Weight - 14lb 6oz
Catch - 12 Bream, 7 Roach, 2 Crucian, 2 Rudd, 2 Perch
Weather - Rain all day, cold
Match - Open - 4th out of 8, 1st in silvers
Yippee! Finally picked up some coin and my worst run of results is over, hopefully never to be repeated. Although at one point I did wonder if I was going to have another of those days.
With only 8 anglers booked in, there was always going to be plenty of space for the fish to hide and the two Mikes decided to put more pegs in the area where the fish have recently shown, so 4,6,8,11,13,19,21 & 23 went into the bucket. I was a unhappy to have drawn 23, because this end of the lake has been awful in recent matches and the only consolation was I would have plenty of space, but that in its self could be a problem with no one opposite in peg 1 to push the fish over.
Caster seems to have lost its effectiveness at Lands End, with most of the best silvers net being caught on pellet. Since I didn't think I could compete with the pegs at the top end of the lake on carp, I decided to focus on the silvers and soft pellet.
Micros was deposited at 14.5m at the bottom of the shelf off the point of the island and 4s and micros to my right towards the end bank. My main rig was HB frostie 0.3g, .10 > 18 silverfish pellet. I did have a heavier rig in case the carp turned up - well that rig never got used, other than the first 15mins when I tried corn without success.
First put in with 4mm expander and I had a decent crucian, however over the next 30mins I lost 3 skimmers! Gutted. I did catch a few hand size skimmers, but after an hour I was struggling. My right hand swim failed to produce all match, despite keeping the swim regularly topped up with micros & 4s. To my left I started pinging 4s hoping to draw some fish away from Rod on 21.
Since there was no carp and the skimmers didn't seem to feeding with confidence I needed another back up swim, so I tried tight against the island with maggot/caster. Unfortunately this only produced a couple rudd and a roach. I even tried under that pallets either side of me, but the fish just didn't want to be in the shallower water.
By the half way point I had only added a few more small skimmers and roach, mostly on pellet, but it seemed everyone, except for Allan on 19 was struggling. In an attempt to try and make something happen I starting feeding caster at 5m, which produced a couple of roach and perch, but it was the 14.5m line off the end of the island that was proving to be the best area.
I kept toss potting micros and a few 4s in the hope that the fish would eventually settle and going into the last 90mins I probably had my best period, by fishing a metre beyond my feed. The bigger skimmers returned, but keeping them on the hook was the tricky bit, because they were so lightly hooked, which indicated they weren't feeding with confidence. My left hand swim also started showing signs of life over the loose feed pellet with 3 decent skimmers, including a 2.5lber on the all out.
It was a surprise the match fished as hard as it did, but when the fish have plenty of space to hid, they usually do in the colder weather. Mike West said they were topping all day in peg 16. With a good final 90mins I was hopefully of picking up in the silvers and the post match chat suggested I had, so when it was confirmed I was really pleased, as well as relieved!
1st 67- 8 - Allan Oram - p19
2nd 22-13 - Mike West - p13
3rd 14-12 - Rod Wootton - p21
4th 14- 6 - Ken Rayner - p23
5th 14- 4 - Dave Wescott - p6
Silvers
1st 14- 6 - Ken Rayner - p23
2nd 8- 8 - Allan Oram - p19
3rd 7-12 - Rod Wootton - p21
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