15/04/22 - Shiplate Farm - West Pool

Weight - 80lb 8oz

Catch - 16 Carp, 4 Skimmers

Weather - Warm & sunny

Match - Pairs (20 fished) - 5th overall, 4th on lake.

There were 10 pairs including myself and Mark Poppleton, the defending champions, spread over Hawthorn and West Pool; Mark would be on Hawthorn and I took West Pool, and the winners would be based on combined weight. At the draw neither of us were very impressed, with Mark on p13, which was too far up the lake and p14 for me, which is only 1 of 2 pegs without a spare peg.

The fish on the far bank are notoriously difficult to catch and with the improved weather I decided to fish paste (Kriller : Blue Ice) giving them a target bait. During the first hour, I had 4 carp, losing 2 to snags. However, p12 & p10 had both started well.

After that first hour the fishing became really difficult, so I pulled back to fishing next to the aerator where I had fed meat, but never had a bite. A switch to fishing 13m over micros with a 4mm expander quickly produced 4 skimmers before they disappeared, however I needed carp.

Giving the far bank a rest helped as I caught another 5 fish on paste and by the halfway point probably had about 45lb but was still behind the 2 pegs to my right and to be honest I was struggling to pull the fish to my side of the aerator rope. I tried pellet and meat across, but simply couldn’t get a proper bite

I had also been feeding micros down both margins and started seeing fish down the left margin which produced 1 carp. Unfortunately, as soon as p15 fed his margins I never had another bite.

I managed a couple more fish from the far bank, but it was no longer in the shade and bites were really at premium, which just left my short meat line. Despite periodically trying the meat line, it wasn’t until the last 30mins that I caught 3 fish.

In the end I was quite pleased with my effort but I didn’t quite have enough as Mark managed 75lb from Hawthorns and we finished 4^th in the pairs missing out on 3^rd place by 8lb. Well done to Mark & Dan on winnng.

1.    114- 4 – Tom Thick – p11 (W)

2.    113- 8 – Mark Jones – p13 (W)

3.    108-14 – Mark Wynne – p8 (H)

4.      99- 0 – Dan Squires – p9 (W)

5.      80- 8 – Ken Rayner – p14 (W)

Pairs

1.  207-14 - Mark Wynne (108-14) & Dan Squires (99- 0)

2.  164-  0 - Alan Quantrill (50- 8) & Mark Jones (113- 8)

3.  163-  4 - Tony Thick (49- 0) & Tom Thick (114- 4)

4.  155-10 - Mark Poppleton (75- 2) & Ken Rayner (80- 8)