09/07/22 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight - 105lb 8oz (7lb 7oz silvers)

Catch - 26 Carp, 7 F1, 4 Roach, 1 Skimmer

Weather - Hot & sunny.

Match - Open (22 fished) - 2nd overall, 1st in section

Back to an old favourite venue that I used to fish most weekends when I lived in Bristol, but it’s been 2 years since I was here, and it was good to catch up with some old faces I haven’t seen for a while.

With 22 fishing we were spread across the match lake and Johns (no3) lake. I was hoping for a draw on match lake as I was due to fish in the next round of Steve Martin’s summer series tomorrow, however I ended up on p58 on Johns lake.

Plumbing up revealed no more than 2ft of water anywhere, which would make spotting feeding fish easier as there would be blumes of mud coming up.

On the all in I tried mugging one or two of the cruisers, but they weren’t interested,

so quickly switched to fishing paste (blue ice : kriller) on the point of the island. This only produced 2 F1.

Next, I tried down by the reed bed to my left and caught 3 carp on paste, before the 4^th was too quick and buried me deep in the reed bed. Whilst trying to free the rig the male joint on the no5 section cracked, so I had no choice but to strip off and go into the reeds to free the rig. The fish was still attached but broke free as I untangled everything.

The bank side chatter suggested it was fishing hard, so I decided to fish hair rigged 4mm pellet at 11m slightly to my right tapping a few 4s. This produced a couple of F1s and roach, plus 2 carp, but it was slow going and foul hookers were a pain as the fish wouldn’t settle.

Down the right margin I had been feeding 4s, fishing paste and again it was slow going, therefore I started to feed micros down both margins which really helped. In the meantime, I tried meat at 13m for a further couple of carp and few silver, but again it was slow.

For the 2^nd half of the match, I decided to focus down the margins on paste as these had been the most consistent area. Down the left margin I switched to a fishing a short kit to try and pull the fish away from the reeds as quickly as possible. However, 3 fish still made it. Those 3lbers are so quick. I managed to pull 2 out, but not the 3^rd.

The right margin continued to be slow although it improved later, but the pleasure anglers on lake 4 probably didn’t help.

Whilst fishing the margins I also started feeding 7mm meat at 6m, which proved to be a useful backup line adding some better sized carp late on.

An enjoyable day, chopping and changing to keep the fish coming and I was pleased to finish 2^nd overall.

1.    126- 3 – Vic Bush – p46 (Johns Lake)

2.    105- 8 – Ken Rayner – p58 (J)

3.      86- 2 – Russ Peck – p70 (J)

4.      74-12 – Rod Wootten – p55 (J)

5.      74- 8 – Simon Hawkins – p7 (Match Lake)