Saturday 28 May 2016

Saturday Combi Series. Round One. Landsend Match Lake - 28/5/16

Today was the 1st round of my 1st attempt at running a series, originally it was going to be a silvers series, but after several discussions with fisheries it was dropped as a silvers series, but runs as one where the silvers are just as important as the carp, and vice versa!!
We have 5 matches, Landsend today, Trinity Wildmarsh (the 'dodgy one' as some call it, I prefer the one where it's not all carp) on 11th June, Sedges Brick on July 9th then Avalon and Cary in August.

Up until Wednesday we had 14 or 15 booked in so the half of the speci lake was dropped with Mike, we had the Match Lake only as 15 was ok for that, but by 6am this morning (thanks Nick Harvey), we were up to 18. A nice figure, but a squeeze on the match lake at Landsend, but that's the way the cookie crumbled.
The way the series is worked out is 3 sections of 6, 6 points down to zero for catching the best net of carp, the same goes for the best silvers net in section (0 points for no weight of either), so a maximum of 12 points on offer.
The points are arranged in order and the section's top point scorer gets 1 point for the series, 2 for second and so on down to 6. So it should be tight for the series and points could be clawed back.
You just need a bit of thought into what to catch in relevance to your 6 peg section (simply a 6 peg match)
I am paying top Carp and top Silvers net in each section, not overall payments on the day, as its about the series not individual matches. Anyways the weigh/score sheets will explain.

On to today, after getting there in plenty of time I walked around the lake, there seemed to be a few fish mooching, mostly along the middle half of the lake. The speci fish were spawning.
I got the paperwork done, took the remaining entry fees. Had a sarnie and put my gear on the trolley.
I explained a few things, some miss-heard, but the draw was made just after 9am.
The 3 sections were 3 pegs each side at the near end would make 1 section, the 3 each side in the middle made another and 3 pegs each side at the far end made the last section of 6.
I had the last or 2nd last ticket and found peg 22 in my hand, didn't mean much to me but Rich Lovering said its a nice silvers peg!!
For company I had Ziggy Slowinski on my right and Paul Nichols on my left, whom I had to later on give a quid, I could see Lance Tucker (p1) and just about make out Alex Nadin and Ricky Mills on pegs 3 and 2 respectively (that's my 6 peg section).

Looking left and where a quid was heading (Paul Nichols)

Looking left to the man who prefers to hook csrp on silvers kit (Ziggy)

My view in front....can you make out Lance over on peg 1?

I made up a silvers rig for mostly expander over micro, with the odd try with caster or maggot, this would be for 2+2 in front.
A second rig was for meat and hemp at 2+2 off in the 2 o'clock direction.
An edge rig for down to my right and a long line shallow rig for stalking/mugging.
Bait I had was 6 and 8mm pellets, wet micros,  meat and hemp plus some expanders, caster and maggots for the hook.

At the all in I fed the edge and meat line, plus a small helping of wet micros for the silvers. I started by trying to mug a few cruisers, but they were not really having it, more inclined to roam around in 2s and 3s pre-spawning I guess.
So after 30 wasted minutes I went out to catch a silver fish, I managed that with a 4oz skimmer.
Paul on peg 21 had a better skimmer before putting a couple carp in the net.

It too me an age to catch my 1st carp, which came shallow in open water, more by luck than planned as I was having a drink when I felt the laccy come out. But a 6lber was welcomed.
Ziggy was struggling and had 2 carp, but after 2hrs he was targeting silvers, and hooking, mostly losing, carp!!
I had a couple roach and 1 nice skimmer on the silvers line, 1 roach from the edge and foul hooked a couple of carp.....as it approached 3pm!! During this time Paul had 9 or 10 carp to around 15lb from down his left edge, he also lost a couple to the legs of his platform!!

I just couldn't seem to catch any carp, or silvers for that matter but at 4pm I had a flying skimmer, this was followed by a roach, which fell off from down the edge, but I soon managed another carp on my silvers rig. Then a nice 2.5lb ide from my margin helped add to my silvers.
With 45 minutes to go I was surely last in section for the carp, not sure on the silvers as Ziggy had a couple skimmers and Paul also had a few decent skimmers, a crucian and a few roach.
I tried my short meat line and had 2 and foul hooked 2 in the last period.

The all out was called and I wasn't too expectant of my results and expected last in section in both categories!!
I had counted Paul's 14 landed carp so maybe 85lb or so, Lance had a nice run of fish late and Ziggy was losing more than landing on his silvers gear, which wasn't really catching much silvers either!!
Alex and Ricky sounded like they had done well from the splashings.

I packed up and Paul Berry came to help do the weigh in.....
I wont write too much in this but there were a good few 30-60lb nets of carp but only 2 or 3 nets of silvers over 10lb. Lewis Jones (p13) took top carp honours and Vic Bush (p5) took the best silvers net with 100lb+ and 19lb+ respectively.

I managed 8lb 12oz of silvers and that was enough for section 2nd in silvers, sadly my 24lb of carp was 5th in section for carp weights!! So no pick up today.

I wont post the full results, but the highlighted names won the relevant section prizes on the day and if you study the sheet then you will see how catching a decent amount of each category to score good points.

After the 1st round the top 6 (with weights determining when points level)
1st - Brian Slipper with 1pt
2nd - Alex Nadin with 1pt
3rd - Mark Saunders with 1pt
4th - Paul Nichols with 2pts
5th - Mark Hanham with 2pts (thanks to Andy Hembrow)
6th - Vic Bush with 2pts

Weights....

Individual Category scores, carp on the left, silvers on the right.

Top 3 on the day were:
Lewis Jones peg 13, 101-14 (inc best carp net of 100-12)
Paul Nichols peg 21, 90-12 (82-08)
Brian Slipper peg 17, 81-14 (72-06)

Best silvers was Vic Bush on peg 5 who had an assortment of silvers for 19lb 4oz.

Top points scorer was Alex Nadin who managed a great 11 points from a possible 12 from peg 3.

So a tough day, but on the whole it went as well as I could have expected, I would have personally expected a few more carp, and definitely more silvers.
The next match for the series is in a couple of weeks on the Wildmarsh Lake at Trinity, it'll be a tough one for sure, so it could be interesting....or a dull day!!

Tomorrow I am at Sedges, Brick lake with the PSV lads. Not sure if/where on Monday.

Until then,
Lee


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