Viaduct Winter League, Round 2, Sunday 19th January 2020

Second round and a cold night with a frost capped off a week of rain, with my turn on Campbell, I was hopeful of a few fish with the right draw.  I had decided that the team could take turns in drawing, so this week it was Mark, well I watched as he was first into the tubs, with all the good pegs in and he pulled out some pretty mediocre ones, so I'm not the only jinxed drawer in the team.

Myself on 116, slap bang in the middle of Campbell and not a good winter draw, Paul on 87, can be OK, but not one you'd run to, Glenn on 53, that's not had any form recently, Mark put himself on 1 and Rich on 11 - at least you'd expect some reasonable points fishing for silvers from there and maybe a bonus carp if they venture out from under the tree.

So, 116, used to have a nice short margin under a tree, but the tree is now cut back and the fish don't seem to sit there like they used to.  It has a shelf which drops off to water about 12" or so deeper, hopefully there would be something there.  It was deja vu as I drew 116 last year in this league....

If nothing else it was a lovely, but cold day...

Tried to cover all bases, so set up waggler to fish corn, another to fish caster, two rigs for the margin, one on the shelf and one for down the shelf, a skimmer rig and a rig set up the same, just a heavier hooklength in the optimistic, no, delirious hope that a carp or two might come over the skimmer line.  Two lead rods, one to fish bread/meat corn and another feeder rod with a small cage on - didn't use that.

Not much more to say, I had one 2lb skimmer over the GB on pinkie and a few small roach on caster/waggler, but the silvers weren't really feeding and with the odd carp being caught I had to try and catch one, I failed dismally, as did 124 and 125 opposite me, it really felt like there was nothing in that area, no liners, no indication of any kind.

So a miserable joint last but one on the lake, absolutely no idea what I could have done to catch one - apart from waiting until April.....

Team wise we were helped out big time by Rich winning his section from 11 - great result from there.  Here's hoping for a better draw next round, when I am on Cary.  I'm on 25 hours in this league now without catching a carp, not sure how enjoyable it is anymore....