Catch - 24 Carp, 7 Bream, 5 Tench, 1 Eel
Weather - Bright sunny start, becoming cloudier and cooler
Match - MFS - 4th out of 25 (2nd - section)
Without a car Mark picked me up for the first of a 2 dayer
at Viaduct organised by MFS (Match Fishing Scene), which involved a 30 mile
detour for Mark, so a big thank you doing that, greatly appreciated.
With 25 fishing we would be split over 4 sections, 2 on
Campbell and 2 on Cary. The first match was an open draw, then the 2nd
would rotate to the other lake. Ideally
Mark & I both thought that fishing Campbell first would be the better
option, because with heavy winds forecast for the Saturday Cary would be more sheltered. In hindsight we
were proven wrong.
I got my wish drawing P128 on Campbell and Mark got 118.
What information I got suggested my draw would be OK, it would be just a
question of how strong the wind would get. Fortunately the spit sheltered me from the worst.
Viaduct is a venue I have struggled with,
probably because I don’t fish it often enough, but generally my results are
improving. In a perverse sort of way I was pleased to draw 128, because the last
time I drew here I got it completely wrong chopping and changing instead of
concentrating on one thing.
The results from Thursdays cost cutter suggested the fishing
hadn’t been easy, with 200lb+ winning from p132, but 2nd was a long
way behind with 111lb. I did set up 2 leads rods, which were already in made
up, but other than 1 cast whilst sorting out a rig they never got used.
Rigs for the day were
- Ackoo Powertrap 0.3g > .16 > 16 carp
feeder – hair rigged meat
- HB Shady Shallow > .17 > 16 B960 – pellet shallow
- HB Shindig 0.4g > .14 > 18 B911 – hair rigged
pellet
The one thing I have picked up reading other blogs is that
feeding too much can kill your swim so a little & often approach is usually
best. With this in mind I started at 10m by the overhanging willow toss potting
5/6 cubes of 8mm meat. After 25mins I had my first carp and after 90mins I was
up to 6 before the swim died.
In the meantime I had been regularly feeding pellet at 13m
in the hope of catching shallow. I had a 9lber and then a bream, but then
nothing. I tried later catching another carp, but they just didn’t seem to want
it. Eventually the fish just disappeared, but I think it was more to do with
the weather, because it started bright and sunny, becoming duller and cooler in
an increasingly strong wind.
By the end of the third hour I was up to 12 fish (9 carp). I
had been feeding a small handful of 6s at 5m to my left from the start, more as
a back-up to catch skimmers if I was struggling to catch carp. I didn’t really
want to chuck the tip out, so went out at 5m and soon started catching
skimmers, tench and more carp. This line just got stronger and accounted for
half my overall weight catching on hard 6s.
I had been feeding meat towards the point of the spit, but
for some reason it didn’t really get going, because I only managed 3 more carp
and bites took a while to develop.
Throughout the match I was ahead of Fred Roberts (p126) on
the carp front, but he was catching loads of big skimmers & tench, plus his
carp looked to be a bigger stamp than mine, so it was likely to be very close
between the 2 of us.
Ultimately the fact
I couldn’t catch some better fish on the meat late on cost me at least 3rd
in the match and Fred had a great last hour to overtake me, winning the match.
Overall I was really happy with how the match went and
pleased to have finished 2nd in section picking up a brown envelope.
1st 164- 2 – Fred Roberts – p126
2nd 160- 6 – Steve Hutter – p115
3rd 148- 1 – Gary Mitchell – p102
4th 143- 9 – Ken Rayner – p128
5th 138-12 – Tyrone Hull – p119
6th 128- 1 – Rob Anker – p97
Silvers
1st 44- 9 – Fred Roberts – p126
2nd 43- 7 – Mike Walker – p125
3rd 36- 5 – Alex Murray – p86
4th 32- 4 – Steve Hutter – p115
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