Monday 4 June 2012

03/06/12 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight - 32lb 9oz
Catch - 7 Carp, 6 Rudd, 5 Skimmers, 3 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy & showery
Water Temp - 24.4c > 25.2c
Match - Tonys Float Only - 2nd round - 2nd out of 5 section

Today I could have fished the last round of pole only series at Plantations/Acorns, however I was just outside of the main payout positions, so decided to fish Lands End instead. Next years pole only series will be all on Acorns and this time shouldnt clash with any other series, so I will definately be back.

As for today, Julia from the MFS site wanted to come along to observe a match. Having only just started fishing 3 years ago, Julia wanted to pick up tips to hopefully improve her own fishing, although after today?!

When I saw p68 staring back at me, I was very happy, although not always as good as 41 & 42, you should at least have a few. When I arrived it was obvious the swim hadnt been fished for a while, becuase I had to remove some reeds and sedges. When I started to plumb around the swim I became concerned, becuase it was alot deeper than I would have wanted, even by the island it was a good 3ft deep and with various roots and outhanging shubbery, lifting and dropping by the island was going to difficult.

After 4hours I was going no where, Kev Molton (p41) and Tom Thick (p42) were catching, but reports where that my side of the lake was fishing hard. I had caught a few skimmers in open water at 13m on soft pellet, but they really didnt want to be on the deck. By the island I had lost 4 fish, including 3 foulhookers. The problem was the fish were milling around the loose feed, but becuase there wasnt any shallower water and I couldnt lift and drop properly due the overhanging vegatation. I even tried potting caster & meat just off the island in an attempt to get the carps head down, but they really didnt want to play ball.

So with 2hrs to go, time for a complete change. I had nothing to lose, so started catapulting caster, fishing double caster on the hook and soon had my 1st carp. Unfortunately it was quiet that straight forward, I had a few rudd, but to get a carp I had to place the float tight to the island and keep firing caster at the float. Eventually I had 5 carp, including 1 that got itself tangled up in some overhanging brambles, plus 2 more down the margin on meat to finish what was a very frustrating match. Had I switched to caster sooner, I may been able to take the section win. More ifs, buts and maybe's. As Sue has put it I "seemed to have gone off the boil" recently, but at least today I didnt stop trying and eventually got a few.

1st 132-13 - Jason Radford - peg 38
2nd 90- 3 - Clayton Hudson - peg 34
3rd 87- 9 - Gary Etheridge - peg 5
4th 82-12 - Tony Rixon - peg 40
5th 82- 6 - Kev Molten - peg 41
6th 75-15 - Tom Thick - peg 42

Silvers
1st 36-12 - Nigel Bartlett - peg 15
2nd 30-12 - John Bradford

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