Tony Rixon's Float Only, Landsend. 8th July 2012

I decided to face my demons again and take a trip to Landsend and take a guest spot in Tony's float only series, as with last time, it was to be a positive approach, hopefully a draw on some silvers, so caster, worm and Devils Spawn, if not, carp slaying, so hard pellet, paste and meat were in the bait bag.

I fancied a draw on Speci or Match lake, not lake 3, so what came out, peg 61  on lake 3 with Alan Oram on 58 end peg and Dean Malin on 62, so tough competition from a peg that I didn't fancy. Whenever I draw lake 3 it seems to produce one weight that possibly frames, but other wise it's fishing for section. Today it didn't even manage a framing weight and I can't recall it ever competing in the silvers.

A walk up to Alan on 58 and he had plenty of fish moving down in the corner by the pipe, the fish were cruising around the lake in pairs and fours - looks like they are going to spawn again. I set up half a dozen topkits, a caster rig, a Devils Spawn rig, a meat rig, a hard pellet rig, a paste rig and a shallow rig to try and get the slurpers and cruisers.

I fed some micros and softened 4's at 8m towards the gap in the islands, caster at 8m straight in front and hard 4's to the island with a catty. I dropped the hard pellet rig in tight to the island (the depth was only a couple of inches shallower than the middle, no shelf), it went straight under and a 2 pounder battled its way to the net. It proved to be a cruel, false dawn, as for the next 30 minutes, nothing happened, then another 2 pounder took the hair rigged 6mm pellet.

In short, it was a hard match, the caster line produced one roach, the devils Spawn line produced 3 skimmers, a 3lb carp and 4 or 5 roach. I fed a line under the tree to the left with meat and caster, the meat produced nothing, the hard pellet across produced a couple more small carp, both at depth, the shallow rig didn't even see a bite registered. Paste over the devils spawn and across produced the same result, but I did have one liner, surely a sign that the fish weren't in the peg!!

I was thinking that the right approach on the day might have been maggot, as I have caught fish that are cruising and apparently not interested in a bait, on maggot, perhaps the movement makes them snatch at it.
With half an hour to go, I had 5 carp for not much more than 15lb and 2lb of silvers, I dropped the caster rig, with double maggot, in under the tree, where I'd been feeding caster and meat, the float setttled and within 30 seconds slid under and a 5lb carp was netted (after it stretched the white hydro nearly into Dean's peg and he lifted his rig to try and mug the intruder, until he realised it was hooked!!). Rebaiting with two really fat maggots and once again the float slid under and another carp battled the 0.12 before being netted.

My 30lb 4oz was only good enough for 3rd in section, as Craig Edmunds had mugged 70lb in a fine mugging display on the day from the peg opposite me, although the island foliage meant I could see him doing it and Alan took a weight about 50lb from the end peg. With Dean DNW next to me, I remain convinced there just weren't any numbers of fish in our pegs, carp or silvers.

So Landsend continues to thwart my efforts, not sure what to do to change it, as the results show, my gut instinct about not wanting to draw lake 3 was fully founded.

1.      Anton page 279-0-0 peg 19

2.      Tom Mangnall 152-0-0 peg 21

3.      Bob Gullick 120-11-0 peg 5

4.      Mike Nicholls 116-09-0 peg 18

5.      Clayton Hudson 107-08-0 peg 34

6.      Tom Thick 107-05-0 peg 1

Top Silvers:

1.      Clayton Hudson 36-12-0 peg 34

2.      Tony Rixon 31-05-0 peg 3

3.      Nick Collins 29-12-0 peg 16