15 March 2020

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

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