Shiplate Farm Hawthorns Pleasure Session.

Not having time last week to right this blog in between matches but the wife and myself had a day together at Shiplate Farm which happens to be right on are doorstep and being as I haven't had much free time for a pleasure session I choose to have a go on the Hawthorns lake for the carp as Owner Steve Oliver let me use keepnets as he could catch up on the condition of the fish, I chose to fish peg 10 which has a nice bit of cover across to start with as I planned to fish meat on the deck at 6mts as the day went on and closer to the inside bank if I couldn't catch on my planned lines.
 

Pluming up I found 18inches of water over towards the far side as tight as I could go so my normal 4x10 chanti rig was assembled on 0.11-0.10 line and an size 18 808, My 6mt meat rig was a 4x12 chanti on 0.13 to an 0.11 4inch hook length and a 18 PR478 hook, The depth here was around 5ft and this was quite a light rig but with the conditions being perfect I like to use the lightest rig I can get away with as I'm convinced it leads to more bites and most time on meat you'll find with the right set up the bites are un-miscible"??.

                                                                          

I decided to just start the day with a small cadpot attached to feed to gauge the swim across to start with and feed around 10 cubes of 6mm meat onto the 6mt swim with a small palm full of hemp added, Starting with a 6mm cube of meat across and filling the cadpot with a mix of micro pellet and hemp it didn't take long for my first carp being a perfect common of around 5lb, With know signs of fish in the shallow water I wasn't afraid to feed the same amount again as a fish that size could of sucked the lot in" I was right with 6 fish in 6 put in's for about 25lb was telling me I would have a few today! Here's the good bit as having the wife sunning it up nearby she was able to take some videos thought the day as well as some pics to show where I fished.

                                                                    

 

 spot the yellow tip'

 fish on!

 

 

I did start to get the odd liner so cut out the feed until I was sure there wasn't any present and this seemed to work as in the next hour I had already had 15 fish. as expected they began to get cagey so I fed a slightly larger amount of hemp and micro and switched to the short line at 6mts.

I had been feeding the swim by flicking 6mm cubes of meat in by hand at regular intervals and after quickly trying my rig from across as there was the odd bubble coming up and they could already be up in the water with it being warm. it didn't seem to be the case because as soon as settled touching the deck it flew under and a mirror of 4lb was added, By now the wind had got up and as I was having a day for myself there was no point battling with it so I spend most of the day on the short meat line including fish to 8lb and a nice orange common,

   Bites on the meat"

 I found it best to catch a couple of fish then top the swim up with a larger amount of meat and hemp whilst catching a few more across in between resting the short line. I ended the day with 42 fish around 16lb of skimmers which all came off the short line for a total of 170lb so a great day, its the first time we have tried to up-load the videos so apologies if there not successful but will look into it for future reference so have added a pick of some of the fish on the day.

 

A couple of tips Ile share if conditions allow don't be afraid to slightly overshot your float when fishing the short meat line then give I a good dip in Vaseline and you'll find it sits perfect in the water and any little dips caused by liners wont pull the float under'.

The simplest way to have your meat on the bank is to have it covered with water after I have let it soak whilst tackling up, this removes the fat content which I drain off  before the start, its best to have some idea of how much your likely to use during a session match and I regularly add a few fresh cubes of meat to the water I keep in my bag and swish it around with the meat I've already prepared simply because if you don't you'll find you meat will go white and if you leave it till you run out adding fresh pink' meat can be the kiss of death!

Good Luck.