Sunday 07-01-2024 - Westerleigh Winter League - Round 3 - Shipp's Canal and Taylor's Pool

Driving down the short access road my car exhaust bottomed out in the water which initially concerned me as plenty of steam coming up. All was good though. On the way out kept very close to the hedge hitting it on occasion.

Dry and colder weather at last. My turn on Shipp's hoping to avoid the "Punishment" peg 13, which I have had my fair share of now.

Into the car boot and disc 8 for me today. Really pleased as it's about the only peg I've not drawn. It's had a checkered past but is gradually improving since it has replaced peg 9. I love fishing new pegs - not many left for me nowadays.

Nice comfortable peg down under the bank with the NE wind off my back making the water flat calm which might be a problem for catching Ronnie's. Opposite on peg 6 Ricky Mills but too far for a chat, bit of a lonely corner peg. The Canal was very coloured - red!

Looking forward to a good plumb around which always excites me on a new peg. Decided to initially focus on silvers as  thought it would fish hard at top set plus two barrels with just the one rig - as I could get away with a light float due to the conditions selected a 4x12 Winter to fish in just over 4 foot of water. Fed the one line with GB and LR's and with single on the hook first put in the float appeared to be over shotted - lifted it and dropped it in again and the float disappeared and had a 7 lb Carp on which had to be played carefully due to a stony ledge close in. Guessing the Carp had already eaten my small offerings so fed again and another 7 lb Cap in the net. Repeated this two more times to have around 27 lb in the net with 45 minutes into the match - not use these better pegs. The excitement soon calmed as started to get some small Skimmers my original quarry. Have a good first half of the match adding the odd Skimmer and Ronnie. Second half was a real struggle. Tried various lines by just adjusting the depth. Added a couple of small F1's, loosing a couple. With facing South the Sun was an issue which dictated where to fish. Had a good few lines going. Hooked a 8 oz Skimmer on a 11.5 metre line and shipped the pole back under the roller so instead of breaking down to keep elastic  tensioned shipped forward only to lose the fish - bugger. Had a few occasions where my shipping could have been more careful loosing some Ronnie's to-boot. Lesson learnt.

Silvers weighed 4 lb 6 oz - 1 oz from winning the silvers. The Carp went 27 lb 15 oz for 4th in section weight of 32 lb 5 oz. The Canal fished really well. Learnt a lot about the peg - next time!

Taylor's was won by Johnny Clarke (pictured with the Pool silvers winner and match organiser) with 17 lb 11 oz from peg 14, fishing 14 .5 metres with maggot. Bill Ferris picked up the silvers with 4 lb 4 oz from peg 23. Overall it fished poor.

Shipp's was won by name sake Vince Shipp (pictured with the silvers winner) with 48 lb 7 oz from peg 3. Vince caught late using expanders over micro at 13 metres towards the island gap. Steve Rogers won the silvers pipping me again by 1 oz from peg 5.

Well done to all. Really well run league.

Back to the New Inn for a beer and a warm. Not sure I will be venturing out this week.

Weigh Sheets: