Shiplate open hawthorns

A match run by myself today as still being the festive period its nice to give Steve and Carol a break though Steve did do the weigh in with his fishery helper Roy as it looked very dark over head" (Thank you). Only 11 fishing today so top 3 overall and top silvers gave as all something to fish for and with the weather looking some what unsettled with a blustery south westerly we were all going to have to take as much care as possible with regards to bait and tackle!

Fishing from 9.45 till 3.15 with the draw being 8.30 gave us plenty of time to assess are pegs before the all in and with most drawn I ended up on peg 1 with the wind blowing down my end I was wishing it August" as on many canal lakes it can be the kiss of death in the cold, I have drawn this peg before and new I had around 4ft down my calmer left hand margin around a 1ft off the stick ups fishing a 4x14 chanti at dead death, And around 3ft towards the far bank in front of the bull rushes fishing a 4x12 chanti both to 0.13-0.11 and a size 20 808, I did set a strung out 4x10 chanti to search further along the bare bank towards the far corner if I needed to.

For Company today I had Steve Howell on peg 3 and after a quid side bet and him kindly giving me some maggots we weren't sure what to expect so a very open mind was the order of the day, Back to my peg in time for me to call all in and I fed around 30 maggots down my inside left swim and around the same with some expanders down to my right tho this was head on into the wind so I expected it to be a throw away line if the wind wasn't to subside", deciding not to feed anything across on any other line and started on the far rig infront of  with double maggot just tripping the bottom feeding a few maggots and expanders via mini cadpot, Two minutes in a bit of lifting and dropping a fast bite result in a 4oz roach not what I was expecting but a blank not on the cards, after a few missed fast bites a switch to a 4mm expander left me waiting for any indications apart from a few dinks I was still without a carp and a try on single maggot got me plenty of bites from tiny perch and the odd better roach but I was going nowhere and with only hooking one small carp it was a change to the lighter 4x10 rig and searching further along the bank resulted in my first carp around 2lb on double red maggot a drop back on the same line didn't result in any more signs so back on the far 3ft swim and a few more small silvers it was time for a re-think.

I had been feeding the inside by hand with a few maggots so although earlier than I would had liked I lay my 4ft rig in the edge and seconds later carp 2 was on and swimming nicely towards the middle of the lake tho stopped in its tracks and bolted back where it came from leaving me with a nice size scale! a quick re-feed with a round 40 maggots it was time to look on my throw away line into the wind on my inside right, First put in and carp number three was netted around 4lb but with no more indications I put a bit more bait in and switched back to my left margin, a slowly missed bite and a few liners I decided to try my 3ft rig on the same line and after a quick dip of the float tip in some Vaseline to help hold the float up I lay the rig in and watched the elastic slide from the end of the pole" another nice 3lb mirror in the net but no more fish I was back to the light rig across with maggot searching for any carp that might be sitting further along away from any bait and although I did manage two more carp I was getting more indications from silvers so after a few more 4oz roach and chublets I spend most on the remaining match down both insides ending the day with around 12 carp and approx. 3lb of silvers.

I packed up as quick as poss to avoid the rain in the distance approaching , and wanderd up Peanut (Steve one line will do Howell) on peg 3 , he was admitting to 13 carp catching on maggot over on the far shelf, The weigh-in was started at the top end of the lake and Ron Stark was winning with 34lb odd, next to weigh was peanut with 40lb 10oz and with just me to weigh I thought my fish were a bit on the small side but added to my silvers gave me first on the day and a nice 65 quid to add to last wkends pickup off the same lake along with four quid in side bets"

  The heavens were against us today tho we all caught but with a couple of breakages along the way with simon ryall breaking a no.4 and john page a no.6 tho can use his wild card to get a new one, (Tight git)

1st Dom Sullivan 43-8 Maver/Cadbury Angling

2nd Steve Howell 40-10 shiplate

3rd Ron Stark 34-12 Weston A.A

4th Russ Peck 23-6 Thatchers Tackle

Top Silvers

Gorden Jones 4-4 Weston A.A