Shiplate Farm Open (Westpool)

I had a few people ask if anything was on Xmas eve so ran an open on Wespool lake, It turned out their was only seven of us due to most having commitments for the festive season, I decided to space us all out which meant putting one swim in what I still call the narrows but to be honest I was still hoping to avoid it'

I soon got the draw underway allowing someone to take one off the table for me, Yep it had to happen' Peg 3..!"

Owe well seems I'm back on my normal home on this lake having drawn it countless times, I did ok off it a while back catching a lot of the newer stocked smaller carp but it was a darn sight colder now & Steve peanut Howell struggled of it in last weeks Xmas match so wasn't to optimistic again' I wont bore you with the details but started the day dobbing bread along the far bank but after 20mins all I had were two blip roach & a pasty carp hooked in the top fin" Already I could see some splashing further down on the more fancied area so made an attempt to switch to catching some silvers in the hope of a pick-up, I spent the day fishing casters short & fed two lines at 13mts left & right with G/bait & Pinkee & the other with G/bait & Casters, I didn't have a fish off the 13mt caster line back towards peg 1 but did end up catching a few 8-10oz skimmers on pinkee of the other 13mt line but they were few & far between & I ended up catching more pasty carp here than silvers" I did have a few roach short on the same rig but would of been better of with a lighter rig but to be honest I was always playing catch up with Mark Thorn on peg 6 in the wider water would was also targeting silvers. Come the end I called it a day with 30mins to go ready in plenty of time to do the weigh-in. The day was won by Mark Jones who just so happened to have the last peg on the table which turned out to be peg 15" with 64lb & John Page close by on peg 12 was 2nd with 58lb, Mark Thorn went on to win the silvers with 12lb odd & I did end up weighing for the sake of it but only had 12lb of carp & 8lb odd of silvers but at least I had mustered a few bites for this time of the year, Well that's it as far as matches go this side of Christmas but my next port of call is another open I'm running on the main lake of this fishery this coming Weds which is a silvers only affair which is limited to sixteen of us to hopefully give us all a bit of room & a few bites".

Overall Results -

1st Mark Thorn (Shiplate Farm) peg 15, 64lb 4oz.

2nd John Page (Thyers Tackle) peg 12, 58lb 4oz.

Silvers -

1st Mark Thorn (The Sedges) peg 6, 12lb 2oz.