Sunday 25 May 2014

Landsend Match/Speci lakes, PSV match. 25/05/14

Today saw 24 of us embark on 6 hours of what, hopefully, would be catching lots of fish from this pretty prolific venue.
Now Landsend is not a venue I have much experience of since I came back to match fishing. But I was looking forward to it.

Saturdays match on there had been won with 'only' 70-odd pounds and it was tricky, Thursday's evening match was won with 50lb, so maybe the fish had been gorging on spawn? Maybe the recent wet days had given the water a cooler influx?

Anyways back to today, with 24 of us fishing, we had 3 sections. Two on the match lake, one on the far side of Speci (p25 to p32). I wanted a draw around pegs 17 to 21 on the match lake or an island peg on Speci.

Payouts would be top 2 overall, 1st and 2nd in sections and 2 silvers.
After a little chat and paying our monies, the draw was made and I grabbed one, peg 32 on the Speci Lake, the bottom end corner peg that can be a flyer, though I prefer the looks of 33, and again I'd rather of had 31 or 30.
Still I was happy enough, especially when several 'draw bag' and 'golden arm' comments flew my way, haha. Still gotta catch them.

I made my way to my peg and upon setting up I noticed a few fish mooching around the tree at 16m or so, now I wasn't going to fish that far, my 16m section was staying in the bag. These fish though were likely to move over to the other side with any pressure and commotion.
Next to me I had John Bradford who would be fishing for the silvers (he doesn't put a carp net in) and next to him was Mark Radford on peg 30, who I thought should have a good match from there.

Peg 32, Landsend Speci Lake.
Bait for the day would be 6mm pellets, hemp, corn and some 8mm meat. Oh and some 8mm pellets for in the band.
I did set up a few rigs for the day:
A margin rig for 2+2 along the end bank using meat over pellet, a rig for 13m along the end bank using banded pellet over pellet, a rig for 2+2 in the 10 o'clock direction for hemp/corn and lastly a shallow/stalking rig for between 13 and 14.5m in front of me in open water.

At the 10am-ish start time I wasn't quite ready but I was soon enough after potting various delights into the murky depths.
I started on the shallow rig and it was 25 minutes before my 1st fish, a 3lb common. Mark on peg 30 also had landed a carp or 2.
After about 90 minutes I was on 3 carp, including a 8lb+ fish, but it was slow going. I tried the short hemp/corn line without a bite, so I tried the long depth pellet line, again not an indication. I wont mention these 2 again as I never had a bite from either all day.
Lastly I gave the 2+2 margin line, this bought an instant response in the form of a 6oz chub. Sadly that was my action from there for ages, but I did have a slightly larger chub and a 4oz roach from that swim in the last hour, so that seemed another free feed for any fish that find the bait after the match.

At around 1:30pm Chris Szakacs came wandering around and I told him that I was on 10 carp, which apparently 5 more than anyone on the match lake.....

So I was spent the most of the match fishing shallow, feeding in spurts, to amass a total of  16 or 18 carp, I also lost/pulled out of 3 fish, which I think were not hooked correctly.
The last couple or so hours of the match were poor with only 5 fish being netted, and in the last 20 minutes the fish had began to respond to my increased feeding pattern and I landed a couple fish in that spell.

Elsewhere on the lake I could see that Mark Radford had done ok, lost a few lumps and had a topkit explode on him when he had a true munter of a fish in close during the first couple of hours. He'd picked up fish pretty regular until that quiet last 2hrs. I thought he'd probably caught more than me from his swim tight against the island.
John Bradford had around 15lb of his silvers, but he'd struggled really, especially in the last few hours.
I could also see that the angler on peg 25....which turned out to be match secretary, Steve Burgess, was having his laccy stretched on a regular basis. Also Adam Caswell also had a late run of lumps fishing paste.

The all out sounded and I thought I had around 95/100lb of carp in my 2 nets.
I packed up what I could before the scales arrived at my peg. My silvers went a couple of pounds and my 3 weighs of carp tallied my total to 107lb 8oz.
Most commented that I had won the lake with that, but I was certain Mark had more than that. Plus the match lake was sure to have done a couple 100lb+ weights.

Next up was John's silvers, these went 17lb 9oz, then Mark's total went less than what I thought, with just over 91lb. Will Dearlove had 55lb+ and Steve also 55lb+, with Will just pipping Steve to the section win.

I made my way to the car and Steve gave me a quid, bonus. But no doubt he will get it back.
We waited for the results from the match lake, but by the sounds of it Brian Shanks was top weight on the match lake with just under 83lb. Chris Scakacs was top silvers on there with about 16lb, which was the 2nd best silvers weight on the day.

Results:
1. Lee Williams (32) 107-8
2. Mark Radford (30) 91-11
3. Brian Shanks (1) 82-10
4. Steve O Toole (5) 73-9
5. Ryan Radford (3) 72-14

Silvers: John Bradford (31) 17-9

So a second win on the bounce, which is a bonus and a few more quid to the holiday fund.

It was a hard match and after talking to John and Mark, they could see the fish moving in and out of my swim, but seemed to hang around under the tree, occasionally coming out for me to hook one. The carp didn't respond great to heavy feed until late knockings and I found by fishing 8" deep I got a better response, probably from the surface suckers and cruisers.
I am surprised that the margins and end bank never fished for me, in fact the margins were not great for most it seem. I didn't expect to catch all my fish from 14m or so in open water. But you learn as you go.

Next up for me is another PSV match, another 1st for me, Shiplate Hawthorns lake, I have yet to fish that lake. But I do like that fishery.

Until next time, Take Care.
Lee

No comments:

Post a Comment