Lansdend League Final Round Sunday 23rd February

Final round of the league today and with the overall frame being just out of reach, it was a day to concentrate on the silvers, a section win was necessary to win the silvers, but with 4 or 5 silvers anglers on the my lake today a decent draw was essential,  I would have liked to open the drawcard and see 5, 15 or 17 looking back at me.  The main contender with me for the silvers title was Bob Gullick, he was looking pleased as he came away from the draw, with peg 5 grasped in his hand.

I managed to pick out peg 20, which didn't fill me full of optimism and with the rest of the silvers anglers in my section, it was going to be tough to get the section win.  I tried to cover all the options and set up four topkits, a MW slim which would do to fish bunches of maggots or a prawn, down to the pallet of 21 and quite conveniently, the same depth across on the island shelf - nice theory, but as I only hooked and lost two carp across on this rig, no more to say about it.  The next rig was even less successful, not even a bite, this was a NG Decker, with a bulk, two droppers 4" apart and a 4" hooklength of 0.10 and a 18 63-13, this was to fish soft pellet or dead maggot, again a great theory, but it never once dipped below the surface.

Next rig was a 0.3g NG Gimp XT, on 0.16,  fairly standard bulk and two droppers, finished off with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 Drennan Carp Maggot hook.  Next and final rig was a NG Gimp, this time on 0.14, with a 0.10 hooklength and a 18 63-13.

The bait tray had caster, maggot, pinkie, dead maggot and floating maggot, as well as soft pellet, micros and a few prawns.  More than I would have got out had I had a peg I was confident in and with an empty peg to my right, it gave the opportunity to try a couple of variations.  On the all in I fed  caster and a few maggots at the bottom of the far slope, a groundbait and caster line down the track at 2 o'clock to my position and a micro and 4mm pellet line at 6m, just short of peg 21.  Some maggots to the pallet of 21 and right across in front of me, as well as some on my usual short line, completed the feeding.

Letting the lines settle, I dropped in short and the expected roach, didn't show.  A look down to the pallet and across with a prawn was just as unproductive, a switch to the loose feed line saw a 3oz roach take the maggot, which I promptly dropped back in missing the net.  By now Bob Gullick on peg 5 had landed 5 or 6 F1's and I had one roach in the net.  The Gimp was on peg 24 and catching perch, so it wasn't looking good for my required section win.

After 31/2 hours I had added a couple more roach, two 10oz perch and another getting on for 2lb, all caught short, none of the longer lines produced more than an odd roach.  Bob was still plundering the F1's on peg 5, when my float buried and a decent skimmer more than doubled my weight, in the next half an hour, four more joined him in the net, a couple of them are already rough and covered in spawning tubercules - not really surprising given the mild weather.

Just as I had something to build on and hope for the silvers section 1st, the next bite was a carp, as were the next three.  This saw the back of the skimmers and a look round the other lines, which I had kept topped up all match only produced the odd small roach. Another carp landed and two that obliterated the 0.10 hooklength brought the match to a close.  I was pretty sure that the lack of back up to the skimmers, would cost me winning the silvers, as it was pretty obvious Bob had a netful of F1's.  Now if he had any sort of conscience and decency, he'd have weighed the 31lb of F1's in as carp and his 4 or 5lb of roach and perch as silvers.......

My silvers went 15.12, which was joint second in section with Nige Bartlett on 22, Tony Thick had 17lb odd, so one more skimmer would have done it for me.  The carp added to the silvers gave me 41.01 which was enough for a section win, some small consolation to being beaten to the silvers title by (F1) carp...... (Not that I'm bitter about it. :-)  )  I was probably in the top ten overall, with 1 section win, 3 seconds, a third and a fourth.

Thanks to Ken Rayner for organising it, can't quite believe I fished a series on my bête noire and picked up money in all but one round and a framing position.

The results on the day:

1) Paul Elmes 166.05. Peg 34
2) Mark Poppleton 110.03  peg 11
3) Adrian Jefferies 81.10  peg 33
4) Gary O'Shea 62.12  peg 58
5) Mark Brennan 55.10  peg 50
6) Ken Rayner 51.15 peg 68

Silvers

1) Bob Gullick 36.12 peg 5 (Did I mention this was mainly F1 CARP!!!!)
2) Tom Thick 22.03 peg 31

Overall winner was Mark Poppleton, he had some decent draws, but made the most of them, no series will ever be won from the poorly performing pegs.

1) Mark Poppleton
2) Ken ("there were loads of witnesses to the draw") Rayner
3) Craig "Trigger" Edmunds
4) Paul Elmes

Silvers

1) Bob (Cypry) Gullick
2) Chris Fox
3) Nigel Bartlett