28/09/14 - Lands End - Match

Weight - 107lb 13oz
Catch - 17 Carp, 4 Skimmers, 4 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Ide, 1Perch
Weather - Warm & muggy
Match - Avon Angling Open - 8th out of 20 (3rd on lake)

20 at Lands End meant 10 on each of Match and Speci. I actually fancied drawing Speci, but found myself on p22, which hasn't been a great area this summer. Fortunately I had some space to my left with Gordon Canning on P19 and John Bradford on P24 to my right.

 

As I was setting up I wasn’t sure whether to target carp or silvers, but decided to start on carp and see where we go. The water levels are down by at least a foot and in desperate need of some rain. I was in 2 minds about targeting the far side, but a few fish moving around by the island persuaded me to set up a rig. I also mixed up some groundbait to fish the margins for later.

 

On the all-in 6s were feed at 5m left and right, and meat/hemp in front of the p21 pallet. Starting across by the island on meat, feeding meat & hemp, I soon had a carp, followed by another 10/15mins later, but I also lost a couple of foul hookers. To change things around I started pinging 6s to the point of the island, but again struggled to properly hook fish.

 

The 5m pellet lines produced 2 skimmers, but it was very slow and decided to concentrate on the carp, instead of the silvers since John had a few skimmers and I fully expected Nigel on p13 to be catching. Back out by the island it was still a struggle getting a proper bite so decided to knock up some paste, which eventually improved my catch rate. However I was already behind Trigger (p17), Tim Clark (p15) and Gordon.

 

My 5m pellet lines still failed to produce and therefore switched to feeding meat at 7m which improved matters periodically a catching a few more carp.

 

With 2.5hrs to go, it was time to try the margins and each side got 3 cups of groundbait, which certainly brought the fish in. Starting on a bunch of maggots resulted in a 10lber, but the fish were ripping up the bottom and not settling, which resulted in loads of liners and a couple of foul hookers.

 

Cutting down on the groundbait and increasing the amount of caster & corn helped, but in the end simply feeding pellet & corn with double corn proved to be best. Unfortunately, I worked this out too late and didn’t give myself enough time to catch the extra 4 fish needed to frame. To be honest I became pre-occupied with using groundbait, when I should have struck with feeding particles.

 

1^st 202-14 – Craig Edmunds – p17

2^nd 144- 2 – Tony Rixon – p40

3^rd 129- 0 – Tim Clarke – p15

4^th 123- 0 – Chris Fox – p25

5^th 114-13 – Paul Elmes – p38

6^th 110- 5 – Steve Seagar – p33

 

Silvers

1^st 29- 5 – Nick Collins – p34

2^nd 24- 1 – Tom Mangnall – p29

3^rd 18- 2 – Nigel Bartlett – p13