Sunday 05/07/2021 - Tony Rixon's Float Only League - Round Three - Landsend - Match, Specimen and John Walters Lakes

I travelled to Landsend via Wells and found it much quicker than the A38 route. Arrived early and got a cup of black tea bought for me by Arran Britnell - thanks mate. I took the tea for a walk around Match Lake and could see a lot of hard work has be done, a great improvement, however, the platforms are still too high for me as I usually fish short which means looking down on the float.

Second into the draw box and found myself on JW peg 62. I arrived at the peg to find I would spend the day in a jungle. There were tree branches right in front the peg, which I set about with my pen knife. Also the edge was overgrown with a

bush to my left blocking the view down to empty peg 63. Again set about this with my pen knife and nearly slipped in. Should I be doing this at my age? I felt my best chance of a pick up was the Silvers but that was soon poo pooed by Rod Wotton on peg 64 (very knowledgeable about this venue - the go to man) when he said the Silvers were the other end where it's twice as deep. I plumbed around and understood why, as I could only find just less than 2 foot of water. Nothing bode well.

Martin Rayet arrived on next peg 61 and found it necessary to set up in the water to clear the trees. However, he either over clicked his boot length or had holes. Martin right emptying back 10% of the Lake water.

Oh well, it is what it is, lets make the best of it. Set up two rigs, a short Ronnie rig and a paste rig which was suitable for anywhere I wanted to fish. I fed DR's and micro down to the tree on my left, starting on the Ronnie rig with single LR on the hook over neat loose GB and loose

fed LR's. Plenty of peas in a pod 1 oz Ronnie's coming to the loose feed so switched to loose feeding micro, which produced some 4 oz Carp, small Crucians and small Skimmers. I had a reasonable 90 minutes with about 15 lb of "Silvers" before it got difficult because of the loose fed micro brought disruptive Carp over, which would just swim in and out again but not feed. Switched back to GB and loose feeding LR's and more 1 oz Ronnie's. Martin had a couple of Carp so went down to the left with paste and some kindered hard 4's and soon hooked a Carp which within micro seconds had snagged me in the tree roots losing the rig. Change to the Drennan 25 elastic and a 0.22 paste rig. This time fished the top set down to the right where I had been feeding hard 4's and did land three 3 lb Carp and thought I had it sorted. I hadn't, the carnage was just about to start, losing more Carp and rigs. It became a challenge which I shouldn't have taken on. I tried various other lines but the Carp would not come out from the tree cover.

The upshot was I could have saved myself some money by staying with the Silvers instead of obsessively chasing Carp as I landed seven and lost eight paste rigs in tree roots. My silvers weighed 15 lb 9 oz and Carp 28 lb 10 oz for last but one in the section with 44 lb 3 oz.

The match was won by Trig (pictured right with the Silvers winner) with 137 lb 8 oz from M3. Trig caught a handful of Carp long over to the island, subsequently switching to his LH margin at 5 metres Down to the bank slip using maggot hook bait over GB and maggot feed. Trig fed about 1 pint of maggot and 2 kg of GB. Well done matey.

The Silvers was won by Alvin Jones with 38 lb 5 oz from peg JW68 with mostly small Carp with some F1's and better Skimmers. Alvin caught on three lines - to the weed bed, middle and over on either maggot or meat. Well done matey.

Well done Rod knowledge and experience is King.

Result:

1. Craig Edmonds 137-08-0 peg M3

2. Vince Shipp 126-12-0 peg S27

3. Tom Mangnell 125-12-0 peg M13

4. Rod Wotton 109-07-0 peg JW65

5. Clayton Hudson 107-10-0 peg M9

6. Shaun Townsend 101-10-0 peg JW50

Silvers:

1. Alvin Jones 38-05-0 peg JW68

2. Pau Faiers 29-09-0 peg JW41

3. Ryan Shipp 26-15-0 peg S21

Weigh Sheet: