Bristol PSV Fishing Club: Viaduct (Campbell), 13/3 and a little bit of Staunton Court from last week!

First up then is a bit of an apology as many have probably noticed, maybe not, the psv blog updates have been a bit thin on the ground over the last few months.

The main reason being that after almost 25 years of "wedded bliss" the wife decided that she was no longer happy being a work / fishing widow and as a result life has been a bit strange for me over the last few months.
Not all bad news though as after losing one in the margins it didn't take too long to hook and land another one which means that Sunday's winnings?? are no longer going to Curry Kings in Kingswood but are now being spent at Mike's Kitchen in Frome (strange name for a Chinese takeaway but very nice food).
With all this travelling, house selling etc it has meant that fishing and blog writing has taken a bit of a back seat.
I have actually still been going fairly regularly but preparation has been almost non existent so to be honest, I've been making up the numbers on Sundays which is only any good for Alan Healey's pound coin collection.
Anyway things are looking a bit brighter now and I even introduced Miss Frome to the joys of elasticating topkits and cutting up tins of meat on Saturday night which she found quite amusing in a totally bemused kind of way .... she's a fast learner though and she can see better than me so some lessons in making rigs up may be overdue.

So anyway, back to the fishing and last week we were up at Staunton Court which is usually good for a few fish and in the colder months a possibility of some good nets of skimmers when they can get a look in past the carp.

Only 10 were booked in which meant there was no need to peg the end banks and therefore no need to make it pole only.

For some strange reason I had volunteered to pick Adam Caswell up which meant a detour to the wrong side of town but at least I got myself a free breakfast at Watersmeet which was nice even if Brian Shanks never got a grilled tomato on his.

I drew peg 3 which put me halfway up the concrete bank and the aerator to aim a lead at (which I expected would be my main line of attack).

I also set up a deep rig for out in front and later a margin / shallow rig.

Bait was corn with soaked micros for feed, no maggots as I never made it back from Frome in time to get any which was probably a good thing in hindsight.

For company I was sandwiched between the Radfords (father and son) and Brian Shanks was in peg 1 which is now devoid of the derelict platform but the legs are still there to provide entertainment value!

Chris Szakacs was "running a bit late" so he was donated peg 5 next to Ryan.

He was running that late that he actually never made it which gave Ryan quite a lot of room!

To cut a long story short Darren North ran away with it from the start.

Fishing in the "bin peg" he caught his first carp shallow out in open water and then caught a shed load fishing long into the corner margin with either meat or corn, or both (I don't remember) but either way he ended up well ahead of everyone else with a total of 75-1

Second place went to Ryan Radford with 56-8.

As for my match, I started off on the lead with corn in the vicinity of the aerator (and a few yards past it) and stared at a motionless tip for the best part of an hour before switching to the deep rig on the pole which eventually produced a small skimmer or 2.
Having seen Darren and Brian Shanks both catch shallow, a hastily assembled shallow rig produced a nice ghostie that was neatly hooked in the wing and I managed a further carp and a proper skimmer from my left margin for a fairly disappointing 17-8
My travelling partner faired worse coming last with 4lbs of silvers although he did manage 1 carp after the all out when he tried down his edge with a method feeder and the tip wrapped round within seconds ..... if only!

Full Result:

Darren North (10) ...... 75-1
Ryan Radford (4 & 5) ... 56-8
Brian Shanks (1) ........ 36-8
Mark Radford (2) ....... 35-3
Simon Belcham (7) .... 22-2
Steve Burgess (3) ...... 17-8
Pete Uzzell (9) .......... 16-10
Will Dearlove (8) ..... 11-0
Adam Caswell (6) .... 4-0
Chris Szakacs .... running a bit late!

Moving on a week saw us on Campbell at Viaduct so a bit of good fortune would be required at the draw.

A nice short drive for me today and no breakfast stop as Miss Frome had got up and made me bacon sandwiches.

I had told her I'd like to draw either 114 or 127.

For a change I sneaked into the queue early and nailed 128, no complaints as it's in the right area and had framed on the Saturday.

For company today I had Matt Taynton on 127 (he likes to be close to me) and Derek Williams hiding behind the safety of the spit on 129.

Typically, Alan Healey was looking smug opposite on 114 and Keith Ray and Pete Uzzell were making the most of the shade on a nice spring day in 112 & 111 respectively.

I set up the obligatory tip rod plus rigs for13m out in front and over to the spit.

Only one bait for the day and that was meat and an unopened tin of corn just in case but it stayed unopened.

No big surprises today as the carp were still concentrated mainly in the middle of the lake.

Keith got off to a bit of a flying start, as did Alan and Derek, all three hooking carp more or less from the off, as did Nick Sanders up in 119 although that was a false dawn and his day went "tits up" from then onwards.

I had liners on the first two casts followed by a big skimmer and from then on, odd carp on the lead / meat.

It wasn't hectic action though and by midway through the match I was up to about 10 carp plus the skimmer and a stray tench, but I seemed to be holding my own although I had a feeling that Alan and Keith had 1 or 2 each more than me and I had no idea what Derek had except from the procession of bank-walkers who reckoned he "had a few".
It was however far more hectic than many others were experiencing.
Mark Radford was crying in peg 132 and doing his best to convince Steve Sewell and Matt Williams that none of them were going to catch anything.
Chris Szakacs was getting restless in 123 and had joined Adam Caswell in the queue at the lodge for maggots, Will Dearlove had given up all hope of ever catching a carp again and Ryan was moaning almost as much as his dad.

By now I was getting bored of waiting for the tip to go round and was itching to have a look on the pole lines I'd been feeding but a quick look on both never produced a bite which was a bit of a pisser as I was expecting a few fish to have moved in on the end of the spit.
I had also been throwing bits of meat into the right corner margin so I gave that a try and it didn't take long for the float to bury resulting in a very angry F1
The next fish beat me in the tug of war competition and pulled free under the brambles but I managed to get the third one in successfully but then I hooked a right lump that after taking me under the brambles, under my platform (twice) and knitting a pattern through my keepnets, made a second attempt at getting in the brambles and smashed the rig up.
I chucked the lead back out while I tried to remake the rig and that went round twice during the re-tackling process (should have stuck with it) and I managed another fish from down the edge before Will shouted the all out.
Apparently Derek had had a really good last hour and weighed in 120-12 to win it, followed by Alan with 109-7 (I still lost a pound) and Keith wasn't far behind with 97-6
My efforts totalled 94-7 for 4th place and the section which I was pleased with.

Full Result: