Tony Rixon Float only Viaduct Fishery

Well after a great weekend at the races last week (where for once I won more than I bet) this weekend was all go, watching cricket Friday night and a good gas win on Saturday and Viaduct Sunday. I haven't fished this league this year and was filling in as a stand in for Tom Magnall.

Me and my wife at the races last week, just before my first winner of three, and we watched Madness
after.

Having not been to Viaduct since my June holiday, and hardly done any carping I did need to some preparation, rigs, hook lengths and I had to put some elastic in my XS90 pulla kits. I did all this by Saturday morning so was happy. I was picked up Sunday morning by Rich Lacey, another angler with a van which meant I could have a good chat there and back. We were going to stop at Cannards Well for Breakfast but it was shut, looks like it is being refurbished, so bacon baps in a garage it was. At the draw I was getting the gear out and chatting and then noticed anglers walking to their pegs, the draw had started.I ran up to the Lodge and pulled out peg 112, a really good peg. As I had an open mind on what to fish for I now decided to target carp as on Thursday Norman Sterry on peg111 had 465lb!

 Got to my peg and opposite me on the spit on 129 was driver Rich, on 110 was Paul Elmes and on 111 Russ Peck, both excellent carp anglers. I didn't see who was on my right on 114 as they were behind the tree branches. I was slightly worried about using the new pole today, I had forgotten my margin pole and that would have been useful for the bay to my right, but I would tackle that anyway with red hollo 11. Open up my holdall and get out my big tube of topsets, ummm where are all those new pulla kits, this is all river topsets! Well I assumed I had left the new top sets at home and all I had on me were some old top sets, one with 11 hollo, one with 13 hollo and one with 15 hollo. This meant my options were very limited and I had to decide on rigs. In the end a deep rig for fishing banded pellet with 16 KKM-B to 0.15, a shallow rig on a long line, and a 0.15 margin rig for fishing pellet.

Obviously it was a long hot sunny day and this would make the fishing tougher but I was happy that a number of carp were showing before the match began. At 10:30 we started and I began at 5m on pellets, nothing much happened other than 2 skimmers. and it seemed quiet for most anglers. I was feeding 6mm pellets out to 14.5m and was soon shipping out the deep rig to try this line. It wasn't long before the float shot under and the 13h elastic was shooting off towards the opposite bank. It was obviously a fouler but I survived the initial run and was soon playing it on my top set where it was a waiting game. I was waiting for the fish to give up, but instead the top set gave up and snapped in my hand. Luckily I was able to keep the elastic under my control and eventually landed a 10lb fish hooked in the anal fin. I was now down to two top sets, so I took the margin rig off and was soon back out and I hooked another carp which soon came off. Then had a skimmer. Then I had another carp on which was a fouler and came off. I was soon into another carp which was fouled but I landed it and this was in the pectoral fin and near 12lb. One hour and 15 mins and I landed a carp hooked in the mouth, I now had three carp and a few skimmers. I had fouled all the carp right near the bottom, and even though there were no signs shallow I gave it a go for 15 mins but had not a single sign.

The next 90 mins were rock hard, with hardly any bites for me. Russ and Paul were not bagging and only had a couple more fish than me. I upped the feed on the long line and this worked in as much as I got some fish into the peg, but alas it was very frustrating as it was fouler after fouler. I tried different size pellets to no avail, I tried shallow on two more occasions and hooked two carp both came off as they were FOULERS! I did manage a couple more on the deep line and then switched my attention to the margin on a top set plus one. It was slow going but I managed to hook 5 carp and land all 5 as they were all in the mouth, and didn't snag me.

The match was over and I knew I was well beaten by Russ and and Paul so no money today. I felt like today I lost more fish as I landed so a good weight was on the cards if I could have sorted it out. A paste rig might have worked but I discounted it with only a couple of top sets. My final weight was 88lb something for no good, Russ had I think 109lb and Paul 169lb which was good enough for 2nd overall. Piccy of Paul.

Winner today was Glenn Bailey on peg 85 who had 181lb of carp on paste, including a 21lb beast caught in his margin.  Silvers winner was Tony Thick 38lb 12oz on peg 95.

I don't know much else as I had to shoot off with Rich as he was going out, but I am sure Tony will cover everything on his blog.

When I got home and put the gear away I looked for my new top sets, couldn't find them. Looked in the holdall and there they were in another new tube, so they were with me all day, what a plonker!

Super League Round 5 Bristol Avon Newbridge

After a great weekend away last week in Blackpool, even if the Gas lost, I was feeling rather achy. My wife and I decided to join a gym again (25 years after the last time) and I had gone to some classes and was feeling the effects. One class which involved lifting weights, squats and thrusts was full of women, mostly older than me, half way through I had to take a long break whilst the women made me look stupid lol. Only 2 weeks gone and I feel better for it and enjoy it, hopefully soon I'll be able to last a whole class.

This match was my first time out after struggling on the riverfest, the river had fished a lot better last week and with some rain might make the fishing better and the river have a little flow. Nick Chedzoy drew the team pegs but he had the last set and to be honest we didn't have what I thought was a decent draw. Myself I was on peg 49, a peg I've had before and it is a bit all or nothing as the flow is on the pole line and not much elsewhere. The peg is a long way off the water, and not for the faint hearted but it is something I am used to. Picture below shows how wide the peg is, but it's one of my worst pics, primarily because we had a lot of rain and the phone was kept in my pocket mostly.

Set up the usual rigs for the pole, a 1.5g pencil float, 2g, and 3g and a flat float for chopped worm. Also a gbait feeder and a crowquill. I did not set up a waggler as this peg is so wide and has very little if no flow past midway. Also I know from drawing this peg before that the far bank is snaggy with weed coming out a long way and not great for fishing across. I plumbed for fishing the pole at 13m it was deep at least 13 1/2 feet.

I balled the peg at the start at 12:30 just as the first heavy shower arrived! I began on the 2g rig with a 20 N40 to 0.10 with a caster on the hook. Float buried first chuck and hybrid was swung out. Next drop another hybrid that I had to net, about 6oz. Two further hybrids followed and then some roach about 2oz. After 20 minutes the caster was rejected and so I switched to maggot to catch a few more roach and a small perch. On about 40 minutes the bites just stopped, and none of my pole rigs could induce a bite. I tried the crowquill and had another hybrid and a couple of roach before that too died. I spent another 30 to 40 minutes without a single bite on anything.

I was going nowhere when I tried the pencil rig again and the float settled and buried and I had a small roach, a couple of missed bites forced me to put a pinkie on the hook and I caught a few more roach, a small sized maggot was the best and I even caught an 8oz chublet. After about 30 minutes this died and despite trying all the usual top ups and hookbaits it was dead. This was a problem as usually the pole line is the banker on this peg and I was worried about things already. I was right to be worried as I could not raise a bite on the crowquill, nothing on chopped worm either (again!). Casting the gbait feeder out to just past halfway I could get bites from tiny chublets, tiny roach and even gudgeon. Putting on a big hookbait like a worm and 4 maggots was no good. I did try the crowquill over the top and had the same tiny fish but not easy to hit bites, I hooked one slightly better fish but a pike grabbed it and bit me off.

I kept hoping the pole would come right but it never did, and as the rain and thunder abated I gambled with an hour to go and reballed it, a roach first drop got me excited, but that was my only bite. I sat it out on the feeder in the vain hope of a bonus, but just a small perch and a gudgeon.

I thought I had 4 1/2lb and that was not going to be any good today. In fact I weighed 5lb 4oz and that only beat two people in the section Jerry Pocock and Ivan Currie. I was chip shop sausage though as to my left Andy Powell had 11lb some big roach and 2 skimmers on the pole, and to my right Mark Brush had a bigger 11lb some roach on the pole and some decent chublets on the feeder. Well that was a lesson for sure, maybe I had some soap in my groundbait lol!

The winner on the day was Dean Harvey on peg 5 in the little field, he had 3 bream and a couple of skimmers and a big eel on the feeder and chublets on the waggler for a great 29lb. Chris Parr was 2nd on peg 3 with 24lb and Charlie Valendar had 20lb on peg 65 with some big roach. Better mention Nick Chedzoy came 4th with 19lb on peg 124 otherwise he will moan at me I expect.

Dean's fish below.

Diawa Gordon League won the day with 43 points, and despite my inepitude Thatchers came 2nd with 38 points. That means with one round left DGL are 21 points ahead and have already won the league unless they don't turn up. Thatchers are 12 points clear of third placed Garbolino Blackmore Vale and so need a good result to cement that place. I am not fishing next match, luckily I'm on a weekend at the races at Newbury as I may well have been dropped anyway! That said Thatchers are fishing the Div one National on Saturday and they will need a good draw as the venue Aire and Calder canal, and New Junction are producing some good weights but also blanks!

Onwards an upwards!