Landsend 3 day festival.

Its that time of year again. Down to Landsend Fishery for three days. It's hard work travelling back and forth, and very tiring. So like last year I took my caravan down and stopped it a small camp site 90 seconds drive from the venue. Makes it so much easier getting up at half seven for breakfast then a short drive.  25 fishing this year and all three lakes were in, and you rotate and fish each lake.

 Day 1 and I draw peg 18 on match lake. A pretty consistent peg that can throw up big weights. I will keep things short as there's three day to talk about. I caught a few on a 2+2 line on pellet to start with but most of the match was spent down the right hand margin next to a tree stump sticking out in the water. Mostly caught on 8mm pellet but did switch to corn for a while. Bob Gullick won our lake first day to my left on 16 with 163-12. I was second with 150lb dead. Third was Joe McMahon with 139-12 from peg 5. Lake 1 winner wasTony Rixon with 182lb from peg 32. Lake 3 winner was John Hawkins with 195-6 from peg 62. More in depth results sheets at the end of the blog.

DY 2 saw me on lake 3. Very shallow most of it with only 2 foot of water down the middle in a lot of pegs. I drew peg 58 at the top end. A bit hit or miss this peg. I started on 2+2 on pellet and the lake erupted with feeding fish turning the water black. But after half an hour they all vanished and I never saw another fish on that line all day. The far side had a decent depth of 15 inches but was void of fish. The only place I could catch was to my right margin in front of the next peg. But I struggled all day and only took 3 carp in the last 3 hours. Bob Gullick opposite on 55 had a nice day taking a shed full of junior carp. My fish, and I was lucky to catch early, went 75-5 for close to last in section. Joe McMahon won the lake with 123lb from corner peg 41. Russ Peck was second with 117-8 from peg 68. Third was Nick Ducket with 96-13 from peg 51. Lake 1 was won by James Wither with 173lb from peg 34, though there was I mix up on the weight sheet so that could be wrong. Lake 2 was won by Tony Rixon with 159-10 from peg 24. Two wins in a row for Tony.

Day 3 and it was Speci lake for me. I draw peg 38 which is a tight peg for fishing the 16m across as you have to break down twice. Not good when fishing for big carp. I started on the usual 2+2 and started catching silvers with a few roach and decent swimmers coming on 6mm pellet over 4's. And as I was out of it for the overall positions I thought I'd stay on silvers for a change. But after an hour it died so I went across to the island. I had a good start over there but I was losing loads of foul hookers. First hour I only put 4 out of 12 in the net. Then that line⁸ dried up and from then on it was a real struggle. Another hour went by before I put another in the net. So I went back on the silvers and started to get roach again. But I hooked a decent carp and it trashed that line and that was the end of that. I nearly had a disaster when trying to break the pole down at 7m with a decent lump on the end. It bolted to the right as I was taking the pole apart and I could hear the joint crack as it kept going. Luckily the hooked pulled out or I could have seen my pole snapped at the join. The only high light of the day was landing a 16 pounder. It took 3 attempts to get it to fold up enough to get it in the landing net. First on the day on our lake was Nick Ducket on peg 33 with 165-11, just pipping Russ Peck into second place with 164-06. Third was Joe Mcmahon  on peg 40 with 93-04. My net went 81-03. So not a great series for me after a decent start. First on lake 2 was Lewis Jones from peg 18 with a hefty 284-14, though he went over in 2 nets and should have had 309-06. I know that feeling. Lake 3 was won by the Silverback legend himself, Rod Wootton with 172-11 from peg 68.

Overall winner was John Hawkins with 5 points just pushing Tony Rixon, also on 5 points, into second place on weight with 549-15 to Tony`s 482-08. Silvers winner for the event went to silvers specialist Ray White who finished with 6 points in the silvers comp. Fnal and comprehensive weight sheets and a lineup of all the winner below. Well done to everybody for a good weekends sport and banter, and a big well done to the winners. Also a big thanks to Mike Duckett for organising the event.

Acorn cost cutter

 Last day of my week off today so I wondered off to acorn for the Tuesday open with all the ususal reprobates. A visit to the bridge in for breakfast was the first stop  before heading to the draw. into the bag and ping pong ball 15 was in my hand. Cant remember drawing that before  but I didnt mind that bank for a change.

There were a few fish moving all around the peg so I was looking forward to a decent day, and none of the mega cock ups like last match here when i went over in all my nets. 4 rigs set up today. The usual .15 shalla Slim to fish tight to the island. A .4 Slim to fish 2+2 on pellet. A new wire stemed float Im trying to do a bit of slapping over the 2+2 line. And  a .2 SS Margin for down the edges. At the start I went out to the 2+2 line and fed 4mm pellet just to see what was around. With a 6mm on the band I had a couple of small skimmer and 2 F1s in the first 15 minutes. I fired a few 6`s to the far bank and saw a bit of movement so I went over at 13 1/2 meters. No wind roday so it was nice comfortable fishing across. It took a few drop ins but I did get a couple of fish out that went around 10lb between them. I was getting loads of indications but not connecting with much. small roach my guess. I stuck with it for about an hour but it wasnt that productive with only 4 fish in the net. so it was back to the 2+2 line were i had started to feed 6mm`s. had a couple on that line but it wasnt as good as I thought it would be as this was my banker line. a look down the edges produced a couple of big fish around mid match on 8mm pellet and by then I had about 50lb in the net. Then the 2+2 line started fizzing like a bottle of pop and I started getting fish switching from full depth to fishing shallow slapping. I was loosing a lot especially at full depth foal hooking fish in mid water and It did get a bit frustrating. With 90 minutes to go I was knocking on the 100lb markand fish were showing up in numbers downthe edge. id been trying it in and out and lost just about everything Id hooked there so I was was spooking them but  I decided to concentrate down the edge for the remainder  of the match feeding 6`s and 8`s and fishing 8`s in the band, and had a good run of decent fish but still loosing loads that were hooked in various parts of the body. With ten minutes to go I needed another net but I couldnt be arsed to get up and grab another so I dragged my silvers net and dumped about 6 ounces of skimmers back and put 2 more in that net before the all out. A decision I was later to regret. Took a while for the weigh in to get round and Steve Collins weighed in before me on Peg 11. Id seen him getting a few but was surprised when he put 168-14 on the scales. then it was my turn and my 4 nets went 168-11, damn putting those skimmers back as they would have given me a few more ounces and a win on the day. But then, who`s to say I would have put two more carp in the net if id got off my box and and wasted time getting another net. We will never know. So I had to settle for second. At least I didnt go over in any net today.  hasd a giggle after the weigh in watching Ray Baisley trying to get a photo of the weigh sheets. It took two of them. It was a bit "To you, To me, To you, To me. A photo of the event and full results below

Landsend Saturday open 7/9/2019

Had a weekend off last week as I went to work Saturday then A day out sightseeing Sunday.  So I was looking forward to a day at Landsend. With the three day festival coming up in two weeks, I need the practice to do any good as there will be a very good stamp of angler there. Nice to see a few there this week with ten anglers lined up at the draw. Been a bit disappointing lately with only 5 some weeks. As usual the quid bet was put on with Russ Peck and I was first into the draw bucket as it was the best way to avoid my usual draw. Before I opened up my ticket I asked Beany who would be on peg 24 as it seams only myself or him ever draw it. I opened my ticket and showed it to them and they cracked up laughing. Yep I had it again. I don`t mind the peg as there are now plenty of fish there, though they can be a bit small. That just left Beany to draw peg 1, as when he don`t get peg 24 he usually gets 1. Would you Adam and Eve it, he had peg 1. The odds on this happening so often must be massive. Though when you draw peg 1 you get the option to fish either 1 or 2. Dont ask me why. Thought I try something a bit different today to see what would happen. I planned on starting at 2+2 and feed just 3 or 4 pellets through a toss pot to see if there were any carp sat on that line. So a .3 slim was set up for that on slightly lighter gear than I would normally use. Another .3 slim set up on the usual carp rig in case I started getting big fish. A .2 SS Margin to fish in 10 inches in the margin on both sides. A  .5 slim to fish meat but I wasn`t sure if Id actually try it today. and a .15 Shalla Slim to fish tight to the end bank at 13m. I Started on the 2+2 line and dropped in 4 4mm pellets in as feed and a 6mm in the pellet band. I got an indication straight away that I think was a liner. |So another 4 were dropped in and another small indication but it seamed like another liner as the float just dipped and moved to one side. I stuck with this for 15 minutes but something didn`t seam right. So I put another section on and tried again. Didnt take long before a carp was landed on this line, about 4lb. Back out and a couple of minutes later another in the net.  Then I saw a tail in the right margin so I dropped an 8mm pellet on its nose and it obliged. a nice fish around 6lb. But it had a propper blast around the area I had caught from and when I went back out there it was void of fish. So it was time to try the end bank. Fired some pellets out and dropped in. There were tails waving at me pretty quick But getting them to take my pellet was a bit hard. These fish can be pretty tricky some days. I got 3 out but they weren`t big fish. I kept swapping around the lines but wasn`t putting anything in the net. After 3 hours I only had 6 or 7 for around 32lb. I heard Russ, on peg 5, say he had about 40 on his clicker. Steve "Leaf Blower" Seager on 17, had been catching quite well and Beany who had a flying start on peg  2 had slowed up and was loosing more than he was landing. Things went quiet for me for an hour and I struggled to connect to anything. Then I upped the feed along the end bank and down the margin and I started to see alot more activity. I also switched to 8mm pellet along the end bank and started to put a few in the net. I was also loosing loads. Seams to be a curse here foul hooking loads of fish. The last 90 minutes it picked up a lot and although I was loosing plenty I was landing a few. And down the margin line to my left they were big fish. Switching from the end bank to the left margin I recon I put 60lb in the net the last hour. At the all out I was thinking I had 120lb, Russ was admiting to 110lb and Steve said he clicked 141lb. Beany weighed first and put 84-1 on the scales. Russ was next and 128-3. Around the other side and Steve was pretty much bang on his estimate with 140-10 for the match win. Nice guess Steve. I was last to weigh and I thought it would be close for second with Russ. I`m happy to say I just pipped him with Russ 129-5 for second on the day, so the shinny quid was heading my way again. Its getting embarrassing now Russ😂. it fished pretty good today but the weather was cock on for a decent day. Good practice for the festival. A nice photo of Russ below and the full results.