Viaduct Open, Sunday 31st May 2020

A 21 pegger on Viaducts Campbell lake for today;s match, limited numbers due to the weighing in situation for now.  It was a rolling draw, so I arrived just before the usual 09:30 draw time to find that all but three pegs had gone, some proper early birds about....

Steve drew peg 111 for me, sandwiched between Steve Tucker on 110 and Trigger on 112, so no easy ride today.  I suspected Trig would be fishing long and shallow, I didn't expect to compete with him doing that, but just in case went to my pocket for my Tramadol (can't fish long for 6 hours with out it) and it wasn't there, still on the breakfast bar at home..... no long fishing today then!

I think that started the rot, I had brought too many baits, 4,6 & 8mm pellets, paste, meat and some worms/GB - no idea why I did that, should have just had pellets really.  A light wind off my back, making the chance to fish the waggler, so a depth and shallow wag set up, a bomb rod - just in case, in case of what I'm not sure really....

Topkits for meat short, two margin rigs, one with a band, one without, a rig for pellet long and a shallow rig, neither of these got used.  On the all-in I started short on meat and had a 12lber first put in, then a few big skimmers, but it didn't last long and Trig had a great start down his RH edge towards 113.

I switched to a pellet line at 5m off to the tree overhanging to the left, it started fizzing and I had a run of carp and skimmers, before it slowed up.  By now Trig was catching a few long, but it wasn't going mad, Tucks had come to his RH edge and started catching big fish.  I had been feeding 8mm pellets in my edge and sat there with a motionless float, whilst Tucks kept catching.

I tried GB down the RH edge, paste over the pellets and generally lost my way, so switched back to the 5m line with pellets and fished that out, proper battering both sides for me and given the weights, with Steve and Matt doing all the weighing, I decided to tip the carp back I reckon I had 150lb of carp, I thought I had nearly 40lb silvers, then heard of several admitting to 50lb, so they went back as well.

Bit of a disaster really, I thought I'd left the confusion of too many baits behind and I know that when I am back the weekend after next, I won't be having so many baits or rigs.  Not sure what got into my head, I do know I have put some pain killers in the glovebox of the van, so I don't forget them again.

Well done to Tucks on an amazing weight, the weights were awesome, what I chucked back would be a PB for many.

Overall 1. Steve Tucker - 369lb - peg 110 2. Craig Edmunds - 311lb 4oz - peg 112 3. Nick Ewers - 292lb 13oz - peg 130 4. Phil Hardwick - 277lb 15oz - peg 135 5. Martin Preston - 260lb 15oz - peg 114 6. John Gray - 226lb 1oz - peg 131 7. Steve Chant - 221lb 10oz - peg 132 8. Martin Rogers - 191lb 2oz - peg 125 9. Jiri Sarboch - 174lb 1oz - peg 128 10. Dan Squire - 172lb 11oz - peg 118 11. Nick Chedzoy - 163lb 9oz - peg 126 12. Michael Hall - 160lb 13oz - peg 129 13. Scott Russell - 159lb 7oz - peg 119 14. Dick Bull - 155lb 14oz - peg 123 Silvers 1. Nick Chedzoy - 59lb 13oz - peg 126 2. Scott Russell - 59lb 1oz - peg 119 3. Nigel Easton - 56lb 15oz - peg 124 4. Steve Denmead - 35lb 11oz - peg 116 5. Martin Rogers - 30lb 12oz - peg 125

Acorn Open, Saturday 30th May 2020

I hope everyone is OK and coping with the current situation, it's nice to be back fishing, especially matches, as pleasure fishing just doesn't do it for me.  Last weekend I ventured down to Acorn with Paul Faiers and had a few hours, not difficult fishing, although it was windy, mainly fished paste and pellet short, we both ended up with around 200lb on our clickers

Last Monday I ventured down to Viaduct, it was like a winter league or fisho, the car park was rammed and I went and checked if there were actually any pegs left, it was good to be back there and see the Long family, there were a couple of pegs, so I decided to find one. I had a walk round and found 82 empty, so sat there, some of the pegs look empty as you walk round, but then you find a pair of rods on them.  For some reason the carpers seem to sit off the pallets, away from their rods - odd behaviour if you ask me....

Anyway, I had a nice day, the sun shone, I caught a few carp on the waggler, some decent skimmers and a 4lb bream on the pole and a 20lber down the edge, I also sat watching and listening with some amazement at the size of the leads and PVA bags some of the 'carpers' were casting in, like Howitzers going through the air and boshing into the lake, with every carp for 3 pegs around bow waving off in all directions.  The leads must be burying themselves in the silt and taking the bait with it.  I didn't see any of the Howitzer brigade catch anything at all and they gradually packed up and left by 3pm.

Anyway, enough of that, onto today's match, this should have been one of the summer league dates, but with three matches already fallen to the lockdown, the rest of the dates are being run as opens. Peg fee paid to the fishery on the day, pools paid online earlier in the week, so it was rock up and have a peg drawn for you, can't say I was over the moon with peg 26 when it was called - I still have  dodgy drawing arm even when I'm 10m from the drawbag........

Still it was the first match back and the pegs at this end of the lake do occasionally come good, but they are far from consistent, that said, I was going to give it a good shot.  Topkits for paste down the edge, pellet shallow, pellet on the deck and pellets across - last week paste had been the best bait.

On the all-in I fed some 4mm pellets short and then went across to the bare bank opposite and expected to catch, I did have a couple of small fish, but it was slow going.  The depth rig down the track was barren, not even a liner.  I saw a couple of fish over the pellets I'd been flicking in the margin and dropped in there with the paste rig, second put in I had a 9lber and I thought I'd cracked it, but as fish do, they had other ideas and I had no more bites on paste.

I did manage to get a brief run of fish across, on 6mm pellet, but they eventually moved off, the fish were coming to the noise of bait, but weren't in a feeding frenzy, there were long spells of inactivity, but it was beautiful day and at least we were fishing a match

I switched the margin line to GB and dead maggots, fishing double worm over it, this brought a run of fish, not frantic by any means.  The fish  were giving themselves away by tail waving, if I saw one tail, I didn't get a bite, see two tails maybe a bite and three tails definitely a bite, they needed that bit of competition to grab the worms.  I saw a big back out of the water 12-14lb I estimated, it tipped down right on top of the worms and the float buried, trouble is I was attached to 4lber that must have nipped in a grabbed the worms first.

I clicked 97lb, but I do find it tricky at Acorn to get as accurate as I tend to be a Viaduct, I think its the variation in size of fish and the variation in shape, I was happy to put 109.06 on the scales for a section win, but do feel that I could have done better, fishing paste cost me, last weeks experience should have stayed in the past....

Well done Kev on the win and Faiersy - a section win by triple default.... I'd feel too guilty to take it 😀

Viaduct tomorrow, another nice day in the offing.