29/10/11 - Lands End - Johns Lake

Weight – 31lb 6oz (12lb 5oz – silvers)
Catch – 21 Roach, 6 Crucian, 5 Perch, 4 F1, 4 Bream, 3 Carp
Weather – Bright start, then heavy rain, then mostly cloudy. Cool breeze
Match – Open – 6th out 14 (2nd out of 4 - lake)

14 turned up for today’s match, which was split with 10 on match and 4 on Johns (no 3 lake), so we know where everyone wanted to be.

I found myself on p68 on Johns, which I practically ran to, however it was like a baggers convention opposite with Tom Thick on p41 (yes the same peg he won from last week) and Rod Wootton on p42. As we were setting up it was noticeable there was no fish moving around, in fact those that were, were further up the lake out of the way.

Started fishing towards the aerator, whilst feeding the island and 13m to my right down the track, hoping to pull in some fish from further up. I had an F1 on corn within 5mins and thought we would be in for a good day, but the next hour was a bit of struggle.

After an hour I was starting to get regular indications, but then the wave machine started, so I had to bin that line. I had still been feeding pellet half way down the island, but not even a liner.

Decided on a rethink and cupped some caster & micros at 6m, plus caster & 4mm to the point of the island where I fished 4 maggots on the hook, hoping the maggot fluttering in the flow would tempt a bite, which it did after 5mins in the shape of a 6lb carp. Great thought I sussed it, but my next fish was a tiny perch.

With no further carp a switch to 6m fishing caster & occasionally 4mm expander, started to get regular bites from roach, with the odd crucian. At least I was catching, because since the aerator started, both Tom & Rod had caught very little.

90mins after it started the wave machine stopped, as did my 6m line. So back out towards to the aerator and I kept the pellet going in against the island and down the track 13m to my right.

There was still very few carp showing in our part of the lake, Tom had yet to catch one, whilst Rod was picking up the odd one, but it was generally slow. I was catching a few crucian, F1 and skimmers from the aerator mostly on 6mm pellet, but no carp.

A further look around the island still didn’t result in any fish, although a few fish started to show themselves, but the pole over their heads, just seemed to spook them.

With an hour to go I concentrated on fishing 13m down the track. So far I had only caught a skimmer an hour previously on this line and was hoping for a good last hour to catch up Rod. First drop in on corn and 5mins later I was attached to carp, but it shot off surfacing in the gap between the 2 islands, before the hooklength gave way – I suspected it was foul hooked. My next fish was an 8lber, before I lost my next carp in the weed bed to my left.

Unfortunately the carp seemed to have backed off since my next fish was a skimmer, followed by a roach. 5 seconds before the all out I hooked a carp, which I managed to net and was left wishing they had turned up an hour earlier.

The lake didn’t fish as well as expected due to the cold week and the carp just sulked away further up the lake.

Today I concentrated on .14 bottom fishing hair rigged 6mm pellet or corn. I could have probably caught more silvers had I gone down to .12 bottom. I did have another rig with .12 bottom to fish soft pellet or caster, but that resulted in too many small fish. The carp just didn’t want to be here.

1st 55-15 Martin Lenaghan – p17
2nd 52-12 Mark Poppleton – p21
3rd 48-15 Rod Wootton – p42
4th 41- 8 Mike West – p22
5th 37-11 Nigel Bartlett – p1
6th 31- 6 Ken Rayner – p68

Silvers
1st 25-12 Martin Pettifer – p11