Landsend Midweek Open

I decided to fish this match because I thought I could catch silvers within reasonable distance and ignore the carp. When I drew peg 7 on match lake everyone said you'll catch carp, hmmmm.

I had 2 pints of caster with me, hard pellet, soft pellet and meat. I decided to leave the casters in the bag, which I think was a poor decision in the end. I was told this peg was shallower then most and so it proved, the very same rig I used at Shiplate on Sunday (0.3grm 4ft 0.14 to 16B911) was at the exact depth for 11mtr line and to fish just off the pallet on vacant peg 8. I used a 4x10 Preston PB4 for across at 14.5 mtrs and had a 0.16 to PR36 for banded pellet, I had just about a foot of water next to a tump of grass. I didn't set up anything else as I felt that would do it! I had a good chat with Tom Thick who was on peg 5 (he likes this peg, as he keeps drawing it!) and he gave me a lot of pointers about what to feed for skimmers and F1's. So on the whistle I potted in about 200 micros and some soften 4mm pellets at 11mtr in front, and at 13 mtrs at 2 o'clock (but this line never produced a bite), I then put some meat down by the pallet and started firing 4mm pellets to the island.

I started on soft pellet on the 11mtr line and within a few minutes had my first bite and a decent skimmer, a couple more followed and then I landed an F1. I could now only get bites from F1's and it seemed they had pushed the skimmers out, but on the hour mark things slowed considerably. I had been feeding some micros and 4mm pellets and tried feeding a bit more, bit less and nothing really got them going. It was taking too long now for bites and so after 2 hours I went across on a 6mm pellet. This looked good as 2 F1's and a carp came straight away, but then nothing!

For the middle two hours it was a struggle for me, I kept trying all my swims with limited success, a tench came from across and a couple of skimmers and 2 carp back at 11mtrs. I was ahead of Tom, but then his peg came alive and he started catching F1's regularly only interrupted by carp across to the island. Tom was potting bait whereas I was using the catty. I tried potting but it didn't help and I went back to the catty. Al of sudden the island swim came alive, another tench, an ide, a skimmer and then 6 carp in the last 40 minutes. I'd had a good end to the match but was frustrated that I could not catch by the pallet and that I had not fed a caster line which could have been useful mid match (still a bit rusty, or just crap lol). I knew Tom had beaten me, but it turned out not by as much as I thought, he weighed 83lb to my 75lb. Tom had 40lb of silvers, I had 32lb, and Tom ended up 2nd overall. I had lost 3 carp, one did me under the platform (argh) and 2 were fouled but I had them near the net a couple of times......

Dean Malin won the match with 103lb and I ended 5th out of 10, if you read Tony's blog you'll see how close the weights were. I always seem to fall short at Landsend, and I learnt a lot today about the F1's, I have never caught them before! Overall a lovely day out fishing in glorious sunshine, but I am knackered now due to fishing 14.5mtrs for so long, thanks again lads for the help carrying my gear.