19/12/12 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 37lb 1oz (4lb 1oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 8 Perch, 4 Roach
Weather - Wind & rain - but at least it was mild
Match - Avon Angling Open - 8th out of 14

When I got home, explaining how my day went, Sue described it perfectly as a "clumsy day", which seemed adapt.

The night before Sapphire managed to scratch my eye whilst playing with her ball, which meant vision in my right eye was a little blurry at times. With 14 booked in, we were all on match lake and I found myself on peg 8. I'll have to check my birth certificate to make sure I'm not related to Chris Fox, because I've had a poor run of draws recently.

Peg 8 isn't normally in, but with 14 pegs in it had to be included. For company I had Ziggy on p6 and Mike West on p11. The problem with this peg is the fish do settle here when 7 & 11 are in, but when ever you put an angler in this gap, you tend to get a couple of early fish, before they disappear. I can only put it down to this part of the lake being slightly narrower and shallower than other areas.

Must admit I was a little despondent to start with, but I made the effort to turn up in the wind and rain, so I had to give it a go, plus the peg was slightly sheltered from the worst of the wind and the rain wasn't quite as heavy as expected - see trying to stay positive.

My initial thoughts were I would do best targeting the silvers, because with Tony on 21 and Fabio on 19 I thought the main prizes would be sewn up. A couple rigs were set up to cover all bases.

- HB Frostie 0.2g > .10 > 20 silverfish maggot - caster/maggot on top of the shelf
- HB Chump 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet - pellet down the track
- Jolly 4x14 > .10 > 20 silverfish maggot - caster/maggot down the track
- HB shindig 0.2g > .12 > 18 B911 - pellet/corn down the track

On the all in caster was deposited on top of the shelf, caster under p9 platform, as well as at 5m and micro/groundbait to my left at 13m. Starting on corn I searched the swim to my right to see if there was any fish around, however after 15mins & no bites I switched to the top of the shelf. 2 small roach & 1 perch was all I had from there and was never tried again.

A couple perch came from under p9 platform, but it was slow going and it didn't help when I bumped a couple which seemed to have spooked them. The 5m line didn't produce a bite and neither did the left hand pellet line.

After my initial try with corn, I had deposited some micros at 14.5 down the track to my right and started pinging 4s over the top for later. However, due to the lack of response from my other swims I tried this line earlier than I had intended. Just as well, because I had a carp straight away on soft pellet. Next put in I had another, but lost it at the net when my .10 hooklength gave away. My own fault really. A further 2 were foul hooked on the heavier rig only to be lost and much to Tony's amusement I may I lost my cool. Unfortunately the shoal that was there disappeared.

A new swim was set up at the bottom of the far shelf with caster/maggot. A switch to .08 bottom & 22 hook on the jolly rig didn't make any significant difference, so I switched back to .10, which was just as well as I had a few more perch, plus a decent carp on maggot.

The silvers just didn't appear to be feeding, Ziggy to my left packed up an hour early. In fact I had nothing to be left at all and with 45mins left another look over the right hand swim where I had kept pinging in the pellet, produced another 2 carp quickly, before landing my last one before the all-out.

In hindsight I was actually disappointed not to have framed, because other than the top 2 the weights were quiet close, but I didn't help myself losing fish. Other than Mike on p11, my weight was the next best along this bank, so I know where I want to draw on Sunday.

And as I was packing up, I managed to drop my side tray into the lake. I eventually retrieved it, so not one of my better days.

1^st 77-10 – Tony Rixon – p21
2^nd 77- 4 – Mike West – p11
3^rd 46-10 – Phil Harding – p19
4^th 44-11 – Mark Poppleton – p24
5^th 44- 5 – Martin Alexander – p13
6^th 40- 2 – Aaron Britnell – p16
 

Silvers

1^st 9- 3 – Adrian Jeffery – p15

2^nd 8-11 – Mark Poppleton – p24

3^rd 7- 4 – Matt Tomes – p5