Thursday 6 November 2014

01/11/14 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight - 77lb 13oz (23lb 10oz - silvers)
Catch - 9 Carp, 7 F1s, 5 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Tench
Weather - cloudy, cool breeze
Match - 3rd out of 7 (1st - silvers)

It was nice to return to Lands End and reports suggested it was still fishing well. Only 7 for today’s match, so plenty of room on Match Lake, but too much room can create areas for the fish to hide away. I wasn’t too concerned where I drew and was happy enough with peg 18.

Whilst setting up there were a few fish moving around, particularly between the islands, so it was looking good for a few fish.

On the all-in, a small handful of 4s/corn was thrown to my right by the tree and I then shipped out to 16m slapping an 8mm pellet around to the surface feeding fish. Well that didn’t work and after 10mins decided to fish properly so cupped in some pellet/corn by the island. Whilst that settled I went down to the tree and had an 8lb carp straight away on double corn.

Back out towards the island, toss potting pellet, fishing a hair rigged 8mm. This produced a few fish, but my 5 fish at the end of the first hour was already a couple of fish behind Steve Seagar on p20, who was also fishing the far bank.

After 90mins the fishing became more difficult and started pinging pellet to my left along the island which produced a couple more carp, but it was hard going. It was also noticeable the wind had increased and it felt cooler than earlier in the day.

By the mid way point I was up to 8 carp and 2 F1s, but the fish seemed to have backed off the island. I had been feeding meat at 6m, which only produced a roach. It fact I didn’t have anything else off the meat line all match.

I needed to make something happen, just to put some fish into the net. Steve was obviously leading the way, but beyond that I thought I was on par with Jim Jenner on p15 and I heard Mike Duckett on p11 was catching. So a cup of caster was fed in front of p17 pallet and pellet at 14m towards the gap between the islands.

The caster swim produced a big tench and skimmer. Unfortunately I lost a couple fish which I assume were perch, including one of about 2lb which threw the hook as it surfaced and with my recent history of losing money winning fish I hoped it wouldn’t cost me today.

The right hand swim by the tree which I kept topped up with pellet, only produced a big skimmer. As far as I could see Ray White opposite on p5 was the only one targeting silvers and I was fairly sure we had a similar weight so far, but needed a few more skimmers & F1s. My 14m pellet line really produced the goods with a number of F1s and skimmers falling to 4mm expander. Which was just as well because the middle part of the match the carp seemed to have switched off, but even with my silvers felt I was too far behind Steve who started to catch again in the last 90mins. Dale & Jim also started catching again and I thought they would both beat me. However, if I could get a run of carp I might be able to claim 2nd. As it turned out I only managed 1 carp of 11lb and decided to stay focused on the silvers.

Ray was first to weigh and his silver went 18-10 which was a surprise and I really wasn’t sure whether I had that, although I knew it would be close. Mike on p11 plonked 94lb on the scales and vindicated my decision to target the silvers at the half way stage of the match. I think Ray was a little disappointed when I put 23lb of silvers on the scales.

In the end a nice day and looking forward to Lands End Winter league next month. There are a couple of spaces available, so if you are interested please let me know.

1st - 99-14 - Steve Seagar - p20
2nd - 94- 2 - Mike Duckett - p11
3rd - 77-13 - Ken Rayner - p18
4th - 77- 4 - Jim Jenner - p15

Silvers
1st - 23-10 - Ken Rayner - p18
2nd - 18-12 - Ray White - p5

No comments: