Sunday 11/03/2012 - Landsend Individual League - Specimen, Match and John Walter Lakes

Bela and I were guesting once again in the Landsend Individual League.  Bela was on Specimen Lake and I was filling in for Fabio on John Walters Lake.

Into the draw box and out comes peg 51 again. This peg likes me for some reason, for me – I coming to terms with it! Two rigs 4x12 for the LH margin at 5 metres – one Ronnie caught on this one, so no more of this. And a 4x14 to be fished at 10 metres at 12 o clock and at 11.5 metres at 9 o clock with 5 inches off the depth. Both lines to be fished with 4mm expander over dry frozen micro. There were a lot of small rings showing very similar to rain drops which I though were either small Skimmers or Ronnie’s, so I decided to mix up a bit of GB and put a knub in at 5 metres at 1 o clock, only because this had exactly the same depth as the longer line.

Starting on the 10 metre line with expander I started catching Skimmers and with five hand size ones in the net and a couple of tint Crucian’s I hooked and landed my one and only Carp which weighed 7lb. Now with an hour up the swim slowed, so I tried the 11.5 metre line again with expander which surprisingly only produced a couple of 2oz Ronnie’s. I did keep trying this line in anticipation, but to no avail. Out again on the 10 metre line and I kept a few Skimmers and the odd Crucian’s coming up to 14:00 when the sun started to pierce the morning mist and the all but the Ronnie’s disappeared. With Carp coming out from most swims I decided to focus on the Silvers for the rest of the match, which meant getting the Ronnie rig out to fish at 4 metres with caster. Loose feeding caster I kept a few coming but the feeding had to be perfect to keep them in a catchable place. I kept trying the 10 metre line but it was all but dead. I finished the match on the Ronnie rig. My Silvers weighed in at 22lb 9oz, adding the sole 7lb Carp took my total to 29lb 9oz, which was well down the Lake section. John Bradford had drawn peg 70 and thought he had much more than me, however, the Gimp only managed 19lb so I went home with the Lake Silvers. I was surprised to discover that my Silvers were also good enough for fourth overall in the Silvers.

Paul Haines (pictured right with some of his catch) won the Lake from peg 58 with 77lb.

The match was won by Trigger from peg 32 with 105lb. Trig fished both hard and soft pellet long at 2 foot deep. Incidentally Trig and Partner are expecting their first Triglet this coming Friday – best wishes matey.

The Silvers was won by Nigel Bartlett (pictured lower right with the match winner) with 42lb 10oz from peg 35. Nigel caught at 16 metres fishing caster over caster feeding about ¾ of a pint all match. His catch made up of mainly Chub and Perch.

This was the final match of the league which was won by the Gorilla in the mist (pictured lower centre, waiting for one of the female of the species), who was pegged opposite me on peg 61 making the most of his peg as usual. See Tony'sblog for the full leage positions.

Full Result:

1.      Craig Edmondson 105-0-0 peg 32

2.      Mark Poppleton 95-15-0 peg 34

3.      Nick Duckett 93-13-0 peg 15

4.      Mike West 93-03-0 peg 31

5.      Paul Elmes 90-08-0 peg 29

6.      Bela Bakos 87-09-0 peg 27

Top Silvers:

1.      Nigel Bartlett 41-10-0 peg 35

2.      Alan Oram 23-10-0 peg 11

3.      Tom Thick 22-10-0  peg 33

4.      Mike Nicholls 22-09-0 peg 51