22/02/14 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight - 56lb 0oz
Catch - 12 Carp
Weather - Bright & sunny, light breeze
Match - Open - 2nd out of 13

Following on from Wednesdays events it was good to hear the young lad is now home and his injuries weren’t more severe. No doubt he will have some tales to tell the girls when he is older.

With the improving weather I fancied getting out and it appears 12 others agreed with me. Since the wind was forecast to be light, it was decided to fish Johns Lake today, which I wasn’t too disappointed about, because I would be on here for tomorrows winter league and it has been the best lake recently.

With 13 though, it would mean there would be a few pegs to avoid, which fortunately I did, pulling one of my favorite pegs on the lake p58. There doesn’t tend to be many silvers at this end of the lake, so rigs were set up to pellet or meat.
- HB Chump 0.3g > .10 > 18 silverfish pellet (open water)
- Ackoo Carbon Carrat 0.2g > .12 > 18 silverfish pellet (right hand margin & island)
- Ackoo Carrat 0.2g > .14 > 16 B911 (meat)

On the all-in micros & 4s were deposited by the island, 13m in open water and 13m down the right margin. Meat & caster was fed at 5m. After an hour I only had 1 carp from the open water and was beginning to worry the bright flat conditions would have an adverse affect on the fishing. Eric Fourarce (p55) & Andy Hembrow (p53) also had a carp a piece, whilst Rod Wootton (p61) to my left had a couple.

During the 2^nd hour, I had another carp from open water. So far I had been potting a small amount of pellet into the open water, but pinging pellet to the island and down the right margin. A 3^rd carp from the open water persuaded me to stop pinging pellet down the right margin and start potting bait in. There was plenty of carp moving along the end bank between Eric & myself, but they were more interested in basking in the sun than feeding.

The 3^rd & 4^th hours were much better, as I started to catch down the right hand margin. It was never hectic, having to wait for a bite, but at least I was now catching, although some of the fish were quite small.

I decided to keep pinging pellet to the island, but never had a bite, which was a surprise and reinforced my decision to alter my feed down the margin. I only had 1 small carp over the meat line, but wasn’t convinced I got the feeding right. Definitely something for me to work on.

By the all out, reports had filtered down that Tom Mangnall on p42 had caught, as had Mike Duckett on p70. Because I had a few small fish I thought I might have 45-50lb, hoping I had enough to beat Andy and Rod. Fortunately I weighed a little more than expected to claim 2^nd spot behind Tom.

Unfortunately Rod missed out on 3^rd to Andy, after losing a 15lber at the net.

1^st 83- 0 – Tom Mangnall – p42
2^nd 56- 0 – Ken Rayner – p58
3^rd 46- 7 – Andy Hembrow – p53
4^th 44- 5 – Mike Duckett – p70
5^th 39- 1 – Nick Veal – p41
6^th 37- 1 – Rod Wootton – p61

Silvers
1^st 31- 8 – Mike Duckett – p70
2^nd 13- 4 – Nick Veal – p41