viaduct teams of 5 round 5 and last

all i wanted to do was try and avoid pulling draw 16 out of the hat , so what do i go and do. yep draw 16 sticks to my hand meaning i end up on the dreaded peg 21 in the corner of spring, with no chance of any skimmers but there can be an outside chance of a carp down to the empty peg 22 pallet but no one has had one there this year and i,m not sure whether one was caught there last year either. going into this match i was top indivual on 72 pts with ray hayward 3 pts behind but he was on peg 2 on spring so i think i would need a carp or have ray to blank to stand any chance of staying on top, i have to say i never even saw ray smile when he saw where i was drawn(not). i,m not going to say to much about my match as it went pretty much as i expected with no bites down to the pallet on mag, caster or corn. i did get a bonus 2lb perch at 4 mtrs on caster about 10 mins in, the rest of my fish in the shape of small roach at 13 mtrs on caster or mag over g bait , but i was aching by the end as firstly it was raining with a gusty wind blowing in and slightly right to left, then the rain stopped and the wind increased to gale force, spinning me round on my box several times, and to make matters worse i was opposite ray and it took him 3 hours to get a bite from a carp then he had another about an hour later so that was the overall taken care of , i just hoped my dismal weight would keep me ahead of the chasing pack, my 4.14 gave me 8pts but with andy power, bob gullick and des shipp having done well it was going to be a tight finish
individuals on the day
dave roper 135.12 peg 97 0n the bomb and maggot
des shipp 134.9 peg 113
jason radford 93.1 peg 86
bob gullick 80.3 peg 127
paul homewood 78.2 peg 115
silvers
vince brown 23.12 peg 18
john moody 20.5 peg 43
dean malin 20.2
teams on the day
thatchers youth ft mark harper 70
somerset angling 69
dynamite baits/awa shima/viaduct select all 67
garbolino bmvmg 64
moaning maggots 62
maver veals red 58
jinx 51
v all stars/team viaduct both 50
landsend 49
sonubait thatchers 45
avon angling 42
veals blue 31
silver fox 29
somerset majik 28
toss pots 26
amigos 23
final table
thatchers youth ft mark harper 335(good score)
somerset angling 308
moaning maggots 304
viaduct select297
garbolino bmvmg 264
maver veals red 262
avon angling 256
dynamite 251
amigos 250
toss pots 242
awa shima 228
silver fox 224
maver blue 222
viaduct 217
sonubait thachers 216
allstars 214
jinx 213
somerset majik 191
landsend 182
overall individuals
ray hayward 85
tony rixon 80
des shipp 79
andy power 78 209.01lb
bob gullick 78 188.6lb

viaduct teams of 5 round 4

firstly the paul garrett memorial match is on the 24th march and it will be the first day of pellets being allowed, so book in at viaduct on 01458 274022
back to the match today and it was my turn to be on the match lake and a bit of spring, and i wasnt to happy to end up on peg 49 which is a corner but it hasnt shown any form this series with a pound being a good weight, i set up a wag to fish at depth to the island with maggot and caster, a .2 pole rig to fish 2 lines out in front , one over g bait and the other just over caster. with an 18 6313 on .10 and a 2x10 rig for down the right hand margin again with the same hook but on .12.
at the start i cupped in 2 balls of g bait at 2 o,clock and some casters straight out, and some down the right hand margin at 13 mtrs and fired some casters to the island, beginning on the wag i was soon getting bites from small roach but they kept dropping off which i just put down to them being to small to stick, while i was doing this jamie parkhouse on 50 had begun catching odd small carp on a small g bait feeder with maggot cast close to the island , then i had a spell when i lost 3 fish on the bounce which felt like good skimmers, the hook looked ok but i changed it anyway and next cast i had a 10oz skimmer then it went quiet so i left the wag and went down the edge , as stu foale round the corner on 48 had been getting some small carp down his margin, i soon had a couple of f1,s and lost a 2 1/2lb carp at the net, then i couldnt get a bite there again, so back out on the wag with single maggot and i had a few more skimmers and a couple of f1,s but jamie was still getting fish on the feeder,(perhaps i should have set one up after all, that will be another bollocking from dean then).the rest of the match was spent rotating around the various swims , with the fish not wanting to stay anywhere for to long so it was hard to get anything lined up, but there were enough bites to keep the interest up, there were some skimmers to be had on the pole line for a while but again you would get 1 or 2 then nothing, so by the end i thought i had about 18lb and was pleasantly suprised to put 24lb on the scales and a 4th on the lake,the section was won by martin preston on peg 3 on spring, and both mark harper on 2 and jamie next to me had over 30lb.
the match was won by andy power on peg 80 cary lake with 109lb of carp on the wag up in the water, i never waited for the full results but i,m sure they will be found on mike nicholls blog(silverfox angling)failing that i will put them on here tomorrow.
1st andy power 109.1 peg 80, 9 carp on meat fished off the deck on the waggler, biggest fish 18lb
2nd chris sandford 72.8 peg 119
3rd nick collins 62.8 peg 127
4th john dewsbury 53.8 peg 116
5th tom(and not a soft pellet in sight mr anon)thick 52.14 peg 128
6th tim pallant 51.01 peg 66
silvers
r ahern 23.6 peg 18
m harper 20.9
teams on the day
thatchers youth FT mark harper 80
moaning maggots 77
amigos 65
viaduct select 61
overall
thatchers youth FT mark harper 265
moaning maggots 242
somerset angling 239
viaduct select 230



avon angling now in 7th with 214

viaduct teams of 5 round 2

my turn on cary section today and if there was one peg i fancied it was 102 , but into the draw and out comes draw number 8, which put brian shanks on 118 , me on 85 , ron hardiman on 56 , clayton hudson on 40 and tim clark on 12 , not the best team draw and i arguably drew the best peg for myself again according to tim and ron. it was going to be a rare day for me as all i took the peg was a lead rod rod and a light wag rod (no pole)as the silvers werent playing ball and most were falling to caster over loose fed caster on the wag but with this peg being a bit of a carp peg silvers were only really to be for an emergency in case i was blanking to get a point, this lake is my least favourite during the winter as due to the shape it means lots of us would be chucking our leads to the same area of the lake which can cause some friction at times but today most of us kept to our own areas with only a couple of moans, the wag rod was assembled with an 18 6313 hook on .12 and the lead rod had a 5/8 lead on and a hook on .20 for popped up maggot to begin with, i scrounged 2 soft artificial floating maggots from lewis greenwoon on 87 one of which was threaded on the line above the hook then i put 4 dead maggots on the 16 xedion hook and launched it about 50 mtrs and i got liners straight away as did most people judging by the comments going round but apart from dave(the lead)white on 102(i wanted that one)who had 2 fish in the first 15 mins fishing meat on the lead(i think)well short of the aerater and even in his own peg.90 mins in and only liners and no proper bites on a vatiety of baits i had a quick look on the caster line but after a 10oz skimmer and a small roach so that was chucked up the bank(blank saved), back out on the lead and still liners so after 30 mins of that , i wandered up to 87 and borrowed a stronger wag rod off fabio and went back and put it together with a 4grm middy fat boy float with a xedion 16 on .16 for corn and maggot but after a few chucks it became apparent that it was to light to get the desired distance, so i changed it to a 10inch drake bodied waggler , which was much better cos at least i could launch it 40 to 50 mtrs and i think i hoked a fish second chuck but it came off halfway in which was annoying as it felt lip hooked but i will never know, i stayed on the big wag till the end of the match and ended up with 6 carp all taken on 4 mags on the hook, i lost another 4 foulers and missed a few bites which may have been small fish , but more likely liners , shallowing up never worked as the float was moving through a bit with the gentle left to right breeze so i left it slightly over depth to slow it down, my 6 carp went 59lb and three silvers(i had a ruffe)went 12oz for 59.12 but poacher white on 102 ended up with 9 fish for 90.12(well done)
the match was won by dave cockayne on 115 with 126.14 using meat on the wag and lead
2nd dan squires 111.3 on peg 8
3rd john danby 110 on peg 64
4th dave white 90.11 peg 102
5th nick(it must have been solid)chedzoy 87.5 peg 113
6th alan oram 78.5 peg 119
silvers went to des shipp on 61 with 26.11 of skimmers on caster at 16 mtrs
teams on the day
viaduct select 74
thatchers veterans 62
silver fox 61
viaduct allstars 61
thatchers pi 60
avon angling
somerset majik
moaning maggots and somerset angling all with 58 pts
overall
viaduct select 128
toss pots and somerset angling both 124
avon angling 109
thatchers veterans
moaning maggots and thatchers pi all 107

viaduct teams of 5 round 1

19 teams fishing this series so with 95 anglers on the bank there was going to be some dodgy draws in the hat, but not for me i ended up on 110 which is a corner peg on cambell, its a peg with a lot of form as a lead peg this time of year with the end bank being the usual catching area so i tookj the lead rod to the swim but never put it together, as the wind was off my back i set the wag up unstead to fish on the deck , towards the end bank and straight out in front with corn on the hook , also put together were two pole rigs, one to fish caster over g bait at 16 mtrs at 1 o,clock angle and the same rig to fish caster at 11 o,clock, also a rig for caster down the edge by some brambles as some good perch do show here.
i fed all lines at the start and started on the wag over to the end bank, 2nd chuck i missed a bite then the problems with mink started with the little furry buggers swimming out from the bank under water doing a circuit of my float and going back under the bank, so i dont think i was going to get a bite there, so 45 mins in and i put about 12 inches on the depth and cast out in front at about 20 mtrs, by now martin preston on 131 had a couple of carp on his favoured popped up bread and i promised i wouldnt say anything about him fishing in my peg but it seems like standard practice at viaduct (like i,ve never done it myself)as the shape of the lakes sometimes means its unnavoidable, i now had a good 3 hours when i put 18 carp in the net then the last hour the fish seemed to move up the lake a bit as both myself and martin never had a fish in the last hour, i dont think it was a case of good angling it was just that the fish were sat between me and martin as dave white on 132 didnt get a bite until he chucked into martins peg and jamie parkhouse on 111 definately had more indications if he chucked back towards me , so they must have been really shoaled up.
i new it could be tight between me and martin to win the lake as although i had 18 carp martin had 13 but they were of a much bigger size with several of his fish going over 10lb but i only had 1 of that size but my net went 106.8 to martins 13 fish net of 93.1.
first on the day went to ray hayward with 115.8 on peg 25 spring i think he had 9 carp up to 20lb on waggler fished meat
2nd ben bentley 110.13 on peg 3 spring
3rd tony rixon 106.15 peg 110
4th john howell 93.6 peg 97
5th martin preston 93.1 peg 131
6th russ peck 74lb
silvers went to brian shanks on 37 with 16.14
teams
toss pots 72
somerset angling 65
amigo,s 61
8th avon angling 51
and the stongest team on the day was tom mangnals handpicked team of superstars, teamsilverfox 33 lol(honest tom i tried not to do it but my fingers ran away with me)
anyone interested i am running a pole only at avalon on weds, why a pole only , well its my birthday so i will do as i like