Angling for Heroes Match, Viaduct Saturday 5th August 2017

Hopefully this match would raise a few quid and I would draw a peg full of fish.....

I drew 128, the left hand side of the spit on Campbell, not a peg you can complain too much about, but probably not my first choice, if I had one....  A quick tidy up of the odd bramble and vegetation growth that would stop me getting tight in to the spit and I was ready to tackle up.  A lead rod (force of habit, convention or the vain hope that I might actually bag up on it one day, who knows), two wagglers rods, one shallow, one deep and 4 topkits.

The topkits were an edge rig for up to the spit, this was changed to a paste rig when I plumbed it up, as touching the spit, the depth was the same as the open water in the peg, no shelf at all, not what I wanted, I like a margin that is 15"-24" on this lake. A shallow and deep pellet rig and a meat rig for short.

Pretty standard start, 3 or 4 cubes of meat via a toss pot at 5m, instant bite and a fouler charged off and shed the hook.  Next drop in a carp hooked and netted, a 6lber, next drop in another, slightly bigger, then two skimmers and that was it - little did I know that was to set the mood for the day.

A switch to the waggler was biteless, which is unusual on here, so a out with the long pole and this brought a fish first drop in on the depth rig, it took a while to get another, even though the peg was fizzing like a Jacuzzi with the cast of Blazing Saddles in it.  Back on the meat short and another skimmer, but no other indication.

As the spit was so deep, I went up there earlier than I would usually go to the edges and was rewarded with a few missed bites (or liners?) on paste before an angry 3lber was hooked and netted. I did set up a rig to try pellet or meat along the spit, this also allowed me to hair rig two worms, which accounted for another skimmer and not much else.  I had one more on paste, but there was so little indication, that I was far from convinced the spit would come good.

I had a couple on the pellet wag, but it was a tough day, a case of catch a fish and swap lines/methods until the last half an hour when I had a decent tench and a couple of carp short on meat.  This was enough to put me 5th overall  with 115lb and one out of the money - typical!!