Paul Chapman Memorial Match (Shiplate Main Lake).

I was looking forward to this match as it was in good memory of Paul who sadly died a couple of years ago of the dreaded cancer' He fished here a lot as was known by all so a good turn out today with twenty three of us fishing, Obviously we all wanted to draw pegs 1 or 15 but would decided what to fish for if I failed to draw one of these, After old timer Andy Bailey had done a speech on Paul's behalf it was time for the draw. I didn't get the hot pegs' but ended up on peg 10 the first peg over the bridge on the far bank with an island approx. 17mts away? Steve had been doing a lot of maintenance & my inside was fishable some way down back towards peg 9a on my right so straight away my thoughts were to target carp, The island turned out to be a bit further than I anticipated, I had my footplate over the edge with the legs at full depth touching the bottom, Just".. the full length of my 16mt pole, plus another 1.5mt extension, plus another mini butt section and by holding the last piece I could just get to the island", Shit...

I managed to assemble a rig being 0.3g on 0.15-0.13 & an size 16 hook to fish in just over 2ft of water, down the edge was the same set up with a lighter 0.2g rig which again was around the same depth to fish around 11mts along the bank, It looked really inviting to my left on my topkit plus two sections but unfortunately on a 1ft deep over 3ft from the bank so ruled this out so my last rig was for open water at 11mts which was around 4ft deep where I set a 4x14 malman on 0.15-0.11 & a 16 808 hook.

I had Kurt pinkett again on my left peg 11, & Gary Finders down on peg 9 but apart from Mark Wynne on 8 the only other I could see were a few in the low number on the far bank. I started the day cupping a small amount down the edge fed some micros/G.bait & 4mms at 11mts to the right & some corn at 11mts to the left, I wanted to have a quick look over & know way was I cad potting at this distance" so cupped in a few grains of corn & 6mms with a big pot & went straight over it with corn on the hook, Bingo' A carp of 2lb which felt like 20 at this distance! but soon in the net, back across I had a 2lb chub after feeding some micros again with the big pot further up the bank but it was such an effort. Well after 15mins surprize surprize the wind picked up turning me right round on my box at one point so sod this for a lark, I would switch to pinging a few hard 6mms across whilst trying my other lines. I started at 11mts with expander on the hook & had a bite as soon as it settled which result In a 1lb plus skimmer soon followed by two smaller size fish, I fed another small amount after a few more biteless minutes & it was instant again with bites, I had a good run of fish from 6oz to a 1lb & by the end of the first 90mins had around 11-12lb of silvers, I had already taken a look down the edge & on the other 11mt corn line but no early signs of carp & I had no chance at this stage to wrap myself around 18mts of pole in the wind so my mind was pretty much set on catching as many silvers as possible with the hope of some carp later in the match down the edge or across if conditions allowed.

I switched to had 4mm when I had to weight for bites and caught a few just as the rig settled but this drew the attention of a carp which came of but killed the peg dead! the skimmers were gone' I tried off and over the feed & even tried maggot on the hook but couldn't buy a bite. Back down the edge and still nothing so had to resort back to 18mts but this only produce another 1lb chub in 15mts of fighting with it'. I spend the rest of the day rotating the lines catching the odd skimmer on pellet over the pellet/G.bait line but couldn't get a bite in the same place twice, It was hard work just to add anything in the later stages of the match , I managed a 1lb skimmer across as the wind dropped at the end of the day & missed a bite & spooked a beast down the edge on corn with a massive bow wave descending across the lake in the after math but that was my only indication. I had a late run of three more skimmers on the pellet line but just one roach over the corn line all day". I had seen a few carp caught on the far bank but didn't have any idea what silvers had been caught, When the scales arrived 52lb was winning from peg 15 & top silvers was 6lb odd, I was really surprized to finish with 25lb odd of silvers, some of the skimmers must have weighed more than I thought". Back at the results & Mike Owens did go on to win the match from peg 15 & Tom downing was second with 2lb less from peg 1" It turned out my silvers was easily enough on what turned out to be a hard day for most with the resent weather changes & had the bonus of £25 from the super pool as well as £45 from the main pool which pays for the weekend again and another enjoyable day, Well done to those who turned up in his memory as their are other matches on in the area, And well done to Andy for presenting the top three with a silver dish each with Pauls name on & to Mike for winning from the hot peg" but you still gota catch um".

Results -

1st Mike Owens (Sensas 88) peg 15, 52lb 4oz.

2nd Tom Downing (Baitech) peg 1, 50lb 4oz.

3rd Russ Peck (Thatchers Tackle) peg 12, 46lb 6oz.

4th Steve Howell (Shiplate) peg 5, 46lb 4oz.

Silvers

 1st Dom Sullivan (Mosella) peg 10, 25lb 4oz.

2nd Ron Stark (Weston) peg 7, 10lb 1oz.