Landsend and sedges

Sunday was rnd 2 of the Landsend winter league, my turn on lake two today, hopefully a draw at the topend on 11 or 13 would be my pegs of choice as its definitely the fishes favoured overwintering area, but breakfast first, well cooked by Rachael, and very nice. Got the draw started, lake 3 first as they had further to walk. Then lake 2, i let dave (beany)Westcott draw for me as he does have a legendary arm, let him(me) down today, peg 21 for me, mike duckett had 11 and steve.seagar on 11, i had james(spooner)mathews on my right and rod wootten on my left who was in the other section. before going to my peg i had to tske a picture of mr duckett,s trolly, no he hasnt started a plumbing business, all topkits were ready made with rigs on, if he ever starts going to other venues im not sure he will have enough room for the extra kits, B and Q will love him.

Back to 21, a bread dobbing rig for the island, another for hard pellet for 13 mtrs in front and 16 mtrs to the right, and a meat rig for the empty pallets each side. Fed.the two pellet lines with hard 4,s, meat by the pallets, then started across on bread, it was only a foot deep so iwasnt to confident, but i had one after 10 minutes, and after an hour and ten i had three in the net, but that was it from the island, apart from a couple of small rudd. onto the pellet lines, no bites in front but fairly regular bites to the right on the 16mtr line, small tench, f1,s and a lonesome crucian, also a couple of carp, all falling to banded 6mm hard pellet the trusty b960 hook in a size 18 on .16 line, i didnt have any indications on the meat lines untill the last 30 minutes, when i had two f1,s and a 9lb carp to my right, which i needed as pete nurse on peg 5 had done well with some better size fish, i thought he had beaten me for the section he had 34lb, but i my fish went 41lb, that big last fish was crucial, so section win , which was needed, as expected top weight came from 11 with mike ducket making no mistake, putting 75lb on the scales, all on dobbed bread, and never fed a thing. Top on lake three was dan pither on 66 with 70lb.

Monday back to the sedges for the weekly over 55,s silvers match, brick lake today, usual suspects in attendance, but today chris(hainsey)haines was here, havnt seen or fished together for quite a few years, a bit more wrinkly, and grey but pretty much the same, breakfast as always very nicely cooked by Denise, late into the draw bucket and out come ping pong ball 18, roy worth(less) on my left on the end peg, and walley to my right, only set up one rig today, a .55g wire stem bodied float. Same depth at 11 mtrs and 14mtr, at the start i fed one ball of groundbait at 11 mtrs, and a ball on two lines at 14 mtrs, had two bottle top skimmers on the shorter line, then nothing, but there was a very good reason for that, the carp decided to have a munch, i kept rotating around my three lines, but everytime the float went under ,i was attached to a carp, much to roys delight, and steve kedge even shouted across to remind me it was a silvers only match, but i kept pugging away , wasnt feeding to much but im convinced you need to keep the bait going in as one or two carp will polish off the meagre ammount of bait in no time at all, ive hooked 17 carp in totsl, landing several up to double figures, good sport but not what was required, but the last teo hours i think they had had enough of being upset, and i began catching odd skimmers not many but reasonable sized fish, by the end i had 7, up to just over 2lb, do hopefully 9/10lb, kedgy was first to weigh on end peg 3 and had 7lb, so i new i had at least won a quid, im running out of jar space what with steve and kev winstone contributing. LOL, i know it will change though. hainsey fish wag and maggot on peg 15 to win with 16, narrowly beating alex Kerr on 13 who had 15lb, also on the wag and mag, my seven skimmers went 11.12 for the section win, so all ok in the end, to be fair i think i had skimmers in my peg all day but the carp were getting there first, i dont think the skimmers get scared off by the carp, its just the carp dont leave them anything to eat, watching some of the underwater footage of carp feeding, the smaller fish always seem to be in the mix picking up anything the hoovers miss.