Saturday 11/06/2016 - Mike Nicholls Short Pole Open - Viaduct Fishery - Campbell Lake

And so it begins…. Today see the start of our annual match fishing holiday at the Viaduct Fishery where the usual suspects of me, Tim Ford, Geoff Francis, Glenn Bailey, Martyn Woodington and Gordon Cannings will share the excellent Lavender Lodge for the forth coming week.

I am running two short pole (top-set plus 3 sections of pole and no shipping on extras) matches on Campbell Lake which I limited to twenty anglers and both sold out with a waiting list. I chose short pole matches to prove that there is absolutely no need to break your back to catch the same amount of weight on this venue, which the two matches proved once again.

The near end of the Lake is favoured at the moment because the aerator located at this end is now running 24/7 attracting more fish than would normally be the case. In to the draw tin and out comes peg 124. No emotions as although it’s at the far end I was assured a great days fishing.

For company I had Gordon Cannings on peg 123 and Bob Gullick on peg 125.

Two rigs set up a Barnett 0.4 gram paste float and a 4x12 Roob for the meat which was pinched from Bob Gullick. I fed two lines both at top-set plus two, one for meat and the other paste. The up shot was I had three big carp on the paste over kindered hard 4’s in the first three put-ins followed by a very lean spell, during which I tried the meat line which only produced the odd Skimmer and small Carp. In the mean time both Ben Hagg and Bob Gullick were catching steady on meat. Bob did have a frightful time trying to land a Carp that had broken his top-set. See video below where Bob also explains how he caught his runners up weight of 194lb - we’ve all been there. It was until the last hour that my swim revived and caught well finishing with 14 Carp and a few Silvers.

My meagre Silvers weighed 6lb 4oz and my Carp 105lb 10oz for a grand total of 112lb 8oz for 8^th overall! One place out of my defaulted section.

The match was won by Ben Hagg from peg 114 with 197lb 11oz. Ben caught on meat both out in front and down the edge. I couldn’t find Ben after the match for the usual post match interview.

The Silvers was won once again by Gabe Skarba (pictured right with his catch of Skimmers) with 37lb 9oz from peg 126. Gabe caught on his normal GB mix and either 6mm or 8mm expander pellet fish at full permitted length of pole.

The match had 12 tons or near tons so short pole matches proven once again.

Full Result:

1. Benn Hagg 197-11-0 peg 114
2. Bob Gullick 194-0-0 peg 125
3. Norman Sterry 184-12-0 peg 116
4. Ashley Tompkins 172-02-0 peg 135
5. Alex Murry 159-04-0 peg 128
6. Emma Drysdale 143-05-0 peg 111

Top Silvers:

1. Gabe Skarba 37-09-0 peg 126
2. Emma Drysdale 28-11-0 peg 111

Weigh Sheet: