Having an earlier than planned start (05:30) plenty of time was had to wake up and load the kit for the short drive to Shiplate fishery.Despite not having fished the venue before, I sought out as many tips as possible from some fellow club members and drawn up my plan of attack for the match.
With only 10 anglers entering the draw and the golden peg safe for another day I had my hopes pinned on an end peg. As luck would have it I drew peg 14 with no one to my right.
A school boy error of forgetting my bungees for the trolley made the longer walk a harder task than it needed to be but with sunshine and a light breeze I could hardly complain.
With my kits ready and baits prep'd I was ready for the "All-in" and relishing the prospect of wetting my line.
The lake was deeper than expected, particularly the near side margin so I chose the middle to begin with. The feed went in and fish were topping & rolling around me but bites were shy. The first fish was a small skimmer on red maggot but not much else was showing.
My next move was switching to the far side margin and going shallow. It paid off with a nice carp to around 4lb coming out. The next few hours went quiet so with more feed going in it was double or quits. Red magg proved the winner once again, tempting a couple more carp to the net.
The last hour came & went with only a couple of skimmers so my expectations were not high but being the last to weigh and already off the pace of 1st and 2nd, my 8lb 8oz bag was enough for 4th.
Only 6 anglers weighed in so all things considered I was pleased with my efforts. Let's hope the fish are ready to feed next time around
