Well, more to the point, I couldn't be bothered to grab some worms from my wormery and didn't want to buy any caster, I also had some bait left over from Saturday. More so I wanted peg 110, 123 or 115/116 or 126/127 as these had done well on Saturday.
Cary 84/85, 90, 102 or 74 would be my picks if I had drawn that lake.
I arrived early at the draw, had a chat with a few of the 28 or so anglers and took a walk around Campbell with a couple guys, letting them know how it'd fished on Saturday. I said 126 or 116 would win and didn't fancy 112, 129 or 132.
The draw arrived and I pulled peg 129, to the left of the spit as you look across the lake. It had only done 45lb to a good angler on Saturday and is not viewed as a great peg, there tends be a lot of fish moving in that area, but they don't tend to feed well and spook quickly in pegs 129-131.
None the less I trotted off to my peg knowing that the Clapp twins were on really good pegs as was Eric Fouracre on p115, who is a decent angler. Vic Bush had drawn well on Cary and when I saw that Jamie Cook was on 110 (he wanted to fish for silvers, but 110 can be carp city) with pegs 111, 112 and 113 empty, along with the end bank not being used, he had 1/4 of the lake to himself and was sure to do a weight!!
View from 129 - looking at 112 (Saturday's peg)
So rig-wise it was the same as Saturday with exception of a longer line between tip and float on the shallow rig and no pellet wag was set up but a lead rod was. The wind was strong and generally pushing down the lake and across slightly, giving 115 to 123 the best of the wind and ripple.
I will keep the rest brief as the match was similar to Saturday. I cupped 8mm baits in at 6m slightly right for banded 8mm. Some lumps of paste/6mm pellets went at the same distance to my left. Also 3 big handfuls of soggy meat went in at the right hand edge on the topkit distance.
I started on the shallow rig, with no success, the fish coming to the noise but not eating the offerings, loads of bubbles and fizzing, they were spooking off the pole/pole movement of which there was plenty in the wind!!
I did lose a fouler after 10 minutes, then landed my 1st after 45 minutes, another fouled fish.
As it turned out every time I struck at bites the whole swim would erupt into a mass of fish leaving the area, they were just sat in the area doing, well not doing, anything at all.
The 90 minute mark came and went, I had 2 carp and 2 skimmers in the net, meanwhile Jamie had maybe 20 carp or more fishing the lead to the aerator. He was a bite a chuck. I cast a lead to the same area on my side of the blue lump of plastic without a bite, John Dursley also tried to the right of the aerator again without any joy. I could see Eric on 115 and hear Phil Clapp on 116 bagging too.
I stuck at it, cutting my feed back and toss potting after each bite, dropping my bait regularly, I had found that if I fed too much then I would get liners and foul hook fish, so wanted to attract less carp but have more hittable bites and less fish hooked where they shouldn't be, resulting in more carp landed, less hooks/rigs/time lost.
I had dumped the shallow rig and lead, the paste line didn't give a bite, so it was my margin and the 6m/8mm pellet lines that were my focus for the last few hours.
John on 131 was losing lots of foul hooked fish, he was feeding heavy compared to me.
By the 4th hour my bites were becoming slightly more regular and had put 5 or 6 fish in the net plus around 10lb of silvers, but I couldn't even get the skimmers/tench feeding properly. Jamie was now on the top kit and landing a few carp among the skimmers and tench he was catching. He'd also found a 4th net from someone. Phil and Eric were still doing well, John on 131 was landing more too. Other than that I had no idea what else was occurring.
The 5th hour put 3 more carp in the net from my 6m line, but I was still losing a few foul hooked fish, so much so I made a new rig up and shortened my shallow rig to use down the edge with banded 8mm pellet (meat was getting ragged rotten by blip roach). I needed a successful last period.
I had been feeding the edge all match, be it irregularly, with handfuls of 6mm pellets and 8mm meat, and this was the line for the last 60 minutes. So 1st put with a 8mm pellet saw the float sail away and a 3lb bream was flying - literally - towards the waiting landing net, a 2lber followed next drop.
3 drop saw a bit more no.20 lacy stretch and a 4lb mental common was eventually landed.
A handful of feed after each fish saw me catch most drops for the last hour, including a lump of around 13lb+, but they fight like mad so landing them quickly is not always an option.
So the whistle sounded and the all-out signalled a frustrating match. I knew I had not done great, but a good 60 minutes saw me land around 50lb or so, John also did well in that period, but Jamie had slowed somewhat. Phil and Eric continued to catch and Phil looked good for the better weight.
I packed away thinking I had done 80lb, I also suggested Jamie had 160lb+, word had it Phil had close to 200lb and Eric a little less. Along my bank I though John had a little more than me, but those to my left had faired better including Mike Davis on peg 126.
At least it hadn't rained....yet.!!
The scales arrived at my swim and my evenly spread nets weighed 110lb 8oz, Steve Long commented on how well I had evened out my catch. Well it helps that I am a weakling and 40lb per net is ample given my lack of strength, plus I had 3 nets in, so why not use them?
Weigh Sheet...nice weights.!!
As it turned out there were some good weights, with Phil on 116 winning (went over in 1 net I believe) with his brother second from Cary (also went over in a net I think).
Vic had done 100lb+ from p97 on Cary, not sure on what tactic. But either nobody fished properly for the silvers or they just didn't show as the silvers was won off p128 with 30lb of accidental skimmers and tench.
Results:
1st - peg 116 - P. Clapp - 217lb 3oz
2nd - peg 90 - K. Clapp - 212lb 1oz
3rd - peg 126 - M. Davis - 179lb 3oz
Silvers winner from p128 was J. King with 30lb 13oz, all on meat.
I must mention that Jamie Cook on 110 only won his section with 167lb+.......impressive.
So it does seem that a lot of fish have stayed in the middle of Campbell, with the exception of 110/135 area, but again the weight back up the theory that Viaduct is a top notch fishery, with Lodge producing at least one 200lb+ weight on Sunday and even the Match Lake doing high weights on Saturday.
Next up for me is a memorial match on Trinity Wildmarsh next Sunday, I don't fancy another day 'carp fishing', and Wildmarsh has fish of many varieties so it'll be a chance to have a varied day.
Tight Lines
Lee
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