Eric Fouracre had been down mid-week and sacked up, but that's pleasure angling!!
With 15 'winners' from last season, on the lake it could be tricky, but 15 is better than the 19 that fished the same lake yesterday. That match was won with around 90lb.
I arrived at the venue in plenty of time, and set about loading the trolley.
I had a natter with a few guys and some general piss taking occurred. But from the list of guys fishing it would be hard to do well, we had Vic Bush, Jamie Cook, Eric Fouracre, Jason King and Martin Heard to name a few.
The Speci lake also had a 'not-quite-winners' match from the club, and to be fair I would have fancied 33 or 32 if I was on that match.
The 9am draw was called and I found myself back to my usual habit of being at the back end of the queue. With 2 pegs left in the bucket it was Vic who had dibs before me and offered me his ticket before he opened it, I said ok, but he kept it. He had peg 51, a peg I fancied, although I haven't ever fished the lake, only seen it twice, but 51 was rumoured to be decent. He said I could say something bad about him, but really I cant, sadly (?).
I had peg 70, apparently a good peg if the fish are in there. It is the last peg on the far bank nearest the entrance. I got the usual comments about golden bollocks and me on a usual flyer, as if...!!
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| Landsend Peg 70, Lake 3 (John's) |
However things were not looking too good, the weather was due to be warm and bright sunshine and with the fish obviously grouped up for spawning we knew that it'd be a tough day.
For company I had Mike Davis on peg 68 and could see Steve Fouracre over on p42.
Other than that I was pretty much on my own.
I decided not to set a silvers rig up so it was down to 4 rigs for the carp today.
A long line shallow rig for mugging and would cover a shallow line at 9m in front.
A deeper banded pellet rig for tight over to the spit.
A shallower, depth rig for along the end bank. (no bites on this today)
Lastly a meat rig for topkit and for by the weedbed, this would also have done for just off the spit should I have decided to start a new line.
Bait was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, 8mm pellets and some hemp and groundbait....plus a few last resort maggots.
We were all ready in plenty of time for the 10:30 start, but at the all in I began trying to mug a few fish, but after 15 minutes I had had any joy, so I fed various spots and went over to the spit as I had seen 1 or 2 carp mooch along there.
This gave me a few foul hooked fish over the following half hour, so that line was all but abandoned for the rest of the day
The end bank was tried both off an don the bottom, but that never gave me a bite all day, similarly the short meat line never gave a fish, just a foul hooked carp that gave me a scale.
So the rest of the match was mostly spent mugging a few fish up to 8lb, the weedbed gave me 4 small carp, a crucian and a skimmer..
By 2pm I had landed all the fish I was to weigh in, I think I had 12 carp, lost 7 or 8 of which 6 were defo foul hooked, 1 snapped me in the weedbed and the other the hook pulled. The last 2.5hrs remained fishless for me and I had to watch Steve on p42 and Mike on p68 start to amass a few carp, I was sure they'd moved well ahead of me.
Elsewhere rumour had it that most were struggling but Eric Fouracre on around peg 66 had 9 or 10 carp and a nice amount of silvers and looked odds on to win.
By the end of the match the water in front of me had seen the colour drop out somewhat as I could see my whole keepnets in the water, a sure sign that fish were not in the area in numbers.
I could, should, have tried to mug a couple more fish late on, but they were tricky to spot and I wasn't sure if it'd have been worth it at this point.
The all out sounded at 4:30 and I packed my kit away. I went and chatted with a few other, with Eric and Mike admitting to a few carp, but most others had struggled.
I managed to catch up with the scales as they reached my bank, the sheet showed Steve Fouracre had 50lb and a few ounces was leading.
The scales carried on along the bank with some 20lb-30lb nets before Eric plopped 57lb of carp and 10lb of silvers on the scales to take the lead, then came Mike on peg 68, he had a really nice run of carp under the tree to his left, he weighed in 51lb+ I think.
Last to weigh was me, I had 1lb for the silvers board before my 2 weighs of carp gave me a total of 59lb 14oz, so my 'clicker' that showed 45lb had lied........I really am not great of carp sizes.
So we all headed back to the car park, most guys were in varying stages of sunburn or suntan as it really was warm and sunny today.
The other match was won, I think, by Phil Clapp with 60-something pound, James Withers was 2nd from peg 40 and Nick Selway was 3rd.
We had a nice bbq in the car park, thanks to the club and those who supplied the meat and veg, and to Giffy who was masterchef supreme!!
Results: (as best I can remember as I don't have pic of the sheet)
1st, Eric Fouracre, peg 66 (?) 67lb+
2nd, Lee Williams, peg 70 59lb 14oz
3rd, Mike Davis, peg 68, 51lb+
Silvers:
Jamie Cook, 13lb+ peg 65 (?)
Next up for me is a MMT qualifier next Sunday at Larford.
Lets hope these fish get the spawning over and done with!!
Until then, take care.
Lee
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