Viaduct Fishomania – Match Day

Saturday 24th June 2006.

The day was finally here, the two days of practice WAS going to be put into effect. I was feeling slightly less apprehensive and felt a little more at ease. I was planning on fishing up in the water (unless I drew a Mr Crabtree peg) for most, if not all of the match with either pole (hopefully first choice) or splashin’ wag.

Whilst waiting at the draw, Daylite decided to take his van of gear to the venue and drop it off there. Marco provided assistance by giving him a lift there and back. Upon getting back to the venue, they realised one problem, how were Daylite and Lee going to get back to the venue, there was no room in the Oaks Shed.

At the draw it was good to see a few familiar faces, Tommy Pick (the bionic bleaker), Rob Hitchens, Steve Jacko, the 4 local Oik's, to name but a few and to meet some not so familiar faces.

At the draw a few of the local aces had drawn good pegs. Ian, the pond owner/partner had not drawn too well. I finally arrived at the front of the draw queue, dipped my hand in the bucket, whilst spinning around and simultaneously hoping on one foot. Cary Lake peg 76 was stuck to my mitt. After seeking expert advice, well Ian was the only one around, I was informed that I was on a good pole peg.

Marco, the spawny git, had only gone and drawn Spring Lake peg 6, the self same peg that he had pleasure fished yesterday. He couldn’t get to his peg fast enough. He had a venue regular (someone) Dix on peg 5, Bionic Bleaker was on peg 2 and Total Fishing regular Northern and Proud had drawn Spring 18.

I arrived at my peg to find that I had Pete Wild (?) on peg 77, Minty’s (off Eastender's) brother on peg 75 and Clinton someone or other on peg 74 (sorry mate, I only discovered your first name whilst you was talking to Daylite). Steve Mayo had drawn a good peg and was on Cary 81. Young Matt Parsons was on Campbell peg 114.

My peg was pretty much the same as the rest of the pegs on my bank, pretty non-descript with a overhanging willow to my right. I set up 3 pole rigs:

Shallow rig; a small poly ball on .21 Preston Powerline, direct to a size 12 Kamasan B981 Eyed Barbless Specimen Hook. This was set on about 2ft of line to allow me to either shallow up or go deeper. If I was to be fishing shallow (some 6 – 8” deep), I would be able to keep the pole tip from right over the rig, hopefully not spooking the fish.

14m deep rig; was a .4g Drennan Carp 2 set to fish on the bottom. This float was set up on the obligatory .21 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 12 Kamasan Animal Eyed hook.

Margin/Willow rig entailed a robust Drennan float tied to the same hook and line diameter as above.

I also set up a splashin’ waggler rig, incorporating a 3g loaded pellet rig. This was set up on 6lb Maxima tied direct to a size 12 Kamasan B981 Eyed Barbless Specimen Hook. In view of the problems being encountered, I made a slight adjustment to my set up. Most people when fishing the splashin’ wag, were getting broken at the point where the locking shot is placed. I got some 8lb Maxima, thread it through the eye of the waggler, created a double loop at the bottom of the Maxima and placed the bulk shot on the doubled up 8lb line. I then thread the 6lb Maxima mainline through the small loop, twice and locked it off with 4 No. 8 Preston Stotz. This allowed the float to carry the shotting capacity, whilst not weakening the mainline by biting on large shot.

I had 2 kilo of 6mm pellets, 1 kilo of 8mm pellets, some 10mm pellets, both banded and drilled and one tin of catmeat (I had more tins of catmeat in reserves if I started bagging).

We’re away!!!

At the all in, I cupped some bait in to the overhanging willow bush and put a piece of catmeat on the full depth rig. I shipped out to 14m and started to feed 6mm pellets over the top, hoping to be able to bring the fish up in the water and get signs whilst fishing with the full depth rig. After about 30 minutes and a couple of missed bites, I finally connected with my first fish – a carp of about 8lb. I was off, under way. That was the ice-breaker. Pete to my left had had 1 skimmer and a small carp. Minty to my right had not had a bite and neither had Clinton. The lads opposite on pegs 100 (ish?) were catching the odd fish, but they were also waiting in between bites.

The remainder of the match was very uneventful!! I tried all methods, feeding patterns, baits, rigs, depths, line diameters, but I could not get any bites or indications on any thing. As a last resort, I soaked some pellets and turned them into a paste and fished that under the willow. With about 1 hour of the match remaining, I caught a skimmer of about 1lb.

I then fished the paste at 14m for the remaining 30 minutes of the match and lost a skimmer. Pete to my left had 4 fish, 3 carp and a skimmer, Minty to my right packed up having lost one fish and Clinton managed to snare 2 carp in the last 30 minutes or so. The lads opposite had a few fish, with the best one having approximately 9 or 10 fish from about peg 101.

Young Matt Parsons, who was pegged behind me was getting a few on the splashin’ wag, as was Steve Mayo (who had a little audience behind him – 3 of the Oik’s were there).

Marco rang me and told me that he’d had 2 carp within the first 20 minutes of the match, one about 12lb and the other of about 8lb.

For some reason, the venue (and later I subsequently found out, other venues around the country) had not fished at all well. In view of the conditions affecting other venues aswell, it could not have anything to do with the No. of anglers on the venue (the venue was just about every other peg yesterday) so it must have been down to something else.

Dave Brittain (Northern and Proud) showed that local knowledge was put to good use by winning the event from Spring 18, fishing splashin’ wag and recorded nearly 130lb. Well done mate!

Daylite didn’t weigh in, he caught 3 rudd and 1 roach from Middle Lake (I think). Lee had over 65lb from Match Lake and I tipped bac about 9lb.

I still enjoyed myself, the fishing and the hospitality (from the pub, the pond owners and the Oik’s) was absolutely spot on.

Would I go again, yeah of course. Marco and I have been considering going down for a weekend and fishing a match on both a Saturday and a Sunday (if some one would be prepared to put us up or is that put up with us?).

Tightlines, and once again, well done NAP…