08/01/12 - Lands End - Speci

Weight – 36lb 8oz
Catch – 4 Carp, 2 Perch, 1 F1, 1 Rudd, 1 Roach.
Weather – Bright start. Mostly cloudy.
Water Temp – 8.5c – 8.9c
Match – Lands End Winter League – 4th out of 11 – lake (10th out of 33 - overall)

Today I was filling in for the 3rd round of the Winter League and was told I would be on Speci, so I was more than happy to drew 33, as it’s a noted flyer. I also drew 34 for Tony, which turned out to be a mistake!

Ive never fished 33 before, so was surprised to find there wasn’t a shelf down the left hand bank, but close to 6ft of water all over. The aerator was 16m away and an obvious holding spot. I decided not to feed here until later in the match, hoping John Bradford would push some fish over from peg 32 opposite, although this was unlikely since John doesn’t own any pole sections beyond 13m.

I fed some micros and caster at 13m in open water, plus some caster at 13m down the left hand bank. I started by the aerator on double corn to see if there was any “silly” carp around, but there wasn’t. In fact the whole lake was fishing hard.

After 40mins I had my first carp on double maggot down the left hand bank. A switch to the open water swim, produced an F1, then another carp on 4mm expander. With 2hrs gone, things were looking good.

Carp were beginning to show between John and me, under the trees, but they were the other side of the ropes. After last weeks match where I managed to pull a couple of carp by loose feeding caster, but never had a bite, so I stopped doing that.

Back under the aerator I started getting liners, losing one that bust me on .12. I tried .14, but could get a bite, so back on .12. I did have a perch on maggot, but no carp. I tried a shallow rig, but no indications.

With 3 hours gone, it was tight between John, Scott Puddy on P31 and myself, but I wasn’t sure whether to chuck some bait at the fish or hope for 1 to pass by.

Since I couldn’t get a proper bite under the aerator, I dumped a ½ pot of caster, maggot and some micros, but other than 1 rudd that didn’t work.

The 1 area of the swim I had left alone was 16m down the left hand bank. I toss potted some caster and had 2 carp within ½ hour, but then the rest of the carp disappeared, just teasing me by boshing about beyond my reach.

With 5mins to go, I was lying 2nd on the lake behind Scott who started catching in the last 2hrs finishing with 10 carp. However! John hooks his 4th carp and Tony hooks his 3rd carp. Oh bugger. I wasn’t hoping a couple of hook pulls – honest. John landed his carp 5mins after the all out to beat me by 3lb and Tony landed his 15lb common (which was a cracking looking fish), 14mins after the whistle. Dave “Beany” Wescott on p35 was “helpfully” counting down the minutes. Tony beat me by 10lb. So 2nd to 4th and 1 out of the money – ouch.

I’m not very good at hiding my feelings, so I may have looked a bit devastated. To add insult, I had a number of comments whilst loading the car about buggering up a flyer, but on the day not sure what I could have done differently. In hindsight, I should have tried catching shallow again, but genuinely thought I would at least get another carp on the deck.

1st 94-14 – Mark Poppleton – p7
2nd 82-12 – Tom Thick – p11
3rd 62-11 – Scott Puddy – p31
4th 49-10 – Bob Gullick – p13
5th 48- 0 – Craig Edmunds – p19
6th 47- 0 – Andy Hembrow – p17

Silvers
19-10 – Paul Elmes – p15