Wednesday 18/05/2011 - Avon Angling Top Four Open - Landsend Fishery - Match Lake

I have often discussed the merits of fishing just the top four on venues like Landsend Match and Specimen Lake with Tony Rixon. I feel anglers miss out on a lot of sport ignoring this line. In the Midlands they fish short on most of the venues these days and catch a lot of fish. So to surprise, Tony organised a top four only match for his next match at Landsend. I felt obliged to book in. I had a phone call from Tim Ford who had managed to get a day off so I was driving and Tim was buying the breakie at Abbies in Bishopsworth village.

This is the first time back to Landsend for some while and it was a nice surprised to see how much work Mike Duckett had put in. He's installed new toilets (Male and Female), rearranged the Cabin and most important of all cut the trees back on Match Lake. I must say I did find it a bit depressing sat under these trees in the dead of winter with the thawing frost dropping on your head. However it's nice and bright now and you can see most of the anglers on your bank. Well done Mike. I hope the Golden Delicious tree on Specimen is still there though.

Unfortunately it was another late draw at 11:00, fishing 12 to 18:00. I got Tony to draw for me and out comes peg 15. I was happy with this as I haven’t fished the peg before. For company I had Tom Thick on peg 16. Whilst Tom was shotting in up he foul hooked two Carp, so a few about then. I set up two paste rigs, one that would be utilised in both the Right and left hand margins, although the RH had a “pruned tree” sticking out of it which was about one metre from my platform, so I was thinking it would be suicidal to fish here. I set up a Ronnie rig for the caster and a 4x14 Jolly for out in front (I needn’t mention I was fishing the top four in all the swims)! I started on the Jolly with a 3mm expander over kinder potted micro and hard 4’s and had a 2lb flying Skimmer fish put in. I then lost a foul hooked Carp. So I re-fed and went over the Ronnie line which I had been feeding from the start with caster and had a quick run of Ronnie’s and Perch. However, it was fishing strange as I couldn’t keep them coming with is drying up. I think the swim was being disrupted by Carp because if I stopped feeding and go back in I would have another run of Perch, the Ronnies didn't return and weren't really feeding today. I decided to stay with the Jolly and 3mm expander and had caught the odd Bream and Ide interrupted by the occasional Carp. Just after midway the swim had died and I think that was because of ffocusing the feed too much using the kinder pot. So I decided to start loose feeding wetted micro by hand (you can do this at two metres) and do a bit of advertising. This worked well initially catching a few more Skimmers and Carp. However, I think I might have over done it as I started to foul hook Carp. I don’t think they were really feeding today, just disrupting things. I think I lost seven and landed seven. My Carp weighed in at 32lb and my Silvers 17lb for a total of 49lb which left me fifth overall.

I did try the paste a couple of times but it wasn't really working today.

Just before the whistle Tom Thick, whilst playing a Carp dropped his landing net in the water and had to get down on his knees to retrieve it. I caught him on camera just recovering his demeanour enough to land the fish (pictured right - I though you needed to fish in front of your seat box).

The match was won by Dan White (pictured bottom right with some of his catch) with 84lb 12oz from peg 21. Dan caught steady all match using meat hook bait over meat.

The Silvers went to Silvers venue expert John Bradford with 27lb 14ox from peg 5. John fed chopped worm and caster fishing either small pieces of worm or caster on the hook.

I thought it was a good match with seven Silvers weights over 20lb and I am sure there would have been more Carp caught had they not been playing silly beggers by keeping their mouths closed. Tony is planning another shortly so discuss it with him in his Shop.

Full Result:

1. Dan White 84-12-0 peg 21
2. Tony Rixon 60-06-0 peg 3
3. Tim Ford 55-03-0 peg 7
4. Tom Thick 54-0-0 peg 16
5. Mike Nicholls 49-0-0 peg 15
6. Alan Oram 48-12-0 peg 12

Top Silvers:

1. John Bradford 27-14-0 peg 5
2. Alan Oram 22-08-0 peg 12