Landsend Fishery Saturday Open.

I fancied a change of scenery so decided to have a go at landsend fishery for a change, Its not a venue I get chance to fish that often so was looking forward to giving it a go, Traveling on my own today the lovely wife did me a couple of bacon sarnies before I left which was a god send as it was certainly the coldest night of the year to wake up to. Arriving at the fishery I went & had a quick look at the match lake which we would be on today only to find the far side of the lake taking the brunt of the weather with most of it covered in ice with the near side fairing slightly better with odd patches along the length, I did try to take a photo but soon found out I had left the sim card at home in the laptop so no pic's today then". With 10 of us fishing the pegs would be spread all around the lake & I was just hoping to avoid the worst of the ice for starters?. No such bloody Luck! I found myself on peg 18 which is just below the gap on the far side of the lake but just so happened to be the worst area as far as the ice went along with peg 19 above me" luckily it wasn't to thick and with some careful tapping using my pole pot full of water I began to channel out a swim towards the island at just over 14mts, It proved to be a slow process to say the least as I had just finished my channel" when the all-in sounded & I hadn't so much as got anything out of my bag!". Not a great start then so things were kept pretty simple, One rig being a 4x12 Chanti on 0.13-0.10 & an 18 808 hook to fish close to the island. Once I got started which seemed to be 20mins after everyone else' I began with dead red maggot on the hook feeding tiny amounts of micros over the top after 10mins I had a perch of 12oz but nothing followed, It seemed the swim shallowed up the closer I got to the gap between the islands and I was hooking up to some underwater debris so decided to re-plum a couple of few feet of the island in-front of a bush attached to the far bank & start all over again.

The two pegs below me towards the other end of the lake which just so happened to be totally clear of ice when we arrived" had both taken a couple of early fish so I was already playing catch up at this stage. Still fishing double dead red on the hook I was feeding tiny amounts of micro's via a cad pot over the top and on the hour mark I had my first carp of 6lb plus, 20mins later I added another of similar size but things seemed slow for most. I couldn't add anymore & by now the channel' I had carved out was soon being closed over with the ice moving down from above me" I had no choice to revert back to bashing the ice to try and split it up not the ideal situation when trying to catch wary fish hey" It didn't help when I tried to drag a big sheet away from my swims only for the top 4 to come apart leaving it floating on a sheet of ice in the middle of the lake!" After a bit of careful shifting of the ice with the rest of the pole I managed to retrieve it much to the amusement of Rod Wotton on the opposite bank". back to the line I had caught from but switching to soft pellet on the hook I had a small skimmer followed by one over a 1lb before it died completely so I decided to feed a small ball of micros at the same distance off to my right towards the gap & let it settle.

Things didn't really improve much as I seemed to spend most of the match trying to shift the ice from my swim as the forecast of nice sunshine hadn't appeared to help clear it' I struggled for bites for most of the match but did manage to foul hook & lose two fish one of which was attached to yellow elastic which was from the guy opposite me" It wasn't until the last hour my swim was clear enough to fish a couple of lines properly & I even managed a new swim further down the swim at 16mts where I fed a small amount of meat in the hope of snaring a couple of late big fish but it failed to produce. I did manage another 7lb+ fish from me original line on expander in the last hour & a smaller fish from the line I fed with a ball of micros but frustratingly I lost a decent fish just as I was about to net it in the last 15mins!. 

It wasn't until the scales arrived I realised just how important the lost fish was as top weight at the time was Bob Gullick from end peg 1 with 35lb, My 4 carp & bits went 29lb odd which was just enough to overtake the pegs below me but their was a 33lb on the end peg 24 from Andy Hembrow pushing me down into 3rd on the day but at least I managed £30 back. Bob won the match fishing a similar plan to me catching a few on red maggot & a few on soft 4mm pellet at 16mts so well done mate. It was a hard match & I'm sure if I hadn't had to spend time ice berg shifting" I may well have added a few more fish but I still enjoyed the day & didn't come home empty handed at least. Off to Viaduct Fishery for the start of the popular teams of 5 winter league tomorrow so hoping the draw will be kind as I haven't had the best of luck so far this year'.

Full Results -

1st Bob Gullick (Garbolino Blackmore Vale) peg 1, 35lb.

2nd Andy Hembrow (Clevedon A.A) peg 24, 33lb 8oz

3rd Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 18, 29lb 10oz.

4th Stu Barrnett (Landsend) peg 15, 29lb.

Silvers - Rod Wotton (Clevedon A.A) peg 5, 21lb.