Final round of Tony's popular float only league and as I was guesting for someone (no idea who - obviously no one near the top of the league) all I had to worry about was treating it like an open and trying to secure a win.
With the weather forecasters promising rain and more rain for the duration of the match, I did wonder why it had seemed such a good idea to offer my services back in the heatwave..... I had sorted out my bait on Saturday evening and decided that keeping it simple would be the best plan, so 6mm pellets, 8mm pellets, 8mm meat and in case I drew an edge peg, some GB, dead maggots and worms. I considered taking paste, but given the forecast I wrote it off, not sure that was the right decision. I needn't have bothered with the edge bait, I can't believe the draws on this and the previous two matches I have fished on Campbell, 124, 125 and today, back on 124.
I think a fair few people haven't sussed out that the complaining and moaning about the draw is a bit of a parody and nearly always I actually go to the peg with positive thoughts, today I wasn't so positive inside, it's not been a good area for a while and I have no idea why, it was a good area to draw a couple of years back, but 124-126 aren't exactly sought after draws now.
They did used to be really good skimmer pegs and I'm sure the fish will drop back there soon, but even the silvers seem to have upped sticks and moved to the aerator end of the lake, Mike Nicholls who was on 123 did say he thought putting an aerator this end as well might help and I can't help think he isn't too far off the mark
So, onto the fishing, being float only the lead rod(s) that usually get set up and put away again without seeing any action were safely at home in a nice dry garage. That left a pair of waggler rods to get out of their ready made up rod bag, one set at full depth, one at 18" to start with, these have 4lb sensor, with 0.17 hooklengths and either PR36 or the new version of that both in a 16 with a micro band.
Topkits comprised a power kit with orange Vespe in, for a margin rig, which was really only because I had the time to set it up, I didn't expect to catch down the edge. A kit with red KND elastic in, to fish meat at 5/6m, another with green KND elastic to fish pellet on the deck at 11m, I also set up a skimmer rig, with a 0.12 hooklength and a 18 LWG with a band, this was matched to Preston 10 solid elastic. My back has been a bit painful for several weeks now, so no shallow rig, trying not to wave 14/165m of pole around at the moment.
Bait tray was as described above, with one addition, I found a bag of micro pellets in my Mosella trolley bag (great bits of kit, but I have suggested a wet weather improvement to Vic, hopefully it can be designed into a future model), I don't usually feed micros at Viaduct, but did wonder if I could catch a few skimmers. So a few pellets and micros fed onto the 11m line before dropping in on the 5m line looking for the early mug fish. I did have a skimmer and a tench on the meat, but no carp. I switched to the 11m line with the pellet rig and immediately hooked a 8lb carp - a racing certainty I suppose - managed to land it OK on the 0.12 and went back out, had a couple of skimmers, but it wasn't hectic and no real indications that there were lots of fish there.
A carp that stole the hook of the skimmer rig prompted me to switch to the heavier rig, it didn't seem to make any difference to the numbers of bites, it was a strange day, they wanted some feed, but they seemed to back off the initial feed, then come in over it, I'd catch one and have to feed again before I could catch another. I did have another carp on this and I thought I had 20lb in the carp net and 14lb in the silvers net when I hooked another carp, I though it was properly hooked at it was reasonably docile and came straight towards me as I shipped back. It then went ballistic and charged down to the end bank, I had a few sections of pole back through the otter fence and I couldn't get it back in time - so a first for me, broke a Tournament section on a fish, the 'ferrule' section of the No4 section snapped, at the same time the fish came off, so I did get the topset back OK.
I have had Tournaments for 10years now and that's a first for me, but I had a feeling something would go - I have heard other anglers claiming the PTFE nose cones have contributed to breakages, but I don't think this was the case, just the speed of the fish and the carbon being bent at right angles.
I did try the waggler where I had been feed 8mm pellets, I had a couple on it, but lost a few foulers, there were fish out there, couldn't catch the on the shallow wag, I think the lead would have been better, had it been allowed and as predicted, the margins were devoid of fish.
Mike Nicolls on 123 was catching well on paste and came to borrow a net, I had no need of it, so he was welcome to borrow it, I was a little fed up by now, the rain was relentless and the pegs opposite were absolutely emptying it whilst I had to work hard for every bite. Luckily the short meat line did switch on towards the end, a few carp, another tench and a couple of bream making the last hour the best one.
I put 123lb on the scales, which comprised 25lb silvers, I should probably have fished all match for them, but hadn't really come prepared for that. I did take the section money with that, I wouldn't have, but 128 on the spit went over the 80lb limit in his first net and was disqualified. So in the end a better result from the peg than I imagined at the start, but I'll be happy not to draw there on my next visit - although, those do produce better weights in the autumn, the bigger fish seem to reside there before the winter sets in.
Match was won by Dan White, who also took a swim in the lake when his box, complete with him, tipped into the lake, didn't matter, he had it sewn up by then! Full results on Tony's blog http://tonyrixon.blogspot.com
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