Sunday 22/01/2012 - Landsend Individual League - Specimen, Match and John Walter Lakes

After breakfast in the Fountain Café with Bela (who didn’t eat all his beans) it was down the A38 to Landsend where we were both guesting again in the Landsend league, which was a free draw (all Lakes in the same draw bag). I wonder about this year’s mild weather, this morning the birds were singing again at dawn. And the sun was up a bit earlier and very bright (see picture right of the sun rising over the Somerset levels), However, I was slightly concerned about the strong gusting winds.

I was hoping for a draw on John Walter's Lake (Third Lake), I think I was the only one. I wasn’t disappointed when I pulled peg 50. However, whilst struggling up to the Lake against the high gusting wind, I started to doubt my choice. Arriving at the peg which allowed me to get my box right close to the water level the wind didn’t appear to be that bad. It was surprising to see at least five Anglers draw the Lake again, with Jason Radford (peg 41) and Alan Oram (peg 51) on the previous same pegs. Lady luck I guess.

I set up the same rigs as the previous match, one for fishing down the track and the other for the RH margin. On the whistle I initially fed the margin with a big pot of micro and caster, string on the 4mm expander pellet down the track over kinder potted micro. I had a small Ronnie first cast on the drop. The wind was so strong that the opposing tow was like fishing the river Avon in summer. To get better presentation I parked the back shot and used the wind to hold back the float (as you do on the river in the upstream wind). I started to catch a few small Skimmers and the odd Crucian. I then kept missing bites on the 4mm expander. Thinking this was small fish I slipped on a 2mm expander and missed a very positive bite first put in. As the pellet was so small I needed to ship back to see if it was still on the hook – it wasn’t. Out again with the same and an 8lb Common took it’s time getting in the net. With these hefty fish thrashing around in the swim the tendency was for the Caro to back off, so it was a question of catching a few more Silvers before the carp arrived back. This was how my matched progressed – a Carp then a few Silvers. Half way through I did have a bit of bad luck when I hooked a Carp and simultaneously my pole was hit by an extremely high gust of wind which I could not defend, pulling the hook from the fish – bugger. What made things worse next cast I foul hooked a carp which wasn’t on for long, its scale was big enough to put in the Carp net! With 1 ½ hours to go my arthritic hands were so painful fighting the wind that I had a try in the margin with triple dead red and was rewarded with a 4lb Carp which I nearly got in my landing net, but not quite – would it go in or out – out it was and  off the hook - bugger. I was tempted to stay in the margin drinking coffee, but all it was now offering was miniscule Perch. So I spent the rest of the match fighting the bloody wind. My for Carp weighed in at 27lb 7oz and my Silvers 7lb for a total of 34lb 7oz which was good enough for a lake second and a lake first in the Silvers, which was coin back up in case I didn’t frame. I was surprised that my weight also put me seventh overall in the match.

The match was won by Tony Rixon from peg 32 on Specimen Lake with 59lb 15oz. Tony caught on …see his blog – you don’t give an Angler of Tony’s ability a flyer peg like this with out him making full use of it – do you Clint – lesson learnt. I am pleased Clint pick up the Lake Silvers by default, especially after the early tantrums.

The Silvers was won by Fabio (pictured right with his Landlord) from Specimen peg 38 with 21lb 10oz Fabio caught decent Skimmers on soft pellet over micro.

Full Result:

1.      Tony Rixon 59-15-0 peg 32

2.      Mike Duckett 53-10-0 peg 31
3.     Brian Shanks 50-0-0 peg ?

4.      Kev Moulton 49-0-0 peg 68

5.      Dale Houseman 46-14-0 peg 33

6.      Bob Gullick 45-12-0 peg 24

7.      Mike Nicholls 34-07-0 peg 50

Top Silvers:

1.      Phil (Fabio) Harding  21-10-0 peg 38

2.      Nick Merry 14-10-0 peg 40

3.      Adrian Jeffery 14-04-0 peg 36