Sunday 08/11/2009 - Landsend Individual Winter League Series - Round Two

The rules are, if you fail to turn up and don’t arrange a substitute you have to pay the pools for the match you missed. I think this is an excellent rule. However, as I missed the first match and was unaware if this particular rule (my fault entirely) I had to cough up £50 pools!! So I was more determined than ever to get some return of my investment!

Because I missed the first match three of us had to draw for sections. Luckily I drew A section – Specimen Lake. Better still, I then subsequently drew peg 34. One of my favourite Silvers pegs (I know it’s good for Carp as well as I have done the ton off the peg). Because I had missed the first match (you can’t drop a result) I decided to target the Silvers for some overall coin (based on accumulative Silvers weight over the eight matches). I set up a Ronnie and Perch rig, a whip for the Ronnie’s shallow – all set to fish with caster. I set up a corn rig for 10 o clock at 10 metres and a pellet rig at 2 o clock at 11 metres. On the whistle I potted in 12 pieces of corn and on the other line a pinch of micro. I started on the Ronnie rig and caster anticipating getting some decent Perch. I notice how coloured the water was, which I assumed was due to last week’s high winds and rain. After a few small Ronnie’s it was apparent that the caster wasn’t going to work. I now suspected the corn wasn’t going to work either. So, time to go out on the 11 metre line with 2mm Pellet over the micro. There was some line indication that Carp feeding. I then had a run of four Carp to 6lb. I then had a Carp of 15lb 14oz (just managing to get it in the net on the second attempt). I then lost one of a similar size due to the hook pulling because the hook had straightened. The question remains the same - how much to fed, how often and how and where. I then had a difficult period where I struggled for two hours. I gave the corn a try which resulted in one bite (what a waste if time this proved to be). With half hour to go I switched back to the Ronnie rig, this time with maggot. What difference this made I started to bag on Skimmers, F1’s and Ronnie’s with a Tench chucked in for good measure. I just didn’t want the match to finish – bugger - why didn’t I switch to maggot much early instead of wasting time chasing Carp on pellet and corn. I knew I should have had a practice last Sunday instead of being a sissy and staying home because of the high winds and rain. I weighed 12lb 14oz of Silvers for 4^th Silvers overall and 43lb 9oz of Carp which gave me a total of 56lb 7oz for 7^th overall and a pick up of £55 for 2^nd on the lake and 5 points out of a possible 6 (so some coin back). Another half hour on the maggot would have made all the difference to me.

The match was won by Nick Collier (pictured right with Mike Duckett Fishery Owner paying out the pools - they are there somewhere – sorry about the picture quality this was due to the lighting and weather conditions) from peg 68 on John Walters Lake with 82lb 13oz. Nick caught his fish over to the island and a few down the track using corn hook bait fished over potted corn.

The Silvers was won by Mark Leader with 17lb 13oz from peg 36. Mark caught mainly Chub and Perch fished at 16 metres to the island using caster over potted caster.

Full Result:

1. Nick Collier 82-13-0 peg 68

2. John Bradford 70-09-0 peg 42

3. Mark Poppleton 66-13-0 peg 46

4. Dale Housen 66-03-0 peg 33

5. Mike West 57-0-0 peg 51

6. Mitchell Artuss 56-09-0 peg 70

7. Mike Nicholls 56-07-0 peg 34

Top Silvers:

1. Mark Leader 17-13-0 peg 36

2. Nick Collier 16-05-0 peg 68

3. Larry Burns 14-0-0 peg 5

4. Mike Nicholls 12-04-0 peg 34