Bristol PSV Fishing Club: Viaduct, Campbell, 29 March

With gale force winds forecast this match was never going to be a showcase of angling skills but rather a case of drawing the right area and waiting for the tip to go round.
Not everyone's cup of tea but it was probably the most likely option to catch a few fish especially as we were now over a week into Viaduct's "pellet season".
But with two silvers payouts on offer there was still an opportunity for those that were brave enough to fish the pole to win a few notes.
The last ticket in the back of the van gave me 114 which was near enough in the right area but it was likely that the gale force winds churning up the water would spread the carp out a bit and that turned out to be the case.
Arriving at the peg it looked a bit daunting with the wind coming straight at me perched out on a platform that reminded me of sitting on the end of Weston pier in a hurricane!
I wasn't going to take any chances and set up just the tip rod and nothing else, so probably the quickest I've ever taken to get ready.
2 bags of 8mm pellet (although they looked more like 10's to me) and a tin of meat cut up that never got touched was all that was on the side tray.
My neighbours for the day were Ryan Radford on 113 and Adam Caswell on 115.
Adam, after his resounding win fishing the lead at Avalon a few weeks back was full of confidence and was keen to have a pound with me (which I kindly accepted) and oddly he also had a pound bet with Alan Healey that Darren North would beat him.
Adam, as well as setting up a lead rod, got his pole out and attempted to plumb up a rig in front of him at some ridiculous length before putting it all back away.
He does provide plenty of entertainment at times!
There's no point me going on too much about how the match went because, as expected, most fished the lead and most caught on it ... except Adam who got well and truly "chip-shopped" by myself and Steve O'Toole on 116.
Across the other side of the lake it was a similar story with Will Dearlove in 125 seeming to have the best of it early on, but Chris Szakacs on 123 turned the tables in the second half of the match.
Fishing the pole long into the corner with 8mm pellet Chris was on fire for the last couple of hours and was catching non stop.
To be honest, I was glad to see the match finish as even though I had caught a decent weight I'd had enough of the wind. I'd spent much of my day struggling with keeping my nets in the water, bait tubs on my tray and waiting for the wind to drop long enough either to cast a lead out or fire some pellets out.

And as for my attempts to light a cig up...

But that's my own fault but it won't be a problem for much longer as i am currently in the process of giving up the death sticks!!
Chris Gay in 132 had been relatively sheltered but had struggled to catch carp and instead had gone for the silvers.
Darren dnw'd in 131 (first of Adam's £'s gone) although Rich Jones then weighed in 120lbs off 130 but Alan had also struggled in 129 which was odd.
On our side of the lake Lionel Legge also dnw'd from 110, Derek Lucas found 102lbs from 111 but then Keith Ray struggled in 112 so almost a repeat of the opposite side.
The best weights though came from the top end and it ended up with 1 fish separating Chris and Will (123 & 125) with Chris taking the honours with 173-7 against Will's 170-1 but ....
Will had 10 fish in one net that went 82lbs which at Viaduct means the whole net gets disqualified, unfortunate but those are the rules.
Luckily for Will his revised weight of 88-1 was still good enough for a default section win.

3rd (2nd) went to Rocket Ron Hardiman with 120-13 from 127 closely followed by Rich Jones' 120lbs.

Top silvers went to Simon Belcham who top-kitted his way to 10-8, followed by Ron with 8-5 and Chris Gay's 7-4 which got him 2nd in the silvers pool by default.
A good days fishing then with seven weights over 100lbs but spoilt a bit by the weather conditions.

Full Result: