Shiplate Teams of 3, Round One. 11-09-16

Off to one of my favourite fisheries for this series, Shiplate Farm, the lakes are spotless and the owners are great, all very friendly, so if you haven't been, then go.

Anyways, 11 teams fishing this series, 30 very capable anglers including a host of venue regulars like Steve Howell, Julian Pinkett and Ron Stark etc. The other 3 consisted of the side I am fishing with, Myself, Tom Downing and Titch Williams, Bait-Tech Southwest is our team name.

I got there early and semi-sorted the trolley and kit, but not completely as the draw had to be done to determine who was on what lake, so I nattered with plenty and discussed ideas with Titch and Tom, Titch generally catches a few at the venue and knows it better than myself and Tom.

The 11 captains went into the hut at 9am to sort the draw and the rotation for the first three rounds.
Out comes Tom with ours, peg 1 on the Main Lake for him......FLYER!!!
Peg 2, in the narrows, on Westpool for me.......hmmm.....very patchy area at least.
Titch was on Hawthorns, I cant remember what peg but it was around peg 7.
So an average overall draw, but Tom was pleased with his.

I made my way to the peg, and sorted my tackle out and my bait.
I had nobody on peg 1, nobody on peg 3.....so at least I had space. On peg 4 was Jason Bird, he had nobody on peg 5, that shows that the end of the lake I was on was the lesser end and space would be needed. I only had 9 or 10m to the far bank in front.

Looking down to empty peg 1 from Westpool peg 2

peg 2 on Westpool, only around 10m across.....not usually the best area!!

For company on peg 4 was Jason Bird, though we could both chat to Jonny Page on the main lake (see him in the above pic). We were in a section of 5, each of the 3 lakes has 2 sections on each.
I expected around 100lb to win the lake today and possibly the silvers to be 18 or 20lb, but with the venue's best silverfish guy, Ron Stark, on this lake, he would be the man to beat. That's a tough proposition.

I assembled a small method feeder so I could chuck down to peg 1, the haybale in the water looked an ideal feature, there was some reed further round, but they were overhanging and it looked more like a tackle-taking area than one I wanted to cast to. I fished this with a 50/50 mix of Bait-Tech Ntice Meaty Method Mix and micros, hookbait was either 8mm pellet or 8mm meat.

Next up were the pole rigs.
1 for silvers down the middle, an 0.4g NG Slim Gimp, 0.14>0.10>b911f1 size 16 and Middy solid 6/8 elastic, but I was told this area isn't a good area for silvers. Bait for this line would be micros as feed and Bait-Tech 4 and 6mm Xpands or maggots over the top. This was fished down the middle at 2+2 (around 6m).
My carp rigs consisted of:
One for my right side at topkit+1 at the bottom of the near slope in around 4.5ft of water. I used a 0.4g NG XT Margin HD float on 0.18>0.014>B911 size 16 and middy solid 14/16 elastics. As for bait it was a simple meat and hemp mix, using 8mm standard meat over the Bait-Tech Super Seed Hemp.
My second rig, which remained fishless (except 1 small perch) was on the same tackle as above though a 0.2g float was used. It was for my left margin up the shelf by a clump of grass and as I had 18" or so I fed the same Method Mix groundbait and coupled this with maggots, using 3 or 4 on the hook as bait.
Then I set up a rig to fish tight over in various spots where I could find around 20" of water, again same line and elastic, but I used an inline NG Inline Dibber in 0.3g to give me a bit of control against the vegetation, feed and hook baits consisted of 6 and 8mm pellets, but alas I never had a fish of this line.
Lastly I made up a rig for carp to fish at 2+2 in the 11 o'clock direction, banded pellets through the water on an NG XT Margin was the approach, again same tackle as the other carp rigs but with a band on this rig.

As we were setting up I noticed, well didn't notice, any fish in the area top or blowing, hmmmm, even the reedy area of peg 1, which looked like they must have fish in, were not moving.
We had the wind blowing up to the far end and fancied the pegs which had a ripple to do well, so that would be around pegs 7 and 8-ish.
With everything ready and the all-in called I began by potting a bit of bait down the middle on the silverfish line and a pot of meat and hemp went in to the right.
I began on the silvers rig and soon had 2 or 3 small skimmers on the 6mm xpands, a couple fell off as they have soft mouths and are young fish. Bites slowed pretty quickly and a switch to maggot saw me miss bites, but they were 1/2oz perch as I did have 2 or 3 of them.

40 minutes in and I went across to the far bank, toss potting 6mm pellets and a 6mm in the band, not a bite, not an indication, I tried 8mm pellet and even a bit of meat, nothing. 15 or so minutes of this was enough. Jason on peg 4 was catching silvers, small skimmers and odd roach but he wasn't going anywhere fast. It was definitely looking like one of them days, as most had suggested the low pegs 1-5 are feast/famine.
Back onto the silverfish line and just the odd plippy roach and two 3oz skimmers it wasn't happening.
So the first 60 minutes was non-exciting, but no panic as I found the canal style lakes at the venue better in the last 3rd of the match.

I soon loaded the method feeder (smallest drennan one) and made the awkward cast of 18m or so (I don't like short casts!!) to the corner of the straw bale, I was chuffed with my accuracy, didn't hit the trees and it landed spot on. I fired some Bait-Tech 8mm feed pellets over the top and waited.
In the meantime Jason had landed a carp from his right edge on paste.
Bang!! my rod wrapped round and I had a mad carp on the end, a bit of a lively battle in the narrow swims but a double figured fish was in the keepnet, bargain. 15 minutes later a 4lb mirror fell to the same tactic. They were my only 2 fish on the feeder all day, but I saw them as a bonus, especially the 1st one.
Shouting up to Jason, he confirmed that the pegs in the rippled area looked to be catching. But it was hard to tell if anyone else was picking up a few carp.

We were now at the half way stage and I only had the 2 carp in the net, Jason was on 3, all on paste down his right edge.
There were now a few carp moving around on the surface and my hopes of catching a few increased, so I began to feed the pellet line, in hope to see a few swirls and maybe a bit of fizzing just to convince me of fish being present. The swirls never happened in any amount, just the odd one. I had given up, for now, on the far line so that rig was converted to a shallow rig which I could lift and drop or slap I the attempts to extract some leviathans......attempts failed. That line only gave me a couple liners, so the fizzing could have been mostly the small silvers. I do expect to odd carp to be amongst the activity, but catching them isn't always straight forward.

Back on to the silvers line and I had a carp of 3lb straight away, gave me a scrap on the light gear, but all fun. No more bites were forthcoming, just a small skimmer over the next 20 minutes or so.
All the while I had been feeding across, but no signs of fish feeding occurred. I had been feeding a few pieces of meat and the odd helping of Bait-Tech hemp to my right and the odd bubble was showing. I hadn't fed my left edge spot as of yet, but soon put 4 cups of groundbait and maggots in, ready for later in the match.
The cruising fish looked an ideal target, so when I had 1 or 2 in the peg that looked catchable I would try and mug them, this worked as I had 4 carp doing this, I did spook a couple and some were not interested but that's the way it goes at this time of the year.

With an hour left in the match I was on 7 carp for maybe 30lb. I looked to be about level with Jason who was on 6 carp, but his looked a bigger average size, as is often the case with paste caught fish.
A look down on the meat and hemp line saw me miss a couple bites, so I shallowed up an inch so my bait was probably just touching bottom and bulked my shot lower down. I had a 2lb carp immediately and figured that I had to cut back my feeding to avoid line bites, so I only fed 4 piece of meat after each bite missed and a small helping of hemp after every fish landed.
A couple more 2 or 3lb fish were landed and it was getting on towards the end of the match, I had taken a look over the groundbait line to my left, but hadn't seen any signs of carp, so it looked like they didn't want to be in shallow water as the far lines proved.
5 minutes to go and the owners arrived with the scales for me and Jason to weigh in our lake, and they bought me luck as a 3lb fish was landed with a minute left, I managed to snap the hooklength so I went down my left edge for the last few seconds. I looked up at Mr Page on the Main Lake and promptly missed a bite as the fish bolted out of the edge....match over!!

I packed up the kit, loaded the trolley and began the weigh in.
We wanted to start at the far end and as we made our way up there we got the general idea that the lake hadn't fished with a couple admitting to under 20lb and some just over. Only 2 guys said they had around 50lb or more, so perhaps Jason and I hadn't done too bad weight wise, my clicker showed 37lb for carp.
Peg 15 only had 11lb, before Dave Romaine on peg 14 had 15lb of silvers and 40lb of carp, 55lb and that looked a good chance of winning the lake, we then had some nets between 16 and 22lb in that 6 peg section. My section began with a weight of 42lb, then a 57lb catch from Julian Pinkett was sure to have won the lake and section. Ron Stark, silvers star, had 38lb total, 18lb of which was his silvers weight.
Jason Bird, peg 4, was next to weigh, he was admitting to 25lb or so, but lifting his net out it was sure to be more than that, so it proved as he popped a level 36lb of carp on the board plus his few silvers gave him a total of 38lb 9oz. He was last in section at that point, so for the team's sake I hoped to try and beat that and Ron's weight to sneak maybe 3rd in section.
Jason did the honors with my nets and my 2lb 4oz of silvers couple with my carp, which looked 40lb+ when it was lifted out, gave me a grand effort of 48lb 1oz and more importantly 2nd in section.
I was told that my weight from that peg was very good and pretty much more than a few regulars expected of it on the day and in the weather (warm, sunny, no wind in my peg!!).

Weights.

So the trek back to the hut was made, stopping at peg 1 and Tom on the way. He said he'd won the lake with 137lb, so we had a 1st and 2nd thus far. We were not too sure how Titch had done, but he was up loading his car which indicated he'd not faired brilliantly.

Tom and some of his catch (pic courtesy of the man himself.

As it turned out Tom had won the match overall on the day, catching well down a margin after a few early fish shallow on the pole. The team finished joint 3rd, but it is early doors and a long way to go.
The next round for our Bait-Tech Southwest team sees me on Hawthorn, Tom on Westpool and Titch moves on to the Main Lake.

Next Sunday sees me at Viaduct with the Pawlett crew, hopefully it'll be a good one.
Until then, take care,
Lee