Viaduct spring league rnd 1

Travelled with Chris fox today for this league, and after a nice breakfast at the Toby inn in whitchurch ,we still got to the fishery with 15 minutes to draw time, a popular league to be sure , and there were 55 fishing , and it always attracts the who,s who of commercial match fishing in the southwest, and South wales, got into the draw tin about halfway through, and can't say I was to disappointed to see 102 which is on cary lake, about halfway up the diagonal bank, I don't mind cary in these matches as it is easier to do ok as it's not such a fish race as Campbell can be, for company I had Terry leney on 103 to my left, and Ben hagg to my right on 100, and immediately behind was me old mate Ron hardiman and one of des shipps protoges Ricky mills , so no chance of a quiet day.

Set about making some rigs up, a shallow slapper rig just in case, but it was not used today so no more on that then. A meat rig for the short line, but apart from a few skimmers during the day, no good either, no silvers prize today as it's an overall weight thing only, so really it  is carp or bust, but a few silvers can help at times, and a pellet on the deck rig to fish at 14 mtrs.
Also a wag for was put together, primarily to fish pellet on the deck, so it was a 4g middy fatboy straight, I like these floats as they cast straight , and it's possible to change to a smaller one if needs be without having to change the shotting as all the floats in the range take the same ammount of shot.
On the all in I fed all lines but began on the 14 mtr line with banded 8mm pellet over 6,s, it started slowly , but I did lose a fouler quite early on, but that was it for a while, Ben to my right began in the tip but soon changed to the shallow wag and had a fish quite quickly, so I went out on the wag on the deck, but Ben had another and missed a couple of bites, so I changed the 4g wag for a 2g and  shallowed up to about 18inches, I had a couple of 10lb plus fish quickly, then I had to wait for another, which was booked in the wing in a tough part so that was added to net, it was my last fish shallow, even though I tried it several times during the match, I kept switching between the depth wag and long pole line, I lost a few incorrectly booked fish , but also landed a few more, along with some decent skimmers, ending with 9 carp and those accidental skimmers for what I hoped would be about 85lb, I was convinced Ben had beaten me , also Gary o,Shea on peg 99 was admitting to 100lb , so a possible third in section to begin the league was not a total disappointment, but in the end I was second as Gary had 101.6 to my 101.1, and poor old Ben in the middle was the chip shop sausage, battered all round with 88lb.
No real prizes for guessing as to who won, once crag(trig) Edmunds drew 115 there only likely to be one outcome, and there was as he won with 312lb,

pushing fellow mosella angler Tom mangnal into second with his 267lb from peg 90.

As normal the weigh sheets are below, the lakes have fished really well, with probably well  over a ton of fish coming out of Campbell alone, no wonder it takes so long to weigh in.
Next weekend it's off to Landsend fishery for an open on lakes 2&3, 9.30 draw and breakfast available at  the fishery, either contact me or ring Mike at the fishery on 07977545882 to book in.