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.
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| Peg 14 Shiplate Main Lake. |
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
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| 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
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