08/12/13 - Lands End - Johns

Weight - 40lb 15oz (10lb 11oz - silvers)
Catch - 6 Carp, 25 Skimmers, 4 Crucians, 3 Perch, 2 Roach, 2 Rudd
Weather - Mild, mostly sunny with a light breeze
Match - Winter League - 7th out of 36 (2nd - section)

2^nd round of the Lands End Winter League and it was my turn for Johns (no.3) Lake. After the first rounds disappointment I was really hoping for a decent draw and any of the corners would do me. With only 2 tickets (p41 & p46) left in the bucket Tom Thick plucked 46, leaving me with 41. Result, happy with that, at least I would have a few bites – I hoped, particularly since there was a little more colour than expected in the water.

For company I had Tony Rixon on p42, who seemed to be enjoying the fact I was pegged next to me! Opposite was Pete Nurse (p70) and Gordon Canning s (p68). I wasn’t convinced I would catch too much fishing short, so focused on 2 swims, feeding 4s and some micros at the end of the spit and towards the aerator in open water. I also started feeding some caster into the right hand corner.

Starting on corn hoping for an early carp, but other than a few knocks had no proper bites, so a switch to my soft pellet rig (HB Chump 0.3g >.10 > 18 silverfish pellet) and soon started catching 4oz skimmers. The aerator swim seemed to be best by toss potting a few 4s and micros and since I wasn’t catching too many from the spit started pinging 4s over the top to draw some carp in.

After 3hrs I was still catching mostly skimmers, plus a couple crucians and a 2lb perch all on 4mm expander or a JPZ. I lost 2 decent fish, the first I’m not sure where it was hooked, but the hook pulled half way back, but the 2^nd fish was definitely a carp hooked in the rear which eventually snapped me as it tried to bury itself into the left hand weed bed. The lack of carp was a little concerning and I was thinking about sticking with the silvers, but both my far lines were fading. A look in front of the spit only produced a couple of small fish and fishing into the corner resulted in a small perch.

As far as the section was concerned, everyone seemed to have caught a couple of carp, so it was likely I was last in section, although my silvers was probably top. The next hour was quiet, but noticed a few carp starting to move around in amongst the bushes along the right hand bank. So far I had ignored feeding here because underwater branches meant it’s a bit of a tackle graveyard, however since the silvers had slowed I felt I had no choice but to give it a go.

I kept feeding caster and some dead maggot into the right hand corner, plus 4s & micros at 13m along the end bank, where I hoped was a clear a spot, although I lost 2 hooklengths striking into an unseen branch. During the last 90mins (Ackoo Carrat 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911) produced 6 carp, 2 from the 13m swim on 6mm pellet expander and 4 from the corner including a double figure common on double caster.

A pleasing end to the match and thankful to have claimed 2^nd section and a de-fault section pick up as Tom won the lake thanks to 3 large carp caught late on. Overall Johns Lake fished better than Speci and Match, however to put into context we could be at Westerleigh Lakes was won with only 18lb and there was only 3 weights over 10lb. Hopefully there will be a little more colour in Match and Speci by the 3^rd round on 5 January 2014. Draw will be 8.30, fishing 10-3.30.

1^st 72- 4 – Mark Poppleton – p33
2^nd 71-13 – Dave Wescott – p11
3^rd 55-15 – Tom Thick – p46
4^th 52- 4 – Bob Gullick – p7
5^th 49-15 – Mark Brennan – p58
6^th 44- 1 – Pete Nurse – p70

Silvers
1^st 22-12 – Mark Poppleton – p33
2^nd 20- 8 – Bob Gullick – p7
3^rd 14- 5 – Tom Mangnall – p40