Shipate Farm (Squirle Pool)

Back on this little lake again today, It usually produces a few bite from the small carp & goldfish' with a few better fish in the lake if you can find them, 14 of us fishing so no spare pegs today, I fancied pegs 4 or 5 either side of the small bridge but it wasn't to be as I ended up on peg 13 at the far end off the lake with my back to hawthorn lake, It can produce a few fish but when I arrived at my peg I was disappointed to find it coated in pollen as the wind had blown it all down'. I struggled even plumbing up getting the rig coated it the stuff, I had a small dibber rig to fish close to the back of the small island at 9mts but with the water levels down it was shallow around 10inches deep, I wanted to have another line at 12mts behind the bull rushes further along the island but had no hope for the start of the match so had to hope it somehow cleared through the day? The only other rig I had was a rig to fish the deeper water off the island by a metre or so which was around 4ft deep, I Had Peanut Howell opposite me on peg 12 but he didn't have the pollen issues as it was all holed up on the rope my side", & Rich Hawkins on the last peg 14 next to me, On the all in I fed some hard 4mm pellets & some micros in the deeper water, fed a few 4mms down the edge by hand but again I thought it was a bit shallow? & began in the deep water with 4mm expander, I had a 2oz carp after 5mins but already I knew it wasn't right, Gary finders further down & Kurt Pinkett next to him on pegs 9 & 10 started right across & were already netting better size fish, I had to switch to the shallow water by the island, feeding a decent pot of G/bait starting with a bit of worm on the hook, I did net two carp over a 1lb but before they spooked off, Peanut had started to catch a few fish to the point of his island closer to where I wanted to try but I couldn't fish it so back to the shallow water feeding a bit of G/bait each put in with a cad pot, I was getting the odd fish but felt I was already falling behind with the pegs further along the straight & peanut, I had a look down the shallow edge but no early signs, I tried the deeper rig again but just another tiny carp on this, I plugged away for a few hours catching the odd fish with a couple close to 2lb, Rich seemed to be struggling but Gary & Kurt were still doing ok. I was really frustrated being limited to how far I could fish, the edge had now covered over in skum ect so that was now ruled out" so it was a case of fishing the 9mt line and making do".

I added the odd fish after switching to small pieces of meat on the hook instead of worm but you had to feed each put in to draw anything into the swim,  I was able to get further along the bank in the last hour but not close enough to the bank so fished meat shallow where I had been pinging a few pieces but this just resulted in a couple of small rudd" The last 90mins were a right struggle, I managed a decent 3lb plus fish but only added a couple of small carp before the all out. I thought I had 20lb odd as the fish were  on & off most of the day, I thought peanut had over 60lb as did Gary & I thought Kurt wasn't far behind? Me & rich were the last to weigh being on the opposite bank & when the scales arrived Peanut was leading the way but with less than I thought as he put 47lb on the scales, Gary again had less than I thought finishing with 41lb odd but Kurt had less than him finishing with 28lb odd, My turn & I was surprized to finish with 38lb odd for third on the day picking up £35 so a decent result in the end, I really didn't feel as if I was competing today & was surprized I wasn't to far off come the end, Frustrating when I knew I had the chance of catching more further along but I couldn't fish it so nothing I could. oddly I never had a goldfish today, most of the fish I had were carp from 10oz - 1lb odd. turned out to be another close little match come the end.

full results -

1st Steve Howell (Shiplate Farm) peg 12, 47lb 7oz.

2nd Gary Finders (Shiplate Farm) peg 10, 41lb 8oz.

3rd Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 13, 38lb 8oz.

4th Nigel Webber (Shiplate Farm) peg 5, 33lb 15oz.

5th Kurt Pinkett (Wormheads) peg 9, 28lb 15oz.