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| Campbell Lake from peg 110 |
I arrived in plenty of time and loaded my trolley, chatting to a few of the guys, including a couple I hadn't met before. Most were keen on getting the hot pegs of 128 (the inform peg!!), 110 and 119. I must say I fancied 116 or 118 myself as there are almost always carp between these pegs amongst the brambles and trees fishing back behind you to peg 117.
I had arrived with silvers in mind, unless I drew on one of the above numbers. With silvers in mind, I wanted peg 123, probably the best silvers peg on the complex.
So I paid my monies and the draw was soon made. I let most draw before me before plucking peg 126 for myself. Not a bad draw, but in my mind neither here or there for carp or silvers....
I made my way to my peg to find myself flanked by Kev Jefferies on hot-peg 128 and (again) I had Lionel Legge on my left (peg 125). Peg 123 was taken by Mike Wilson.
I took a look at the water in front of me and could see plenty of carp around, so my silvers approach went out of the window. The sun was very strong though, shining right at my side of the lake, and peeps had said shelter had been key on the better catches, hence the hot pegs having the most shelter.
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| Viaduct Campbell peg 126 |
Bait was simple 6mm and 8mm pellets, some 8mm meat, hemp and a few assorted pellets for a change in the band.
I did have some soft pellets, groundbait and dead reds for silvers, but these stayed in the carryall.
I did set up a waggler, but other than the first 10 minutes, it remained unused.
I was soon all set up so decided to go and get the rest of my nets from the car....fate? more like fanciful thinking!!
The all in soon sounded and I baited the various lines before starting on the wag, after 10 minutes this went up the bank not to be used again....
After 10 mins I had fizzing over both my 13m line and the 6m line, so I went out shallow on the pole, then I went on the same line deep, nothing in the 10 minutes doing that. So in on the 6m line with a banded 8 used for bait, 1st drop I had a knock and hit into a carp, which was hooked in the side, only for it to come off just before netting, back out and I had another indication, another fouler lost, then a 3rd. So back out long, a couple foul hooked fish lost. They were feeding, it seemed like they were mooching around.
By the end of the 1st hour I had lost a good few foul hooked carp and landed a single 3oz roach I caught shallow on banded 8mm pellet. Elsewhere Kev had landed a couple and mullered a topkit, Chris Davis over on 118 too had landed some carp and Steve Burgess (p116) had some, I think, on the pellet wag.
Lionel on peg 125 was in the same predicament as me, he'd had odd accidental silver and lost a few foul hooked carp.
That seemed to be how the next 2hrs went, I loathed to start fishing for silvers as it only really seemed that Chris Davis was catching well, though most of the opposite bank had a few, so I then decided to adapt my carp rigs into silvers rigs, swapping hooklength and hook sizes from 0.18/16 to 0.16/18. Bait would be 6mm pellet or meat pulled onto the band.
The next 3 hours was spent picking up skimmers and roach from my 6m line and left hand margin on topkit distance. I also picked up the bonus tench, but it was the tench or big skimmers I wanted, however most skimmers were 4 to 6oz fish.
Lionel had began to fish for silvers too with corn. While up on peg 123, Mike was doing well with skimmers, plenty of decent stamp fish were being netted by him, so myself and Lionel were well behind him at this point.
As we went into the last 90 minutes, my bank became more sheltered and the carp came onto the feed, which was annoying as they were now a pain in the bum and I found myself feeding 6 pellets in different spots, picking up a silver fish or 2 before I would be interrupted by a carp. Even when I tried at topkit distance in front, feeding 10 grains of hemp, I would catch a small skimmer or roach before the inevitable carp was hooked.
Mike on the other hand, although getting a few carp, was netting skimmers of a decent size. Lionel was having my sort of problems, but both of us tried to get enough silvers for the 2nd silvers pot, as we were so far behind Chris Davis, Ron Hardiman and Kev Jefferies (and pretty much everyone on the opposite bank) that we wouldn't be able to have enough in that time to make any difference.
The all out sounded and I shouted down to Lionel that I had 15lb of silvers, he admitted to 8lb or so.
Mike must have had 30lb+ easily. On the carp front, Chris Davis got through a multitude of sections and net handles etc but looked to have more than anyone I could see.
I did manage to land 8 or 9 carp in the last 90 minutes, I also pulled out of at least 10 fish ( about half fouled I think). They were coming onto the feed massively on my bank where as the far side had slowed as the sun shone on them.
I packed up my kit and collected a net I lent to Kev, he'd done well on peg 128.
Soon enough the scales were at me, a quick look at the board showed a silvers weight of 25lb from Colin Ellaway on spit peg 129. So any chances of money were gone.
Anyways I plonked my silvers on the scales and the needle spun to 23lb 5oz, which surprised me.
My carp took my total to a shade over 67lb.
Lionel's silvers went 13lb (I think) before Mike plonked 37lb 11oz on the scales, that would win the silvers.
I made my way to the car and loaded my kit away before waiting for the final tallies.
I also went and gave Steve Burgess his quid, which has been a while since I had to do that, so maybe it's his run of pound coins that'll increase over the next few months....we shall see.
As it turned out, other than Kev Jefferies on peg 128, my side of the lake was poor while 110-119 had done somewhat better.
Chris Davis took the honours with 217lb+, mostly fishing back along the brambles and toward peg 117. 45lb behind was Ron Hardiman on peg 112.
Results:
1. Chris Davis (118) ... 217-13
2. Ron Hardiman (112) ... 172-0
3. Rich Britton (114) .... 146-15
4. Will Dearlove (119) ... 138-2
5. Kev Jefferies (128) ... 132-9
6. Pete Uzzell (110) .... 131-5
7. Steve Burgess (116) ... 106-1
Silvers:
1. Mike Wilson (123) .... 37-11
2. Colin Ellaway (129) ... 25-8
3. Lee Williams (126) ... 23-5
4. Merv Sivell (115) ... 20-1
So not a great match for me and pretty much pegs 123 to 132, with the exception of Mike and Kev.
Maybe I should have stuck to my plans to fish for silvers from the off? I am sure I would have run Mike close. All in hindsight I guess.
Maybe fishing for the carp in the last 3hrs may have push myself (and Lionel) up the leaderboard?
Anyways, next up for me is another PSV match, at Landsend (match lake).
Until next time.
Lee
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