Fishomania Qualifier, Viaduct. 09-04-16

My first qualifier of this season was a local affair, Viaduct Fishery. The list of competitors and reserves was a mix of top local talent and some 'magazine names' from the world of match fishing.

I arrived in loads of time so had a chat with a few guys after I had taken a walk around the lakes, there was a nippy chill on the wind that was blowing up the lakes. I fancied 3 or 4 on the Spring Lake, 38 on Middle, any corner peg on Match or Lodge. 80, 81, 83, 97, 77 and 102 on Cary. While on Campbell I wouldn't have minded any from 111 to 115, other than that 128 or 129 on the spit would be ok I would have thought.

With the weather cooler and odd breezy spells along with showers I expected lower than recent weights have been, 150lb would be in with a chance I would have thought, but this would maybe even out the weight and make it a close contest?
Anyways back to the draw and I hung on towards the end of the queue, I was in the line with Tom Mangnall, and we had hoped for a good peg, especially as a few of the 'less-wanted' pegs had been plucked from the tin. I drew, 2 pegs stuck together, dropped one back in and left me with 129, Not too shabby.

I got to my peg, surveyed the scene and noted I had very little in the way of ripple, not what is needed. The winds were pushing over into 112 to 115, these hot pegs also had a few fish boshing in that area. I hadn't seen more than a few roach in my peg.....hmmm!!
I set up a lead, a waggler to fish up and down in the water. 4 pole rigs were put together, a meat rig for 9m as the water was clear-ish, a banded pellet rig for full depth at 14.5m (my poor back....), a slapping/shallow pellet rig and a banded pellet rig for a couple spots along the spit.

Peg 129, Campbell

I would love lo say things went well, but it was 30 minutes before I had my 1st carp, a 5lb fish on the lead. In that half an hour quite a few carp had been had from pegs 110 up to 116, Steve Tucker probably the pick of them with 5 or 6 on the lead.
My next fish came an hour later and another of the same size as my 1st. Not much was happening in the pegs to my right and along the bottom bank, odd fish here or there.
Meanwhile new Frenzee recruit Dan White, on as a reserve again, was opposite on peg 112 was properly into the fish, he was a long way ahead at this point, he was mostly catching on the pole shallow and a few fish on the lead when he rested the pole lines I guess.

Into the 3rd hour and I had a carp on the long pellet line then another on the lead, both fish around the 4lb mark, smaller stamp fish. A couple lost foul hookers and one landed came over the next half an hour, the landed one fell to the waggler fished 12 inches deep.
A look on the meat line gave me a 4oz skimmer but that was that line done for the day.

The last 90 minutes was spent swapping between the lead and the waggler at mostly full depth, I lost a 10lber at the net but did land a couple on the waggler and a couple on the lead in that final period.
Dan White was still catching well and Tucks to his left was catching a few again and looked close to 100lb, I reckoned on Dan having near to 180lb.....me, my clickers showed 50lb and 10lb.
I had 12 or 13 carp in total during the day, only one over 6lb and a couple 2lb fish.

The all out was called and I packed up. The guy on peg 130, a foreign chap, had landed a decent mid-double in the last hour and had a couple 8lbers during the day so I reckoned on him having maybe 85lb. He actually had a few ounces under 90lb. I weighed in just under 64lb.
The scales carried on along the lake and I finished packing up and put the kit in the car before going to see how Dan had done, rumour had it that the best weight was 145lb or so and there was a couple low 100lb nets including Perry Stone on the match lake.
After multiple weighs the winner was confirmed as Dan weighed in 210lb 11oz. Well done him.
Steve Tucker then snuck 3rd overall with 110lb 5oz, 1 ounce ahead of 4th.

The Winner, Dan White (Frenzee SW)

I don't feel I could have had too much more from my peg, I couldn't get a bit along the spit on pellet or meat, bites on the pole were scarce and spasmodic at best on running line, the fish had obviously done what they do in April and got on the wind.

Overall Results: Ta to Viaduct's Facebook page...

1. Dan White - 210lb 11oz - peg 112
2. J Kirk - 145lb 9oz - peg 127
3. Steve Tucker - 110lb 5oz - peg 111
4. Simon Kiefer - 110lb 4oz - peg 95
5. Perry Stone - 104lb 4oz - peg 45
6. Jason Hale - 98lb 1oz - peg 62
7. Steve Trevett - 97lb 12oz - peg 81
8. Mark Harrinton - 97lb 11oz - peg 3
9. Zac Newton - 94lb 6oz - peg 18
10. R Taylor - 91lb 14oz - peg 67
11. Steve Jackson - 91lb 4oz - peg 25
12. M Petrov - 89lb 5oz - peg 130
13. Ben Emery - 88lb 3oz - peg 115
14. Dean Stacey - 87lb 5oz - peg 80
15. C Cameron - 86lb 6oz - peg 48
16. Andrew Mann - 85lb 9oz - peg 78
17. C Shephard - 84lb 8oz - peg 19
18. Tony Gilbert - 84lb 6oz - peg 87
19. Tommy Hillier - 83lb 10oz - peg 86
20. Scott Puddy - 83lb 2oz - peg 96
21. Chris Perry - 82lb 13oz - peg 66
22. J Hannam - 81lb 10oz - peg 83


Next up for me is tomorrow's match at Sedges, a silvers only contest, in last year's corresponding match I had well over 100lb of carp on the silvers kit.....lets not hope for the same. It is gonna be windy and I don't want Tile.....onwards and upwards.

Lee.