Weight – 19lb 7oz
Catch – 17 Roach, 14 Perch, 2 Tench, 1 Common Carp, 1 Rudd, 1 Bream.
Weather – Mild. Bright, windy.
Water Temp– 7.0c > 7.5c
Match – Open – 4th overall, 1st in silvers
I had no intention of fishing Lands End today, but Mike said he was running a knock up. With most anglers in the area fishing Viaduct, Avalon and Bullocks, meant there was only 8 of us, so at least we would have plenty of room.
The wind today was stronger than yesterday, but I still fancied a draw between 19 & 24, so I was disappointed to pull peg 7. This peg has been very hit & miss recently, mostly miss, although yesterday 7 carp came off it which was hopeful, but I cant remember a decent silvers weight coming from it for quite a while.
After hearing Mark say how much he enjoyed fishing here, Nick Merry decided to fish the venue for the 1st time and drew peg 5.
The wind was becoming a bit of an issue, so I decided to fish comfortably for the carp at 11.5m feeding micro pellet, whilst feeding caster under the pallet on peg 8 for some silvers.
My pellet swim never produced all match, I even tried setting up a new swim to my right at the bottom of the shelf, pinging 4mm’s over the top, however without success.
It became obvious very quickly the carp were still in pegs 1 & 24, with both Adrian Clark (peg1) and Mike "corner peg" Duckett (peg 24) catching from the start. Anton Page on peg 19 was also catching, so I was really up against it.
The pallet swim was only producing fish sporadically on caster or maggot, but in amongst the small roach & perch I managed the odd better perch up to a 1lb plus a 3lb tench. Every time the swim died I would switch to the pellet swim, but fortunately the wind died a little and I was able to start fishing tight on the far side.
Since I seemed to be completely out of the running for the overall, I decided to fish maggot or caster on the far side, fishing for bites, besides which I was struggling to hold the pole long enough to allow a pellet or corn to sit still. I managed a few small fish, plus a bonus 7lb carp, but overall I felt I was going no where far.
Except for pegs 1, 19 & 24 everyone seemed to be struggling and the only way I could see myself picking up any money was to win the silvers. Nicky Collier on peg 16 was struggling and packed up an hour early, Nick on peg 5 had a few fish, but I was sure I was beating him, which left Anton who had caught skimmers & tench amongst his carp. With an hour to go, I was pleased to see Anton start catching strongly, which meant he could frame and I could pick up in the silvers even if it was by default!
My silvers swims had really slowed, so a handful of maggot and another of caster, were thrown to my left, half way to peg 6. 10mins later 1st put in resulted in a tench. I kept the bait going in and I kept picking up odd small fish, but landing 2 big perch in the last 10 minutes added a further 3-3½lb to my weight.
Anton won the match with 73lb, whilst Adrian was 2nd with 69lb. My silvers weight went 12lb 6oz, but to be honest I should have had 15-16lb, because I lost 2 tench, 1 in an unseen weed bed and the other dived under my keepnet, they are buggers for doing that.
As for Nicks 1st visit I couldn’t tell if he enjoyed himself or not, but I don’t think the 2 lost bream when the hook pulled helped his mood.
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