19/02/12 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 40lb 3oz (14lb 9oz – silvers)
Catch – 13 Roach, 10 Crucians, 5 Carp, 5 Rudd, 4 Skimmers, 3 F1, 2 Tench, 2 Perch
Weather – Frosty start. Mostly sunny, cold NW wind.
Water Temp – 7.3c – 8.1c
Match – Lands End Winter League – 1st out of 11 lake (3rd overall out of 33)

Well Sapphire (our Blue Staffie pup) had her deformed front right leg removed on Tuesday. I was expecting a dog to be laid up for a week or so, but no she is already running around and I can already see the benefits of the leg being removed. Dogs certainly have loads of PMA.

Back to the fishing and I was glad to get back to fishing after a period of cold/flu and guested for the Lands End Winter League. Tony put me on Johns Lake, which was like a draw bags convention with a couple of the league leaders in attendance.

I found myself on p70, which I thought would be Ok for a few fish as there are usually a few in residences. The concern however was following a week of mild weather, it was frosty overnight and a cold NW wind was blowing down the lake. Fortunately I was a little sheltered from the worst of it, but there was quite a bit of tow.

Settled on 3 swims feeding a small amount of 3mms and caster at 11m by the weed bed and 3 & 4s went in at the bottom of the shelf at the end of the spit. Whilst I let that settle I started off fishing into the corner, where the spit starts to come out into the lake feeding caster, fishing maggot or caster. Rig wise I was using a Hillbilly Frostie 0.3g in the deeper water and a 0.2g in tight to the far spit. The HB frostie has become my favorite winter float, being very similar to the Preston Chianti, but has a wire stem and nylon tip, offering great stability and sensitivity. Hook for the day was an 18 silverfish pellet and .10 bottom.

After an hour I had a few rudd, roach, a 1lb+ perch and a 4lb carp. So not a bad start and it gave me the time to let the pellet swims settle, which had also been topped up.

First drop in on 4mm expander by the weed bed and I had a crucian. For the next couple of hours I caught consistently toss potting a pinch of 3mms very put in, catching mostly silvers and the occasional carp. I did lose 2, a 5lb ghostie which went mental when I got it on the top kit and another which was a bit too quick for me as it dived into the weed bed.

I rotated swims, but the corner swim wasn’t producing anything over an 1oz and the end of the spit was also proving difficult, so I switched to potting caster on the end of the spit, because presentation wasn’t right in the wind for pellet, however despite regular top ups all I could catch was small roach and 15m is long way for small fish.

As for my weed bed swim, this was starting to prove very slow, but at least I was picking up the odd fish, still on pellet. The jungle drums suggested the lake was fishing hard for most. I was sure I was ahead of Eddie on 42 and Bela on 68, but Mike Nichols on 41 had caught a couple of carp, so very close. The only other person I heard that was catching was Tom Thick on 58.

With an hour left I started to pot a little more pellet by the weed bed, which produced 2 more carp in the last 30mins.

Mike was first to weigh and I have to say I was very surprised when he put 15lb of silvers on the scales, plus his 3 carp for 21lb. So 37lb and I wasn’t sure, since I thought I had 35-40lb. As the weigh in continued it was obvious most had struggled, with Tom weighing 34lb I was at least guaranteed a place. Fortunately my silvers weighed 14-9 and my 5 carp 25-10, so 40-3 in total and a lake win.

Really pleased with how the match went and I have gained a lot of confidence recently fishing soft pellet, which showed today.

1st 63- 0 - Dale Housen – p21
2nd 58-14 – Phil Harding – p1
3rd 40- 3 – Ken Rayner – p70
4th 39- 4 – Tony Rixon – p19
5th 37- 2 – Mike Nicholls – p41
6th 36- 4 – Clint Wotlyla - 31