SEARING WIN FOR LUKE IN AUTUMN CLASSIC
Consistency pays off at Westwood Lakes
FESTIVAL season at Westwood Lakes was rounded off with another well-attended event as 70 anglers battled it out for the Daiwa-backed Autumn Classic. The overall win went to Daiwa man Luke Sears, the only angler to register four section points.
Scoring a second and two section wins, Retford-based Luke pocketed the £1,000 prize plus a £400 Daiwa tackle voucher by a single point from Andy Bennett, winner of the last three spring and autumn events at the Lincolnshire fishery.
Tri-Cast/Guru bagger Andy was the best of five anglers to score five points.
Some big weights were taken, notably off Syklark Lake, with Andy having 175-0-0 of carp on dobbed bread to win day two.
Next day it was the turn of Jack Danby, a peg away from where Andy was, to crash out the week’s best net, 196-4-0 of carp, using the same approach.
Luke’s festival began with a second in section from peg 2 on Falcon Lake with 53-4-0. He improved on that with a section win on Wednesday, 99-2-0 from peg 11 on Osprey Lake. It was rounded off with another section win on peg 28 of Skylark Lake as he took 89-2-0 to the scales.
“Day one was a windy one and that limited how far out I could fish comfortably and with good presentation,” Luke said. “I went for around 10m with expander pellet over micros but it was still hard to catch consistently.
“The margins produced a few F1s on maggot but it was only a few, and I limped to 53-4-0 and second – which was actually a pretty good return.
“Osprey Lake peg 11 was next for me and this was a fairly steady day’s fishing for small F1s on maggot at 5m and pellet at 4m in the edge, again with expanders overs micros,” he continued. “The margins were the best area, with the 5m line being somewhere to go to rest the edge. My 99-2-0 for the lake win was the perfect response after the day before.”
The drawbag produced peg 28 for Luke on Skylark Lake on day three, just off the epicentre where Andy Bennett had taken 170lb-plus a day earlier, and Luke was hopeful that the fish were still in the area. A steady five hours and 89-2-0 later produced the section win he needed. “Dobbing bread caught the day before and I started on it but never had a bite!” Luke said.
“That prompted a change to maggot and pellet at 10m for a run of carp. When this faded I moved across to 14m up against the mudline and from then on it was a case of picking off the odd fish loosefeeding maggots with an expander pellet on the hook.”
Result: 1 L Sears, Daiwa, 4pts; 2 A Bennett, Tri-Cast/Guru, 5 (302-10-0); 3 R Lidgard, Brigg, 5 (200-8-0); 4 C Lee-Hopps, Boston, 5 (162-6-0); 5 C Weddle, The Oaks, 5 (149-8-0); 6 J Barrowman, PW Angling, 5 (141-0-0); 7 D Shaw, Maver NW/ Spotted Fin, 6; 8 J Danby, Dynamite Baits/ Matchman Supplies, 7 (310-12-0); 9 S Parry, Guru/ Mainline Match, 7 (198-6-0); 10 P Holland, Guru/ Mainline Match, 7 (153-2-0).