Shiplake Farm Open Main Lake.

Back to Shiplate farm for what seems ages as the matches at the fishery have been popular of late and being as the numbers have been limited I have left it to late to get a space on a couple of occasions, This venue is ideal for me being just a few minutes from my door so was keen to give it a go, I did attempt to get breakfast for myself and titch from Thyer's tackle but it was closed so it ment a day fishing on an empty stomach which wasn't a good start. Their were 14 of us fishing the match and the talk was of the normally productive pegs 1 & 15 being the wanted area but for some reason in 90% of the matches I've fished I always seem to end up on peg 6 or 6a", Hoping for a peg on the far bank somewhere I was a bit disappointed to end up on the near bank peg 7 towards the end off the lake (Not Far From My Normal Haunt Then!) but fish have fins so we would see.

A positive approach was in order as I know from experience the lakes head of skimmers are difficult to catch here although there is a chance of a big bream on the long pole so set up 4x14 wire wonder on 0.13-0.09 and an 18 PR434 to fish at 12 & 14mts in 5ft of water with casters and Ground-bait. A rig to fish at 13mts to fish down along my inside bank being a 4x12 chanti on 0.13-0.11 and again a PR434 18 hook, I decided to fish away from the bank at the bottom of the shelf where it was again 5ft or so, Last of all I set up a bomb to start the match on over to the island at around 20yrds.

At the all in In I cupped four balls of ground-bait containing casters and dead red maggot on the 14mt swim and a whole pot full of casters onto the 12mt swim, quite a positive approach but if any large bream were to show I wanted them to stop in the peg for a while, Starting on double hair rigged corn tight to the island I had a liner first cast but nothing developed so after 30mins I had a swap around between baits but couldn't get any indications or liners despite casting around the swim and trying shorter. On the hour mark I noticed some bubbles coming up where I had cupped in the load of caster on the pole line so was soon shipping out 3 dead red maggots on the hook, after a minute or so the float slid under and I missed it" but the next cast I was towing the rig through slightly when it went again and this time I was connected to what I thought to be a big skimmer but turned out to a hungry perch of 12oz! from that point on I never had a single bubble or bite on this line for the rest of the day which really surprized me?.

For the next couple of hours I started a new line off to my left at 14mts with micro pellets where I fished 4mm expanders over the top and swapped between 2 lines with different baits but all I had to show for it was a 1lb skimmer off each and a couple of blips. I had tried the bomb and corn again across to the island but the only bite I had all day came when I got up for a pee" Luckily I had finished in time and lunged for the rod missing the bite but managing to wrap the line around the over hanging willow branch! After a bit of forceful tugging thankfully it came free".

I had been pinging 6mm hard pellet in small amounts down the inside long line all day and felt with 2hours to go I had to have a look, so with a small cad pot attached I started on a single grain of corn feeding a few grains and a small nugget of ground-bait tight over the float, With 90mins to go I had my first carp of 5lb but it caused a bit of disturbance so tried the bomb line and pole swims again without success so spent the last 30mins down the edge. With 10mins to go I had an un-missible bite and after a battle netted a common of 13lb, I had seconds of the match left when I managed to get the rig back in place and after a few twitches and signs of another fish in the area the all out was called (Typical). A bit disappointed not to have caught earlier here but with the weather being bright all day I didn't really expect to. Overall it showed the affect the rain had taken as the weights were down and as I expected the top weights were off the far bank with Andy France on fancied end peg 15 was first on the day with 57lb catching 9 carp on the bomb and banded 8 or 11mm hard pellet over towards the lawn. 

Most venues seem to be slowing down a bit now so judging where and what to feed will be very important.

                                                Full Results -

1st Andy France (Cadbury Angling) peg 15, 57lb 6oz.

2nd Russ Pecker (Thatchers Tackle) peg 11, 53lb 4oz.

3rd Rich Hawkins (Bristol P.O) peg 12, 47lb 10oz.

4th Gordon Jones (Shiplate Farm) peg 9, 45lb 6oz.

                                                 Silvers -

1st Steve Howell (Shiplate Farm) peg 3, 18lb 8oz.