PSV Match. Shiplate Main Lake, 28-02-16

I was quite looking forward to this match on one of my favourite venues, the lake is full of silvers and carp of all shapes and sizes, and although a couple of pegs generally dominate it is pretty fair, especially the silvers.
I arrived at the car park in plenty of time to load the trolley and pay Alan the fees, but what was obvious was the chill in the air and the nippy north/northeasterly wind, not something fish like, especially in the winter.

After some chat and banter it was down to the draw, everyone wanted pegs 1 or 15, well except John Bradford as he doesn't do carp....I quite fancied pegs 11 to 13 and 6 to 8 to give up some nice silvers, the fish do follow the wind, but with it being cooler, they may be reluctant to feed!
Anyway I picked the 3rd last ticket and found 14 in my hand, not too bad really and I fancied it for some bites. Big Steve Sewell was on the famed peg 15 and he had John Bradford opposite in peg 1, much to the Gimp's un-amusement.

I arrived at my peg, surveyed the scene and set about sorting my kit. I had an island in front of me and at a decent chuck, affording me some open water.

Peg 14 Shiplate Main Lake.

I set up a method feeder to fish towards the island using corn, boilies and pellets on the hair.....
3 pole rigs were made up, the first was to fish in the direction of peg one at 13m with silvers in mind (10 o'clock direction), this was a 0.5g float, soft six elastic and 0.10 hooklength.
The second rig was aimed at carp mostly (0.14 hooklength) and would be for 13m in the 2 o'clock direction, but I never had a bite on that area.....
Lastly I set up a rig for fishing at 2+1 next to a small bush/tree in my left edge, this spot also remained bite less for the day.
On the bait tray I had dead maggots, caster, pinkies, 4 and micro pellets, corn and a variety of hook pellets. Plus I had a couple of kilos of groundbait mixed.

On the 10am whistle I put 5 proper balls of groundbait in at 13m for the silvers, a pot of mixed 4mm pellets and corn went on at the same distance to the 2 o'clock direction. A few bits of corn went in by the bushy tree thingy.
I started on the feeder and after 30 minutes a had a drop back and netted a 2lb carp, decent start.....but that was my only bite on the feeder all day despite trying it at various stages,
After an hour or so I tried the long silvers line and had to wait for 15 minutes for my 1st bite and swung in a 2oz roach. The odd one followed for the next few hours, interrupted by the odd small skimmer and hybrid, nothing over 4oz, but kept me a little interested. Carp were conspicuous by their absence and everyone was struggling

At around 2pm I had 1 carp and maybe 4lb of baby silvers, I had dropped down to a 4-6 elastic as I bumped a few fish due to double shipping (match on Westpool behind me), I had to catch a decent carp though as Darren North on peg 7 was now catching a few carp to mid-doubles after 3 fishless hours.
Things were so quiet that even The Gimp had put a net in for carp....!!! He'd had one.
Up on 15, Mr Sewell was struggling properly.

I decided at this point to put half a big pot of mixed corn and micros at 7m in front, hoping to draw any remotely interested carp to the area, plus the floats were getting hard to see and the wind speed had increased.
A few more fish on the long pole line, again all small silvers, before I dropped in on the new corn line. 5 minutes or so passed and I had a bite, I struck into something lumpy that didn't move too quickly, but with a nice amount of 4-6 elastic out, I thought it may have been a decent pike as it was a long fish, but alas it was one of the resident grass carp.
I did try to net it, but my 14" net wasn't really suitable, so I improvised by using my 3rd keepnet as a makeshift landing net, not for the 1st time though, and I shuffled the lump into the net. Bargain. It looked around 10lb and I went and got the angler and scales from the next peg and weighed it in, 10lb 10oz, I slipped her back as you cant retain them.
I then had a couple 8oz skimmers off the same line along with 3 little roach from the long line before the all outs were shouted. I had around 5lb of silvers a 2lb carp and the grassie, so maybe 17 or 18lb.
Elsewhere it looked like Darren North would win as he had at least 6 carp to 13 or 14lb and a few silvers.
Alan Healey landed a nice lump late on from his peg (peg 4?) and he had some silvers, John Bradford had 1 decent carp and not too many silvers from peg 1. Rumour also had it Mark Radford had 3 or 4 carp. Lee Waller had a late run of decent skimmers from peg 6 and maybe had that pay out sorted?
That was it really.

I packed up my gear and went up to peg 15 to see Steve, he had 2 little roach and a carp for 5lb-ish.
He had obviously struggled, we figured the fish had emigrated to the other end of the lake, or at least shut up shop.
The weigh in took place and I had a total of 20lb 2oz, which was beaten down on peg 11 by Mark Radford who's 3 carp went about 24lb, then Darren comfortably took the lead with over 60lb from peg 7. Lee Waller had 12lb+ of silvers to take that lead, Alan had 2oz less than myself from peg 4 then John had 12lb-ish from peg one. So I had come 3rd by a couple ounces....

Result:
1st, Darren North, 60-12, p7
2nd, Mark Radford, 23-14, p11
3rd, Lee Williams, 20-02, p14
4th, Alan Healey, 20-0, p4
5th. Adam Caswell, 12-12, p10

Silvers
1st, Lee Waller, 12-00, p6
2nd, Alan Healey, 7-14, p4
3rd, Lee Williams, 7-05, p14

Weights.....!!

So a hard day for all, Darren did well once the fish arrived/switched on, but when are we gonna get a Sunday with little or no wind?
I am surprised I didn't get any better 1lb+ skimmers, but that's fishing,

Next up is a knock-up, I think, next Saturday on either Brick or Tile lake at Sedges. No plans for next Sunday yet......!!

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

Pawlett Match, Viaduct Campbell and Cary, 21st Feb 2016

25 of us fishing today, with 13 on Campbell and 12 on Cary.
The weather was due to be mostly dry, with the venue likely to miss the showers predicted for parts of the region, however the wind was likely to be blustery and cause hindrance as the day progressed, but it was from the south-west and coupled with the air temps of around 13 degrees it wasn't too uncomfortable.

I arrived early enough and had a chat with various peeps, alas PSV had a match on Lodge Lake today, so I left their scales/tripod/sling/mat with Lee Waller. The pegs I fancied were, on Cary, pegs 74, 85, 86 and 102. On Campbell, I would take any from 110 to 115, 123 to 128. Peg 114 is THE draw to get at the moment, winning more than it's not, sometimes more than 80lb+ ahead of second spot on the lake. When it was drawn as a golden peg, whoever drew it would have more than a good chance of an extended pay-out.
I waited until the last peg was left and had that, peg 112 would be my home, not so bad really and I wasn't too unhappy. The lucky angler was a decent angler and one of my Teams of 3 teammates, Steve Fouracre. I had Mark Watts down on peg 110.

Peg 112, looking up at the 'hot area' in front of p114

peg 112, Campbell......ooooo look, peg 130 is over there (gggrrr).

When I got to the peg it seemed like there was a few fish in the area, fish were occasionally boshing in front of pegs 113 and 114, plus a few skimmers were showing out in front of empty peg 114. I had the wind blowing in and across at me from roughly peg 132 (the 10'clock direction).
I had decided to generally fish for the carp and set up a lead rod and a waggler (which never got used in anger). 3 pole rigs assembled, one on light kit for silvers and 2 for carp (1 in front and 1 off in the 2 o'clock direction).
The bait tray had some live maggots, some meat and a few pieces of corn, caster and bread.

At the all in I potted in a few bits of meat on 2 lines at 6m along with a few maggots. Some caster and corn went in at 14m, which was wasted as after the first 20 minutes the wind was too strong to reach that area, plus some meat went in at 14m off in the 1 o'clock direction.
I started on the lead and went an hour or so watching Steve and Kev on peg 128 catching a few carp on their lead rods.
I then took a look over the long meat line and had a 4lb carp, but that was a one off as no more were forthcoming all day from this spot.
So back on the lead and the next half an hour gave me 2 carp, one on meat, the other on bread. Then it died and I went ages without a bite on any of the rigs.
Behind me on Cary I could see Derek Beards catching a few typical Cary lumps, I fully expected pegs 85 and 86 to be having a few. But pretty much all day it seemed Derek was doing well.

It was soon 1pm and I had altered my light rig to fish for a few roach down to my right on caster, this was ok as I put a handful of roach in the net before I lost 2 carp on the bounce, they took a liking to a solitary caster....I had maybe hoped for a tench, but a few more roach, only small 2oz jobbies, were popped in the keepnet before the area died.
I switched to feeding 3 or 4 pieces of meat and a few casters on both of the shorter 6m lines, hoping a few decent skimmers had made an appearance, I was pleased enough to hook and land a few in the last 90 minutes or so, I was annoyed I hadn't actually targeted the silvers properly and earlier as I was getting a few skimmers from 4oz to 3lb, a bonus 10lb carp was also landed, I was surprised not to get anymore carp off these lines, but the silvers were welcome. Most other anglers on the lakes seemed to be generally struggling, especially the 4 of us at this end of the lake, below the spit.

It was the last hour or so that Steve on peg 114 started motoring and he was getting plenty of carp after he'd gone a good while without much action, but he was already winning the lake before we got to the final stages, I did tell him to get another net as I was sure he'd be close to the 70lb limit....hmmm
The last half hour became slow for me and I only managed a solitary 4oz skimmer and a roach.

Soon enough the all out was called and we all began packing away, I reckoned Steve had 140lb+ but he said 130lb, but he was certain Derek would win from his Cary peg.
The silvers would be up for grabs, but I hazarded a guess that Rob Dodd, who was on Cary would have fished for them all day and would have a nice net, Phil Hembery on peg 116 had a few so had Phil Clapp on peg 131. Anyone else I wasn't sure.
Soon enough I caught up with the scales and saw that the crafty Chris Higgs had 27lb of skimmers and tench, that was more than I had for sure, I also heard Phil Clapp had 15lb of silvers and Rob Dodd over 16lb....I thought I maybe had 18-20lb. Overall it was Kev Hunt with 78lb+ (knocked back)leading with a few 19lb to 41lb nets.
We got to Steve Fouracre and I found the board in my hands....odd that with bigger nets!!
Anyways he had a 7lb 8oz carp in his landing net as he didn't want to put it either of his carp nets as he reckoned he was close to the 70lb figure.
The 1st net was just under 4lb over the 70lb level so that was knocked back to 70lb, his second net was closer to 76lb and again knocked back to 70lb, plus a 3oz roach....!!
So he had 147lb 8oz, he was lucky he never popped that last gasp carp in either net as he would have been knocked back totally and lost the net..!!! Golden Bollocks methinks....haha.
Though one or 2 did wind him up saying that Derek had 150lb and that he'd missed out due to the knock-backs......Derek did indeed weigh 130lb+ so Steve did win, and pocketed £100 on top with the golden peg pot. Well done him.

At my peg I popped my 4 carp on the scales, 31lb was their weight, coupled with my 21lb 8oz of silvers boosted me to 3rd on the lake with 52lb 8oz. I just, in hindsight, wished I had fished properly for the silvers instead of a half arsed effort in the last 90mins or so.....

Back at the lodge I caught up with the PSV guys, they'd had a tricky day in the wind but from what I could gather Steve Sewell won their silvers with around 28lb and Will Dearlove had 80lb+ to win overall.
The results for Pawlett were done and I managed to pick up my section money as Steve and Kev had finished in the top 3 and Chris Higgs had the silvers pot tied up. Jason King won the Cary section with 53lb from peg 96.

Weights.........!!!

Results:
1st, Steve Fouracre, p114, 147lb 8oz (g.p)
2nd, Derek Beard, p102, 134lb 4oz
3rd, Kev Hunt, p128, 78lb 6oz
4th, Jason King, p96, 53lb
5th, Lee Williams, p112, 52lb 8oz

Silvers
1st, Chris Higgs, p125, 27lb
2nd, Lee Williams, p112, 21lb 8oz

So not too bad a day really, maybe my peg was worth a few more carp, but I defo think I could have caught a lot more silvers if they had been my target.....hindsight, ho hum.

Next weekend I am on Shiplate main lake, hoping for peg 15 or 1, but fancy silvers if I am honest, we shall see.

Until then, take care.
Lee

P.S. I still have a good few places left for my Summer Series, which looks like it should be a good one.

Psv Match, Landsend Match Lake, 14-02-16

St Valentines, a day of love and for loved ones..........we all hoped the carp were in a giving mood today and we would love our time at the waters' edge.......Yeah right!!

Anyways, I arrived at around half eight and Alan Healey said I was late, I wasn't,  neither was John Bradford, he arrived 15 minutes after me.
Nobody seemed overly expectant that we'd do well, but we all knew that a peg on the far side (13 to 24) would be better than one on the near side. Saturday's weights showed that p21 won with 75lb and p19 was second with 45lb and the silvers came off peg 18 with 10lb. Everyone else struggled and we hoped we all wouldn't be in that boat.

The draw was done and 3 tickets remained, peg 24, peg 5 and peg 3. I would have chosen them in that order.....I didn't, I was left on peg 3, I think the 1st time I have ever had that peg. Ken Rayner had 8lb of silvers off it on Saturday and boosted his weight to 20lb with not many carp...
For company I had The Gimp on peg 1, trying to catch some perch and odd skimmer methinks.
Steve Burgess was down on the F1's usual favoured peg, peg 5. That peg had silvers form.
Alan Healey was on peg 24, Mark Radford on 21 and Adam Caswell on peg 19 were the ones to watch I thought, though how Adam would fish is always a reference of interest to all....to feed a lot or to feed more than a lot are his choices.

I set up 3 rigs today, a silvers rig, the same as I used last week at Shiplate, 0.3g NG Jordan, 0.14>0.10>b611x size 18. This rig would be for in front at 11.5m at the bottom of the far shelf, here I would feed 2mm expanders and fish a 4mm over the top, mostly feeding a small helping every other drop to start.
This same rig at the same distance off at the 2 o'clock direction where the depth was the same, here groundbait and dead maggots would be the plan of attack....but I never had a bite here so that's enough of that.
A rig for 14m across at varying spots was made up, but other than a couple snags and bits of crap, it was biteless all day.....so no more on that!!
Lastly a rig for meat at 9m off at 11 o'clock direction, feeding tosspots of dead maggot/meat. This same rig was fished over a little more bait down in front of the platform of peg 2 to my left.

The match began and soon enough Alan on peg 24 had a carp, Ross Sewell up on peg 12 hooked and lost one within the opening 15 minutes.
The rest of us struggled for a while and it was 90 minutes before my 1st bite, a small roach took a maggot fished over the expander line, 10 minutes later I had a lengthy fight on the silvers kit, only to net a 4lb common.....I didn't half hang on!!!

Everyone was struggling, but rumour had it that Steve O'Toole was catching a few, as was Alan, but the rest of us properly struggled along.
Steve Burgess had landed a skimmer and a couple roach on his short line at around 1pm and Steve Wynne had 3 or 4 bites all day!!
Adam Caswell was doing his usual business of hooking and losing fish, foul hooked of course, but he had landed a few nice silvers, ide, skimmers and tench, plus an F1.
Mark Radford had landed some decent carp but lost a good few.......

2pm came and I had a little crucian on expander then a skimmer on the meat line, before bumping off another decent skimmer, again on meat. Lee Waller and Steve O'Toole wandered around and said that peeps were struggling....though Steve was admitting to several carp!!
A look down by peg 2 saw a couple knocks, line bites I thought, so re-fed and went back on the meat down the middle line...I spent the last 90 minutes here, 75 minutes went fishless
With 15 or 20 minutes left I had a ghostie, then a common then another ghostie, all from the meat line. All like peas in a pod of about 4lb apiece. I did pull out of a couple I hooked down by peg 2, maybe foul hooked but not too sure. I was also getting some line bites and knocks....all too late in the day to make any damage on the leaderboard.

The all-out was called and I finished with 4 carp, 1 skimmer, 1 roach and a crucian.. Maybe 17 or 18lb.
I packed my kit away and myself and Mr Bradford began the weigh in, he had 5lb 8oz of silvers, then I weighed in 3lb of silvers while my 4 carp added another 17lb to my total.
Mr Burgess had just under 5lb, similarly Steve Wynne, neither had any carp to weigh.
We didn't get to weigh anyone else until we got to Steve O'Toole, he took the lead with 42lb 12oz from peg 15. Two more dnw's until Adam put 10lb+ of silvers on the scales to take the silvers lead and he added some carp to move into 2nd overall with 29lb 8oz.
Mark Radford had 25lb 6oz of carp to go into 3rd, then Chris Gay just scraped double figures before Alan fell just short of Steve O'Toole with 40lb exactly from peg 24.

Back at the car park the results were done:

Weigh Sheet....

Results:
1st - Steve O'Toole, 42lb 12oz peg 15
2nd - Alan Healey, 40lb peg 24
3rd - Adam Caswell, 29lb 8oz peg 19
4th - Mark Radford, 25lb 6oz peg 21
5th - Lee Williams, 20lb peg 3

Silvers:
1st - Adam Caswell, 10lb 6oz peg 19
2nd - John Bradford, 5lb 8oz peg 1

I did manage to pick up last in the money thanks to Adam picking up the silvers pool on the day, but it was bloomin tough for everyone in the main, some peeps only getting half a dozen bites all day.

Next week I am at Viaduct, Campbell and Cary, with the Pawlett crew, Psv are on Lodge lake on the same day, but looking at the results from today's Winter Teams match on the complex it looks like it will be very peggy........

Until then, Take Care.
Lee

Shiplate Main Lake Pleasure Session....

A days pleasure fishing today with work colleague and friend Paul Berry. Just to make a change from matches. I didn't fancy Tile Lake Sedges with the psv crew so after a bit of deliberation we chose to have a bash over at the very nice Shiplate complex.

I arrived soon after Paul at around 8:30  and loaded the trolley before saying hello to a few of the guys who were on a match on Hawthorns plus the super owners, they do run the venue well.

With the wind rather brisk and due to get stronger we chose to fish the far bank of the main lake. Pegs 11 and 12 would be our homes for the 6hrs fishing.
I chose peg 12 with open water in front of me. Paul had the end of the island in front of him.

No rush to set up so I mixed a couple of kilos of black f1.....it was the only groundbait I had with me.
I also soaked about 1.5 pints of micros and opened a tin of corn. I also had some dead maggots.
I assembled a groundbait feeder with 0.12 hooklength and a size 16 b611x. But I only had a single roach and a skimmer  on that so enough of that.
I set up a couple pole rigs.
The first was a light set up with 0.14>0.10>16 b911f1 and a 0.3g float.
This would be for around 11m off in the 11 o'clock direction.
The second was a similar sized float for the same distance off to my left in the 8 o'clock direction sort of a metre away from a marginal tree. This rig also suited an area about 1/5m off the end of a tree to my right, sort of in the 2 o'clock direction.
This rig was heavier and with carp in mind, I have found they do hang on here and grow to 20lb+. It was on 0.20>0.16>b911x size 16 and solid 14 elastic.

Shiplate Main Lake peg 12

Shiplate Main Lake p12 lhs

A cup of tea and just after 10am I  started fishing. 
I cupped in 7 balls of groundbait out in the open water area. A cup of corn and wet micros went down to the left and some corn and dead maggots went just off the tree to my right.
After a period of inactivity on the feeder I went out over the groundbait and had a few roach to 10oz before it went quiet. A small nugget of groundbait was fed and I immediately had a skimmer of 6oz or so. This was followed up with a few more plus I bumped off a few including a decent skimmer of a couple pounds. I changed the hook to a b611x and went back out and had a nice run of skimmers between 4oz and 1lb over the following 90 minutes.

It was perhaps just after 12pm when I looked at the area to the left. Toss potting 4 or 5 pieces of corn and a pinch of micros each drop saw me put a few more skimmers in the net on corn.
The area went quiet so I suspected that a carp was present as a few bubbles arrived. Moments later I was attached to a lumpy fish that tore off up the lake, it actually went around a tree that was in the water. Buy my tackle held firm and slowly I gained the upper hand and 10 minutes later a common of perhaps 16lb nestled in the landing net. Bargain.....

Anyways I kept plugging away over the 3 lines hoping to get a few more carp. They never arrived. But I was content catching the skimmers and it remained that way for the last 3hrs.

The skimmers would come in fits and starts with the margin-type line being the most productive for better sized fish. Though the largest skimmer I netted was probably 1.5lb so loads of potential in the growth of the ones I was  catching. I was also interupted by a tench of 1.5lb which fought well on soft number 8 laccy.

As the light began to fade I was struggling to see the float and at 4pm we called it a day.

Paul had only had 1 carp on the feeder. A 3lb+ bream from his margin and a good few skimmers off the end of the island all on the feeder.

I packed up my gear and got Paul to come look at what I caught......as usual I had underestimated my catch and was suprised to see around 50 to 55lb of silvers in the net. Very nice fishing.
I had a really enjoyable day on one of my favourite lakes.

Not the best picture, but a decent catch of mostly skimmers

Next weekend, is a match at Landsend with the Psv guys, unless I change my mind.

Until next time, take care.
Lee

p.s I am now taking the deposits for my Summer Series