Shiplate Farm Open (Hawthorns & Westpool Lakes)

With the Wife off today we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the wooden Spoon together before she dropped me up the fishery, It was still rather chilly with a north easterly win blowing up both the canal lakes we would be using today, A slight difference as far as the payouts went, Twenty of us fishing with ten on each lake, A little more to enter today at £25 but Owners Steve & Carol would be paying out the top winner on each lake As well as the top silvers but over the two lakes the silvers winner would pick up £75 & the overall winner a decent £100', I fancied a draw on Hawthorns as I though this is were the winner would come from & there were some decent weights on a knock-up here yesterday but Westpool coud also produce, I let a few go before me in an orderly Queue" Lol, I couldn't get the ticket open & was dreading ending up on the narrows on Westpool again but was relived to find myself in the middle of Hawthorns peg 9, It was around 14mts to the far bank but I could already see the wind was going to cause a few problems, I set up two 0.2g floats to fish tight across infront the bull rushes in just over 2ft of water on 0.15-0.13 & 16 PR36 hooks, one with a hair for banded pellet, A shallow rig again with a hair rigged hook, A rig to fish meat on my top-kit plus two sections which was a decent depth around 5ft & finally a 4x12 rube on 0.17-0.15 & an 16 pellet hook to fish again on my top-kit plus two sections down my edge but couldn't go further due to drawing next to an aerator rope again' which was just under 5ft deep.

For company I had Bristol's finest Paste Head' Glen Bailey on peg 10 so knew what he would be fishing" & Venue Regular, Wormheads Rich Hawkins on peg 7, I fancied Fellow Blogger Tim Ford to do ok on peg 1 of are lake as the peg is known to hold fish but any peg can produce on these lakes, At the start I cupped in some hard 6mm's & a few 8's down the edge, Just a few cubes on the short line, & fed a small amount of 6mm's right over, I started across & as I did Terry Taylor turned up behind me who was pleasure fishing the main lake, already I was struggling to hold a conversation As well as the pole in the wind & concentrate" I gave it 15mins but just felt it wasn't right already, I dropped in on the short line with meat whilst I had a re-think & missed a bite' Just a liner in the next ten minutes so I decided to feed a decent pot of hemp & a few cubes of meat to try & get some fish to feed on the deck & left it to settle. I continued to feed a few 6mms across with the catty & had a quick look down the edge with banded 8mm were I had been feeding just the odd pellet by hand, I finally caught a fish' Shame it was a carp around 1lb". I was going nowhere at this stage, I decided to venture back across this time with the rig set a few inches off the deck again with banded 8mm pellet.

At last I had a decent carp around 6lb but had some catching up to do as Glen Had netted a few carp & I could here Rich netting a few fish, It was akward in the win to try & hold the rig tight over & feed with the catty but at least I was getting signs of fish & began putting the odd one in the net, I ended up fishing the shallower rig after a couple of foul hookers, This worked for a few more fish for a while. I had noticed a few carp swirl the other side of the rope across the far bank so began to ping the odd few pellets over at 14mts my side in the open water in the hope of drawing a few down. Around halfway I thought I had around 41lb but knew I was still behind the pegs either side of me but didn't know how the rest of the lake was fishing? I was getting a bit frustrated fishing across but every time I was a bout to knock it on the head I would catch a fish which kept me persisting with it best it could, I dropped in on the 14mt line in the more open water & had a 5lb fish straight away followed by a slightly smaller fish but then they backed off again, I spent the next hour or so switching between the line tight to the bank & the open water, And managed a few more in between a few stressful moments including catching the willow tree after attempting to helicopter the rig in the swim!" I planned to go on the short meat line & down the edge which I had been feeding by hand through the day but even though Glen was still catching fish my far lines seemed to get a bit better so struggled with the wind & kept at it, I picked off a few more fish to 6lb as well as a 7lb fish the last dob-in in the open water" I had 111lb on the clicker but these fish can weigh a bit more than they look so we would see', Glen was admitting to around 100lb & Rich though he had around 120lb, When the scales arrived 70lb was winning are lake. Glen was first to way & finished with 110lb odd, I had a bit more than I thought finishing with 125lb going just over in one net so had 14oz deducted' Lol,

Rich had some decent fish in his nets to finish with 140lb mainly catching down the edge so well done to him, Back at the results & it turned out that Hawthorns had fished a bit harder with onsite chef" Mark Jones leading the way with 70lb odd, It turned out Rich's weight was enough to win the day picking up the £100 & it turned out I ended up 2nd but picked up the Lake win & £55 along the way so a good result, Overall the top silvers was won by Rob Birch again on Hawthorns peg 15 with 21lb odd, Apart from the wind making things hard to present things fishing across I was happy with the out come & was sure I would of had a few more conditions allowing? Haven't really done much of this hard pellet fishing an canal lakes often opting for the soft pellet approach but doing ok adjusting to it so it seems, It was important today to keep swapping between the rig just off the deck & the shallow rig to keep in-touch with a few fish. Bank Holiday Next week so missing the Saturday to spent with the Wife & back to Shiplate Sunday for another open on this lake & an open on the main lake on the Monday being a later start/finish so looking forward to them. Another enjoyable weekend with a few quid back in the wallet.

Full results -

1st Rich Hawkins (Wormheads) peg 7 Hawthorn, 140lb 2oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 9 Hawthorns, 125lb 12oz.

3rd Tim Ford (P.I.Thatchers) peg 1 Hawthorns, 115lb 4oz.

4th Glen Bailey (Bathampton) peg 10 Hawthorns, 110lb 9oz.

5th Geoff Francis (Bristol) peg 6, Hawthorns, 105lb 12oz.

Silvers - 1st  Rob Birch (Summerhayes) peg 15 Hawthorns, 21lb 8oz.

Overall Winners - 1st Rich Hawkins £100.

Silvers - Rob Birch £75.

Lake Winners - Dom Sullivan & Mark Jones £55.

Silvers Lake Winners - Ron Stark & Ray Wickham £45.