Wednesday 25 January 2012

Wednesday 25/01/12 - Avon Angling Open - Landsend Fishery - Specimen and Match Lakes.

It was the turn of Abby’s cafĂ© to provide this mornings breakfast. Bela went for the number three and was the only person to eat it all – biggest breakfast I’ve seen in many a year.

There has been a some correspondence regarding the names of the Landsend Lakes, so I spoke to the owner, Mike Sidney Duckett who confirmed the following:

Tadham Moor Lake (Specimen Lake) named such due to Tadham Moor being behind the Lake.
Tealham Moor Lake (Match Lake) named such due to Tealham Moor being also behind the Lake.
John Walter Lake (Third Lake) named such due to this being the Christian names of Mike Duckett’s Father.
Sidney Lake (Fourth Lake) named such due to it being a Duckett Family name e.g. Mike’s Granddad and Great Granddad.

Having paid the £21 pools money (the £1 apparently isn’t the VAT) it was in to the draw bucket and out comes peg 31. A Carp Slayers peg. This peg was going to be wasted on me as I can’t fish the 16 metres necessary to properly plunder the Carp. I bet this pissed-off match organiser Tony Rixon who was on next peg 29. I decided to focus on the Silvers and any accidental Carp at 13 metres at 12 o clock. As there were a few Ronnie showing I set a rig to fish for them with caster over caster and my usual Skimmer rig, a 4x14 Jolly. I couldn’t help noticing that the match organiser had his far bank feed between his pot and the water simultaneously to calling the all in - a perk of being the match organiser, I guess. I wasn’t far behind, with my dozen micros and 4 mm expander hook bait. I was surprised I wasn’t bitted out by the Ronnie’s, which is usual at the start, I did have a few though. I was soon in to my first of two early Carp. Followed by a few f1’s and Skimmers mixed in with more Ronnie’s. I did try the Ronnie rig but they weren’t prepared to feed properly deciding instead to be a bloody nuisance. I gave them up as it was all too slow. I kept on the same line for 99.9% of the match catching a few more Skimmers and the first Tench of the year. With an 1 ½ hours to go I upped the feed in the hope of to boosting my Carp weight, which did account for two more of the species, plus a couple of Skimmers plus two lost at the net worth at least another 3lb.

I think there are plenty of Silvers to be caught on this peg but once you have a 10lb Carp mooching around over your feed you aren’t going to catch the Silvers.

My Silvers weighed in at 14lb 10oz and my four Carp 36lb 6oz for a total of 51lb. This put me fifth in the Silvers and second overall.
Bela drew corner peg 33, I was expecting a lesson on how to fish caster shallow at 16 metres. However, the best it got was Bela setting up – pictured right. Bela lost eight foul hookers and landed three Carp plus one tree. Bela did come away with the spoils from a four way £1 bet initiated by Tony Rixon in the cafe, Bela won because he was the only one that understood the bet!!

The match was won by Craig Edmonds from peg 17 with 60lb 7oz, Trigger caught on expander pellet over micro.


The Silvers was won by Nigel Bartlett (pictured with the match winner and Fabio (centre), who apparently wasn’t happy with his picture last Sunday – I don’t know why as it has given us all a right laugh - window licker) with 26lb 11oz from peg 22. Nigel caught on maggot over loose fed maggot fished at 4 metres to hand, catching Ronnie’s and soft pellet fished over micro at 13 metres catching Skimmers and F1’s.

Full Result:

1.      Craig (Trigger) Edmonds 60-07-0 peg 17
2.      Mike Nicholls 51-0-0 peg 31
3.      Tom Thick 49-01-0 peg 25
4.      Stu Foal 48-05-0 peg 32
5.      John Thompson 36-04-0 peg 24
6.      Phil (Fabio) Harding 34-09-0 peg 36

Top Silvers:

1.      Nigel Bartlett 26-11-0 peg 22
2.      Tom Thick 23-12-0 peg 25

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