Shipate Farm (Main Lake) Silvers Only.

Another match I was running over the festive period only this time it was a silvers only affair, We had had a torrent of rain in the last 24hrs & owner Steve informed me that so much water had gone into the lakes some pegs had water pushing up over the top so when I had a look at a few pegs in the lower numbers I decided to give the anglers the option of moving a swim to the A'peg numbers, Their were thirteen of us fishing as we had one pull out with the lurgy last night & Terry Taylor couldn't get his car started this morning so had to give it a miss, I pegged a section of six on the near bank & the remaining section on the far bank which was always going to be more favourable in the conditions as there was quite a stiff breeze from the north west pushing down the lake.

Into the draw & thankfully I had drawn the far side peg 11, Now Steve had warned me their may be some access water in pegs 10 or 11 but I hadn't bothered to check before the start, I wasn't quite expecting to see my swim totally joining up with Westpool Lake behind me though!" Lol, I had a small area where I could assemble my kit before paddling in on my heels as I only had hiking boots on & was doing my best to avoid a boot full of water".

Plumbing up I had around 5ft of water at 13mts so set up two 4x14 Wire wonder floats on 0.13-0.10 line, One with an 18 F1 Pellet hook to fish on a double bulk set up & the other with an 18PR 412 hook with a small bulk & a few droppers to fish near to dead depth, apart from this all I set up was a 4x12 Chanti on a strung out rig to fish around 6mts over loose fed casters & a small groundbait feeder to fish off the end of the island in the deeper water. For company I had Gordon (Golly) Jones on peg 10 who had some water to contend with but at least he had welly's, & Julian Pinkett on peg 12 but that's the only ones I could see on are bank but I did pity those opposite us as it looked cold in the wind'. I started the day feeding a positive line to the left at 13mts with four balls of G/Bait containing some casters & dead red maggot, Fed One Ball With Pinkees the same distance infront of me & a good helping of damp micros to my right again at 13mts.

I decided to start on the feeder with dead reds on the hook but nothing in the mix to start with, I was a bit surprized to have a bite after five minutes & netted a 5oz skimmer but it was a bit of a false dawn as I gave it another 40mins managing just one small roach, It was time to try the pole lines so I started on the negative line with dead pinkee on the hook & managed a couple of blip roach before switching to caster on the hook, This got me a better 3oz roach & a 5oz skimmer before bumping a fish which seemed to kill it dead, I had a look on the positive line for 20mins but never had an indication despite trying different baits on the hook, I had a look on 4mm expander over the micro fed line but not a sniff here either. Back on the negative fed line & I managed a few more small roach but couldn't temp any skimmers, I fed another ball & had another look on the feeder which resulted in another 5oz skimmer quite quickly the nothing again.

This was hard going but I couldn't see anybody catching much, I decided to ditch feeding micros & Instead fed a ball of G/Bait containing a good amount of dead red maggots on the same line, I let it settle then trying the negative line again which produced a couple of small skimmers but they wouldn't settle in the swim, The positive line was still to produce anything but when I went back over the dead maggot fed line with single maggot on the hook I did begin to catch small roach quite regular, They were only small but at least something was going in the net, After a few minutes it went a bit quite before I bumped a better fish then I couldn't get a bit again' I fed another ball of the same & Tried the other lines but they just didn't produce, I spent the rest of the day mainly on the maggot line adding odd small roach but never had a fish off the positive fed line all match' I did keep trying the feeder which did produce a couple more small skimmers but I really had to wait for indications, The pole lines completely died come the end so I decided to fish the feeder for the last 30mins of the match, I thought I had made the right choice after netting a 12oz fish with 20mins to go but only had one small roach after a few minutes from the end, Golly had been catching quite well in the last few hours on his pole lines mainly small roach but he also netted a couple of skimmers so I thought it would be close, He was admitting to 6b but I didn't think I had that much? Thankfully Owner Steve & his side kick Roy turned up at the end to do the scales for me which would be a big help after having to wade my kit back to the dry bit! When they arrived the top weight was 10lb odd from Mark Jones on peg 14 which was good on the day considering all the extra water in the lake, Julian next to me had 4lb 15oz before my fish went 6lb 3oz, Onto Golly & it was close as he ended up with 5lb odd but I didn't know what had been caught on the opposite bank?.

Back at the hut for a welcome cuppa before the results it turned out Marks weight of 10lb odd was enough to take the win on a hard day so well done to him, Next up was Glyn Wickham from end peg 15 with 8lb odd & I had a result as my weight was enough for third on the day picking up £35 along the way, Even though the lake had fished well below par due to the conditions it turned out the weights were very close come the end & just odd fish made all the difference, It was hard work & surprized I didn't catch late in the day on the positive fed pole line but that's fishing' got a couple more matches planned before we see in the new year when I will also get around to doing the end of year summery.

Full results -

1st Mark Jones (Shiplate Farm) peg 14, 10lb 6oz.

2nd Glyn Wickham (Summerhayes) Peg 14, 8lb 2oz.

3rd Dom Sullivan (Mosella) peg 11, 6lb 3oz.

4th Steve Jackson (Garbolino) peg 4a , 5lb 14oz.

5th Golly Jones (Shiplate Farm) peg 10, 5lb 9oz.