Johno's Knock-up Shiplate (Squirl Pool).

These little knock-ups have rolled on a bit this year, Just a fun day out with lots of banter between a few mates but still serious enough to try & get a few quid back' As normal Johno Jones left it down to me to sort the pegging ect so with the forecast of rain I pegged us all on the straight with the wind off are backs, Obviously either end peg would be a bonus' Good mate & teen age drinking buddy Darren Big Bird did turn up after dropping out yesterday & I bet he was glad he did as he drew end peg 2 with peg 3 being empty with one no show, Surprize Surprize Resident Peanut Howell drew the other end peg 10 (He's Always On an end peg!) This lad should seriously enter some big matches with the way he draws" Owe I forgot, You don't drive so perhaps not..

Just two rigs assembled today, One for fishing across to the far side at 11mts a couple of feet off the far side which is quite uneven but I found a couple of flattish areas around 3ft deep being an 4x10 F1 pellet float on 0.15-0.11 & an 16 F1 pellet hook, The other being a slightly bigger 4x12 rig on the same line/hook to fish at 8mts down the track in 4ft or so of water.

I began the day feeding some groundbait & hard 4mms down the track feed and area to the right across with a few hard 4mms & a small nugget of groundbait & started infront of me with 4mm expander over cad potted micros & a few 4mms, Most of the fish in this lake are small carp to a 1lb or so & a mix of small goldfish & Fantails although their are so bonus fish over 5lb if your lucky enough to get them!. I soon started to get a few indications But only from tiny carp & a few fairground fish' Johno next me had started short but hadn't caught but peanut on the other hand had started ok with a few carp to 2lb. I was catching odd fish but nothing of any size, from those I could see below me most were struggling after the first hour, After around 90mins Peanut made it worse, Not only was he catching something most put-ins across after losing a decent fish in some snag down his edge he went straight back out & landed a 5lb fish followed by a 3lb fish the next dob-in" It was a case of plugging away hoping things would get better.

Finally I had a fish around 3lb but most fish were only small, By the halfway point I had caught fish on & off but new I was around 15-20lb behind peanut & I had heard Birdy was doing ok on the other end, I felt fish were coming into the peg when I fed a few pellets but didn't really want much feed, I decided to switch to feeding just small nuggets of wetted down G/bait, This seemed to work as going into the last couple of hours I began to get a lot more indications, I started to get a run of carp with a few over the 1lb mark & even the odd fish to 2lb but was having a good run of the small samples in between, Thankfully peanuts peg had slowed right down until out of the blue he catches another fish around 3lb".

Going into the last hour I was really motoring feeding every put-in with nuggets & topping up with a few pellets when things slowed up, The last 15mins things slowed up but I did add a couple of fish to 2lb late in the day before the all-out.

It was going to be a closer call than it looked between us come the end of the day but I still though peanut had done enough. He was first to weigh & had 19lb of bits in his first net before adding 27lb of better stamp fish for 47lb odd, I thought they would swing it in his favour, I weighted in what I had caught in the last two hours first which went 24lb odd which I was surprised with before my second net went 26lb odd finishing the day with 51lb so that was a good battle between us'. Johno struggled for 7lb odd but still bet his buddy mick so loads of banter their, The next best weight was Birdy on the end with 33lb so in the end it turned out in my favour picking up £50 along the way' Back tomorrow for the mini series on the main lake but looking at the forecast I expect things to be harder?

Results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Mosella) peg 9, 51lb 1oz.

2nd Steve Peanut Howell, (Shiplate) peg 10, 47lb 4oz.

3rd Darren Bigbird Greenwood (Spandex) peg 2, 33lb 12oz.

4th Andy Light (Shipate) peg 5, 22lb 5oz.