11/01/14 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 47lb 1oz (6lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch - 8 Carp, 3 Perch, 1 F1, 1 Skimmer, 1 Roach
Weather - Chilly start. Bright & sunny
Match - Open - 1st out of 13

This up & down weather is really having an effect on the fishing. After a week of mild and thankfully drier conditions, this morning was a little chilly, as well as being very bright, which is hardly ideal. However the sun brought out 13 anglers from their festive slumber and we were all on Match Lake, which meant there were a few pegs to avoid. Fortunately I found myself on p19, which whilst it hasn’t been the best peg recently it’s usually worth a few fish. I was just relieved to avoid the bottom end of the lake.

 

For company Andy Hembrow was on p21 and Steve Martin on p17.  I did set up a rig to fish the top of the shelf, but never got around to using it, simply because it was bright & clear and experience has told me it usually not worth bothering with. So 3 rigs were set to fish in the deeper water:-

- HB Frostie 0.3g > .10 .18 silverfish pellet

- Ackoo Carbon Carrat 0.3g > .12 > 18 B911 (strung out)

- Ackoo Carrat 0.3g > .14 > 14 B911

 

After feeding some micros & 4s, left & right, I started by the left hand bush on prawn over caster and soon had a 1lb perch, followed by a smaller one. By the end of the hour I had a 3lb carp on dead maggot over the right hand pellet, then an 8lber on prawn from the bush.

 

Unfortunately the second hour didn’t produce anything, other than a lost foul hooker. Everyone was struggling, so it was just a case of keep rotating swims. The left hand bush swim produced one more perch, as well as a couple of bumped fish. It doesn’t seem to matter what kit you use, you will lose a few perch!

 

For the rest of the match it was a case of switching left and right, initially with dead maggot, but I lost a couple foul hookers which snapped my hooklengths, so decide to fish the strung out rig with 4mm expander. By lifting and dropping I had fewer foul hookers, hooking more carp in the mouth, plus a big skimmer and a F1.

 

During the middle of the match I was surprised to look down at my watch to see there was only 75mins left, so I must have been enjoying myself. Just hope I get some decent draws for the Viaduct series.

 

1^st 47-1 Ken Rayner – p19

2^nd 32-11 Steve Martin – p17

3^rd 29- 7 Rod Wootton – p9

4^th 26-12 Mike Duckett – p11

5^th 22- 4 Andy Hembrow – p21

6^th 17-12 Jim Jenner – p13

 

Silvers

1st 11- 9 Andy Hembrow - p21

2nd 6-13 Chris Fox - p3

3rd 6-12 Mike Duckett - p11