Weight – 12lb 10oz
Catch – 9 Perch, 6 Roach, 2 Carp, 1 Skimmer
Weather – Showery start, turning calm & cold.
Water Temp– 9.5c > 9.5c
Match – Open - 7th overall
As I was driving to the venue, I wondered whether it would ever stop raining. For what must be 3 weeks now its been wet & windy. When checking the weather forecast for this weekend, depending on which site you looked at, we would either have 20mph winds with 55mph gusts or it would be flat clam, so not even the weatherman could make up their minds. Having said that Saturdays weather looked better than Sunday.
I found myself on peg 23 which Mike decided to put in instead of 24. In fact looking at it the peg did offer me more options. The tree on the right hand bank was at 17m and the island was at 15m, with plenty of open water in between.
The main concern today was the extra water in the lake, following the rain and it was clear, so a challenging day was anticipated.
I started with ½ a cup of green swim groundbait & 3mm pellets at 14m, plus some caster by the island. 1st put in was by the tree without feeding to see if I could snare a mug fish, with corn on the hook. A few liners indicated fish in the swim & 10 mins later I hooked a carp, but unfortunately I wasn't quick enough throwing 17m of pole behind me and the fish snagged me in the sunken branches.
I decided to let that swim settle and switched to the island and immediately had a 3 perch and 2 roach on double caster, then nothing. This was the pattern for the rest of the match. I couldn't get a run of fish.
My groundbait swim didn't produce a bite, I set up a couple more swims, but the most consistent spots where by the island and under the tree. I even tried under the pallet on peg 24, but only had 3 fish. Ideally I would have preferred to fished my lighter rig my the tree, but I couldnt risk it, because any carp would have done me. When bites stopped I tried flicking casters over to the tree to encourage the carp from under it, but they just weren't having it. The guy on peg 1 wasn't fishing longer than 13m, so there was plenty of room for the carp to sulk away and flicking casters over wasn't working.
On reflection, could I have caught more? Possibly, but the bright, flat conditions meant it wasn't easy. I had 6lb 2oz of silvers and only needed another 1¼lb to pick up in the silvers, all beit by double default.
Rod won the match from peg 21 with 39lb. All his fish came to his left to towards peg 20, so perhaps there wasn't that many carp close to me. Garry was 2nd with 34lb from peg 11, which included 15lb of silvers and Mike was 3rd with 30lb from peg 19, again with 15lb of silvers.
I'm not too disponate about today, because I have had a good run so far this season and the law averages suggested I was due a complete blow out.
1 comment:
Ken since when have Landsend been having Monday and Tuesday matches?
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