Sunday 26/09/2010 - Carps AC Autumn Silvers League - Viaduct Fishery - Round One

According to the Carps AC website there were 60 Anglers booked in to fish plus reserves. The reality was 26 anglers fished. Steve and Paul used both Campbell and Cary and had one section of five and two sections of four on each Lake, with each section paying £10 per Angler. The league started us off with the first frost of the autumn, albeit a very light one, which hopefully would put the Carp off a bit. However, it also promised to be a bright day – not good for the Silvers I was thinking.

I was third in to the draw bag and pulled out peg 76 on Cary. This put me in a five peg section from my peg to peg 85. I didn’t really know what to think of it. Looking for positives it was an end peg plus a Willow to my right giving some cover. I had already put a plan in place which was to have four rigs:

Ronnie rig number one for the margin – 4x14 PB14 – 0.14 hook length because of the possibility of Tench
Ronnie Rig number two for fishing 3.5 metre whip out in front with a home made waggler and 0.1 hook length
Skimmer rig to be fished at 11.5 metres at 11 o clock using 4x14 Jolly with 0.12 hook length
A CW&C rig fished off the edge of the willow at 5 metres using a 4x12 Jolly with a 0.14 hook length.

I started by cupping in for large balls of Gimps Gold over the Skimmer line, followed by one cup of CW&C at 5 metres. I started in the margin with Ronnie rig number one with caster over loose fed caster and had some Ronnie’s with a couple of 8oz Hybrids – however it was much slower than anticipated, so over to the CW&C with a small piece of worm and after counting 60 I had a small Ronnie. As I was eager to get on the Skimmer line out went the rig with a 3mm expander pellet on the hook and – nothing, not even any indications. Umm. At this point Steve Jackson walk by to fetch a coat from his van as he was freezing cold, explaining that the section was mega hard with himself having only four small Roach. This decided me to pick up Ronnie rig two and go full out for them with caster. So head down it was – nearly. I kept being diverted by Mark Broomsgrove who was catching decent sized Skimmers opposite me on peg 102 using CW&C. So I switched the 11.5 metre line to CW&C putting in a full pot. I tried the worm over this line but once again not having a bite – was I giving it long enough as I was soon back on the Ronnie rig and watching the Carp blow over the CW&C. Paul Greenwood came by and said that peg 78 had a few Skimmers to 3lb. So I decided, once more to go flat out for Ronnie’s until the end. I was last to weigh in the section and had to beat 13lb odds I thought I might just do this, but it is so hard to estimate small Ronnie’s. I weighed 17lb 13oz for a section first – mission accomplished. Surprisingly this also put me 11th overall.

The match was won by Vince Brown (pictured right) with 54lb 6oz from peg 126. Vince caught twenty one Tench and a lesser number of Skimmers fishing CW&C with worm on the hook. Vince fished at 14.5 metres feeding four pints of caster and one Kilo of worms (rich boy). Vince fed all his feed through an oversized kinder pot! Vince caught two Tench in the last three minutes giving the edge over the runner up.

Runner up from peg 111 was Simon Jones (pictured right) with 50lb 8oz of mainly Tench. Simon fished similar to Vince, also catching on CW&C at 13 metres, choosing to loose feed two pints of caster and potting in ½ Kilo of worm.

Full Result:

1. Vince Brown 54-06-0 peg 126
2. Simon Jones 50-08-0 peg 111
3. Phil Cardwell 31-03-0 peg 98
4. Mark Broomsgrove 28-13-0 peg 102
5. Steve Long 25-04-0 peg 116
6. John Green 22-07-0 peg 123