Johno's Match Shiplate Farm (Squirl Pool)

Another one of Johno's Knock-ups with the lads which are always a laugh although he doesn't participate as he leaves me to do the whole set up including the weigh-in" Lol. Ten of us on what looked to be another glorious day so just happy to make the most of it", I sorted the pegging & ended up on peg 10 between Jinx Mick" on peg 9 & Jim Dounty on peg 11 just around the corner slightly, A rope separated are pegs but wasn't to worried as I planed just to keep it simple & fish up & down the far shelf to the island around 12mts, I had a rig to fish tight to the bank which was only around 10inches deep being a small dibber float & 0.2g rig to fish down the shelf at 11mts in 3ft of water.

I started the day not feeding & went tight over on meat, I did miss a bite but then hooked a roach so out went a decent pot of G/bait & I switched to worm on the hook, I had a carp around a 1lb but the fish were easily spooked, It didn't really go to plan for the first 90mins, I messed around trying to catch across, Had two or three 2lb fish but lost more foul hooked, it was taking to long & it appeared nobody was catching at are end of the lake so I switched to the deeper line with soft pellet on the hook, I had bites straight away from small 4-8oz carp & goldfish' but at least I was catching, I continued to top the far side up with pots of G/bait & started to ping bits of meat with the catty over the top whilst fishing the deeper water, The rest of the match was spent waiting for fish to appear across where I would drop in & nick the odd fish to 2lb, I had a good run here later in the day putting around 15lb of fish in the net in around 20mins before it slowed again at the end of the match, I thought I had around 45- 50lb but peanut Howell down on peg 2 with peg 3 empty who we couldn't see was sure to have had a few. So it proved as he admitted to 50lb but weighed 68lb odd, so looked the easy winner today, most seemed to have struggled before I put 48lb on the scales so close to my guess' Again the pegs above me didn't produce to well so hard for most but a good laugh all day was had by all" I picked up £45 so will pay for my match on the main lake today, Hoping the lake will have some breeze on it or it could be hard for some with the warm conditions but we will see".

1st Steve Howell (Shipate Farm) peg 2, 68lb 6oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 10, 48lb 12oz.

3rd Jim Douty (Weston Angling) peg 11, 16lb.

4th Andy Light (Shiplate Farm) peg 12, 13lb 14oz.