Larford Open Sunday 15/4/12

With no club matches booked this weekend Stav and I had decided to fish the open at Larford which was to be held on the specimen lake with neither of us having not fished here for a while I dug around a bit trying to get some info on how best to approach the lake at the moment, I rang my old work college Dan Bache who fishes here quite regular and it looked like the old pellet wagg / straight lead was the way to go with the long pole line coming good the last half of the match unless you drew on the high bank by the chalets where you could catch on the pole all day. My only concern was that the week leading up to the match the weather had took a turn for the worse and gone from 18-20c to around 8c with one or two frosts thrown in for good measure, the match the week before was won with 100lb+ while we were at Cob House with some good backing weights but I think the weather will make a bit harder than that. I drew peg 18 halfway down the burr and Stav got peg 82 on the high bank (flier corner peg) I was happy with my peg as I have fished in this area before with good results although I prefer from pegs 10-16, I was going to fish the way Dan had said but I had a feeling the long range method which works in the winter might come back into play as the weather had cooled down. For company on my right on peg 20 was an old mate Joe Lowe (works for Maver) and on peg 22 was Paul Cook (sponsored by Maver) so I was in good company, there was 40 anglers on the match so the pegging was every other peg all the way around the lake.
I set up my 12ft Maver Reactolite for the pellet wagg with 5lb maxima reel line and a 8gr loaded John Bonney waggler set up with two gripper stops above and three below so I could alter the depth up and down with a 0.18 hook-length with a 14 Preston PR27 hook with a lasso. The lead rod was my 9/11ft Shimano Beastmaster with 8lb maxima mainline, 1oz lead set up so I could change hook-lengths between lasso for pellets and quickstops for meat & corn, all my hooklengths for the lead were 0.20 14's or 12's PR27's. I set up two pole rigs for the 13m line one light and one heavy both 1.0gr Maver f1 floats one with 0.16 hook length & size 3 175 hook with 13 hollo elastic, the other with 0.18 line straight through and black hydro incase the Carp started to show up in force both were set up on top 4's in around 10ft of water.
For bait I had brought 2 bags fishery 8mm pellets ( around 4 pints ), 2 bags of 4mm pellets, 3 tins of corn and 2 tins of 8mm chopped meat.
I kicked off the match on the straight lead at 25-30m with a single 8mm pellet on the hair while firing a few 8mm's over the top after around 20mins Joe was the first to catch with a Carp on the method on the same line as me while firing 8mm's over the top this is the normal starting method for many on this lake, the first hour passed without so much a a liner to shoe for my efforts despite trying meat & corn on the hook as well as pellets. There was not a lot of fish being caught around by me just the odd skimmer and by the end of hour 2 there were people starting to walk around it was that bad with most of the people to my right with either 1 or no fish, I was still dry at this point despite trying the pole for 15mins with a soft hook pellet not so much as a skimmer it was at this I began to question my own sanity as it was bloody freezing with a very cold wind blowing down the lake towards the Arena pool. I was sitting there wondering what to do next with my hood up trying to keep the wind from battering me wishing I had put my thermal gear on as my feet were freezing, I changed from the straight lead to a cage feeder in an attempt to put the feed down one hole as opposed to firing 8mm pellets all over the place because it was obvious that the fish were in no mood to chase the feed around. After around 3 chucks with the cage feeder with a 8mm piece of meat on the hair I got my first bite of the day  a 1lb skimmer and the next chuck another of around 12oz so at least I was off the mark, I was putting a mix of 4mm pellets, corn & meat into the feeder and I had 5 skimmers in around 20mins and just when I thought this were looking up they vanished. I couldn't believe how bad the lake was fishing well around by me it was anyway I had all but given up when with around a hour and a quarter to the all out I got my first proper pull of the day a 6lb common was the culprit and around 5mins later another of around 4lb now with around an hour left it looked like the Carp had finally started to feed, the next bite saw me hook into something a lot bigger and after around 5mins a fish of around 15lb was ready for the net when the hook pulled out CRAP I knew that the way the lake was fishing that fish was going to cost me money. I managed to land another 4 Carp before the all out all falling to meat apart from one which I took on double corn I don't know if I would have caught a few more if I had started on the feeder instead of spraying pellets all over the peg on he straight lead? It had certainly been a cold and trying day too say the least and when Joe Lowe got to our pegs with the scales from the bottom of the burr 14lb was the best weight! that's worse than the middle of the winter for this lake, Joe himself put 17lb on the scales with just that one early Carp and a few skimmers, my 6 Carp and 5 skimmers went 36lb 6oz, the guy to my left had fished the pole all day for 2 Carp+ skimmers for 24lb. There were no weights of note until peg 12 where the guy had 59lb and the guy next to him had 41lb which was bad news as this was my section I had beaten 11 guys to my right but me and Joe were in the section from peg 2-20 of either of us had been in the section below we would have won it? I knew a soon as I pulled out of that fish it would cost me money I knew it would have given me around 50lb'ish made worse when a mate of mine Shunter (Brian Jones) was 3rd with 50lb, you win some you loose some. Stav had also had a bad day tipping around 15lb back off his flier peg, look at the match result below to see he had 3rd, 6th and 1st either side of him (peg 85 is the next peg in after 82 as is goes around the corner) ( sorry mate!!!!).

Classic Qualifier - Specimen Lake

Sunday, 15th April 2012

A good attendance saw forty five anglers show up for the draw on this latest Classic qualifier on the Specimen lake. Again, as with the previous days qualifier on the Match lake, conditions were not ideal with a cold wind and bright sunshine.
Winner on the day was Frenzee / Bait-Tech sponsored rod, Andy Neal. Andy drew peg 78n on the chalet bank and fished pole and pellet at 14m to weigh in a match-winning 62-14-00, booking his place in the May final in the process.
Neil Taylor (Bath Spartans) finished close behind in second place with 59-11-00 from peg 12 on the burr bank. Neil offered meat fished on the pole and 5m to catch all his fish.
Brian "shunter" Jones (Maver / King William) finished third on the day afte drawing peg 85 on the chalet bank.
Fourth place on the day was taken by Matt Barnes (Whitehall / MFS), who drew peg 76. Matt fished bomb and pellet at approximately 30m to weigh in 46lbs exactly to book his place in the final.
Mark Jones (Tredegar Angling) made a worth while the trip from Wales to draw peg 70 and weigh in 45-04-00. Mark fished pole and pellet at 14m to book his place in the May final alongside Andy Neal and Matt Barnes and Neil Taylor.

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Andy Neal (Frenzee / Bait-Tech)	78	Pole and pellet	62-14-00
2nd	Neil Taylor (Bath Spartans)	12	Pole and meat	59-11-00
3rd	Brian Jones (Maver / King William)	85		50-13-00
4th	Matt Barnes (Whitehall / MFS)	76	Bomb and pellet	46-00-00
5th	Mark Jones (Tredegar Angling)	70	Pole and pellet	45-04-00
6th	Chris Jones (Crewe Carp & Match)	80	Pole and pellet	43-10-00