Sunday 13/04/2008 Carps AC - Landsend Fishery

At last drew Specimen Lake peg 34, and my good friend and travelling partner Darren Gillman drew next door peg 33 (corner peg). I new I was up against it on the silver pool, however, corner pegs aren't usually that great for silvers. Will I beat Darren on silvers?

I set up three 4x14 Jolly floats, one black top for 11-o-clock and one yellow top at 1-o-clock due to differing light at 9 metre. The yellow top also plumbed up for my top set caster rig. I also set up another black top for the margin with small pieces of paste over my new ground bait mix, just up the inside shelf. The plan was to feed at 11-o-clock then fish the 2-0-clock and vis versa. I started by potting in 250ml of ground bait at 4 metres down the peg. I then started to loose feed caster at top set distance directly in front. I started at the 11-o-clock with 4mm GOT expander, which resulted in some Crucians and Skimmers. I knew at this point that the bright sun was going to be a problem for the fishing in general. I kept switching 11 to 1-o-clock and managed to keep the odd Skimmer and Bream coming. I switched to my top set line over the catser which resulted in 15 small Perch and three 1lb Roach.

I switched back to the 7 metre line which taught me why the lake is named Specimen. My next three fish weighed 48lb 8oz which included a personal best Mirror of 18lb. I landed another five Carp by the whistle.

At the weigh in I thought both Bill Ferris and Darren had beat me on the Silvers. However, thanks to Darren losing a Tench near the end I beat them both by one pound! I weighed 20lb 9oz of silvers for third in the silvers and a winning total weight of 102lb 12oz and a pick up of £80. I have now qualified for all of the three Carps AC mania's.

John Bradford pictured (top right) had peg 20 on Match Lake drawn for him and he doubled the next silvers weight with 41lb 6 oz of mainly Roach! John caught on caster shallow and also qualifies for the Carpsmania final.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 102-12-0 peg 34
2. Rod Wotton 96-04-0 peg 32
3. Bob "The Bread" Price 42-03-0 peg 15
4. Glenn Bailey 41-15-0 peg 13
5. John Bradford 41-06-0 peg 20
6. Steve Evans 40-12-0 peg 6

Top Silvers:

1. John Bradford 41-15-0 peg 20
2. Bela Bakos 23-03-0 peg 19
3. Mike Nicholls 20-09-0 peg 34
4. Bill Ferris 19-4-0 Peg 36