27/05/24 - Shiplate - Hawthorns

Weight - 156lb 12oz

Catch - 40 Carp, 1 Skimmer

Weather - Dry start, a couple of showers and a sunny afternoon.

Match - Open Rover (17 fished) - 6th overall, 1st on the lake.

I decided to fish a rover at Shiplate this bank holiday Monday, which was spread over the whole complex. I had 15^th pick and as expected the pegs I fancied drawing on the main lake had already gone. I could have gone on West Pool, but as I have fished there a few times recently decided to try p11 on Hawthorns.

When I arrived, there were a few fish sunbathing and hopeful of a catching a few. On the all-in I immediately tried the mugging rig and caught a carp within 5mins, at which point all the sunbathers disappeared, re-

appearing to my right in the quiet water.

Moving across tight to the far bank fishing paste (Uzit GLM & Betaine) over 4mm and micros p-nut pellet, catching straight away and finished the hour with 6 fish, although the swim had slowed, and I wasn’t sure paste was the right approach.

Therefore, I decided to switch to fishing meat covered in Uzit A-krill cloud, tapping in 6-8 pieces of 8mm meat with a few micros. It was slow to get going and by switching left and right along the far bank on a light strung out rig, I moved up to 17 fish by the halfway point (3hrs). The fourth hour was excellent with another 11 carp, before the fishing slowed.

I tried fishing paste in the margin, which was 4ft deep and a 2+2

line after I had been feeding both lines for the last 2hrs, but the response was disappointing catching only a handful of fish and I needed to move back to the far bank.

At the weigh in I had won Hawthorns, but reports were filtering through of a couple of  200lb weights on the other lakes and the chances of me being in the top 4 was looking remote for a pick up and that is how it turned out.

The only disappointment of what was an enjoyable day was the average stamp of fish, which were smaller than expected.

1.    220-12 - Dave Cockayne – p8 (west pool)

2.    215-  8 – Kurt Pinkett – p11 (main lake)

3.    215-  0 – Luke Fothergill – p7 (main lake)

4.    199-  1 – Dom Sullivan – p12 (west pool)

5.    185-  2 – Matt Shephard – p2 (west pool)

6.    156-12 – Ken Rayner – p11 (hawthorns)

26/05/24 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 72lb 3oz

Catch - 15 Carp, 2 Roach

Weather - Dry start, but thundery and very wet late on.

Match - Tackle Den (14 fished) - 1st overall

No fishing last weekend as I travelled up north to see the in-laws and the weather was lovely. Back to this weekend and the weather has turned cooler, with more rain forecast. When will it end?

For today’s match we only had 14 fishing, as a number of regulars were fishing a 3-day festival at Hillview. At least it meant the worst pegs could be left out, however the change in weather had impacted recent results with only 50 odd pound required to win a midweek match.

I found myself on p16 behind the island which is a reasonable area and made a change from drawing on the ‘lawns’ bank for the last 4 matches.

On the all-in I started on the method cast to the island, but after 30mins I hadn’t had a bite, although I could see fish moving around, which was a worry. An early look on meat at 11m to my left next to the overhanging branches only produced 1 roach.

In the meantime, I started pinging 6mm p-nut pellet and fished the straight lead with meat. I soon switched to an 8mm p-nut pellet as the roach were being a pain and I eventually caught my first carp after 90mins. Another 4 followed in the 3^rd hour and I hoped this would be a sign the fish had arrived, but the 4^th hour only produced 1 carp on the 11m line which I had converted to a paste line. The slowdown coincided with the wind picking up and the incessant rain.  I also lost 2 carp, a 6lber where the hook pulled at the net and another that found a snag by the island, losing my whole rig, which didn’t improve my mood.

The 5th hour produced another 2 carp on paste at 11m and the fish eventually turned up in the last hour down my right margin where I had been feeding meat covered in Uzit A-krill cloud, catching 5 carp and a further 2 on paste at 11m.

I was little surprised to have won and thankful for catching 3 carp in the last 10mins for 22lb which helped swing the result my way. No catch shot as it was still chucking down.

1.    72-  3 – Ken Rayner – p16

2.    67-  7 – Brian Duckett – p21

3.    63-  4 – Pete Philips – p3

4.    57-10 – Matt Greaves – p20

5.    47-10 – Cliff Dutton – p6

12/05/24 - Ivy House - Heron

Weight - 210lb 14oz

Catch - 88 F1, 69 Carp

Weather - Warm and sunny.

Match - Tackle Den (18 fished) - 1st overall

We were met by spawning fish and an instruction from Andy that we couldn’t fish within a metre of the margins.

I was more than happy to draw p9, which meant I was in the right area for F1s to attack shallow with caster.

On the all-in I started at 2+2 fishing paste (Uzit GLM Betaine Green) whilst priming the shallow caster line. The paste line was a little frustrating as there were plenty of fish about and getting a clean bite proved challenging. However, cutting out the loose feed and coming back by 1 section I caught better, including a couple of 3lbers in amongst the smaller carp.

After 50mins I was up to 16 fish and struggling

to get a proper bite again. Fortunately, fish were now showing over my shallow caster line and I started catching F1s immediately at 11m.

Now there are no limitations on pole rigs, I had 4 shallow rigs set up, 2 fixed depth rigs at 6 & 9 inches, a jigger and an over-shotted rig. Over the next 3.5hrs I caught on all rigs as I tried to stay in contact with the fish, pulling the fish closer at 8m. I couldn’t get the fish closer than this and with 90mins remaining the swim was slowing, probably not helped by the bright flat conditions.

A switch back to the paste rig fishing off the end of my keepnet where I had been feeding 4s I had a good run of fish for 20mins, before returning to the caster swim. The rest helped a little but the bigger F1s had disappeared, and I was back on the paste line for the last 30mins, catching really well as the fish had finally properly settled, getting a clean bite quite quickly.

In the end I had a lovely day’s fishing catching two thirds of my weight shallow and put into practice a number of points I picked up following a coaching session with Kristian Jones last year which definately added a few etc fish in the net.

It was a welcome return to form after a poor run and I also had the added bonus of winning from the bonus peg pot, which had built up to £93.

1.    210-14 – Ken Rayner – p9

2.    154-11 – Ian Barker – p22

3.    148-14 – John Pearce – p23

4.    147-  7 – Dan Barnett – p15

5.    138-  8 – Andrew Black – p11

05/05/24 - Shiplate - West Pool

Weight - 131lb 11oz

Catch - 25 Carp, 7 Skimmers

Weather - Sunny start, rain later

Match - Open (8 fished) 4th overall

Todays open was on the canals, however with only 8 of us it was decided to use West Pool, rather than Hawthorns which had loads of willow fluff on it. P5 for me, which is the last peg in the narrow section of the lake.

After feeding some p-nut micros and A-Krill cloud covered meat across to the far bank, I decided to start on paste (Uzit Betaine Green) to my left at the bottom of the marginal shelf, hoping for an early mug fish. After 10mins and no bites it was time to fish across, toss potting 4 cubes of meat and a few micros I soon caught my first fish, quickly followed by a second before I struggled to get a proper bite and foul hooked a couple of fish.

I tried swapping left and right along the far bank, which helped as I caught a couple more carp, but I had to wait for a proper bite. In fact, the first half of the match was a bit of a struggle as the far bank didn’t develop as I had hoped, just nicking the odd fish, however, I had fallen behind Steve to my right who got off to great start in the first hour.

In the meantime, I had kept feeding 4mm p-nut pellet and micros over my paste line and it was starting to show signs of life, as I caught a skimmer and a carp.

In the end I just kept rotating between the paste line, the far bank and a short meat line, catching a fish, switching lines, catching another (or wait 10mins if no bites) and so on.

After 4hrs I had about 60lb, but was still behind Steve and I could see Mark and Alan in the middle pegs were also catching.

The last 2hrs was much better as the fish finally got their heads down. I caught a couple more from the far line, but they were a smaller stamp and I ditched this line with an hour remaining. The paste line proved to be the most productive, whilst the short meat line was disappointing only producing 2 carp and 2 skimmers. I had also started feeding micros and meat down my right margin, catching another 2 carp, but I didn’t feel the carp wanted to come into the shallow water.

Overall, an odd day, as I didn’t feel the fish were feeding that well, however the last 2 hours were excellent.

1.    166-14 – Steve Howell – p3

2.    158-  4 – Alan Quatrill – p11

3.    132-  4 – Mark Poppleton – p9

4.    131-11 – Ken Rayner – p5

06/05/24 - Rood Ashton

Weight - 21lb 8oz

Catch - 3 Carp

Weather - Bright start, rain later.

Match - Wiltshire Angling Open (20 fished)

I didn’t fancy travelling too far on a bank holiday and booked into the Wiltshire Angling open and it was fully booked with 20 anglers.
 

Like last week, everyone wanted to draw the far bank, so I was really disappointed to draw p4. I did win from the peg last year, deepdown felt I would be fishing for section only, as this area has been fishing hard.
 
Whilst I expected it to be hard, I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it turned out. Based on last week’s match I thought the feeder would dominate again, although there were a few fish showing themselves close in and I hoped to catch on the pole late.

I caught my first fish after nearly 3hrs on the straight lead and meat, at 20m where I had been pinging 6s. At this stage 4 carp was winning the section and thought if I could get a run of fish I would catch up.
 
However, it never happened. Unbelievably, I couldn’t get a bite on the method, yet last week it was the only method I could catch on!
 
At the halfway stage I started feeding my margins, pellet and paste to my left, and meat and micros to my right. I eventually caught 2 carp on meat late on to conclude a really difficult day. At least I had plenty of time to top up my hooklength box.
 
I didn’t hang around for the full results, but I knew my section was won with only 50lb. I used to enjoy fishing here, but it is becoming obvious that there are not the same volume of fish compared to a few years ago.