26/01/14 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 62lb 2oz
Catch - 7 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 1 Roach
Weather - Wet start, but very windy for most of the day
Match - Winter League 4th round - 4th out of 33 overall, section win

Back to a random draw for the 4th round of the winter league and with the heavy wind and rain everyone was hoping for a sheltered peg. Unfortunately we had a couple of no-shows due to illness. However special mention to Steve Skelton who was covering for another angler and couldn’t make the match, but still paid up his money – much appreciated.

 

During the draw I was getting some stick about “resting” peg 11 yesterday and no doubt if it won today a little more stick would be coming my way.

 

I couldn’t quite believe I drew p32 again and already could hear the shouts of fix! But I wasn’t complaining, particularly since p31 was drawn either, so a real opportunity to secure some goods points, particularly after my first round disaster. Opposite was Gordon Cannings on p33 and Dave Hodgson on p34, but they weren’t in my section.

 

The only real issue today was the weather, as we were setting up the rain was lashing down and the southerly wind was howling through from behind. The intention was to catch as much as possible from the right hand bank, before the wind swung around to a forecast westerly which would have made presenting the bait long very difficult.

 

On the all in caster was deposited by the tree down the end bank, some micros/dead maggot at 13m and some caster/dead maggot by the pallet of p31. ¾ cup of micros/caster/dead maggot was dumped at 13m towards the island as a throwaway line.

 

Starting along the end bank on prawn (Ackoo carrat 0.3g > .14 > 14 B911) only produced a few liners, before I foul hooked a carp. I tried again with double caster (Ackoo carbon carrat 0.3g > .12 > 16 B911) and the same thing happen. Dave in the meantime already had 2 or 3 carp and looked set for a good day, in fact he caught for most of the match to easily win. Since the fish didn’t seem to be settled along the end bank, a switch to the 13m line (HB chump 0.4g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet) with double dead maggot didn’t produce, so decided to try my throwaway line early. 30mins later I had 3 skimmers and a carp! Well that was a bonus.

 

Keeping the end bank swim topped up with caster, I did manage a carp on triple dead maggot, but the fish just didn’t seem to be there in any numbers. The 13m open water swim produced a couple more carp including a cracking 14lb common on 4mm expander and it looked like the fish preferred to be in open water today, but just past the half-way point the wind indeed switched around and despite my best efforts I couldn’t present properly.

 

I had no choice but to cast out the straight lead with double dead maggot. I tried different areas of the peg, but it was best cast towards the tree, landing 3 carp, where I managed to at least keep the swim topped up with micros and dead maggot. Surprisingly I didn’t have a bite by the pallet.

 

Without the switch in the wind I am certain I would have caught more, because the open water swim was showing signs of getting stronger, but never mind. The most important thing was winning the section, which means I’m now 3rd in the overall league – just need 2 more decent draws.

 

1^st 119-15 – Dave Hodgson – p34

2^nd 90-14 – Mike Duckett – p68 (and broke 3 pole sections in the wind)

3^rd 62-14 – Mark Poppleton – p55

4^th 62- 2 – Ken Rayner – p32

5^th 57-13 – Steve Seagar – p11 (yes I did get some stick for resting it yesterday!)

6^th 53-14 – Bob Gullick – p62

 

Silvers

1^st 18- 6 – Clint Wotlyla – p28

2^nd 15-10 – Tom Mangnall – p26

3^rd 13- 1 – Paul Elmes – p17

4^th 12- 8 – Chris Fox – p41