Viaduct Spring League, Round Three, Sunday 19th May 2019

Back to Viaduct for this keenly fought league, I needed a section win to keep me in with a shout, so a positive approach was planned.  Can't say I was over enamoured with my draw, 99 on Cary, but there is plenty of water to go at here, so hopeful of a few fish.

One lead rod set up, I jokingly said it would go away again unused, but it did, a waggler set at full depth and some top kits, a meat rig for 6m, a pellet rig for 14m, although the depth meant they'd be interchangeable. A shallow rig and as it was sunny a mugging rig, a paste rig (just in case) and finally, not sure why, a margin rig - with 98 and 100 in I didn't expect to catch in the margin.

Bait tray was a simple affair, 8mm meat, 8mm Burt Baits Polony pellets and some plain feed pellets.  I left the dead maggots, GB and worms in the bag.

Starting at 6m with meat I only gave it 10 minutes, as there was no indications and I just had the feeling there was nothing there.  Picked up the waggler and had a 12lb fish first chuck, feeding the 8mm polony pellets with on in the band. I stuck with the waggler for 2 hours and had 3 more fish and had 37lb on the clicker, but then all indications died off, it was fishing hard all around, Roy next to me hadn't had had a bite, Winter League team mate Rich was struggling on 97 and had switched to fishing for skimmers, even that wasn't happening.  I did feed a quarter of a pot of feed pellets on a throwaway line and did try paste over it - no fizzing or signs of fish, so unusual.

I got some 6mm polony pellets out of the bag and fed these with a few cubes of meat at 14m, trying to catch skimmers (anything) I had one about 4oz and that was it.  The waggler seemed the best option, so back on that, but nothing apart from a foul hooker that snapped the main line above the float as I tried to stop it going half a dozen pegs away and a 3lb bream.

I could se the guy on 96 hook one on the pole, so I switched back to the 14m line and hooked and lost one - foul hooker - switched to the shallow rig and gave it a real go, but never had a touch on it, back on the deck and a 13lber with 30 minutes to go and was hopeful of another, but it never happened, it was a real struggle and I thought I had 50lb in the net plus the two skimmers.  The scales confirmed I was nearly right with 49lb odd and the skimmers adding just over 3lb.  Beaten by two further down the section, with just a couple of pounds in it, the lack of skimmers cost me, maybe I should have had some expanders with me, but I had gambled on hard pellets and maybe that cost me the section.