17/11/12 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 71lb 12oz (23lb - silvers)
Catch - 14 Bream, 7 Carp, 3 Roach, 1 F1, 1 Chub
Weather - Mild, sunny, light breeze
Match - Open - 2nd out of 8

I sent Mike a text early in the week about fishing a different lake this Saturday and my wish was granted. At least Speci lake had more colour at the moment, than Match lake.

During the draw some wag thought it was a good idea to put only pegs 11 & 15 in the bucket. Oh how they laughed when I opened the ticket to see 15 staring back at me! The real draw put me on 34 which is normally ok for a few fish.

I had Mike West to my left who was feeding enough for everyone. As for me, I took a more considered approach. A small ball of groundbait and micros was deposited at the bottom of the shelf slightly to my right, plus some caster tight to the island.

I started off on corn at the bottom of the shelf on the corner of the island, but the light reflection was awful and I really struggled to see the float amongst the leaves. So plenty of lifting and dropping and the float did go under (I think) and I was soon attached to a big fish. 15mins later a big common (12lb 3oz) was safely netted, which was a nice start.

No further fish came, but that was mainly because I couldn't see the float. A switch to the top of the shelf with caster only resulted in a few liners, but no fish. In fact I didn't have any fish on top of the shelf, despite trying pellet later.

A switch to the bottom of the shelf resulted in a chub first put in, then skimmers on 4mm expanders. By toss potting a pinch of pellet every put in I kept bites coming. When ever I couldn't get a bite I would top up with another nugget of groundbait & micros.

In the meantime I had kept catapulting 4s at the bottom of the shelf on the corner of the island, which initially produced another carp and a couple of roach.

Half way in, Jim on p32 had probably overtaken me when he had 4 or 5 carp in short time. However I managed to keep the skimmers going, which I was happy to stay with because not many carp were showing and I had managed a couple of carp on soft pellet.

With 90mins to go I thought a couple more carp would put me in the frame. I had been feeding the margin, but no carp. I tried pellet tight to the island, but again no carp. Another carp on corn, before 4 skimmers on the bounce, then another carp. In the last 10mins I had another 2 carp , 1 on pellet and the other on corn.

As we were packing up Tom walked down from p40, admitting to 4 carp and 20lb of silvers, but Keith on 25 had 10 carp, so it looked  I was likely to win. And that was how it was until Tom weighed in. His 4 carp turned into 5. As for his 20lb (and he was adamant he didn't have more than 20lb) turned into 44lb to beat me by 4lb!

Overall the lake fished well and most caught a few fish.

1st 75-13 - Tom Mangoll - p40
2nd 71-12 - Ken Rayner - p34
3rd 54-11 - Keith Fielder - p25
4th 40-11 - Jim Jenner - p32
5th 39-1 - Mike Duckett - p31
6th 34-13 - Mike West - p33

Silvers
1st 44- 4 - Tom Mangoll - p40
2nd 23- 0 - Ken Rayner - p34
3rd 19-15 - Dave Wescott - p36