pole only at viaduct

the prospect of a pole only at viaduct must have tickled a lot of fancies as 66 were fishing , and most were looking forward to a change from slinging a straight lead about.

into the draw bag and out comes 76 on cary, a good peg when the water wams up but probably a tad early in the year for now, and with the water being quite clear i wasnt to hopeful of getting in, i had mat parsons on 77 with the aerater to his left so i was expecting him to beat me as it is slightly deeper and the earater always holds some fish.
two 4x14 rigs , one for soft pellet with a 16 middy 6313 to .12 and one for banded pellet with a 18 b960 to .14 . a caster rig for 5 mtrs wit a 18 6313 to .10 and a down the edge rig to the empty pallet to the right with a 16 b960 for hair rigged pellet.
at the start i cupped in some soaked micro,s and 3mm at 16 mtrs , fired some 4mm down the edge , and started loosefeeding caster at 5 mtrs, i startedon the caster line but after 20 mins i hadnt had a bite, and a couple of attempts down the edge during the match didnt even probuce a sniff so i wont mention them again. all my fish came on the 16 mtr line wit a skimmer first and the second bite resulting in a 10 lb carp on soft pellet, a better start than i had expected, and a more bites than i had expected with bites nearly every put in from skimmers from 4 oz to 2 lb, but no more carp. it was all going well up till about 2 hours from the end when it all went pear shaped and i couldnt raise a bite even with maggot on the hook, up till now i was about even with mat next door on 77 with both of us having 1 carp and skimmers , both of us having caught on soft and banded pellet , i wish i hadnt given him some bands now as he went on to catch 4 more carp late on just to finish me off completely, all his fish coming on an angle at 16 mtrs towards the aerator on banded 6mm over 4mm fed with a catty. it was strange how the skimmers switched off towards the end , and speaking to others after it seems it was the same for everyone so i dont think it was anything i did ,it was just one of those things, or at least thats what i am telling myself. the match was won by clint wojtyla on peg 127 with 118.3 on pellet on the deck at 16 mtrs
2nd jamie smith on 126 with98.12 caught the same way as clint
3rd dan williams 86.5 peg 94
4th phil cardwell 83.00 peg 85
5th matt parsons 74.2 peg 77
6th dave campbell 64.6 peg 70
silvers
dave campbell 38.14 peg 70 skimmers on pellet
2nd nick collier 33.2 peg 96
3rd des shipp 31.2 peg 100
4th paul homewood 28.9 peg 119
in the end i had 24lb of skimmers and the carp went 11 lb for a 35lb total which was more han i was expecting so i wont complain. i think it was a better match for being pole only as there wasnt a runaway winner making it much fairer, although it was nice to have a decent size match there probably was a few to many fishing but you cant blame steve or paul as at the end of the day as they are running a business and its not as if they arent doing improvements all the time to make it better , it is one of the best kept and run fisheries about. its just a shame about the coffee, perhaps we will have to do another pole only when it warms up, i dont think that will be to long as there were plenty of swallows about today and they now more about the weather than the met office thats for sure