I had managed to get one of the last places available on the Tony Rixon float only league at Landsend. It was nice to going back to this venue as I haven't fished it that regularly and that keeps the anticipation high. I've only fished this venue for about 3 years, prior to that I wasn't interested in fishing 16mtrs for 6 hours but soon found out there was a bit more to the venue than this. Strange thing is in those 3 years I have only ever drawn on Match lake, with all 4 lakes in today I felt sure that would change... Nope Match again peg 24! Well as most people will know this a corner peg and it can be very good so I was happy.
I was only fishing this as an open so was fishing to win, but this side of the lake is often the best and so it would be a good test. I was given lots of advice how to tackle the peg, Martyn Reyat suggested worm and caster and kindly gave me a few worms as I had none. However, I decided the worm and caster would be employed at 9 mtrs down the edge and 13 to 14 mtrs down the edge would be pellet. Of course I didn't want to plunder the inside straight away so I started out in the open water at 13mtrs with banded pellet on the deck but also hoping I might get a few shallow. Unfortunately it was a slow start for me 1 skimmer and one lost carp (foul hooked) was all I had to show for about 40 mins, meanwhile Craig Edmunds on peg 22 and Eddie Wynn (another Gashead)on peg 19 were into fish right from the first drop in against the island. I was a long way behind already and went inside at 13 mtrs on hard pellet earlier than I wanted to. It wasn't a bad move as near double, 7lb, and a couple of 3lb fish were soon in the net before it died.
After this the next few hours of the match were a struggle for me, I only had a couple of decent rudd on the worm line, and a couple of carp at 13mtrs but there were hardly any signs of fish. I tried at new line in the open water at 7mtrs and took 3 skimmers and a carp before the fizzing stopped and I was simply falling further behind. With 2 hours I tried the 13mtr inside line and this time was getting some indications, they were cagey, but by constantly feeding lifting and dropping I kept a few going in the net. I ended the match with 68lb (6lb odd of silvers and 62lb of Carp) this was a long way behind Eddies winning 127lb and Triggers 2nd place 112lb, boy I wish I had an island to fish to! Opposite me on peg 1 Gary Etheridge had caught odd fish, by mainly fishing 18 mtrs to the island infront of empty peg 2 this enabled Gary to avoid the long dead spells I had, and Gary admitted he had struggled to catch down the edge and not got the depth sorted. Unfortunately you cannot under any circumstances fish to the island from peg 24 as it is set further back.
I won the section by double default (hee hee!) for a pick up of £35, always nice when Tony Rixon gives you money after the amount he's taken off me over the years.
In all I fed nearly 6 pints of 6mm pellets trying to get the fish to come into the edge, and I stuck mainly to an 8mm on the hook, except for the open water line at 7mtrs where I fished soft pellet. In hindsight I should have gone for silvers because only 16lb won this (Alan Oram) and I had 6lb+ without trying. My problem is I like to catch carp when I go to these venues and you have to make your mind up what you are going to do, had I not been in the corner peg and was getting battered I would have gone for silvers. But hindsight is easy, I doubt nobody before the match would have said only 16lb would have won the silvers!
I really should go to Landsend more as I think I've only failed to pick up money once in all the times I fished there, but maybe I might draw another lake!
Seems like my Thatchers team bombed out in the ATWL final, all I know is they did bad and did not appear in the top 6 teams shown on the anglers mail website. Bad luck lads, I hope you had a good night out on the beer to at least make the weekend a partial success!
Tony Rixon has told me he now has created a blog, to which I suggested his kids must have done this for him. I don't yet know what it's called but when I find out I will add it to mine as one I follow so other people can easily find it and read the load of bollix he will undoubtedly write about me! Those who know Tony will know he does have a degree in pee taking so look out!
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