Today's gambit was taken up by 15 of us across the 2 canal style lakes down at Shiplate, not my fave style of fishing but I must learn. I didn't want to draw Hawthorn as I have only fished it a couple of times before and (I think) drawn peg 11 and not done too great, yet on Westpool I have done okay.
I arrived in plenty of time but the car parking area was building up as there was a match on the Main Lake. I unloaded the car and found myself chatting to a whole bunch of people and a good few hello/how's you? Titch Williams, Steve King and Shawn Larkham were fishing the match on the Main lake. After paying my fee's to Steve Burgess in his last match as Match Secretary I went and chatted to Kingy, it ended with me telling him to draw either peg 1 or 15!!
Back to the PSV match, we had 8 on Hawthorn and 7 on Westpool. I must say I fancied being on Westpool from around peg 11 up to 15. As usual I waited to the end of the draw, Adam Caswell drew H15 and that won a midweek knock up and I think it was todays golden peg. With the last 2 remaining tickets left being H11 and W11.....I picked H11 and left Mr Burgess W11, I would have 1000% preferred his peg to mine.
I made my way to my peg rather disgruntled, but at least the weather was good, I stayed in short sleeves all day which was rather nice.
At my peg there seemed to be a few fish present but most pegs did also. For company, not that I could see them, were Darren North on peg 9 and Mike Wilson on peg 13.
In the other match Steve King did draw peg 1....No pressure.
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| Shiplate Hawthorn peg 11. |
My bait tray was filled with groundbait, wet micros, maggots, meat, hemp and a few 6mm pellets of in the band. Oh and a few 4mm and 6mm expanders.
I made up a few rigs, a silvers rig for 2+2 in front where I would feed regular small balls of groundbait, a rig for my left hand margin with was within an inch the same depth as at 5m in front!!
A shallower rig was made to fish towards the bottom of the far shelf at 13m-ish at a couple spots at 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock directions.
Lastly a shallow pellet rig was made, ideally for tight over should the floating crap be blown away, plus I have noted from previous visits they will come shallow anywhere in the peg.
At the 10am all-in I cupped some groundbait and maggots on my 2+2 silvers line, and a nice helping of hemp and meat down to my left.
I started across on 6mm expander (11 o'clock line) and went 15 mins biteless, toss potting micros.
A quick look on the other long line proved fruitless.
So it was 30 minutes in and I came onto the silvers line and plucked a few plippy roach on the drop using maggot, I kept feeding groundbait nuggets regularly.
At the hour point I had a quick drop of the shallow pellet rig down my left margin, this gave me my 1st carp but was a false dawn and I never had a bit down there all day despite my efforts,
At this point I was a good way behind the likes of Adam Caswell up on 15 and Darren North and Alan Healey on pegs 9 and 7 respectively. Mr Wilson on peg 13 had a few silvers but was struggling too.
The next hour was spent between the 2 longer lines and I began to suffer from foul hooked fish and had to change the way I was feeding. I did manage another carp.
The next few hours were dire for me, giving me a solitary carp. Darren was up to 8lb of silvers and looked likely to have that tied up, he also had a good few carp as had Alan and Adam.
I took a few minutes out to re-asses the situation. The silvers were not producing but I kept feeding nuggets of groundbait over that same line but instead of maggots I added a few pieces of meat to the mix. I also re-plumbed the far side and found a shallower area at the 2 o'clock direction against the reeds as opposed to grasses. I fed a decent helping of hemp and meat and carried on between the longer lines at 10+11 o'clock directions, losing a couple of fish to the keepnets
As we entered the last hour I was probably last over the whole match but I hoped/knew a few carp would appear on the converted silvers line. But I went across to my new far line in 2ft of water, drip feeding meat. A couple of carp in a row gave me hope before a 10 minute spell saw me re-feed and come short on that line which had a few bubbles blowing. A 4lb carp from here gave me a little more enthusiasm, a second carp from this spot was welcome before I went back over.
So this last hour was my best, giving me 11 carp to add to my 5hrs amount of 3!!
As I packed up I didn't think I had snuck ahead of Adam, Darren and Alan, but if we had another 30 mins to an hour I would maybe overtaken them as their lines had died and were struggling though Darren had a last gasp carp that trashed a section of his pole.
We were all soon packed up and waiting for the scales to arrive from Westpool so I went and chatted to a few peeps on the main lake which had fished ok but it was assumed that Kingy on peg 1 had won. He'd fished method to the island mostly and even landed a rod & reel.....Nice!
The scales arrived at Adam and a look at the sheet saw weights of 80lb, 74lb and 63lb. Adam's nets went around 61lb, Mike weighed 19lb-ish before I had to weigh, 1lb level of silvers and 55lb or so of carp was slightly more than expected, I suppose 40lb+ came in that last hour spell.
I didn't follow the scales from then on as I made my way back to the car, stopping to chat to Steve King on peg 1. I was soon loading the car before Steve called the results:
1. Matt Challenger (H3) 80-9
2. Steve Burgess (W11) 74-13
3. Matt Taynton (W13) 63-10 (section win)
4. Adam Caswell (H15) 61-9 (section win)
5. Alan Healey (H7) 59-7
6. Lee Williams (H11) 56-2
7. Lee Waller (W5) 55-9
8. Darren North (H9) 55-8
9. Ryan Radford (W15) 48-10
10. Julian Nurse (H1) 46-6
Silvers:
1. Darren North (H9) 11-8
2. Matt Taynton (W13) 10-10
So a pretty fruitless day for me, I just cant get my head around that lake, or maybe I am just pants or maybe the fish just take the mick......a bit of each I think!!
Matt caught on paste across, so well done him.
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| Weigh sheet, Shiplate Canals |
Next up for me is the Gary Bull fundraiser next Saturday at Summerhayes (we have nearly 60 fishing) before a match on Sunday at Sedges, a silvers match with Pawlett.
Until next time, take care.
Lee
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