02/04/23 - Shiplate - Hawthorns

Weight - 88lb 10oz

Catch - 18 Carp

Weather - Cloudy with sunny periods. Cool northerly.

Match - Pairs (32 fished) - 1st in section, 3rd overall pair

For the 3^rd year, Mark Poppleton and I entered the pairs match at Shiplate and this year there were 16 pairs. Mark would fish the main lake and I would be on the canals.

To be honest, neither of us were that enthusiastic about our draws, p10 for Mark and p3 on Hawthorns for me, as we both felt we were at the wrong end of our respective sections.

With 8 on the lake I at least had some space with Alex Murray on p1 and fishery manager, John Hawkins on p5.

I was told the locals were catching on maggot and whilst I had a pint of reds with me I was hoping to catch on meat. Starting a metre off the far bank on the 2^nd shelf I had a carp on 8mm meat quite quickly, feeding a small ball of micros with a couple bits of 7mm meat. However, it became obvious that the fish didn’t want to be on the deck as they started swirling around the float whenever I tapped in any bait.

Therefore, I was soon fishing tight to the far bank, again fishing either a 7 or 8mm meat over micros, switching left and right to limit any foul hookers. A pattern was emerging where if I didn’t get a bite within 2mins of feeding, I usually had a bite between 7-9mins. I stuck with this line for 4hrs, catching 40lb which was just ahead of those either side of me. 

In the meantime, I had started feeding micros down the right margin next to the p4 platform, meat at 3+2 and maggot down the left margin. Initially I tried paste down the right margin, but didn’t catch, so in the end I started feeding a small tosspot of meat plus a small ball of micros. I again had to wait for bites, however the stamp of fish was better than those from the far bank catching 7 carp, including 2 in the last 10mins which proved useful. I also managed a carp from the 3+2 line and 1 more from the far bank.

Fortunately those 2 late fish beat Dan Squires who weighed 86lb and Alex 82lb. Mark managed a very good 3^rd in section, which put us 3^rd overall and gave us £50 each for our troubles.

Pairs

1.    Gary Flinders & Alan Quantrill – 3pts (229- 8)

2.    Mark Wynne & Dan Squires – 3pts (190-14)

3.    Ken Rayner & Mark Poppleton – 4pts (179-14) 

Overall

1.    137-  8 – Gary Flinders – p2 (west pool)

2.    104-14 – Mark Wynne – p14 (main lake)

3.      94-11 – Dom Sullivan – p13 (west pool)

4.      92-  0 – Alan Quantrill – p13a (main lake)

5.      91-  4 – Mark Poppleton – p10 (main lake)

6.      88-10 – Ken Rayner – p3 (hawthorns)