Landsend Saturday open 18/08/2018

As I`ve been relieved of my duties at my latest job I had the weekend off so I went down to Somerset for the usual Saturday knock up at Landsend. The obligatory breakfast was downed and then into the draw bucket.  I managed to pull out peg 11. ( fishing today so plenty of room so I wasnt to displeased with it though it hasn`t shown a lot of form for a while, but then Russ Peck usually draws it ( hahaha, sorry mate). there were fish showing in just about every peg on the walk to the far end of the lake so it was looking like it might be a decent day. 4 rigs today (overkill). The usual .3 SS Margin to fish either side in about 2 1/2 feet of water in pellet or meat. It would also do for the end bank if I decided to go that way. A .3 Slim to fish 2+2 on pellet. A .15 Shalla slim to fish a nice flat spot I found about 2 metres off the island at 14 1/2 meters. Any closer and it was so shallow the ducks were stading in the water and not getting their asses wet. And a .5 slim to fish the deep hole at the same length, but that rig never got touched all day. Opposite for company I had martin Lanaghan on 13 and Mark Walsh to my left on peg 7, so banter would be good today. I started on the shalla rig as there were a few fish showing by the island. It took about 10 minutes to get them responding and the first decent fish was netted. It wasnt hectic in the first hour but I did get a few going. Martin was getting nursery size fish out by the island but he was suffering with fish taking him through a snag. Looking down the lake and it wasn`t fishing as well as I though it would. I stuck with the long pole for the first couple of hours picking off fish and had about 40lb before I changed and tried a different line after loosing a few where they were feeding, as the other lines were fizzing like a jacuzzi everywhere I was feeding. I thought the rest might do it good. First I tried the 2+2 line and had a 6 pounder first drop in on 8mm pellet. But that was it. There was obviously something feeding down there but I couldnt get them going at all. Next was into the margins. The left side was lifeless but the right was fizzing so much I couldn`t see my float properly. I had a 2lb skimmer for about 15 minutes of frustration but again no other bites from there. I must have been a shoal of skimmers but they weren`t interested in 8mm pellets. So it was back out long and I started catching regularly putting a decent weight together. It was Nice to see a long time friend from my childhood days when Mark Little wandered a long for a watch. He brought me some luck as I caught a load when he was watching. He left with about 80 minutes to go and then my luck changed. If it could go wrong it did, and in the last part of the match I struggled to put much more in the net. My lucky charm had gone and taken the fish with him lol. The middle part of the match had gone very well though and It was looking like I had done enough today. Mark Walsh had a good finish, after struggling the first 3/4 of the match, and managed to close the gap but I though I had just edged him out. I was guessing on around 150lb. First to weigh was Russ Peck, with whom I had a gold coin side bet with as usual, and he put 128-12 on the scales. I thought I`d done him so told him to start polishing the quid 😁. Walshy was  next and his good finish got him 126-13. Next was me, and my first net was a bit of a struggle to lift as the water is so low, I couldnt get hold of the net low enough to drag it out so I had to get Steve Seager to help. It was looking a bit iffy with a net limit of 80lb, and yes I was over it with the first net by a couple of pound so it was rounded back to 80. My other nets were all legal and with my few silvers I managed 172-07 and first on the day. Martin, like me had a nightmare finish and caught next to nothing in the last hour but had 107-03 in the end.  Steve Seager on peg 24 was best weight on the far bank with 154-14 that got him second on the day. I cant go wrong at the mo with the draws so I`m making the most of it, as I know it wont last. Full results below.