Shiplate costcutter

Back on the main lake for this match, popular as ever with it being sold out. Fishery boss john hawkins did the draw and pulled out 12a for me. A good silvers area, plus carp will always be present aswell, but with new peg zero in, which is to the right of peg one going into the channel, it was felt we woukd all be fishing for second today, gary bowden had the pleasure of that today, he was odds on favourite to be fair, for company i had glen(lots of pots) bailey on my left on 13, and rod wootten on my right on peg 12. I decided to taget.the skimmers.today, so i set up a .6g float for worm at 11mtrs, a pellet rig for 5 mtrs at the bottom of the shelf, and another pellet rig for 14 mtrs. Laatly i set up a lead rod for pellet at 25 mtrs, i would have fshed the wag but the wind and trip was going innthe same direction, rendering sensible presentation all but impossible. At the start i cupped in three good size balls of groundbait at 11 mtrs with some worm and caster in it, some 4 mm pellets at 5 mtrs, and some more at 14mtrs, i fired some 8,s out on the lead line, then picked up the lead rod, deciding to five it 15 minutes to let the pole lines settle. Lobbed the tip out with a banded 8, the lead hit the water, i put the rod down, and the tip stayed round, i thought i had thrown it over a stick or something, went to wind in only.to find i had a carp on the end, hooked fairly in the leading edge of its dorsal, it was never going to come off, so a nice way to start 8lb common in the net first chuck, although i gave the tip a short while more, and a few times during the match, i have no further action to report on it. Also the 5 mtr line never showed any sign of action. The 11mtr line was a different thing altogether, i had a good three hours here catching skimmers and bream up to 4lb, iether on a dendra, or triple red maggot, regular top ups with balls of groundbait was required to keep them coming, but as expected it went off in the 4&5 hour, but i did manage two more carp on the hard pellet at 14mtrs, then towards the end of the last hour some skimmers returned which were gratefully received, it looked as though the lake had had a bit of an off day, with all but gary on zero really struggling, although he was operating a proper catch and release policy today. I have had a nice day, my three carp went 27lb, and my silver were a level 40lb,

so first in the silvers and second overall, with gary.winning off zero with 119lb, well.done. Weigh sheets below,