Viaduct Spring League R4, Sunday 3rd June 2018

Today, only a section win would do to put me in with a chance of framing in the league, so a good draw and a good performance was needed.  Dipping into the Nescafe tin with some hope of a peg black with fish, sadly it wasn't to be and I knew that my peg, 99 wouldn't be good in the section, I had won this section last round from the opposite end, 109.

There were some pegs that looked pretty uninviting as the willow trees have been and still are shedding their horrible white fluff all over the lakes.  Mine wasn't too bad, but it made waggler fishing hard work as the fluff clings to the line, ending up a tough, fibrous ring clogging frustration.

There isn't  going to much in this blog, its hard to write about nothing much happening, which is what happened for the vast majority of the match.  Usual tackle set up, one lead rod, two wagglers, one shallow, one depth, several topkits - a long line mugging rig, a shallow rig, pellet rig at depth, meat rig, a paste rig and a margin rig, which would be good for either side, to the tree on my left and towards the empty 97 to my right.

The odd fish I could see before the start, magically melted away as the 'all-in' call drifted across the lakes.  I never got near having one on the mugging rig, the waggler was just as barren and it was about an hour and 50 minutes in before I had a fish, I had switched to the full depth pellet rig at 14m and pinging 6mm pellets with a 6mm in the band, I had a skimmer, then shortly after a carp around 6lb, that was 12:50, at 13:15 I had another as well as several other skimmers, but that was a flash in the pan.

I was switching methods and baits with regularity just to try and get a bite, but didn't have anymore joy until 16:10, when I finally had one on the waggler, it was a one off though, as the waggler didn't produce anything else.  I had been feeding 8mm pellets in front of the rushes towards 97 and finally at 16:45 I saw the rushes knocking, dropping in with a banded 8mm pellet, the float settled and buried, not the expected carp, but a small, but energetic tench made its way to the net.  I did drop back in and didn't wait long before a carp about 13lb took the pellet, by the time it was landed and I get the rig back in, the all-out was called.

My carp went 39lb and the accidental skimmers and tench 9lb, that was only enough for 5th in the section, so league over, further down the section Mark Wynne had over 200lb and Richard A'Herne who was between me and Mark said he could see the fish moving round, but they just wouldn't move up towards us.  Sometimes its possible to take positives or at least a learning experience from days like this, but if I was faced with this draw and circumstance again, I have no idea how I would get any more from the peg.

1. Sam Powell - 325lb 5oz - peg 85
2. Trig - 304lb 10oz - peg 116
3. Mark Wynne - 203lb 5oz - peg 102
4. Tom Mangnall - 189lb 14oz - peg 124
5. Lee Werrett - 142lb 4oz - peg 110
6. Leon Hubbard - 137lb 10oz - peg 113