Shiplate Farm (Main Lake). Sunday.

Bit late with this one as I'm up at 3.30am for work most days at the moment & was shattered after yesterday (Not By Bagging") Lol, No fry-up this morning but I did make sure I ate this week' A sell out again with 20 fishing but conditions looked favourable with a slight wind blowing into the near bank, I've not seen much of this lake for a while after drawing peg 1 on my last four visits" Or should I say The Lovely Wife or Owner Carol have drawn it for me so with the wife working today it was down to Carol to do the honours again'.

It wasn't to be peg 1 this time around but peg 13a on the far bank just off the end of one of the islands but was a long chuck" Happy with the draw & a couple of weeks ago Andy France had a few here & caught some big fish down the edge so was hoping for a bit of the same? With the conditions near perfect on are side I fancied to catch a few on the long pole shallow failing this on the deck with paste" yep Paste! Don't do this often these days' so had a shallow rig for banded pellet & the rig for the deck with a size 12 hook' both to be used around 14mts, A decent rig' for down the edge in 2ft of water at 5mts between myself & Roy Ede on peg 13 but it was a bit tight sharing it' I also assembled the bomb rod & pellet wagg but decided to start the day fishing a small cage feeder with pellet & Conker on the hook (Paste moulded around pellet). I fed a good helping of 6mm pellet at 14mts then chucked the conker in the open water at around 30mts whilst pinging 6mms with the catty on the long pole line & feeding just the odd hard 8mm down my edge, I left the first cast in around 15mins without any liners so chucked slightly further towards the end of the island, Ten minutes later I had a slow pull round which kept going' I soon had a 5lb fish in the net but it came attached to some carpers' set up with a braid hooklength & a lead I would use to hold a keepnet down" What made it worse it wrapped around my small feeder & hook trashing it completely! Ho Hum another day spent tackling up hey"?? I was soon back out but nothing followed so had a quick look on the pellet wagg as a few fish seemed to be near the surface.

This didn't work' as soon as I pinged a few 8mms out the fish were gone" but I had confidence the shallow pole would be ready to plunder as I had been feeding it for an hour or so, Starting with a 6mm hair rigged hard pellet I expected indications straight away but it didn't happen I continued to ping a few & kept the slapping up" but my only sign was a 1lb skimmer'. I thought they just might be on the deck so out with paste on the hook & a bite in seconds saw another 1lb plus skimmer followed by another & another" before I started to see signs of carp nearer the surface, Back on the shallow rig I finally managed one near 7lb but that was it! What was even more frustrating was Kurt Pinkett on peg 14 had taken a couple shallow the same distance but had not fed a thing' I remember being on this swim last year & Russ peck caught shallow on peg 14 but on peg 14a Andy France & myself caught next to nothing" I went further out & to the right where I hadn't fed but still couldn't tempt any, Back on the deck I had a couple more skimmers before things went dead completely, I had a look down the edge after the first 90mins but decided to be positive after no early signs & dump potted bigger amounts of feed down the inside, With an hour to go I saw signs of fish & dropped in with a decent piece of paste, Gone!.

I just couldn't catch a carp" Roy next to me had a carp in the first ten minutes then spent the rest of the day struggling but Kurt had managed a few more late in the day, I did prick one late in the match shallow but that was it I just couldn't get a bite on any method. When the scales got to Kurt 37lb was winning before he finished with 55lb which was good on the day so well done to him, I ended with just two carp & 8lb of skimmers, Roy didn't weight & apart from John Hawkins on peg 12 who won the day with 74lb odd catching down to a tree with hard 8mm he had between himself & Glyn Wickham on peg 11 who chose to fish for silvers & won this with 31lb odd most of us struggled for fish today.

In hindsight I would of been better off fishing the wagg on the deck for silvers today as 15lb was 2nd but hindsight's a wonder thing, I just couldn't get my head around Kurt not feeding but had fish appear on & off through the match in numbers. Well done to those who managed a few & I'm back here next Sunday guesting for Shiplate V Clevedon A.A so hoping for a few next time around.

Full Results -

1st John Hawkins (Wormheads) peg 12, 74lb 14oz.

2nd Kurt Pinkett (Wormheads) peg 14, 55lb 2oz.

3rd Pete Sivell (Frys) peg 8, 40lb 5oz.

4th Alan Healey (Frys) peg 15, 36lb 13oz.

5th  Glyn Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 11, 31lb 9oz.

6th Rich Hawkins (Wormheads) peg 1, 26lb.

Silvers - 1st Glyn Wickham 31lb 9oz.