02/08/12 - Viaduct - Campbell

Weight – 105lb 8oz (29lb 11oz – silvers)

Catch – 16 Carp, 22 Bream, 1 Tench, 1 Roach

Weather – Mostly sunny, showery start, gusty wind

Match – Cost cutter Open – 9^th out of 24 (4^th in silvers)

I made the trip from Minehead again to fish todays cost cutter, which was on Campbell and 2 banks of Cary. Today for me was more about building my confidence at the venue and certainly my last few visits have seen a steady improvement in my results.

126 was my home for the day and with the gusting wind combined with the cool start to the day it looked like it would be a day for fishing the tip, which isn’t what I wanted to do, because I was wanted to concentrate on the pole and if possible the waggler if the wind allowed. I did set up the lead just in case and caught 1 fish when trying to sort out a new rig, but the waggler was only cast about 5 times.

So most of my time was spent on the pole. I started at 13m, feeding a toss pot of meat and 4mm pellet and after 30mins had 2 carp, including a 10lber and 2 big skimmers, but then nothing for the next 30mins.

I had been feeding meat and 6s at 6m to my right and 4s & 6s at 4m to my left. A couple of big skimmers came from the 6m line plus a couple more carp. However it was becoming obvious that I was falling behind in the carp race with Paul on P119 catching on the waggler, p124 catching on the lead and the p127 catching on the feeder. A switch to the 4m line with 6mm pellet and I had a good hour or so catching skimmers, plus a proper bream.

By the half way stage I decided to try shallow on the pole having feed the long line for 2hrs and I caught 2 carp within 15mins, but they just didn’t settle in the wind, which was gusting from bearly being able to hold the pole to being flat calm.

Since the carp weren’t coming shallow (a couple of anglers opposite tried the same, but only had a couple), decided to focus on catching the silvers. I hadn’t seen too many being caught so thought I might be in with a shout of a pick up. My 4m line had dried up and on reflection I properly overfed it. My 6m line had kicked into life with some carp coming in amongst the skimmers, however I was starting to wait longer for bites and the wind wasn’t helping when it was gusting strongly.

At 13m I had stopped feeding pellet by catapult and potted meat and pellet, which produced a big tench, a few skimmers and a couple more carp. Typical, having made the decision to target the silvers, I caught more carp.

Come the weight in Lee Werrett on p131 had 48lb of silvers so was likely to win the silvers, Lewis was admitting to about 25lb and I thought it would be close between the 2 of us. However, Paul Blake dumped 35lb on scales, having only admitted to 15lb! To be honest I didn’t think he had that much, but obviously sneaked a few better skimmers. Lewis was last to weigh, whilst I had more fish he had more tench and he finally did me by just over a pound - bugger.

Actually enjoyed my day, OK I am sure I could have pushed harder for a framing position had I fished the tip, but I really needed to build my confidence on the float particularly with last round of Tonys float only a few weeks away. 

1^st 198- 5 – Paul Greenwood – p119 (waggler)
2^nd 169-10 – M Fisher – p127 (feeder)
3^rd 160- 8 – Lee Werrett – p131 (pole/pellet)
4^th 146- 8 – Trev – p80
5^th 127- 7 – Ron Messer – p116 (lead)
6^th 124-10 – Lewis Greenwood – p123 (pole/pellet)

Silvers
1^st 48-12 – Lee Werrett – p131
2^nd 33- 7 – Paul Blake – p125
3^rd 31- 0 – Lewis Greenwood – p123
4^th 29-11 – Ken Rayner – p126