Shiplate Farm (Rob Downton Open) Hawthorns & Westpool.

Another chance to fish on my doorstep today with & invite to fish Rob Downton's latest open match on both the canal lakes & good turnout with twenty odd fishing so  we would be spread over both lakes with a pay-out for the top two & top silvers on each lake. I didn't mind which lake I was on today as I felt their would be a few fish caught off each, Into the draw & I didn't have a far walk as ended up on peg 4 of Hawthorns for company I had Manchester's finest cross dresser' Old bod George on peg 2 & Yet again Venue Resident Steve (Peanut) Howell on peg 5 who also had an empty peg to his right, He was on this lake last week, & the week before that & the week before that so should have things sorted!? but we still had the normal nugget". It was a nice distance of just over 13mts where I had so bull-rushes for cover off the far bank so first up was a 0.1g rig on 0.15-0.13 to fish as tight to the bank I could get in 18 inches of water, A couple of feet of the bank I had just over 3ft of water so set up a 0.2g rig on 0.13-0.11 & an 18 F1 pellet hook, The margins on this lake are deep at just over 4ft so set up a rig to fish on the deck one side over potted bait & I would loose feed by hand down the other side using my rigs from across to try & catch In the upper layers of water, I did make a silvers rig to fish down the track for skimmers over chopped worm & casters but wouldn't feed here to start with.

On the all in I fed a few cubes of meat down to my right & some corn down my left, I planned to start the day in the shallower water across but somehow it ended up in a birds nest around the pole tip' Great start then" I soon had another assembled so went tight across with dead maggot on the hook & began to ping hard 4mm pellet over the top with the catty, It took me all of five minutes to get my first bite from a 4lb carp followed by another 3lb fish soon after, It got a bit awkward for a while when the wind picked up blowing any lose bits floating around to blow into the bank, I missed a couple more bites but had also been pinging a few 4mm's further along the bank in more open water so decided to give it a try here, First dob-in I dropped it on the back of a fish which put pay to this line for a while' I kept switching between the two far lines tighter to the bank & managed two more fish to 5lb from the swim with more cover which seemed to be doing ok as I hadn't heard much splashing & Peanut was yet to catch.

A couple more missed bites on maggot saw me switch to banded pellet of the hook but for some reason couldn't get any indications on it even when fishing it off the deck, I had chose to do away with targeting silvers so started to feed the odd cubes of meat down the track, I had a quick look down the edge to my left on the deck but with no early signs decided to try my shallow rig to the far bank down the right margin with a cube of meat on the hook, I was just about to give up when after lifting & dropping the rig it shot under & I had a decent fish on' which turned out to be around 6lb. I gave it another quick try but with nothing else went back to the far shallower water this time with meat on the hook. I thought I had sussed it when it shot straight under & I had a carp pushing 8lb' but nothing followed & I couldn't get a bite off the other long line to the barer bank, I had a look down the track which resulted in one small skimmer & down the edge with the shallow rig I hooked & lost another fish for some unknown reason' We were halfway through the day when it decided after trying the deck rig down the edge again without a sign to cup a larger amount of meat & corn here to try & pin some fish to the deck later in the day, The time I was on my other lines the ducks had trashed the far shallow line pulling all the foliage from the bank', I had a couple more missed bites but it was awkward to get the rig closer in, I tried again shallower with pellet on the hook & although when I fed their appeared to be fish present they were proving hard to hook & started to spook, It was time to try off the island with the deeper rig this time with a 4mm expander on the hook.

It only just had time to settle before I was in & took my time to land another 7lb fish, back out & I had another 3lb fish before a couple more small silvers, I spent the last 90mins switching down my edge shallow which produced one more, My deep edge produced two more decent fish on the deck with meat on the hook, And I just started to catch a few late in the deeper water across before I lost one at the net then next put-in had a right beast surface twice before its last gasp get away saw it snag me in the tree roots loosing the fish & totally smashing the rig"!

I had a quick try again down both edges but time was up, I hadn't heard much caught below me but had heard peanut catch a few from his margins later in the day but we had no idea what had been caught at the other end of the lake but rumour had it Andy France was admitting to 50lb, Peanut & myself had offered to do the weigh-in before the start so started at the far end with Andy, His estimate was a little off as after a few weighs totalled just over 80lb catching on hard pellet to the far bank hay bale which was in his peg, The weights below this were a little lower with a few not choosing to weigh, Back at Peanuts peg & his 7lb off silvers added to his later carp totalled 41lb odd I had joked on only having four carp but new I had a bit more than Steve ending up with 56lb odd. This proved to be enough for second on the lake behind Andy so well done to him, I picked up £40 so more than paid for the day, Glynn Wickham won the silvers on are lake with 7lb 11oz which was his first visit to the venue & over on Westpool Russ Pecker lead the way with 66lb odd ahead of Jonny Page with 58lb & Nigel Wickham winning the silvers with 11lb odd, Quite an enjoyable day really, Odd fish caught by rotating lines which is an enjoyable way of fishing for me. Off to the Sedges Fishery next Saturday for the first round of the Guru Backed series of six matches all held on Tile Lake, I haven't fished here since last summer so should be interesting' but one things for sure, No method feeder for me"!

Full results -

1st Andy France (Cadbury Angling) peg 15 Hawthorns, 80lb 3oz.

2nd Russ Pecker (Thatchers Tackle) peg 6 Westpool, 66lb 8oz.

3rd Jonny Page (Drennan Thyers) peg 12 Westpool, 58lb 8oz.

4th Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 4 Hawthorns, 56lb 4oz.

Silvers -  1st Nigel Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 4 westpool, 11lb.