Chatting in the Car Park before the draw at the last SW teams of Four the subject of Nick Collins hair arose and the longevity of same. I said I had a photo of Nick fishing a match on the Bristol Avon circa 1980 which clearly shows Nick with hair – albeit in its twilight. The photo shows Nick landing a Skimmer from the peg two above the Carp Hole on the Chequers section (opposite Fry’s). No he wasn’t shorter then he’s crouching down!! The Skimmer has by now been either, eaten by a Pike or is now 6lb. I fear the latter is the truth.I was told that the main Lake at Plantation was closed which was today’s planned destination. Not being able to confirm or otherwise with anyone I decided to fish one of Rip Off’s Wednesday matches at Landsend. Chatting with John Bradford before the draw about the situation with the Silvers, John told me he’s had a bad spell on the venue drawing Carps pegs 31 and 32 on Specimen Lake. Umm, don’t want to draw there then. In to the bucket and feeling around it felt like there was only one ticket in there. This one ticket just stuck to my hand even though I tried to shake it off for a different one – it must be a good’un! Out comes peg 31. I’m told it’s the best Carp peg in Somerset. Even so I was resolute that I would fish for Silvers hoping the Crucians, F1’s and Skimmers would feed. I set up a 4x14 Top Series, the mandatory paste rig to fish small pieces of paste and two Ronnie rigs – one at depth and the other shallow. I decided to fish the caster short for Ronnie’s and long at 11.5 metres for the Skimmers etc; I started by potting in a full 125ml of wetted micro at 11.5 metres and commenced to loose feed the LH margin. Out with soft pellet and I missed what appeared to be Ronnie bites. So I switched to the corn and soon had a Carp foul hooked in the tail. After a boring frustrating fight I landed an 8lb Mirror with unusual scale pattern. Next put in I had a 12oz Skimmer – good. Next I hooked a Tench which shed the hook near the bank. I then had another 9lb Carp this time in the mouth. The swim then died so I tried small pieces of paste which resulted in a few line bites. I switched to the short Ronnie rig and single caster at full depth and had a run of small Perch and Ronnie’s until I hooked and landed a 11lb Carp on the drop. The swim again died, so I tried the shallow rig and had a few Ronnie’s but I could not keep them there. It appeared that after catching a couple they would scare off. The lake was fishing generally pretty bad, so I opened up a new line with CW&C at 11.5 metres and this resulted in small Ronnie’s tugging at the worm end. I kept switching around the Ronnie rigs with caster catching the odd Silver until the last 40 minutes when in despair I put on a big piece of paste over the micro line and had a 10 lb Carp first put in followed by a lost foul hooker, then another which went round the island trashing my rig. That was the end of the Carp for the day. Back on to the shallow rig until the end, adding a few more ounces to the Silvers. My Silvers weighed in at 12lb 2oz and the four Carp weighed in at 36lb 15oz for a total 49lb 1oz for 6th overall and fourth in the Silvers (near getting in by default as believe it or not Rip off beat me in the silvers by a few ounces). However I didn’t come away empty handed as I noticed a Golden Delicious apple tree in Mike Duckett peg 25. Mike let me have a few fallers – excellent apple – one of my favourites.
The match was won by Jamie Dyte (pictured right) from peg 19 with 94lb 9oz. Jamie catching the majority of his Carp on meat.The Silvers was won by John Bradford from peg 24 with caster caught fish – mainly Perch to 12oz.
Full Result:
1. Jamie Dyte 94-09-0 peg 19
2. Tony Rixon 90-01-0 peg 17
3. Dean Mallin 76-07-0 peg 1
4. Pete Sivell 59-0-0 peg 21
5. Leyton Palmer 49-02-0 peg 29
6. Mike Nicholls 49-01-0 peg 31
Top Silvers:
1. John Bradford 23-12-0 peg 24
2. Nick Duckett 13-08-0 peg 11
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