Landsend Open, Saturday 9th April 2016

It was good to get an opportunity to get back to the peace and tranquility of Landsend, no traffic noise, just birds and sounds of nature.  I usually take a few casters along to fish for silvers, but decided that today my bait tray would consist of pellets and meat, but I couldn't resist adding a few dead maggots for down the edge.

Into the draw tin and out pops 11, I would rather have been on the opposite bank, but it seems as far away as the dark side of the moon, unattainable for me. Made my way to the peg and had a chat with Rod Wootten who was making his way round to 13.  I decided on 4 topkits, one for banded pellet across to the island, a rig to fish soft pellet at 13 and 5m, a meat rig for 5m the other side and a margin rig.

Plumbing up to find decent areas to fish proved tricky, the peg is up and down, hardly any flat areas, I guess the aerator is the cause of that. Finally found enough flat spots to settle on and on the all-in fed some micros and 4mm at 13m and 5m, as well as pinging 4mm pellets to the island.  A few cubes of meat into the 5m line and shipped out.  Little dink first put in was a good sign......... or so I thought!!
Seconds later, the float buried and nigh on 2lb skimmer was safely netted, that was a false dawn, as two small roach were the only other fish taken from that line all day.

After 25 minutes I had to go out to the island and in the next 35 minutes put 27lb on my clicker, great, on for a big weight here....... then the wheels came off, no more bites, no liners, no indications at all. Rod over on 13 had suffered the same fate, the fish had vacated our end of the lake, indeed, I could see them frolicking with carefree abandon in the vacant peg 9.  The large gap between me and Nicky Ewers on peg 7 gave the fish a great area to back off into.

A switch to the meat line and first put in the float settled and then dipped, a skimmer nearly 3lb, would this be the kickstart to a good day on the silvers? No is the short answer, one more bite from the meat line and that was a plump 12oz perch.  The middle four hours of the match were dire, a real struggle, I added one more perch, a rudd and a F1.  Then with an hour to go, fish started coming up the lake, Rod could see them, I managed two more from the island and the had 3 from the RH margin, although they were small, frustratingly I lost a fish I estimated to be 16 or 17lb, it ws reluctant to surface and tried to get under the pallet, I put enough pressure on it to stop that happening, but the hook pulled for whatever reason, the dead maggots weren't much use, 8mm pellets seemed to be the best bait down the edge today.

Too little, too late, both myself and Rod started catching, although Rod had a nightmare as his landing net split, depositing a big fish back in the lake.  I guess it was just one of those days, as I won my bank and managed 4th overall, but just couldn't compete with the 3 pegs on the opposite bank that threw up fish a bit more consistently.  I might even leave the casters at home next time as well!!

Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 7th April 2016

Just typing the title of this blog has made me think, where has the first quarter of the year gone, time seems to go by so quickly now, but I digress, onto the days sport.

After a prolonged spell at work I was itching to get out and fish a match, so, those who know the venue can imagine my disappointment at seeing peg 56 in my hand after delving into the coffee tin of dreams (or nightmares in my case...).  Pretty much no chance of winning from this peg, framing would take a miracle, but lets give it a go and see what happens was my approach. 44 fishing today, so Campbell, Cary and Lodge all in.

The water is still quite clear, so I wasn't convinced the fish would come too close, also I think that the fish shy away from the pegs in front of the shop when there is a match on, especially in the clear conditions of winter / early spring.  I had put a couple of slices of bread in my bait bag, so set up a lead to start on bread, also from the made up rodcase came a waggler rod, although the wind wasn't too friendly, being left to right and putting a chop, rather than a ripple on the lake.

3 topkits, a NG Gimp to fish banded pellet at 14.5m, this had a 0.14 hooklength and a 16 LWG hook, a Malman Roob to fish 6mm meat at 7 sections and a margin rig which would suffice for either side, as the depths were the same.

Bait tray was simple, 6mm meat, 4 & 6mm pellets and some dead maggots for down the edge - they gave their lives in vain, as neither margin produced as much as a quiver of the float, let alone a convincing bite - nothing more to say about them.

On the all-in I fed the 14.5m line with some 4mm pellet and then started on the bread, 12 minutes of a motionless tip was my limit and up the bank it went, destined to stay there for the rest of the 6 hours.  next out was the waggler, Steve had told me that some carp had been caught fishing to the right of the peg, the waggler was resolutely determined to stay afloat and it joined the lead up the bank after 15 biteless minutes.

The pole line was fed with 4mm pellets as a means to be a catch-all day, and it took 10 minutes to get a bite, but then I had a couple of 6oz skimmers, by now the wind had increased and was inducing tourette like outbursts from myself, how bloody frustrating, wait ages to get to Viaduct after reading all the reports of huge weights, draw an unfavoured peg and even have that ruined by the wind.

I did manage a couple of bigger skimmers before it went quiet, the next bite revealed the reason, a 10lb carp.  I had been feeding two lines at 7 sections, the LH side with just meat, the RH side with meat and pellet,  A look in the LH side, trying to take respite from the wind, gave me a small hybrid, then a bigger skimmer, a jumper, the only one of the day.  The RH side have up 2 better skimmers, then a perch, before it too went quiet.

Back onto the 14.5m line, this is where the fish were, I would have liked to put the 16m section on, but 14.5m was a fight and the presentation was poor, except for when there was a brief and infrequent lull in the gusting wind - no matter how much you curse and swear at it, it doesn't bloody ease up!!  I persevered with the 14.5m line and took occasional skimmers and 3 more double figure carp, I had to drop back on the 7 section line and even into the margins at one point, as it was impossible to hold the pole still.  I did try the waggler over the 14.5m line, but it was pulling through to fast, even with line and a 6mm pellet on the bottom.  With hindsight, a cage feeder with a few pellets in might have been better, but as it was the first outing for my new pole I wanted to give it a good test and the wind certainly showed it had no flaws in it.

I managed to put 22lb of skimmers on the scales and 41.04 of carp, I think that had I been able to go out to 16m or even fish a waggler, that could have been significantly more of skimmers, but it was, apart from the wind,  a pleasant day and I even managed to get back more than the entry fee by picking up 4th in the silvers.

Next up, Landsend Saturday, then the Bait Tech Festival

Results blatantly copy and pasted from Viaducts Facebook page.

Overall
1. Andy Neal - 176lb 2oz - peg 115
2. Nick Jones - 126lb 6oz - peg 77
3. Kev Newman - 120lb 1oz - peg 90
4. Mike Walker - 119lb 7oz - peg 97
5. Steve Rolfe - 112lb 10oz - peg 126
6. Dave Chidzoy - 111lb 8oz - peg 100
7. Chris Boulton - 105lb - peg 59
8. Dave White - 100lb 9oz - peg 88
9. Jamie Parkhouse - 91lb 9oz - peg 99
10. Zac Newton - 91lb 3oz - peg 130
11. Darren Kempson - 90lb 11oz - peg 112
12. Scott Russell - 85lb 6oz - peg 68
13. Paul Homewood - 73lb 1oz - peg 80
14. Paul Reynolds - 72lb 2oz - peg 73
15. Gordon Cannings - 71lb 2oz - peg 110
16. Chris Fox - 63lb 4oz - peg 56
17. Chris Rolfe - 60lb 8oz - peg 64

Silvers
1. Scott Russell - 85lb 6oz - peg 68
2. Jonny Gray - 30lb 12oz - peg 127
3. Ziggy Slowinski - 22lb 11oz - peg 129
4. Chris Fox - 22lb - peg 56
5. Martin Shipston - 21lb 10oz - peg 123
6. Phil Denslow - 19lb 12oz - peg 70