Shiplate Farm Open (Main Lake).

After missing a day on the bank yesterday due to being on a work course which I didn't make but that was a different story (Alcoholic poisoning') I was looking forward to returning to Shiplate for the latest open on the main lake, No stopping for a breakfast today with the venue two minutes from my home so the wife did us some nice bacon sarnies before hand, Not a bad turn-out with Fifteen booked in but although the venue was ice free this morning it was still very cold so I expected things to be quite hard for most, As the wife was dropping me off I decided to let her have a go at drawing for me as my hand is never the best", She jumped in halfway through hoping she would have the magic hand', I was quite happy to end up in peg 1, out of the wind with it off my left hand shoulder & a peg which can throw up a few fish so good on her', This peg has loads of options with an island chuck, As well as plenty of open water & a bay area off to my right which used to produce when the old jetty was their.

 

 

First up was the bomb rod to fish off the point of the island & down into the bay, Next up was a waggler to fish the open water around 25mts towards the pegs on the opposite bank, A silvers rig to fish two lines at 14mts fed differently, A rig to dob bread up my left hand bank as it had a bit of cover & finally a rig to fish off the point on my right in just over 3ft of water, I started the day feeding three balls of G/Bait with pinkies & a few dead reds on one 14mt line & a ball of micros & a few hard 4mm's on the 14mt line to my right, I fed a few 4mm's off the point down my right edge & started the day off the point of the island with bread on the bomb, I gave it twenty minutes before trying down in the bay to my right but after another twenty minutes I hadn't had so much as a liner, I decided to have a go up my left edge dobbing bread as I had some cover here, I started at 13mts working my way along the bank to 16mts but still nothing, I had been feeding hard 4mm's with the catty in the open water & decided to give this a try with banded 6mm pellet on the hook,

I missed a bite straight away but after another 20mins nothing followed despite missing another bite.

Matt Culpin had netted a carp on peg 14b on the opposite side on the bomb & Mark Thorne on peg 15 had a decent fish on his pole line, I had seen a couple of early fish caught on peg 4 but not much else, It was time to have a go on the silvers lines, I started over the G/bait with pinkie on the hook & bumped a small fish straight away the nothing, I tried the other ine with a 4mm expander on the hook but still no indications, Buy this time we were nearly two hours into the match & I still hadn't caught, back on the waggler in the open water saw me miss another bite the I foul hooked a carp which shed the hook as soon as it was close to me' but again nothing followed, I was really struggling to make anything work, back on the bomb for twenty minutes down to my right & off the point but still not as much as a liner, The Silvers line finally produced three small roach in the space of  ten minutes so basically these lines were scraped as I didn't feel they would produce enough to get anywhere near the silvers frame, Things weren't going to plan & we were already halfway through the five hours, I had to try something else so began to ping just the odd hard 6mm pellet into the bay to my right, I missed another bite in the open water on the waggler before shallowing the rig to around 3ft deep & switched to fishing into the bay with a bunch of dead red maggots on the hook,

I had only been in the water a minute or so when Jonny page walked around from peg three to see how I was getting on, I joked I had around 45lb' At his point the float shot under & a decent carp was attached, It was on until it tried to get right around the point to my right back around to the odd jetty area, I could feel the line cutting into the back & eventually my 0.13 hooklenght cut threw' I stepped up to 0.15 sticking to an 18 PR36 hook & a bunch of maggots, I soon hook another after pinging a few hard 6mm's but this time I ended up with a giant scale" Altering the depth slightly I finally had an 6lb fish in the mouth which was safely netted, Phew", I foul hooked another 10mins later but soon parted company then all signs of fish seemed to have disappeared.

I expected the fish had backed off around into the bay where I couldn't get to but by continuing to ping just the odd 6mm in hopefully I would draw the odd fish back out, It did work after a while when I netted a decent double figure fish before another one snapped me off the point again, I stepped up to an 0.17 bottom but couldn't get any indications so was soon back on 0.15. I managed another pup around 3lb, Their didn't appear to be much going on although Matt on 14b had netted a couple more, By now Steve Peanut Howell had joined me who had drawn peg 7 but was still fishless, I hooked & lost another, again foul hooked, So had to keep tweaking the depth, The last hour was really hard, the sun had now come out fully which seemed to make a difference, I did manage one more & lost two more round the point but once they were around it there wasn't much I could do about it as I was giving them all I could' I was a bit disappointed as I finished the day with four carp losing six' & I really thought I should of tried it earlier in the day as the peg was worth a few more in the net & it would make the difference come the weigh-in. Being on peg one I was the last to weigh, My four carp & a few blips went 31lb odd which I didn't now until after was thankfully enough to win the day just ahead of matt with 27lb odd so a good result come the end picking up £50 in the process along with the side bets of a quid off Jonny Page & resident Peanut Howell who still managed to blank" Lol,

It made a nice change today, Lots of options but eventually found a few fish to get a result. Back to Viaduct next Sunday for the second round of the teams of five with me being on Cary Lake, Might just have to take the lovely wife to do are team draw as she didn't do bad today".

Full results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 1, 31lb 4oz.

2nd Matt Culpin (Shiplate Farm) peg 14b, 27lb 9oz.

3rd Golly Jones (Weston) peg 5, 16lb 6oz.

Silvers -

1st Julian Pinkett (Wormheads) peg 14, 11lb 9oz.

2nd Jonny Page (Drennan Thyers) peg 3, 11lb 1oz.

Just a few forth coming events to mention, Saturday March 11th is Donald Sutherand's memorial match at Viaduct Fishery (Silvers only) Lakes decided on attendance but I expect it to be a good turn-out & Shiplate Farm is holding a three day festival on the bank holiday at the end of August, The Saturday & Sunday being the qualifiers with the top anglers fishing the main lake on the Monday for a top prize of £1000. See poster attached & contact Viaduct fishery for Donald's match & further details, & John Hawkins Who is running the festival at Shiplate Farm who's number is found at the bottom of the poster.