Wednesday - 11/11/2009 - Landsend Open - John Walter Lake

What a nice family the Duckett’s are. On the journey down I had my Oil warning come on. So I stopped and topped up with the little bit of oil I had left. I kept an eye open for a garage but they all seem to have close down. Within a few Miles of the fishery the oil warning light came on again. Lucky enough Mike and Nick Duckett sorted me out enough oil to see me back to a garage in Wells. – Thanks matey’s, very much appreciated.

The match was switched from Specimen Lake to John Walter Lake (also known as the “Third Lake”), as there was more space for the anglers fishing. I was pleased with this as it would give me a chance to practice for when in two league matches time I will be fishing this lake.

I drew peg 61, some of the comments indicated that I might be at the wrong eng of the Lake. I set up a caster rig for perch and corn down the RH margin. I also set up two 4x12 Jolly’s for fishing down the track at 10 metre – one for the caster/2mm pellet and maggot at 10-o-clock and another of the same for corn at 2-o-clock. I fed both lines accordingly, but started on the caster for perch. This was very slow and resulted in five small Perch a couple of small Crucians and some small Ronnie’s. I switched to the 10-o-clock position and had a couple more small Crucians. I then had a 3lb Carp and one foul hooker. I decided to convert the swim to caster, still feeding a few micros in with the caster. I then had a few fish on the drop. So I spread out my no 11’s over the 4 foot full depth. After five more Carp I heard that four or five anglers were beating me, however, the Silvers were still up for grabs. I then found by leaving out the micro and just kinder potting caster I found some Ronnie’s and Crucians. I finished the match with 28lb 12oz of Carp and 8lb 14oz of Silvers. This put me 8^th overall and second in the Silvers and a defaulted pick up of £30, thanks to Eddie Wynne!

It was fitting that today on Armistice Day a member of our armed forces won the match. However, Adam Palmer didn’t do it the easy way from peg 68. On the two hour mark Adam hooked the far bank island and whilst gently trying to pull it free, broke his number six section (well it was a Maver Pole – what did he expect)? Adam tried a number of times to recover it using his remaining pole sections only to be defeated by the elastic pulling it back. He then had the choice to either go and fetch the boat from Match Lake peg 1 or go in. Easy choice for a British Royal Marine who’s paid to swim about in freezing cold water. Adam stripped down and waded out to the track and recovered his sections. He then had to repair the sections so that he could still fish to within 1 foot of the far bank. Adam finished the match well ahead with 76lb 4oz. The majority of his fish fell to corn hook bait.

Adam’s travelling partner Steve Kedge (pictured above right with a typical quality Common Carp) finished third with 54lb 8oz. However, runner up on the day from peg 70 was Eddie Wynne (pictured right in the dark) with 57lb 4oz which included the winning Silvers weight of 10lb 10oz.

Full Result:

1. Adam Palmer 76-04-0 peg 68

2. Eddie Wynne 57-04-0 peg 70

3. Steve Kedge 54-08-0 peg 58

4. Dale Hanson 51-07-0 peg 42

5. Mark Leahy 48-0-0 peg 41

6. John Bradford 47-10-0 peg 66

Top Silvers:

1. Eddie Wynne 10-10-0 peg 70

2. Mike Nicholls 8-14-0 peg 61