I had been looking forward to this week off fishing with the lads for a long time, only 9 of us this year as a few were not able to make it including long time "lodger" Mike Nicholls who is waiting for a hernia operation, good luck with the op and hope it goes well.
I just did not seem to find the time or was it the inclination to do a lot of preparation, but on the day prior I began in earnest putting some new elastic in top sets, tying some hook lengths and making a few rigs. Finished about 9pm, and then packed the van with everything and more than I thought I would need for the 6 matches ahead.
The Itinerary this year was:-
Day 1 (Saturday) Campbell lake, pole only maximum 13m
Day 2 Viaduct open Campbell
Day 3 Our lodges match on Match Lake
Day 4 Avalon Fishery Match Lake
Day 5 Campbell Lake Short Pole Only
Day 6 Todber Manor Ash Lake
I was off to a bad start Saturday morning with a bit of trouble with the old bowels, something that was to be a pain the arse this week, and meant I was not able to meet up for breakfast and went straight to Viaduct. Here I met up with the rest of the reprobates I was spending the week with; Glenn Bailey, Gary Bowden, Gordon Cannings, Geoff Francis, Chris Ollis, Martin Rayet, Mark Tanner and last but by no means least Martyn Woodington. In total there were 18 anglers fishing today with many regulars who would be hard to beat so a good peg would be needed. I didn't think my drawing arm got off to the best of starts when I pulled out 130, and thought it could be tough. Mind you I would have fancied it if I could have chucked the lead out lol.
I soon decided that my best chance of coin was to go after the silvers money, though with Stu White, Rob Eagle and Nigle Easton fishing I was going to need some luck. I went with a few F1 pellet rigs 4x12 and 4x14 with 16 SFLB to 0.11 for soft pellet. If the soft pellet got ragged by roach I would change to hard pellet. I did set up rigs for paste, mugging and the margin in case the carp did turn up. We started at 10:30 and I began by fishing at top set plus 2 sections feeding 4mm pellets (I use Sonubait Profeed) with one of the easy to use Sonubaits 6mm expander on the hook. It was extremely slow here for me and just a couple of small skimmers obliged, I was soon adding another section and fed at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock. Things were still slow but I caught a couple more skimmers including a flyer. At this early stage Chris Ollis on 129 was really struggling while Gordon Cannings on 131 had a good run of skimmers on meat.
I opened up a third line at 13m and this was just as difficult as the other two lines, and I found if I caught 1 skimmer generally I had to move to another line to try to catch another skimmer. The soft pellet was not being ragged out so I stuck with it, but did try worm and corn without success. I was convinced I was now just fishing for pleasure as I was not bagging on silvers, as recently here 60 to 70lb is needed to win, but with Woody on 110 was getting a few carp as was Martin Rayet on 132 I had to stick with silvers and just enjoy my first day. A little later word came through to me that the silvers anglers were not bagging and I should just keep my head down, Gordon's early bagging had stopped and I could not see a lot of silvers being caught my end. However, the last hour was painful with the skimmers being ousted more often now by the odd carp that was fizzing up the lines I fed and I landed one carp. I came in the margin and tried corn / pellet, no skimmers but I had a couple of pound of roach at least to tick over. I thought I had 30lb of silvers, but no idea if that was any good.
The scales soon arrived at peg 132 to weigh Martin who had a great 155lb of carp, Gordon struggled for 17lb of silvers and 1 small carp. My silvers went 33lb 10oz, and 1 carp 6lb 8oz. Chris on my left DNW. It was going to be a long wait to hear the other silvers weights, but Nigel Easton on 124 came past to say he had weighed 30lb 6oz, one of the regulars beaten, and more good news when I found out I was top silvers weight.
Woody won the match from 110 with 170lb, I knew he had caught but hadn't realised he had so many, Martin Rayet was second and D Basstone was third with 143lb.
After myself in the silvers, Nigel and Rob Eagle tied for second with 30lb 6oz. At least I know fishing for roach at the end was worth it. A nice start to the holiday with some beer money. Many pegs struggled today, and the venue had fished poor compared to recent days which was a surprise to all.
First night in Somerton was very good and very funny, though I think we forget how old we are when we have a few pints ;-)
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