Shiplate Farm Xmas Match (Hawthorns, Westpool & Main Lakes.

That time of year again when we all seem to come out the wood work in the chance of going home with a box of chocolates if nothing else' Glad to see the conditions were a bit milder today although it wouldn't improve water temperatures so it could be hard for some? A good turn out with 36 fishing so the match would be spread over the three lakes with payouts for each sections & silvers wise & the top three overall on the day, Obviously we all fancied pegs 1 or 15 on the main lake which are normally the hot spots but we would see' Into the draw & I was quite happy to end up on peg 15 Westpool & being the end peg did fancy to catch something at least? I drew this peg when I first fished this fishery years ago but have been nowhere near ever since so was looking forward to the day.

I looked at the clarity of the water when I arrived at the peg & with it being quite clear it looked ideal for bread fishing so that would be my main approach. I set a rig to fish tight at 14mts over being 0.2g float on 0.15-013 & a 16 808 hook where I found nearly 3ft of water, This rig would double up to also fish down my left hand edge from 10-14mts, set up A 4x12 malman on 0.15-0.11 & an 18F1 Pellet hook to fish in the deeper water at the bottom of the far shelf at 13mts if needed & a 4x12 Chanti to fish corn down the edge on the deck in 4ft of water.

I started the match feeding a small ball of G/bait & a few red maggots at 13mts at the bottom of the shelf, Fed a few Micros & dead reds of to my right at 14mts tight over, A small amount of corn down the edge at 10mts close to the bank & began the day on punched bread tight across at 14mts infront of me with the rig set to fish a few inches off the deck. I had more in the first minute than I had all day yest when I netted a 1lb plus carp, I had one slightly bigger straight after which soon saw good mate Russ Pecker follow suit next to me on peg 13, I had to weight a bit before having another fish but it was worth it as 10mins later I netted a fish near 7lb' Russ was also soon into fish but they appeared to be the smaller stamp to start with, In the first hour I reckoned on having around 21lb so was well on my way. The next hour was quite steady adding a few more to 5lb after playing around with the depth & at the halfway point I thought I had around 45lb? before I started to suffer with foul hookers & began to lose a few in the process,  The wheels began to fall of slightly & it didn't help when I saw Russ still adding fish to his nets, The wife Had got me a bargain loaf of bread which I normally use but it turned out to be stale & getting it to stay on the hook was a nightmare & at times it wouldn't even sink after shipping all the way across!.

 After wasting around 40 mins' I reverted back to fishing with the bait just touching the deck but switched to fishing double punched bread on the hook & pushed the rig tight to the bank, This seemed to work & although I had to wait for bites the fish were of good size & I seemed to be clawing back to Russ, through the day I did try down the edge on corn but didn't get a bite on it, I took three 3lb odd carp down the edge on the shallower bread rig in the space of 15mins all in different areas then nothing so spent the last 90mins switching between the edge & across which seemed best, It did slow down quite a lot in the last hour but I knew come the end it was still going to be close between Russ & Myself but I didn't know how the other lakes had faired? I was first to weigh & was surprized the net I had used in the second half of the day went 42lb odd as I had only estimated my first net would be 45lb? Nope that went 66lb odd" Lol so I finished the day with a total of 107lb odd for a really enjoyable days fishing, Onto Russ & after a few weighs he under estimated & had 5lb docked for going over in his first net but it wouldn't have made a difference as he finished with 98lb odd so a good battle between us & enjoyable (Thanks Mate") Back at the results & The Main Lake had Fished harder today with mark jones winning the lake from peg 1 with 50lb odd & On Hawthorns fancied peg 1 came out on top with 74lb odd which meant I had won the day so even better" A nice pick-up of £75 followed & Fair play to Owners Steve & Carol as after the result Steve put all are names into the bucket then drew them out ensuring everyone went home with a prize, luckily my name was draw quite early so still went home with the Jack Daniels I had my eye on"!, Lucky today to have a nice draw after yesterdays slip-up but you still gota catch um' Not really done much of this bread dobbing' so to speak but ensuring depths kept changing I kept bites coming & a cheap day at that' I'm sure if I hadn't had a mare with the drying bread I would of had even more but that was my fault & lesson learnt, Well done to all those who took part & to Steve & Carol for supplying after match rolls & mince pies all round'.

Full results -

1st Dom Sullivan (Mosella) peg 15 Westpool, 107lb 4oz.

2nd Russ Pecker (Thatchers Tackle) peg 13 Westpool, 98lb 4oz.

3rd Nigel Wickham (Summerhayes) peg 1 Hawthorns, 73lb 12oz.

4th Julian Pinkett (Wormheads) peg 11 Hawthorns, 64lb 4oz.

Silvers -

Hawthorns 1st Ray Wickham (Summerhayes) 3lb 6oz.

Main lake 1st Mark Thorn (The Sedges) 15lb 15oz.

Westpool 1st John Dursley (Enterprise Angling) 9lb 12oz.