Viaduct open, Campbell lake

With a 9.30 draw we had time for a Toby inn breakfast I whitchurch before we drove down, so me Judith and Jason enjoyed a tasty start, Judith scored it a 4.6 as the eggs , sausages and coffee were very nice. And the rest was very tasty aswell.
Got to the fishery with 15 minutes to spare, so time for a coffee and a chat with some of the regulars, it was good to see Paul Blake back on the scene, he's been missing in action for a couple of year's LOL.
Judith Got into the draw tin second behind Jason Radford and handed me 113, a good peg but probably 4 to 5 mtrs behind the pegs either side, so in the absence of a lead rod in the bag , it was a waggler attack in the main today, so I set up a 4g middy clear wag to fish at depth, and two pole rigs, one for the left hand margin , which usually holds a fish or two, and another for hard pellet at 14 mtrs on front, normally it pays to set up a short meat line any where on this lake but it hasn't worked so far this year so I never bothered, and later on I started to regret it !!!.

For company I had Adrian bishop on 112 and Chris Davis on 114, most wanted 112 today as Dan squire won the fisho qualifier off it yesterday with 190+ , and we were expecting it to be ok today as it sometimes switches  them on when a bit of bait has gone in before.
At the start I fed some 8,s out on the wag line, and some 6,s on the 14 mtr line and down the edge.
I went straight out on the wag and soon had my first fish, a nice common approaching double figures, and a short while later another smaller sample followed.

But this time it was a nice colourful mirror.
This early success was a bit of a false dawn, the match became a struggle , not just for me , but everyone was finding it hard to get a proper bite, there were plenty of fish moving about , but they certainly weren't interested in getting there heads down, I did try the pole at 14 mtrs but only lost a couple of small skimmers, also the margin may have been ok, I had a carp down there with about 2 hours to go, then next put in I lost one around a drainage pipe, I had to pull for a break , but my elastic snapped where I was pulling it around my keepnet, so the rest of the match was spent on the wag, I did keep shallowing up to try and tempt some cruisers, and I did get one at range, I also had one close, about ten minutes after Judith asked me if I had ever hooked one when I dropped the float in the edge while I fed with the catty, damn  near lost the rod, it never happened again though.
It was a case of plugging away , feeding casting twitching feeding, wind in , repeat the process, busy fishing , lots of the bites coming after the twitch, something that can't be done in the tip.
I must say I have been using the drennan acolyte 12 ft carp waggler rods now for over a year, and it one of the nicest rods I have ever used, plenty of power when needed , but enough action to stop hook pulls when you have a fish under the tip.

I did lose a few foulers today but with the fish swimming round as they were I half expected that, but I was putting enough fish into the net to keep me in contention, going into the last 90minutes Chris to my right began catching short on meat, kicking myself now, I should have done it, and with Gary o,Shea on peg 110 catching as well as anyone I may be slipping back, towards the end I began getting  more indications and landed a couple of late ones, then 7 minutes from the end I lost a fouled under my feet and the wag shot up the tree above me, so the end was spent on the pole for nothing added,
The scales arrived on gary,s peg and he ended up with 138lb, I thought I had 130 so it may be close, and it was as I just beat him with 140lb, which was also enough to win on the day, so that was good , meaning I have qualified for the all winners final in october.

Paul faiers won the silvers on peg 110 with 49lb of mainly skimmers which is a good days fishing by any standards, so well done matey.

So it was a much harder day than most expected, but for was ok as everyone had a day's action, and the carp seem to be spreading out a bit now, with fish moving about in front of all of us, weigh sheet below.