Sleeping at Landsend fishery

As I write this post I imagine most of the competitors from today's match at Landsend are still on their way home. Yep I packed up early! I'll write what I can but you'll get a lot more out of Tony Rixon and Mike Nicholls blogs this week for sure!

I drew peg 50 on the third lake and everyone I spoke to just cringed and said peg 51 is better. Mike Nicholls was on this lake last week and he was again today, this time right opposite me. He advised that most anglers in this area last week blanked and that either end of the lake were the best pegs. I found out that one 11.5lb carp had come off my peg last week, and I just hoped a few more had swam into the peg.

On peg 51 was Dave a Brummie who lives in Somerset, and to my right on peg 46 was a devastated Clint Wojtyla who was just managing to stand up after a heavy drinking session. Clint provided great entertainment during the match, and I'd have probably packed up earlier if it wasn't for him!

I was surprised at how shallow the peg was, it changed only by about six inches between the middle and far bank. I set up 2 rigs for the far bank, one 4x10 and one 4x12 in case it got a bit windy. One 4x12 rig did for the middle and everywhere else! I used 0.11 powerline to an 18 B911 on all rigs.

I fed some micros at 9mtr in front, some casters at 11mtrs at 2 o'clock, some micros across to the point of the island and 14mtrs to the right, then down to some reeds at 14mtrs on the inside. The plan was to go on 9 mtrs and and leave the far bank to settle. But after 40 mins I had not had a bite on the 9mtr or 11mtr lines despite trying various hook baits. The lines across also never produced a bite, in fact after 1.5 hours I had not had an indication of any sort! Mike Nicholls had taken 3 carp, Clint 1 and the end peg 54 had taken 1. Rod Wooten on 42 had landed 1 carp and pulled out of 2 foulers.

I decided to feed another line at 13 mtrs about 1 mtr off the island, the depth was almost the same as right across but it looked to me the sort of line where Mike had caught. I cupped in a small amount of micros and tried a grain of corn over it straight away, within a minute I had a bite and landed a 5lb mirror. Unfortunately that was that! I did have one other bite on this line later on in the day, on a soft pellet, but didn't connect with anything. For the rest of the match nothing I tried produced any indications, I even went down to 0.09 and a 22 with single maggot to try to catch a few roach, but that didn't work either. About 40 mins from the end I couldn't take any more and gave up.

From what I could see the end peg 54 would had won the lake, with about 10 carp, Mike Nicholls had taken another 3 carp tight across and looked on for 2nd with 6 carp. Dave next to me on peg 51 lost 3 carp and blanked (oh we did laugh as he lost the 3rd one which straightened his hook!), Clint never had another bite and ended with just the 1 carp. Well at least I didn't get beat up next door I suppose! I did hear down the Queens Head that Mike Nicholls felt like a chip shop sausage after being battered all round at Bitterwell last Weds. (Sorry Mike, Shaun and Martyn were keen I got this one in!)

I expect Tony Rixon paralysed the Landsend match from Speci peg 33 (how does he draw these pegs!) with around 15 carp to 16lb. Bela Bakos next door on peg 34 was not amused. I did notice that the lake I was on was very clear, where as Speci was very coloured. Oh well, the draw bag is still not being to kind to me at present, I'll just have to hope I get a good un soon and then try and make the most of it!