Thursday 15/09/2022 - Over 55's - Westerleigh - Taylors Pool and Ships Canal

With Hunstrete closed due to low water levels and with the over 55's still wanting their weekly fix we booked Westerleigh which has been fishing reasonably well. However, the day before some of us were celebrating one our own, Kev Winstone's marriage, so a few blurry eyes especially Junior who was suffering from red wine amnesia. A great day out and must say - a beautiful bride indeed - great catch.

Sixteen fishing so match split into two - eight on each pool. My preference would have been Shipp's canal. Into the draw bag and out comes Taylors peg 22. Happy with this as for unknown reason is the better side of the pool. For company I had Chris Ollis on peg 21.

As expected the water levels were well down. Mark Taylor had told us that the bar on Taylors was now only a foot deep but was fishing well close in - suits me sir. I set up the waggler to chuck around and a 4 x13 MR to fish top set plus two barrels with the intentions of fishing for silvers. Started on 4 mm expander over micro and had a 1 lb carp first put in. I then got pestered by indications from small Crucian carp with none getting on the hook - frustrating. So picked up the waggler with LR's on the hook over the same loose feed and first cast had a small carp then a few small Ronnie's. It was slow. Have tried the Ronnie rig every time Iv'e fished here and never really caught on it. So decided to set it and give it another try. Fed some GB with Pinkie and started to catch the Crucians, Ronnie's and small Skimmers and the occasional carp to 1 1/2lb on single LR. 

Chris Ollis had been catching well and had already put another net in and could see Pete Greenslade's landing net continually waving about in the air. Thought I was behind on the carp front and with about one hour to go my peg had slowed. So complete focus on silvers then, so shallowed to half depth and started to loose feed the LR's and started to get some better Ronnie's and Skimmer's. In between catching some better carp to 3 lb which were put in a third net. The upshot was catch a few silvers then a better carp, then a few silvers...had a great last knockings but still felt Chris or Pete would beat me overall.

My carp weighed 75 lb 2 oz with the last hour net containing 39 lb. My silvers weighed 11 lb for a total of 86 lb 3 oz for a double bubble. Just piping Pete and winning the silvers. Well done Pete.

Shipp's canal was won by Gary Bowden (Junior pictured with the top two) with 63 lb 1 oz from peg 7. Guessing paste was involved somewhere.

Great little venue.

Back to the pub with only half the suspects to round of another memorable day.

Result:

Taylors Pool:

1. Mike Nicholls 86-03-0 peg 22

2. Pete Greenslade 73-08-0 peg 19

Silvers: Mike Nicholls 11-0-0 peg 22

Shipp's Canal: 

1. Gary Bowden 63-01-0 peg 7

2. Shay Gillman 35-0-0 peg 9

Silvers: Paul Clayton 4-10-0 peg 11

Weigh Sheets: