sunday open landsend fishery

what a difference 24 hours makes to the weather, yesterday at viaduct we had clear skies and a frost with a biting northerly wind and this morning it was mild with a westerly breeze and lots of rain. we had 24 booked in for the match so we were spread over match and speci lake, mike duckett pulled two tickets out stuck together so i had the one sticking out, it turned out to be 31 which is a peg which you could nearly guarantee winning off 18 months ago but i cant remember a winner coming off it since anton page broke the lake record off it, he must have really upset them !!!!
for company i had rowan atkinson body double to my left in the shape of dave westcott and bathampton reject niel mercer to to my right, normally i like to fish this peg tight in to the far bank but with the plants on the island collapsed over a bit plus there was a piece of line going across the gap between the bushes stopping access.
so i set up a pellet rig to fish at the front of the bushes with a 16 b960 on .16 for banded 6 and 8,s over loosefed 4,s, a 4x12 for corn the my right by the empty pallet beany and me had to share but i wont talk about that any more as beany and me never had so much as a roach there. also put together was a 4x14 rig for 13 mtrs for corn over micro,s with a 16 6313 0n .14.
starting on the corn line i managed 1 f.1 and lost 2 in the first hour so that was a bit of a waste of time , so i went across to the bushes with pellet but apart from a couple of liners i couldnt get a bite there , by now beany and fabio on 29 and 28 respectivley were catching odd carp on maggot and caster fished tight over to the far bank, also niel on 32 had a couple of carp and some good perch down the end bank margin
so with half the match gone and with 1 f1 in the net drastic action was called for, i normally carry one of those frangle gadgetts which is a very sharp angled blade which screws onto your cupping kit allowing you to cut any offending pieces of line away but needless to say it was no where to be found in my kit, its my own fault for not having one as vic bush markets them under his mosella/ avalon brand and its a piece of kit any one who fishes snakey type lakes shouldnt be without. so i went out with my cupping kit and after a bit of tugging and pulling i managed to get the line out of the way, so i cupped in some casters with a bit of corn then made up a 4x10 rig on .16 with an 18 exedion hook on the end, i had to fish it on a very short line with about 6 inches of line between the pole tip and float as i needed to fish tight to the bank under a bush to get bites, first drop on double caster cave me a small rudd so the rest of the match was spent on corn, my first carp was probably 11 to 12lb shortly followed by a 16lb common which as i netted i went blind as my brollie decided to shut by its own accord again, thats the second time this year perhaps its time to go for a new one, but it gave alan oram opposite on 33 a giggle.
i ended up with 6 carp 2 chub and 1 f1(i wont mention the small rudd as small one are a waste of time i hate them) which weighed 53lb ish.
1st martin pettiffer 108.5 peg 5 mainly catching on meat in the gap between the 2 islands
2nd was the wincanton pensioner dave roper o 16 with 104.2. its nice to see dave has got a new full time carer in the shape of nick collins who is obviously taking his new job seriously.
3rd philip(only his mum calls him that)fabio harding with 81.4 peg 28
4th dave "beany"westcott 77.15 peg 29
5th mike west 65.14 peg 1
6th paul elmes 62.2 peg 15
top silvers went to paul elmes with 20.8