Pawlett Club - Viaduct Fishery - Campbell Lake - 28/7/13

So to the 2nd match of the weekend, again at Viaduct, but with pegs on Cary and Campbell, I had a half chance of either lake. On Saturday evening I thought I fancied Cary, but by Sunday I had decided I would rather be on Campbell, given that I would catch more fish on Campbell.

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

27/7/13 MFS match - Viaduct Campbell.

I had 2 matches this weekend, both on Viaduct fishery. Here is the write up of the 1st.

1st match was a MFS match on Saturday and with a few regulars to the venue, I had only fished it twice before, but have gleaned plenty of info and learned that the foul hooked fish go like rockets and are tackle busters and those hooked correctly don't give up easily!!

I arrived at the draw in plenty of time, the weather was ok but was due to turn in the early afternoon, bringing persistent rain later in the day. Luckily it was warm.
I said hello to Chris Fox and let Ken Rayner put my name to my face, and after some chit chat with a few guys the draw was made, 18 of us were down to fish.
I pulled peg 112, an ok draw, but perhaps a few pegs away from where I wanted to be ie 115/116 or the pegs opposite them 126/127. But the venue is rammed full of fish, but the change of weather may affect their feeding habits. There had been a lot of fish caught shallow recently, which doesn't come as a surprise given the weather.

Arriving at my peg I kept it simple-ish, bait was 8mm meat, 8mm pellet and some 6mm pellet in case I want to target the silvers. I also had some paste made up.
Rig wise, I had a shallow pole rig for banded pellet, a margin/meat rig and a rig for 6m and meat. All on 0.20 mainline to 0.20 hooklengths. Solid middy 20 for the margin/depth rigs and 14/16 for shallow fishing.

My peg for 27/7 -- Peg 112

 





I also set up a pellet wag, but other than a couple casts I never bothered with it.

The all in sounded, I cupped in various baits into the varying spots and then I went out on the shallow line at 13m, there were lots of fish about, but other than foul hookers I struggled to get positive bites. A few people were fouling fish, but the 1st hour saw me land a single carp, but Mark Poppleton had landed  a few shallow from p115 and Callum on p135 also was into a few. Rich on 110 was spear fishing (foul hooking every put!!) but did land a couple. Also the guy on p126 was into a few on the wag.

 

After 90 mins I ditched the shallow rig and went out to 6m and tried meat, again all I got was liners and a few lost foul hooked fish. So this meat line was changed to a pellet line and 2 big pots of 8mm baits went in over the top in the hope of forcing fish to the deck. A quick look down the edge on the top kit bought a couple carp before they did the off.

 

A look over the new pellet line with a banded 8mm bait just touching bottom bought me another couple fish, but each time I fed they'd come up in the water but not feeding, like they were attracted to the noise but not interested in consumption.

 

For the next couple hours I kept trying the edge and 6m lines and had the odd fish, but by now I knew I was miles behind Mark on p115, p126 was bagging, Alex Murray on p132 also had landed a few.

Rich on p110 and Callum on p135 were catching consistently. So it was trying something new.

With the guy on p111 having more positive bites and landing more by switching to paste, I put a bit on the hook at 6m and had 3 within 20 mins, then the rain came and turned my paste into soup, my luncheon meat was swimming and my pellets were dissolving!!

By now a few had left and the pegs opposite were struggling. Rich on 110 was getting loads as was p111. Mark on 115 had slowed, but still picking up more than most.

 

With an hour left I had around 50lb in the nets, which was not great, but I could see that my margin had fish visiting it regularly, in fact they were taking pellets off the folded grass. So the last hour was spent mostly on the top-kit in my right hand edge (but I was only fishing 2ft from my platform) coupled with a couple looks at 6m, my last hour was decent with a carp most drops on banded 8mm.

 

The end of the match sounded and all the sodden anglers packed up in readiness for the weigh in.

The last hour had been really good for me, rich on p110 and the chap on p111. The overcast and wet conditions had bought the fish onto the feed.

 

The scales arrived at my peg after Rich had put 170lb+ on the scales and p111 had topped 130lb.

Sadly these weights were plenty ahead of me, and my 3 weighs went 108lb exactly (inc 6lb of silvers), a bit more than my 80lb estimate. Luckily I suffered less foul hooked fish than most by feeding less, but maybe I did not bring too many into my swim?

 

The match was won with over 200lb from p126. The results are below. So 10 weights over 100lb from 17 anglers (1 chose not to fish after his draw). Good fishing? I came mid-table, I only trashed 6 hooklengths on fouled fish and killed a couple floats (which died when the rigs came back through the water)

 

Results MFS - 27/7/13

 



 

Next up was 28/7/13 again at Viaduct, would have been either Cary or Campbell, turned out to be Campbell.

I will do that blog soon enough.......

 

Cheers

Lee