Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 29th September 2016

34 booked in for this one, these Thursday matches have become really popular, 17 on each lake and the lakes paid out as separate matches, I think this is the best way to do it, as the lakes can fish very differently.

Into the tin and 116 comes out, a peg that I like because the fish can come into the short RH margin in numbers.  The weather conditions looked decent so I set up a waggler, I also set up a lead rod - not intending to use it, unless I was chucking it out whilst I sorted a trashed rig...... 

Four topkits, one for meat short, one for the RH edge and two for pellet at 14m, a .2 and a .4 rig, to fish through the water and hard on the bottom.  Simple bait tray, 6 & 8mm pellets, 6mm meat and dead maggots, also some GB.

On the all-in I started on the short meat rig, but with only a couple of small skimmers to show for it in 10 minutes, I went out to 14m and had a carp first put in on a 8mm pellet on the deck, then the bloody wind got up, it was impossible to hold 14m still and the presentation was poor.  A switch to the lead over the 14m line brought four more fish of 10lb, 12lb and two 8lbers. So with 55 minutes gone, I had 45lb in the net and was thinking of a red letter day, another fish about 5lb, just after the hour mark was to be the last for an hour.  I tried coming short, a new line in front of the tree to my right, no matter what i did the peg was to all appearances devoid of fish - it couldn't have been, but I couldn't catch one!

Next hour I had a couple more on the lead, before feeding the margin line at the halfway point in the match, this brought an immediate response and I saw fish, and vortexes in the water as they homed in on the GB.  Given that it was tricky to catch in open water, I went into the margin, too soon really, but I did have a few fish, before it died off coming up the the 5th hour, I had tried two worms on the hook, but that was a waste of time, 10 maggots were best.

As the margin had died off, I refed it quite aggressively with an hour to go and left it, dropping in on the short meat line, this brought a big skimmer and two carp, before the margin was once again a cauldron of fish swirling and feeding.  Back in the edge and a couple of fish before the all out, although I lost a big fish that was headed for the tree branches in the water and as I hung on to stop it, the 0.20 mainline went at the bottom of the loop, I've had this a couple of times now, it seems like the loop to loop way of putting the hooklength on weakens the loop at the stress point.  My own fault for reusing rigs, never had it happen on a fresh one.

So an enjoyable day, those couple of barren spells, especially that 2nd hour costing me the win, as my 171.13 was only good enough for 2nd on the lake and 3rd on the day.