28/12/11 - Lands End - Match Lake

Weight – 18lb 4oz (7lb 0oz – silvers)
Catch – 17 Roach, 9 Perch, 2 Carp, 1 Rudd
Weather – Mild, blustery showers, windy.
Water Temp – 8.3c – 8.3c
Match – Avon Angling Open – 9th out of 16 (3rd overall)

Today it would have great to fish the Stafford Moor Christmas match, but the funds wont stretch that far yet, so Lands End it was and for the 3rd time on the bounce I drew peg 5.

With the recent mild weather I was surprised to see the lake was still quite clear. With 16 fishing 12 were put on match lake and 4 on speci, with p33 being the one everyone wanted. So no surprise when Mark drew it! The only issue today would be the wind. For the 1st couple of hours there was a slight breeze, but as the day progressed the wind got stronger, making presentation difficult.

I had a carp first put in on corn, without any feed in front of the gap, however other than a couple of dinks no more followed and when I put on a maggot I had a roach which told its own story.

For the rest of the match I never really got going, which was made more difficult by the wind. Also with John Bradford on p19 and Mark Walsh on p18 not fishing long the fish had plenty of room to hide away and I probably tried too hard to pull the carp to my side of the lake.

In reality I should have concentrated on the silvers, since I only needed another 3lb to pick up 2nd place, although getting the 22lb of roach and perch Anton had from peg 3 would have proved more of a challenge! Most of my fish came from the bottom of the far shelf mostly caster, plus some big perch from under the platform on peg 6.

In the end most of the weights came from the sheltered part of the lake.

1st 36-10 Mark Poppleton – p33
2nd 34-14 Jim Jenner – p15
3rd 31-12 Dave Sawyer – p13
4th 31- 0 Alan Oram – p16
5th 28- 2 Steve Seagar – p11
6th 24-10 Mike West – p25

Silvers
1st 22-12 Anton Page – p3