14 March 2020 Viaduct Open

 Today I had been planning to fish the Avon in pursuit of some big Chub, but the weather looked against it being fishable so mid week I spoke to Greg and we decided to fish the open at Viaduct.

On arriving at the draw I realised that there were going to be more than the 20 I thought were turning up and that we would now be split over Cary and Cambell.  Brews drunk, hellos dished out it was time for the draw, Greg and I had decided that we would go a quid if we drew a similar area as the venue can be very peggy at times, as it turned out he was on 113 ad I was on 114 so a quid wager it was.

I got my peg and it was obvious that there was a few fish moving around in front of us as they were showing all the way between pegs 110 to my left and 115 to my right. Due to this I decided on a simple plan which would consist of fishing the pole about 8 metres to try and push it towards Greggs 13 metre line, a bomb rod to fish meat and pellet and waggler rod to fish the same over the top.  It turned out Greg set up at 16m later!! I was ready well before the all in so decided to give Gregg some good advice as he was going on about just fishing for skimmers, I tried to get inside his head I would regret this decision later.

At the all in I fed about 30 grains of hemp and a few cubes of meat on my 8 metre line and then pinged the waggler out into the middle, I then waited and waited and waited.

I've been watching Greg catch shallow on the pole at 16 metres and the guys to his left were catching fish, I was starting to despair come close to the two hour point when nothing had happened to such a point then I decided to use a lighter bomb on my bottom rig and then I dipped my bait in some glug, the bait was in the water for about four minutes and carp number one was on. It came in quick and it was a nice double so a good start. I pinged the rig out again and I had a second bite pretty quickly after that and again for the third bite and soon I was starting to catch up with Greg who was currently saying he had about 50 pounds and my 3 fish went about 30 pounds.

I had to go on the waggler and tried the short pole line but at this point I was getting fed up so I decided to start a margin line. I got off my box set up another top kit plumbed up down the margins on top kit plus one left and right and start throwing in some meat.

Over the next hour I had another Carp on the tip and a foul hooker in the margin, I was reckoning to about 50lb to Gregs 70 so it was close, but I then sat there fishless for the next hour and a half, whilst Greg had 4 quick carp from down his left hand edge. I was using all the tricks I had by this point and suddenly moaning was a viable tactic and the tip flew around with another carp on pellet.

Charlie in the swim to my right was now catching down his edge as well so I decided to follow suite and in the last 30 minutes I had 4 more carp that probably went 40lb between them, then it was the all out.  The day had been a rollercoaster but I was admitting to 100lb with 11 carp from 4 to 14lb in weight.

The history books will show that Greg had 128lb I had 100lb 10oz (not a bad guess) and Charlie won the match with about 155lb so I was well and truly Harried (Battered both sides).  Still it was a really good day getting out and catching a few fish and trying to get my eye in for later in the year.

What would I do different:

I should have spent less time on the waggle oin the early parts of the match as the wind was too strong and was making presentation difficult, I should have also set up a long pole line and short pole line rather than a line in the middle of the two areas, I only needed 3 more fish to give Greg a run for his money, so in the next few months I will be mostly tying more rigs 😊.

Rigs used:

Feeder 1:

Rod: Drennan S7 10ft Carp Feder with 1.5oz tip

Reel: Cadence CS5 4000

Line: 8lb sensor, 0.19mm powerline hooklength

Hook: 12 QM1

Feeder: 20g Guru cage

Waggler:

Rod: Drennan ultralight 12ft

Reel: Cadence CS10 4000

Line: 4lb sensor,

Hook: 18 Guru pellet wag pre tied to 0.17mm

Float: 3.5g Drennan visi wag.

Pole Margin:

Elastic: Preston 17H

Line: 0.21mm to 0.19mm Powerline

Hook: 4 T175

Float: 0.4g Drennan Carp 3

Pole short:

Elastic: Blue Colmic Hollow

Line: 0.19mm to 0.15mm Powerline

Hook: 2 Tubetini 175

Float: 0.2g Drennan Carp 4

AAF Gp2 Match 7, Viaduct Fishery

No Photos and I am going to keep it short this time.  I went to Viaduct, drew peg 74... not too bad.  It rained heavily just before the start and all the cruising fish dissappeared.  I lost 2 foul hookers in the first 30 minutes.  At the 3 hour point I lost a carp from 16m under the tree to the right, this was the only carp hooked under the tree. In the last hour I lost 3 carp from the left hand edge, one through  a hook pull, one through the 0.18mm getting snapped and one as it swam under the platform for peg 75.
At this point I lost my rag, put the rig up a tree and then destroyed two sections of my pole.
I weighed 3lb of bits for last but 1 in my section.  Well done to Pez for winning the match, Ships cat for knocking me out of the commercial cup with his first ton I believe and everyone else for not laughing at me too much.
I am still quite sore and melancholy but I am off to Barston at the weekend so lets hope I don't draw a peg where I need a pole.

AAF Gp 2 Match 7, Viaduct. 13/5/15

Fate is a funny thing, and in the middle of a really busy period personally with moving house and working away from home I was supposed to be on the Royal Signals Carp Championships at Todber Manor. I had managed a practice session the week before that resulted in 16 fish to 22lb 6oz, and since only 23 fish had come out of the lake whilst I was there I thought that I would be in with a chance, given a decent draw.  I also have a link to the video on the right hand side of this page.

 

An early morning double

Little Hayes

22lb mirror

17lb Common

As I have already alluded to though fate is a funny thing and it was never to be as I was involved in a bit of a crash on the Monday night heading down to the fishery when a not so young lady decided to see how close she could get to my bumper at a roundabout… the answer – 2 inches.  Not a problem I hear you say as most of the damage was on the bumper and that was what it’s for ….well the safety belts fired their safety’s so I could not drive anywhere.

My Van was recovered to Blandford.. From Stonehenge?? And Sarah picked me up from the side of the road, this meant that all my kit was in the wrong county and I had no idea as to when I would get transport so I would miss the draw the next morning. Due to this I cried off the Carp match.  Monday night and Tuesday morning saw my phone in meltdown with calls to and from insurance companys and just after lunch on the Tuesday new wheels were delivered to me…as I thought that the carp match would be out of reach by now I phoned Craig to see if there was any room on the Viaduct match the next day, especially as it would give me a chance to concrete my third place in the league. I was in luck as someone had dropped out so plansd made I drove to blandford to collect my carp gear, drove to todber to take some photos and then got home and prepped my kit the best I could in an hour.

The morning arrived and I drove to meet up with the rest of the team at Maccy D’s, banter in full flow and brerakfast done it was soon to the venue for the all important draw. Azi Red was myself, Daz and Ben so I was volunteered to do the draw, it was not good news as once again I pulled 94 out of the bag, this time Daz was sat on it, Ben had 114 and I was stuffed on peg 60.  Team wise it was an alright draw, 94 should have had a few fish in front of it and 114 is always decent the only real bogey was 60 but I decided that a good days fishing is still better than a day at work so I got on with it.

I set up a pellet wag, a meat rig for 14.5m, a margin rig for the platform of 61 (Which H on 62 also plumbed) and a dobbing rig. I started on the dobbing rig having fed half a pot of bait on the 14.5m line and straight away I knew I was up against it as I was sat in the shade and all the fish were enjoying the sun.  I swapped to the pellet wag to try and make some thing happen and in short bar 1 bite at about half way through the pellet wag was a damp squib. I managed to mug 2 fish through the course of the day but I never had them in numbers in front of me, H was catching on the bomb so I set one up and lost a foul hooker (or an eel!) and I managed a small tench and a rudd on a short meat line, and a foul hooked roach complete with egg sac on paste down the edge, I changed to paste as there were skimmers and roach spawning down the edge under the trees to my left.

The end could not come soon enough especially as every match angler I spoke to went unlucky and every pleasure angler went that’s a really good edge peg. I really didn’t want to talk to any more people after the match.

My 2 carp and bits went 23-8 enough for 13^th in section, the team was 12^th out of 16 I think in all a not so good day. The rest of the fishery was quite fair with a few tons and good back up weights.  Ben managed 80 odd pound but Daz had a mare as well.

Moving house this week then the commy national then the land command… better dust my hook tier off.

What would I do different

1.       I tried everything at viaduct to no avail so apart from concentrating on silvers that were conspicuous by their absence I was stuffed.

2.       I am going to have to bite the bullet one day and pack up everything bar the dobbing rig to see if it is viable, although I think a bigger hookbait like an 8mm punch of polony would be a better option.

18/12/14 Viaduct Costcutter.

It was back off to Viaduct, this time for a Thursday cost cutter.  There were 11 of us this time all on Campbell, and after a brew and a chat I was first in the draw bag for peg 125, not where I wanted.

I decided not to spend too long looking for a carp as I didn’t think that I would get too many, the weather has seen them being a bit funny of late so if I wasn’t on them I would not get them to move.  The back up plan was to fish for silvers and try to take that pool.

I set up a bomb, waggler and margin rig for the carp than a 0.4g rig to fish for silvers at 13m, I took the decision to fish at 13m as I knew that the wind would be picking up throughout the day and at the start the wind was off my back so I thought that I would be alright.

At the start I fed 4 balls of ground bait and dead maggot on the pole line and cast out the bomb, I managed a couple of small liners so swapped to the waggler for the next 30 minutes casting a 6mm cube of meat around the swim, I again had a couple of liners but nothing concrete.  It was at this point that the guy on peg 119 was playing his 4the carp so I decided to swap looking for the silvers.

I lowered the rig in and in the next 10 minutes I lost 4 large fish that I think were big skimmers tha I am sure were all foul hooked, frustrated got off my box and pulled a light feeder rod out of the bag and set up with a small groundbait feeder I started a new line at 23 turns.  This seemed like a master stroke as first cast I had a roach, followed by a pound skimmer then another couple of roach before it went quiet.  What happened next was unexpected as the tip gently knocked a couple times so I picked up onto it and was soon unclipping the rod as a very angry carp decided to go on a bit of a jolly across the lake. A few minutes later I was slipping the net under and 8-9lb carp, not bad for a 0.12mm bottom and size 16.

That was it however for the feeder, back on the pole line I managed a few small skimmers but it was hard work in the wind, and the last line the margin gave me a couple of roach and a brace of perch for a pound and a half.

The end was welcomed and my silvers went 8lb 6oz, this was not enough on the day as 114 had 19lb and 130 had 14lb of skimmers and tench, the match was won with 70lb odd rom 119 and second was 123 with 60lb.

What would I do different?

I think that the better fish in cambell don’t settle over the groundbait and both weights that beat me fed just caster.

Viaduct open, 13/12/14

I decided on a little trip to Viaduct today to start getting ready for the winter league next month, I arrived a bit earlier than I had planned only to find out that there were only 3 booked in for the day, not the best start.  It then got worst when the Langport Christmas match got cancelled from the river so we got moved off of Campbell, Rolly had turned up by now and we were waiting on number 3.  We waited 30 minutes and in the end decided to start without the third person, we also moved on to the far side of Lodge opposite the guys on the Langport match.  I was on 59 and Rolly was on 62.

My plan was simple, try to catch an early carp and then aim for skimmers, I decided on a 14.5m groundbait and dead maggot line, a 14m caster and corn line next to the rope that holds onto the aerator, 2 margin lines, a bomb and a waggler rod both got set up as well.  I was ready (almost) for the nominal all-in and we decided to start almost at the same time, I potted 4 balls of groundbait with caster and dead maggot in it on the long pole line, as I had been plumbing up I had found a small slope and my plan was to fish halfway down it so that I had a semi hard bottom to fish on. I fed my rope line with 50 caster and 20 grains of corn and chucked a bread hookbait out into the open water to my right.

After 40 fruitless minutes on the bomb I tried the waggler set at 3 feet deep and baited with 3 maggots, this gave me a small skimmer but I soon had enough as small roach were ragging the hookbait nearly every chuck. I shipped out on my skimmer line with 2 dead reds and it slipped under almost straight away, skimmer number 1 was soon in the keepnet it was followed by a couple of smaller fish so I topped up and tried the rope line. A missed bite and small roach later I topped it up and started to rotate around all my lines, I even started the two margin lines about an hour and a half into the match to try and make something happen quicker. There was an hour long spell when I managed 5 decent skimmers, 1 on meat that I started feeding next to the rope and the rest on dead red over the groundbait.

I managed another quick run of smaller hybrids and a pound perch in the last 10 minutes but other than that the day was quite uneventful. The weigh in was quick, I had 10lb 12oz and Rolly had 9lb 12oz so that last gasp perch was very handy, Rolly had caught far more fish than me but fewer of the bonus skimmers, he had been fishing live maggot on the hook.

It was a cold but enjoyable day and I have learnt a lot ready for the winter league next year.

What would I do different?

To be honest not a lot, I think that next time I will have a softer waggler rod and also a hair on for bigger baits to avoid the tiny roach.

AAF Gp2 Mt10, Viaduct, 23/07/2014

Again we were off on a group match, after a 0500 start, I picked John up, drove to the meet point for breakfast and then we had the AGM. It was then off to the draw at the fishery, Tidworth again was Rocky and myself and I was hoping to get us a half decent draw.  I failed, I was on 94 in a corner and Rocky was in the open water on Cambell, this would have been a half decent draw if the wind was in the other direction but it was time to graft. Since I had Pez sat to my left the banter was bound to be going all day and keep my spirits up.

I had the empty platform to my right, under the tree to my right, the lilies to my left and then I also had loads of open water, I decided to set up a paste rig for next to the lilies, a paste rig for under the trees, a bomb rod, a couple of pellet wags and a dobbing rig.

The first 4 hours were a non-event with 5 skimmers and 1 carp from under the lilies, whereas Pez and Docs to my left had managed to snare a few carp each, Pez reckoned that 4 of his fish were close to the net limit at 70lb so I decided to go and get something cold from the shop and have a bit of a rethink, before I left I fed 6 handfuls of 6mm pellet and 2 handfuls of 8mm pellet next to the lilies and a bit of munga under the tree.

On my return the difference was apparent and almost immediate, I had 2 paste fish from next to the lilies in the net within 30 minutes of my return then I hooked a fish that was in another league to the mid doubles that I had been catching. It made numerous runs that saw me going from a top kit to 13m as quick as I could and then holding on for grim death.  It took around 30 minutes but in the end I had a massive common half in half out the landing net and a little while later in the keepnet. The last hour was a bit of a struggle though with just one more carp from the lilies and one from under the tree mixed in with a few silvers.

As the scales came round I thought that I had seven carp, I could not count though and it was 6, plus 10lb of silvers for 88lb, my monster got weighed separately at 23lb 8oz. Pez managed 103 with his 4 biggies going around 50lb and Docs to his left, who had just spent nearly an hour playing a mid-double on skimmer gear had 113lb for a section win.

Overall it was won from the other end of Carey with 183lb on the bomb at 5m!! second was peg 76 and John was third from Campbell.

Can’t wait until next season so that I can try and get my name back on the trophy but I managed a top ten finish in the league so that was not too bad off six matches.

Sorry no photos this time but my phone cooked in the thirty degree heat!!!

AAF Gp2, Match 7, Viaduct, 14/5/14

I had been looking forward to this match for a while and Tony was the same as we both had done a few hours at work to let us get away for this one.  Tony was at mine for the customary lift at nearly dark o’clock and we were in the road with time to spare, but this was no ordinary journey and I managed to narrowly miss a car that was overtaking me VERY quickly. In the quote for the Glimmerman, there was nothing but road, then a glimmer, then a chuffing omega went tanking past as I was hitting a bottleneck in traffic.

So that was me in a good mood for a start, that was then compounded by a chunk of wood in the carriageway that I had to hit, mood improved …….not.

We arrived in one piece for breakfast at McDonalds and the talk was of how well the place had been fishing with numerous tons from Cary at the weekend, so that was where I wanted to draw. We moved on for the draw, paid in chatted around all the other and folks I had not seen for a while and before I knew it the draw was upon us.  Kev gave the brief and then team captains were called in one by one, I was doing the draw due to my recent drawing form, and we were about 4^th in the queue. Our team for the day was Tony, Rocky and myself and the pegs were 110, 100 and 128 respectively, due to a split section over the back to back pegs between Cary and Campbell, team wise it was a very good draw, individually I was not impressed as I didn’t feel it was a good peg at the moment. My mood improved…..not.

I got my kit to my peg and I apologise now to everyone who thought that I had spat the dummy because I was in a foul mood for some reason, anyway, I looked at the peg and the tree to the left was now overhanging substantially so much so that to fish the areas of the peg that used to produce on the wag you would lose a few floats in the tree, so that line was binned. My mood was stinking now, all the carp in front of me were getting ready to spawn, and I would be stuck on the pole of casting the wag/bomb towards the right hand side of my peg.  I had a small word with myself when I got the chance and decided on a line up the spit, an up and down line in open water and a 5m line.

I plumbed up the spit line first and found that in front of a clear bit of bank at 13m the depth was quite constant and the bottom was reasonably hard so a 0.2g MB WAC ‘O’ was set up on 0.20-0.18mm and a size 3 T175, elastic was green reflex as I was hoping for a few from here.

I spent quite a while trying to find what I was looking for on the long and short line and fortunately it was the same depth in both spots I decided on so one rig would do it, again I was feeling for a harder bottom than the surrounding areas and found two nice patches so a 4X10 MW Carp Slim was set up on 0.18-0.14 and a T175 size 2, this time the elastic was a lighter blue reflex as I was also hoping for backup skimmers on this line.

My last two rigs were a shallow rig for the long line and a dobbing rig, but I couldn’t buy a bite on either so I won’t go into detail. My bait tray was a simple affair with 8mm meat, 10mm meat, hemp and 8mm pellet, in hindsight I think that I would have been better off with 6mm meat but that is to try another day, I think that in future I will cut my meat after I have drawn that way I won’t have to take tons of frozen meat to the lakes that then sits in the cool bag.

I managed a quite a bit before the all in, I annoyed Tony for 10 minutes, ate a hot pasty and helped the guy on 132 set up a bomb rig so that it was fishery safe. Anyway, all in was called and out went my dobbing rig to try and mug an early one. 10 minutes later my mugging rig was up the bank and I fed the spit line and the long line both with half a pot of hemp and meat, then going straight out onto the long line where I instantly hooked and lost a carp, this was followed by a lull in which I should have twigged but I started to try shallow with meat on the long line and also kinderpotting meat on the same line with the same result, chuff all. So I pot in a quarter pot of meat and went on the spit, instantly hooking and landing my first carp, this was followed by roach bites.

I refed the spit and went long again hooking a fish that I lost, this time I re fed and went straight on it for a fish, I still didn’t twig though and set up a pellet wag to chase the fish I could see cruising, most of the guys around me had had fish on the bomb (that I didn’t get out the bag), but I was going to make the wag work… after an hour it was chucked up the bank and I had a look short for a quick fish, but at 8lb it was well worthwhile. Now I could go on about how I ended up having to put half a pot of bait in for every fish from the spit and long, and that it took me until about 2 hrs to go to figure this out, or that I fed 6 tins of 8mm meat and got plagued by small roach whittling my hookbaits down to nothing within minutes unless a carp was in the swim.  I tried 8mm hard pellet to overcome the small fish but all this did was let me watch a float dip constantly with nothing on the end for longer before re baiting.

All day I got to watch Tony getting beaten up by the carp under the brambles that he was fishing to, John Dewberry had a steady last few hours taking good fish short on meat with the breeze in his face and Mick Craddock on 74 had picked up another net after 2 hours so had a few. As the all-out was called I had about 10 carp for what I thought would be 50 odd pound, as the scales came round (with Adam Waklin helping out) it had obviously been a struggle everywhere, this still didn’t make me feel better though, even when my fish went 62lb odd, the guy on the other side of the spit had 69 and Eddy on 119 (The other side of the lake with a nice breeze and corner, excuse over) had managed 88lb for a section win. So I was third in section, Rocky was about the same and Tony took a quid of me with 78lb for 4^th in the match and 2^nd in his section behind John, who went on to win it with 126lb ish. Second overall was Mick on 74 with 108lb.

The team was second on the day so all we need to do now is get all three of us on the bank for another couple of matches to see if we can qualify for the finals.

On a final note get better soon Gary as I missed your dulcet tones for the last couple of hours.

05/04/14 Viaduct Fisho

So silly season is upon us again as I was directed to my parking space at Viaduct Fishery for the first Fisho of the year, I had already picked up a brekkie and a brew so set about sorting my kit and then waiting in the draw huddle chatting away to a few people whom I haven't seen for a while. Even before I got to the draw box people were moaning and commenting that they were going home, peg 48 was my destination for the day.  Now I was blocked in at the car park so had no choice but to stay but since it  had cost me £25 that didn't worry me, however,when I tipped up at the lake there were 3 empty pegs all at the far end of the lake giving the guys up that end a lot more room to play with, I was not impressed.

I had decided to go a quid with DJ who had drawn 111 on Campbell so I thought that an easy days bagging F1’s would be in order so I went about setting up a 10X11 MW pear to fish pellet on a 16 T808 on a 0.10mm bottom and 0.16mm mainline. Pink Reflex elastic was selected as a shock absorber as I was mainly hoping for skimmers and smallish F1’s on this line at 13m.  The next rig out the bag was a 4X10 MW carp slim on 0.18 – 0.14 and a T175 size 2, this was for fishing meat at 5 and 16m as the depth was not too dissimilar and I could get away with the same rig on both lines. Elastic for this rig was geared up to yellow as the target fish was big F1’s, big skimmers and carp. Finally I set up a margin rig to fish down to my left, this consisted of Blue Reflex elastic, 0.20mm mainline, 0.16mm bottom, T175 size 3 and a 0.2g MB WAC ‘O’.

I was ready with plenty of time and at the all-in I shipped out ¼ of a pot of hemp and meat onto both my 5 and 16m lines before shipping out to 13 m with my pear rig baited with a 4mm expander, in the tosspot I had 2mm, 4mm softened pellet and some groundbait slop. First drop I had a roach hit it on the drop and drop off itself but then 5 minutes later I was playing carp number 1 and at 4lb it was worth at least 3 F1’s, that was the end of that line though as I managed a couple of very small skimmers but after 30 minutes I had to have a look on my 16m meat line.  I had a couple of quick F1’s that were in the 1.5-2lb bracket so again bigger than most of the fish that the guys seemed to be bagging on the tip.

This was when my first mistake happened as the guy to my left had come down the edge already and was catching a few small f1’s, as soon as he hooked a proper carp at about an hour and a quarter I was feeding my edge line at 13m down the edge to my left, I think that I fed too much as it was a half a pot of hemp, 4mm pellet and meat.  Anyway I tried the 13m line again, this time feeding with a catty and managed an f1 and a couple of small skimmers so it was long for an f1 then down the edge for a quick look.

To be honest this is where my story gets stale, I managed 2 small tench and a couple of f1’s from the edge all day, the 13m pellet line got discarded as the 16mm meat line was producing the odd run of better f1’s and carp. I found that big potting with a bit of hemp and about 30-50 bits of meat and then resting the line allowed me another quick run of fish when I looked back on it.  With and hour and a bit to go my 5m line produced a run of big skimmers and a couple of carp but it would never be enough to threaten the guys on the far bank and with the island chucks.

I managed to have a nice days fishing and ended up with 50lb 14oz enough to beat 1 on the lake I believe, the guy to my right called Dave, to my left he had 58lb on 46 it was about the same then the rest of the lake there were two eighty’s, a ninety and the lake was won with 109lb from peg 50, when no one was sat in 51!!!! He still did well but it is frustrating when people draw but don’t fish as he had more water to drag fish from and caught on all methods steady all day.

DJ had 30 odd pounds from Campbell so I took a quid off him and the match was won by Kev Dicks with 146lb from 86 on Cary, well done mate.

Two more tickets, I just hope that I at least draw a chance.

09/03/2014 Viaduct WL round 5

It was back to Viaduct for the final match in the 5 match series and I was out for revenge after the previous few weeks had seen me drawing just off the fish or generally having a bad day. My destination was Match Lake, peg 46, and this did not fill me with much joy as it had not really produced that much over the series but having never fished the lake I was not too sure what to expect.

Looking at my peg I had a nice margin to my right that ended in a small tree at 13m ish, but I had been warned off about the amount of twigs and branches in the margins so as soon as I got to my peg I was on my hands and knees with a landing net dragging out about half a trees worth of wood. This instantly made the edge look more appealing so as I was sat back on my box I set up a margin rig to fish at 5m to my left and right tight to the wooden boards, and it was a similar depth at 13m so that was where my main edge line was going to be. The rig for this was ended in a size 3 tubertini 175, onto 0.16mm cenex, from what I could make out a lot of people seemed to think that this was excessive, but in my defence if I hooked it I wanted it in the net. I then set up a 4X10 MW carp slim to fish meat in the open water and at 5m, it was a float depth deeper at 5m so that worked quite well with the amount of line above the float, this rig was for fishing meat so I had yellow reflex elastic and a size 1 Tubby 175. I also set up a dobbing rig for down the edge and a shallow mugging rig as the sun was out and I was hoping to see a few lumps enjoying the spring warmth, it didn’t happen so that’s enough about those rigs.

The all in was called at 1030 and I shipped out on both of my meat lines with a small amount of hemp and about 20 pieces of meat, and I started by dobbing 3 maggots down the edge, it didn’t feel right though and some of the others were catching F1’s straight away on the bomb from tight to the island. I instantly felt as though I was in for a trouncing so I went looking on my long line with meat and started to ping 4-5, 6mm pieces of meat in every couple of minutes to try and make something happen before I went down the edge later.  Something did happen and my first proper bite saw me attached to about 8lb of carp that fought like a skimmer until it was under the top kit. I kept feeding the line but it had gone quiet so I decided to have a quick look down the edge on caster, I was instantly into perch and at 6-32 ounces they were well worth catching, I caught long and short to my right on maggot and had a great hour putting a few of them into the net, all the time feeding the long and short meat lines. Mid match I had a run of F1’s from the long line and also managed another better carp from down the edge, the F1’s seemed to coincide with when the shadow of a tree was falling on the water where I had been feeding.  I would get a run of 3-4 fish and then I would have to change swim as they backed off, and with an hour and a quarter I had my first look at 5m on meat.

I had 4 fish for about 10lb in 4 put ins and was thinking that I was about to smash the lake when it just went dead again and this saw me struggle for the rest of the match whilst I still got to watch the guys catching F1’s casting to the island, John Moody had had a really good couple of hours mid match but started to slow towards the end and Andy Power to my right seemed to be putting small carp into the net every so often so I knew that he had done me as well come the end.

The all out was called and Tom to my left and myself were grateful, we had about the same number of fish but I had carp and he had F1’s, how important bagging the bonus fish was shown on the scales when I weighed in 40lb odd and Tom managed a mid-twenty pound weight. Andy had 60lb helped by what I think was a late surge and John managed 90lb for a lake win and third in the match.

I ended up with 12 points again which I was happy with from that peg, the team didn’t come last which is always nice, I lost another quid to Moody but this was fortunately funded by Ken Rayner and finally many thanks to guys for running a fabulous series, I can only hope that I can compete in it again next year.  

2/3/2014 Viaduct Teams of 5, Rd 4

I was off to the float only section on Lodge and Cary for this round and the weather forecast was 180 degrees different to the day before with strong winds and rain forecast, you can tell when I draw the float only section…

Trev did the draw again for John, Rocky, Ivan and myself, and he gave me peg 62 which was 2 pegs away from where I wanted to be on peg 64 but I was happy that I had the wind and rain off my back all day.

My plan was to fish for silvers at 13m straight in front so I could control the pole if the wind picked up too much, I plumbed up a meat lines at 5 and 14.5m in line with the bush to the right of the picture, I set up a waggler to explore the peg with and finally a margin rig down to the empty platform to my right.

At the all in I fed 6 cups of groundbait, dead maggot and caster on the 13m line, 10 cubes of meat opn the 14.5m line and a pinch of caster, meat and corn down the edge before I cast out the wag baited with corn to have a look around. After 10  minutes however, I noticed some bubbling on my meat line so had a quick look, I missed a quick bite that I assumed was a skimmer so fed another 10 cubes and lo and behold 5 minute later I was attached to something very angry. Carp number 1 was subdued on yellow reflex elastic, a 6x8 MW Carp slim and 0.14mm bottom to a size 1 tubertini 175, it weighed about 8lb so I quickly re fed the line and waited out for another 30 minutes before deciding to rest that line.  I had been watching the guy on peg 64 start catching down the edge so I had a quick look, 5 minutes later carp number 2 was in the net looking confused as I had been using some proper gear down the edge to keep them away from the platform legs and it didn’t like the Orange Reflex elastic I had down the top of my Ultra Power pole. :-)

This saw the start of a lean period, I could only manage the odd small fish off the groundbait line but out of the blue with 2 hours to go 2 casts on the wag saw me land a 2lb skimmer and an 8lb carp both on corn. I had another big skimmer on the 5m meat line with 10 minutes to go but that was it, I ended up with 30lb ish and lost a quid to Ken and a quid to Moody. I was halfway up the section though off a poor draw so it wasn't all bad.

Next week it is the final round and I am praying for a good draw so that I can get some points back on Moody. Till then tight lines.

16/2/2014- Viaduct WL rd 3

This week I was going to be sat on Cary, I was hoping for a good draw with loads of open water to go at as the weather running up to the event had been up and down to say the least.  I was on 20 hrs notice to move for flood relief duties (as was Rocky)  because of the amount of rainfall over the previous week but the Saturday night had seen clear skies, a full moon and a stiff frost(-3 deg C).

Trev came away from the draw with peg 79 for me, he was on 9 (not good) Rocky on 3, Ivan on 73 and Steve was on 113. Straight away we needed Rocky and Ivan to have a good day and my plan was to catch 3 carp as the cold clear windless conditions were not good silvers weather.

So I set up a waggler to fish meat or corn at a variety of depths, I also plumbed it up in case I ended up trying to feed some meat for skimmers and I set up a bomb rod to fish anywhere I could. To cut a long story very short, I cast out the tip on the all in and again every 15-20 minutes to no avail, I started to feed a meat line and managed a solitary skimmer at about 3 and a half hours. That was my day, apart from watching a lot of foul hooked fish getting landed from the far bank and having someone moan about me casting too far (Tom). I did get spells of liners but no matter what I tried I could net get the tip to go round, to my left a foul hooked carp and to my right Chris managed to get a properly hooked carp with 20 minutes to go.

My skimmer went 9oz and this was enough for 2 points (at least I didn’t blank) If I had caught 6lb of silvers it would have been good enough for another 2 points so I was right to go for the carp to get better points, it just didn’t work.

The others did not do much better and we ended up with a possible record low score, still it could have been worst I could have had a proper swim poacher:

Canal next so I should get a couple more bites…..

2/2/2014 Viaduct Winter League Rd 2,

So it was off to Campbell lake for Rd 2 of this quality winter league and after the breakfast at McDonalds I was given peg 127 to be my pitch for the day. Now my record with this lake is mixed to say the least and it tends to be feast or famine, this time with me sat just off the epicentre of the fish I was fearing the worst from the start, but having said that there were a few fish showing in front of me so who knew.

To try and hedge my bets I set up a waggler for fishing meat or corn, a bomb rod, a silvers rig for 14.5m and a meat rig for a top 2+2 line. I was ready for the all in and fed 4 balls of groundbait, caster and dead maggot on the long pole line, before casting the waggler and corn out which saw me missing a quick bite.  The next one was not so lucky but it was foul hooked and there ended any action on the waggler, I tried the bomb and had a few indications that I am sure was fish getting away with it and also managed a few silvers on the long pole. I had fed 8mm meat all day on a waggler line and in the last hour had 2 bites that resulted in a skimmer of about a pound, but it had been a very frustrating day.

Basically I got to watch all the pegs to my left catch carp, on the pegs 124 and 125 both had ton plus weights I had 8lb, a 5lb carp and 3lb of bits.  It was enough for 7 points and the end again of any hope of a good individual result overall.  The team had another grueller with John being the only one to have a good day from peg 64 catching 80 odd pound of carp on the wag.  Cary in a fortnight so let’s see what happens.

19/01/2014 Viaduct WL Rd 1

Today was the first round of the Viaduct WL, 95 of some of the best anglers in the south west descend across the whole complex on a random draw.  The team for the day was myself, Trev, Mick, Steve and Ivan and the draw saw me off to peg 8 on Spring.

If you are wondering why the picture is looking down to the right of the swim, it is because that is where I pointed my box whilst setting up as that is where I got told all the fish are. He plan was simple dob all the way down to the trees and hopefully sack up. The reality was a little different.

At the all-in I shipped down section by section with my dobbing rig that consisted of 0.20mm line straight through to a size 2 Tubertini 175, 16 solid elastic and a MW Pro Power Shallow 4 no 10. Hookbait was an 11m punch of bread and over the course of the first hour I had zero indications, so I set up a waggler rod and started to cast double maggot under the branches, this again was to no avail and at the end of the second hour I was starting to get a little emotional shall we say.

It was at this point that I had a little divine inspiration, (thanks Paul), and I quickly plumbed up a new rig to fish at 13m down to the right in line with one of the pilings where I found a small slope.  The rig was a MB WAC ‘O’ 0.2g on 0.18mm mainline and a 0.16mm Cenex bottom, again it was a 175 in size 2 to terminate the rig but I scaled down the elastic to a Blue Reflex.  I attached a small pot to the end of the section and shipped down to the spot with about 10 caster and 3 grains of corn for feed and a grain of corn on the hook, not a lot happened so I decided to see if I could get a Roach or Perch. I shipped down and fed with the same again but his time with double caster on the hook, I waited about a minute and the float dinked under, I was attached to Carp number 1 who went on a bee line for the trees to my right. I was able to turn it into open water with steady pressure and the fight was all but over, 14lb of pristine mirror in the onion sack and I was a happy bunny again.

The next bite saw me get the fish out of the snags and then it dropped off for no reason, number 3 ended up in the net but then that was it for indications on that line for 15 minutes so I decided to rest it for a while. This is where my throwaway line came in and I had been feeding a 5m meat line since the all in, I shipped the rig over the top, a 4 no.8 MW Carp Slim on 0.18-0.14 and a size 1 Tubertini 175, again on Blue Reflex. The sun was problematic and I decided that whilst the rig was there that I would get some grub in so I fed about 20 cubes of meat and no sooner that the third pinch hit the water than the float dipped, a quick lift saw the elastic tearing out and an unseen force made a run for the trees again.  Once again, steady pressure prevailed and I was soon slipping the net under another mid double carp, now I would love to say that in the last 2 hours I continued to catch but I can’t.  Despite rotating and resting swims I lost a foul hooker and another fish dropped off by the net from the long line (yes I had changed the hooklength) and I also managed a small roach to warrant putting the silvers net in.

That was it, Ken in peg 9 had had a bad day and I asked how the pegs to his left had fished, it turned out that it had been a grueller for most unless you were sat on peg 3, 4 and 5, Peg 5 having 140lb+.  My 3 carp and a 2oz Roach went 37lb 3oz:

This was enough for 3^rd in section, so a great start again to my league. I am on Campbell in a fortnight and that is real underwater bingo at the moment so fingers crossed for that, team on the day came 12^th out of the 19 with myself and Steve doing alright but the rest of the Guys struggling to get amongst the fish. Full section results can be seen here: http://silverfoxangling.blogspot.co.uk/

Viaduct Cost Cutter, 09/01/2014

Back to Viaduct for another cost cutter, this time there were 12 of us so we were all sat around Campbell Lake. Banter abound at the draw I fancied peg 116 as it seemed to be the flyer and I was very happy when I put my hand into the bag and pulled out peg 116.

I got to my peg and was very happy to see numbers of fish showing in the gap between myself and thew guy on peg 118 so I decided that to make the most of a good draw and concentrate on carp on the wag and bomb, so I set up my black viper 11ft feeder for the job again as it had been working so well doing it on Cary with the bigger fish. This was terminated in a 0.18mm hooklength and a size 12 Guru QM1, I set it up with a ½ ounce bomb to try and reduce the amount of disturbance to the fish already in the swim. I also pulled my Champions Choice Super light waggler out of the bag with 0.14mm mainline and a 0.12mm bottom to a size 18 hook. I plumbed around the swim as soon as I got to the peg to give the fish a chance to settle before the all in and was happy with 4 ½ foot just about everywhere I looked. I set the waggler up 12 inches off the bottom and then walked up the bank to abuse Tony on Peg 110 for twenty minutes, I also spent a while chatting to the guys on 118 and 119 and it was soon time to start.

The all in was called and I cast my waggler into the open water and started to count, it didn’t take long but the missed bite was not a good start, in fact it took me another minute or so to hook my first fish, a roach of about an ounce. This happened a few more times over the next half an hour and even Rich (onefeed) on 115 was getting amongst them, this did not bode well as I have usually found that if you are picking up roach ‘dobbing’ then there are not many carp around and my fears were confirmed when peg 119 caught a carp just before a couple of them showed tight to the bank.

I decided that a change of plan was needed so I got off my box and broke out my meat waggler rod, whilst I was setting the depth and attaching a float I pinged out the bomb with a bit of punched meat, and after a while it twitched and went round. Carp number 1 was soon in the net even though I had lassoed a rig that it was trailing from its mouth, well it’s better to be lucky than good!  That was it for the tip so back out on the wag to try and put some roach together, but they were too small at ½ to an ounce each.

It was about now when the guys on 112 and 114 started catching down the edge so not being shy in coming forward I was off the box again setting up a margin rig for down to my right towards an overhanging tree. Now some of you might be saying why I didn’t set it up at the start but I thought that it was going to be better for me in the open water, and I had not seen much come out of the edge on the lake for a while. Once it was plumbed up I fed a quarter of a cup of corn and caster down the edge and went back on the wag and mag for another few roach.

The next 2 hours passed without incident, I tried all of my swims rotating through and cast the bomb as close to peg 118 as I dare as he had taken a few carp by now casting straight in front of himself. Twenty minutes from the end I was on the meat wag and missed a quick bite, enthusiasm doubled I concentrated on it again for the last twenty minutes and managed to snag a carp in the mouth with about 15 minutes to go. That was the end of the action though and I was left hoping that it was enough to save me from losing a quid to Tony as I had heard that he had been catching a few good perch and skimmers.

The scales came around and the guy on 118 had 50lb all on the bomb, to be fair he only set up one rod, I had about 15lb, with my carp going 14lb and 20 odd roach for a pound and a half, Rich on 115 had ounces and chucked back, he had caught roach on the wag but could not find a carp, then peg 114 had 60lb of edge caught fish????  Tony on 110 had managed to scrape out 7lb of perch from the stump to his left so my pound was safe. It had not been a brilliant day but it did prove a few things to me.

I am due a practice with Tony tomorrow and then Willow park on Saturday, let’s see what that brings.

Viaduct Costcutter 02/01/2014

It was back down to viaduct fishery again this week for the cost cutter with Tony once again, and this time we had a certain Mr Bond in support. Tony and I thought that we had booked in for this match as we were leaving the week before but as we turned up it appeared that there had been a mix up, and we were booked in for Saturday instead.  This was quickly rectified but there was now the situation that there were pleasure anglers on Cary that would be fishing in the middle of a match, not ideal as they can use pellet wereas we could not. But off we went for the draw, Myself Jim and Tony all went a side quid and the boys drew first, Tony on 85 Cary (flyer) Jim on 114 Campbell that is an average peg at this time of year but should have been worth a few carp and some silvers. Me well I drew 77 that put me 2 pegs away from where I was last week on the other side of the aerator.

I decided on an easy day so I set up a my 11ft Black Viper feeder for the bomb, and my 13ft Champions Choice 13ft super waggler to fish a waggler around the swim.  I started on the all in by casting around the swim for 40 minutes with 3 maggots on a size 16 to 0.16mm bottom, this gave me one bite off a small roach that dropped off as I was swinging it to hand, so I cast popped up bread to the aerator for 15 minutes and at this point I realised that I may be in trouble. I had 2 pleasure anglers opposite me, the one on my left had two rods out baited with king prawn. He was also feeding pellet by the pouch full and this was working for him as every 40 minutes or so one of his alarms would go off and he would play in a carp.  I tried to move my bomb to the edge of where he was feeding (poaching) but I could not get an indication so I decided to try and catch some silvers for one thing and I started to feed meat at about 20m in front of my peg towards the tall tree.

My silvers plan was to fish a small cage feeder about halfway across the lake, and as soon as my groundbait was ready I gave it a few casts, over the next hour I managed a perch or 3oz and a Ruffe.  I also missed a couple of ratly bites but the skimmers that I was after were conspicuous by their absence, it was at this point that I decided to concentrate on mugging a carp as the lakes were obviously fishing slow and not many  people were catching at all.

I cast bread out to the aerator again and this time after 3 minutes I had a wrap round ( the wrong type of bite on bread) as I lifted the fish felt funny and I quickly realised that I had foul hooked a carp in the tail, still 10 minutes later I was putting the net under 15lb of confused mirror. Honour satisfied I started to cast around the swim with a variety of baits on the bomb and meat on the wag but to no avail until the last hour.

I decided to have a look on the line that I had been feeding for the last 3 hours and over the last hour I managed to catch 2 skimmers and another foul hooked carp. So that was it, because  I had Jimmy sat behind me he was easy to keep tabs on and had managed 3 carp and a couple of silvers for 19lb, my two carp went 26lb and my silvers were 3lb for 29lb odd and then Tony on peg 85 threw back a slack handful of silvers for a DNW. At least I had won the quid side bets if nothing else.  Back at the shop it soon became clear how close the day had been with the guy in the peg to my right managing to catch 3 carp for 33lb picking up 5^th, and 60 odd pound weights taking first and second.  I learnt a lesson, as all I needed was one more pull for 4^th or 5^th so I needed another line to try and catch a fish from and I think that a lightly fed 3ft margin line might have been the way, but I will never know.

Viaduct Costcutter open, 27/12/2013

Today saw me and Tony taking a trip down to Viaduct for a cost cutter open, it was being held over campbell and cary but with the wind forecast all I wanted was a peg with a bit of respite so that I could try a few things out.
Peg 79 was my destination for the day, and all the info that I was getting was that there were carp in the area and that they were coming on meat and bread. With the wind forecast to increase at lunch time I decided on a simple plan of a bomb attack with a skimmer feeder as a back up, due to recent form I also pulled a waggler out of the bag and plumbed around a bit to get an idea of the depths, I found that it was around 3ft on the top of the bar in front of me and went down to 4 1/2 ft almost everywhere else.
I had a few minutes before the start so also pulled a rig out of the box to fish in front of the platform to my right, the plan for this was to fish at the base of the shelf where the keepnets would normally be.  I decided to feed dead maggot, corm and meat on this line so as the all in i cupped in a quarter of a cup of grub and then cast the bomb baited with meat out around 30 yds.  
Not alot happened for the first hour and a half, I was getting plenty of liners but I could not find a way to convert them into bites until I dropped on what must have been a small pod of fish as I had 3 bites in 20 minutes and landed 2 carp for around 20lb both on meat. That was it for a while and the liners stopped on the top of the bar, I thought about trying the feeder for skimmers but hearing that Mr Tucker on Campbell had been catching well from the start meant that skimmers would not cut it today, plus I felt that the swim was too shallow for them.
I had a go on the waggler and lost a foul hooker so back to the bomb and out of curiosity I tried towards the aerator on the right hand side of my swim, as the lead was falling through the water I could feel it bouncing off fish and I thought that I had a bite on the drop but it was nothing. So out went the bomb again, this time it got to the bottom and after 6 minutes the tip went round, I lifted and felt solid resistance and after an epic struggle that saw the fish try to swim around everything, get snagged and do several long runs I finally managed to net half of this:

25lb 10oz of Scary Cary magic, the next 3 casts saw me land another 2 fish and then that was it, the last hour and a half saw the wind die down so I tried to find the fish with the waggler but they had gone and I only saw one more carp caught from the lake for the rest of the match.

At the all out I thought that I would have 60lb and so it turned out when the scales came around with my total being 60lb 6oz, this was enough to take the customary quid off of Tony and also for second in the match behind Tucks on Campbell. So again not a bad day at all.

MFS Viaduct day 2, 15 Jun 13

Day 1 had been a bit of a blow out for me with my weight only being good enough for 5^th out of 7 in my section, but it was another day so after the slating for throwing away another good peg at the draw I put my hand into the bag and pulled out peg 88 on Cary. Normally I would not be too excited about this draw but this time the wind was ploughing into that end of the lake and pegs 90 and 94 had not been draw so I had nearly the whole top corner of the lake to myself.

With so much room and the weather report saying that the wind would get worst throughout the day, I decided that it would mainly be a bomb match towards the corner, but I also needed somewhere else to go. I plumbed up a 13m pole line to my front and put a meat rig and shallow rig up for there, I had a really nice margin to my left so I plumbed up a rig for there and that was it basically.

At the all-in I fed about 30 6mm pellets and 20 cubes of meat on the long line, and then chucked the bomb down to my right and started firing 8mm pellet over the top, nothing happened so after about 20 minutes I had a look on my long line and managed to snare a couple of skimmers then a foul hooked carp killed the swim so I re fed and chucked the bomb. This was basically how my day panned out with me taking the odd carp on the bomb interspersed with a few skimmers and a couple of carp on the long line, one in fact came as whilst I was kinder cupping a few carp moved into the swim shallow. After seeing this I quickly used the big pot to pot in 8 cubes of meat and a few pellet shipped back and then shipped out the shallow rig, I s

Lapped this on the water 3 times and all of a sudden elastic poured out of the pole and resulted in a mid-double carp in the net. I tried this trick a few more times but it only worked the once.

The wind proved troublesome for everyone and throughout the day I had been watching Freddie on peg 97 getting amongst a few and Chris on the next peg was getting amongst them at the end as well. At the end of the match I was up to 11 carp, as was Chris on the next peg as was the guy on 85!

So I managed a section win on the last match of my R&R, it was a brilliant 2 days and hopefully it will happen again next year. Till the next time tight lines one and all.

MFS Viaduct day 1, 14 June 13

This was the first day of a two day session down at Viaduct Fishery in Somerset, it was quite fortuitous the fact that I had been able to fish these matches with them falling at the end of my R&R and there being a spare place when I looked online.  So I had booked in and day one saw us merry 28 congregating in the car park at the fishery, breakfast was dispatched and a few £1 side bets made with various people it was soon time for the draw. I was quite close to the front and we had all of Campbell and Cary booked so there would be plenty of room for us all, peg 114 stuck in my hand and I was sort of happy.

I spoke with Steve in the tackle shop and his advice was to fish long, 6m and also long down the left hand edge towards the empty peg 113, so I set up a couple of shallow rigs for the long pole, a meat rig for the short line and a margin rig. I also set up a depth waggler rod and also a pellet wag for if it was to be a middle of the lake day. I was ready (ish) before the all in and as soon as it sounded I fed 1/3 of a pot of hemp and 8mm meat on the short pole line and a little less down the edge, I then shipped out with a shallow rig and proceeded to slap the water 3 times hoping for a quick response, but it never happened so back to plan B.

 I cast out the depth waggler and started pinging out a few pellets around it, I did not have to wait long and soon had a carp on the end but it was foul hooked and quickly broke me, the inside was fizzing well so I shipped out the meat rig to see what would happen. I started to catch a few tench and skimmers but they quickly slowed down so I decided to have a quick look down the edge as it looked really fishy with loads of snags and overhanging brambles. I had geared up accordingly and quickly landed a couple of small carp, I could only think how easy it was when my nightmares began, there were that many snags that for every carp I landed I lost at least 1, these mostly ran through the brambles but there were at least 2 other solid snags that I lost fish on.

I was alternating between the margin and the short pole to try and keep weight going into the net but I could see guys on the far bank catching well and Steve next to me was starting to get a few fish strung together (this was not good as he is in the RAF and we had gone a quid). I made a change to fishing     with paste trying to alleviate liners down the edge and also act as a focal bait on the short line, it almost worked but not enough and I was still struggling to land fish right up to the final whistle.

As the scales came round it was clear that I had not done enough and I managed to weigh in 90 odd pounds including nearly 20lb of silvers. Steve had managed 160lb and that gave him the quid for the day.

17/01/2013 Viaduct Winter League

I got called in to fish this match as Stu was going to be unavailable, I took his place and Trev drew me out 110 on Campbell. In the summer and last year I would have been happy with this draw but all of the carp in Campbell had been shoaled up in front of peg 116 for a few months and the guy on the peg in the open  the day before had caught a carp and then tipped back!!

Unperturbed I started to set up a tackle shops worth of kit, a bomb rod for meat or bread, a waggler to fish maggot around the peg, a pellet waggler set at half depth to suspend a bit of punched meat, a margin pole rig and a skimmer rig to fish at 14.5m in front of me. I started the match as normal with 4 balls of groundbait on the pole line before I decided to explore around the peg with the deck waggler and maggot. I stuck it out for nearly 30 minutes for 3 tiny roach before I chucked the bomb out for 2 casts with no real signs of life. I went out on the pole line and struggled for a few small skimmers and roach and was going nowhere until I started casting the waggler and maggot to the middle of the lake for a few roach. The margin was unproductive and a waste of time but I did learn a few things by drawing the wrong end of the lake.

1) Sometimes there are just no carp!!

2) Take a lighter waggler rod for roach fishing

3) Don’t feed too much on a winter carp line, although I did not feed alot down the margin, after a couple of hours I felt that I should not have fed anything and just felt my way into the swim!!

I finished the day with 4lb dead and this was good enough for 3 points out of a possible 19.  150lb + won the lake and this was from 116, well done Mark.

The team suffered from a bad draw with 3 of us picking up 3 points, a 5 and John  Dewberry saving us with 16 points I believe.

Viaduct open,5 Jan 13

For this match I drew 97 on Cary, this is in my mind a good peg as it give you lots of open water to go at and therefore lots of options, I also had a blank peg to my left and had to put a swim down there so I set up the following kit:

10ft Commercial bomb rod with an Ultimatch 035, 8lb mainline to a 0.18mm bottom baited with either a lump of meat on a 14 QM1 or bread popped up between 6 and 12”. The bomb was running freely on the mainline and I use a snap swivel to attach the hooklength for speed. I decided to feed a meat line in a depression at 25m, for this I rigged up a 13ft CC Super match with a Black magic 030FD loaded with 4lb reel line to a 0.14mm Cenex hooklength; this had a 16 PR36 and a quick stop to hold the meat on the hair under a loaded 4AA straight waggler. My other waggler rod was a Superlight Match with the same reel and line but a larger loaded float to fish maggot up in the water at long range.  I also set up my Z9 at 14.5 m to fish a silver fish line, this had a 0.4g float on 0.16mm mainline to a 0.1 bottom and an 18 808hook, and this was set with Pink Cenex hollow elastic for the skimmers.

At the all in I fed 4 balls of groundbait on my skimmer line and then cast out the bomb baited with a large punched meat hookbait, I also started feeding meat on my waggler line and after about 10 minutes I had my first pull on the bomb and carp No1 was on its way to the landing net. That kind of set the tone as I managed 3 carp and a handful of silvers for around 30lb, all my carp came on the bomb, 2 on meat and one foul hooked on bread. My silvers all came on the pole line to dead maggot or caster. My weight was enough for a section win which was my entire bank but I was well off the winners on Campbell and some of the pegs opposite on Cary. Still it’s always nice to pick up a little.