Shiplate Farm Mini Series Round 4, (Hawthorns).

firstly I was expecting to work yesterday but it all changed at the last minute, I made a call to old timer Terry Taylor who was keen to improve his silvers catches on the Main Lake & arranged for him to come with me whilst I had a pleasure session on their, I fed three lines at 13mts, One positive with G/bait, One with Micros & the other with a small ball of bait, I was going to fish the waggler but the light was awkward so started over the small fed line with maggot on the hook, I caught around 4lb of small fish in the first hour before feeding another small amount, & catching a few more smaller skimmers. It took a couple of hours for the other lines to get going but in the end I started catching some bigger skimmers & had a decent Crucian & tench in the mix, I fished for around five hours & was pleased to end up with around 40lb of silvers for a nice days fishing & I'm sure Terry learnt a lot in the process so hopefully it shows when he's next on the lake.

Back to today & after last weeks match on here I fancied drawing either in the middle of the lake or fancied peg 1 which always seems to throw up fish, It wasn't to be though as this went to Rich Hawkins who I was tying at the top of the league with & when I picked out peg 13 I had a gut feeling we were going to have a hard day again up this far end, I had Mark Jones on peg 12 & Julian Pinkett on end peg 15, We all had an empty peg beside us but unfortunately couldn't go much towards peg 14 as the aerator rope went from bank to bank" I had a rig to fish tight across in just over 3ft of water, A rig to fish in 6ft of water at 13mts against the rope which would double up to fish infront the aerator at 10mts, A 0.2g rig to dob bread along the far bank & finally a 4x12 chanti to fish down both edges to my left on my topkit plus two sections & the same off the bank to my right at 5mts just short of the rope. They started by dobbing either side of me but I started on the deck tight over at 14mts with 4mm expander just hoping to put something in the net. Not a sniff' I switched to maggot but still nothing, it was my turn to try & locate so fish dobbing bread along the far bank, I stuck with this for the first hour changing depths & areas but still couldn't by a bite, Mark had a small roach & skimmer But I couldn't see how Julian was getting on? This was grim" I tried the 13mt corn line & infront the aerator but still nothing, After two hours I was still bite less" The lovely wife turned up with a coffee bless her which was very welcome at this stage, I had been feeding small amounts of corn down each edge & decided I had to give it a go, I was just about to give up after 20mins when it shot under' At last after 2hrs & 25mins I had a fish on which turned out to be around 4lb. Nothing followed so it was back to searching around the peg to try & induce a bite, I would like to say it got better as the day went on but it didn't happen, I had one bite across on maggot which I missed & I put that down to a small fish, Pulled out of a decent fish down the edge but did manage two more carp down the edge to my right on corn one around 2lb & a better 6lb fish with ten minutes to go'.

Julian was first to weigh & finished with 11lb odd, My three fish went 13lb odd & Mark finished the day with 10lb so yep it was hard up here, Further down Kurt Pinkett won the section with 32lb but thankfully I picked up second & £30 along the way, It was to close to call in the other section & Rich Hawkins drew with Steve (Peanut) Howell off the next peg both finishing the day with 38lb 14oz, With one round to go next week on the main lake its still close between Rich & myself with just one point between us so much will depend on the draw?, A real gruller today but it happens but at least I came away with a result points wise & all to play for.

Full results -

1st Steve Howell (Shiplate) peg 3, 38lb 14oz.

1st Rich Hawkins (Wormheads) peg 1, 38lb 14oz.

3rd Kurt Pinkett (Wormheads) peg 10, 32lb 4oz.

4th John Hawkins (Wormheads) peg 4, 24lb 12oz.

League -

1st Rich Hawkins 18pts,

2nd Dom Sullivan 17pts,

3rd Julian Pinkett 15pts.