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.