Viaduct Campbell 31/3/13 Club Match

Campbell lake at Viaduct for my match yesterday, it was a PSV match which 13 of us fished in generally bright and chilly conditions (though not as cold as 7 days previous), with an inconsistent wind coming from the east/north-east, which was lovely  -  NOT.

 

 

I had never fished a match on Campbell, as I have said before, but knew that the lead was the main player, with the pole throwing a few silvers and odd carp.  Mostly from pegs 116, 117 and 118. Though 125, 126 and 127 had been reasonable if the carp ventured to that side of this lake.

With the prolonged winter still carrying on, this match was going to be a bit 'hit or miss' as Campbell has been for the last few months. Saturdays memorial match had thrown a 150lb+ bag, a couple near to the ton, and then bits and bobs.

So I arrived at the car-park, loaded the carp-porter and gave Steve the £20. A few minutes later I had peg 126 in my hand, not too bad I thought, should be in with a chance of a carp or 2 if they are over this side. When I got to my swim I thought that I would have rather been on the peg to my left as you could make out the 'balls of carp' under the surface towards the middle of the lake.
As I didn't know any of the guys (except Steve Burgess), but they all seemed worth a laugh and an array of banter was given and taken, most of which was aimed at the 'blankers' and the 'aged' members of the club.

I rigged up the pole with 3 rigs, 1 for banded 8mm pellet at 13m to my left at 10 o'clock position, another at 2 o'clock position with meat/corn and a 3rd at 7m with silver fish in mind.

The carp rigs were on 0.14-0.12 to size 16 B911, the silvers was 0.12-0.10 and an 18 B611x

I also set up a 3/4oz lead with a 16 carp feeder hook with band for pellet or meat. This was to fish roughly halfway over.

 

 

 

On the whistle I chucked the lead out, waited, waited and waited a bit more, other than a couple liners not much happened for me in the 1st hour, and with the chap (Nigel? edit...Keith) on the peg to my left landing a couple or 3 carp, he was fishing with popped up bread and liccy feeder, I never bought any bread.....ho hum!! The guy over on 118 also had 2 carp on the waggler (it was less windy over there), peg 12 also had one, everyone else was struggling with only a few silvers being caught.

 

So after an hour I fed the 3 pole lines and continued with the tip for hour number 2, though this hour was more eventful with me losing a couple foul hookers and peg 124 landing another carp. Pegs 115 and 114 were also starting to catch, mostly skimmers and losing the odd carp on the pole, so the fish looked like they were over that side in numbers.

Up on peg 123, the angler had landed a few silvers and the chap next to me on 127 was on the pole catching baby roach and skimmers upto 3 or 4oz.

 

After a couple hours I was definitely going nowhere fast, there were 4 or 5 anglers who'd had carp and a skimmers. So I got off my box and set up a pellet wag, I did this as occasionally when the wind calmed, I could see the carp near the surface and maybe I could trick one or 2, problem was as soon as I cast out the wind would pick up. I did have a liner, but that was it for the waggler for the rest of the match. I also tried the original pole lines with no response, so left them. So I set up another rig to fish for anything at 14.5m straight out, though the fence behind meant double shipping. I cupped in 2 balls of loose groundbait with a few dead reds and casters in.

 

Back on the tip while the new pole line settled and I soon had a wrap round, a skimmer of a pound was duly put into the net. A few liners and another carp lost saw me on the longer pole line and a few skimmers of the 4oz mark were put in the net over the next hour or so, all on the 4mm Bait Tech Expanders. I did land a carp of 2 or 3lb but then it died again. And stayed dead for a couple hours. I was way behind in the silvers so knew I needed maybe 10 carp for any chance of a pick up.

During the dead 2hr spell, pegs 115 and 114 were catching consistently, though I think 115 was more carp than the skimmers on 114, or so it seemed from where I was sat. Peg 125 was still catching small fish and everyone else was struggling, though Nigel Keith next door was picking up the odd carp including a decent sized one which looked 8 or 9lb.

 

Moving into the last hour and finally I had a 3 more carp, 2 of which came in the last 20 mins, they were small though at the 3lb mark. So at the all out I guessed I had maybe a couple pounds of silvers and possible 12 or 13lb of carp, for likely to have been nowhere. 114 and 115 had been bagging in the last hour and along with Nigel Keith  next door, it was going to be close.

My silvers weighed just over 3lb and my carp just over 13lb, but was top overall weight at that point, but only 4 other had weighed. Nigel Keith's fish went 58lb and Steve Burgess on the end peg had a d.n.w.

 

So I packed up and wandered back to load the car and see the results.

I didn't get the weights properly, but they'll be on the PSV blog at some point, but the winner had 60lb of which was a cracking 38lb of skimmers/silvers, then two 50-odd pound weights. I think the default silvers winning weight was 8lb or so. My 16lb turned out to be ok, maybe halfway down the field. The fact pegs 114 and 115 caught well on the pole shows that the fish were happiest on that bank and there wasn't much my side could have done. Roll on the warmer temps.....

 

I think that if I had gone for the silvers on the longer line earlier and/or maybe fished a standard feeder/maggot set-up then I could have scraped the silvers, but I got caught in two minds on what to do and didn't really get myself into an organised plan. But next time I shall improve, I hope.

 

Next up for me is a match with the Clevedon guys at Apex next week, but I may have a go at Viaduct on Thursday in the saver match and maybe a pleasure session down Apex (today after the footy and/or Friday) to make some rigs. I haven't fished Apex since around August, but there are usually skimmers to be had.

 

Take care and Happy Easter

 

Lee