23/12/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 36lb 1oz (12lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch - 4 Carp, 10 Skimmers, 9 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 F1, 1 Crucian, 1 Rudd
Weather - Cloudy & mild
Match - Loyalty Open - 9th out of 19 (5th out of 10 - lake)

Having paid my 15 £1 I qualified for todays match. With £331 in the kitty (not everyone who paid turned up or paid the full £15, hence the odd amount), plus normal pools on the day, there was plenty to go for.

I just needed a decent draw and I couldnt believe it when I saw 19 staring back me. Only the 3rd time in 8yrs, so it was about time. For company I had Allan Oram on 17 and Adrain Jeffrey on 21.

What was noticeable was the amount of water in the lake, which after yesterday rain was hardly a surprise, but at least it was mild, although there was mixed views about how it would fish and as it turned out it didnt fish quite as well as expected, although the silvers certainly seemed to fed better than wednesday.

Since I was on a noted peg I decided to focus on catching carp and rigs were similar to wednesdays, feeding pellet down the track, caster across just in case and even meat to my left by the tree.

A pinch of 3s & 4s were dopisted at 14m to my right, whilst I searched the rest of the swim with soft pellet to my left. With only 1 bites after 15mins, a switch to the right hand swim resulted in a 7-8lb carp almost straight away. After an hour I had another, losing a 3rd which was foul hooked in the midrift, but none the less I was quite happy with my start, becasue I had also managed a few silvers from my left hand swim  where I had toss potted a pinch of 3s.

Today however I was struggling to get the expected reaction and in the end decided to abandon the left hand swim, creating another by feeding 4s via a toss pot at 13m in front.

I hadnt planed to fish tight to the island, but a further deposit of caster produced an F1 straighaway, plus a few roach, then a small carp. Other than Tom on p13 no-one was really running away with it and I decided to stay positive, feeding 4s to my right  by catpult, which has worked in the past, confident the carp would turn up, because 3 or 4 carp would put me in the frame.

So far the 13m line hardly produced, neither had the short meat line. The only swim that continued to produce was the right swim, with a few 6-8oz skimmers and a tench. With 2 hours to go I was really expecting the carp to feed eventually and I did hook a decent 7-8lber, but the hook pulled at the net and the same thing happen agaon 30mins later. Needless to say I wasnt happy and as it turned out it was also costly. We have all lost fish, but when you get them within netting range, thats when it hurts.

My last 2 put ins produced a 2lb skimmers and a 5lb carp, but it was a little too late. After the good start I was disappointed not to catch a few more carp. In hindsight would have changed anything? Feeding meat over my short line was probably a bit ambitous, when feeding caster would have been the better option. However I was surprised not to get a better response over my pellet line.
 

1^st 94- 2 – Tom Mangnoll – p33

2^nd 65-12 – Tom Thick – p13

3^rd 50-11 – Adrian Jeffrey – p21

4^th 48- 3 – Kev Molton – p32

5^th 47-14 – Craig Edmunds – p40

6^th 44- 3 – Allan Oram – p17

 

Silvers

1^st 19-10 – Martin Pettifer – p11

2^nd 18- 6 – Paul Elmes – p5

3rd 18- 0 - Tony Rixon - p29