Following a two week stint at White Acres today was to be my first match in over three weeks. That previous match was on the Cornish bagging Mecca that will be forever Bolingey and today’s was on the West Sussex equivalent – the mighty Match Lake at Sumners Ponds, home to some proper big fishes!!!
My one and only previous visit to Sumners Ponds was back in September 2013 – incredible really as this venue is actually closer to home than venues such as Gold Valley and Willow Park. That day saw me draw an end peg flyer (for a change) and win the match with a personal best 189-2-0 – and to think that when I started fishing on the upper Thames all those years ago 20lb seemed an unreachable target. How times have changed, eh?
Today’s match was a combined Woking DAA and Godalming AS affair and hence saw a decent turn-out of roughly 30 anglers – talk before the match was that this would be too many and would impact the quality of the fishing. Anyway, my draw saw me on peg 8 (on the day, no permanent pegs at this venue), sited on the near side of the lake (to the car park) and was on the far end of the first island with a nice gap between the two islands slightly to my right. The peg looked fishy and an absolute nightmare in equal proportions – there was a nice bare bank of an island to chuck to but there were also two fallen trees lying in the water, a recipe for disaster when you could be dancing the tango with twenty pound carp!!!
Prior to the all-in I primed one of my 10’ tip rods with 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line and a small, 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder for fishing to the island – hooklengths were 4” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with either size 14 or size 16 QM1s with a hair-rigged pellet band. My other tip rod was set-up with a 1/3 of an ounce Guru square bomb and 12” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with a size 14 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band for fishing the bomb & pellet into the gap between the islands.
I also set-up two margin rigs, both consisting of 0.3g SconeZone V6s on 0.22 line direct to a size 12 Guru MWG and red Hydro – one for fishing in 12” of water in the cut-back to my right, the other for fishing tight to the bank to my left where the depth was about 18”.
Bait was essentially some soaked 2mm pellets and a variety of hookbaits for the feeder, 8mm pellets for loose feeding over the straight lead and a combination of Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait, dead red maggots and worms for the edge.
I started the match (which itself was rescheduled to 1030 to 1630 due an incident involving match organiser Stuart’s car and the AA) by casting my pellet feeder fairly tight (2’) from bank of the island directly in front. A few iffy liners were followed by a couple of proper pulls from small tench and crucians, before the inevitable happened and the first proper carp of the day swam straight into the tree in the water to my left and shed the hook.
This seemed to kill the island line stone dead and a switch to the bomb & pellet saw loads of fizzing but no proper bites, so with half an hour gone I was fearing the worst! A return to the island line was also fruitless – however after a while I figured out (due to the lack of a discernible drop between the feeder hitting the water and the bottom of the lake) that the water tight to the island was probably less than 12” deep. With nothing to lose I took five turns out of the clip and cast short of the island – this looked awful but led to a run of fish (not big carp but some decent tench, crucians and chub) meaning that by the end of the first hour I’d clicked my clicker round to 22lb so at least I was up and running.
Just as I was figuring that 22lb an hour for 6 hours with a bumper last hour would put me on 150lb and a match win the peg died a death once again and by the end of the second hour I’d only clicked up to 24lb – don’t you just love it when that happens?!?
The third hour was equally as poor, the only reassuring factor being that the whole lake seemed to have switched off as everybody else seemed to be moaning and walking about!!! By this point I have to admit I was becoming pretty frustrated and was seriously thinking about giving-up fishing and trying my hand at golf so I decided to stop fishing and give my gear and bait a bit of a tidy-up – this may seem a little OCD but when things are going badly I find it better to actually stop fishing for a while and have a proper think about what to do next.
The plan I came-up with was to consciously not start fishing down the edge for as long as possible (not before two thirty, if possible not until 3 o’clock) and to swap between a new line at 5m with hard pellets and the odd chuck on the feed to the island until then. To this end I set-up a KC Carpa Force 4x12 on 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a 15cm hooklength of 0.17 with a size 16 MWG and a hair-rigged pellet band (with purple Hydro) for fishing 8mm pellets on the deck at top kit plus 2 slightly to the left.
This led to a couple of decent carp and a big (4lb) tench virtually straight away before foul-hookers became an issue – I foul-hooked two, one of which fell-off pretty quickly but somehow I managed to land the other even though it was hooked halfway along its flank! In order to try and get around the foul-hooking problem I dropped the pellet feeder over the 5m line and less than ten seconds later I was attached to another decent (8lb) carp that found its way swiftly into the net. Once again this proved to be a false dawn and I didn’t manage another bite on the 5m line (either on the pole of pellet feeder) during the match.
However those fish from the 5m line and a few more tench, crucians and chub from the island swim saw me finish the fourth hour with about 55lb and a sniff of a chance going into the final two hours.
By two forty-five I could wait no longer and fed four full 250ml cups of groundbait into the margin to my right – as noted above this area was essentially a cutback into the main bank, but was only 12” deep. However in my experience big carp are more than happy to feed in such shallow water if the fancy takes them and at the back of my mind I knew this could be a match winning line if it went off properly! So rather than fishing another line to allow the groundbait to settle I decided to go straight in with two full dendrabenas and ten seconds later a huge carp cruised into the swim – I could see every scale as it came in with its back virtually breaking the surface!!!
Fortunately it headed straight for my bait and the float shot under – game-on!!! The fish was quickly subdued (I wasn’t fishing for roach on 0.22 straight through to red Hydro after all) and safely in the net – there is a rule at Sumners Ponds that you have to weigh and return ‘big’ fish straight away so that was a nice 15-13-0 on the board in a matter of minutes!!!
Despite feeding more and the sight of some churning this was to be the only fish from this line – though I did manage three smaller specimens from a new margin line opened tight to the back in slightly deeper water to my left. Unfortunately I spent too much time in the margins without the response I was hoping for – though it is very tempting when any minute a 15 or 20 pounder can come along.
Fortunately a spell on the feeder to the island with about half an hour to go saw a good run of tench and chub hit the net – though my match ended badly when another decent carp ran straight into the sunk tree to and snapped me up!!!
After what had seemed a rather disappointing and frustrating match, my two weighs (and the 15-13-0 of margin munter already on the board) totalled a surprising 97-5-0 – one fish away from the magic ton, within touching distance of second overall (well, kind of) but miles behind the winner Billy Marchant two pegs to my left!!!
Top 4:
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| Welcome to Sumners Ponds … |
My one and only previous visit to Sumners Ponds was back in September 2013 – incredible really as this venue is actually closer to home than venues such as Gold Valley and Willow Park. That day saw me draw an end peg flyer (for a change) and win the match with a personal best 189-2-0 – and to think that when I started fishing on the upper Thames all those years ago 20lb seemed an unreachable target. How times have changed, eh?
 |
| Looking through the gap in the islands to the far bank |
Today’s match was a combined Woking DAA and Godalming AS affair and hence saw a decent turn-out of roughly 30 anglers – talk before the match was that this would be too many and would impact the quality of the fishing. Anyway, my draw saw me on peg 8 (on the day, no permanent pegs at this venue), sited on the near side of the lake (to the car park) and was on the far end of the first island with a nice gap between the two islands slightly to my right. The peg looked fishy and an absolute nightmare in equal proportions – there was a nice bare bank of an island to chuck to but there were also two fallen trees lying in the water, a recipe for disaster when you could be dancing the tango with twenty pound carp!!!
 |
| Plenty of SconeZone V6s tied and ready to go!!! |
Prior to the all-in I primed one of my 10’ tip rods with 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line and a small, 30g Preston Innovations pellet feeder for fishing to the island – hooklengths were 4” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with either size 14 or size 16 QM1s with a hair-rigged pellet band. My other tip rod was set-up with a 1/3 of an ounce Guru square bomb and 12” of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge with a size 14 QM1 and a hair-rigged pellet band for fishing the bomb & pellet into the gap between the islands.
I also set-up two margin rigs, both consisting of 0.3g SconeZone V6s on 0.22 line direct to a size 12 Guru MWG and red Hydro – one for fishing in 12” of water in the cut-back to my right, the other for fishing tight to the bank to my left where the depth was about 18”.
Bait was essentially some soaked 2mm pellets and a variety of hookbaits for the feeder, 8mm pellets for loose feeding over the straight lead and a combination of Sonubaits Supercrush Green groundbait, dead red maggots and worms for the edge.
 |
| Looking along the island to my left |
I started the match (which itself was rescheduled to 1030 to 1630 due an incident involving match organiser Stuart’s car and the AA) by casting my pellet feeder fairly tight (2’) from bank of the island directly in front. A few iffy liners were followed by a couple of proper pulls from small tench and crucians, before the inevitable happened and the first proper carp of the day swam straight into the tree in the water to my left and shed the hook.
This seemed to kill the island line stone dead and a switch to the bomb & pellet saw loads of fizzing but no proper bites, so with half an hour gone I was fearing the worst! A return to the island line was also fruitless – however after a while I figured out (due to the lack of a discernible drop between the feeder hitting the water and the bottom of the lake) that the water tight to the island was probably less than 12” deep. With nothing to lose I took five turns out of the clip and cast short of the island – this looked awful but led to a run of fish (not big carp but some decent tench, crucians and chub) meaning that by the end of the first hour I’d clicked my clicker round to 22lb so at least I was up and running.
Just as I was figuring that 22lb an hour for 6 hours with a bumper last hour would put me on 150lb and a match win the peg died a death once again and by the end of the second hour I’d only clicked up to 24lb – don’t you just love it when that happens?!?
 |
| The KC Carpa Force |
The third hour was equally as poor, the only reassuring factor being that the whole lake seemed to have switched off as everybody else seemed to be moaning and walking about!!! By this point I have to admit I was becoming pretty frustrated and was seriously thinking about giving-up fishing and trying my hand at golf so I decided to stop fishing and give my gear and bait a bit of a tidy-up – this may seem a little OCD but when things are going badly I find it better to actually stop fishing for a while and have a proper think about what to do next.
The plan I came-up with was to consciously not start fishing down the edge for as long as possible (not before two thirty, if possible not until 3 o’clock) and to swap between a new line at 5m with hard pellets and the odd chuck on the feed to the island until then. To this end I set-up a KC Carpa Force 4x12 on 0.19 Guru N-Gauge to a 15cm hooklength of 0.17 with a size 16 MWG and a hair-rigged pellet band (with purple Hydro) for fishing 8mm pellets on the deck at top kit plus 2 slightly to the left.
This led to a couple of decent carp and a big (4lb) tench virtually straight away before foul-hookers became an issue – I foul-hooked two, one of which fell-off pretty quickly but somehow I managed to land the other even though it was hooked halfway along its flank! In order to try and get around the foul-hooking problem I dropped the pellet feeder over the 5m line and less than ten seconds later I was attached to another decent (8lb) carp that found its way swiftly into the net. Once again this proved to be a false dawn and I didn’t manage another bite on the 5m line (either on the pole of pellet feeder) during the match.
However those fish from the 5m line and a few more tench, crucians and chub from the island swim saw me finish the fourth hour with about 55lb and a sniff of a chance going into the final two hours.
 |
| An inviting looking cut-back to my right, but very shallow |
By two forty-five I could wait no longer and fed four full 250ml cups of groundbait into the margin to my right – as noted above this area was essentially a cutback into the main bank, but was only 12” deep. However in my experience big carp are more than happy to feed in such shallow water if the fancy takes them and at the back of my mind I knew this could be a match winning line if it went off properly! So rather than fishing another line to allow the groundbait to settle I decided to go straight in with two full dendrabenas and ten seconds later a huge carp cruised into the swim – I could see every scale as it came in with its back virtually breaking the surface!!!
Fortunately it headed straight for my bait and the float shot under – game-on!!! The fish was quickly subdued (I wasn’t fishing for roach on 0.22 straight through to red Hydro after all) and safely in the net – there is a rule at Sumners Ponds that you have to weigh and return ‘big’ fish straight away so that was a nice 15-13-0 on the board in a matter of minutes!!!
Despite feeding more and the sight of some churning this was to be the only fish from this line – though I did manage three smaller specimens from a new margin line opened tight to the back in slightly deeper water to my left. Unfortunately I spent too much time in the margins without the response I was hoping for – though it is very tempting when any minute a 15 or 20 pounder can come along.
Fortunately a spell on the feeder to the island with about half an hour to go saw a good run of tench and chub hit the net – though my match ended badly when another decent carp ran straight into the sunk tree to and snapped me up!!!
 |
| The scores on the doors … |
After what had seemed a rather disappointing and frustrating match, my two weighs (and the 15-13-0 of margin munter already on the board) totalled a surprising 97-5-0 – one fish away from the magic ton, within touching distance of second overall (well, kind of) but miles behind the winner Billy Marchant two pegs to my left!!!
Top 4:
- Bill Marchant (Woking DAA), 173-5-0
- Andy Love (W), 130-14-0
- Dave Steer (W), 125-1-0
- Nick Stunt (W), 123-11-0
Section winners:
- Stuart Kendall (W), 70-7-0
- Phil Morris (Godalming AS), 97-5-0
- Trevor Haskell (G), 81-13-0
- Claire Hollis (G), 86-0-0
Well done to the Woking boys on taking a clean sweep of the podium places and to Bagger for keeping up her good form!!!
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| The Match Lake at Sumners Ponds |
Conclusions: after a couple of weeks off it was nice to be back on the bank again and what was on the surface a frustrating match saw nearly 100lb in the net so it couldn’t of been that bad. With hindsight I’d have ignored the bomb & pellet between the islands and have only fished the margin in brief spells (after all when they are there in the margin the spot goes under more or less immediately). Plus I should’ve tried paste made from 11 year old pellets on the pole at 6 or 7m – after all that was what Billy Marchant caught all of his fish on!!!
Until next time ...
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