Shiplate, Hawthorns, 19 Octtober (13 pegs)

A bit of a late start this morning as the cafe at Shipham seemed busier than usual and there were some unfamiliar faces in the kitchen and things didn't seem to be running quite as efficiently as usual ... A half hour wait for the wrong breakfast but never mind.

In addition I had made the classic match secretary's mistake of working out all the figures the night before and so with one no-show and one not going in the pools that was binned and another version hastily cobbled together which gave us a payout of 1st and 2nd overall, 1 silvers and 2 section payouts (sections of 6).

By some amazing coincidence Ryan Radford, who wasn't in the pools, drew peg 8 which put him in between the two sections.

I had the last ping-pong ball and that put me next to Ryan on 7.

I won't make a song and dance about it as it wasn't one of my most memorable of matches and my Shiplate jinx continues.

I set up a shallow rig to fish a 6mm pellet across to the far bank where I fed the ducks* with micros and maggots and caught chuff-all.

Cutting the band off and going over with maggot on the hook produced a roach plankton that never made the 14m journey back over and that rig was abandoned.

I set up a rig for 5m on the deck to fish maggot / 4mm expander over groundbait / micros for silvers to keep occupied while I waited for my inside line to kick in.

After an hour that line produced a roach-skimmer type thing followed by a carp that took me all around the peg on my new 5-8 "silvers" hollow elastic until it bottomed it out and unhooked itself on an underwater branch.

I had a rig set up to fish maggot over groundbait at the bottom of the inside shelf which was where I hoped to achieve glory but there were carp "tailing" in amongst the cut back reed stems tight into the bank so the abandoned shallow rig was re-deployed here to try to tempt these fish out of their reedy snag-pit.

The first one I hooked was buried in the undergrowth before the float tip had made it completely below the surface!

I eventually managed a couple of fish from the shallow water (in between fighting off the ducks)* and in the last hour, a few more on the deep rig.

Another go on the "silvers" gear produced some more plankton, followed by an half-tidy skimmer (sussed it)? 

And then another carp that did a couple of journeys up and down the far bank before depositing the hook in a tree somewhere down in Adam Csswell's peg  which was the end of another fancy (Nick Gilbert) handmade float and also the end of my pathetic attempt at fishing for silvers.

So the end result of this tale of woe was a massive 27-10 which included 3-4 of silvers (for absolutely nowhere) and I think next week at Viaduct I shall be spending an hour sat behind the Gimp to learn how to fish for plankton properly because I can't seem to get to grips with it.

But in the meantime, as I've already mentioned, my Shiplate jinx continues.

For the record the match was won by camera-shy Pete Sivell, pictured below after he had sobered up, with 74-9 from peg 2.

I've no idea how he caught but I would imagine he talked them out of the peg.

Second was Chris Gay with 70-4 from peg 1 and again, I've no idea, but rumour has it that he fished a method feeder with a banded expander on the hook.

I'm sure Chris will elaborate in the comments!

Mike Wilson (below with the silly hat) took third with 65-12 from peg 10.

He caught most of his fish on maggot over groundbait on his topkit.

In other news, Lee Williams made a sound move having chosen to fish the Pawlett club match on Westpool and the Main Lake he then went on to draw peg 15 on the Main Lake and win the match with 156-ish.
I'm sure you will be able to read all about it on Lee's blog http://woolavy.blogspot.co.uk/ just as soon as he's finished uploading another picture of his seatbox!

*and if you're wondering about the ducks ... They are a complete pain at this fishery.  As soon as you move your pole they are in there like a scavenging hoarde  and in shallow water will wipe out any feed you put in within seconds.

Pancakes and hoisin sauce springs to mind!

Full Result:

1. Pete Sivell (peg 2) ......... 74-9
2. Chris Gay (1) .................. 70-4
3. Mike Wilson (10) ............. 65-12
4. Mark Radford (3) ............ 53-14
5. Matt Taynton (15) ........... 52-3
6. Alan Healey* (9) .............. 47-10
7. Adam Caswell (6) ........... 46-13
8. Lionel Legge (11) ........... 30-8
9. Steve Burgess (7) .......... 27-10
10. Ryan Radford (8) ........... 23-12
11. Derek Lucas (13) ........... 18-3
12. Jason Bird (12) .............. 18-0
13. and 1 dnw

*golden peg

Silvers:

1. Matt Taynton .......  11-2
2. Mark Radford ....... 8-6
3. Alan Healey ......... 5-6
4. Mike Wilson ......... 5-2
5. Steve Burgess ...... 3-4