12/10/08 - Lands End - Specimen Lake

Weight – 18lb 1oz
Catch – 3 Carp, 2 Chub, 2 Perch, 2 Rudd, 1 Bream, 1 Roach.
Weather – Bright, sunny & flat clam.
Match – Open (19th overall, 8th section)

The Specimen and Match Lake were in for this open, which would serve to be a practice for next weeks Winter League.

I drew peg 32 on the Specimen Lake and my main catching area would be 16m down the margin next to an overhanging tree. For this match I decided to ignore setting up a silvers rig and concentrate on the carp.

After 90 mins, things had been going well, with a couple of carp and silvers on double caster, tight to the margin. However as soon as the sun moved around, my swim was no longer in the shade and I began to struggle quite badly.

I tried in the open water and at the bottom of the shelf, trying different baits, but had very little. With an hour to go, my swim started to show signs of life again, with a few foul hooked carp, which I managed loss.

Steve Mayo on peg 31, started to catch tight to the island and eventually won our lake with 60lb.

I was disappointed not to have caught more and losing 6 carp was frustrating, but flat bright conditions meant the carp weren’t feeding properly. My side of the lake fished worse than the other side, so most will want to draw peg 33 to 40 next week.

I don’t think I did too much wrong today, in fact I was really happy with how I set up my rigs.