Viaduct Spring league, Round Two. Sunday 12th may 2014

Standing in for Leon in this round of the Spring League, a free draw in every round so it could be anywhere, peg 78 found it’s way into my hand, a peg I can’t recall drawing before, not where I would have chosen, but surely not a bad draw?

I had pellet and meat as my main baits and decided to set up a meat rig to fish short, a pellet rig to fish at 13m and a margin rig, as I had an empty peg (79) next to me, the depth just to the edge of 79’s pallet was about 2’.  A waggler and a lead completed the set up, I expected to catch on the waggler as the wind was straight off my back, making for easy casting and presentation.

On the all in, there wasn’t too much activity in the way of fish landing on my bank, but the diagonal bank opposite was producing a few fish, it took 40 minutes to get my first bite, which I am sure was a liner on the waggler.  Soon after I hooked a fish, judging by the way it took off, the hook was some way from the mouth…….  The 0.18 hooklength parted when I put some pressure on to stop it getting round the aerator.

Nothing much else forthcoming on the waggler line, so a look on the 13m pole line brought a couple of skimmers and a carp, before this line also went quiet.  Resorting to the lead saw me land a fish about 3lb, Adrian Jeffery on the next peg landed one shortly after , slightly larger at 21.12 need a lot of 3lbers to compete with that!!

I was determined to make the pole lines work, so up the bank went the lead and this cost me (well Leon, sorry mate) any chance of decent section points, as the fish would not come short on the meat, I didn’t have a single bite on the 5m line.  I had a couple more carp and skimmers from the 13m line, but small fish compared with those being caught on the lead.   I was surprised that the margin didn’t produce any carp, I had one roach and one skimmer, for whatever reason, those fish wanted to be nowhere near the bank today.  I must learn how to sit and watch a motionless tip, as this would, I’m sure have put more fish in my net.

I weighed in a dismal 69lb odd for last in section, although our section was dominated by 85,86.  I didn’t stay to get the results, so see Tony Rixons blog for the top six.