On Saturday it was another Fish South Qualifier at the Viaduct and the weather had been brutal with plummeting temperatures and loads of matches being called off due to frozen lakes. On Friday it was confirmed the match would go ahead as Campbell was largely ice free with the exception of a couple of pegs at either end but people were advised ice breakers might be needed (not that I own one!).
There was an insane line up of talent present including Will Raison, Mikey Williams, Andy Cranston, John Harvey, Rob Williams, Trig, Ads Palmer, John Fuidge, Sam Williams, Dave Willmott and Stu White to name a few. Organiser Jon Cook said there were eight of last years finalists fishing including the top four.
Draw time arrived and I was hoping for a peg on the near side after being on the far bank the last four times I’ve fished Campbell. I was near the end of the queue and there were a couple of great pegs left in the bucket including 110. Although I avoided that one, I did get my wish of being on the near side with 113. Not knowing the venue that well, I was feeling quite optimistic until somebody said my peg is set right back which isn’t great when you need to fish as long as possible at this time of year.
Nick drew 112 which is on a spit that put him around 6 metres further out than me and Ads was on my right and also set back a bit as well. The lake was flat calm and the anglers on the iced up pegs at the bottom end (Will and John) were having real problems trying to clear it.
I set up a 4 x 14 Preston Innovations F1 Maggot and a little 0.3 gram F1 Carbon Slim for 14.5 and 16 metres plus a 0.2 gram float for fishing up the edge for perch (not used). On the side tray were the usual maggots, casters and pinkies plus some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark groundbait.
On the whistle I fed a little nugget of groundbait and a few pinkies on the right hand 14.5 metre line and then approx 100 casters at the same distance angled to the left. I started with single pinkie on the gb line but as expected it was a slow start for most apart from Mikey over on 126 who was catching some decent perch.
After an hour, I slipped a caster on and tried the left hand line, my first bite resulted in a carp tearing off before snapping me! Another thirty minutes or so passed before my next indication, this time it was the intended species and a decent skimmer got me off the mark. I was hopeful of a few more but no more indications on either line and from what I could see, only odd fish were coming out apart from Mikey and Andy Cranston on 111 who was now regularly netting skimmers. Will and John were still fighting a losing battle trying to clear their swims of ice and hadn’t even managed to start fishing yet!
With two hours gone and still only one fish in the net, I added the 16 metre section and went just past the feed. A bite quite quickly resulted in a perch around a pound but again it appeared to be a one off. Ads was catching some chunky perch and then Nick had three decent skimmers in quick succession. I decided to bite the bullet and go a full section past the feed at 16 metres and after a short wait, the float sunk from view and a big fish came straight to the top. Initially I thought it was a carp that hadn’t woken up yet but was actually a big skimmer of probably 3.5lb!
I was toss potting casters at 14.5m on both lines but fishing past at 16m and netted my third decent skimmer just as Part Time Priv turned up to see how we were doing. Shipping back out, I was expecting another wait for the next bite, but the rig settled and went straight under with another skimmer. I had two more and missed an indication in as many chucks and although I knew I was a long way behind Andy and Mikey, it felt like a decent finish was on the cards.
There was still over half an hour left and next chuck I hooked a fish that went off like a carp but then stopped and had me hoping it might be a big perch until it found a second wind and went again, this time it wasn’t stopping and snapped me. Not the end of the world and after putting a new hooklength on, I was soon back out. There were obviously some fish there now as the float went under only for me to bump it and the rig spangled round the pole tip!
Shipping back I was hoping it wasn’t going to be too bad but it was a right mess and I stupidly spent five minutes trying in vain to untangle it, all the time very aware there were fish out there and time was running out! I finally came to my senses and chucked that top kit up the bank, the trouble was, neither of my other rigs was quite right and I only managed one small roach in the remaining time.
As we were packing up, the scales started over on 132 and I was half keeping an ear out for the weights and it had fished quite hard, 11lb odd was top until they reached Mikey who’d put together an excellent 29lb of big perch and skimmers. Will had gone after a couple of hours and then the next decent weight was John Harvey on our side with 16lb 9oz, Ads had 11lb+ and then my fish went 16lb which was a bit more than I thought but I knew that disastrous tangle and my poor prep was going to cost me.
Nick chucked back three decent skimmers and a big perch, Andy Cranston weighed an excellent 31lb 5oz to win the match and qualify and then Rob W on 110 was third with 22lb 6oz. Photo credits – Fish South/Viaduct*
Andy Cranston won the match and qualified with 31lb 5oz of skimmers*
Mikey Williams came close with 29lb 4oz of big perch and skimmers*
1 – Andy Cranston (Preston Innovations) – 31lb 5oz
2 – Mikey Williams (Guru) – 29lb 4oz
3 – Rob Williams (Viaduct) – 22lb 6oz
4 – John Harvey (Sensas) – 16lb 9oz
So fifth and 9oz off framing from one of the not so fancied pegs was a really good result in that company considering it’s not a venue I fish much but it didn’t stop me chuntering to myself on the way home as there was a definite chance of framing if I’d done things a bit better.
Obviously not having a duplicate rig was costly, I’ve missed a few bites and bumped a fish and I probably should have pinged a few casters with a catapult. Also, although I caught fishing past the feed, I didn’t know whether I should have fed at 16 metres but was worried the fish might have backed off out of reach. Still a nice days fishing and I felt like I learned quite a bit.
£2.25 each from Nick P and me took the Nugget-O-Meter total to £88.50.
There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling
Also I still have copies of my book available from eBay here or Amazon here
And if you could spare five minutes to leave a nice review on Amazon, it would be very much appreciated.
Next up – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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