Viaduct Pole Only 29th April 2011

I’d been looking forward to this match, as the previous pole only matches have been close affairs. Not sure how many were in, but three lakes were needed, Campbell, Cary & Lodge. I think a combination of the weather and proximity to spawning has had a detrimental effect on the fishing over the last couple of weeks, so I wasn’t too bothered which lake I drew. Cary and Lodge giving more chance of building a weight in the last couple of hours if the big fish feed.

Peg 66 was to be my home for 6 hours, a new peg for me, so I listened to all the advice offered, although it ranged from the incredulous – “you’ll sack up. It’s a flier” to the miserable, “Lodge fished shit yesterday”.

I set up a meat rig for under the tree/by the platform of the overgrown peg 65, a paste rig that would cover both the 11m line and up against the tree, a meat rig for 11m, which would also suffice for 6m. A rig for hair rigged pellet completed the set up.

I started by feeding some meat in front of 65, some softened pellet by the tree and I started on the 11m line straight in front, with a 6mm banded pellet and feeding 6mm’s by catty. The float didn’t sit still, the tiny roach and motherless minnows kept plucking at the pellet until they got it out of the band. It took half an hour to get 2 skimmers in the net, I then looked over the paste line by the tree, once again pestered by the bits. The meat in front of 65 and even further past, produced nothing all match, not even a bite. I also set up a shallow rig, this produced nothing either.

Back onto the 11m line with paste and after a 10 minute wait, a cloud of bubbles erupted around the float, it bobbed and jagged under, after a tough fight a 10lb common was netted. That was it until the last hour ( apart from many gaffed motherless and roach) I had three more in the last hour on paste, including a 17lb common, giving me just over 45lb – which was 50% + short of what was required to win the lake and 2/3rds short of the winning total. Bob Gullick won the lake with 97lb including a 21lb fish and I think Nick Collier won from Cary with about 130lb, but this may not be factual as I shot off before the result, as I had to get to work.

Plenty struggled, the fish aren’t actively looking for food, lets hope the spawning is over soon and some settled, seasonal weather gets them spread out round the lakes and looking for food.