Landsend League Round Four, Sunday 26th January 2013

I have been thinking about my fishing and trying to assess how I can simplyfy things, one thing I am doing is trying to settle on a small selection of floats that will suit nearly all situations on the venues I normally fish.  A while back I bought some Nick Gilbert XT Gimps, they have passed the test of time and they are a very durable replacememt for Carpa Chimps, which I find break or bend very easily.  I have only damaged one Gimp, when a foul hooked carp came off at full pelt and the line cut the bristle off at the base.

I ordered some more last week, in readiness for the Bait Tech festival and a conversation with Nick led to me order a few of his handmade Gimps, wire and glass stem to try, also a margin float pattern.  Nick also kindly sent me three patterns to try out, one of which, the Power Finesse put most of the fish in my net today.  I'll be ordering a few more of this these and can recommend Nicks service and quality.

On to the match and a convivial drive to the cafe with Tony Rixon passed the time, we went into the draw bucket close to each other but ended up on different lakes, Tony on match lake, peg 15, myself on peg 41 on lake 3.  Frustratingly there were three no shows on this lake, reducing the section on my side by one and two the other side, this gives plenty of space to some lucky anglers, Mark Poppleton on 55 and Mike Duckett on 68, with 66 and 70 empty were the fortunate ones today.

My peg looked like it should hold a few fish with an end bank, the spit and some open water to go at. I intended to kep it simple and set up the usual 0.3 XT Gimp with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 hook.  As the wind was promised to get up, I also set up the Power Finesse that Nick Gilbert had sent for me to try, this was to fish soft pellet or maggot out towards the aerator, in about 41/2' of water.  Another new float to try was a NG Springer Sampson, this for maggot, caster, corn or pellet across to the spit  or down the edge.

At the start I cupped in some softened micros at 13m, loose fed caster at 6m off to the left and short straight in front.  The catapult was used to put a few maggots across to the spit.  Starting over the micros at 13m, with a 4mm soft pellet, I landed a small crucian, then a F1, quickly followed by a skimmer.  A switch to double maggot resulted in  a positive bite and after a tussle, a 9lb carp graced the net.  A couple more F1's, another skimmer and two more carp, along with 3 lost carp, followed and all seemed to be going Ok.  Resting the 13m line saw another small F1 come from the spit, a skimmer, a perch and a 6oz roach from the short caster line.

Then the mini storm hit, torrential rain and gale force winds, it only lasted 5 minutes or so, but then the wind turned through nearly 180 degrees and increased. This was less than halfway into the match.  No matter what I did, the wind wrecked any sort of pole presentation in my fed swims, so I had no option but to come short and to fish the RH margin - I may have well as gone to the pub, I suffered wind induced tourettes and had a couple of small roach, before managing to present the power finesse at 13m, just long enough to add a last F1 to the net.   Within 10 minutes of the all out, the lake was becalmed, the wind reduced to the gentlest of breezes and my frustration was complete.

I had managed 3 section seconds in the last three rounds and three section silvers wins, it looked like a decent section result was unlikely, but the silvers had fished hard.  My 3 carp went 18.08 and the silvers 12.08 for a section silvers and lake win, with my 31.00 total coming third in section.

I now lead the silvers and await Ken Rayners blog to see how far I've fallen ( from 4th) in the overall.

On the day.

1) Dave Hodgson  119.15 peg 34 specimen lake
2) Mike Duckett  90.14 peg 68 lake 3
3) Mark Poppleton 62.14 peg 55 lake 3
4) Ken Rayner 62.02 peg 32 specimen lake
5) Steve Seager 57.14 peg 11 match lake
6) Bob Gullick 53.11 peg 62 lake 3

Landsend Open, Saturday 11th January 2014

The usual decent breakfast at Shipham on the way to the match today, arriving at Landsend I found Somerset's Lady GaGa affcionado sorting out the attendees and pegging, it seemed so simple, 12 fishing, 24 pegs, just use every other peg.  It then turns out Mike (West) had forgotten Rod Wotton, so 13 fishing and peg 22 added to the tub.

With the bright sun due to be gracing us with it's presence all day, the low numbers bank, especially peg1 would give some problem seeing the float, the compensation being a higher temperature to sit in.  Into the tub and out comes peg 3, I can't say I was dancing a jig to it, I had Nick Merry on peg 1 for company and could see Lady GaGa on peg 24 and Alan Oram on 22.  With Mike Duckett drawing      11, Rod 9 and Ken Rayner on 19, it was going to be a tough ask to beat them.

The lake is still quite clear, but as the temperature hasn't been too low yet this winter, I did think that there would be a few fish to be caught. A NG Gimp to fish full depth, a float whose name i habe no idea of, but similar to a MW slim, to fish at the bottom of the second shelf off the island and a rig with a small diamond float to fish the margins and down to the pallets of pegs 2 & 4 - this didn't produce a single bite, so no more typing wasted on it.

A similar plan to last Sunday, a line fed with micros, a line fed with caster, these at 10 & 2 o'clock, the shelf off the island fed with caster, via the catapult and caster for the margins.  Starting over the micros, with double maggot I missed a bite and bumped a fish first two put ins, before catching a couple of small rudd - not a good sign.  I always feed a short caster line on this lake, it nearly always produces a couple of decent fish, either big skimmers/bream or tench, a quick look on this line was biteless.  The long line over to the island produced a couple of 4oz perch, then a 4oz rudd and a couple of tiny roach.

A swap back to the micros line with a 4mm expander on the hook, saw a little dink of the float and a carp was hooked, I saw it several times, a big ghostie that wouldn't give  up and eventually it got it's own way and shed the hook.  Next drop in another carp on, this time a foul hooker that shed the hook as it ran off and that was the last sign of a carp in the peg.  I could see that a few were stuggling and not too many silvers were coming out, so I stuck at it, eventually getting the roach in on the short line, but on maggot, not caster, which again proved very unproductive.

The expected bonus fish did not show up, either across or short, this saw me end the day with 3 species in the net, roach, rudd and perch, no sign of a skimmer or an F1.  Towards the end, Andy Hembrow on 21 started to catch a few decent skimmers, undoubtedly beating my motley collection of small silvers, of which the biggest fish were 4oz specimens of all 3.

With the carp nets redundant, my silvers were weighed quickly in one weigh, going 6.13, as it turned out, enough to pick up second in silvers money, beating lake owner Mike Duckett by 1oz.  Ken Rayner made the most of a few fish being on peg 19, to win by a comfortable margin, the weights left everyone scratching their heads a bit, as we all thought it would fish better, just goes to show how little we know about fish and the affect of the enviroment on their feeding habits.

1) Ken Rayner 47.01 peg 19

2) Steve Martin 32.11 peg 17

3) Rod Wotton 29.07 peg 9

4) Mike Duckett 26.12 peg 11

5) Andy Hembrow 22.04 peg 21

6) Jim Jenner 17.12 peg 13

Silvers

1) Andy Hembrow 11.09 peg 21

2) Chris Fox 6.13 peg 3

Landsend Winter League, Sunday 5th January 2014

My turn to be on Match lake for this round, 7, 11 and 13 were all being talked up at the draw, Trigger drew peg 11 just before I got to the draw bucket, I picked up two stuck together, so rather than seperate and pick one, I dropped them back in and took another, peg 24.  It hasn't been the best area lately, but one consolation, it wasn't fished in yesterdays match.

I set up a NG gimp to fish at 14m into the open water, another NG gimp with a banded hook on, just in case.......  As there was plenty of time I set up a rig to fish up on the shelf of the RH end bank and a pencil float with No11's spread out, as there were odd fish moving whilst we were tackling up.

I fed the 14m line with caster, the RH end bank with caster and a line at 7m off to the left with micros and 4's.  First put in on the 14m line saw the float dink and a 5lb carp was safely netted, next drop in and another tiny dink on the float saw another fish in the net, this time an unseasonal tench.  The float  had to be dotted right down as the bites were the merest little dips.

It was still flat calm and no sign of the promised rain, topping up the 14m line brought another carp and then two more tench, one of which was a lovely golden colour, it all seemed to be going well and then the rain started, quickly followed by the wind, this killed off the 14m line.  I managed a crucian and a carp on maggot from the 7m line, a couple of small roach from the RH bank, before a carp took the double caster, this proved to be the only one from the shallower water.

I had to take a shot off the rig to see the float on the 14m line, which did produce one more carp and a decent perch, but the bites had slowed right up compared with the first hour.  The scales saw my silvers first and they went 10.10, for a silvers section win and silvers money by default, the carp went 33.15 for a total of 44.09 and second in section.  This now puts me on 3 silvers firsts and 3 section seconds for the series, next match is back to a free draw, so any of the 3 lakes.

As expected, Trigger made the most of peg 11 and won comfortably.

1) Craig Edmunds 143.01 peg 11
2) Tom Thick 95.00 peg 33
3) Ken Rayner 75.02 peg 31
4) Mark Poppleton 60.07 peg 20
5) Adrian Jefferies 54.07 peg 58
6) Gary O'Shea 45.00 peg 5
7) Chris Fox 44.09 peg 24

Silvers

1) Gary O'Shea 14.04 peg 5
2) Ken Rayner 11.02 peg 31
3) Chris Fox 10.10 peg 24