Acorn Fishery Tuesday Tenner,

With the weather being so nice and the wife being off work having to take a few days holiday herself we chose to spend the day in the sun whilst it lasts, I am one of the lucky ones to have a wife interested in fishing herself ' After having a nice on site breakfast the usual faces for this cheaper match began to turn up until none other than England Ace Des (Smiley) Shipp put in an appearance' You only had to look around the room at some anglers faces that they already had him down as the winner but me for one was pleased to see him as I for sure wasn't going to let him phase me and would see it as a challenge to finish higher than him today so let the draw commence" lol.

Out come peg 11 which I was pleased with as I had a nice inside swim should I need it later in the day, A nice swim across tight to the bank in 12inches of water.

And plenty of room to feed an up in the water swim to my left at about 9mts to catch shallow, Rig wise I had the usual 4x10 chanti on 0.15 and a 4inch 0.13 hook  length an 18 PR478 to fish tight over to the bank, a 4x12 Chanti to use 12mts down the edge in 2ft of water on the same line and a 4x10 PB1 on 4ft of line to use up in the water with an 18 PR36.

Company today I had Simon Price on peg 9 as my closest rival as the pegs further around were left for pleasure anglers to my left, the rest of the pegs were spread around the rest of the lake with Des ending up on peg 38 which can hold some bigger fish so it was all to play for and the £1 side bet was struck (More of that later), At the start I began to feed hard 4mm pellet on the 9mt line by hand and started tight over just touching the deck on a 4mm expander feeding some micro and hemp over the top via a small cad pot, This might seem a bit negative for this time of the year but on these canal type lakes I like to take a softly approach to start and try not to draw to many fish into the swim risking foul hookers and spooking the rest which will soon ruin a peg, after all the bigger fish are a bit wiser . This worked a treat and in the first hour I had put about 35lb in the net by just cad potting small amounts of micro and hemp after every fish, From what I could see it was a good start as a few were struggling and Simon on the next peg  only had a couple of fish by now.

 

 

After a while the fish began to start slurping on the grass and liners were a problem so I rested the swim and switched to where I had been feeding by hand, a few slaps of the rig and the elastic was out, feeding a few pellets by hand whilst playing the fish saw another of 4lb added as soon as I went back in but it didn't last and I had noticed the more often I fed the longer It took me to get a bite, With this being the case I decided to fish of the end of the island at 13mts just plopping the pellet around without feeding anything, It worked well for most of the match to be honest and by pinching the odd fish from tight to the bank when I felt they were getting unsettled it got to the stage where I had to tip my 6lb odd of silvers back as I didn't want to go over in my nets and only had 3 with me' As if I thought I may need more hey". It was quite an enjoyable match today as you couldn't just plonk it and expect it to go under it had to be worked at moved around all the time to induce a take as well as a constant change of depth. I was first to weigh today and after 4 weighs my total went 175lb which I was happy with, Simon went on to catch shallow and ended the day on 97lb before Gabrial Skarba ended up weighing a great 197lb catching short down his inside edge on maggot he told me over groundbait and pellet.

 Gabrial Skarda.

 After a few more it was Mr Shipp's turn to weigh and after added together with his silvers his total went 163lb meaning I was best pleased to show him how it was done as I'm sure it wont happen very often" Back to the subject of the £1 side bet he did his best to blag his way out of it though I had the wife as back up so soon caved in and coughed up lol. Being a cost cutter its not about the money just to beat Des was my target but a welcome £27 paid for the day.

 Part of Des Shipp's Catch

 You can let go Des"

Top silvers went the way of Andy Gard weighing 30lb of mixed fish on the maggot.

 Andy With Des's Silvers as we missed his weigh-in.

 There were a lot of fish caught today and they were happy to have a munch for a change everybody enjoyed the day and I cant go without saying a big well done Rupert who despite suffering from downs syndrome down on holiday joined in the match and ended the day with a great 28lb from peg 40 next Des, I had a chat with him after and he told me he had advised Des what to do at the start and would of had a few more but spent most of the day watching him to make sure he was doing it properly! mint"

 Rupert with Simon at the scales,

 The smile says it all.

Full results -

1st Gabrial Skaba (Un-Attached) peg 7, 197lb 4oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Maver/ Cadbury Angling) peg 11, 175lb.

3rd Des Shipp (Preston Innovations/Dorking) peg 38, 163lb 8oz.

Silvers -

Andy Gard (Acorn) 30lb 4oz.

 Winner Gabrial & myself.