28/12/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 18lb 12oz (9lb 9oz - silvers)
Catch - 11 Perch, 1 Golden Tench, 1 Skimmer, 2 Carp
Weather - Frosty start and sunny all day
Match - Open - 1st out of 7

We can’t seem to win with the weather at the moment. It’s either blowing hard and raining or freezing cold. This morning the wind & rain was replaced by a frosty start. With only 7 of us today I wasn’t too worried were I drew, because the fish would soon disappear into the quiet areas of the lake.

I ended up on p13, which has shown some recent form and for company Jim Jenner was on p11 and Rod Wootton on p15. I had hoped to catch on pellet, but recently caster seemed to be better, so decided set up swims to cover both options. Caster was fed by p14 pallet and down the left hand margin, whilst micros & a few 4s were fed in open water by the aerator and 14m towards the island.

 

Rigs for the day were:-

- HB frostie 0.2g >.10 > 18 silverfish pellet (left hand margin)

- HB frostie 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet (open water)

- Ackoo Carrat 0.3g > .12 > 16 B911 (p14 pallet)

 

Starting down the left hand margin I had a carp on double maggot, but that was the only bite after 30mins. I did try here later in the match, but the fish obviously didn’t want to be in the shallower water. Both the pellet swims only produced a few nibbles from roach.

 

The only place I could catch was on double caster by the p14 pallet, where I had all by perch up to 1¼lb. Rod in the meantime was catching skimmers on pellet, which was frustrating because I simply couldn’t get a bite.

 

A new swim fed with caster & dead maggot at the bottom of the left hand shelf only produced 1 carp. It was fishing hard, with 90 mins left everyone seemed to be struggling, with most of us having a couple of carp and a few silvers, so it was still wide open,  but I couldn’t get a bite from anywhere. Fortunately neither could anyone else.

 

With 30mins left, it was time to try by the aerator again, after feeding some micros and dead maggot. With 15mins left I had this golden tench on double dead maggot, followed by a skimmer 10mins later, which was very welcome. By the all out it wasn’t clear who won what. Fortunately my late fish sealed the win.

 

Failure of the match was Rod, who had been feeding in the deep water by the bush, but hadn’t fished it yet, until after the match when he had an 11lber first drop in. He wasn’t happy.

 

1^st 18-12 – Ken Rayner - p13

2^nd 16-10 – Eric Fouracre – p20

3^rd 15-15 – Tom Mangnall – p22

4^th 15- 6 – Rod Wootton – p15

5^th 12-14 - Andy Hembrow – p5

6^th 6- 9 – Jim Jenner – p11

 

Silvers

1^st 12-10 – Tom Mangnall – p22

2^nd 11- 2 – Rod Wootton – p15

3^rd 9- 9 – Ken Rayner – p13