11/10/08 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 49lb 10oz (13lb 4oz - silvers)
Catch – 10 Perch, 8 Carp, 2 Tench, 2 Chub, 1 F1, 1 Bream, 1 Roach
Weather – Bright, sunny & flat clam.
Match – Open (3rd overall, 2nd in silvers)

The current financial crisis could be biting very hard, following the announcement of a restructure at Suzanne work, which may mean cutting back on the amount of fishing. Time will tell – soon.

I haven’t fished Lands End for about 7 months, but I usually fish here regularly during the autumn & winter. On some days it can be a bit of a tough nut to crack, but what I like about the place is if you cant catch carp, there are usually a few silvers to target, like roach, rudd, chub, ide, bream and perch.

Today’s match was on Match Lake and I drew peg 11, which won last weeks match with 60lb+.
October is suppose to be the month of change, but here I was sat at my peg in a T-shirt on a bright windless day, which resembled a hot summers day.

Because the peg had some carp form, I decided to concentrate on the carp. I had plenty of water to attack and to be honest had too many options. After plumbing around decided to feed caster/corn and brown atomic cloud to the margin on peg 12, caster/corn at the bottom on the shelf in front of me, micro pellet/corn at the bottom of the shelf in front of peg 10 and finally 4mm expander & corn under the pallet of peg 10.

peg 12 margin

The margin in peg 12 was the best area to start, fishing double caster or corn, feeding via a tosspot. I picked up a couple of small carp, plus some decent silver, but I had to wait for bites and alternated up and down the shelf, but with the bright conditions I was just pleased to be catching.

Mike Duckett was on peg 13 and was getting plenty of liners fishing at the bottom of the shelf by the island. Both of my bottom of the shelf swims, only produced a few liners, but I was sure the swim would pick up later in the session. I kept feeding all my swims with a little bait, but I also started feeding hemp & caster by catapult tight to the island hoping either for carp or chub.

When I tried tight to the island I quickly caught a chub, then a perch, but the swim soon slowed, although I did manage another carp and a chub later on.

With 2 hours left, my bottom of the shelf swim, started to show signs of life and I started to catch a few carp on corn, including a 9lber. Unfortunately, I was also losing a few, most of which were foul hooked, because the fish hadn’t properly settled, probably due to the unseasonably warm day.

After such a long period from when I was last here, I was pleased to come 3rd overall. Rod Wootton won from peg 22 with 63lb, Martin Leneghan was 2nd from peg 6 with 60lb, which included 14lb of silvers. Like me, Martin was targeting the carp and his silvers were tench, crucians, skimmers and 4lb+ bream.

Mike West got the muppet award for chucking back 12lb of silvers, which would have won him the silvers prize by default. However Martin had been winding him up all match and suggested I had 30lb of silvers and Mike knew Martin had more then him.