Shiplate Main Lake, 17/3/13, Clevedon Match

Another new venue today, with another new bunch of anglers.
Clevedon FWAC had booked Shiplate's main lake for this match, so a couple weeks back I took a look down there, it looked ok, so was looking forward to todays gambit.

So arriving there at 8:30 for a 9am draw, fish 10:30 to 16:30. I recognised a few faces from the Thyers team, but pretty much everyone seemed nice enough. 17 were listed to fish, so there were some spaces (duff pegs?) left out and so I paid my monies and loaded my trolley.
The pegs card were chucked in the air and a free-for-all took place, i grabbed one which got stood on, opening my grubby piece of card revealed peg 3. I know that the bream have been had recently on pegs 4-7, but 3 can produce now and then. I had also gained info that peg 1 and the pegs on the far bank generally give up more carp well into double figures.
The left hand bank of the main lake is more silvers dominated.

Baits for the day were micros, dead/live maggots, 4 and 2mm expanders, caster and some groundbait. I also had a various selection of hookbaits in the form of pellets and corn (not even opened as never drew 'carp').
Rigs were set up for 13m at 10 o'clock spot in line with a far bank tree/bush and straight in front where i could find a flat area. My swim shallowed by 8 inches at 13m from towards peg 4 (deepest) to being 8" shallower at the 2pm position. There was 2 inches depth change between my 2 main lines.
Both these used 0.4 Nick Gilbert XT Diamonds. 0.12 to 0.10 to size 18 B911x were line/hook choice.

I also set up a light silvers rig, which was topkit plus 2 sections along my right margin-ish, but i never caught so that wont be mentioned again.
I set up a rig for tight across at 16m which was on a heavy set-up, just incase i saw any big fish moving. All i caught on this was a few chublets on 8mm pellet or triple caster.
A small feeder was put together for swim resting purposes.

On the whistle I cupped in 2 big balls of groundbait and a few deads at the 10 o'clock position. Then straight in front i cupped a big pot of very wetted micros with a sprinklind of expanders and one or 2 dead reds.
Some loose-fed maggot were chucked to my right and some 4mm pellets were fed regularly at 16m across throughout the day.

I lobbed the feeder a few metres off the island with double red maggot on the hook, i wanted to rest my main pole lines. It took ten minutes for my 1st indication on the tip, I wound in a 2oz skimmer, then missed a bite. 20 minutes into the match my tip took a nice curve on and a proper thud on the end came back, a few seconds later the line went slack and back came a nice scale, so one lost foul hooked carp in the first half hour.  Back out with the tip and a couple blades and a chublet were my  tally for the first hour. I was fishless for the next hour, bumping a couple small fish, but nothing of note.

At half 12 I had my first put in over my groundbait saw a slight knock on the float, I struck and a bream of around 5lb was soon netted. I followed this with a couple 4oz skimmers and a smaller proper bream. Bites were more knocks than proper pull-unders, so I shotted each float a touch more so that the tip was just flush with the water, any indication would be 'hit'.
It was tough going, and although I had heard/seen a few fish getting caught from the far bank. My side was somewhat harder, the light/wind/cloud/water colour wasnt great for seeing the float.
The pellet line had not gave a bite, so this we re-fed and left for another hour or so.

Bites soon tailed off over the groundbait, so i cupped in 4 more decent balls of GB with deads and gave this a long rest, rotating the tip, far side and near silvers swim for maybe 3 little fish, but I had figured that the bream/skimmers will come to the rested swims. I had a feeling the skimmers were around but not wanting to get their heads down. Bites were slight and I had to strike at any sideways movement as the float wasnt doing much despite less than 2mm showing.
With around 2hrs to go I'd amassed 2 bream and a handfull of small skimmers and assorted roach/chublets. I wast doing too bad with the silvers though as the lads opposite had caught a handfull of smallish skimmers/roach on a variety of tactics.

At 3pm it seemed like the fish had decided to feed. I tried a 4mm expander over my micros and the float sailed away and a 4lb bream was netted, this was followed by a couple skimmers (5 to the pound size), and then another bream of around 6lb. Bites were coming every put on 4mm expanders and I was beginning to build a nice weight. I reckoned to maybe having 15lb or so which was possibly leading the silvers weights, though Adie on peg 4a was doing ok with a couple decent bream and some skimmers. Peg 1 had only 1 skimmer and was struggling, elsewhere everyone was struggling.
I carried on straight out in front catching a skimmer a chuck, the float rarely going under, but getting 'bites' as soon as the float settled. I did bump a couple, so tried the GB line occasionally, but only managed a couple skimmers and a bumped bream. All the fish I had caught were really lightly hooked. I was catching at dead depth as laying on an inch or 2 didnt make a difference and bites were harder to hit. Coming off the bottom resulted in foul hooked fish. Also maggot stopped producing the better fish, so stuck with pellet.

By 4:15 I think I was possibly having 25lb or so and bites had dried up. However I did have 1 bite in the last fifteen minutes and a 4lb bream was netted.

The all out sounded and I was pleased with my catch of  5 or 6 bream averaging 4lb and plenty of palm sized skimmers, some roach and chublets. I did bump a few decent bream and some skimmers, as I was probably fishing a touch heavy ( I didnt want to hook and lose a carp as they can be proper lumps and would be a help) I thought I had caught more silvers than those I could see, but knew Lance on peg 7 had caught well and peg 14 had a few carp earlier in the day, some had packed up and gone home too.

I packed up and the scales were soon at my peg, top silvers was 17lb or so and there was a couple weights of the 40lb region, I knew I never had enough to win overall, but thought that the silvers could be mine.
Lifting my net out, I looked and thought that I had around 30lb, and the scales registered 33lb 8oz. Nice fishing and enough for 3rd overall and top silvers weight. Adie was second highest silvers with 17lb and took silvers payout by default.

Results/Payouts:

Overall
1st - Peg 14 - John Page - 42lb 14oz (mostly carp)
2nd - Peg 7 - Lance Tucker - 37lb 10oz (carp and some silvers)
3rd - Peg 3 - Lee Williams - 33lb 8z (Bream and other silvers, top silvers weight)

Silvers
1st - Peg 4a - Adie Baker - 17lb 2oz
2nd - Peg 12 - Dom Sullivan - 16lb 4oz

Thanks to all and especially Shiplate Fishery for having us.

The pics below show my swim (i fished in the darker area in front and on the left edge of the pic)
The bottome picture is the overall winner and his catch.

 

 

Next up for my exploits is a trip over to Viaduct and a match on Campbell and Cary (never fished Campbell, only fished Cary once in the late 90's), no pellet allowed so it will be fun.

 

Take care and have fun.

 

Lee