31/01/2010 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 17lb 2oz
Catch – 4 Carp, 1 Perch
Weather – More ice. Cold & clear start, becoming showery
Water Temp – 4.0c > 4.5c
Match – Open – 4th overall (out of 5!)

The weather seems to know when it is the weekend! A week of reasonable mild conditions, but come the weekend its back to the ice. On arriving at Lands End it was -3c, so more ice breaking was on the cards.

Today’s match would be on Johns Lake (no.3), which I was pleased about, because I would be here for the next round of the Winter League. Originally Mike was expecting a decent turn out, however teams for the Viaducts Teams of 5 were short of anglers. Personally think 20 teams of 5 at Viaduct is too many, particularly in the winter, which is why I try and avoid fishing the league. If they had 15 teams, the overall fishing is likely to improve, plus there won’t be the constant problem of teams struggling for members.

Another reason for the poor turnout was a hastily arranged match at Plantations, where some were persuaded to let Mike down. Needless to say they all struggled, because they couldn’t cast to the island where the carp are due to the ice. Although Mike wouldn’t be so direct, he was annoyed. Getting on my soap box a bit here, but we need to support the fishery owners who are prepared to put in the effort. Maintaining a tidy, litter free venue requires a lot of effort, which isnt always appreciated and again personally some anglers need to show a little more respect.

Back to the match and Johns Lake, for what ever reason has become my bogey lake, so it would be nice to get it sorted. With only the 5 of us, it was more like pleasure fishing, so at least we could all be on the form pegs. I drew 58, which is a peg I always wanted to draw, it was just a shame it was iced over. Fortunately the ice didn’t take too much effort to break and I soon created a 11.5m channel towards the island as well as towards the brambles down the RH margin.

2 rigs were set up, with .11 bottom - 22 B911 & .13 bottom – 20 B911. Started on the heavy rig with corn looking for an early carp, but with no signs of life after 20 mins it was time to feed. So a few casters was deposited to my right, whilst some pinkie & maggot went in at 11.5m.

With just over an hour gone, I had my first bite on double pinkie from a 2½lb carp. However Simon on peg 61 already had 2 carp on pellet and John Bradford opposite had 1 carp.

As the match progressed, the 11.5m line didn’t produce a single bite, despite rotating baits. I had started feeding only maggot & pinkie, but at the half way stage switched to micro pellet without success. The RH swim was the only place I could catch, but I simply had to wait (& wait) for a bite. With the water being so cold, I was reluctant to feed too much, although Simon seemed to be toss potting micro every put in and was catching, but I felt there wasnt the same volume of fish in front of me, so I just kept trickling in the caster hoping to pull in the carp.

In hindsight I could have fed heavier, but I'm not convinced it would have worked. Ideally I would have liked to search other areas of the swim, but the ice prevented me from doing that and I suspect the fish were sat closer to peg 55 opposite.

As predicted Simon won the match with 38lb. Mike was 2nd from peg 68 with 33lb, which included 11lb of silvers, so at least someone had plenty bites. Dale on peg 41 probably had the most bites of anyone, but it was blade roach, which drove him to distraction. It didn’t matter what he put on the hook, but he got pestered by tiny roach.