Trouble is with the first match you don't know which lake you will be on until the draw, after that you can sort of prepare a bit more.
I had been looking at the weather reports all week but on the day it did not resemble anything that was forecast even by the Saturday. On the Saturday itself cat ice was over the lakes but by the Sunday morning it had gone and there was light rain, temperature was not too bad. The car park was absolutely rammed by the time the draw came around and due to all the wet weather we have had most anglers and their tackle looked as if they had just finished taking part in the 6 Nations, mud everywhere and on everything.
Don had been framing on a regular basis at the venue so he was sent to draw for the Team and came back with peg 1. This put me on 110, Campbell Lake, a corner peg and one that Chris had bagged up on a few weeks ago putting 100lb plus in the net. He took me to the peg and pointed out where to fish.
Plan was to fish the lead with bread, corn and meat and feed nothing. I set up a wag to fish halfway with the same bait, a skimmer rig at 13 meters and a heavier rig again at 13 meters down the left hand edge for munters. All the lakes were full and there was very few empty pegs, The water was clear and very cold and out in the middle I had barely three feet.
On the all in I cast straight out with popped up bread and waited. Andy Neil opposite me done the same and must have landed on a carps nose having one withing a couple of minutes. After a couple of casts and within 15 minutes I had a wrap around as well and was glad I was on a 0.15 hook length as it went off like a rocket in the shallow water. I hit a snag bringing it in and thought I had lost it but after giving some slack it swam out, a nice 6lb er. A few carp started to be caught and most were getting liners. The lad on 112 was starting to catch well on the wag and Andy Neal continued to catch on the lead. The angler immediately to my right was casting a lead to the aerator and nicking the odd one on the meat. I tried meat and added another one around noon. I had fed the left hand margin with a bit of meat and corn to gave it a go. After about 10 mins the float slide away and a carp was hooked on the meat, it was around 5lb but went straight in the brambles. A bit of gentle tugging saw it come out and it was carefully played to the net. Within the next hour on the same line I lost another two and the area went dead due to the disturbance. So with just over an hour to go I decided to stick it out on the lead. It was a good call and two more were caught on the meat and that was it.
While packing up the jungle telegraph was telling me a lot had struggled and a few had bagged up. No surprises there then due to the time of year and the temperature.
I put just over 29lb on the scales and was rewarded with 10 points out of a maximum 19 so could have been worse. Team wise we finished 13th, not great but not a blow out like some, difficult day.
Team results, individuals and section as follows:
Teams on the day
Individuals
Sections
No match planned this weekend so far, will definitely be out somewhere, perhaps the River Kenn or the Tone. Next Viaduct match is the weekend after when I am due to fish Carey.
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