Float Only Round 4, Shiplate (all lakes), 22/07/18

A cracking day weather wise was set for this round of Tony's Float Only League. It was going to be hot for some, especially those on Westpool and maybe those on the early pegs on the Main Lake.
Shiplate is a cracking fishery and definitely worth a visit if you have not ventured there.

40 people fishing, so 8 sections of 5, 2 each on Hawthorns and Westpool, 1 on Squircle and 3 on the Main Lake.
I loaded the trolley once I had arrived, which I did with 45 mins to draw time but with only the Main Lake requiring running line as a viable option I chose not to load those until after I had drawn.
Nothing in the league for me to fish for so it was a day just to try and have some fishing and perhaps pick up some coin.
As for where I fancied, I kind of wanted Squircle as there are loads of small carp and ornamental fish to catch with the odd 4lb bonus, so loads of bites and comes across as a lake for a bit of a fun day, not likely to frame unless the other fished rock hard, and never going to get the silvers from this little lake.
Other than that, Westpool around peg 7, Hawthorns somewhere from 10 to 13. The match record on the Main Lake was upped in Saturday by Tom Thick who had 320lb but a good few of his fish came to the method feeder and the rest down his edges, he was on 12a I believe. I would be happy on pretty much any peg on the Main Lake, but 1 and 15 are seen as flyers but 2 to 7 haven't been shabby either.

Into the draw and I was midway down the rabble, pegs 1 and 15 on Hawthorns were draw and Ron Hardiman drew peg 1 on Westpool before I plucked Main Lake peg 15, good peg that, and possibly the 6th time I have been sat on there, varying results for me from it over the time though from wins to silvers wins to real struggles when the wind has blown down the lake. But should be worth some fish.
Jack Billet drew peg 1 on his 1st visit to the venue, another flyer into his sticky paws.
Behind me I had Tony Rixon on Westpool p15, a good peg and would be hard to beat on that lake at least. I couldn't see anyone else enough to converse.

A long walk round to my peg, which is always made better by knowing the walk leads to decent peg.
A lot of foliage has grown since my last visit, it really does look nice there.
I set about sorting my kit and bait for the day, half of which were pretty irrelevant on the day.
A pellet wag, ideally to cast towards the end bank but trees sort of limited that, so 2 casts all day were made.
I had a line at 13 in front for pellets up and down in the water, the shallow had my trusty DT Pinger and the deck rig used a DT RBS Open, I never had a bit on the deck rig so no more on that.
Next line was 13m down to my left which can be good, a little shallower there so another rig made for there on the deck, no bites on that all day so no more on that. None shallow here either, so no more on that area.
A 'girly' meat line at 7m in front as I fancied some tench and skimmers to show here especially feeding small feed baits in hemp (groundbait or micros may have worked), so a light elastic and hooklength used. Lastly an edge rig for 2+1 to my left  where it was too deep for groundbait I think so it was a corn/meat combo there.

I had worms, maggots both live and dead and some casters in the bag, they stayed there. So it was a tin of corn, a couple large tins of hemp, some 8mm meat and 6 & 8mm pellets.
I was ready in plenty of time so I watched the water and to be fair there seemed a few fish in the area and well spread between me and Jack over on peg 1. But there did seem to be more down to my left around peg 13 and 12 I think.

Shiplate Main Lake peg 15

At the all in I began shallow in front before feeding any other lines and work from there.
I had a small 3lber after 10 mins but that was it so I cupped a big pot of meat and hemp on that line and a big pot of 6mm pellets on both 13m pellet lines before it was back out shallow.
It was slow going despite seeing fish all over my peg, some looked muggable but were not having it but I did pick a few up doing this, mostly close in for a change, I also had a few 'proper shallow' at 13m in front and found that feeding heavy was best.
Elsewhere I could see Glen Bailey over on p5 and Westy on 7 catching a few, on paste no doubt. And Tony behind me was getting regular action. Jack had started slow and then had a little spurt of fish to get back close to my weight.

At the 3.5hr stage my clickers said 54lb in my 1st net and my 2nd net was on 18lb, all shallow and mugged fish. I did have a handful of 10oz skimmers on the meat line when I gave it 15 minutes, but at the time it didn't seem right so had refed another pot of hemp and meat.
The fish on the surface and in the upper layers in general had gone and I could see more fish getting caught down the lake on the far side, nobody looked like they were shallow fishing, paste fishing I would guess.
So with about 2.5hrs left I came in on the meat line and pretty much stayed on that for the remainder of the match. I was getting plenty of skimmers around 8-10oz mark, I think I ended up with 50 plus 3 small tench and 4 roach, so 25lb or so I guestimated.
Thankfully I was getting regular carp action too on the meat, most around the 6 to 7lb mark, they don't half fight well there. With 30 mins left I put a 3rd carp net in as my 2nd clicker was on 56lb plus bites had slowed so I tried down my left edge but it never really happened, I lost a couple foul hookers, one well over 20lb and was only lightly hooked in the pec and the hook pulled. I did get a nice 4oz carp followed by a 4lber and a last gasp 10lber which I landed after the whistle.

I packed most of my kit up before owner Steve and accomplices arrived to do out weigh in, my clickers showed 54lb, 56lb and 14lb plus I had my 'accidently on purpose' silvers which was around 25lb by pure guesswork.
Well my silvers actually weighed 32-14 which was a good start, then 6 weighs later my carp upped that to a level 177lb total. I was well pleased....oh and my 1st two nets weighed 65lb each, so I was bit out but nor loads.
I didn't follow the scales initially as I went on the walk back to the car and loaded that up before a chat with a few guys, Jason Radford packed up after a couple hours having broke a number 6 section, should have fish on matey....a few guys were admitting to 130lb including Dave Romain on peg 3 and Glen Bailey on 7 said he had a bit more than that. Gabe on peg 2 had cracking day and admitted to 150lb but had lost at least that, but I wasn't having any of it, he had 4 carp nets in and he likes to put 60lb in each so even on the basis of the 4th net having not much in I reckoned he had at least 180lb as he said he had 15lb of silvers.
By the time I got to the scales to watch there was a couple 150lb+ weights including Glenn on p7.
Dave Romain was spot on with his weight as he had 130lb plus silvers to give him 134-01.
Gabe was next and it was obvious he had won and several weighs confirmed that with 216lb so well done him, he had lost just as many by all accounts too.
Jack on peg 1 had 100lb.
The fishery had fished it's tits off with plenty of 100lb+ weights including 4 over 150lb and 13+ over 100lb.
Result of the day could be pointed at Ryan Shipp who had over 100lb from Squircle, that is plenty of bites and a new lake match record.

So I had come second and topped the silvers to boot which I was most pleased with, a really enjoyable day all round. I only came 2nd in section though, lol.

Results:
1st, Gabe Skarba, 216-08. peg 2 main
2nd, Lee Williams, 177-00, p15 main
3rd, Shaun Townsend, 156-12, p13 hawthorn
4th, Glen Bailey, 155-04, p7 main
Silvers:
1st, Lee Williams, 32-14, p15m
2nd, Dave Lewis, 21-04, p13m
3rd, Paul Faires, 16-00, westpool peg?

For most of the weigh sheets and a run down from Tony Rixon take a peek at his blog

No matches planned for next weekend as it stands.
Until then stay safe and enjoy the sun.
Lee

Easter 4 Day Weekend, Landsend, Sedges, Shiplate. 30/03/18 - 02/04/18

So the 4 day weekend has been and gone for another year, sadly we never saw the weather we wanted (well at least I wanted it kind of hot and sunny). But it was not as bad as the doom sayers predicted not a few weeks earlier, we didn't have a 3rd episode of the 'Beast from the East' nor was it a wash out.

Any way the Friday was spent in the company of my family at Tyntesfield House near Clevedon, that was nice, better in the summer no doubt. Being National Trust members is great and gets us out of the house when boredom sets in. After that it was burgers at the Bridge Inn then I went and had a quick look at the Charlie Barnes memorial match at Acorn, a silvers match, plenty of carp caught....the top 3 were taken by the Shipp's on the top lake.
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On to Saturday and I had booked into the Landsend match and the weather looked okay with very little in the way of rain predicted but the wind may have been pain, but generally it was ok.
We had 17 I think, so Lakes 2 and 3 were used, I didn't mind where I would be but I haven't been on a peg in the 20's for a long time, alas I drew the same peg as the last round of the winter series in peg 68. No pics sorry (actually no pics all weekend....) I remarked to Mark Walsh that he would catch a boat load of F1s from his peg 5 draw, he insisted he would catch skimmers....

I set up a shallow pellet rig for against the island, a depth pellet rig for the same spot and this rig also did down to the weed bed to my right. 
A meat rig for 6m off to my left and a light carp rig (heavy silvers?) for 5m in front.
For company I had Jim Jenner across on peg 41, he had Russ Peck further along from him on 46 (I think).
Anyway as the match goes, I wont go into much detail, I lost 4 foul hooked on the depth rig in the first 10 minutes or so but couldn't get any fish on the shallow rig, they seemed to just be mulling around all day.
I did start getting a few on the depth rig by the island, 8 or 9 carp and 3 small F1s by the half way stage. But the carp were small compared to Russ and Jim.
It slowed so I tried the meat line, this gave me 3 carp including my largest at 4lb.
Then for the last 90 minutes I focused on trying to catch some silvers as I was unsure how Mike Duckett was paying the pools, so at least I could try to cover my options as it seemed unlikely I would catch Jim and definitely I would not catch Russ.
I managed plenty of roach, a crucian and a few skimmers on the silvers (I fished caster or maggot over groundbait) but I did pick up a few carp there and also some carp by the weed bed where I hoped to get F1s (count here as silvers).
At the all out I had 18 or 19 carp and my clicker showed 53lb, plus perhaps 10 or 12lb of silvers. 

As it turned out Lake 2 was tricky as Steve Seager was top weight from peg 14, 54lb+. But Walshy had 23lb of F1s to win the Silvers from peg 5, Martin Pettifer had 18-09 of silvers from peg 11.
Jim weighed in first on lake 3 with 79lb, Russ then had 123lb (I told him he had 120lb as I had been watching...lol). The rest of the guys' were topped by 49lb then I was last to weigh and I had 18-02 of silvers and my carp, all 56-12 of them, pushed me up to 74-14 to give me 3rd overall and 3rd in the silvers and a nice pick-up.
Results:
1st peg 46 Russ Peck 123-13
2nd peg 41 Jim Jenner 79-02
3rd peg 68 Lee Williams 74-14
4th peg 14 Steve Seager 54-01
5th peg 62 Richard Lovering 49-02
6th peg 5 Mark Walsh 45-12
Silvers 
1st peg 5 Mark Walsh 23-08
2nd peg 11 Martin Pettifer 18-09
3rd peg 68 Lee Williams 18-02

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Sunday saw me covering at Sedges in the last round of the Silver League and I pulled out peg 7 on Brick Lake, not too bad really but thought I had my work cut out when I realised I had venue silvers expert Phil Clapp on peg 6 and my White Acres roomy, Jamie Parkhouse on my fave peg 8.
The wife was with me for this match, it was muddy, but she was happy enough and can take the banter.
On to the match, a small feeder was made up, a rig for banded 6mm pellet over 4s at 11m (fishless during the day), my usual meat rig for 6m (fishless for once), and a rig to fish at 13m in a couple spots (one groundbait, the other micros and caster). Oh and another rig that went fishless, that was nan edge rig and would double as a shallow rig at 13m.
Well the match was hard to say the least, the far side started well but slowed (except Jess Jordan) and other than 1 skimmer of 1lb at the halfway stage, the feeder was motionless, I did manage a handful of skimmers to 2lb on my groundbait line, including a couple foul hooked. I also had a tench on the micro/caster line after I potted the best part of a pint of caster in such was how slow it was going.
The odd roach was also added to my net but not many.
Jamie tipped back 2 decent skimmers/bream and a couple roach, maybe 7.5lb, before the all out.
Peg 9 had don't ok but said he was only getting smaller skimmers.
Phil on peg 6 had a couple tench and some decent skimmers and lost a proper skimmer late on, but I had one come off, we all lose fish. I banked on him beating me and also peg 9, so I figured no envelope.
During the course of the day all 4 of us (pegs 6, 7, 8 and 9) all had plenty of carp action, especially late on and especially Phil. Annoying but kind of fun at times.
Come the all out Phil said I was 3lb ahead of him, I laughed.
The weigh in was done and Eric Fouracre had 19lb from peg 1 then there were some nets to 12lb before Phil had 15lb-ish only for me to put 17lb  on the scales and peg 9 had around 13lb I think.
So I had won my section and another pick-up.
Actually Jess Jordan had 24lb from peg 13 to win the lake and match.
Tile Lake saw John Fuidge have top weight with 21lb or so and then weights tailed off a bit with 13lb maybe 2nd on the lake.
I think, not certain, that I was 5th on the day, but I was 3rd on the lake.

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Monday, well the weather forecasters are tits, they said it would be windy and rainy most of the day when I went to bed Sunday night, so a day at home was on the cards.
I woke to see the weather had changed and it looked predominantly dry for the day, but a breezy afternoon.
I was undecided what to do and eventually was persuaded to go to Shiplate, well I was going to be late arriving after only deciding to go 30 mins before the draw, so I rushed around sorting my kit and bait, loaded the car and me and the wife were on our way, 30 mins after the draw I had a pick of 2 pegs in the bucket, peg 6 and peg 12 were left, I ended up on the latter.
I rushed to set up but was almost done by the all in.
I wont bore you with the details as it was hard from peg 7 onwards with the top 3 spots from pegs 5 (empty peg 6 next to him), peg 1 and then peg 3. Ray Wickham won the silvers form peg 10.
I did manage to land 1 carp after 90 minutes, a 4lber on banded 6mm pellet over 4s, I did lose, probably foul hooked, during the day, well in the last 30 minutes.
I managed a few silvers on maggot over groundbait but I also had some come off, they may have cost me 2nd in the silvers, they may not have, I will never know but they felt decent. But I did beat few, so at least it proved it wasn't completely or only me that had a slow day.
But it is a great fishery that I don't get to fish too often, well maintained and very welcoming owners, I will try and get there a few times this year.
Results:
John Hawkins p5. 101-14
Julian Pinkett p1. 57-14
Mark Jones p3. 42-0
Silvers
Ray Wickham p10. 10-6
Ritchie Hawkins p8. 7-2.

So a nice 3 days fishing with a couple pick ups and a few bites if not some tricky fishing at times.

Next weekend I am at Acorn for the 1st round of the Spring/Summer Series on Saturday, there are some very good anglers fishing, but it is a nice fishery and am looking forward to it.

Sunday I am back at Sedges for Pawlett's Silvers match.

Until then, take care and have fun.

Lee

Shiplate Teams of Three, final round, 04-12-16

I couldn't see the point of writing this, but as I insist on doing it properly I decided that I should, however it may well be less-than-interesting. So Shiplate Teams of 3, last round.....

A frosty night on Saturday didn't give me hope of a decent day fishing the last round of the Teams of 3 series at the popular venue just outside of Weston-Super-Mare. On the team front we had a really slim chance of a top 3 place, so it was really about myself, Tom and Titch doing our best to put some face on our showings.

I arrived in loads of time, looked at the lakes and there were areas that had ice covering the swims, but on the Main Lake (where I would be) the aerator was on, now this is a concern for me as I have found that it tends to be that fish get pushed away from the area as the ice-melt gets mixed up with the rest of the water. Sometimes it can have the opposite effect, but more so in the summer.
There are loads of silvers in the lake that should see some bites, plenty of carp too, but they seemed to have shut up shop there. The pegs I fancied were 12 and 14 (well 1 and 15 would be nice) as the far bank gets the sun all day and can be somewhat warmer in the winter.
I wasn't mad on 6, 7, or 11 as these are likely to have been most affected by the aerator and with 7 unlikely to get any sun to warm the top layers during the match, that would be my last choice of peg. It is a good peg though and has been good for top 2 in section for each round, that was before nearly 2 weeks of coldness and a match that finished 30 minutes earlier.

Tom done the draw, drew Titch peg 5 on Hawthorn, but that looked hard with the water level up maybe 10 inches. Tom had peg 6 on Westpool, again not a great peg especially as it was just out of the iced up area. Pegs 11 to 15 would have been better. He told me I was on peg 7, with Mark Wynne on peg 1, the chances of section winning was slimmer than normal.
But I wasn't too displeased and had a job to do.

Arriving at my peg, pretty much everyone told me where to fish and how, but it was all the same and pretty much as the plan formed in my head would be.

Shiplate, Main Lake peg 7.

I set up a waggler for maggots/casters to search the peg with, should the wind allow.....it didn't.
A lead for bread/pellet/meat, again to search the peg.
A method feeder for across towards the island.
Also 2 pole rigs, the 1st was for 14.5m down to my left using Bait-Tech Polony over some maggots. The second rig was my silvers rig for 2 spots at 11m fishing expanders over micros in line with the right edge of the island. The 2nd spot was at the same distance for fishing maggot/pinkie/caster over a little groundbait. This rig was fished on a 0.3g float, 0.12>0.08>6313 size 20 (then 22).  My swim though was out of the sun's rays and was somewhat cooler than those opposite and later in the day the pegs to my right.

I wont go into the details on how I fished, but to be fair to myself, I feel I fished a tidy enough match. Started on the method, switched to the lead, tried the waggler. Looked occasionally down the left edge - caught a friggin big branch thing. But mostly spent the day on the pole with pinkies as hook bait.
I went for a wander around 1:30pm and only Mark Wynne on peg 1 had caught, a decent skimmer and few sprat roach, but he'd had them very early in the match. The rest of us were blanking.
The far bank were getting odd small silver and Julian Pinkett was doing the best on that front. Mark Radford on peg 14b had 2 carp. Simon Ryall on peg 11, he'd not had a bite either at this point.
I wandered to see Titch and he'd only had a roach and a small carp, which I think is how he ended.

As we went into the last hour or so the pegs to my right started to see some of the sun's rays and they began to pick up the very occasional roach or skimmer. I stayed in the shade doing my hardest to pick up a bite or 2....they never came and at the all-out I was still biteless. My 1st ever match fishing blank.
As I packed up the sun had started to hit the water in front of me I saw a couple of roach plip on the surface. Ah well.

On the day it wasn't good for us, Tom only had 2 roach from his peg, Titch didn't get anywhere in his section and I blanked, so it would not have been a shock to see us last on the day.
So in the series we haven't generally had the best of times at the draw bag, but Tom and Paul Tidball (my cover in round 3) won the match days from flyer pegs 1 and 15 respectively. Myself and Titch plucked a silvers win each and Tom another section. But when we blew-out, we did it in style!!

However the league's leaders in both the team and overall individual stakes had put 2 section wins and a section 4th on the board  in the round (Dave Romain had 57lb+ to win overall on the day, Mark Wynne had 2lb 6oz to take my section and Dave White had 15oz to beat 2 in his section). This meant they won the day on weight comfortably.
Their Up The Farmers team had won the series, had top individual and amassed over £1500 over the 6 rounds. Massive well done those 3.
Local and venue Silvers expert Ron Stark had unsurprisingly won the series Silvers prize.
Wormheads came 2nd in the series followed by the PSV team of Matt Taynton, Lionel Legge and Alan Healey.

So that was that, not sure if I will get a team together for 2017, the limit is 10 teams with 5 booked in already.

I would like to take the chance to thank Steve and Carol for running the series and being their genial selves throughout. Plus those others who assisted in the smooth running of the series. Thank you and see you soon, hopefully more in 2017.

Thanks to Bait-Tech for their support to the team I was in, great products and efforts very much appreciated.

Next Sunday sees me at The Sedges for the Pawlett Legion Club's Christmas Match, I won it last year and also had the golden peg so would really appreciate a repeat result.

Until then. Have fun.
Lee

Shiplate Teams of 3, Round 5. 13-11-16

Penultimate round of the Teams of 3 at Shiplate and with The Farmers' team (Dave White, Dave Romain and Mark Wynne) 6 points clear we all knew that 3rd place is the only semi-realistic option for our Bait-Tech SW team. My match this round would be on Hawthorn, and in an ideal world I would have liked any from pegs 3, 7, 9 and 12. Not much for Captain Tom to try and pull is it?

Anyways a relatively mild day, dry too, was forecast so at least we will be comfortable, sadly we had received some cool rain in the previous 24hrs or so and we all knew it'd be tricky on all 3 lakes, 40lb would be there or thereabouts on the 2 canal style lakes and maybe 60lb could win the Main lake.

After a natter, loading the barrow and paying our dues it was down to Team Captains to venture to the drawbags....Tom came back with our homes for the day. Titch was on a nondescript peg on Westpool, I cant remember, maybe peg 13. I was on peg 8 on Hawthorn, an okay peg but only if 7 or 9 are not in, sadly, as seems to be the case on this series, I was hemmed in by those pegs and realistically I wasn't too likely to win my section, but you never know. I had to catch some fish and see.... Oh Tom, well he drew the low numbered section on the Main Lake, pegs 1 to 11 or something, with the top 3 pegs being 1, 7 and 3 in that order....he had peg 3...so had a good chance of a section 2nd, but 3rd in section would be the minimum from there.

Peg 8, Shiplate Hawthorn.

Only 4 top kits though, 1 for silvers down the middle at 7m in 2 areas, one fed with Bait-Tech Micros and the other maggots. The rig incorporated an NG Mini Gimp in 0.4g and line was 0.10 to a B911f1 size 16. Sadly these lines only gave me one roach all day.
The second rig was a heavy, hit and hold rig, for tight in to the snags to my left, I never picked that up all day.
The 3rd was a rig for 11.5m in front at the bottom of a shelf, well more like cliff face drop off, where I would be using a mixture of Bait-Tech Xpands in 2, 4 and 6mm over a mix of micros and 4mm feed pellets. This rig also suited being fished to my left and right short at the bottom of the shelf with meat, also for against the aerator which is on the right hand edge of my peg again using meat. All of these areas went fishless.
Lastly I had a shallower rig which would do for both dobbing bread all over the peg and if I had to then I could use the rig tight over in the shallow water.
So my bait was micros and 4mm feed pellets, Xpands, maggot, 6mm meat, a couple bread slices and some pinkies.

For company I had Jason Bird on peg 9, he kept saying that peg 8 isn't great with 9 in....and 9 isn't as good with 8 in, but then he had an empty peg to his right.
On my left was venue expert, regular winner at the venue and all round nice guy, Steve Howell, again he had an empty peg, to his left. He was not in my section so at least that was less of a burden for me, haha.

The match began and I didn't feed anything, just dobbed bread in a few likely spots for 10 minutes, this was biteless so I fed a small helping of meat by the aerator and a few maggots on each short line.
Both silvers lines were lightly fed.
I went out to the 11.5m line and just fed this all day via a tosspot. I had a 4mm soft pellet on the hook and I knew I would have to be patient. 10 or 15 minutes later and I hit a bite, an 8oz skimmer was duly netted. 15 minutes later, at 11 o'clock, I had another bite which saw me connected with a carp, but once down to the topkit, the rig came off the connector, oh balls.....!! Ah well carry on I thought to myself.
It took around 90 minutes to get another bite, another skimmer of similar size joined it's buddy in my net. Elsewhere it was proving tough, Jason had 1 carp and a roach, Steve just a few roach.
I was having an enjoyable day despite the lack of action and I felt I was fishing a tidy match and was hoping the carp would deal me a good hand.

My second carp was hooked at 2pm, this came after I had another skimmer of maybe 6oz and a 2oz roach. Again these fish came off the 11.5m line. But I was still doing okay from what I could gather.
A few fish had started moving across in the shallower water and Jason had hooked, foul hooked, a few carp across from various spots in his swim.
I shipped over with 2 maggots and a tosspot of the same and had indications right away, pretty sure they were mostly baby roach, but I did see a couple carpy signs and I managed a couple small chub over the next half hour.  Then a 3lb carp was duly hooked and landed.
By now I could see Steve on peg 7 catching a few carp down his left edge, he had suffered foul hooked fish when he was fishing across, so I think he binned that line and came in close. He had fish to low double figures. But he wasn't in my section but a good point of reference.
I couldn't get a bite down my edges, but there were fish in the really shallow water to my left, behind the snags in maybe 12 inches of depth, I could see their tails. Sadly they didn't want to venture away from there.

So with half an hour to go I was on 3 carp and maybe 3lb of silvers. Jason was on 5 or 6 carp and a couple of them were a decent size, he was getting fish from his right hand side. I also heard someone further along had been doing ok, so I just hoped for 4 fish in the last 30 minutes to give myself a chance of 1st or 2nd in section....it never transpired that way, though a skimmer and a carp from the 11.5m line added maybe 4lb to my total.

The all out was called, I packed up and went to help with the weigh-in.
We worked back from peg 15 and weights were low-ish as expected, but there was a 40lb 1oz weight from peg 11 and Jason put 39lb on the board, at this point I knew I had more than the 18lb that was 3rd in section and it proved that way with 4lb 8oz of silvers and my carp boosted me to 20-odd pounds and section 3rd. So decent points.
I also had won the lake silvers, which put which some pennies in the team pot. I felt I fished tidy.

Back at the car park it turned out that Tom was 3rd in section with 20lb (2 carp and silvers) and Titch may have been last or 2nd last in section with 6lb-ish. So not a great day for us and 3rd is now a very remote possibility with 1 round to go, I will be on the Main Lake.
Dave Romain won on the day with around 50lb, waggler fish pellet was his winning method from less-than-fancied peg 12 on the Main Lake.

Overall on the day BCFC won ahead of PSV and The Good, Bad and Ugly.
In the team standings it is The Farmers are 8 points clear, so for anyone to win we really need them not to turn up in 3 weeks time..... 2nd, 3rd and 4th spots are close enough to each other to have those placings not yet decided.

Not sure where I am fishing next weekend, not sure if I will, but the 1st round of the Avalon Teams of Three starts on the 27th.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Teams of 3, Round 4. Shiplate. 30-10-16

Quick blog today, A) because I caught naff all and B) because I caught naff all......

Got to the venue for the earlier draw now the clocks have gone back, Capt. Tom had to do the draw and I was positive with what I hoped he would be bringing back. My preference being to be on Main Lake or maybe Hawthorn. Westpool.....nah thanks. Tom told me to grab a catch shot of poss.....
No suck luck, he drew himself Hawthorn peg 9, not a bad peg at all with the boards across.
Titch had peg 6 on the Main Lake, not the best peg but should be worth a few fish but with peg 1 and 7 preferred, section 3rd would be a good result.
I had Westpool peg 7. Not good. Peg 8 is always a good peg as peg 9 isn't used, peg 6 is in so I had an angler each side, capable guys in the form of Mark Wynne on peg 8 and venue expert Julian Pinkett on peg 6. I also had Mark Radford (p4) and Steve Howell (p2) in my mini-section....mega tough to do well from the only peg in the section with no space.

Peg 7, Shiplate Westpool

Bait was simply Bait-Tech pellets in various forms, 2mm and 4mm feed (plus a few 6mm for the band) and Xpands in 4 and 6mm versions. Some 6mm chopped Bait-Tech Polony meat and some naturals in the form of maggots, worms and casters.
A few rigs, I wont go into detail about as of the half a dozen pole rigs and the small method feeder I only caught on 2 rigs....

The all in was called.....60 minutes later I had a small roach then a small 2lb carp from across in 12" of water on maggot.
An hour later I had my 2nd carp from the same line, oh I did lose a couple foul hookers in the preceding spell.
15 minutes later I had a couple little fish from my silvers line down the middle of the lake then a 12oz chub from across.....And that was my lot for the day.
I watched Mark Wynne catch pretty regular for the first 3hrs before slowing down, but he looked to at least won our mini-section with around mid-50lb.
Julian on peg 6 was struggling and ended with 3 small carp, but he did catch a good few chub and other assorted silvers in the 2nd half of the match and ended up with 12lb I think I heard. I tried to get them to feed but only seemed to bump baby 1/2oz roach.
Further down on the early pegs, Mark Radford and Peanut had done ok. So I expected to be last in the section, this was confirmed at the weigh in. I had 7lb and ounces for last on the lake.
I did try all sorts of things to catch, the fish were present at times, but were obviously tricky to hook.

The lake and section was indeed won by Mark. His team also won the day with Dave White getting a section second on the main lake and Dave Romain won his with over 100lb from peg 2 or 3 on Hawthorns.
Tom won his section and Titch did get 3rd in section from his peg, so team wise for us on the day we done average.

Next up for me, well I ain't got a clue to be honest, I think my next match may well be on Hawthorns in the next round of this series in a couple of weeks time.

Take care and have fun.
Lee

Pawlett Match, Shiplate Hawthorn and Westpool. 16-10-16

Hoping not to continue my now current habit of drawing pegs which I really don't fancy, so it was off to Shiplate today, only finding out last night that we didn't have the Main Lake, I was hoping for a nice day fishing for the non-carp species on the big lake......ah well. Onwards.

24 or so of us fishing today, 14 on Hawthorn and the rest over on Westpool. I wanted to be on any peg on Hawthorn from 3 to 10, these pegs have had a new breeze on them and I definitely fancied those pegs to be the most consistent. I didn't want Westpool as it had been patchy and didn't want to walk around there.

A chatter and natter with a few, and it was onto the draw. I hung back, like I usually do, and plucked peg 15 on Hawthorn. Nice enough peg, but not convinced it'd produce the good, especially with me sat at the helm....
I made my way to the peg and found I had Mr Paul Berry for company on peg 14, not that I could see him, he had Steve Fouracre next to him, so no doubt a little bit of cursing will be heard!!

Looking left from P15 Shiplate Hawthorn......bait fed ducks!!

Peg 15, Hawthorn.......looks fishy.....wasn't fishy!!

I went about sorting my kit and bait.
A shallow rig for pellets (unused in anger)
A depth banded pellet rig (unused in anger)
A banded pellet rig for a few areas across (fishless)
A rig for the left margin using meat over hemp
A silvers rig for 9m using casters and worms
A meat rig for topkit+1 slightly left

I should end my blog now as not much happened for me and I couldn't see what was occurring on the lake.
Anyways, the all-in was called and I began on the short meat line hoping for an early fish. 15 minutes later nothing had happened, 20 minutes on the pellet across line and still nothing happened. All I knew was Paul had a carp and 4 skimmers in that period and Steve had lost a couple carp and had a few skimmers.

I went out to 9m with my silvers rig and waited a while before I had a chub of 6oz, this was quickly followed by a couple crucians and another skimmer.....then nothing for a long while. I did foul hook a couple carp and missed a couple bites on meat, but my swim didn't look too active in terms of fish being present.
At the halfway stage I had yet to catch a carp, Paul hadn't had any more fish after his little burst at the start of the match.

A look down my left edge saw me hook a 1lb carp in the tail, it was landed....yay. But it was a false dawn as nothing more happened so it was back on the silvers rig, which again not much happened, it was another 20 minutes before I had a 4oz eel and a 1lb skimmer.
I was hoping the carp turn up in the last 90 minutes or hour as they often do, but hope was all that was likely.
A couple more foul hooked carp, but with no particular area standing out, at least to find an area to target. So I plodded along and not much was happening by all accounts, but rumour had it the pegs below peg 10 had been catching a few pretty regular, like I expected.

Into the last 60 minutes and I began to see a little more life in the peg and I managed a couple 6oz roach off the silvers line, plus another lost carp from here on the light kit.
I did manage 2 carp, one from the left margin, one from the short meat line and as the all out was called I was getting few liners and bubbled on the edge and short lines.

So not a great day, but I enjoyed it oddly, scratching around for bites may well help me out in the Teams-of-3 in a couple weeks
Paul Berry hadn't put any more fish in his nets, Steve had a good last 40 minutes and had added around 18lb to his tally fishing expanders across.
The scales arrived and Jamie Parkhouse had won Westpool from peg 15, which was the Golden Peg, so a nice win was on the cards.
I put 8lb 5oz on the scales for my 3 carp, my silvers weighed 7lb 12oz, giving me 16lb 1oz.
Mr Berry's solo carp was an ounce less than my 3 and he had 1lb 12oz of silvers for a 10lb total.

I didn't follow the scales and went and loaded the car, the other end of my lake were doing ok with 30 and 40lb nets reasonably common, though a few dnw's and a couple low weights were recorded.
The top silvers weight was a really nice 21lb for Derek Beards from Westpool peg 11.
Overall winner was Jamie from p15 on Westpool with 77lb 12oz, Eric Fouracre (H2) had 49lb 4oz and Brian Gatiss was 3rd with 44lb 11oz (H7)

Weights....

Not sure where I will be fishing over the coming week and next weekend.
So have a good week and stay safe,
Lee

PSV Match, Shiplate Main Lake, 2/10/16

A lovely sunny, reasonably mild day was the forecast as a bunch of the PSV guys fished on the Main Lake at the lovely Shiplate complex near Weston-Super-Mare, The air was nippy and it shows autumn has arrived. Lovely time of the year.
There was another match on Hawthorns which saw the car park reasonably full, plenty of chat, abuse and piss-taking was done and spirits were high.

We all paid, the draw was made, it was obvious which pegs would be wanted, 1 and 15 are flyers and should be thereabouts come the weigh-in, but peg 14 has been the hottest peg of recent times and would be a very good draw. The rest of the pegs are fair and can produce winning weights for sure.
I had the 3rd last ticket and drew peg 11, so I though I would have a day fishing for silvers.....hmmm!!
Peg 1 went to Adam Caswell, 15 to Alan Healey and 14 to Mr Steve Burgess.
With the way it is pegged the only peeps I could see were those on the opposite pegs, Pete Uzzell and Mark Radford on 3 and 5 respectively.

Shiplate p11 Main Lake

Shiplate Main Lake p11 lhs

I made my way to the peg and went about sorting my stuff. Groundbait mixed, micros wetted and expanders pumped. 3 tins of corn and some 6mm pellets finished off my bait tray. The lake was flat calm and there were a few silvers and the carp were mooching around in the upper layers, but they were not my target.
2 silvers rigs, one banded, one not. The banded would be for 11m in front (corn and 6mm pellets) and the other at 2+1 in front at the bottom of the near drop-off using expanders/micros/corn.
A rig for carp down the edge, but hoped not to use that, and a rig for off the end of the tree with carp the intended target, this wasn't used in vain.

At the all in I started on the short line, toss potting balls of micros and odd grain of corn, it was a while before I had a bite and inevitably it was a skimmer, one or 2 more followed, only fish up to 4oz. After an hour I hooked 2 carp on this line, both foul hooked and both lost.
A tench and a nice looking crucian were netted but things had slowed with the odd roach only coming to my short line.

So after 90 minutes I went long and starting getting the odd skimmer and roach, but nothing of the quality I expected and felt that I would need a few lumpier skimmers and a few tincas to win the silvers money. I kept pinging the odd pellet and potting in the odd pinch of micros and a few grains of corn.

Between 12:00 and 3pm I had really struggled and only probably put in a few roach and 1 little tench, I also lost a carp that vanished around 20yrds away to my right.
Elsewhere I expected John Bradford down on peg 9 to be winning the silvers, Steve Burgess looked to be winning the match overall. Opposite Pete only had a couple carp and a few silvers. Mark Radford was starting to put some skimmers and a few carp in his net as had Chris Szakacs on peg 7.
So at 3pm I potted in 5 cups of groundbait down my left edge and left it for 15 minutes before going in over the top with double corn. It worked and I had a carp in the net after a spirited battle had a 5lber in the net.

Over the following 40 minutes I had another 4 carp from the edge and lost another to the tree.
The last 15 minutes were fishless and the all out was called. I expected to have maybe 10lb of silvers and maybe 30lb of carp.
I packed up, loaded the trolley and went and watched the first few weigh ins, Alan had 42lb off peg 15, Steve Burges s had 70lb+ from peg 14 including a 12lb grass carp, Lee Waller had 16lb of silvers of which 13lb came in the last hour, I then had 12lb of silvers and 33lb of carp for 45lb and ounces.
I let the scales do their job before getting to see the results back at the car park.

Results:
1. Steve Burgess (14) 71-9
2. Adam Caswell (1) 57-7
3. Mark Radford (5) 49-0
4. Chris Szakacs (7) 47-15
5. Lee Williams (11) 45-8
6. Alan Healey (15) 42-6
7. Pete Uzzell (3) 22-9
8. Lee Waller (13) 15-12
9. John Bradford (9) 11-15

Silvers:
Lee Waller 15-12

So it fished a bit tricky with the sunshine and flat conditions, but in hindsight if I had taken some form of live bait like maggots or worms I am sure I would have had enough to win the silvers and I think that the pellets and corn approach wasn't really right.
Also if I had come in on the edge lines, or even fished shallow in some form then 2nd overall's weigh looks like it would have been gettable.

Not sure where or if I am fishing this week as on Saturday I am down at White Acres for the Winners Week Festival which will make a change and maybe get some F1s and different scenery.

Until next time....
Lee 

Shiplate Teams of Three, Round Two. 25-09-16

Well the 2nd round was fished last Sunday and our Bait-Tech SW team were hoping for a nice draw from Captain Tom's hand. I would be on Hawthorn, Titch on the Main Lake and Mr Downing would be on Westpool.
There was a good bit of banter flying around, some directed at me and my new 'skirt', which was a lovely +BaitTech waist towel in it's bright pink and black colouring, also have a new cap and a tee-shirt to match.....lovely. Thanks to Bait-Tech for them.

We sorted our bait, loaded our trolley, chatted about pegs and tactics before the draw was done.
It turned out our pegs were nothing to write home about but I was a touch jealous when I say that the team of Matt Taynton (end peg 15 on Hawthorn), Lionel Legge (peg 1 on the Main Lake where Tom won the last round) and Alan Healey (peg 4 with some space on Westpool).
Tom handed me peg 9 on Hawthorns, not the worst peg but towards the middle with some boards

across, which usually, not always, holds a few fish. I had Steve Burgess on my left. Whom I agreed not to have a quid with over Facebook the day or so earlier.
Titch was fishing from peg 13 on the main lake, a couple pegs away from the area which was fancied but always a good area for skimmers and odd carp.
Tom was on peg 8 on Westpool, again a couple pegs from the in-form and fancied area, but should catch a few.

Shiplate Hawthorn p9

I set up a few rigs, a tight in close edge rig for my right edge using meat over maggots, this rig would do for tight across over groundbait.
Another rig for down into the deep water in the edge again on the right (couldn't fish left), feeding hemp.
A shallow pellet rig, a light maggot rig which could be spread or shallowed up for down the middle.
A rig for 2+1 in front (hemp and meat/maggot) and lastly a silvers rig, as the last round, Ron Stark would be the man to beat on the silvers front and around 16lb or so would be a good weight of them.
Bait is pictured below.

Bait for the day.......

I would love to say it went all swimmingly, but it seem the lake had generally switched off. I started on maggots down the track and hoped for some silvers to put in the net but it was really slow going. Actually it took a couple hours for my 1st carp (though lost 2 foulers previous) as other than a couple roach on the maggot rig. The guys either side of me were not really fairing any better.
So I will drag this through to the 4hrs in stage, where I was up to a poxy 3 carp, all came on the meat at 2+1, but were all nice enough sizes and my clicker showed 16lb. I was last in section for sure, well I was convinced I would be.

Moving into the last hour and I felt I had fished well enough, tried a few things, altering the usual hooklength diameter, hook size, float sizes and shotting, bait choices and even tried fishing new areas. The fish were not playing ball......
But I was still hopeful of a late surge, I am a pretty positive angler most of the time, and as I have prove before, I tend to catch a few late on and larger fish. So at 3:20 I had another carp, maybe 10lb, and then half an hour later another from the same 2+1 line, this was a more modest fish.
A couple decent skimmers were netted, a couple jumped off the hook, but at least I was getting indications, not the late surge I hoped for.
Meanwhile Steve Burgess was getting plenty of action next door, he said mostly small carp of 1-2lb size, which more or less turned out to be the truth.

So as we were into the last hour my clicker was on 31lb, could I double that? I tried the Polony meat down the deeper edge, but there was a snag, turned out to be some line attached to something, so i reached a few inched further, this worked, well it gave me a carp of 1lb right away, then luckily another one was soon netted, a 4lb fish.
My last carp came on the 2+1 meat line and was around the 3lb mark and my clicker ended the match on 36lb mark. I was suffering with liners and foul hookers on and off during the day, like the fish were present but being little blighters and not eating the feast that was fed.

Anyways, I was sure to be last in my section. I packed my stuff away and loaded the car even before the weigh-in had started.
Chatting to the guys on the lake when I returned to the weigh-in, it seemed that the lake had not fished properly. Actually a couple guys said they had 30lb-ish, sadly they were in the other section as those in my half all said 40 to 50lb......gggrrr!!
Alas, we began to see what all had caught and it was a pretty fair match, some had not even had a fish after 3 hours. But we saw a few 40's and a 50lb net, plus a 701lb weight from my section.
I had amassed 44lb and ounces, which after Steve's 50lb guess actually weighed a few ounces less, saw me finish 2nd last in the section but only just behind those just above me.

The lake as a whole saw a 20lb net, 2x 30lb nets and two 70lb+ nets, the rest of us were stuck in the 40-50lb range. Ron did win the silvers on the lake for the 2nd round, a shade under 18lb if I remember correctly using mostly worms.

Once back at the car park, it turned out that Titch had 108lb and included the top silvers net of 20lb or so, so 2nd in section for him behind overall match winner Dave White with 150lb from peg 14b I believe.
Tom had come 2nd in section fishing with 4mm Bait-Tech Xpands and had around a dozen small carp for a 41lb weight.
Team-wise we had done average as the top 3 teams all had their anglers in the top 2 in the relevant sections.

Team Winners on the day, Dave Romain, Dave White (match winner) and Mark Wynne

I miss the next round when Paul Tidball is covering for me, I am down at White Acres, so I miss the 1st attempt on the Main Lake round of my series, I like that lake. But I am there on Sunday in a PSV match, so a nice draw and some fish will be appreciated......

Until next time, have fun.
Lee

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

Pawlett Match, Shiplate Westpool and Hawthorns

An odd one today, the weather was lovely though!!
The day started off ok, a bit of sun and reasonably warm as myself, Paul Berry and Mark Watkins stopped off at The Hobbs Boat Inn for their all-you-can-eat breakfasts.
So after 6 sausages,  6 bacon, 3 tomatoes, 3 eggs and a load of toast......plus some fresh fruit and yoghurt, it was time to head off to the fishery with bellies full.
27 or so of us were to be spread across the 2 canals, all 15 pegs were in on Hawthorns, though peg 1's angler couldn't make it, while on Westpool left out 2 or 3 pegs.
There was also an open match on the Main Lake, so the parking was tight but the place was a hive of activity. I made chatter with a few guys and mentioned that I fancied Hawthorn peg 3 or either 11 or 13 on the Westpool.

I let the rabble get on with the draw and plucked the 3rd last peg, Hawthorns peg 8. Splat bang in the middle of the lake and a couple short of peg 10, which is a nicer peg, though I did have the aerator in my swim. Ziggy and Jamie Cook had the last couple pegs, Jamie on the furthest peg on Westpool. Ziggy was in the middle somewhere.
I got to my peg, there looked to be a few fish around the area, I had Mark Watkins above me and Jason King below me on peg 7.

Hawthorns Peg 8, Shiplate

I went about sorting my gear, 4 rigs today, none for silvers as I didn't fancy fishing for them.
A shallow pellet rig for generally towards the aerator, a depth pellet rig for the same area.
A meat rig for my left edge where I had a snaggy area that looked fishy and there were fish in the reeds and tree roots behind where I would fish.
Lastly a rig for around 2ft off the far bank in the shallowest water I could find.
Bait was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, hemp, some groundbait for potting across and a few 8mm pellets if needed.

On plumbing up I knocked into a few fish, this gave me hope for the day ahead. There were some skimmers and chub spawning across in the grasses and this would no doubt pull the carp off any bait fed. I couldn't get tight over due to the grasses.
At the all-in I began down the edge, not feeding, hoping to snare a mug fish or 2. But this never happened, so out with the depth pellet rig just off the aerator, loose feeding 6mm pellets hoping to draw the fish up in the water.
I started to get some fizzing and odd liner so I switched to the shallow rig, I never had a bite. I did foul hook a couple though on the deeper rig.
Meanwhile, Paul Berry a bit further along, had a carp 1st drop. Mark Watkins also had 1 or 2 in the 1st hour......me, I tried a few areas but after 2hrs I was on 7 scales....No fish.

So into the 3rd hour and I kept plugging away and managed my 1st fish at around 2:15pm!! A big double figured carp was landed after a prolonged fight. The carp don't half hang on in these lakes, especially the larger stamp fish of 5lb+.
I was well behind a few guys, Mark Watkins, and the 3 guys to my left had around 6 fish each, it was slow going for everyone really.
My 2nd fish came at 2:30 and it was a skimmer than let milt out all over me....nice.
I had another skimmer a few minutes later that did the same, both skimmers came from my furthest line.

So far, so boring....my fish count at 3:30 was 2 skimmers and 1 carp along with 9 scales!!. I still expected to pick up a few more in the last hour, so to my delight I dropped in my left edge and pulled out a 2lb carp, then a even smaller carp that was almost swingable. It then went quiet so back out on the shallow rig, I managed a 3lb fish that took my pellet as I slowly shipped back!!
4pm came and I snuck a 7lb fish from my right edge where I hadn't fed, then a 3lber from the same spot. I missed a few bites, pricked a few carp also, but that's not unusual.
With 15 minutes to go I was nearly drawing level with the guys around me, so I was glad to put 4 more carp to 6lb in the net in the last quarter of an hour. All from my left edge.
At the all-out my clicker showed 34lb plus that last fish was around 6lb which had to be added.
So a tidy final period after earlier going 3.5hrs with only 7 foul hooked fish to show for my efforts.

On my lake, rumour had it that only Phil Clapp on my favoured peg 3 had done well, and a good few peeps were admitting to between 4 and 8 carp, I had 10 and the 2 skimmers.
I loaded the gear onto the barrow after I had packed up, took it up the slope before following the weigh-in, Brian Gatis had 29lb and Phil had 70lb, then we had a few 30lb nets before my attempts went 51lb plus 1lb 8oz for my 2 skimmers to move into second spot. This is how the lake finished.

I went and loaded the car before going to wait for the results.
The Main Lake had fished just as hard and other than peg 1 and 1a who both had around the 120lb mark each. 45-50lb was a decent weight on there today and the silvers was won with a lowly 12lb, so they still have fish-sex on their minds too.....
The results from Westpool filtered through and John Fuidge had 67lb or so, but not too sure on the others. It turned out that Jamie Cook had 6oz more than me with 52lb 14oz. He had over 14lb of silvers in his catch!! Nice. So I'd won my section.

Results:
1st, Phil Clapp, 71lb 4oz (H3)
2nd, John Fuidge, 68lb 11oz (W9)
3rd, Jamie Cook, 52lb 14oz (W15)
4th, Lee Williams, 52lb 8oz (H8)
5th, Mark Sweeting, 48lb 14oz (W1)
6th, Keith Clapp, 45lb 13oz, (W7)

Silvers:
1st, Jamie Cook 14lb 12oz (W15)
2nd, Robb Dodd, 7lb 8oz (W13)
3rd, Ziggy Slowinski, 7lb 2oz (W12)

Weigh Sheets....

So a frustrating day, I am sure I could have done a little better, maybe pulled the maggots out of my carryall and tried for some silvers, maybe opened a new line at the bottom of the far shelf? All hindsight I suppose.
I will try and figure out how to catch fish in the middle 4hrs of the match on the canals at this very good fishery.....one day!

No matches planned for me next weekend, so I may go pleasure fishing next Sunday somewhere.
The following Saturday is the 1st round of my Saturday Series, this round being on the Match Lake at Landsend fishery.
I still have 4 or 5 spaces, £60 to enter, £20 match day pools. You can get cover for any round/s.
Dates are:
28th May, Landsend Match Lake
11th June, Trinity Wildmarsh
9th July, Sedges Brick
6th August, Avalon
20th August, Viaduct Campbell

Until next time, Tight Lines.
Lee

Shiplate Costcutter, Main Lake, 07-04-16

A toss up as what to do today, I was going fishing yesterday, but couldn't be arsed, but I wanted to go today, I did contemplate Viaduct, but then Jonny Page told me of a match on the Main lake at Shiplate, I really enjoy that lake, although I do need to learn some of it's moods and how the carp feed away from the edges...I booked in without hesitation. I really fancied a day fishing for the silvers and my bait was mostly geared up for them......groundbait and corn!!

I had the beloved wife with me today, she doesn't get out much, obviously, and fancied watching an 'exciting'  match. On the way over I told her that I fancied anywhere from peg 7 round to peg 12 or 13 as there would be a ripple and the new wind may well have shuffled the carp away from pegs 1 and the more favoured peg 15. That's what happened the last time I fished there, a northerly pushing the fish down the lake.
After arriving for the 10am draw, which happened at 9:40, I chatted to a few guys, 11 were fishing, before dipping in for my peg, Steve had put 1 and 7 on the near side of the lake in and the rest of the pegs would be from 9a up to 15. I put my hand in an pulled 2 stuck together so dropped one back, I was left with peg 15. Generally seen as a flyer, or rather THE flyer, but I wasn't too confident, expecting the carp to be mid-lake or further down. But none the less, it was a carp peg I would be sat on, but I have won a silvers pool from this peg in the past.

I slowly made my way round, my back is being an arse and has been painful for about 2.5 weeks now.
I went about sorting my kit, I didn't want to faff much, so I set up a method feeder and a couple pole rigs. The 1st rig was for 6m in front using corn over maggots and a little micro, this rig would do for 13m in front using corn over 6mm pellets. The same rig also did for the same distances and baits along my left edge (ish), though it was a float's length shallower. So I marked everything up.
The 2nd rig was simply for down by a tree to my left in the margins using corn over 6mm's.
I never set up a silvers rig..........poor decision in hindsight.
Bait was robin red pellets and micros for the method feeder, corn, maggots, micros and 6mm pellets for the pole lines.

Peg 15 r.h.s

Peg 15, l.h.s and feeder area

At the 11am all-in I fed the various pole lines before chucking the method feeder out, 30 mins later I had a 5lber in the net, I thought the fish may have turned up.......Wrong.
After 2hrs I tried the pole, I was miles behind Titch Williams and Jon Page further down, they'd had a few carp as had Tom Downing on peg 14B, though he was catching loads of skimmers on the pole using 6mm pellets, he said they were accidentals.
A look down the edge to my left at 13m (painful....bloody back) saw me have a little indication, which is more than I had at 13m in front all day, but that knock on the float never developed, so I came in to 6m down the same edge. I had a bite right away and my 2nd fish, a 1lb tench was netted. 20 minutes later a 5lb carp from the same spot was in the keepnet. I died again and I was getting bored. I was cursing not setting up a silvers rig, but my back was being a pain and didn't fancy the effort (bad angling....nah....common sense, haha).
Back out on the feeder and it was about an hour or so later I lost a fish, but on inspection I had some old line on the hook, so maybe a 'trail-er'? I had another chance at around 2pm and landed my 3rd carp, another 5lb fish was in the keepnet.
Another look on the pole lines, the right edge gave me a slight knock, it never turned into a bite, so I looked in front, only the 6m line gave me a couple skimmers before re-feeding and looking short down the left edge, my 4th tench of 1lb or so was netted.

Further along Titch and Jonny were doing well, and the wife had told me Tom Light on peg 9a had landed a few skimmers and carp. Tom Downing was bagging away on the skimmer and odd carp from slapping tactics. Pegs 1 and 7 didn't look like they had landed much at all.

It was now 4pm and an hour left, at this point I had 3 carp for 15lb or so, 3 skimmers, 4 tench at 12oz-1lb each and a roach. A look down my left edge saw the elastic heading out into the lake before I even noticed the float gone!! But a nice 10lber was in the keepnet after a spirited scrap. The next drop saw the float stay still.
A look short down the left so a quick bite and I promptly bought back a 3 inch long scale, ooopps.
That was my last bite from that edge for the day.
With half hour to go I managed a nice 3lb tench on the 6m line in front, plus a couple skimmers, before a final look down the left edge with 20 minutes to go, a short jab on the float saw my strike into my 5th and last carp, a nice 6lb fish, moving my clicker to 30lb.
That was my action done for the day. 5 carp, 5 skimmers, 5 tench and a roach.

I packed up before Steve arrived to the scales...I plonked 11lb 9oz of silvers on the scales, my 5 carp added 35lb 4oz. 46lb 13oz was my total. I reckon I could have had that in silvers had I fished for them.....oh the hindsight.!!
Tom Downing weighed 24lb+ of silvers, both me and him thought he had 30lb or so of those. He also had 39lb 8oz of carp. His total was 64lb 2oz.

I never followed the scales from then on, I packed my gear away before making my way back to load the car. As I passed Titch and Jonny Page, they said they had 80lb and 70-odd pounds respectively.
I didn't find out what else was caught until the car was loaded and monies dished out.

Results:
1st, Titch Williams, 84-14, peg 13a.
2nd, Jonny Page, 70-03, peg 13.
3rd, Tom Downing, 64-02, peg 14b he also won the silvers pool with 24lb 10oz.
4th, Tom Light, 62-15, peg 9a.
5th, Lee Williams, 46-13, peg 15.

Weights

So a frustrating day, but as expected, I wasn't too sure on peg 15, but I am certain that I could have had 30-40lb of silvers had I fished properly for them. But the carp, at this time of year, tend to move around a lot with the winds, which it looked like had happened with them hanging around a bit further down the lake in the ripple/waves.

Next up for me is the Viaduct and Saturday's Fishomania Qualifier before Sunday see's me on a silvers match at Sedges. A couple of nice draws, where short pole tactics are best, would suit me and my back at the moment.

Until Then, Take Care.
Lee