Part 2&3

Shiplate for the Monday open, 41 fishing so a decent size open these days, picked chr Chris fox up and caroline had been good enough to do me a couple of nice breakfast baps, very good too so a 4.85 on the rixter scale. The draw was between 7.30 and 9 (?), Fishing 10.30 till 4.30, we never got there till about 8.30 so still plenty of time to set up, fishery manager john was doing the draw, the wind was going to be a pain today, northerly blows straight down each lake from the Carpark end so a nice sheltered peg would be nice, but most of the sheltered swims had already gone, i ended up on west pool peg 6, ive had it before and i wasnt moaning to much, it can be ok as it is the first peg in the wider part of the lake after the narrows where it is 12 mtrs , wheras my peg was a good 14mtrs,

also there were only two pegs on this lake without an empty swim to one side, on my right was the fouler maestro steve(peanut) howell, and on my left was the bristol ex pat john dursley, i didn't feel wa had much chance of getting in the mane frame today, especially as the farbank is the place to catch normally, or sometimes in the margins, just two rigs today , a far bank pellet rig and a down the middle meat rig. At the start i cupped in some meat down the middle and some hard 4mm across in. Started on the meat line, gave it 25 minutes for not a touch, by this time john had had two carp and a tench on a small method, but his bites soon stopped on that, i could see carp in the shallow water opposite, so that was my mane line of attack, but the strong left to right wind made it really difficult, i could only get the rig to half still by fishing a banded 8mm pellet over depth, obviosly liners and occasional foulers were a problem, the wind was strong enough at times to spin me round on the box, but it was catching better than most i could see, apart from mat Sheppard on peg 2, and as he was in my section it looked as though there would be no envelope for me today, i did get three carp on meat down the middle towards the end , but i know if the wind had only been half as strong i think i would have done ok as the fish seemed to be happy in the shallow water, as i feared mat was top weight on the lake, so he won the section with over 80lb, so well done.

I managed 57lb, the other section on the lake was won with less than 40lb, overall mat culpin won the day with 130lb off hawthorn lake, fishing caster shallow feeding about 6 pints, Chris fox won the silver with 27lb of skimmers from peg 6 on the main lake, sheets below.

Got to say my shoulders and arms.were.a bit sore that evening, but onwards and upwards as they say and it was down to acorn for the Tuesday costcutter, only 17 fishing, but still at least we get plenty of room, mime chapman as normal was.doing the draw and handed me peg 5, after i pulled out peg 18 for him, he wasnt best pleased lol, the lale has been dyed now in a very fetching blue colour , to inhibit weed and algae growth i think, it all looked very Mediterranean.

my peg looked good, as it normally does, it wins more than its fair share of matches here.

Again the weather was making it as hard as it could, a nasty left to right wind and we had all seasons in the one day, rain, hail, snow, and sunshine, the carp seemed happy again in the shallow water on the far bank, but i did get a few about a mtr off the far side on banded pellet, again i fished an 8 in the band, just to hopefully give the hookbait some stability, plus ive fed a maggot line at topset and two, and ive had a few tench up to about 3 1/2lb, plus some skimmers perch and roach, i kept.swapping between the three lines nicking fish from all lines, i did also get a 2lb skimmer and a carp from the left hand margin, i weighed 69lb for a close win, just beating paul (Albert) faiers into second spot by 2lb. Silvers went to john mills on peg 6 with 31lb, which included several nice tench,beating ed wynne into silvers second by 2lb.so considering this was the forth match on the trot on the lake, and the crappy weather, most people had a days fishing, sheet below.😁