Mr Rixons Sunday Landsend open

Back to doing a blog this week after last weeks cock up. Had two Matches last weekend and did a double blog. Got about 95% through doing it and after about half hour of typing I managed to delete the lot when I got distracted and closed the thing down by mistake. So I chucked the dummy out the pram and didn`t re-do it. Anyway back to this week and it was back to Landsend for another of Tony`s well attended Opens. As usual with around 24 fishing it was on Match lake and lake three. With the overall match winner and top three on each lake and silvers the payout is well spread. After a very nice breakfast it was into the draw and I manage to grab peg 19 on Match. very nice me thinks. It been a good area lately. Since Mike gave the venue an aggressive trim the fish have moved out of 11 and 13 and spread out around the lake, And they have set up home, it seems, around pegs 18 to 21. 4 rigs were assembled. A .3 SS Margin rig for the snaggy looking tree stump to my left for meat or pellet. Though I was a bit anxious about fishing close to it as I could see a lot  of submerged branches under the stump. A .4 Slim to fish meat at 2+3 range. A Shalla Slim to fish pellet across to the island, And a .3 Slim to fish caster or maggot for silvers to my right , though I didn`t think id do much silver bashing in this area.Fed all lines at the start and went across to the island with 6mm banded pellet, without feeding any.after a couple of missed bites I was into one. It was a big beast and wasnt helped by being foul hooked and after about ten minutes it managed to find the snaggy crap to me left. back out and soon into another, and bugger me it shot straight back towards my and into the snaggy crap again. Next drop, same thing again. The stump was proving a nightmare. 30 minute in and I finally managed to put one in the net. Gordon Canning to my left had three by now, And |Paul Elmes and Martin Rayet on 22 and 24 were also catching. I stayed on the shallow rig for an hour and had three smallish carp in the net. I tried the meat line next and after a short while I did manage a couple but again nothing of any size.So it was back to the island and i had a frustrating time missing bitesthat I thought was F1`s having a go. I tried an 8mm pellet and had an F1 and  big skimmer but no more carp at this time. so it was back on the meatand I had four pretty quickly. but they dried up. I noticed a few cruising around at the 16 meter line off the end of the island so I shallowed my pellet rig right up and started slapping and got my first decent fish around 9lb followed by two more decent ones.By with about 2 1/2 hours to go I tried the edge rig again as Gordon had started to catch a few down his edge but I was getting a few bites but no fish on meat. I guessed it was roach messing with itso a quick change to 8mm pellet and first drop in a lump that must have been close to 15lb was landed. next drop in and another double, Happy days. Two fish for 28lb put on the clicker. That`ll do nicely.  I stayed mainly on that line for the remainder of the match taking another 6 decent carp, with a quick look on the meat line but the last half hour died for me. Martin Rayet had caught consistently and was looking to have beaten the rest of us, but I thought it was going to be close between Gordon and myself as we had taken turns to get a few fish. at the weigh in Joe "Mr Angry" Mcmahon was in front from peg 15 with 119-15 when the scales got to Gordon. He had an all carp catch that went 131-14 (slight mistake on weigh sheet), and I was banking on close to 140. Luckily the few silvers I had helped me to just pip him at the post, as my silvers went 8-03 and my carp went 124-04 for a total of 132-07 which got me second on the lake and second overall on the day. As I thought Martin blitzed it with 181-01 so well done to him. A fab net of carp from peg 24, taking 60lb in the last hour down his left margin. |Chris Fox won Lake three with 124-13 from peg 62. Overall it fished realy well, I nice day for most apart from the weather being a bit on the chilly side. When will this crap weather come to an end. weigh sheets bellow.