Sunday 23/04/2023 - PSV Club at Shiplate Fishery - Main Lake

After many years rejoined PSV as did Glenn Bailey, last time I attended a Club meeting it was held at the Tramway club in Easton!

Ours first match was Shiplate Farm on the main lake which has been fishing hard, most probably due to the bloody weather. Arrived and had a lovely egg and bacon roll from Marks's mobile cafe - proper job. Nice to catch up with the regulars and anglers I've know for years including the Sivell brothers.

Good turn out of 17. I was hoping for any peg between 1 and 9. Into the draw bucket and out came peg 12. Umm too shallow for my liking. Johnny Page fishing the Fry's match on Westpool (pictured behind my peg) said it wasn't much good for carp but ok for silvers. Glenn drew peg 13.

Got to the peg firstly set up the short and long Ronnie rigs, plumbed up and couldn't find more then 2 foot of water on either. So packed them away and got a 4x13 MR black out and at top set plus thee barrels found 4 foot which would be enough for me. A large carp rolled on the top set line in 2 foot. So re-rigged the short Ronnie rig - might be some skimmers around in this case? This also encouraged me to set up a paste rig again at three barrels. 

Undecided whether to fish expanders over micro on the long line or not, casters won out as it's a catch all bait. Whistle went and fed 6 casters on the short line and bugger me a large carp took straight away. Played it and nearly netted it early but not all of it would fit the landing net! Estimated it at 20 lb Mirror. Second attempt and the hook length broke. Subsequently caught some small Ronnie's on single caster. Fed a pot of micro on the long line and thought I would test it for by trying a small piece of paste and see what if anything nibbles it. Nothing did, which decided me to feed the line with laced up GB - mainly caster. So spent the match switching between these two lines. Losing the Ronnie's on too large elastic got a bit frustrating so got the 4 metre whip out and found this effective for both Skimmers and Ronnie's. The short rig accounted for a couple of big Skimmers, a Tench and two big Perch, whilst the longer line smaller Skimmers and Ronnie's. With an hour to go only went and hooked the same carp again (99% sure) on single caster - again I lost it. That said I wouldn't have been happy to keep a carp of that size it 2 foot of water.

The silvers weighed 26 lb 12 oz for second silvers, so happy with that from this peg on a difficult day.

The match was won by Shaun Putney (pictured with the silvers winner) with 68 lb 8 oz from peg 14. Shaun caught a few on the method and straight lead with the Lion's share coming from his LH margin with meat over meat. Well done matey.

The silvers was won by Keith Ray with 29 lb 6 oz from peg 9. Keith caught decent Skimmers and three Tench on soft pellet short. Well done matey.

Glenn sat it out all match on the paste to catch 5 decent carp late on for fourth.

Lots of foulers today, Bela losing 5!

We managed to miss the heavy rain so tackle dry. Oh yes, due to my stupidity broke a number 4.

Thanks to Ryan Jordan (RJ Floats - check him out) for running the match.

 Result:

1. Shaun Putney 68-08-0 peg 14

2. Lynol Legg 66-13-0 peg 15

3. Ron Hardiman 59-03-0 peg 1

4. Glenn Bailey 56-08-0 peg 13

Silvers:

1. Keith Ray 29-06-0 peg 9

2. Mike Nicholls 26-12-0 peg 12

Weigh Sheet: