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.