Inter Services Championship 2014, 6/6/14

This year it had been the Navy’s choice of venue and our destination was Summerhaynes Fisheries in Somerset, a lovely small complex sat right next door to the M5 and a railway line. I arrived for the team meeting on the Sunday night with Nic Mac as my driver for the week and we got a brief off a few of the guys who had been there fishing that day and the consensus was mixed with it appearing to be a venue that you would have to work hard at and you may still not stand a chance.

Day 1 of practice saw us on Lillies lake, a pretty little pond with 14 pegs, all of which were filled with Fosters Team Army, I was on peg 2 that saw me with a max pole of 9m as three of us were hemmed into a corner, there was also a large lilly bed to my right so I was in for an interesting day. Local knowledge said to fish the right hand margin in ther gap between the bank and the lillys, common sense said to avoid it so I also put in another 2 lines, a choppy line against the lillys at 2+2 and a groundbait and dead maggot line at 9m away into the open water towards peg 3.

I managed to get a few out from down the edge but lost another 6 or so, I also got a few carp from the 2=2 line and a couple of silvers from the open water line for 13 odd kilo and joint first as Danny on peg 1 weighed exactly the same as me…spooky.

Ready to go.

Sorting the bait day 1

 Day 2 saw us on Longs lake, I had peg 18 and decided to fish paste across, meat short and down the edge and finally a silvers line with groundbait and dead maggot at 11m in the opposite direction to the meat line. Long story short I had 10 fish in the first hour and then 3 more throughout the day for 13kg again but I got Harried as I could not find anymore fish in the later stages and spent too long chasing nonexistent silvers.

Peg 18 Long

Day 3 and we were on Sellicks lake in some atrocious weather, I was on peg 3 with Grant on peg 2 and Mick (again) on peg 5 for company. This time we were told that we would struggle and so we did, Grant had a couple of skimmers, I managed 4 carp two from under the far bank undercut and two from down the edge and Mick had about 15Kg mainly from his right and edge. Weather was pants and I was now not a happy bunny.

Keith weighing in on Ind IS

Day 4 was the Inter Services Individual championship and I drew a snag pit in the form of peg 15, I had 16m across and a massive lily bed that was full of fish, I got drawn into trying to mug too many fish from the lily’s when I should have concentrated across and used the lilies as a backup line, weighed 32lb, came second in section and no where individually.

These results were enough for me to crawl into the Fosters Team Army squad and on the day of the race I was given Peg 12 on longs and that is an out and out flyer if you can present on the far bank. It was 16m across and I spent all day fighting my pole across as I had a wicked cross wind and then resting by fishing paste down the track on two lines. I did not fare well and managed around 30lb that was half the weight of the RAF lad in the next peg who could fish across at13m. In hindsight I should have chucked the tip further to the right, plumbed up down the edge more thoroughly and also used the meat track rig more than once as I had fish fizzing most of the day but they did not seem to want the paste.

I was not the only one who struggled and courtesy of some odd results the RAF walked away the victors this year, Army second and the Navy and Royal Marines Third.

It is our venue next year so we should get it back but it still hurts.