28/08/16 - Viaduct - Cary

Weight - 134lb 3oz
Catch - 14 Carp, 3 Skimmers, 1 Roach
Weather - Mostly wet!
Match - Float Only Series - rd 6 - 12th out of 40 (1st in section)

Today was the last round of the Float Only series and I was lying 14th in the league, which meant I was out of contention for the overall pay outs, although I did have the highest silvers weight of 28lb 10oz which was worth £50. However I didn't expect that to stand by the end of the day since 30-50lb has been winning silvers on Campbell recently.

I was really hoping for a draw on Campbell, because it has been fishing very well. However I have only drawn the lake once in the last 10 matches, so the law of averages should have been on my side. Well not today, as I ended up on Cary again, but at least p85 was a decent draw. Having said that this bank has been very hit and miss recently, although with the wind blowing my way I was confident of a few fish.

My section ran from p76 to p85. For company I had John Bradford on p81 and Alex Nadin on p86. At the moment I have a lot of confidence in Gonut paste and decided to fish it in a similar way to when I came 2nd 2 weeks ago from p99.

I deliberately left my waggler rods in the car to concentrate on the pole, mainly because the carp are so big in this lake you tend to get loads of false indications and very few weights are taken on the waggler at the moment.

On the all in a pot of micros and 6s were fed at 14m. Starting at 5m hoping for an early carp, I had a few knocks but no proper bites, so switched to the 14m line after 20mins.

Almost immediately I had a carp, followed 10mins later with another of 15lb 10oz (see picture) which lead me a merry dance! It wasn't too keen on being photographed either!

A couple more carp followed but it was slow going, which was expected. A switch to a pellet rig produced a skimmer on 4mm expander, but again bites were slow. I did hook 2 carp, losing both of them, the first broke me at the net and the 2nd managed to pick up a branch so I was playing the fish and the branch. Although the fish eventually freed itself there must have been damage to the line because that one broke me as well - doh!

The rest of the match was reasonable simply, if not a little frustrating with a few lost fish. I kept catapulting 6s, at one point I was feeding 2 pouches to get the fish on the deck, which produced a couple more fish.

Some very heavy rain during the middle of the match  resulted in my pellet turning to mush and my paste to liquid. That was soon resolved and I kept catching.

The only disappointing part of the match was fishing the margins, where I had been feeding pellet. First put in resulted in a carp, but then I couldn't get a proper bite, because the swim was full of small silvers. I tried meat and pellet as well without success, but felt I should have done better. I did hook another carp down the margin, but the line snapped around the float, which was a surprise, since I have never had a problem with the float before.

The last hour proved to be the most productive catching 4 or 5 carp. I knew I had beaten everyone along the top bank, but other than John I couldn't see anyone else in my section. When the scales arrived 86lb was the best weight, which meant I won my section.

As expected I didn't hang on to the best silvers weight with Glenn Calvert catching 32lb, but Paul Faires managed 33lb to take the £50.

Overall a good series for me, were I probably finished10th-12th and picked up 5 of the 6 rounds. Unfortunately 2 dodgy draws at Lands End probably cost me the chance of a top 6 finish. Well done to Trigger who easily won the series.

1. Craig Edmunds - 230lb 6oz - peg 128
2. Steve Tucker - 223lb 9oz - peg 132
3. Tony Rixon - 196lb 12oz - peg 129
4. Nick Brown - 191lb 4oz - peg 110
5. Fred Roberts - 188lb 15oz - peg 121
6. Dan White - 183lb 14oz - peg 118

Silvers
1. Paul Faires - 34lb 2oz - peg 111
2. Glen Calvert - 32lb 3oz - peg 124
3. Leon Hubbard - 24lb 5oz - peg 112
4. Mike Nicholls - 20lb 6oz - peg 103