Shiplate Farm Open (Main Lake).

After a day out with the wife yesterday I decided to book in for the latest Shiplate open, No fry-up for me today with the fishery being on my doorstep, 18 of us booked-in & apart from peg 1 I was hoping for a draw on the opposite bank, Out comes 13a so I got my wishes, Peg 15 is always the hot peg but with plenty of room I had a few options, With a match behind us on westpool I didn't fancy having to break the pole down so first up was a rig to fish at 6mts with meat on the hook being a 4x14 Chanti on 0-16-0.14 & an 16 wide gape power hook.

Apart from this I had a 0.2g AS1 on 0.17-0.15 With the same hook to fish down the edge in around 10inches of water, but most of my faith would be in either the bomb or pellet waggler shallow at around 30mts. I had Russ Pecker next to me on peg 14 & Rich Hawkins on peg 13 but couldn't see either of them' On the all-in I gave it a good chuck on the bomb to land close to the island with an 8mm banded pellet on the hook looking to mug an early fish but it didn't happen, 10mins later I fed some 8mm meat & Hemp on the 6mt line & a good helping of micro's & 4mm's down the edge at 5mts to my right, back on the bomb this time casting short of the island at 30mts I began feeding hard 8mm's in two's & Three's over the top but after 40mins I still hadn't had a fish, I noticed a nice tail" appear on my edge line so quickly reeled in & went in with a good piece of paste on the hook'. To Late, It had P****D off". I kept my faith in the longer Bomb/Wagg line but I just couldn't get it to produce on either, I switched to feeding 6mm's instead of 8's but it didn't help, Halfway though & I still hadn't caught, Rich had had a couple of carp on the deck with paste further out & a fish shallow, & Russ had started to get the odd fish slapping on the long pole, I decided to get some more sections out & venture out to 13mts starting on the deck with 6mm & 8mms on the hook feeding a few 6mm's over the top, After 20mins & still nothing I was going nowhere.

I decided to try my edge rig with a banded 6mm set around a foot deep on the long pole whist pinging a few of the same over the top. Russ had managed a couple more but seemed to have ripple on the water where as it was calm in-front of Rich & Myself, I kept at it slapping the rig to induce a bite, Eventually I had a bit of ripple which saw me connect with my first carp which turned out to be over 6lb, I added another 15mins later before a 10lb fish soon after then the ripple was gone again & so did the fish' I was back to trying my other swims but I couldn't get a bite off any of them. Back on the long pole I managed a smaller fish after another 15mins but it was few & far between, Russ was still netting a few shallow & Lewis Jones On peg 1 seemed to be catching a few fish, I just couldn't get it to happen, I fully expected my short meat line to produce late in the day but I never so much as had a bite off it" I managed one more on the long pole shallow but after 30 bite less minutes slapping" I decided to fish the bomb over the top & on the longer line I had been feeding all day'. Needless to say I added nothing but as soon as I put my shallow rig back on the winder the breeze picked up" I brought some back shallow as Rich added two late fish on the long pole shallow & Russ had had a good last few hours again shallow on the long pole.

When the scales arrived Russ Plonked 89lb odd on the scales to batter us around him' I finished with five carp for 41lb & Rich finished the day with 43lb, The best place to be turned out to be in the early numbers as Ray Bass who drew peg 1a which he didn't really fancy with Lewis next to him on peg 1 ended up having a great day catching next to the island at 16mts on meat or pellet in 10'inches of water & later on the bomb & meat when the wind made it awkward to finish the day with 123lb to take the win over Lewis who pushed him close with 118lb odd, The lake fished hard for the silvers today with Nigel Evens taking top weight with 12lb odd but their appeared to be a few in the margins which seemed more intent in spawning". Quite a hard day & no doubt if I had fished the long pole slapping" all day I would of possibly added a few more but it was a last resort for me as its not really my cup of tea". Still it was nice to be in the sun again, Three nice Sundays in a row now' It Cant Last! Busy weekend next week with Lewis & myself back at woodlands for another crack at Fisho" before I'm back to the Sedges for the second round of the short pole series, Cant do any worse than the first round??.

Full Results -

1st Ray Bass (Cheddar A.A) peg 1a, 123lb.

2nd Lewis Jones (Drennan Thyers) peg 1, 118lb 9oz.

3rd Russ Pecker (Thatchers Tackle) peg 14, 89lb 14oz.

4th Nigel Webber (Wormheads) peg 8, 76lb 5oz.

5th Jonny Page (Thyers Tackle) peg 9a, 46lb 4oz.

6th Jim Doughty (Weston Angling) peg 15, 45lb 4oz.

Silvers - Nigel Webber, Peg 8, 12lb 3oz.