20/03/10 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 14lb 9oz
Catch – 15 Perch, 7 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Ide, 1 Rudd, 1 Carp
Weather – Mostly coudy, rain later.
Water Temp – 9.5c > 9.5c
Match – Open – 7th overall

After the disappointment of last Sunday, I was hoping for a decent days fishing and I wasn’t bothered if it was carp or silvers. However peg 8 wouldn’t have been my first choice, although when I arrived there was loads of carp moving around, so hopefully a few would show.

On the all in, some caster & 4mm’s went in by the pallet to my right (peg 9), whilst I searched the rest of the peg. Although I had a couple liners, I couldn’t get the fish to take the bait and I could see (& hear) fish being caught elsewhere on the lake.

I kept the caster & pellet, going into the pallet swim and also set up swims at the bottom of the shelf in front of peg 9, feeding 4mms and I started firing caster to the island slightly to my left.

After 2 hours, I was going no where fast, a 3lb carp and a couple of perch was all I had to show for my efforts. Decision time. I was falling behind the carp weights, Alan Oram (p11), Rod Wootton (p16) and Matt Tomes (p21) were all catching. As for the silvers other than Matt, who was catching skimmers, I couldn’t see many being caught, so felt this was my best chance of claiming some money, however this peg is not great for silvers.

I tried feeding micros hoping for some skimmers, but they never showed, so I dumped some caster down the track, which didn’t really work either. The pallet swim produced a few perch, plus a tench on caster, but they didn’t seem to be there in any numbers, which left the island swim. Again a few perch showed, plus a big Ide, but it was a struggle. I couldn’t get a decent run of fish together and had to continually chop & change.

I had kept feeding 4mms towards the bottom of the shelf opposite peg 9, but never had a bite. Very strange considering the number of fish showing at the start. Alan finished the match in 2nd with about 60-70lb (can’t remember the exact amount), but he said he didn’t have a bite to his left, all his fish came from the point of the island, up & down the shelf.

At the all out, my 11lb 4oz of silvers wasn’t good enough, with Dave “Beany” Westcott claiming 16lb of perch & roach from peg 1.

This wasn’t my best match, I felt I should have got more out of it. I didn’t feel relaxed due to work pressures and “bouncing off” big perch, just made me more frustrated.