06/05/12 - Viaduct - Campbell

Weight – 62lb 7oz (14lb 12oz – silvers)
Catch – 8 Bream, 7 Carp, 2 Tench

Weather – Mostly sunny. Cool easterly breeze.

Match – Avon Angling – Float Only Series – rd1 – 24^th out of 40 (4 out of 5 – section)

Today was the 1^st round of Tony Rixon's Float Only series. I had decided to fish the series, even though the 2^nd round clashed with the last round of the Paul Frairs Pole only series and I will only miss the 2^nd round if I’m in with a chance of an overall payout from the pole series, which is a possibility, but I can’t afford any more slip ups.

Viaduct is one of those venues which I have struggled to get to grips with, mainly because I don’t fish it that often, which I do intend to rectify this year, because I never fish here with any confidence. Today was very much a case of not understanding the venue, however this was one of the reasons why I wanted to fish the series.

Peg 126 was an excellent draw, having won a mid-week match with over 200lb, but last night was cold and I wasn’t sure how the fish would respond. Also I had venue regulars in my sections with Anton Page on 125 and Dick Bull on 128. Regardless, I decided to approach the match with a positive frame of mind, taking only meat and various size pellets. Also since this seemed to be a carp area, decided against setting up any silvers rigs.

I started at 13m fishing on the deck with 8mm pellet, feeding 6s and after the 1^st hour had a couple of tench and a carp. However the next couple of hours is where I got it wrong.

Anton had started to catch shallow, whilst I decided to stick with fishing on the deck, confident the fish would come, reasoning that I could catch shallow on the waggler further out where I had been feeding 8s, also I been feeding meat short for later.

Unfortunately for whatever reason I had my stubborn head on and by the time I decided I was fed up of watching Anton catching shallow, the wind dropped and the ripple disappeared. I did manage 1 carp shallow, but left it far too late. I also had 1 carp on the pellet waggler, but the real surprise was the lack of action over the short meat line were I only had 1 skimmer. The fish really didn’t want to feed on the deck, which was a common comment post match.

By the end I could have kicked myself, because I knew what I did wrong, but was far too slow to response in the mistaken believe I would catch on the deck. If it hadn’t been for the match I had at Gold Valley on Friday I would tried to get in on one of the mid-week matches, which on today’s evidence I could have benefitted from.

In the end Anton weighed 152lb to win the section but what was really annoying was the fact only 69lb was needed to claim 2^nd in section and a section pick up by de-fault. I only have myself to blame. Never mind there is always next week.

1^st 159-12 – Tom Magnoll – p98

2^nd 153-13 – Shaun Townsend – p123

3^rd 152-15 – Anton Page – p125

4^th 146-13 – Clayton Hudson – p85

5^th 126- 8 – Gary Etheridge – p114

6^th 117-14 – Craig Edmunds – p110

Silvers

1^st 73-14 – Nigel Bartlett – p80

2^nd 53- 3 – Tom Thick – p81

3^rd 20- 6 – Shaun Townsend – p123