Catch – 13 Roach, 5 Perch, 1 Common Carp, 1 F1
Weather – Cold, cloudy. Easterly breeze.
Water Temp– 5.5c > 5.5c
Match – Lands End Winter League 4th rd - 15th overall, 3rd on lake, 1st in section
Of the 4 lakes at Lands End, Speci Lake can be the most difficult, particularly in what would be challenging weather conditions. With a strong easterly breeze I wanted to avoid pegs 25 & 40 and fortunately I drew peg 34, which I was happy with. At least I was out of the worst of the wind.
To maintain pressure on the top anglers in the league I really needed a minimum of 2nd in section. I had 2 options, go all out for silvers or take a chance looking for a carp. Based on past experience I could work hard for 50/60 roach, but only finish with 4 or 5lb which won’t be any good, so I needed at least 1 carp to compete.
Due to the size of the carp here I couldn’t afford to go too light, but I needed to temper that against getting bites. In the end 4 rigs were set up, 2 to fish down the track, 1 with .11 bottom and 20 silver fish pellet hook and the other had .13 bottom and 18 B911 and the same again to fish just off the far shelf.
As expected fishing was difficult, I tried on the point of the island, a small bush on the island, down the track and even a positive swim that I set up in front of peg 35. However after nearly 90mins I lost a decent perch or F1 on the heavy rig and a carp on the light rig, which I had on for 10 minutes before the hook pulled. I suspect it was foul hooked, because I was never in control it.
I really needed to catch, so I decided to concentrate on the lighter rig, fished next to the small bush and kept feeding 3 or 4 caster every put in. Eventually I caught a tiny roach, soon followed by another, but I was getting silly bites from the roach, which were nipping the end of the maggot. I tried a caster, but I couldn’t get a bite so I stayed with maggot plugging away and a 2½lb F1 put me back in the race.
Pete Nurse on peg 33 had a carp and it appeared to be the only 1 in my section. Alan Oram on the opposite peg 32 (not in my section) had 2 double figure carp, so there were a few in the area.
I occasionally tried pellet and corn, but I could only catch on maggot and eventually hooked a carp, which I took my time about. At 4lb 11oz it was worth having, but after landing it I struggled to get another bite.
Fortunately it was enough to win my section, Pete was 2nd 6lb. Alan Oram won the match overal with 44lb.
Overall in the league I jumped from 12th to 7th, which was exactly what I needed. The next round in 2 weeks will be a random draw again, so I could be on any lake. Ideally I would prefer to avoid the Speci Lake when it’s cold.
1st Adrian Clarke 23pts
2nd Nicky Collier 22
3rd Mike Duckett 21 (116-0)
4th Andy France 21 (69-13)
5th Pete Nurse 18.5
6th Clint Wojtyla 18 (123-15)
7th Ken Rayner 18 (35-13)
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