landsend individual winter league round 4

it was back to an open draw today and i got the draw bag specialist in the shape of clint wojtyla to draw for me and he didnt dissapoint as he handed me 32 which is a corner(again)on the speci lake and then drew 61 on johns water(lake 3)for himself, which aint the best draw but he did get 40 quid at the end for having the top silver weight on that lake.
the wind was going to play a big part today as it was a very strong westerly which blows back towards the carpark with only the far end of each lake having some shelter. i cant remember a match on this venue where so many tip rods were being assembled, even i set one up to fish corn out towards the aerater, i set up 3 pole rigs, one for caster at 7 mtrs against the end bank on a bit of flat bottom that anton page told me about with an 18 middy 6313 hook on .12. a .5g rig with the same hook but on .10, and a 4x16 fir with a 18 middy 8313 on .14 ror corn at the bottom of the shelf at 12 mtrs which was as far as i could go with the wind and even then i had to let it go from time to time, for company i had none other than fishery owner and local legend , mike duckett, on peg 31 who was moaning about his draw as it is a proper form peg but you need to fish out near the island but its 16 plus mtrs and the wind put paid to that, opposite i had dale housen on 33 and tim ford on 34 and i couldnt see anyone else. at the start i fed some casters at 6 mtrs and at 7 mtrs in the margin and some soaked micro,s at 12 mtrs at the bottom of the shelf up the right hand side. starting on caster at 6 mtrsd i hooked a goob perch first drop but as they seem to do it dropped off for no apparent reason, the rest of the first hour was hard and i only had 2 more perch of just over a pound and some roach but i was going nowhere fast as dale opposite was catching f1,s and carp on the pellet feeder, and tim also had a 8lb carp , but mike next door was still biteless, as dale was doing ok on the tip i decided to give it a go, 3 chucks later and only one liner i slung it up the bank never to be used again, so up the edge with corn over the micro,s and i soon had a 9lb fish in the net but it wasnt easy as you seemed to have to feed ,leave it alone for a while then go back over it and you could expect a bite so while the pellet line was settleing i went into the 7 mtr margin line which during the match produced 2 perch and 1 5lb carp but the wind was making it virtually impossible to get any presentation on any line, about 2 hours from then end i cupped in some micro,s at 12 mtrs in front as the wind was showing signs of weakening slightly and by switching between the right hand swim and out in front i had odd fish right to the end , the last couple of hours mike on 31 put his lead rod down and got the pole out to 13 mtrs and began catching better carp than i was but luckily dale opposite had stopped catching so i managed to catch him up , but with mike catching quality i was beginning to think he had beaten me by the end so the banter was exceptional, and with anton page watching and adding to the comments it made it an enjoyable day, at the end it was to close to call i thought both mike and me had caught dale up but it was going to be close between us two , but i managed to push the pole out to 14 mtrs for the last 15 mins and got a 5 pounder which anton thought would just give me the edge and he was nearly right , my 10 carp went 53.10 and mikes went exactly the same 53.10 but he only had 6 fish , my silvers went 6.5 which gave me a 59.15 total for first on the day
2nd was mike duckett with 53.10 on peg 31
3rd brian shanks 50lb peg 21
4th kev molten 49lb peg 68
5th dale housen 46.14 peg 33
5th bob gullick 45.12 peg 24
silvers went to phil(fabio)harding with 21.10 on peg 38 , mainly skimmers and f1,s on soft pellet at 11 mtrs
next round is on the 19 feb