PSV Match, Landsend Match Lake, 26/7/15

The day began rather wet, with everyone donned in waterproofs and less than positive about the coming day, though reports said it may dry up after lunch, but the wind will get a bit stronger.

We had 12 fishing, down from the 14 booked in, but the 'Radford Clan' including Adam Caswell were holidaying in the lovely seaside resort of Sandy Bay, flashy lights and slot machines....hahaha.
I'd arrived in plenty of time for the draw and we all had a good chat and stuff while waiting for the 'late' arrivals of Steve Burgess and Chris Davis (guesting?).

Saturday's match was won from peg 13, both the silvers and carp were favouring that peg and peg 11 by all accounts, the other 'better' areas seemed to be the pegs at the ends of each island.
I fancied 19 or 21 personally, not sure why, but maybe down to the fact it's the area I tend to draw if it's not peg 1.
As the draw was made I plucked my ticket half way down the queue and found the golden peg for the day in my hand. Peg 15. A decent peg with a little form, no peg 16 or 14 in either so the fish had some room to hide from me..........that is what I think they achieved as the day went on!!

Looking down towards 16, 18 etc Landsend Match Lake

Peg 15, Landsend Match Lake.



For company, not that I could see them, were Steve Burgess on peg 17 and Alan Healey in peg 13.
I went about setting my kit up in the rain, I even put a brolly up for the 1st time in years.....don't think I will do that again, poxy thing was always in the way.
Anyways I set up a shallow rig on a longish line to fish tight over and for maybe trying to mug the odd cruiser. There were plenty of fish moving along the islands and the open water had patches of bubbles everywhere!!
A rig for meat was put together, to be fished at the 2 o'clock direction at 2+2 distance.
A rig for the margins both sides was also assembled, to use corn or meat over mostly caster and maybe a bit of groundbait. I did set up a rig for silvers at 11m, but this remained unused.
Bait was caster, hemp, 6mm pellets, 8mm meat and some maggots and a little groundbait.

Before the match began Steve came along and asked if I had any 6mm pellets, which being the nice guy I am gave him some, obviously I hoped he didn't catch too many on them!!

The all in was called and I deposited a small helping of corn and pellets at 14m off in the 11 o'clock direction, but I only tried this spot twice without a bite, so no more on that.
Some meat and hemp went in on that line before I went across to the island, by the time I had done this Rich Jones was on his 3rd fish from peg 19..!! Hmmm.
I plugged away and lost a foul hooker after 20 minutes, the fish were there, blatantly winding me up by sucking at the surface and waving their tails in the shallow water.
My 1st fish came after 40 minutes, by which time I think everyone had caught a few, but for me and Mr Burgess it wasn't hectic.

Into hour 2 and Alan Healey had landed a good few but by the sounds of it Chris Davis on peg 11 was doing rather well. I managed another carp from across, an 8lber so not too bad. But I was getting bored to be honest and was contemplating going home. Steve Burgess had landed a couple fish from he line at around 12m in front of him, further down Rich Jones and Chris Gay both were still getting a few fish in spells.

At the halfway stage I had 3 carp in the net for perhaps 12lbs plus a clonking ide of around 3lb, that fish was intent on escaping and several times it come flapping up out of the water in the net!
I came in onto the meat line and had a spell of 3 or 4 carp, not biggies but the 3lb stamp, I did foul hook a few as they seemed to be hanging around off bottom.
I had tried across again but other than 1 or 2 foul hooked fish it was hard work, so I gave that up bar  the odd look every now and then.
I decided to put some bait into my left edge and keep an eye on it, but my enthusiasm was waning and when Alan came along I said I was considering going home, but the rain returned so I stayed under my shelter. I was also miles behind everyone else it seemed as even my right hand neighbour was netting the odd fish including 1 or 2 lumpy carp.
Alan was doing well, but Rich Jones on p19 had slowed considerably.

By now, we were into the last 90 minutes and my edge to my left had seen a few fish show, including a friggin' big ghostie of maybe 12lb+. So I went and dropped a rig in, the float sailed away and promptly took my rig and disposed of it in a snag......bollocks!! The next fish was duly netted and I had another couple squeakers and lost 2 more during the following hour.
With around 45 minutes left I fed some bait to my right edge and went on the meat line, this gave me a run of fish to 8lb and a couple lost foul hookers, I think most guys were suffering with the foul hooked fish as the carp were certainly active. The silvers were not as I saw hardly any all day.
Into the last 30 minutes and I bagged a fish, my only fish, from the right margin. I put that into my 2nd carp net and that was followed by 4 more from the meat line before the all out.
My clickers showed 40lb in my 1st net and I had 5 carp in my second net, plus 2 roach, 1 ide and a perch in my silvers net.
I guessed I would be last on the day, so I packed my kit away in the rain, always a pain in the arse is that....I do hate having wet gear stored away.

I took my trolley and stuff to load the car and catch up with the scales, nearly everyone reckoned on 60-70lb, except Alan who said he had 50-60lb.......I knew that was absolute trash and I thought he had around 100lb, but I heard Chris Davis had over that.
I found myself with the rabble following the scales, John Bradford had 30lb of silvers and had that pot tied up, all his fish came very late in the day. Chris Szacaks had put 80lb on the board and was winning. It stayed that way for a few minutes before Chris Davis' nets gave him 122lb 8oz.
Around to Alan and his '50lb' went 90lb 6oz, including 10lb of silvers.
My turn next and my second net had 24lb or so in it, my 1st net had 43lb-ish. My silvers were a little over 4lb. My total was 70lb 13oz, so slightly over my 60lb guess (but I only guess my carp).
Steve Burgess was closer with his 60lb estimate, 59lb 12oz was his weight, so at least a quid was going my way, in fact it was only a quid as obviously I wasn't gonna finish in the top 3.
Rich Jones (p19) and Chris Gay (p21) had 75lb 10oz and 74lb 10oz respectively, peg 24 dnw'd.

So I was proved right that I was at the wrong end of the board, but it was a really close contest, which is brilliant, something most commented on being good. Chris Gay reckoned a pellet feeder approach would have 'emptied it'........haha.

Results:
1. Chris Davis (guest) (11) .... 122-8
2. Alan Healey* (13) ......... 90-6
3. Chris Szakacs (9) ........ 80-14...
4. Lee Waller (7) .............. 77-2
5. Rich Jones (19) ........... 75-10
6. Chris Gay (21) ............ 74-10
7. Pete Uzzell (1) ........... 72-12
8. Lee Williams (15) ....... 70-13
9. Steve Burgess (17) .... 59-12
10. Lionel Legge (3) ...... 59-8
11. John Bradford (5) ..... 30-4
and 1 dnw

Silvers:
1. John Bradford ..... 30-4
2. Alan Healey ........ 10-8
3. Chris Szakacs .... 8-8

Not my most enjoyable of weekends, but I did learn 1 or 2 things, I am slowly coming to terms with venues and pegs and I will no doubt be better for times ahead. It's always good to learn.

Next up for me is a memorial match over at Apex. Will make a nice change as I haven't fished it for a couple or so years.

Until then, take care.
Lee

Acorn Open, 25/7/15.

Well the weather was certainly different this last weekend, with Friday being absolutely awful with rain for pretty much 24hrs, or so it seemed. At least the lakes would get a welcome bit of freshness, how that'd affect the fishing I don't know.
Saturday was nice and warm and sunny, not great for fishing, before Sunday was mostly wet early on and getting more showery and windy as the day wore on.

So on Saturday I decided to fish a match on either Landsend or Acorn, plumping for Acorn as I hadn't fished it for months and months, plus I had the PSV match at Landsend on Sunday.
I arrived (with the wife in tow) in plenty of time for the draw, there was only 8 fishing though so a little disappointed by that, but onwards and upwards.
Mark Walsh was running the match in the absence of both Rob Fogg and Adie Baker, but he likes and does ok at the venue, plus he is a sound, kinda funny guy.
We had a couple regulars there including top guy and exceptional angler Giles Cochrane and Kev Jefferies, who also fishes with the PSV bunch every so often.

Mark pegged pegs 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 21, 24 and 28. Now I have only ever drawn up around peg 24 other than in the Clevedon Xmas match where I won the silvers with a solitary skimmer, I was on peg 1 that day. I really didn't want peg 24, or 28 really.
Lucky the draw was done and 24 had come out, I let the missus pick my peg and out came 13, not too bothered really and hoped for a nice day fishing.
For company I had Kev Jefferies on peg 15 to my left, Walshy around to my right on p10 and he had Giles further along on peg 8.

Acorn Paddock peg 13.

I had heard that caster was doing well and that weights could be from 50lb to 170lb winning, so pretty varied really. But with loads of space to hide I was sure that it'd be a trickier day.
I did bring some caster, maggots, a few micros, corn (meat is banned), 6mm pellets, expanders and some groundbait.

3 rigs were assembled. The first was a shallow pellet (then changed to maggot) rig for over between clumps of grass in around 2ft of water. The next rig was used tight in against my bank either side in around 12" of water and lastly I had a rig that would do for anywhere else in the swim, so I fed at topkit line, 11m and just off each empty peg either side, all were the same depth within an inch. I would feed each spot differently. All were on 0.18>0.14 hooklength and size 16 hooks.

Before the whistle Giles told me that he had been fishing, and doing ok, using caster and toss-potting the feed, re-feeding the same way every few minutes. He also said he rarely bothers going across these days.
Walshy would most likely be using paste!!

At the all-in I fed a small amount of corn and caster down to my left. Some micros and odd 6mm went in at 11m. I began feeding 4 or 5 casters and maggots on the topkit line and started down by empty peg 12.
After a while, probably 20 minutes I had a bite and lost a small foul hooked carp, but I soon had number 1 in the net, only a baby of 2lb but it saved me from a blank.
After the hour had passed myself and Kev hadn't had much more than 2 carp each, while Giles and Mark had done around 7 or so each, Giles even resorted to fishing across, lol.
The second and 3rd hour saw me put another 3 carp in the net, plus I had lost 3 or 4 foul hooked fish, maybe I had fed too much, maybe they were mooching around too much. But there was a lot of fish moving through, in fact further along past Kev we could see plenty of carp in and about pegs 17 to 19. The space was obviously attractive to our fish.

Into the last couple of hours of the match, myself and Kev were struggling and we couldn't even get many silvers. I started to feed tight to my own bank, on my right at topkit distance, plus I had fed 3/4 of the way to peg 14 tight in along the bank also. These are the areas I focused on for the remainder of the match and I had a run of F1's from the right and 3 or 4 carp from the left, plus a few foul hookers.
The match ended and I knew me and Kev hadn't done great with peg 6, the Giles (winner?), Walshy and peg 21 by the bridge doing better.

I packed my kit away and looked at my fish, probably 20lb of carp and 12/15lb of F1's. I looked at Kev's fish and he had maybe 30lb of carp and a 3 or 4lb of silvers, so similar to me.
We both tipped back once a glance at the weigh sheet showed 40lb, 135lb and Walshy's nr 70lb net, plus the guy on 28 reckoned on at least 80lb.
I didn't stay for the results, but I think Giles won.

It is a venue I should try and make more visits to and I do plan on doing so when I get a Saturday off every now and then, but only 8 fishing is a touch sad, but the previous few weigh sheets show more like 15 fishing at least so, hopefully it stays that way.

Until next time.
Lee.