Our NHS hero Dave Colley gave us all a lesson in how to trounce the opposition. Today Mr Colley decided to take no prisoners and to go all out for victory. Fishing from peg 10 Dave fished feeder with pellet to the island which is where he took the vast majority of his impressive catch from. Although he did take 5 carp from the margins on pole and corn. Rob Dodd who fished the peg next to him told some of us that he had to keep reminding Dave that he had a bite. I could not quite read in to that but perhaps because Dave was catching so many fish that at one stage he became tired out and kept nodding of. When I talked to the owner afterwards, he asked me how the match went, When I told him the winning weight was 158lb from peg 10 he was very impressed indeed. So it is hats off to Dave Colley and very well done indeed.
Fishing from peg 14B Eric Searle conquered 2nd place with a very acceptable weight of 84 lb 11 oz using feeder and pellet. Before the start of the match I asked Eric “I bet your going to be on the feeder all day” Eric’s reply to was ” yep if I don’t get a bite I don’t get a bite and that’s that” Well Eric not only did get a bite you had plenty mate.
Young Ian Grabham who seems never to be out of the top four these days found himself in 3rd place with a haul of 58 lb 03 oz from peg 4. Ian had most of his fish on method feeder with micros and wafters. He did have a fair size Carp of 15 lb 2 oz.
Now finishing in 4th spot was yours truly who pulled out peg 13. I decided to start of on the method with banded pellet but after an hour I only caught one nice skimmer. Went on the pole at 10 meters for another hour with dead maggot for a few bits which include two Ruffe. Most of my silvers weight came after midday when I went back to the method feeder where I caught some quality skimmers. But like the majority fishing the match most of the action took place in the last hour in the margins. It seems the trait on the main lake at Shiplate is that the large carp come in to the margins in force. I know it happens at other fisheries but at Shiplate it is very much pronounced. The amount of swirling and tail fins protruding out of the water was remarkable. However to cut a long story short in this last magical hour I caught three carp for a total of 36 lb 6oz. The biggest weighing 14 lb 14 oz. The bait for the margins was corn and worm. My total was 45 lb 15 oz.
Our Spielsekretärin fuhrer Alan Bland in fifth like me had a lot of action in the last hour. Peg 15 was his place and he managed a haul of 44 lb 05 oz. Meat and corn was the bait. Alan won the Jotty Memorial (largest carp) with a right beast of 15 lb 11oz. So it is congrats to him.
Stuart Frampton who was pegged next to me on 14 had most of his 43 lb 01 oz net on meat down the edge. Poor Stuart managed to break his pole top on one of them beastly carp.
All of us expected more from Mr Rob Dodd than his 39 lb 15 oz. Rob fished pole and maggot and was drawn on peg 11. No doubt he was probably distracted from his fishing by constantly telling Dave Colley in peg 10 that he’d had a bite.
Veteran angler Tony Richards amassed a weight of 34 lb 13 oz on his favourite method of pole and maggot from peg 3. Tony always shows his angling prowess by using 2 lb hook length and still manages to land decent size carp.
Bob Pascoe had peg number 1 and used pole, maggot and caster for a weight of 32 lb 01 oz. You can always tell when Bob hooks a Carp because all you hear is “vermin bloody vermin”. You see Bob is a silvers man.
Dave Nash fishing on peg 2 did not catch a carp but the dedicated silvers basher got top silvers weight with 29 lb 5 oz. The bait used was maggot and caster.
Paul Smith who picked out peg 6 fished the pole with corn and caster. Paul had one Carp of 8 lb 5 oz and a total weight of 26 lb 15 oz. Paul finished in 11th place.
Phil Dodd who ended up in 12th as always took the laid back approach and just fished the feeder with dead maggot as bait. From peg 7 Phil put on the scales 21 lb 13 oz.
In 13th position we find Ian Ricketts of of peg 8. Ian who would definitely admit to having better days could only muster 16 lb 4 oz. Pole with maggot was used.
Apparently a few choice anglo saxon words were used by Nigel Coram (pictured above) to describe his match and thought it was better that he had DNWI next to his name.
The next match will be at the Sedges Tile lake on 8th October, don’t forget have the breakfast.
Until then tight lines.
Pete C.