Wednesday 10/03/2010 - Carps AC - Cider Farm - Shepherd's Lake

“Knowledge is Power” (Francis Bacon 1626). Before today’s match I had been swapping e-mails with Bob Feltham who ran the first match this term on Shepherds’ Lake – and won it. Below are the details of how Bob caught.

email 1:
Just to let you now the results of our match on Shepherds lake yesterday. Not bad considering the heavy frost and ffffffffffffreezing East wind!!
1st Bob Feltham 56lbs 2 oz all carp peg 13 margin 11 metres
2nd John Thompson 45 lbs 2 oz Carp and silvers peg 5 pole 11 metres- open water
3rd Steve Horsewell 42 lbs 10 oz Carp and silvers peg 11 pole 11 metres- open water
Silvers: Dave Bacon 11 lbs 9 oz peg 2 - no carp
I thought this may be of interest as you my be there on Wednesday!
Regds
Bob Feltham MD

email 2:
"Basic stuff really- tried pinkies and bread out at 11 metres- had one blade but didn’t stay with it for long as deep in peg 13. Fed half medium pot of green micros (stim) in the margin laced with dampened 4 mill and a few grains of corn. Went straight to the left margin after half hour about 11 metres there is a wooden pylon stuck out you can see the top and fished laying on the shelf and bottom of the near shelf – there is about 6 foot of water here-maybe slightly less. Used very soft ringers 6 mill expanders and had carp first dib. Fed regularly cupping 2 dozen 4 mill and few grains of corn every other fish and ended up with around 17 carp from 1 lb to 7 lb losing 5 (including 2 lumps) of which 4 were foul hookers and one pull out).
In retrospect could have fed another line further down the margin at 14.5 metres and picked off odd fish when the closer margin went quiet but hey ho!
As regards the other pegs- looks like the carp are not in 1 and 2 so could be out/out silvers. So fish 11-13 metres and feed 4 mill and corn fishing 6 mm and maybe paste as a few were caught on Sunday. Peg 15 out and out margin peg- fish 2 margin lines and forget everything else as lumps live here!
Cheers
Bob Feltham - MD"

As the Silver fishing is good on this Lake it was any peg except 13 and 15 for me then!! In to the draw bucket and out comes peg 13 – the Carp flyer. Umm. Over the last couple of matches I reckon due to the water clarity I have been chasing the fish out of my swim. So today my plan was to start short and not go long until the last two hours. I decided on a 4x14 Jolly for a short and long margin swim (as Bob said 6 foot or so) and a 4 x 16 at 4 metres out in front in 9 foot of water for the Skimmers and Ronnie’s. I started on the Silver rig by potting in a generous amount of micro pellet and casters of equal proportions. The wind was blowing straight in at me so it was necessary to feed a little short, plus a shorter than normal line. I started on double caster and – nothing – so swapped to the 4 mm pellet and had a run of small Skimmers. But it was slow. So tried double red maggot and had a 4lb Carp straight away followed by a few smaller Skimmers. I switched to single caster and started to catch a few Ronnie’s on the drop, again very slow. An hour had passed so I switched to the short margin swim at 5 metres with corn hook bait over kinder potted caster and corn. Like Bob, I had a Carp first put in. I kept on this line until the seventeenth Carp and the first Skimmer (always an indication that the Carp had vacated). It was with two hours to go that I switched to the 10 metre line (Bob I think your pole is shorter than you think). I fished identical and first put in had another Carp. However, with a 70 lb fishery net limit and having only two nets with me I decided to put back my 5lb of Silvers to facilitate a 3lb Carp. This didn’t make much sense at the time – what if I didn’t catch another Carp – back to three nets now until next winter. Not to worry I had another nine Carp and just before the whistle the last fish was a Ronnie. The next worry was with twenty seven Carp in the net would I have needed the 5lb of Silvers to make the ton – nope, I weighed 86lb 6oz (see picture upper right of some of my catch) for first overall and a pick up of £40. Thanks for the intel Bob.

The Silvers was won by Mike Owens (pictured right with the match winner) with 13lb 12oz from peg 17.

I must say this is a wonderful little Lake and well managed by Mark Gibson. The fish are in pristine condition.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 86-06-0 peg 13
2. Steve Dawson 50-01-0 peg 9
3. Mike Owens 26-05-0 peg 17
4. John Dursley 20-08-0 peg 1
5. Colin Golding 18-04-0 peg 6
6. John Bennett 17-08-0 peg 4

Top Silvers:

1. Mike Owens 13-12-0 peg 17
2. Andy Gard 13-05-0 peg 15