fish at last

today was the first round of the viaduct teams of 5. fairplay to steve and paul who did a brilliant job breaking and clearing ice so the event could happen. if they had left it the match would have been cancelled, and as most people hadnt been for 3 or 4 weeks most were keen to drown some bait. with the team draw done i ended up on peg 61 on lodge, not the best but there is always a chance of a carp and some skimmers .
2 pole rigs today , a 4x14 to a 20 808 and .10 to fish maggot at 16 mtrs over g bait, and single caster over caster at 16 mtr on an angle to my right, i also set up a waggler rod to fish on the deck at 25 mtrs, the last rig was a 4x12 rig on .14 to an 18 xedion hook for the right hand margin as odd big fish do show in the margins. on the whistle 2 balls of g bait with a few casters and pinkies were cupped in at 16 mtrs staight out, some casters on the angle and some down the edge. then i went straight out on the wag with a piece of corn on an 18 hook, the slight breeze was coming ocross and in at me so presentation wasnt the best ,as the float was getting pushed back towards me, so next chuck i deepened up by about 6 inches to try and slow the drag down, and it seemed to work as the float buried anb i hooked what i thought was small carp but it turned out to be a 2lb tench, a good start but after the early excitment i couldnt get another bite on anything or any where, but on our lake both paul blake on 73 and andy lloyd on 53 both into carp straight away, so the rest of the section was going to fighting for 3 place in the section.
looking across on cary i could see george perkins on 85(again) getting carp on maggot on the tip, and clayton hudson on 86 catching on hair rigged corn also on the tip. back to my peg but still no bites and by now tim pallant on 69 had begun to get odd skimmers on the wag so he was looking good for 3rd providing no one else had carp but that was looking unlikely. at half one rob randall on 63 had 2 skimmers on the trot so i decided to come off the wag and try the pole again as there may be a few skimmers over the groundbait i had put in at the start , i hadnt fed again as there had been no indications over it . lowering in a single dead red the float settled and went straight under, and a 2lb hydrid joined the lonely tench , it was now 1.45 and by 2.45 i had 10 skimmers then they were gone, i did put a couple more balls in during that hour and when i did i caught over it straight away, but the last 45 mins were very quite with only a few small roach to show for my efforts.
at the end i thought i had about 14 lb which i reckoned was good enough for 3 rd or at worse 4th in the section(lake). andy lloyd won our lake with 75.2 which was 9 carp on the wag cast into the corner 2nd on our lake was paul blake with 4 carp for 39 lb on the pole down the edge. my skimmer and tench catch went 15.5 for 3rd on the lake but it was also the top silvers catch on the day which means i qualify for the silvers final later in the year.
on the day george perkins won with 144.13 on 85 which was 18 fish
2nd martin preston on131(cambell) with117.2 fishing maggot on the wag
3rd clayton hudson 107.6 peg 86 corn on the lead
4th andy lloyd 75.2
5th steve denmead 74.7 peg 130
6th m wright 43.4 peg 128
teams on the day
keyford 90 pts(new record)
maver veals red 71
viaduct select 70
somerset angling 68