Friday 29/04/2011 - Viaduct Royal Wedding Escapee Pole Only Open - Campbell, Carey & Lodge

The Special One had invited her friend around to watch the Royal Wedding, so I had my marching orders. So it was off to Viaduct with the other escapees. Looking around at the draw it was the who’s who of Viaduct regulars. There was some chance of heavy showers which didn’t realise. It wasn’t only the match anglers escaping today, every peg on the venue were taken up over the day. I am not surprised as there have been some colossal weights recently, both Silvers and Carp. I some how seem to miss these matches.

I decided to hang back in the draw and rub against Tony Rixon. I think this was the best decision of the day. In to the draw ice cream container and out comes peg 111 on Campbell. Umm, has some winter form for Silvers. A quick chat with Steve Long and Carp was mentioned, similarly Andy Lloyd thought Carp. The venue has been responding well to meat – that is all species – Carp, Tench and Skimmers. That makes it difficult to single out the Silvers species, making it very peg dependant. As I drew late I looked at my section and soon realised that with Ray Hayward on peg 110 and Andy Power on 116 that a section win was an unlikely option. I sat on my peg for some while unsure how to attack it for the Silvers – meat or meat or go for the Ronnie’s with caster (for those that don’t know what a Ronnie is, it’s a 2oz Roach that nibbles away at any soft Carp bait). I opted for the meat to be fished at 6 metres and 7 metres. In hindsight (I have a PhD in hindsight) this proved to be the wrong decision as I could have won the Silvers on the day with Ronnies.

I set up a 4x14 Jolly with a Tubertini no 14 - 808 to 0.14 hook length. I decided that the best way to focus the Silvers would be to feed lightly through the kinder pot (3 pieces of 6mm Spam) with similar on the hook (6x4 mm Bela’s meat cutter is broken). I started well catching 10lb of Skimmers and a couple of Carp at 6 metres in the first half hour. It then all went tits up when the Carp came chasing in. I realised at this point that Carp was going to be the order of the day. However, even feeding 3-4 pieces of meat after every fish lead to missing a lot of bites. I tried fishing off the bottom, which lead to even quicker and more missed bites. I decided that the fish were taking the meat on the drop but would only take it whilst falling. So I opened up the 7 metre line feeding it in the same way. A pattern then materialised, which was a question of feeding the short line whilst fishing the long line and vice versa. I could catch three to four fish on each line before having to change. I ended the match with 19 Carp for 113lb 12oz and my half hour Skimmers went 10lb 10oz for a total of 124lb 6oz. This left me no where in the Silvers but fourth overall. It was very satisfying for a Silvers Slayer to pip the two venue experts – one by 1lb 2oz and the other by 4lb 13oz especially as Ray put a five pound  whistle fish back (talk to Ray about this one)!! I fed around ¾ of a large tin of Spam.

I lost three fish: One palletised me: One lightly hooked and once again I experience that extraordinary event where whilst applying high load on the fish the hook pulls and my Jolly float has completely vanised even though it was held to the line by four rubbers (I never use the eye of the float).

The match was won by Matt Parsons (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 132 with 147lb 14oz. Matt caught down to the end bank and out in front at 7 metres using meat hook bait over loose fed meat.

I think it well worth a mention that the runner Steve Kiefer (pictured right) caught sone very big Carp from peg 113 (which isn’t usually pegged) with once again that in form meat, fished at 7 metres. Steve fed about 1 ½ tins.

The Silvers was won by Phil Harding with 25lb 1oz all Skimmer catch from peg 71. Phil caught initially on meat switching to 6 and 8mm hard pellet hook bait. Phil caught at both 7 metres and 14 metres.


Full Result:

1. Matt Parsons 147-14-0 peg 132
2. Steve Kiefer 137-09-0 peg 113
3. Nick Collier 133-10-0 peg 94
4. Mike Nicholls 124-06-0 peg 111
5. Andy Power 123-04-0 peg 116
6. Ray Hayward 119-09-0 peg 110

Top Silvers:

1. Phil Harding 25-01-0 peg 71
2. Alan Healy 23-07-0 peg 121
3. Matt Parsons 21-14-0 peg 132