Friday, 3 November 2017

Viaduct Costcutter, Thursday 2nd November 2017

The downside of weekday matches is the traffic and today was pretty bad, taking slightly over 90 minutes to complete the 33 miles to Viaduct, getting there bang on draw time, it appeared I wasn't the only one held up and the draw was a few minutes late.

Into the tub and out comes 123, the opposite end to where I was last week, its a little deeper that 132, so with the weather having turned a bit colder I wasn't disappointed.  That was a bit of false optimism, so it won't a long and descriptive blog, as there is very little of substance to write about.

Opposite on 119 I had  Adrian Jeffery, who is a bit of a hustler on these Thursday matches, he isn't usually far off a framing place, if not picking up, so worth keeping an eye on his tactics.

For myself, I had the usual Roob set up to fish meat short (and as the depth was the same, it would do for long), a HB chump for 14m, maggot/caster and a lighter rig with a Drennan float whose name eludes me, in case there were silvers in the area.  A waggler to fish corn, a lead - just to get it out the bag and give it an airing - and a couple of edge rigs, one was the same as last week, one heavier line, bigger hook for when they showed up in numbers...... (uncharacteristically optimistic, I know).

The usual start on meat short was biteless, a switch to caster long over a few caster and GB was biteless, dead maggot finally brought a small skimmer, the stamp of which wouldn't be enough to frame in silvers, I was sure, but hopefully the bigger ones would show.

An earlier look down the edge than I would like (short, I was determined no to go long down the edge until nearer the end) resulted in on 7oz perch.  I carried on rotating lines and started new ones, trying both negative and positive feeding, all to no avail.  I could see Adrian struggling, also 118, but further up the lake there were a few carp being caught.  The guy next door on 124 had stuck to feeding caster short and long and was rewarded with a tench, some perch and I saw him net a 2lb+ foul hooked skimmer, whilst the 7oz perch remained my biggest fish.

My day was summed up when I hooked a 2oz perch at 14m and it came straight to the top, splashing on the surface, a seagull dived down and grabbed it, so for a while I was playing seagull and perch, the seagull finally let go, but then dived in for another grab, whilst I tried to fend it off with my pole.  The perch looked unharmed and survived his ordeal, hope I can catch him when he's 2lb, rather than 2oz.

With 30 minutes to go, I knew it was never going to happen, the peg was not going to spring to life and even a couple of fish wouldn't put me anywhere, so I tipped back 3-4lb of small skimmers, roach and perch, by now the fog was rolling in and visibility was getting bad, so I was off home before the weigh sheets came back. A day to forget!!

1. Jim Butcher - 106lb 1oz - peg 128
2. Dave White - 64lb 13oz - peg 115
3. Paul Dare - 59lb 5oz - peg 114
4. Matt Rowe - 57lb 5oz - peg 129
5. Roy Worth - 54lb 10oz - peg 110
6. Terry Lenny - 43lb - peg 97
Silvers
1. Vince Brown - 32lb - peg 62
2. Stu White - 25lb 2oz - peg 127

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