Sunday 14th of June saw the next round of the league take place at Summerhayes Fishery in Bridgwater. We would be fishing on Longs Lake and I couldn't believe that my section was exactly the same as the last league match.
I had drawn Peg 3, permanent peg 14, and I will be honest by saying that the venue isn't a place I am confident in fishing. Either way I set up a 5m meat line, an edge line to my left at 9m, edge to my right at 6m, a 10m line, 16m line across as close to the point as I could and a get out of jail line between my nets using a top kit.
Home For The Day
I got off to decent start catching 2 carp within the first 15 minutes and then nothing for an hour. I had fed micro at the start on my 10m line and my short and edge lines every 20 minutes. I managed to pinch a few Skimmers from the 10m line but again this dried up. I had nothing from 16m or 10m for the rest of the match and the wait for the last 2 hours was a long one.
Eventually the alarms sounded and I went to my right edge first and the float buried. It was a crucian carp of roughly 4oz's. I went to my left edge at 9m and didn't have a touch for 5 minutes so I left it. I had nothing from the edge lines after the Crucian so I went on to my meat line and pinched 2 carp quickly but then not as much as a sniff!
I picked up my top kit line and prayed something would be down there after feeding 3 pellets there every 10 minutes for the entire match. Sure enough the float flew under and I was into a carp. I fed whilst playing the fish and soon netted it. I went straight back out and the float buried again. I had hooked into what I thought was a decent Tench, going by how it was fighting, but then a head of dirty, slimy Eel popped up. I shouted to Keiran "do eels count?" to which he replied "not sure, put it in the silver net". When I got him in the net it was huge! Biggest Eel I'd ever seen.
After that I had hooked another Carp but lost I lost it :( That summed up my luck on this venue. But hey we all have bad days at the office.
I weighed in with 14lb exactly. 8lb of which was silvers. Now I only had 2 skimmers for a 1lb and that crucian carp for 1lb and a half tops which meant that Eel was at least 5lb! Dirty thing!
I finished 4th out of 5 in section. Well done to Trev who won our section and Kieran who finished 2nd. In the other Section well done to Glen on another Section win and Ian for 2nd!
To sum up my performance, poor. The fish are in a funny place at the moment but you can still catch. I didn't see much activity in my swim so maybe I just didn't have many fish around. Oh well on to the next one :)
The Results
So Tuesday June the 16th and the day everyone seems to love, the opening day of the fishing season. The rivers open for anglers to fish and this year time seemed to stand still waiting for this day.
4:30am On The Opening Day At Langport
I ventured out the the River Parrett at Langport. I arrived at first light to ensure a good swim. I was the only person there! I decided to fish the town stretch in between the 2 bridges.
Upstream Of My Peg
Downstream Of My Peg
My Home For The Day
I fished with Maggot, Caster, Hemp and Ground bait. I used Sonubait Super Crumb River as its a sticky mix and sinks like a brick! It's perfect for getting particles to the bottom, in my case Hemp and Caster.
I was fishing in 6' of water and its was really clear with a tiny bit of pace. First put in I came back with a little Chub around 8oz's and quickly had 2 more. Bites then came every couple of minutes but most of the fish were in the 4oz mark. I was soon catching better fish, 12oz+ Perch and Roach started showing.
My Ground Bait Mix
Soon after the better stamp of fish arrived all hell broke lose as a dog came charging down the bank and jumped in. The owners ran down and repeatedly said sorry. They called the dog out of which he decided to clamber all over the keep net and get stuck. When he got free he then trampled over my top kits despite his owner trying to carefully move them, he was aware that it was expensive tackle and did say if any damage was done he would sort something but thankfully we didn't have to go down that road.
I didn't have a touch after that so I took my net out and weighed in with 12lbs and 7oz's. Not bad I thought considering the dog jumping in, clear water and bright sunshine.
12lb 7oz's Opening Day Catch
On Wednesday I ventured out to the Stour. I fished up stream for most of the day but bites were hard to come by. I spoke to Steve before I walked up and it had been fished by a few people on the opening day. Steve himself had 4 Chub to over 3lbs in 3 different swims which is great to hear.
I had the same baits as Tuesday with me and the better stamp of Roach fell to single Red maggot over the Super Crumb Ground Bait.
The Few Roach I Managed From Upstream
On Thursday I went back to the Parrett with my colleague George. It was just a social session really but George went for it and manage to catch some fish over to the far bank. The Perch were hungry as they chasing in fish that George was bringing in. With that we both fed some maggot short. George was soon catching some Stripey's to the 1lb mark as well as some lovely Roach. Soon the Chub started showing across and George landed one to 1lb and a half - 2lb. Unfortunately later on he lost 2 decent fish, one straightened the hook and the other managed to get in to a snag. Despite those two loses George managed a 13lb 8oz net of quality fish, not far off my bag on Tuesday!
George's 13lb 8oz Bag
Next Up For Me: Evening session on the Stour for some Chub or League Match at Two Counties on Sunday!
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