MFS - Larford Lash-Up, 17th September 2011

Great exercise!
"Day Two at the MFS Larford Lash-up"...Day two was always going to be harder, especially after a night out with the MFS massive!

Most of us arrived at Larford Lakes looking a little worse for wear!  Today we would be fishing the Specimen lake which holds some very large carp or "horses" as fellow anglers like to shout when they have landed one...

I drew peg 65 which is on the fair bank of the specimen lake and an area that is a good area for the skimmers and the odd bonus carp.  From the car park to the peg was quite a walk, especially when you have to lump all your gear on a rather small trolley come wheel barrow...

My neighbour for the day would be no-other-than Scone, of sconezone and great pole floats fame.

The Approach
After speaking to Rob Austin, he recommended method line at 16metres, bomb and pellet further out and a meat line at 5 metres if the carp come in.

So that was the approach.  Again, due to the low water levels we were allowed to put our boxes in the water.

The wind was blowing to my right, it looked a little overcast and I was expecting a good day's sport... expectations can be a great thing, reality is another!

The All-In
I fed the 16 metre line with 7 balls of groundbait for the lakes population of skimmers and then went long over the 16 metre line with bomb and pellet, looking for any line bites to indicate the activity at 16 metres.

A couple of line bites kicked in after 30 minutes, so I put the method feeder on the 16 metre line and was rewarded with a skimmer... things were looking good I thought to myself.

I sat biteless for another 30 minutes, so I chucked out the bomb/pellet followed by the bomb/worm, followed by the bomb/dead red maggots... nothing!

Paul Law down on peg 55 I think had netted a 20lb carp on the pole line, a great achievement, his red hydro elastic was quite visable from both my side and the burr bank side of the lake.  The friendly banter that was being shouted across the lake was brilliant... Paul showed them after landing the fish and shouting over to Billy No Fish, "it's about the same size as you but with a smaller mouth"... classic!
Larford Specimen Lake

Sconey in peg 64 had landed a 7lb carp on his 5 metre line, so I started to feed this line with meat and corn, giving me an option on baits.  I tried this line 20 minutes after potting in, nothing at all...  Sconey was also having an equally frustrating time, so it wasn't just me...

With two hours to go, the 16 metre line came alive and I netted 7 more skimmers before it dried up.  I put 4 more balls of groundbait hoping that the skimmers would return.

So while the 16 metre line settled I tried the 5 metre meat/corn line, nothing, not even a dink on the float.

Back on the method line nothing was happening so I took Scone's lead and put the bomb out long and started to pack away my gear.  Nothing happened at all, the all-out was called and I was almost fully packed up, but I wanted to weigh in to see if I'd secured any pounds from Animal, Col, Trev or Scone.

The Result
The weighman came round and I had just over 7lb.  Scone had 9lb so I was a pound down.

Conclusion
The MFS Larford Lash-up was a brilliant two day event.  I got to meet a lot of the members on the site and had a great laugh all weekend.  The specimen lake hadn't produced what we all knew it was capable of.

Big thanks the the MFS team who organised the hotel, thanks also to Andy Kinder and Sarah who organised the match and to Phil Briscoe for the use of his great venue.

Looking forward to the next MFS outing!

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