Thursday 05/05/2011 - Viaduct Cost Cutter - Campbell and Carey

As we was unable to fish the Thursday Coffin Dodgers I decided to give the Viaduct Thursday cost cutter a go for the first time. It was good to see ten of the Dodgers at the draw. Plus I am fishing the Avon Angling float only on the venue Sunday so an opportunity to have a practice and put some of the refinements and lessons learn from Fridays match in to practice.

I decided on one tin of 6mm meat was needed, so I found C&P Meat Cutters ltd; (Collier and Page) – fast and accurate. In to the draw box and out comes peg 116. I was content with this. Arriving at the peg I found the wind was off my left hand shoulder but swirling a bit. I much prefer the wind either left to right or vice versa, so I can use the tow. I set up exactly the same as Fridays match but found my new 4x14 Jolly for some reason only took 7 no 11 shot, but the cost of the float was the same! Peg 116 is back a fair way from peg 115 so I was hoping this would work to my advantage for the Silvers. Feeding meat through the kinder pot at six metres with similar on the hook I had a Carp first put in – Umm. I kept a few pieces of meat going in and in return caught more Carp to Steve Long’s amusement who was on peg 118. I then started to catch a few big Skimmers with the odd Tench. As opposed to Fridays match the big Silvers stayed with me in between the Carp. I caught a mix of fish steady all through and was still catching with an hour to go but decided to give the paste a try in the margin where I had been lightly feeding hard 4’s since the start. The up shot of this I caught three big Carp to 14lb, plus a couple of smaller verity, three more Tench and three big Bream to 4lb, best stop as I am starting to sound like Ken Rayner. My Silvers went 49lb and my carp 123lb 6oz for a total of 172lb 6oz. This put me first overall and second in the Silvers (so not quite Carp Slayer yet).

The Silvers was won by Jim Baines (pictured right with the match winner, plus the DNW’er who occupied peg 130) with 58lb 9oz from peg 127. I am not sure how he caught, but he seemed to be fishing the margin for the majority of the day.

What a magnificent venue well done, Steve and Paul – thank you. What ever the peg fee is it is well worth it. I will be back.

Full Result:

1. Mike Nicholls 172-06-0 peg 116
2. Anton Page 170-13-0 peg 129
3. Terry Bruton 137-02-0 peg 128
4. Tim Pallant 119-04-0 peg 111
5. Rich Coles 98-12-0 peg 123
6. Jim Baines 98-03-0 peg 127

Top Silvers:

1. Jim Baines 58-09-0 peg 127
2. Mike Nicholls 49-0-0 peg 116
3. Rich Coles 45-10-0 peg 123
4. Steve long 44-14-0 peg 118