Wednesday 31 May 2017

28/05/17 - Viaduct - Campbell

Weight - 77lb 4oz (13lb 13oz - silvers)
Catch - 12 Carp, 12 Skimmers, 2 Roach, 1 Tench, 1 Hybrid
Weather - Warm and mostly cloudy.
Match - Tony's Float Only - rd 1 - 26th out of 40, 5th out 5 section

I was really looking to the first round of 6, of what will be a very competitive series. Today we were at Viaduct, with 20 anglers on Campbell and 20 on Cary. I couldn't believe I drew Campbell again on p114, next to were I was on Thursday and were I came 4th in Norm Sterrys match a few weeks again. So confident of a good days fishing, particularly since I have had in excess 130lb in my last 3 visits.

My section ran from 110 to 114, with Dan White, Bela Bakos, Rich Lacey and Paul Elmes in my section.

On the all-in I started on the meat short and only had a roach. This was not a good sign. I eventually landed a carp, all 1.5lb of it, before I eventually landed a proper carp, but it was really slow. In fact everyone was struggling and the white willow fluff was causing problems for many, although I couldn't use that as an excuse for my struggles.

I had a couple of carp on the waggler and managed to pick up a couple of carp on the meat line in amongst a few skimmers. With 2 hours left I wasn't that far behind Paul on p113 and shaun Townsend on p115 who had a lot of silvers to go with his couple carp.

It was those last 2 hours that I started to fall behind and I couldn't work out why. The short meat line never really got going, but it was my margins that was really frustrating and probably why I tried to push my short meat line too much. I fished the right hand margin in the same way as Thursday, i.e. feeding heavily with caster (since I still had 4 pts left over from the Glebe) and meat, but all I was getting was bitted out of roach. I eventually caught a few decent sized silvers, but no carp. Shaun on the other hand was catching decent sized silvers, plus carp from his margin.

My left hand margin which was shallower, only produced roach bites, so with 2hrs to go fed groundbait, but didn't worked. So I fed a lot more, which did bring the carp in and I managed 3 carp on meat or worm, but it was painfully slow by comparison with those around me.

Have to say I was bitterly disappointed with the way the match went. Speaking to a couple of anglers who have fished the peg recently also commented that have struggled to catch whilst those around them have caught. To be honest I think I just fished it badly trying to force the peg.

Oh well that's my dropper out of the way! Next round is in 2 weeks at Lands End, fingers crossed for a decent draw.

1st 197-13 - Tony Rixon (Mosella) - p88
2nd 187- 6 - Shaun Townsend (Mosella) - p115
3rd 160-15 - Dave Evans - p81
4th 154- 5 - Neil Mercer (Mosella) - p123
5th 151- 5 - Joe McMahon - p124
6th 140- 8 - Shaun Kitteridge (Thyers) - p121
Silvers
1st 29-13 - Shaun Townsend (Mosella) - p115
2nd 21-11 - Paul Faiers (Thyers) - p132
3rd 16-12 - Glenn Calvert - p129
4th 14- 4 - Neil Mercer (Mosella) - p123
5th 13-13 - Ken Rayner (Colmic/Marukyu) - p114


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