After the last round team success, we'd been hoping to build on it this round, but the weather was likely to have a say in this, with heavy snow and then a night where the temperatures went down to double figures of minus centigrade in some areas locally.
The van temp gauge was -5° and did briefly drop to -10° near Clutton, so I doubted the carefully prepared wagglers or lead rods would be required.
The lakes were all iced over with a thickness varying from 3/4-1", so I was reasonably happy to be on Match lake, as I was convinced I could get a fish or two from any peg on this lake, talk in the car park before hand, was wanting to avoid peg 38.....
In my experience, the bigger lakes at Viaduct don't respond well to fishing through the ice, as usually at this time of year, the waggler or lead is essential, as the fish rarely venture into the close lines that they avidly feed on in the summer, so there were likely to be a fair few struggle. After the last round draw I went into the draw tin hopeful and was pretty devastated to see I had plonked myself on 38 - the one peg singled out by quite a few as the peg of doom.... The match lake doesn't quite hold a full section, so two pegs are put on middle and 4 on Spring. Middle is currently gin clear, as far out as you can see, you can see every leaf and bit of gravel on the bottom.
Rich had 125 - he should catch at least a roach in the last half hour from here, Paul on 90 - not sure, but tried to sound confident for him and encourage him to break out a channel to the end bank, where there would hopefully be a carp. Glenn on 61 - probably the best draw on the teamsheet, myself on 38 - I would have been off out the car park with wheels spinning had it been an open - and Mark on 12, a waggler peg, so not much hope for him either.
I won't regale details of the match, I set up 3 rigs, all with a 0.08 hooklength and 20 or 22 Gamma green hooks, one just on bottom, one just off and one 6" off bottom. Started on 2 or 3mm punch and a pinch of liquidised bread, swapped to squatt, pinkie, 1/2 a pinkie and at the end switched to caster and pinged a few in with a catapult, but never felt at any time, during the day, there was a fish in the peg.
Really didn't enjoy being sat there, in the 99% certainty that I wouldn't get a bite, Fred on 37 had had one bite against the tree, hooked and lost a carp, but at the end he had the same result as me - DNW. We were far from alone, 54, more that half the field failed to weigh in, that's not a fishing match, its a pointless lottery, although it is purely down to the weather - could it have been called off, with hindsight I'd say yes.
The rest of the team faired as expected, Rich catching a couple of fish late to get 10 points, Paul blanking, Glenn weighing 16lb odd of silvers for 17 points and 4th in the Match. Mark joined me and Paul in the DNW club, all of which put us on 27 points and 12th on the day, one more angler catching would have made a huge difference. This leaves us in 9th overall and with 2 rounds to go, we need a couple of outstanding results to frame now, shame the weather rather than anglers decisions/ability/mistakes have helped to shape this years league. When you have some of the quality anglers that failed to catch today, it's a sure thing that it was all weather inflicted.
Here's hoping the next round sees some milder weather!!
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