This week saw me head to the Viaduct fisheries for a Match Fishing Scene (MFS) organised gathering.
They were held over Cary and Campbell lakes, and having only match fished both only once each, I wasn't too optimistic regarding how I would do. Especially as there were a fair few venue regulars fishing. It is an awesome fishery, and somewhere I should go more often.
The draw on the Friday would dictate your Saturday lake ie Campbell Friday = Cary Saturday.
Payouts were 1st, 2nd, 3rd in overall and silvers pools along with 4 sections paying top 2. No defaults either.
Well I made the 20 minute trip over to Somerton on Friday, getting there at around 9am, the draw would be 10am, fish 11:30 - 17:30 each day. I arrived to the venue with around half the guys already present, a few had stayed in local hotels/b&b's etc as they had travelled from various places.
I didn't know anyone there, but recognised Ken Rayner from his blogs and Alex Murray from a few years back when I was younger!!
I had a quick scout around and decided that the far end of the lakes, or at least halfway would be good, but Campbell would be preferred on Friday as Saturdays weather looked windier and wetter. I had read about Campbell and knew it'd be 8mm meat and pellet, but loads of silvers are in the lake. The fish also pull a bit, even averaging 4lb they fight hard.........which I later found out to be true enough. There are also a decent amount of snags in the edges, branches, brambles, stumps and old pallet footings etc.
Cary, well that is generally bigger fish, the carp average maybe 8-10lb, lots of doubles and odd scraper 20. They go like trains too I was told. Lots of silvers too.
Back at the draw I paid my dues, pulled out 110 on Campbell, it never weighed in on Thursday's costcutter, they may have blanked too. Also I had read about the brambles to the left at 14.5m being fish hold and tackle busting.......I didn't want to go there, so didn't. Also there is a tree stump at 6m to my left and the fish run behind it when hooked. Also I had peg 132 opposite, the peg won Thursday with 250lb on wag to the empty pallet peg 133.
Tackle and bait for the day was 6mm pellet, 8mm pellet and 2 tins of 8mm meat. 1 pellet wag for just shy of half way, a lead rod for the same line and for lobbing towards empty peg 134 on the end bank.
A shallow pellet rig for 13m(0.2g preston brand), a meat rig for 6m in front(NG Margin 0.3g) and a margin rig for my left and right margin swims (NG Margin 0.2g).
All pole rigs were 0.22>0.20>size 14 B911x. Running lines were 6lb mainline to 0.20>14 B911x.
I purposely did not get 14.5m or 16m sections out of the pole, just to stop me trying the brambles (I have bought a few sections recently....cant afford more!!).
Anyways on the all in I fired pellets out to the wag line, there were one or 2 fish swirling in the calm waters, but they didn't look into feeding much. Potted some meat in the edge, the same at 6m and just a small amount at 13m.
It took 20 minutes for me to get a fish in the net, during that 20 minutes I had to re-tackle the wag as the float adaptor broke on me. Anyways the 4lb mirror on the wag was welcome, alas the chap on peg 132 was on number 4 or 5, he was fishing pellet wag towards the end bank.
To cut a long story short, I though I did ok at a push, the chap on 132 kept fish coming, peg 130 watch patchy and Ken on 128 was catching consistently, the guy on 112 was catching odd fish but I was just ahead I thought. These are the only anglers I could see.
I did lose 3 or 4 fish, 1 trashed a shallow rig when it decided to visit the aerator 30yrds away at 1000mph, 1 went around the tree stump as soon as it was hooked and 1 snapped a hooklength on the pellet wag. Some people lost upwards of 15 fish, no doubt most were foulers, but either way they hang on. So my losses were ok.
During the day I kept rotating the swims as I was struggling to keep them coming consistently, I never had a fish on my r/h margin swim. But meat at 6m was the best bait on the pole, but I had fish on the lead and wag on pellet along with a few shallow at 13m. Not one method stood out, maybe I should have tried 1 or 2 lines, but having read that they could come to any method I had to see what worked best.
Anyways after 6 hours I had 1 net around the 70lb max level and a couple fish in another net. Along with a handful of mad tench, they fight like mad too. I thought I maybe had 80lb of carp and 5lb of silvers. I guessed p132 had 150lb+ as he had caught all day, Ken had a load, p130 caught a lot late including some better stamp of fish. P112 had possibly less than me.
As I was 1st to weigh, I cleared behind me a bit before Steve came along. My 1st net went 4lb 12oz over the limit, so 70lb, my 2nd and silvers nets went 32lb 5oz. Total 102lb 5oz.
Campbell 'only' produced 7 weights over 100lb, good fishing but not the usually high Campbell weights
My weight was ok but was not getting me money (10th of 25 overall), but I learned a bit.......especially a need for heavier laccy than my 14-16 I had in my top kits.
It turned out Cary was not so great and only three 100lb+ weights caught with a lot of weights lower than expected.
Results 14th June
Overall
1st - Fred Roberts - p126 Campbell - 164lb 2oz
2nd - Steve Hutter - p120 Campbell - 160lb 6oz
3rd - Gary Mitchell - p102 Cary - 148lb 1oz
Silvers
1st was Fred again with 44lb 9oz
2nd was Mike Walker with 43lb 7oz from p125 on Campbell
3rd was Alex Murray with 36lb 5oz off Cary peg 86.
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