Landsend winter league Round 3

After a week off because myself and Helena took a few days off in Malta, and a lovely time we had too, it was back to Landsend for round three of the Winter league. I was doing well so far so a good draw was needed today to keep things going. Today I was on Specie lake and realy wanted to be at the top end of the lake as thats usualy the good area. I was a bit late into the draw as Di had missed me on the breakfast list and there was only two pegs left in the bucket for my section. So in I go and I pull out peg 33. My prayers had been answered. This peg won the last match with around 90lb so I was well happy as its usualy a tough peg to beat right up in the top left corner. For company today I had Dave Lewis next to me on 34, whom I had drawn in the knockout. Jason radford opposite on corner peg 32, and series organiser Ken Raynor on 31. 4 rigs today. A .15 shalla slim to fish mid depth along the end bank. A .3 slim to fish on the deck on the same line. A good depth of about 5 feet along that bank. A .4 slim to fish for silvers if the need arose on maggot or caster. And a .3 SS margin to fish corn both side at top three length, but didnt realy thing this would be a goer. At the all in I fired a few caters at 14 meters along the end bank and cupped in some micros and casters at 11 meters into open water slightly to my right where it was about 4 inches deeper than the rest of the peg. I put double white maggot on the shallow rig and as I was shipping out I saw a good ghosty on the top in open water so I dropped it in front of it and it obliged but it came off after a bout 5 seconds. So it was back to plan 'A' lifting and dropping the bait at mid depth and pinging a few casters over the top. I had a problem as I was finding it hard to get the bait in the water without blippy roach dragging it about but I did get a decent carp after about 15 minutes. A nice ghosty of about 8lb. I stayed on that line, shallow and full depth for around 90 minutes but only had one more plus a few rouch that managed to hang on to the maggot long enough to get them in. they were a real pain. There were carp there as I was foul hooking a few and loosing them. So I tried on the silvers line with single maggot. I got a couple of tiny roach out then it went quiet for 10 minutes. Then I hooked a good carp in the tail on a size 20 to .01 hooklength. Sqeaky bum time but I managed to get this one in. By now Ken had two carp and was also getting better silvers. Dave was struggling to keep the silvers going. As was Jason. But he had lost a couple of carp by this time. I went back to the end bank but it was the same story, either blippy roach picking at the bait or the odd fouled carp. They just didnt want maggot or caster properly. So I decided to change up to pellet and try to keep the roach away. Like that worked!! They just sucked at it and made the float dance around. Plus no carp at all in the half hour I tried it.By the third hour I`d had three and lost seven. So plan `C` was called for. I upped the feed and changed to corn and started to get the odd carp. I gotta say Jason kept myself and Ken in stitches with his antics today. In a ten minute spell , after watching Ken get a couple of carp slapping close to the island he had a go but was oblivious to the over hanging branches from the trees along the end bank, loosing three rigs.  I think he was using nuts fishing for squirrels. A frase came to mind. The deffinision of madnes is repeating the same actions over and over and expecting a different result lol. Cheers Jason, you made it a fun day. The last two hours was a waiting game. All the carp I got came on corn on the deck at 16 meters after long waits, if the roach let it get to the bottom. At the end I had put 48lb on the clicker and was guessing at 4lb of silvers. Ken had 5 carp and a decent net of silvers to put 49-6 total on the scales and Jason had 18lb. I was surprised to see my silvers go 7-2 and my 8 carp go 55-1 for a total of 62-3 for a section win. Dave had struggled with keeping the silvers going and had no real bonus fish except a 2lb chub. He managed 11-10. My weight was top on the day so I was well pleased. That keeps me top at the moment, but with three matches still to go anything could happen and its all down to keeping drawing well and making the most out of every peg. Full results below.

Landsend saturday open.

This will be my last match for a couple of weeks as I`m off to malta next week for a few days R and R. It was nice to see Di back behind the counter after her Xmas lurgy, but no Olive , so Di was a bit pushed today. But as usual the food was excellent. It was a bit warmer today but the lakes had been frozen over during the week so the water was pretty cold. Into the draw bucket and out comes my least favourite peg on the lake, peg 1. Ah well at least the breakfast was good. Wasnt expecting much as all the fish are sholed up at the other end of the lake and this peg is all about trying not to come last in the match. Well thats how it turned out. I wont bore you with details but I only had 2 carp , one perch and a solitary roach. And the roach was all I had in the last three hours. But I wasnt last. Last but one, so it was bonus lol. As in most matches on this lake, the top three weights came from 13, 11, and 15. Nothing new there. Russ `Drawbag` Peck picked up top weight from peg 13. Followed by Steve Seager on 11. results below

Landsend Winterleague, round two

not been out since two weeks before xmas so i was looking forward to this as I`d had a good start in the first match with a lake win. I drawn venue owner Mike ducket in the knockout so id have to have a good day as he was on Match lake and he knows it like the back of his hand. I was on top lake today so was hoping for a corner peg but i drew 68 which is the end of the first island. this peg can be good for a few f1`s against the island as its about 4 foot deep tigh across. For company I had Nick Ducket in the corner to my left on 70, Joe McMahan opposite on 42, suffering from the Xmas lurgy and sounding pretty rough. and Chris Koniecczny on 41 in the opposite corner. That was all i could see. 4 rigs today.  A .4 slim caster or maggot rig for against the island. A .4 slim  to fish  caster or maggot in open water at 12 meters. A .3 SS margin rig to fish tight against the bushes each side on corn. And a .3 slim to fish corn against the weedbed. Keeping the bait simple today. Started against the island but after an hour and only one indication it was a swith to the weed bed and first drop in on corn a 10 pounder hit the net. then nothing else for half an hour. Back to the island and a perch first drop on caster. then nothing for and hour on all lines. I then took a 1lb skimmer on corn after a couple of missed bites by the weed bed. At this time Nick has only had a few small perch. Chris had taken 3 carp and Joe was still to get a bite. But he was struggling today feeling pretty sick. with about 90 minutes left I changed to feeding caster by the weedbed and lightened up my terminal tackle. that seemed to do the trick as in that time left i managed a few silvers and two big perch plus another bonus carp that came in on number 6-10 elastic like a wet sack. Nick finished well taking four carp on maggot along the end bank. Joe got a lump out that went over 11 lb. but chris had very little in the second half of the match. At the weigh in Dave lewis was winning our lake with two carp and a skimmer for 19-5. I weighed 20-11 with 5-9 of silvers that was top on the lake. nick weighed last and his four carp and sumplimentry perch also went 20-11 for joint first on the lake.  But later this evening I got a message from Ken Raynor and he said he`d made a mistake and Nick has 20-13 for the lake win. Good job he double checks the sheets even if it was detrimental to me. Dont wanna win by a mistake. the other lake fished a bit better with gary Oshea winning on the day with 89-9. not bafd on a bitterly cold day. results bellow but look at other blogs for reports on the other lakes.