Shiplate Farm (Hawthorns Lake).

After venturing to the venue yesterday to have a few hours fishing on the main lake where I fished the waggler & banded pellet to take 20lb odd of skimmers & some carp I was back for the latest open on the hawthorns lake, It was still blowing a gale as I expect it was on most venues today but the worst of it seemed to be off are backs slightly which would help, I took a wander up the lake before the draw & the level was right up with all the rain we had through the week, I expected it to fish a bit harder with the added water & estimated 50lb - 60lb would be a good weight, Into the draw & I fancied somewhere in the middle of the lake which seem to be the most consistent of late but it wasn't to be as I ended up on peg 14 at the top end, I drew peg 15 a couple of weeks ago & struggled for 27lb but this peg only produced 19lb & peg 13 which Mark Jones was on produced 16lb so wasn't to hopeful but you never know, Thankfully it seemed we had draw the calmer end of the lake as the wind was whipping through the lower pegs.

I planned to fish a couple of lines over towards the far side close to the bank, I had a rig to fish just off the bank in the slightly deeper water, a rig to fish of the deck either side of me in the margins where it was still over 5ft deep, I would of liked to fish further along the bank down the edge towards peg 15 but had a tree in the way so decided to have a line at 13mts in the deeper water at the bottom of the far shelf off to my right in 6ft of water. I started the day cupping in a good helping of corn on this line, Fed a few hard 6mms & a few pieces of corn on one far line against the far bank & started the day on the other far line with double maggot on the hook just cad potting a few maggots & micros over the top. After 15mis I had a feeling this was wrong as I had dropped off some blip fish & managed to lose one foul hooked carp coming back with a big scale" so I switched to the other far line starting with corn on the hook. at dead depth.

I had a bite quite quickly which I missed' More surprized than anything' then nothing so decided to start cad potting a few hard 4mms & the odd grain of corn, This seemed to work as is soon took a couple of 4lb carp before it dried up. I was going to start cad potting  a bit more but risked fish coming up in the water, I was fishing around a 1ft off the far bank in around 3ft of water so cupped in a palm full of 6mm's & half a dozen grains of corn & let it settle again, I had kept topping up the open water 13mt with corn & had been feeding the odd grain of corn down the edge on my top three to my left & a few hard 6mms to the right at the same distance, I gave these lines a quick look after 90mins or so but didn't have any early signs, I had topped the first far line with more micros & a few dead red maggot but couldn't get any carp over it' back on the other far line with corn I had a bite & another 3lb fish straight away followed by a 5lb fish soon after as I inched the rig up the shelf before it went dead again. After a couple of hours I was on 4 carp for around 17lb but mark was yet to catch.

It was time to try feeding a pinch of corn & some hard 4mm's with the cad pot as soon as I had the rig settled, After about 20mins I started to get regular indications & netted a few more fish but I to wait for the bites, As soon as I felt there wasn't fish present I topped up with a larger amount of 6mm's & half a dozen grains again, Mid match I decided to the open water 13mt line with corn on the hook, As soon as it settled I had a bite which turned out to be a 1lb skimmer then had another bite straight away being a 2lb carp then nothing' I didn't really expect this to work until later in the day but at least I had caught over it already.

I had switched to feeding just hard 4mms on the first far line but still couldn't get indications here. It seemed best to stick to the other far line just off the bank feeding tiny amounts & waiting for bites, I began to miss a few for some reason which were real fly unders! so decided to try a softer 6mm expander on the hook which got me three more fish in the next 20min before I had to top it up with a slightly bigger amount & rest it, The inside lines failed to produce bite so spent the rest of the match picking off the odd fish across & did manage a few on corn over the 13mt open water swim, Mark had a much better second half of the match where mine seemed to slow up, He took six in six bob-ins at one stage but I had noticed he had only started getting fish when he began cad potting over the top' I knew come the end of the day I still had a few more fish but didn't know how the rest of it had fished, I was first to weigh & had guessed 62lb on my clicker but was a bit out finishing with 72lb odd, Mark had 52lb but I decided to get the kit away after he weighed as the skies looked a bit iffy" Back at the results & Kurt Pinkett (wormheads) won the day from peg 1 catching shallow down the edge reed bank on maggot over maggot to finish with 82lb odd, Seems to be a hot peg since the reeds have been trimmed back but I was more than happy to finish 2nd picking up £45 & enjoyed working for the odd fish without suffering from foul hookers, The bites on the 13mt line were un-missible but it seemed to be a case of two bite then nothing before you had to re-feed a decent amount. The rain held out & the wind wasn't to bad for us so better off than a lot of venues in todays conditions know doubt".

1st Kurt Pinkett (Wormheads) peg 1, 82lb 15oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Mosella) peg 14, 72lb 10oz.

3rd Julian Pinkett (Wormheads) peg 9, 56lb 6oz.

4th Mark Jones (Shiplate) peg 13, 52lb 2oz.

Silvers

1st Glynn Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 5, 8lb 9oz.