Thursday 22/01/2026 - Over 55's Silvers Pairs - Round Two - Landsend - Specimen and Match Lakes

Match fishing easily summed up as - "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm". Winston Churchill

We had planned for stand-ins points not to count. However, senior management has intervened and we are now allowing one stand-in points to count.

Very bad accident on the A38 which delayed a few of us.

Here's a thing. Don't judge a driver by the dents and scratches on his van, they can be very good drivers - just unlucky 😕

Now 15 hours sitting in pouring rain. But lucky in one respect, very little wind, so umbrella's can be set high.

I always judge a breakfast on how well the eggs are cooked. Excellent again today.

Delayed draw by 15 minutes - not too bad. My turn on Specimen Lake. Happy with this as more consistent for the silvers. The lake is two halves far end Skimmers near end small fish.    Peg 27 for me which put me on small fish. Happy with this as I don't need to worry about my inpatient's buggering up things, small fish will keep me busy.

As it happened set up far too much 4x10 winter (not used), 4x12 Winter both to fish 4 barrels - (hopefully for a lone Skimmer), 4 metre whip with waggler and the long Ronnie rig.

GB and Pinkie on the tray. Fed the Ronnie line with potted loose GB and Pinkie, the same for the long line. Started on the long Ronnie rig with a number 24 Green Gamakatsu Gamma hook to 0.8 with single Pinkie. Wasn't long before put a small Perch in the net. Changed to loose feeding Pinkie to initially target the Perch, their not keen on GB, also they usually slow after an hour when I would start the loose GB again. After a steady two hours catching either Ronnie's or Perch the rain came down hard which put the fish off. So fed some GB on the 4 metre whip line and first two casts had a Ronnie. Third cast missed a bite and as I was under the brolly couldn't see the tree branch to my left and that was the end of the rig. Tried the long line where I had been  topping up with GB and Pinkie only for the float not to settled due to very small Ronnie's intercepting the hook bait - far too slow, so that was quickly binned. The upshot spent the rest of the match on the long Ronnie rig catching steady until the last hour when the Carp arrived hooking three big Carp which after each slowed the line. - bloody creatures.

My just shy of 100 fish weighed 7 lb 1 oz for section win. It was also a good day for the pairs with Tony also winning his section - well done matey. Very enjoyable day all round.

The match was won by Kev Winstone (pictured supping his pint in the PoW) with 14 lb 2 oz from fancied Skimmer peg 31. Kev caught on GB and Pinkie at either 14.5 metres or 10. Well done matey.

Weigh Sheets:

Pairs after Round 2: