Sunday 06/11/2011 - Avon Angling Teams of Four - Round Five - Lands End - All Lakes

It felt cold this morning at 06-30 simply because we had the first frost of the winter with ice on my car windows. However, it wasn’t widespread as Bela arrived without any on his van. It was an early warning that the fishing might be harder than of late.

Steve Segar deputised for Charlie and pulled a good peg for himself – peg 31 on Specimen Lake. I was pointed in the direction of peg 51 on Johns Walter – otherwise known at the “Third Lake”. This is my filth time on this peg and I reckon I knew it fairly well and wasn’t disappointed with the draw. That was until Nick Harvey arrived and tried to evict me as he was also sent to peg 51. After a quick call to the match organiser, I was able to stay put and Nick was sent to next peg 50. It was beginning to look like I would be the end peg – even better – until the Bristol dyslectic Tackle dealer and match organiser arrived on end peg 55 (pictured right clearing his end bank - was hoping for the big splash).

I set up far too many rigs as I was soon to find that I had them all set to approximately the same depth – three foot! That said I spent 90% of the match on the 4x14 Jolly fished at 11.5 metres, scaling down to 0.12 hook length an a 16 Tubertini 808. I would normally fish a 4x12 but the wind was gusting at me between the two opposite islands. After feeding the LH margin at 5 metres with caster and the far bank swim with some hard 4’s and a few grains of corn. I started on the 3 mm expander fished over kinder potted 20 wetted micro. First cast I missed a bite – second cast I landed a 5lb Common Carp which fought very hard. I then had a run of small Skimmers, Ronnie’s and four small Crucian’s. I then had another Common Carp of 8lb which heralded the end of the Silvers. I then went into struggle mode. So it was the turn of the margin with both corn and double caster – nothing. So it was the turn of my banker swim, 13 metres over to the far bank bush where I still had 3 foot of water just 12 inches off the far bank. First I tried corn – nothing, then pellet – nothing. I decided to put a big pot of dead maggot in on this line and hopefully pull some carp in later in the match. I still kept feeding the margin with caster again as insurance for the later part of the match, however, it proved to be fruitless as did the far bank swim – this was a big disappointment. Nick Harvey of peg 50 had been struggling for a bite but switched to banded 6 mm pellet down the track fished over kinder potted hard 4’s and started to catch some big Carp to 15lb. So I decided to go back on the 11.5 metre line. But the light had changed and I couldn’t see my float which ended up as guess the bite. I did bump something whilst checking for a bite. That decided me to switch lines. I moved into the clear lighter water and switched to corn over corn which accounted for another three decent Carp. My Silvers weighed in at 3lb 13oz and my five Carp went 32lb 5oz for a grand total of 36lb 2oz for fifth in the section. Nick Harvey (pictured lower right with his nice net of Carp – what part of two flashes don’t you understand Nick!!) stuck to his hard pellet and ended up with six Carp which went 54lb 1oz for a Lake win and 4^th overall – well done matey, real quality fish.

Charlie’s Angels finished joint fourth on the day with 25 points with reserve for Charlie – The Gimp fishing a similar match that we have come to expect for our illustrious captain!

The match was won by Trigger (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg Match Lake 22 with 86lb 7oz. Trig caught initially down the track with soft pellet. Then catching a few over on pellet, and then subsequently switching to caster down the margin late in the match to boost his weight

The Silvers was won by Nick Collins with 26lb 14oz from Specimen lake peg 38. Nick caught mainly Roach and Skimmers initially close in at 7 metres fishing double caster over loose fed casters feeing about 1 ½  pints. Nick later switched the caster to the 16 metres line over to the island catching a better stamp of Roach and Skimmers.

Full Result:

1.      Craig Edmonds 86-07-0 peg 22

2.      Brian Slipper 62-13-0 peg 29

3.      Alan Oram 57-03-0 peg 27

4.      Nick Harvey 54-01-0 peg 50

5.      Matt Tomes 49-15-0 peg 60

6.      Steve Segar 48-12-0 peg 31

Top Silvers:

1.      Nick Collins 26-14-0 peg 38

2.      Clayton Hudson 16-06-0 peg 32

3.      Mike Duckett 14-05-0 peg 36