Bristol PSV Fishing Club: Viaduct, Cary, 17 March (9 pegs)

A strange thing happened to me this morning, apart from the alarm going off at 6 leaving me wondering what planet I was on (the joys of a night out in Kingswood with too much lager and a Rupali curry), I managed to find my way to Shipham cafe and add a large breakfast to the previous night's indulgences but on returning to the fishing bus I was greeted by a footwell full of someone's rubbish, and we're talking about not just the usual fag packet and sweetcorn tins but a proper month's worth of crap!
Luckily though, the perpetrator was not the brightest sandwich at the picnic as in amongst the collection of rubbish were a couple of payout envelopes, one with Alan Oram's name on (shows how long the rubbish had been hanging around) and the other belonging to Dean Malin.
So it was plainly obvious who the guilty party was and I will be looking forward to repaying the favour!
(Watch this space Dean)
Anyway, back to the fishing, and due to a few cancellations and 1 no-show we ended up with 9 fishing which was a bit disappointing considering that Viaduct is one of, if not, the best fishery in the South West but on the plus side, we all had plenty of room and according to Paul Greenwood we would be pleasure fishing (but what does he know).
Unfortunately though, for some unknown reason, the Cary carp weren't particularly hungry. Mark Radford over on peg 85 managed to snare a 9 pound fish on the tip on meat early as did Matt (the mugger) Taynton but his was hooked up the wrong-un and they soon parted company.
Ryan Radford on peg 99 was also in early but suffered the curse of the golden peg and was duly snapped off. Perhaps it's time Mark invested in some decent hooklengths!
It wasn't long though before peg 96 stirred into life and my tip rod was being torn off the rest by what turned out to be a 3lb skimmer that took a fancy to a couple of bits of corn. That one was soon followed by a slightly less substantial brother of the above and not long afterwards a similar sized hybrid. A few chucks later and the tip arched round again but this time the culprit wasn't giving up easily and after a bit of sweating and careful use of the clutch (my hooklength had a selfmade knot in the middle of it and I was too stingy to change it) up popped a quite large and very bewildered looking tench! It was apparent by now that the carp weren't feeding as nobody was getting any proper bites and two hours in most has chucked the tip rods up the bank and were on the pole.
Rocket Ron Hardiman on peg 100 was catching well at 14 & 16m but they were fish that even Mike Nicholls would have been ashamed of however tucked away around the corner on 102 Adam Caswell was getting some decent skimmers. Although I couldn't see him it was plainly obvious he was catching as he wasn't wandering around the Lake and he was making lots of noise! (empty vessels .... )
By now I had also ventured out on the pole, partly out of (lead-slinging) boredom and I didn't want to waste the four balls of groundbait I'd dumped in at the start. So out to 11m (can't go longer till I get my no8 section repaired) and as luck would have it the skimmers were queued up there but only small snotty things around 6 to 8oz that enjoyed playing silly games with my double maggot hookbait. Such as slowly dragging the float the opposite way to the tow or buggering about with tiny dips and lifts and very occasionally pulling the float under properly. I'd also fed the pallet of 97 with maggot and corn but that only produced a solitary pair-of-eyes that fell off and a 2lb skimmer that was lightly nicked in the pelvic fin but was safely netted after swimming round in circles a couple of times! Back out on the topped-up 11m line and the swinger-skimmers were getting even more finicky and eventually a few roach started to show which signalled time to dump the pole and have a last hour back on the tip. Sure enough, as luck would have it, the tip headed round in the direction of the opposite bank and this time something proper was on the end as it was pulling line off the spool and ploughing off towards the 80's. Everything held in place though and a 9-10 ghostie was in the net and just to round the day off another "proper" skimmer hung itself on the hair-rigged corn giving me a total of 31lbs 4oz and a well-deserved win. In fact it was that well deserved that the carp wasn't needed as it turned out!
Second on the day was Adam with 19-2 of skimmers on the lead and at 14m with maggot over groundbait. Viaduct resident expert Rich Jones on peg 86 was third with 17-2 again with all skimmers caught on 8mm meat over 6mm feed. Most of his fish came on the pole with a couple of odd ones caught on the tip about six feet away from my nets (but I don't mind sharing)! In all a hard but enjoyable day with the only regret being that Alan Healy was away on Bullocks duty with Dean the binman so I missed out on the satisfaction of taking another of his pound coins.
Meanwhile, next door on Campbell, Wiltshire Angling's match faired slightly better but was still off it's recent form.
Winner was Trowbridge's finest canal slayer and former Kingswood Construction trowel-hand, Jonny Atkins with 73lbs of foul-hookers from peg 117.
Apparently they weren't feeding but there were so many fish in front of him he couldn't help but hook them!

Full Result: