shiplate farm on hawthorn and west pools

fairplay to the 22 which turned up today as we were greeted with 1 to 11/2 inches of hard ice, we shouldnt complain really as its the first proper ice this winter, but after letting trigger draw me peg 10 on hawthorn it was still a bit of a shock throwing a 14lb breaker about , but i managed to clear a strip to nearly 12 mtrs which i thought would be far enough as its just about to the bottom of the shelf before the slope to the far side, paul elmes did a really good job with the boat by breaking out peoples pegs who were stuggling a bit, he did offer me but i refused as i didnt think the fish would be up on the shelf(doh).
i made up 1 rig a .3g rig with a middy 6313 size 18 on .10 and at the start i cupped in 5 maggots and 10 micro,s and then waited for a bite, and waited and waited, i cant right about my day as nothing really happened i did get 4 bites but missed 3 and shook a small roach off and suffered my first blank since i cant remember when , but it had to happen sooner or later, there were a few fish being caught on our lake with paul elmes on peg 2 leading the charge ending the match with 6 carp, all caught up the shelf adrian jeffery on peg 1 had 4 and a skimmer and the only other person with more than 1 was steve evans next to me who had 1 on bread and 1 on corn just fishing
his topset .
west pool was the place to be with craig(trigger )edmunds on peg 11 with 41lb all caught up on the shelf towards the end
2nd was kev molten on 15 west pool with 40.9
3rd rich lacey peg 6 west pool 27lb
4th sean townsend 7 west pool 23.13
5th paul elmes peg 2 hawthorn 23.3
6th andy bryant 12 west pool 14.4
silvers went to rich lacey with 12.2 of mainly skimmers at 8 mtrs on maggot
bob gullick struggled to find the venue this morning as his sat nav had him in the wrong place so he phones me to double check the post code which is bs24 0ny and he asks is that a zero or a nought i thought it was one and the same but his trotters indipendant traders tom tom obviously aint got a 0(zero nought)button , but he did manage 3rd on the lake so the 35 quid he won he can now afford to update his tom tom and he may even be able to find his way home.
OH YES AND DID I MENTION I BLANKED

shiplate farm west and hawthorn pools

24 fishing today so we had 12 on each lake which was ok as west pool had been extended by 5 pegs so peg that was is now peg 6, i let ron hardiman draw for me and he handed me the flier, peg 6 west pool ,nice,with only pegsd 2 and 4 in on the new part it meant i had an empty peg to my right then kev molten on 4 , andy france was on peg 2 on the new part which i didnt fancy at all and on peg 7 was simon belcham who was suffering from a bad back which meant he was unable to fish the long pole (it just gets better). steve the fishery owner had been along the far bank of this pool and cleared all the willows away , that is all except the bush in the water opposite me and it seemed to be holding some fish judging by the ammount of movement in the branches, not to mention the occasional tail showing and boils against the far bank, it was only going to be a micro and dead maggot approach today so i set up a .3 grm rig on .12 with a 18 6313 for 11mtrs and a 4x8 rig for over by the bush in about 15 inches of water. at the start i cupped in some micro,s and maggots at 11 mtrs and 14 mtrs each side of the bush, it was a very slow start at 11 mtrs and it took me 30 mins to get my first fish on this line in the shape of a 4lb carp and by the end of the first hour i,d had 4 carp and 1 small skimmer , but kev molten had caught and lost a few on 4 fishing over and back towards me so it was off to the bush then!!!
it must have taken me all of 30 seconds to get a bite which resulted in a small carp . so the rest of the match was spent switching between each side of the bush with double maggot on a middt 8313 size 14 on .14 , apart from my peg which was solid the rest of the lake seemed to be fishing hard with only odd carp showing and very few silvers , steve the owner wandered round and said hawthorn was being difficult aswell. i had a good day ending with over 20 carp for about 70lb ish , i wasnt to far out with my estimate as my net went 81.8 for first on ther day
2nd was chris fox on hawthorn 2 with 50.11
3rd steve wynne 38lb peg 6 hawthorn
4th phil harding 36.4 peg 14 hawthorn
5th martin mcmahon 32.4 peg 5 hawthorn
6th martin lenaghan 30.5 peg 11 hawthorn
silvers went to alan oram on 13 west pool with 10 .13 comprising of one big bream plus some smaller samples , again taken on dead maggot over micro
talking to steve after the match i hope i have convinced him to remove the bush as its holding to many fish so taking it out will hopefully spread the fish out along the lake

shiplate farm west and hawthorn pools

both lakes full today so a good turnout, i waited till the end of the draw today for thwe last peg but there was 2 tickets left as dean was sorting out jason bird,s pole which the gimp had managed to skillfully run over in the carpark ,so i got the legend that is andy bryant to pick me one so i ended up with 13 on hawthorn while dean had 1 on west pool(andy you gave me the wrong one).
for company i had ray cooper on 14 and bristol docks ace john macey on 12
so plenty of people to have a laugh with and not forgetting martin alexander on end peg 15.
i set up a 4x14 rig for the nearside margin but thats the last time thats mentioned as i was biteless there.
a .5g for 10 mtrs in the deeps(6ft) and a 4x12 for over in about 18 inches of water all rigs on .12 with a 18 6313 hook to fish maggot on all lines, after feeding all lines with maggot i started down the middle on double maggot and had 2 carp in the first 2 drops good start but it didnt last as the next fish was a small perch then a couple of small skimmers but by the end of the first hour i had 4 carp but no one that i could see was really catching much,
it was about now that martin alexander say,s to ray , your doing ok arent you to which ray replies i,ve only got 2 carp ,martin say so you,ve had a few then , rasy replies no only 2 martin asks again so you got a few, no just 2 ray say,s ,oh martin says so you got 6, ray now shouting say,s i only got 2 , short pause from martin then he say,s well thats on the way to 6 then, it was like a 2 ronnies sketch, all we needed was some fork handles.oh yes and martin had left his hearing aid at home.
back to the match and it was a case of feeding the 2 catching lines and nicking an odd fish from each one, they didnt seem to want to line up on iether line , by the end i had 16 carp and a few silvers for what i thought would go about 45lb but they went 53.3 which was good enough for third on the day.
1st on the day went to dean malin on peg 1 west pool(andy should have drawn that one for me)with 39 carp for 141.14 for a new venue record ,catching on soft pellet over to the far side and maggot down the edge
2nd went to andy france on peg 1 hawthorn pool with 87.8
3rd tony rixon 53.4 peg 13 hawthorn
4th chris fox 47.12 peg 10 west pool
5th pete sivell 44.14 peg 7 west pool
6th john dursely 40.10 peg 10 hawthorn
silver went to john bradford on west pool 6 with 14.7 of skimmersd at 3mtrs on maggot

shiplate farm west and hawthorn pools

i only wanted 24 people for today as i wanted to leave out peg 15 on hawthorn as steve seager drew it last time and only had about 8lb and said he wouldnt come again if the peg was in , luckily he was on a hol in ireland with his family and i had 25 turn up so it had to go in, i let the frampton legend that is kieth turner draw for me and yes i ended up on 15 much to the amusement of everyone, i went on a bit of a scrounge up and managed to end up with 3 pints of casters and decided just to try and get a days fishing, 15 is an end peg with a curving bank making to swim a bit narrow but it widens as you go to the left, for company i had travelling partner dean malin on 14 who was opting for a pellet and corn approach(mainly as i,d nicked his casters). i set up a .75 rig with an 18 6313 on .12 for down the middle as its 6 foot deep a 4x14 rig for each side margin with the same hook but on .14 and a 4x12 on .14 for against the right hand bank and over.
at the start i fed some casters over and to the right and into each margin then began down the middle on single caster over toss potted caster but it was a bit slow with only a couple of small skimmers in the first 30 mins, i felt there were some skimmers there so i got of my box and mixed some g bait and put a few balls in , and for a while it was ok with skimmers taking single maggot but it never lasted so i went over to the right hand bank and had a couple of carp of about 2lb each so i was fast approaching mr seagers total and we were only 90 mins in a look in the margins produced a carp on the right and a missed bite on the left and that was thwe margins done for so i wont mention that again, as far as i could tell no noe was really running away with it as steve the owner did a curcuit and said west poolwas fishing hard. so 2 hours in and only 3 carp in the net i went over and i never looked back as the carp seemed to want caster today and not pellet as i ended up with 40 carp off the far side for a 43 fish total for an estmate of 85lb plus my silvers, the carp went 93.4 and sivers weighed 6.8 for a total of 99.12 for first
2nd went to bela bakos on 4 hawthorn with 53.8 and he never started catching till he started us chopped worm and caster
3rd was chris fox on 9 west pool with 52.2 which was all skimmers and a few big bream so he,s had a nice day
4th dean malin 44,4 hawthorn peg 14
5th rich heatley 42.10 west pool 10
6th andy(the leg end)bryant 41.4 13 hawthorn
silvers by default went to chris davis with 27lb on peg 2 west pool
after a slow start both lakes improved in the second half , steve wasnt expecting it to fish as well as it did as its been a bit hard of late but the average weight was over 30lb and considering the size of the fish that aint to bad
next weekend is the last round of the float only lge at viaduct and i think there are one or two spaces so ring me at the shop on 01179517250, also we have got the gary wall memorial match at lansend on bank holiday monday so ring me again at the shop or mike duckett on 07977545882
another quick plug there is a charity match at avalon on 25 sept for macmillan nurses tickets are in the shops, a really worthy cause as anyone who has come into contact with the macmillan,s will now what an invaluable service they do , so even iff you cant go all donations will be appreciated

shiplate farm west and hawthorn ponds

with 25 fishing we used all pegs on both lakes and i didnt really mind where i drew , andy bryant drew and handed me peg 10 then drew 11 for himself both of us on hawthorn, drawing on this pool means i didnt have to worry about silvers as that would probably be won on west pool as long as the bream and skimmers played ball. back to my peg and with the wind off our backs and it only being about 13 mtrs it was going to be easy on the joints.
it was 6ft in the middle and down the edge so a .4 rig on .14 with a xedion hook for corn or soft pellet and a 4x8 and 4x10 rig again on .14 with the same hook for over tight and just off the far shelf again for soft pellet and corn .
starting at 9 mtrs i was able to feed by hand due to the wind being so strong, so much for the weather men saying it was going to be 23c with a gentle breeze , it felt more like 15c with a gale blowing up my ass, by the end i was all but shivering sat in my flimsy t shirt.
i started feeding softened 4,s at 9 mtrs and over to the far side ,and began feeding some corn at the bottom of the nearside shelf, it took about 20 mins to get my first carp and that was on corn on the 9 mtr line , it was soon followed by another then the bites went a bit funny , so out with the far bank rig as an up in the water rig and 2 more carp then i couldnt get a bite shallow but not to worry as there seemed to be plenty of fish against the far bank, as andy bryant was proving on peg 11 as he had a 6 fish lead over me and he was proclaiming it as the best fishery in the northern hemisphere and that i may need to think about buffing a pound up for him, i did get one on corn down the edge but that was the only sensible bite i had there, i ended up with about 17 or 18 carp which according the fish counter would weigh about 49lb so i abmitted to 44lb to be on the safe side my net actually went 48.2 so the counter keeps working
the match was won by john(the gimp)bradford with a rare crp and silvers weight of 70.4 off peg 10 on west pool
2nd and just missing out on a hat trick of wins off peg 1 on hawthorn was tim ford with 61.13
3rd 2oz behind with 61.11 was adrian jeffrey on west pool peg 9
4th rod wootten 49.11 peg 3 hawthorn
5th dean malin 49.9 peg 2 hawthorn(chip shop sausage)
6th chris fox 49.8 peg 4 west pool which included the top silver weight of 32.9 mainly skimmers on his topset using worm, caster and maggot
7th t rixon 48.2 and a quid off andy bryant whose peg dried towards the end giving me a chance to catch up
all in all it was a good close match which everyone seemed to enjoy apart from steve seager on peg 15 hawthorn who did really well to avoid the fish, but he did manage the top weight of eels on the day
3r

shiplate farm west pool

only a small match today with 10 of us so the lake was full with all pegs taken , there were some road works in the lanes leading to the fishery with the lane from weston super mare being closed totally, so the only access was from the a38 side , so after a couple of phone calls kieth and shane turner arrived as did the bridgwater lothario in the shape of mike west, so draw under way and trig drew for me and gave me peg 4, he was on 5 and dean malin was on 3 and with the pegging being of a friendly nature it was going to be hard. just 2 rigs today , the bream and skimmer rig for the middle was a .6g affair which i later changed to a 4x14 with a 16 6313 on .12 and a 4x8 rig on .14 with the same hook for over to hopefully catch carp. the bream in this lake go to 8lb so they can make all the difference on the day. at the start everyone started in much the same way, feeding some softened pellets of various sizes down the middle and cupped some 4mm and micros with a bit of corn over , i thought cupping was the best option as the ducks would probably annoy me as they seem to be able to spot a catty at 1000mtrs and upend and eat your bait, dean next door fed with a catty and sure enough the feathered horrors arrived but at the end as we all know they upset us more than the fish. anyway everyone started getting skimmers and odd bream from the start but with it being flat calm this only lasted for about the first hour, then we all began struggling, craig(trig)edmunds on 5 put 2 balls of g bait in at 5 mtrs at the start and that paid off as he had 2 better dream and some skimmers over it during the day, so thats definately an option not to be ignored next time, it seemed you only got a couple of bites in one place then you would have to refeed and go to the other line, i did have 2 carp off the far side and a few good skimmers but the carp just seemed to be swimming through as i was getting odd liners, whereas dean on 3 ended up with 6 carp down mainly i think to him using the catty and making more noise and putting up with the ducks, by the end it was clear that the frampton legion stalwart kieth turner on peg 10 had probably done enough as he had 9 carp for what was going to be about 40lb with dean being closest with his carp and silvers mix.
the minor placings were up for grabs with jason radford having 2 late carp to put him in the mix ,and with me and trig both declaring that one had more than the other, with me thinking his 2 big bream foulhooked over his g bait making the difference.
as it turned out kieth turner was a popular winner with 43.3 of carp on corn to the end bank
2nd dean malin 36.8 peg 3
3rd jason radford 25.14 peg 8
4th tony rixon 23.11 peg 4
5th craig edmunds 23.8 peg 5 (you still have much to learn grasshopper, like the fish still have there mouths at the front oooh 3oz that hurts)
6th joe thompson 21lb peg 1

shiplate farm

just a mention about wednesday, we wenbt wrecking out of poole on silver spray, a nice 38ft cat, shame the skipper didnt look at the same weather forecast as me as by the end of the day it was so rough we were falling over. perhaps he needed the money. i did manage 6 pollack up to about 12lb ob live sandeel, judith cooked it for tea on friday night using that age old recipe for pollack where you cook thee fish with fresh ginger, garlic and various spices in a sauce inside a cardboard box, when its done you take the fish out of the box throw it in the bin and eat the box as it tastes better, but seriously we had one taste of the fish ,threw it in the bin and had burger, chips and beans instead lovely .
back to shiplate and i,m pleased to say i didnt have to rename it as it fished quite well considering its a young venue. paul(beever)elmes drew for me and handed me peg 3 on hawthorn lake which is the newest of the 2 lakes being used and as this was the first match on it no one really new where you needed to be, for company i had snow whites favourite dwarf on 2 in the shape of jason radford and on 4 was bristols newest roy orbison impersonater, ron(goldfinger)crandon, all we knew was that it had been stocked with a lot of 2 and 3 to the pound carp plus some skimmers and better carp to 5lb. with 5 ft of water down the middle i set up a 4x14 rig with a 16 6313 to .14 and a 4x10 rig with the same line and hook to fish up the far shelf.at the start i began with maggot over pellet at 4 mtrs and i soon had a couple of small crucians and small carp in the net but that line dried very quickly except for bottle top skimmers, by the end of the first hour ron was beating me as he hed taken 3 better carp from the far side and by now dean on 5 was catching up the shelf on maggot over 4mm pellet, so i went across with corn and had 4 better carp very quickly, and about an hour later i had another and that was really the end of my sport apart from a few more small fish on maggot, dean was still getting odd carp but even he was getting plagued by small silvers, further up the lake the anglers there were getting lots of small carp with odd better samples showing aswell so the bulk of the fish on our lake seemes to be at the far end(yes i am bitter and twisted) . by the sound of thing the other lake(west lake)was also beginning to produce some of its big bream and skimmers aswell as some better carp so it was hard to tell where the winner was going to come from, in the end it was russ peck on peg3 west lake with 58.10 of mainly carp with a few skimmers all taken on maggot over pellet fihed at 14 mtrs at the bottom of the far shelf
2nd was andy france with 54.10 on peg 11 hawthorn
3rd dean malin 45.14 peg 5 hawthorn
4th bela bakos 42.11 peg 12 hawthorn
5th martin alexander 40.13 peg 7 west
6th scott puddy 35.14 peg 14 hawthorn
7th tim ford 34.6 peg 5 west, good to see tim back on the bank as he hasnt been able to go since the 22 jan and he won his section
8th steve seager 29.11 peg 6 hawthorn
9th me yay with 29.4
for a new venue with no real hisdtory we had a good fair match so it will be a venue i will be visiting again, and its only 35 mins from my house
GET WELL SOON SHRIMPHEAD