Sunday 9th October 2016 - Landsend Fisheries

16 Hopefuls turned up at Mike Duckett's little oasis on a gorgeous Sunday morning with the prospect of sunshine for the whole day. When I turned up the Chub Cafe was fueling up a number of the HLS gang. I had had my Weetabix at home and so was ready to conquer the the fishes of Landsend. When Badger Bob consulted the main man, it was decided to peg 6 on each bank of the match lake and 4 on the south bank of speci lake.

I had a wander around the match lake and noted that the end with peg 1 was covered with a lot of debris so that would be entertaining. The sun was climbing and starting to shine on pegs 1 to 12 while the opposite bank was looking cold and dark. Draw time and one of the golden pegs was 17, a good performer in the past...... who would get their sticky fingers on it? It turned out that Tony Newell had that luck. I drew 11 which pleased me as it gave me the options of silvers or carp and when I found out there was no one on 12 then I immediately decided to go for the carp. I did feel alone in the corner with the next man on peg 8, Paul Bowyer, but my tranquility was shattered when Bob turned up on 13 and Horny Beards on 15.

Peg 11

Getting to the peg, I decided on 2 carp lines; first at 13m on the end of the island and second on my right by the empty peg 12. After I had set up those rigs I also put up a couple of silver rigs in case the main plan failed. Meat was my main bait and on the all in I cupped some in on both lines and then had 5 minutes of silvers. First put in with meat by peg 12 and I had a liner. Second and I had a common of about 5lb. I then went out in front and was frustrated with liners and then then the inevitable foul hook, in the tail, what fun!!!! I got it in the net and continued to alternate the two carp lines. I continued to hook fish within the first hour but also found trouble with underwater snags. Whether this scared the fish or not but the action died off as the sun got to it's highest and brightest.

The only other person I could see was chairman Bob on 13 and he was catching a few small roach. I could hear reports that Tony was catching well on the golden peg and Horny was hooking (and losing ) too.

I continued to plug away at my two lines and a couple others to increase my haul but when it got to three o'clock, I decided I'd had enough for the day and tipped back about 20lbs. I went on before the weigh in but the results showed that the golden peg money survived for another match with Steve King taking the top spot. Martin Western obviously managed to get through the surface cover of leaves and find enough silvers to take that prize for the day. There were no big weights for the day but it was a pleasant day to be on the bank.

It's Shiplate on Wednesday and Sedges next Sunday. Book with Bob if you're interested.