The format was fairly widely publicised, that same as last year, except as we had more anglers, it was both lakes on the same day, swapping to the other lake the next day. Cary is any method and Campbell pole only, there was some consternation on FB the day before, as the more extreme of the forecasters were predicting winds on the scale of a biblical holocaust, I reserved the right to alter the match back to any method on the morning, if the wind reached tempest conditions.
The numbers ended up at a round 30, so 15 on each lake, with a section of 7 and one of 8, the morning was calm and the Met Office website had winds to about 25mph forecast, the BBC had them much higher, but whilst it wasn't ideal pole conditions, the rules remained as advertised. A free draw the first day and I got Steve Nadin to pick one out for me, 105, not probably my first choice, but it can be a decent peg,
I had Adrian Jeffery opposite on 74, so I was bound to be treated to a display of lead chucking and some mild banter, I also had a good view of how Dan White was approaching peg 77 and the feature that is the fallen willow. I did set up a lead rod, in case the wind got too much, a waggler as well and with a sore back, I decided that I'd just fish a margin pole, so that was about an 8m limit. I had a meat rig, a margin rig, full depth pellet rig and a paste rig set up on topkits for this.
It was a slow start, before I had one on the pellet rig at 8m, the waggler was pushing through, so that was not likely to tempt any of Cary's wily old beasts, I did hook one on the lead, but it charged off like a lunatic and came off, foul hooked was my guess, the band was missing from the hook so I guess that was pulled off in the melee.
Adrian was having a few on the lead and Dan was patiently swapping between long shallow and fishing off the end of the tree and he was picking occasional fish off of both lines. I should have thrown the lead down towards 109, at least to see if the fish were there, but I didn't, I did have two in reasonably quick succession on the lead, but I definitely got it wrong in this peg today. I should have just had 6/8mm pellets om the side tray, I should have searched round the peg more, I'm sure that I could have come back with 9 points instead of 7 an that would have left me in the mix for Saturday. Disappointing to come away and feel that the peg wasn't done justice, even limiting myself to the shorter pole, I could have utilised the lead better, something I might have to practice as the prognosis for my back isn't conducive to long pole fishing.
On the day, Martin Rogers ran out as winner, with 172.00 from 127 on Campbell, the wind did get up during the day, not to quite the hurricane like predictions of the doom mongers, but it did affect some pegs worse than others, so that probably knocked back weights on the day, although, there were still 8 weights over the ton.
Day two and we all knew that the Goretex and brollies would get a severe testing, as every single forecast was for 100% precipitation, from around 11:00 right through the rest of the day - they weren't wrong!!!
I had my peg handed to me - next year I think I will be drawing my own!! and it was 121, where defending Champion Steve Hutter had struggled the day before, strange as I had fancied it for a weight, he would have had no protection from the wind there though. 3 or 4 of those from Campbell had ended up in a 'section of death' on Cary, so they would be taking points off each other, this kept a bit of interest in it, as it opened up the framing positions.
Simple set up today as it was pole only, for the first time in about 10 years I took my brolly to the peg and used it to put my stuff under, it was quite nice having some dry kit at the end. 5 topkits, strung rig for pellet at depth, a bulk and dropper rig for the same - both with homemade floats, a Malman Roob for meat at topkit +3, a margin rig, same depth within a couple of inches both sides, so one rig for both and a paste rig, Martin had caught on it yesterday, as had Clayton.
Starting at 2+3 on meat was fairly unproductive, a couple of 10oz skimmers, with no sign of a carp, I had fed a short line off to the right with pellets, to fish paste over, but next went out to 14m and potted a few pellets in, this brought a couple of carp, but the action was far from wild and it also didn't last long before the bites dried up. The short pellet line, despite having some bubbles (skimmers I'm sure) didn't respond to paste or hard pellets, the margins appeared devoid of any fish at all, not even a bite on worm or maggot.
I persevered with the short meat line for the last couple of hours and caught mainly skimmers, a couple that could just sneak into the bream category and for the last 40 minutes, the skimmer bites stopped and I had several more carp, I was a a lot more satisfied with my performance than yesterday, not sure how I could have got much else from the peg, 119 DNW and 123 just shy of 50lb, just think the carp had moved up the lake. This was much to the liking of Gary O'Shea, who won on the day with 312.02 from 130, well done to Gary, great weight on the day. The weights were better today, although the temperature is dropping and I was cold for the first time his side of the summer.
Overall Dan White won the two days with a perfect score, 20 points, well done mate, some great consistency there, Gary O'Shea pipping Martin Rogers for second place on weight.
Apart from the weather, which did it's best to spoil things, it was a good weekend, nice to see some faces we don't see too often, thanks to Steve, Matt and Helen at Viaduct, its booked again next year, same format, 20th/21st September 2019, already one third filled up, so if you fancy it (I really will try and organise some better weather., promise....), see me or contact me to book in.
Winner Dan White
Top Twenty Overall
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