Sunday 13/09/2020 - Matt Culpin's League - Round One - Landsend - Specimen, Match and John Walters Lakes

Landsend was the first round of the Matt Culpin's league which, me and Glenn decided to sign up for his year - As you may have heard not one of Two Pots favourite venues! However, he is looking forward to next round at Summerhayes.

Arrived early and had a walk around all three Lakes and subsequently was also wondering what I was doing here - wheres all the water gone - Oh, yes up the trees and scrubs.

For some reason I left it late to pay the pools and was nearly last to have my peg drawn for me even though I was near the front of the queue! By time it was my turn all my preferred pegs were gone. I was drawn peg 25 on Specimen Lake to a number of anglers joy especially Tony Rixon who managed to get his peg of choice.

Arrived at the peg which is next to a Golden Delicious Apple tree - can't quite see any advantage of planting an Apple Tree on a fisheries bank? The peg platform has one of those you step up onto rendering the angler high above the water (pictured right), must remember this when stepping off!!. Never mind the net weight limit I would only be able to put four Carp in one net as only a few rings were in the water - however, it wasn't going to be an issue for me as I decided to fish for Silvers for most of the match as I couldn't see anyway of a pick up otherwise. For company was the affable Bobby Gullick on peg 27.

Set up two paste rigs - one for down tight into the end back undercut and a one for the RH margin, a 4x10 for fishing around the peg at various number of barrels for Silvers and the Ronnie rig. Having plumbed up the depth was consistent at less than 3 foot.

I started on the Ronnie rig with caster and couldn't get a bite - blimey. I then remembered that the last match here the Ronnie's were preferring expander. So switched to kindered micro and 4 mm expander and started to catch a few small Skimmers and Ronnie's. I decided to try loose feeding the micro and managed to foul hook three Carp, so went back to kindering. Couldn't quite sort the feeding pattern as the fish were shying away after feeding and playing anything netted. In between all of this I had been trying the two paste lines with the RH margin being a complete waste of time, but felt the end bank may come into play late on. The Silvers faded so knocked up some GB laced with a few DR's and switched to single LR on the hook and manged to keep a few Ronnie's coming but if was really slow having to be patient - um. I left using the 4x12 for later and once the sun got up high enough on the opposite tree line it was impossible to fish it further than 5 metres, so stayed with the Ronnie rig. With an hour to go I tried the end bank hoping to improve the section points. However, knowing the fish are resident in the undercut went right in and had a small Carp followed quickly by another which tore along the end bank breaking the 0.2 GLine on the roots (pictured). I did have one more before the all out, but on hindsight should have stayed with the Silvers - how many times have I done and said this.

My Silvers weighed 10 lb 5 oz for third Silvers and the two small carp taking me to 21 lb 15 oz for a poor 4th in section.

The match was won by Milk Maid Dave Romain (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 130 lb 4 oz from John Walters Lake peg 58. Dave caught long using banded 6 mm hard pellet over pinged 4's.

The Silvers was won by Jess Jordan with 14 lb 8 oz also from John Walters Lake peg 46. Jess caught on chopped worm and caster with a bit of GB at 11 metres. Although Jess in a great Silvers angler I was surprised the winning Silvers weight came from this Lake but when I seen the pegging understood as Jess had three empty pegs each side!

Well done to both.

Result:

1. Dave Romain 130-04-0 peg 58

2. Tony Rixon 115-08-0 peg 13

3. Alvin Jones 103-04-0 peg 14

4. Martin Rayet 96-13-0 peg 32

5. Lee Williams 89-10-0 peg 31

6. Anton Page 87-08-0 peg 5

Silvers:

1. Jess Jordan 14-08-0 peg 46

2. Dave Ings 14-05-0 peg 40

3. Mike Nicholls 12-07-0 peg 25

4. Mark Broomsgrove 10-03-0 peg 24

Weigh Sheets: