Saturday 26/10/2019 - Viaduct All Silver Winners Final - Campbell, Carey and Spring

Looking forward to today's match however, it did mean missing my Granddaughters 13th Birthday, I wasn't popular. Bela and I stopped in Lilypool for breakfast but had a short wait until 08:00 for them to open! Joined by Martin Rayet and The Yorkie Bar Kid who both were off to Avalon Silvers League.

The weather forecast was for high winds and persistent rain all day, which proved the case.

Second into the draw Coffee tin and out comes peg 20 on Spring. I must admit I was surprised it was in. Plenty of comments in this regard, however, you never know - keep positive. The only chance of coin from this peg would be a section win, but that was extremely unlikely unless I could catch Ronnies on caster all match. For company I had Steve Rolfe who reminded me that we always struggle when next to each other - both accusing the other of being the jinx.

I automatically set up a waggler which sat in the rain all day as I was unable to decide where to fish it - down the leg - Carp! or out in front which any distance was cut off by peg 24. My banker was the Ronnie rig and a 4x12 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus four barrels out in front.

I fed the long line with GB laced with DR's and fingers crossed I could catch on the caster and Ronnie rig with single caster. After 15 minutes and one micro Roach the writing was on the wall - the Ronnies weren't feeding - expecting last in section. I switched to the long line with double DR and landed a 12 lb Common Carp first put in (one of four). I then started to catch micro Roach and tiny Skimmers on this line with some falling off so switch the Ronnie line to a short GB and DR's line catching the same small fish but more finding the net. I decided to feed the long line heavily with GB and persevered with the small Ronnies until it settled, it wasn't long before I was over it because the Motherless arrived. I did have three better Skimmers over this line but it was short lived and soon back to the micro Ronnies. 

I weighed 11 lb 6 z for last in what proved to be a very close section. I'm not sure what else I could have done. I thought about the feeder which would have been a short chuck or sit on the corn and waggler all day which may have resulted in nothing. Still I enjoyed it especially when I heard Bela had got in the main frame. - Well done matey.

The match was won by Des Shipp (pictured) from the peg 102 that won the Silver League the week before with 50 lb 12 oz. Des caught at 13 metres using DR's on the hook over GB laced with DR's.

The best part of the day was stopping in Winstones on the way back for sit down fish and chips - very nice washed down with a couple of glasses of red.

Result:

1. Des Shipp 50-12-0 peg 102
2. Stu White 44-13-0 peg 130
3. Gabe Skarba 37-02-0 peg 11
4. Pete Ziemniak 32-03-0 peg 96
5. Bela Bakos 28-08-0 peg 77
6. Craig Edmonds 29-01-0 peg 105

Weigh Sheets: