26/03/17 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 15lb 4oz
Catch - 25 Skimmer, 12 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Hybrid
Weather - Bright & sunny. Easterly breeze
Match - 1st out of 33 - silvers

The final round of the Winter League and I would have preferred to be competing for the overall positions, but a couple of poor early draws saw me targeting the silvers instead. With one round left I was leading the silvers league and there were 6 anglers competing for the top 2 postions. Rich Lovering was one of those, lying in 2nd place and we ended up in the same section, p33 for Rich and P31 for me. At least I could keep an eye on Rich as he was opposite me. This meant one of us was going to miss out, leaving the door open for Mike Duckett, who if he won his section was guaranteed to finish in the top 2.

Another cold night, an easterly wind was still blowing and bright sunny conditions meant the prospects for a good days fishing weren't good.

On the all in micros and a little groundbait was deposited at 14m, left and right. Starting on the banded 4mm amino+ pellet and toss potting a few at a time, I worked my way along the bottom of the far shelf hoping for an early big F1 or skimmer. After 30mins I did have a big F1 and a 12oz skimmer, unfortunately Rich got off to flyer, catching 2 F1s and quite a few skimmers.

To be honest I wasnt that concerned, because the problem with the p33 was the lack of space, which meant your options are limited, However Rich was doing well and kept catching over the next 2 hours.

A switch to a my main rig (SM chimp 0.4g) and 4mm expander, I started catching skimmers. By rotating left and right I kept them coming, slowly catching Rich.

I had been feeding caster at 4m, but only had 4 roach off this line all match, which was disappointing as I had hoped to catch more from here. Even feeding caster down by the left hand pallet failed to produce a bite, so I had to make the long lines work.

By refeeding new swims and continue rotating I managed to keep the skimmers coming, a number of which were in the 12oz-1lb bracket. Just as I thought I might have caught Rich up he landed a big 2-3lb skimmer, fortunately 5mins later I had one of my own.

The second half of the match saw me catch more fish, but Rich kept chipping away with the odd better fish, although he was now being troubled by carp. With an hour to go my swims were fading and started loose feeding 4s to my left, which was a risk with a number of carp moving around, but it is a tactic I've used in the past and caught some quality skimmers. Indeed I managed a few more skimmers to keep the pressure on Rich.

With 10 mins left a switch to banded 4mm pellet, hoping for a better skimmer. A 10oz hybrid was the result and felt I had enough to win, but then Rich nets another F1 and I really wasn't sure. Rich was first to weigh and to be honest he had more than I expected, fortunately that hybrid proved crucial I as weighed 7oz more. Without the hybrid I would have finished the league in 3rd and out of the money. Tight margins!

A special thank you to Andy Seery 'So Simple' for sponsoring the league and well done to all the winners.

1. 162-15 - Gary O'Shea (Preston) - p18
2. 119- 2 - Tony Rixon (Mosella) - p13
3. 79-15 - Lewis Jones (Thyers) - p27
4. 77-15 - Russ Peck - p29
5. 65- 7 - Steve Hutter (Marukyu/PR floats) - p34
6. 60-12 - Andy Hembrow - p55

Silvers
1. 15- 4 - Ken Rayner (Colmic/Marukyu) - p31
2. 14-13 - Rich Lovering - p33
3. 14- 9 - Mike Duckett (Lands End) - p20