Landsend Fishery (Saturday Open) Match Lake.

Time for a change of scenery for me so at the last minute I gave owner Mike Duckett a ring to book-in, It looked like being a fair day weather wise still warm with the risk of a shower, I arrived in plenty of time to enjoy a bacon & sausage sarnie in the on-site café which was very nice' I didn't really mind where I drew as its been sometime since I've been here so just hoped for a days fishing' Into the draw & out come's peg 18/19 which meant I had the choice of which swim to fish either side of the split between the island on the far bank, I opted for peg 18 as it was a bit easier to fish the edges & I also had the edge of the island at 16mts. I set up two of Stu Bartlett's hand made 0.2g, one on 0.17-0.15 & an 18 PR36 hook to fish around a 1ft off the bank but it was shallow around 12 inches, the other on 0.15-0.13 to fish in the deeper water a few feet off the bank in nearly 3ft of water, I had a 4x12 chanti on 0.17-0.15 & a 16 hook to fish at 7mts down the track to my left in 4ft of water, & finally a 0.2g AS4 float to fish down doth edges again at 7mts to the left & 5mts to the right where I had a tree stump in the water to fish towards both swims just over 2ft deep.

On the all in I fed some hard 6mms down the left edge, Fed a decent amount of the same across to the island & began down the track on meat feeding just a couple of cubes by hand, I had a bite after as couple of minutes which I managed to miss" but had another soon after & netted a 5lb carp so up & running' I gave it another 15mins or so but added just a couple of roach so time to look across.

I started on banded hard 8mm cad-potting a few hard 6mms over the top, I managed an early fish on this but started to miss bites? I went a couple on inches shallower & began to ping some 6mms with the catty over the top, Again it worked & I had another then it appeared the fish were spooking all over the place across & I lost a couple of foul hookers, This didn't seem right & I was going knowhere fast, I changed to fishing tighter in to the island again with 8mm banded pellet this time cad-potting a few hard 8mms over the top, This proved best for a while adding a few more before I started to get fish in the swim but couldn't hook any", Around halfway through I had had a look down the edges but was getting bitted out with the float dibbing up & down so switched to feeding just a few hard 8mms by hand every now & again, No more fish on the meat line so had to try & catch a few more across at this stage.

I decided to switch to hard 6mm in the band & came off the point of the island where I hadn't fed with the rig set around a 1ft deep, I began by just swing the rig in to start with & after a couple of goes I was in! another fish around 5lb soon followed by another around 4lb" I continued to ping a few hard 8mms closer to the island & every now & then dropped in to pinch the odd fish, I started to slap the rig off the point without feeding here & although it wasn't hectic I began to add the odd carp, It was to good to be true though & from nowhere the wind got up & was howling down the lake" I even got an extension out to take the pole to 17mts to give me some more balance but I was spending more time just trying to hold it still for a few seconds before getting spun round on the box than I did putting anything in the net, It was so frustrating as I knew the fish were still their but just couldn't present the rig! I had no chance of trying tight to the island without hooking the foliage, Which I managed a few times! I wasted nearly an hour trying to make it work really before I had to give up for the time being.

I had been feeding the edge with the odd hard 8mm pellet so had to give it a try, I started to the left & within a minute had a 4lb fish the nothing so dropped in on the right edge again with 8mm pellet, Again an instant fish before I pulled out of another just after hooking it which caused a commotion" I had continued to feed the track/meat line with the odd cubes & gave it another try but missed just one bite, I managed another carp from either edge before one took me the wrong side off the tree stump on the right snapping my elastic in the process" with 20mins to go the wind dropped a little so I went back off the point shallow again on 6mm pellet, as soon as I gave it a couple of slaps I was in' & had a fish around 7lb the wind picked up again slightly but I managed one more before the all out just a shame the wind hadn't stayed off for the last few hours as I feel I would have done well without even having to feed off the point, Come the end I had 76lb on the clicker which today I thought would be close, I didn't really know what had been caught but I knew Eric Fouracre on peg 5 had done ok as he began the day catching some F1's on worm across then added some better carp through the day.

I gave Beany" a hand with the weigh board whilst he did the scales, Rod Wotton had a few carp & 14lb of silvers from peg 2, Eric had 20lb of mainly F1's which count as silvers here to add to his 59lb of carp for a total of 79lb odd, Weighing around the rest of the lake the weights were quite close as there were a few 60lb weights before it got to me, I had a massive 11oz of silvers to add to my carp & it was close by I just pipped Eric to finish with 80lb odd, Ray had 16lb of silvers & a few carp above me before Stu Barnett was last to weigh on end peg 24, He admitted having a great last 30mins adding what turned out to be 39lb of carp to go with his earlier fish & 6lb of silvers to finished with 85lb winning the day so well done to him, It turned out to be a close match with just one fish separating the top three, happy to finish 2nd picking up £40along the way & will be back for another go soon I'm sure.

Full Results -

1st Stu Barnett (Landsend/S.B.Floats) peg 24, 85lb14oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 18, 80lb 9oz.

3rd Eric Fouracre (Sedges Fishery) peg 5, 79lb 12oz.

4th Dave Wescott (Landsend|) peg 13, 68lb 2oz.

5th Russ Pecker (Landsend) peg 11, 64lb.

6th Rich Lovering  (Clevedon. A.A) peg 15, 62lb 12oz.