Shiplate main lake open

Well after a couple of very Icey nights thought it was gonna be a bit frozen but luckily sat night it did not freeze so that was a bonus but still thought the fishing would be hard.after a few tx yesterday telling me to shine my pound from jonny page and steve Howell I shined them up and arrived at the fishery cup of tea and bit of banter and it was draw time i wanted to get in early today for some reason it was like a scrap trying to get in the bucket I pulled out 14b I thought not too bad but when me mate mark Thorne pulled out 15 didn't think I had much chance and Dominic on peg 1 I was just about ready at the all in
Order of the day was bomb and bread, 2 silvers lines at about 11m and a margin rig set up. At the all In I didn't feed anything just chucked out my 10g ollivette with 12 inch hook link and guru 16 hook with bait band pulled through 10mm punch. Thought I would see what everyone else was doin didn't wanna kill it with bait before I started. So cup of coffee 2 chucks later the tip twitched and dropped back so I lifted and could feel a nice lil lump pulling back( slowly gently I was saying to my self cos I get a bit excited at times pull to hard and lose it ) so finally slipped the net under a nice golden 4 pounder ish. So kept chucking for the next hour with only the odd liner. Nigel to my right looked to be catching a few silvers couldn't see much else happening so I potted in half a cup of micros straight in front and some ground bait and dead maggot at 2 o clock. Went out with 4mm expander and was struggling to see float as lost my glasses god knows so messed around a little bit changing colours of float switching lines no bites what so ever that I could see anyway so back on the tip tried an orange wafter but nothing so back to the bread kept getting little liners so I thought and just to see I hit one and felt a solid resistance (slowly gently)😃😃netted a better fish around 8 pound
so stuck at it had 2 more and missed 1 right near the end. My 4 fish weighed in at 27.09 I could see Dom on peg 1 having lots of bites but he kept losing them thought it would be close in the end he had 30 pound to take1st I was 2nd and golly was 3rd with 16 pound Julian pinkett took the silvers with 11 pound 9 I think and jonny page 2nd with 11.6 I think but best bit was taking a nugget of venue expert steve Howell who blanked 😂😂😂 and me mate mark Thorne on the flyer next door also jonny page and Wayne staples but a nice day was had and not as cold as expected.
Tight lines to all it's the start of sedges silvers series next week hopefully can catch some good skimbobs there and not freeze too much 😃😃👍👍👍