Well, what a match that was ! After weeks of freezing cold weather a couple of days of mild temperatures meant the silvers at Sumners were keen to feed for our hastily arranged wednesday match. I don't know how it happened but I somehow got roped into organising the match but luckily whilst I was eating my breakfast God and Terry Harrison pegged it for me. As I did the draw, I could see the pegs I really fancied going and with only me and Jonathan Watt to draw, the two pegs remaining were 15 and 17 which were the end peg flier on ther point and what we call the bush peg. Jonathan actually did me a favour by drawing 17 as although it is a better peg, I really fancied fishing by the bush for some perch and roach as Dave Sandford had 16lb from it last week and that included about 10lb of "Bush Fish".
Arriving at my peg I set up two skimmer rigs to fish long at 2 and 10 o'clock and a bush rig to fish at about 5 metres alongside the tree that sticks well out into the water and is a natural holding area for perch, roach and usually the odd chub. Baitwise I had a fine array of pelletts both hard and expanders, a bit of GB and some casters. On the whistle I cupped in some bait on the long lines before starting to loose feed casters and fish by the tree. Early on I caught a few small roach and had one perch of about a pound but as the match went on the peg got better and better and the small roach were replaced by much bigger roach (the best one went 1-11-0) and some perch and skimmers. I knew I wasn't going to win anything fishing by the tree as others were catching skimmers really well but as when I had the odd look on the skimmer line I could only catch small ones then I kept coming back to the tree as I was having a lovely days fishing.
I ended up fishing one rig overdepth with double caster and one rig with a single caster just off the bottom and just switched between the two to keep the fish coming. The only problem I had was trying to sort out what elastic to use as when I was catching small roach I wanted something light but for the perch you needed something heavier to make sure that the hook went in properly in their boney mouths. I think if I draw the peg again I would use white hydro set quite loose as the odd bumped small roach would be offset by the extra couple of big perch that you land.
On the whistle I quickly packed away and not really knowing what had been caught around the lake made my first big mistake of the day..........going to do the weigh in ! The scales I had with me only weigh to 19lb and when I weighed in John Parks and Steve Sanders on Pegs 1 and 2, they had 69lb and 60lb respectively and with the "Skimmer Fest" continuing, by the time I'd got half way round the lake, my back was aching like mad.
Result
John Parks 69-10-0
Steve Sanders 60-13-0
Steve Gardener 58-10-0
Terry Harrison 53-2-0
Michael Sanders 48-14-0
Andy Ryan 39-2-0
Donald Garnish 36-15-0
Dave Pearson 36-7-0
Mick Keeper 31-14-0
Dave Bacon 29-9-0
Malv Fowler 29-4-0
Brian Wharton 25-7-0
Terry Maddox 22-4-0
Ian Covey 21-2-0
Alan Harrington 20-1-0
Jonathan Watt 19-1-0
So a brilliant day was had by all, and as we are back there next wednesday for Round 4 of Steve Gardener's Silvers League, hopefully it will fish as well again Also, as I'm still not very good at fishing for skimmers, if I'm really lucky then I might just draw the Bush peg again ! Wish me luck.
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.
