Monday, 19 August 2013

18/08/13 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 92lb 10oz (7lb 6oz - silvers)
Catch - 22 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 2 Rudd, 1 Perch, 1 Roach
Weather - Sunny, but windy
Match - West Tackle Open - 2nd out of 12

Originally this match was suppose to be on Match and Speci, but with the final total being only 12 we were all on Match. At least today was drier, but the forecast westerly wind would blow straight down the lake.
 
Along with peg 3, 24 is one of my least favourite pegs on the lake. Whilst there tends to be small resident carp, it usually difficult to compete with the middle pegs and as such I didn’t think I could frame. However, with the wind blowing in, I thought silvers might be my best option, because those skimmers like a bit ripple over there heads.
 
For company I had Tom Thick on p1 (so another quiet match!) and an angler I’ve never met before on p22. The plan was to catch silvers on soft pellet (HB chump 0.4g &; .12 > 16 B911) at 6m and 13m over groundbait and pellet. After feeding both swims, I started down the right hand edge towards the tree (HB AK47 0.1g & .17 > 16 carp feeder) with hair rigged 8mm meat, tosspotting meat and hemp, just in case there was plenty of carp about.
 
After 45mins I had 3, plus a rudd, but was hardly setting the world alight. Nick Merry on p21 got off to a flyer with some proper carp from the island and Tom already nearly had 10lb of silvers from the right hand tree.
 
Having topped up both silvers swims and letting them settle, the response was disappointing with a small roach and a hand size skimmer that dropped off. Due to the increasingly strong wind, the long line was discarded, because presentation was becoming difficult, so focused on the 6m line, regularily feeding 4s, hoping the skimmers would turn up.
 
Another try down the right hand bank, produced a couple more carp, but I had to wait for a bite and was just thinking I was going no where fast, when I hooked a fish that I thought was foul hooked. But it wasn’t, it was just big. At just under 11lb it was a scale perfect common and was a very welcome bonus.

Bob Gullick had walked past to collect something from his car and reported it was fishing hard. Mark Brennan was probably leading with 8 carp, which meant my 6 wasn’t far away.

Decision time, carp or silvers? On the basis I was struggling to catch any silvers, I struck with the carp. My 6m line proved a useful fall back swim when I needed to rest the right hand bank swim, producing 3 big skimmers and a carp.

The 2nd half of the match was much better and I caught up both Tom & Nick. Continually toss potting meat and hemp was producing more bites, although I couldn’t catch more than 3 fish before I had to pot in more food to pull the fish back from under the tree. I did try the left hand margin, but never had a bite. Whether it was because there was angler on p22 I don’t know.

By the all out I was fairly sure I had beaten Tom & Nick who both suffered a slow last couple of hours and the post match chat suggested that Mark B had caught, but everyone else had struggled. I was last to weigh and my 92lb was slightly more than I thought. I had 12 carp in the last 2 hours weighing 35lb and my first net of 10 carp weighed 50lb.

Really pleased to have come 2nd from the peg, although I think the wind blowing into the peg helped. Generally though the fish didn’t really want it today, with many complaining about seeing loads of fish by the island, but they just wont feed.

1st 101-11 - Mark Brennan - p15
2nd 92-10 - Ken Rayner - p24
3rd 77- 8 - Tom Thick - p1
4th 74-14 - Steve Ince - p7
5th 69-10 - Mark Poppleton - p11
6th 62- 6 - Nick Merry - p21

Silvers
1st 13- 0 - Steve Ince - p7
1st 13- 0 - Tom Thick - p1
3rd 11- 6 - Steve Musitano - p5 

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