Shiplate Farm (Thursday Costcutter) Main Lake.

With the venue on my doorstep I decided to book in this morning with Gabriel Skarba forgetting they now run a costcutter every other Thursday, The forecast was for an overcast day with patchy light rain so it looked spot-on with the lake quite coloured, fellow blogger Tony Rixon was also fishing today trying his best to give Me some banter' but all in good faith & its good to have a bit of a crack".

I didn't really mind where I would draw as we would be spread around the lake although hot pegs 1 & 15 were in so either of them would be my first choice, Are you sitting down? I only went & drew peg 15! Its a miracle" I've only ever draw this on one occasion & that day I went walk about for 4hrs as my swim was coated in ice', No chance of that today so I was swiftly around to my peg.

The problem here is you have so many options' That makes a pleasant change", I didn't want to complicate things & with signs of fish in the upper layers this would be my main line of attack in the open water at 14mts, I set up a 0.3g dibber style float on a longer length of 0.17-0.15 & an 18 PR36 hook, A 0.3g AS4 on 3ft of 0.17 again to the same hooklength/hook, A 0.3g Hi Vis bristle float again on the same line with an 16 PR 478 to fish at on the deck at the same distance, Finally I made up a 0.2g Hand made float on 0.19-0.17 to fish down my inside edge at 7mts either side in just over 3ft of water which I would feed differently, Owe & I did get the pellet waggler out the bag if things didn't go to plan".

I started the day by potting in a good helping of hard 6mm pellets at 14mts in the open water, Feed a pot of hemp & some meat down to my right & just a palmful of 8mm's down to my left, As normal the fish which had been mulling around before the start seemed to have disappeared (why does this always happen"?) which was a shame as I fancied mugging a few to start with, I decided to start on the longer shallow rig with a banded 6mm pellet in the hair slapping the rig & feeding a few 6mms with the catty, It was a good start as I had a 5lb fish after five minute of starting, I kept at it & after 45mins I was up to four carp to 7lb all on 6mm around 18inches deep, One slight problem though, I hadn't been checking my sections properly as I was having to break down at half the length of the pole with the lake behind me, I hooked my fifth fish just approaching the hour mark & when shipping back I noticed things go slack, looking up I realised the top 5 had parted company with me and was now at a good rate of knots heading towards the end bank about 30mts away! FFS " Why me.. As I pondered what to do I now realised it had done an about turn heading toward the chap on peg 1 filling up with water in the process' I had no choice if I was going to retrieve it I had to get in! I kept my eye on it whilst struggling to strip from my bib & brace & boots, stripping to my freshly ironed boxers & stumbling over my keepnets I was soon into a steady breast stroke" I was praying as got to within a couple of feet it wasn't going to bolt off but luckily I got it, swimming back with it I was doing my best not to disturb my swim to much but I think it might of been a bit late for that"? I managed to clamber out & ended up netting another 5lb fish & yes after all that it was going in the net", I had just slipped it in when it decided to start raining so their I was sat in just my kacks' It could only get better". I got up to take them off and dry myself with the towel I always carry' trying to be discreet & out the way of the view from the house I forgot about standing on the stones & was doing my best to hide what was left of my modesty whilst seemingly doing a dance" In between all this I was trying to ping a few pellets out to try & keep some interested? great fun with just one leg on your joggers".

Eventually it was time to get going again but I had wasted 30mins aswell as trashing my rig so switched to the rig on the shorter line, It had appeared they had gone as I was struggling to put anything in the net just adding a few small fish in the next 45mins & a couple of 1lb skimmers, I tried 8mm banded on the hook but that didn't help. I fed another half pot of 6mms before having a look down my edge swims, I had nothing over the meat line to my right but had a carp off the left hand swim right away, Shame it was only 1lb' but that was it, back on the 14mt swim this time with the depth rig & 8mm pellet I was soon into a run of fish, Mainly skimmers on average a 1lb each as well as a 2lb tench, they weren't my target fish but with a silvers pool up for grabs they were welcome. A couple of small stocky carp & I new I had to try something else as the carp seemed to have moved away from here, It was a bit awkward but I re-plummed a new line at 14mts down my left hand side, it went into a bay area I couldn't see from where I was sitting but my new line was a couple of metres off the bank which I could just see peering over my knees, I fed a handful of hard 6's & 8's & had another quick look on the short margins but they didn't produce as yet but I kept topping them up.

It was time to try the new line again with a hard 8mm in the band, I had a 3lb fish soon followed a 6lb fish so it looked like they were happy to sit that much further along the near bank, I re-fed the same & had another go with the deck rig at 14mts but apart from one missed bite this seemed to be dying, I had noticed a few fish break the surface where I had fed the new longer line down the edge so went in with the shallow rig set around a foot deep, After a couple of slaps the elastic was soon out, I had to pull a bit though to stop them getting into the corner but did manage to land it being around 8lb, This I how I spend most of the last 90mins switching between the shallow & deck rig down the long edge line as well as trying the other shorter lines. With a hour remaining I decided to feed two large pots of micro pellet & a half pot of 8mm on the short left hand swim in the hope of dragging a few fish a bit closer in the dying stages, I managed a couple more on the long margin & a couple again on the shallow rig before finally catching three fish off the short left hand swim, I had just one bite over the hemp/meat line with 10mins to go but managed to prick it & that was it. I had seen Tony catching well in the first few hours & when the scales arrived I was told he was admitting to 150lb plus, I new I didn't have that much guessing my carp would go around 100lb & I wasn't far off with 108lb odd to go with my 16lb of silvers giving me a total of 124lb odd , Tony wasn't far off his guess finishing the day with 162lb odd to easily take the win catching the bulk of his fish shallow in the first 4hrs & Martin Lenahan finishing in 2nd spot with 131lb from peg 3 pushing me into third but at least I had a partly enjoyable day" as well as picking up £13 so I got my money back & a little'. Top silvers went to Mike Owens with 20lb odd so a bit more time on the long depth rig may have seen me take it but I went all out for the win from that peg as I'm sure I wont see it again for a few seasons" A really enjoyable day working a few swims for the odd fish. sorry about no pics as I left the camera in the van door & it was a bit of a hike' to go get it before the start.

Full result - 

1st Tony Rixon (Mosella/Veals) peg 6, 162lb 12oz.

2nd Martin Lenahan (Bristol PSV) peg 3, 131lb.

3rd Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 15, 124lb 4oz.

Silvers - 1st Mike Owens (Sensas Thyers) peg 11, 20lb 12oz.