Tony Rixon's Float Only R2, Shiplate Farm, Sunday 20th June 2021

 Shiplate Farm today for the second round of Tony's popular float only league, this is a lovely fishery near Weston-Super-Mare, right on the banks of the river Axe.

I was hoping for a draw on the main lake, big carp and a big head of skimmers, suits me perfectly. second to that, either of the two canals, what I wanted to avoid was the 5 pegs on the lake know as Squircle.  Where did I draw, yep, from a 1/8 chance, Squircle 9.

X marks the spot where my peg was, less than 10m wide, the lake holds small carp, some ornamentals and very few silvers.  I banked on pellets and set up 3 rigs to fish different depths on the far slope, from tight to the bank in 8" of water, one at about 14" and another at 18".  I did set a rig at depth to fish maggot short.

I wasn't enthused at all by the peg/lake and started short, had a couple of goldfish and two unexpected skimmers, but it wasn't ever going to be productive enough to compete.  Switched to fishing pellet over - hardly a hardship at 9m.... this wasn't much quicker and I doubt I had 4lb in the first hour,

I persisted with this, but could see Paul on peg 14 catching better fish on meat, 14 is on the opposite bank where the lake opens up a little wider.  I hadn't brought a meat cutter, but had in anticipation of a draw on the main lake, brought some meat already cut up to 8mm.  I did get of my box and set up another rig to fish this, but by now my frustration at drawing the bloody fishpond, not being able to get a signal to listen to the GP and the ducks, the f##king ducks.....  

I am usually pretty laid back with ducks, I don't think the fish mind them, because this lake is shallow and it has a head of ducks that would put a duck farm to shame, meant that it was impossible to feed any other line than that which you fished at the time.  If I fished short and fed over, the ducks would be diving and eating al the bait and vice versa.  I did have some better fish (1lb - 2lb), but I took too long to change to the meat and just lost my head with it and beat myself.  Not sure I could have beaten the end pegs, but if I had not got myself so pissed off, I could have pushed them a lot closer.

Some great weights of skimmers of the main lake, whilst the carp didn't really feed well on the other lakes.