Jeff Wye Memorial Match Shiplate Farm (Main Lake & Westpool.

At last it was time for me to get back on the bank and back into a match in memory of good friend Jeff Wye who sadly pasted away after a battle with cancer, with Jeff having more of a love for silvers than carp the match was based on silvers only although their was going to be a prise to the most amount of carp caught on both lake just in-case you were plagued by them' with 26 angler booked in there would be 12 pegs on the main lake with the remaining 8 on westpool, No breakfast trip for me today as we now live even closer to the venue which I can only describe as the posh part of Weston, Only having moved in a week ago we have already found areself's concealing the proper job carrier bags when returning to the house by hiding the in Waitrose or Mark's n Sparks bags just to try and look the part! Rather posh ere you know lol".

All the talk was to hopefully draw the main lake as this was expected to throw up the winner? into the draw and I found myself on the main lake but only the same area as I normal frequent peg nine right at the bottom of the lake, arriving at my swim I not only found myself in the shade again for the day the wind was blowing towards the top end of the lake meaning my end resembled more of a mirror surface,

 Knowing this end would be shallower than some areas of the lake  with the forecast for a sunny day ahead I felt my chances of catching the lakes bigger bream or skimmers were going to be somewhat limited so I planned to keep it simple and just use a catch what I can plan to start with.

With this in mind I planned just to fish the pole all day, two lines out in the open water off to my left & right at 14.5mts and a short line in-front of me at 5mts where the depth was pretty uniform at around 4ft, for the longer lines I set up a 0.3g PB2 float on 0.14 - 0.10 and an 18 808 hook and for the short line my favourite 4x10 Chanti on 0.13 - 0.09 and an 18 PR434 hook. At the all-in I fed 6 balls of fishmeal ground-bait with some micro pellets and 4mm expanders added on the long line off to my left and just a ball of micros on the long right hand long line, I started the day on the short line cupping in a handful of chopped worms and casters starting with a small piece of worm on the hook whilst loose feeding caster by hand over the top, With the rig set at dead depth to start with I began catching the odd small roach which were to small to do any good but after 20mins and switching to caster on the hook I had a 1lb skimmer, Some more small roach followed before I connected to a decent eel which I managed to land at around 1lb + bonus!.

After some more blips it was time to try the longer lines as things had dried up short so I re-fed another mix of chopped worm and casters before trying the left hand long line with a 4mm expander on the hook, I had a 4oz skimmer right away but then I couldn't get the bait to bottom without getting ragged out by small fish, I moved the bulk closer to the hook and put 2 dropper shot 4inches from the hook and added a couple of inches to the depth. I tried the right hand swim where I had fed just a ball of micros saw me add a 1lb skimmer but then I found myself attached to a carp which thankfully came off without damaging the rig" I kept feeding the short line with casters by hand and after only catching a 4oz skimmer on the long lines it was time for a rethink as tiny fish were being a big problem.

I decided to feed a ball of ground-bait and a half pot of micro pellets at 10mts and see if produce later in the day whist concentrating on the short line catching what I could, I had increased the feed in the second hour and began to catch the odd chunky' roach to 6oz and a bonus 2lb tench" but after just over 2hours I realised I wouldn't have enough casters to last as I only had a pint! I had a large tin of hemp and believing there were better roach to be had amongst the tiny fish I began feeding more hemp than casters. It seemed you would get a run of fish before things slowed down and I had to add a bit more worm & casters and give it a rest. The first time I tried the 10mt line I had two 6oz skimmers and 8oz hybrid but again it seemed to dry up, I keep adding a small balls of micros on this line every 20mins to try and keep them interested without drawing the attention of the blips". Time seemed to whizz buy and before I new it we only had just over 2 hours left, I thought I might have around 12b in the net but buy switching between the two lines I was able to nick the odd fish mainly being roach on the shorter line to 8oz. I did add another 1lb tench and a couple of bonus crucian carp of similar size all taken on the shorter line on double or single caster, With 45mins to go I hooked a rather large carp which tore off across the lake and disaster struck and not only did it take my rig it managed to strip the whole lot of my yellow hydro elastic!" Owe well' I new I couldn't go through a day without some mishap could I..."

I decided to make do with the heavier rig on both lines which turned out to be my downfall as the bites were a lot harder to hit as I felt they were ejecting the bait when feeling the rig, I did add a few more chunky roach but it wasn't as quick as the lighter rig for sure and by the end of the match I thought I might have around 18lb, When the scales arrived 12b odd was winning my section before I went top with 22lb odd so the roach were chunky enough to be good weight builders', It turned out live in resident Steve (Peanut) Howell managed his usual Lucky" charm by hooking and landing a 5lb bream with 3mins of the match remaining only to finish up with 23lb odd to pip me for the £50 section monies!" Could only happen to him"...

 My mixed bag.

Back at the results and top on the day was Ron Stark from peg 2 with a mix of roach skimmers & chub for a total of 34lb odd with worm and caster hook-baits, It was nice to be back on the bank and I had an enjoyable day just putting anything I could in the net, In hindsight I didn't have anywhere near enough casters on the day and not getting a lighter rig on at the end of the match cost me a few more fish I'm sure but never the less I had a nice days fishing. A trip back down to Summerhayes next Saturday for a charity match so a good turnout expected.

Full results -

1st Ron Stark (Weston Angling) peg 2 Mainlake, 34lb 4oz.

2nd Mark Thorn (Weston) peg 15 Mainlake, 24lb 4oz.

3rd Steve Howell (Shiplate) peg 11 Mainlake, 23lb 12oz.

4th Steve Foracre (Sedges) peg 6 Mainlake, 23lb 4oz.

5th Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 9 Mainlake, 22lb 2oz

6th Titch Williams (Drennan Thyers) peg 13 Mainlake, 20lb 11oz.