09/05/21 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight - 47lb 8oz (15lb 7oz - silvers)

Catch - 7 Carp, 44 Tench, Crucians, F1s, Skimmers, Roach & Rudd

Weather - Strong southerly breeze, mostly sunny, becoming increasingly cloudy.

Match - Haines Summer Series - rd 1 

Today was the first round of the Haines Summer Series run by Steve Martin and we were at a much changed Lands End, a venue where I was previously a regular, but stopped going following my move to Melksham from Bristol. This was my first visit since Gary made some significant changes. So the venue looked great with much of the bushes and trees cut back as well as new platforms. Also 170 carp had been removed from Match lake and put into I believe no.4 lake and replaced with F1s, crucians and tench. I think resolving the low water levels and silt should be the next task.

Originally, we were supposed to be on Match and Speci lake, but due to a booking error we only had Match lake. Fortunately, a couple dropped out today leaving 17, which still meant the pegging would be a little tight, but not too bad.

I found myself on p11 and my section ran from p10 to p17. Looking at past results p11 best weight was 37lb, with the better weights typically coming from between 13 to 17. That said the southerly wind was blowing into my bank and I fancied it for a few.

On the all-in I started short on pellet, hoping for an early carp, but only caught tench, crucians and F1s. I tried by the island, which resulted in very little. So, decided to concentrate on the short line and later an 11m swim at the bottom of the far shelf, feeding 4s (flavoured with So Simple Blue Ice) and occasionally micros, fishing a 4mm expander. To be fair it’s been quite good, catching mostly tench, a few crucians and F1s, plus a big skimmer. However, I noticed that those opposite in my section were now regularly catching carp and I really to catch a few myself.

I had been pinging pellet towards the rope at 14m and started to feed pellet by the p12 pallet in preparation, but unfortunately the long pinging line only produced more small tench and I never had a bite by the p12 pallet.

In the end I managed to find some carp in the last 90mins (5.5hr match) toss potting 6s, with a hair rigged 6mm kriller pellet 16m along the end bank, although the wind made things a little uncomfortable at times.

Come the end, I had the best weight on my bank, but struggled to compete with the pegs opposite, who had also lost as much as they caught! To be honest I was left wondering whether I should have switched to fishing the end bank sooner, as I was only 12lb off claiming 2^nd in section, instead of 5th.  On reflection the fact I had so many small fish in front of me and the fact I could only catch carp in one area would suggest I was on the fringe of the main school.

1. 87-  0 - Cosmo - p16

2. 59-  1 - Nigel Reeves - p13

3. 57-  5 - Steve Martin- p17

4. 54-  6 - Allan Oram - p15

5. 47-  8 - Ken Rayner - p11