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