave, I sat back and waited until there were only 5 pegs remaining, then, 4, 3 and finally with Pegs 8 and 16 remaining, there was only me and Terry Harrison to draw. As Terry drew, I couldn't see the number on the draw ticket properly but could see it only had one number on it, so it was Peg 16 again for me again and to be honest I very nearly ran there !
Setting up was easy, two rigs on white hydro to fish by the tree and one on some ridiculously thin latex to fish out for skimmers. At the start I cupped in some pelletts on the long line - which I hoped not to fish and flicked a few casters by the tree. Rig one was set to fish double caster slightly overdepth and Rig two was to fish a single caster off the bottom and I started with rig one to nick a few big perch early on.......................well that was the plan anyway ! Unfortunately, as in life, things didn't quite go to plan and with twenty minutes gone the float hadn't even moved !
With Chris Love to my left catching a few skimmers, I decided to have a quick go on the long line just to try and get a bite - I shipped out the rig with a 4mm expander on and soon had the tiniest of bites and had a skimmer of about 8 ounces, another followed next put in then I tried a caster and had a 2lb fish. I was just beginning to think that maybe this skimmer fishing wasn't so hard after all when the bites dried up completely. I refed with a few more pellets and then came back in by the tree and this time had a bite almost straight away as I then started to get the odd bite or two. In the next hour I had a few perch up to 2lb and some half decent roach then things started to get even better as I had a tench of 3-15-0 (which hopefully Alan Harrington has a picture of). Looking at my watch, it was 13.08, I had nearly 3 hours to go and thought I could put a decent weight together if I could just catch the odd big fish every now and then.
I really don't know what happened from then on as the bites almost stopped completely and I think I probably only had 2lb of fish in the last three hours but still finished up with 21-1-0. The lake didn't fish quite as well for skimmers as last week but you still needed 43lb+ to frame. The penultimate round is back at Sumners next wednesday - so I need you to all think of Peg 16 for me again please !
Result
Adam Lee Peg 18 46-1-0
John Holt Peg 6 45-13-0
Steve Sanders Peg 15 44-14-0
Terry Harrison Peg 8 43-10-0
Dave Sandford Peg 1 36-5-0
Dave Bacon Peg 14 31-10-0
Dave Lewis Peg 5 27-5-0
Steve Gardener Peg 10 26-3-0
Brian Wharton Peg 3 25-9-0
Dave Pearson Peg 16 21-1-0
Chris Love Peg 17 19-0-0
Mick Keeper Peg 4 18-3-8
Donald Garnish Peg 11 12-2-8
Mark Sandford Peg 13 10-0-0
Jim McDowell Peg 2 9-10-0
Ian Covey Peg 7 7-14-0
Steve Moores Peg 12 DNW
Sunday sees me at Willinghurst on Round 5 of the Willinghurst Masters - If you are fishing it, don't forget it is a 9am draw !
JPZ's from Marukyu - "The Dogs Danglies"
Jordan Whitby with a PB Carp of 18lb from Newdigate
Maggotdrowning.com
Exclusive Pictures
Fred Davis with his personal best chub of 7-2-0 from the River Lea
and his 6-8-0 tench !
Neil Humpage with part of his 89-10-0 match winning chub catch from the River Wye
Mike Spragg with his personal best Barbel from the The Wye, a whopping 10-1-0.
Davey P's Locker - Tackle I would recommend
Drennan Lake Floats - I used to use these floats for crucians and have recently started using them again for my silvers fishing, The cane bristle makes them especially sensitive.
I use this hook for nearly all my carp fishing from Size 10's with paste, 14's with the knotless knot on the lead and 18's for Hook in the loop rigs and they have never let me down.
How smart are this lot - Andy May and his wife with some of the motley Total fishing.com crew. There is a small pond just out of the picture and they fished a small sweepstake between the wedding ceremony and the reception ! Andy May won, Haisman was last - no change there then !
Myles Levy and his mate Chris with a 59lb catfish from France.
When I was writing in the Angling Times I promised some friends that I would try and get "Fish Cakes" mentioned in an article. However, as I was sacked before I could do so, I thought I'd put them on here ! So Mick and Karen Jones, here they are as promised !
At least one member of the Baxter clan can catch fish ! Young Dylan with a 4lb bream.
Hathers at Stafford Moor - Let this picture be a lesson to you all, those last couple of drinks the night before are never a good idea !
World Exclusive !!!!!!!
Andy Toplis playing a fish.
Ryan Hughes with part of an 80lb bag from White Springs Fishery in Wales
Mick Bull wont have received many points for this dive - but having just won the Fisho Final and £25k I don't think he really cared !
Another exclusive for Pikey's Progress - Terry Molloy not talking ! Oh yes and with a decent River Thames Pike.
OK Own up - who lent Mick The Bookie some fish to pose with ?
Martin Harper with a superb 8lb tench from Farlows Lake
Young match star Tony Curd with an 11lb barbel from the River Kennet - he didn't say where, these spessy hunters are so secretive !
Total Fishing's Justin Laundon with a fine net of fish from Lindholme Lakes
Fred Davis with 3 chub over 5lb and a small one from the River Lea.
http://www.carpvader.com/index.asp
Jeff Moors took part in the recent Catfish Challenge and caught this one - more of a "kitten" than a cat really !
And here are some proper ones that the winners had.
BNF - with part of a near 100lb haul from the Glebe
Scone - Angling writer, float maker and all round good egg !
"Hathers" with his 3-8-0 roach from Timsbury Manor - some claim it was really a hybrid, I couldn't possibly comment !
"Fordy on the Telly" with 40lb of prime River Kennet chub.
.........and this one weighed 5-2-0
Alan Dove with a small Skimmer Bream of 15-8-0 from Walthamstow Reservoir
Fred Davis plied Alan Dove with coffee all day then when he went to attend to a call of nature caught this one with his gear !
Colin Ormston (Billy no Fish) with the reason that some anglers still fish rivers !
Phil Stone (Pebs) with a fine net of roach and rudd from Witherington Farm
Total Fishing.com ventriloquist Gary Haisman with his two new dummies - Billy No Fish and Pebs.
