viaduct float only match

21 fishing today so we had the use of the match lake and 64 to 73 on lodge, as i thought lodge would take all the money i decided to pay out one overall then 3 sections of 50 quid and 3 silvers, one in each section, so everyone had something to fish for, and it seemed to work out ok. i let tom mangnal draw for me and i ended up on 70 lodge lake , which is halfway up on the left hand bank, and the gusty wind was slightly off our backs and left to right, with 66 and 73 in both end pegs on the bank with lots of cover, and with paul elmes on 66 and bela bakos on 73 it was always going to be hard , for company i had northern exile martin lenaghan on 71 and mosella,s very own towie star barry(reemed)fitchew on 69. i didnt set up loads today , a margin rig to fish caster each side but it was never used, a 4x12 impact 6 for banded 6 hard pellet over loosefed 4,s at 14 mtrs straight out and a wag rig to fish 8mm pellet out towards the middle, at the start i cupped in some 4,s on the pole line and fired some 8,s out in the middle, by the time i had finished feeding bela was already playing a carp he had hooked fishing down towards the tree in his margin, i missed a bite first drop then had to wait about 10 mins till i hooked my first skimmer of about 2lb, both barry and martin each side of me had begun on the wag and were both missing bites, so as neither of them had landed anything i stuck on the pole, catching skimmers on hard pellet, i tried an 8mm on the hook and the bites got better so i stuck with the bigger pellets in the band whilst still feeding 4,s with a catapult, by the halfway mark i thought i had about 30lb of skimmers and 4 smallish carp, bela had 5 carp and barry had 3, martin was doing his usual of losing more than his fair share , so as far as i could tell i was probably winning the lake by the halway mark, the only person i couldnt see was paul elmes on 66, but i could see some ripples coming from his peg so i new he had had a few, the 4th and 5th hour were spent on the wag where i had another 9 carp, but the last hour i couldnt catch on the wag so i kept swapping between the pole and wag but it wasnt until the last 20 mins that i had another few skimmers on the pole, so by the end i new it was going to be close between me and bela as he had 15 carp to my 13 but my silvers may just sway it, but it wasnt to be as bela weighed 129lb for first on peg 73
2nd was me with 126.13 which included the top silver weight of 38.9 peg 70
3rd paul elmes 88.2 peg 66
4th martin lenaghan 64.13 peg 71
5th steve skelton 60.12 peg 64
6th barry fitchew 59.3 peg 69
so as it turned out all the weights came from lodge as i half expected so the decsision to pay section rather than straight overall,s was probably the best option as the match lake fished hard with the top weight being 37.10 by tom mangnal on 43.
next sunday i am running a match at cilton trinity on wildmarsh lake so ring me at the shop to book in 01179517250

viaduct wednesday open

with 23 fishing steve put 16 on cambell and 7 on cary, obviously a draw on cambell is preferred so i was first into the draw tin , and what comes out ,96, good draw but with the cold north easterly blowing into me and slightly across it was always going to make float fishing hard, but to be fair the wind wasnt as strong as expected so the wag rods were assembled, one was a middy loaded clear float of 4grm with a 16 b960 on .18, the other wag rod had a big 10 inch bodied drake for stability if the wind got up, i did set up 2 pole rigs, one for 8mm pellet at 13 mtrs and another for corn over caster and corn down to the empty pallet of 95, i wont be mentioning either pole rig again as the margin job produced a 2lb skimmer and the 13 mtr line was slung up the bank after 20 mins at the start as lewis greenwood on 98 had caught a carp on the wag and pellet fished at depth and ray hayward over on 88 had caught as well, so out on the middy float and i soon had a good carp in the net so that was the rst of my match sorted , i stayed on the wag for the rest of the match, feeding 8mm when the wind allowed and 11mm when the wind got too strong, and fishing both sizes in the band, i ended up with 15 carp and 1 skimmer for well over 100lb as the carp average 8 to 12lb on this lake with fish over 20lb not uncommon, by the end it was clear that ray hayward over on 88 had won our lake and as it turned out the match aswell with 199.9 fishing the wag with 11mm pellet on the deck at 16 to 20 mtrs
2nd kev newman 167.3 peg 115
3rd kev molten 154.4 peg 128, and he had over 80lb in his 2 nets so he cost himself 2nd for not putting another net in
4th jim baines 143.11
5th tony rixon 142.15
6th alan oram 142..8
silvers went to martin preston on 123 with a very creditable 83.6 of mainly skimmers on popped up bread, oh no that was in the winter , this time he caught on banded 6mm fihed close in
and there were another 4 weights over 100lb which was suprising as it was so cold, it just goes to show that this is probably one of if not the best big weight venue in the south or perhaps the whole country as some days ther can be up to 20 weights over 100lb with several going over 200lb roll on summer !!!!!!!!!!!!

viaduct wednesday open

with 24 booked in there were to be 7 on match lake and the rest on spring, i fancied a draw on match but ended up with 8 on spring , an out and out carp peg as its another corner (dont you just love it dci gullick) with a died back lily bed off to the rigfht in the corner at 14 to 16 mtrs, the peg has no form for silvers so it was a day for carp only, i set up a 4x10 rig for the margins left and right on top of the shelf in 2 foot of water , a 4x12 rig for the bottom of the shelf in the right hand margin up to the weed bed and a 4x12 for out in front to again with carp in mind , so all rigs were on .16 with a xedion size 18 hook on the end.
at the start i fed all lines but began out in front at 14 mtrs at 10 and 12 o,clock and fished the 2 areas for an hour but i never had as much as a twitch and even though i gave the top of the shelf swim several goes i never had a bite there so that was 2 wasted rigs ,
to cut a long story short i had 9 bites on corn down to my right at the bottom of the shelf at varying lengths of pole between 10 and 16 mtrs , ending up with 3 carp, 3 goldfish!!!! and 2 good perch(on corn aswell) for about 40lb
first on the day went to phil(fabio)harding on peg 43 match lake with 42.10 of mainly f1,s with a few small carp and 1 good tench all taken on double and treble maggot on the waggler towards the island
2nd was me with 42.5 peg 8
3rd chris fox 31.3 on peg 47 using his now favourite method of bread on the lead
4th nick collier 30.10 peg 19
5th nigel bartlett 25.2 peg 45
6th steve hutter and adrian jeffery both with 21.7 on pegs 52 and 24 respectivley
silvers went to anton page with 15.6 on peg 42

teams rnd 6 and last, viaduct

we used match lodge and cary lakes today with one section on the 2 smaller lakes and 2 sections on cary , everyone fancied a draw on the match lake as it seems to be the best lake for a days fishing as there are plenty of skimmers, f1,s and smaller carp and with the mild weather still with us it looked like the best place to be . captain fantastic in the shape of andy bryant drew for us and the sequence of draws put me on 74 which is the first peg on the left hand side of cary, its an end peg at the shallower end of the lake but it has got the bonus of a large tree in the water to my right and it is a good peg in the summer but still normally good for a few carp even on the coldest day , so with pellets now not allowed on this venue i was pinning my faith on caster and corn, so i set up rigs to fish near the tree at 14 mtrs with a xedion 18 on .18(4x12), same for down the margin between the tree and the bank which is a bit of a suicide line and a light gig on .10 for caster each side at 5 mtrs as there have been some useful perch and hybrids showing in this peg and i set up a wag rod to fish corn out past the tree. at the start i cupped in some caster and corn into the 2 lines by the tree, fed some caster each side and fired some corn onto the wag line, starting on the wag no one was more suprised than me when i had a bite on the drop after 5 mins and lost a carp under the tree to my right, i thought that would be my only chance but 5 mins later i hooked another on the drop again but gave it less respect and netted a 7 pounder but apart from a slight wobble on the float that was the end of the wag sport until about an hour from the end and i had a 1lb skimmer, about halfway through i did get beaten up badly by a carp which took me under the tree and apart from some perch down the edge i had to wait till the last 15 mins to get me out of the mire when i had a 3lb carp on double caster out by the tree then next put in i had an 18.2 which pushed me into second in section with 36.5 but i was way behind the section winner , tom mangnol on 87 with 114.15
first on the day went to alan oram , dynamite baits with 183.9 on peg 96 of meat caught carp on the straight lead
2nd tom mangnol aa select 114.15 peg 87
3rd kev perry 106.5 thyers 106.5 peg 100
4th des shipp westerliegh 85.5 peg 68
5th clayton hudson avon angling 64lb
6th kev molton bynamite 47lb
silvers
des shipp 48.3 of pole caught skimmers on caster
TEAMS ON THE DAY
BMS 34
avon angling select 28
dynamite baits 28
westerliegh 25
charlies angels 24
thyers 24
avon angling 23
tims tarts 23
somerset angling 20
mats maulers 20
harriers 13
FINAL LEAGUE
BMS 57
mats maulers 49
thyers 46.5
dynamite baits 39.5
avon angling 37
avon angling select 37
westerliegh 35
charlies angels 34
somerset angling 32
tims tarts 21.5
harriers 7.5

weds practice at viaduct match and lodge lakes

for those who want tickets the viaduct xmas match tickets are now on sale and the match is on saturday 10th dec tickets from the fishery on 01458 274022, also there is an open on cambell lake this sunday, again phone the fishery to book in.
back to today and this was run as a bit of a costcutter, only 17 quid instead of 25 so we had 22 turn up so only 11 on each lake, most people wanted to draw on the match lake so into the draw tin and out comes 64, the monk peg up in the corner of lodge lake, a peg which up until a few years ago was always rated as a match winning peg but it seems to have gone off the boil a bit , with the peg opposite being the more consistent as you can get right under the trees where the fish seem to be most happy, especially as the water has gone a bit clear, and with mike nicholls in this one (66)i couldnt see to many fish coming around to me , and thats how it proved to be with me hooking 5 in various places down the edge and landed 4 one of which went around the pallet and my nets but i managed to pass my topset under the pallet and my nets and still land the carp most of which was video,d by mike opposite so it may be on his blog. both mine and mikes fish were on the small side with my 4 plus 1 skimmer went 19.3 and mikes 7 went 41.5 and no coin for iether of us, the match was won by lee wherrett on 53 in the carpark corner of lodge with 92.3
2nd andy lloyd 56.7 peg 51 match lake
3rd phil harding 55.6 peg 59 lodge
4th steve woods 50.10 peg 50 match lake
5th mike west 46.13 peg 52 match lake
6th clint wojtyla 45.5 peg 48 match lake
silvers
rich coles 41.4 peg 47 match lake skimmers on the wag and caster
also avalon is running an xmas match on sunday 18 december , to book in you can ring me at the shop on 01179 517250

silvers final at viaduct

35 turned up today to fish for the 750 quid top prize, with cambell and cary being used i wasnt to sure as to where i fancied but i know i didnt want to be on 119 in the corner of cambell, but thats where i ended up. i had a quick chat with howard webb who was on it on wednesday just so i made sure i did the opposite as he had fxxx all, for company i had bobby gullick on 118 who was upset with an earlier blog when i called him the shepton mallet pixey he pointed out that he didnt live there as i should have known as he had the right number of fingers i now know he hails from midsomer(murders)norton,
so with the quid side bet struck it was into action. i would like to say i had a good day of catching skimmers over g bait lioke i did on weds but the lakes mood had changed with the skimmers being hard to tempt, and to be honest they were always going to be hard in my peg as it has more form for carp recently , any way i wont waste to much time telling you how or what i caught as i ended up with 14 lb for no good, well done nick collier for winning off peg 94 with a mixture of perch and skimmers for 34lb, i,m not sure who was second as both andy power and gary o,shea both had 28lb ish and as for DCI barnaby on 118 he was beaten like a stepchild as he only had 9lb, if he is the best midsomer norton has to offer then that town is right in the mire(sorry bob it had to be said lol),
oh well off to landsend tomorrow for the first round of the individual winter league, and its a double or quits on the pound with the DCI

silvers only at viaduct

21 fishing today so with 14 on cambell and 7 on cary, so plenty of room, i fancied a draw on cambell and thats what i got , 126 which is a good peg with lots of silvers potentially. for company i had dick bull on 127 and the world famous wheel barrow collector, colin dyer on 125. dick was convinced that the 6mm meat approach in g bait was the way to go whilst colin was on bare hooks all day as he knocked all his bait in whilst tackleing up, but the gimp came to his rescue with 2 pints of last weekends which was probably fresher than the stuff he knocked in.
i decided on the caster and g bait approach which has always been ok for me , so i set up a .5g rig for 11mtrs and 14 with an 18 6313 on .10 .
a 4x14 for 3 mtrs with the same hook and line for the 3mtr line and loose fed caster and a 4x10 for each side margin on .12 with the same hook, slightly stronger line as some good perch have been coming out from the margins. at the start i cupped in 4 balls at 11 mtrs and 2 at 14, fed some caster at 3 mtrs and each side, starting at 3 mtrs first put in and i had a 1lb plus skimmer, next drop a small roach, then nothing so a switch to single maggot but that was rubbish as all i had was a couple of tiny whitebait roach, i stuck with this for an hour and did get another better skimmer but i was going nowhere fast so out to 11 mtrs and missed a couple of bites before i connected with a 4oz skimmer, right species but to small then i had a carp, its supriseing how hard you can pull without busting .10 so with the 6 pounder duly netted and released i decided tput another ball in on each line as well as the 3mtr line and picked up the margin rig as colin had taken some good perch but i just had small roach, not a good sign as i didnt excpect to see those if there were any good perch there, so that was the end of that line the rest of the match was spent on the g bait lines fishing single caster catching skimmers of various sizes , but i think the bright sunshine and colder temps put the fish off a bit and the violent hail storm halfway through might not have helped ,i was glad i had my back to the wind.
the bites on cambell slowed right up in the last hour whereas some of the people on cary started catching some quality skimmers during this period including mash on peg 100 who ended up winning with 38.5 of skimmers over g bait and micro,s
2nd went to roland lucas on 102 with 31.15
3rd was me with 31.10, i dropped of enough 4 oz skimmers trying to swing them, so the landing net will be used more on saturday
4th gary o,shea 29.10 peg 110
5th tim pallant 27.7
6th s woods 23.5 peg 129
carp were a bit of a problem but not to bad as i had 4 and lost 4 but others had more

weds costcutter at viaduct

there is a whole week of costcutters at viaduct this week with all matches being 15 quid except today it was 16 as its a qualifier, so as its a cheaper one a lot of people were going to treat it as a practice for the silvers final next saturday including me, so into the nescaffe draw tin and out comes 85 , probably one of the best carp pegs on the lake but as far as carp on this lake goes its turned into a lead chucking job (like i will be doing that), i left that to titch williams on 86 who is widely reputed to have been mat tomes,s mentor in his early years before he got his flip flops and became one of the new breed. mike nicholls drew my peg on sunday in the carps silvers league and really struggled a bit only having about 25lb so it was not really going to be easy. i decided to attack it a bit and fed mikes whole allowance of g bait at 13 mtrs (10 balls)laced with caster at the start, i fed 8mm pellets at 16 mtrs at about 1 o,clock and fired some 8,s 16 mtrs down the long margin to my right, also as mike had had and lost several good perch close down the right i fed some caster down there as well, the silver rig for the g bait line was a .5g affair with an 18 6313 on the the end on .10, the margin perch(hopefully)rig was 4x10 with the same hook and line, and both pellet rigs had size 16 b960 hooks on .18.
by the time i had fed all my lines the 16 mtr pellet line had a fizz on it so i went straight over it and was soon playing a carp of about 9lb which was duly netted, but that wasnt the plan for today so i kept feeding that line hopeing to keep the carp off my silver line , but that didnt work as the first two fish i hooked were carp, and they didnt stay attached for to long, once i,d lost those 2 the peg started to give up a few small skimmers and a tench but it wasnt going well, but tlike a fool i stuck with it trying to get a response and although i was getting small indications i struggled to get any proper bites, with there being no tow probably didnt help, i stuck with the silvers for nearly 4 hours even the perch line in the margin only gave me one of just about a pound then the tiny roach moved in and i dont do that.
it was about now that i heard trig edmunds on 88 shout i,m in then there was a big splash and he was in right up to his neck, but you will be all pleased to know that he was ok and luckily he managed to to keep his head dry so the expensive dust he puts on the bald spot to conceal it was still intact when emerged.
so with two hours to go i went down the edge with 8mm banded and never looked back catching another 10 carp up to about 15lb, this is where the hindsight word comes into play again as there were signs of fish down there quite early on but i ignored them and spent far to much time trying for the silvers, when paul arrived with the scales i ended up putting 15.13 of silvers on and and my 11 carp went 116.8 for a weight of 132.5 which was top on cary but onlt 6th on the day so only the section money.
first on the day was s thornton with 194.10 which included 36.11 on peg 110 all taken on maggot at 6mtrs to his left(thats a first)feeding about 4 pints throughout
2nd andy lloyd 157.14 peg 126
3rd r garner 145.7 peg 127
4th nick ewers 137.11 peg 116
5th tom thick 135.5 peg 128
6th tony rixon 132.5 peg 85
silvers went to the bridgwater model vince brown with 38lb on peg 90 which included some big perch down the edge on w&c

all winners final at viaduct

this was a winners match for all those that have won an open at the venue of ten pegs or more, with a thousand pounds up for grabs for the winner, but looking around at the draw there were a lot of good anglers to beat so a good draw on cambell would be nice but no , what do i go and draw peg 76 on cary, not one of my favourite pegs with it having more form as a lead chucking peg casting it towards the aerater on 78 meaning a cast past 77 is called for to reach the desired spot. so with the wind being not to bad i set up a wag to fish on the deck in that area, a pellet rig for the pole at 14 mtrs, a dapping rig and a meat rig for the tree to my right which would double up as a paste rig as it was the same depth at 14 mtrs, i wont waste to much time talking about meat as i only had one roach on that and i didnt have a bite on paste, i lost 2 foulers on the pole and pellet and had 1 skimmer and there didnt seem to be any fish in the swim so most of the last half of the match was spent on the wag i had 5 carp on that for 45lb and lost 7 more foulers all i could get was some liners and very few proper bites and i had the impression there wasnt that many fish in the area, perhaps the lead may have got me a few more but i will never know, opposite mat parsons had the right idea as he fished meat at 8 mtrs ending up with 9 carp for 104lb but that was only good enough for a section win ,as expected it was won off cambell 119 by my best mate dean malin(did i mention we were going halves) with 35 carp on pellet to the end bank margin for 174.3(mint)
2nd went to phil cardwell on 123 with 142.2 on popped up bread
3rd craig trigger edmunds 123.13 peg 126
4th martin preston 120.2 peg 85
5th mash 108.9 peg 131
6th jason mills 105.9 peg 118
so it was a good day and well done dean as he had to beat a class field to win
just another little gem from deans world . on the way to the match we got round to discussing emotions and that love and hate are said to be very close as emotions go, so after a few seconds lost in thought dean pipes up and say,s "well i must just dislike everyone then". he is a star

viaduct weds

i think 27 booked in so we were on cambell and a slice of cary so again steve gave all a bit of space, i felt better this morning as i had no alchohol tues night, and i may never drink again as its never really agreed with me, anyway back to the draw and out pops 76, it was the end peg on this bank today and with plenty of fish showing and a nice colour to the water i thought i may get a few, with cambell suffering from a nasty brown algae bloom and very few fish showing i thougth cary may be the place to be , i had a bit of a chard ressy reunion going on around me with alan(picky)gage on 78 and steve chant and mike hosgood behind me which always brings back some good memories from the chard spring series and the ressy matches run by the legendary les broughton, oh well back to 76 and i set up a shallow rig for the pole also a 4x12 pellet rig for on the deck which i could have changed to a 4x10 as the levels are right down, its that shallow at the moment i nearly thought i was sat at bullocks farm(sorry steve)also a paste rig (yep you heard right)and a wag rig, i have been using the middy clear loaded floats this year as they cast like a dream and you can swap floats without changing the shot as eacc float in each size takes excactly the same ammount of shot, the pellet rigs all were on .18 with 16 b960 hooks while the paste rig had a 12 anchor on, with the fish averaging 9lb ish on this lake with fish up to and over 20lb i only had 8mm for feed and bait with me so i cupped some at 14mtrs ,threw some under the tree to my right and fired some to 25mtrs for the wag. out on the pole and there were bubbles coming up already and with a 10lb fish in the net after 10 mins i thought a good day was in the offing and to be honest the peg was full of fish as foulers became a real problem and no matter what i did with the feed nothing seemed to help, if i stopped feeding the fish dissapeared, a big pouchfull just had the fish tearing the bottom up and another fouler, feeding 2 or 3 at a time resulted in the fish coming up but these fish on here are hard to fool in open water as they spook away. i did get one on the paste and 2 on the wag one of which was foulhooked ending the day with 7 carp and 4 skimmers for 71lb, during the day i fed about 5pts of pellets which may have been to much but talking to andy lloyd who won our lake off 86 with 135lb he had put 8pts in on the pole line alone whereas i had fed 3 lines so perhaps i didnt put enough in who knows , if we had all the answers it wouldnt be as much fun would it, i,m not sure of the excact result except that miles levy should have won but as he had 89lb in one net and 80 in his second and with a 70lb net limit i think he ended up in 4th place, the match was won by craig tucker on 112 with 165lb with his mate dan on 126 with 163lb , one of the new breed in the shape of phil(fabio)harding on 116 was 3rd with 150lb plus on the wag, so even with the water being an odd colour cambell was still the place to be , it just goes to show what an excellant well run fishery it is

viaduct match lake

this isnt going to take me to long to write as i didnt catch to much today , and with 2 bloggers to my right in the shape of tim ford on 46 and chris fox on 47 and with both of them catching considerably more than me i will let you read there blogs as it makes far more interesting reading, i let andy bryant draw for me so i ended up on 47 which is a corner peg with a long margin to a reed bed which sometimes produces some small carp and tench so in set up a rig on .16 and i did get 4 small carp down there and lost a couple as they are faster than me and made the weeds before i could pull them out , also my banker method of micros and caster fished at 13 and 16 mtrs which has served me well in recent matches failed me today with only 9 skimmers making it to the net.

the match was won by tim ford on 46 with 35.7 which comprised of 12lb of skimmers and the rest carp down the edge on corn , fair play to tim as it isnt generally a peg you would want .

2nd was dave evans on 49 with 32lb of maimly carp on meat on the waggler

3rd dean malin 27.9 peg 43

4th clayton hudson 26.10 peg 45

5th chris fox 25lb peg 47 and it was the top silver weight made up of skimmers on the pole then on the wag towards the end

6th t rixon 16.6

the lake fished harder than expected possibly due to the rain we had overnight as it can have an effect on the oxygen levels, thats the best excuse i can think of though lol

viaduct weds lodge lake

with clubs having booked cambell and cary there was to be a small open on lodge lake and as i hadnt fished it since we had to break the ice i was looking forward to it. into the draw tin and out comes peg 60 which is the third peg up on the right hand bank, for company i had dave white on 59 and the gimp on 62 so with an empty peg to my right i decided to fish and feed 8mm pellet on a slight angle at 14 mtrs towards the empty peg, so i set up a 4x12 rig with the usual 16 b960 hook on .18, a shallow rig just in case ,and a meat rig for the margins but i wont mention that again as it was roach city down there, with them turning a square piece of meat into a small marble in seconds. i set up a depth wag rig with one no 10 down the line with a 14 hook for pellet at 25 mtrs.

at the start i cupped in some 8,s at 14mtrs and began firing 8,s on the wag line, it was a very slow start with only lee w(h)errett on 66 catching on paste on the edge of the tree,s, and dave white had had his bell rung a couple of times on pellet on the lead(i promised not to call him a sea angler ,but i lie). it took nearly an hour to get the first fish in the net in the shape of a 5 pounder , after a couple of hours i had moved on to 3 whilst dave next door had snared about 6 on his uptide outfit and lee on 66 was still catching but his fish were on the small side, dave had a go on the shallow wag and caught 2 carp but they seemed to dissapear for him so he had to revert back to the lead to keep catching . the middle 2 hours of the match i spent on the wag but that only produced 2 fish but one of them was about 14lb. i had been firing 8,s over the pole line but a switch to cupping seemed to get more bites as the fish stayed on the bottom ,whereas when i was using the catty the fish seemed to want to come up but i couldnt get a bite on the shallow rig . i ended up with 10 carp and 3 skimmers for an estimated 80lb ish.

the day was won by dean malin on 56 with 104.12 mainly thanks to a late run of carp to 18lb on the long pole with 8mm pellet

2nd went to lee werrett with 94.14

3rd dave white 94.2

4th t rixon 90.10

5th colin dyer 61.2

6th s kedge 49.1 which included top silver weight of 32.1

viaduct weds

with a strong south westerly with showers forcast a draw out of the wind would be nice , but it wasnt to be as a drew 114 which is a good peg but with the wind coming in and across from the left it makes the tow go in the same direction as the wind making presentation hard with float rigs blowing along and foulers being a problem , so i should have set up a lead but i havent seen my lead rod rod for over 12 months that was going to be a problemi set up 2 rigs for meat ,one for the margins 4x10, and one for 5 mtrs 4x14 both on .18 with a xedion 14 hook ,and a 4x12 rig for pellet at 13 mtrs with a 16 b960 also on .18.
after cupping in some 6,s at 13 mtrs and feeding some meat at 5mtrs and in each margin i began at 13 mtrs but with no real fizzing to speak of the signs werent good and it took me 35 mins to get a bite and land my first fish which was a good skimmer, and another hour to get my first carp, looking around no one was really setting it on fire, but with most getting odd carp i was already behind , the bankwalkers were saying thar jason radford on 119 was catching well on the lead and with mat tomes behind me on 76 getting odd fish it seemed all over apart from the shouting.my meat line at 5mtrs produced a few bream but the rig was blowing through even quicker there and the margin yielded 3 carp and a tench and with another 7 carp and a some more skimmers but that was no good today my combined silvers and carp went79.9 with andy lloyd winning the section off 112 with 92.14
first on the went to jason radford who managed to to stay off his phone long enough to catch 147.9 casting a pellet to the end bank on the straight lead
one good fish away on peg 80 was mash with 139.2 on pellet on the lead
3rd mat tomes with 130.2 pellet on the lead
4th craig edmunds 118.12 peg 123
5th chris fox 101.9 peg 132
6th dean malin 100.15 peg 127
silvers went to craig edmunds with 47.14 all on meat
hmmm now let me see where did i last see my lead rod

viaduct match lake

it wasnt hard to fill this match as there are only 14 pegs on the lake and it tends to be quite fair ,but a draw on the right hand side of the lake was favourite as the bulk of the skimmers seem to prefer that side at the mo and they are the target species with the carp and f1,s being the bonuses , but that will change as the carp grow, back to the draw and i let dean draw for me and i ended up on 51 which is the right side of the lake and i had dean for company on 52 and joe thompson on 50 , both of which were going to concentrate on the feeder which was good news for me as i was going to fish the pole at 13 and 16 mtrs with caster over caster and micro pellet mix, so i set up two 4x10 rigs with 18 middy 6313 hooks on .10 .
at the start i cupped in half a large pot of casters with a few micro,s at 16 mtrs and just a small pot of the same at 13 , beginning on single maggot at 13 mtrs i never had a bite fot 30 mins while shane caswell on 47 ahd caught a few skimmers and dean next door had some fish on the feeder, so after 35 mins i put a caster on went back out to 13 and the float went straight under, but i missed it(liner)the caster was still in place so i lowered the rig back in and it went under and a 12oz skimmer was safely netted , 3 more followed quickly before the swim died so i cupped a few more casters and pellets and started to get more indications followed by a few more skimmers then it slowed again, so i refed and went out to 16mtrs and had some more skimmers and by feeding each line and knicking a couple from each line i had bites right through the match , i did set up an at depth wag to fish 8mm pellet to the island but that only produced one 2lb carp, i did miss a couple of bites on the wag and bumped a fish but it was to hard as the willow tree,s were shedding there clingy horrible white fluffy bits making it impossible to sink your line so the float was getting dragged back towards you producing zero presentation, so the rest of the match was spent on the pole between the 2 lines , and by the endi reckoned on about 35lb which was good as far i could see , dean next door had taken a run of late fish down the edge but i didnt think it would be enough, and so it proved as my silvers went 38.6 and my 4 small carp weighed 5.4 for a total of 43.10 for first
2nd went to martin mcmahon on 45 with 35.13 of mainly small carp on the feeder
joint 3rd went to dean malin on 52 and tom mangnall on 40 both with 29.3
5th eddy wynne 26.10 peg 48
6th chris fox 25.11 peg 46

weds viaduct

25 booked in so we were on cambell and a bit of cary, a draw on cambell would be nice as cary was still being a bit hit and miss. into the bucket and out comes 130, right lake but not the best of pegs of late , and i was informed that the angler on it the day before never had a carp bite all day and never weighed at all, i did txt mr hudson and ask him how he fished it so i could do the opposite lol(sorry ian)but he never got back to me in time so i made up my own mind.
normally this peg is in the sun all day but with leighton palmer opposite casting a shadow over the lake it may be a bit chilly, i cant see him retaining his slimmers world slimmer of the year title next year, perhaps me and him should get together for a slim off challenge for a quid.
anyway back to 130, 4 rigs , a mear rig for the margins(never had a bite), a meat rig for 6 mtrs(1x6oz skimmer), and 2 pellet rigs for 14mtrs , one shallow on .18 with a 16 b960 and a 4x12 for using at full depth but with most the shot under the float with only 3x no10,s down the line to try and catch on the drop, the 14 mtr line was going to be attacked with 6mm fed through a catty and with 8mm on the hook.
for company i had jim baines on 132 who sloped off well before the end and on 129 the irrepressable mr charles barnes who was setting his stall out (eventually)for a meat attack at 9mtrs for silvers, so i did end up with a lot of water to draw from,
at the start i did cup one lot of 6,s at 14 mtrs and fed some meat on the 2 closer lines but as i have already said it never realy happened on those lines, but to be fair i didnt give them a proper go as there appeared to be enough fish at 14 mtrs to keep me enterained. i did manage a carp first drop in after about 5 mins but by now one of the new breed(lol)in the shape of the avon angling night watchman phil(fabio) harding on 115 had taken 2 and continued to catch and lose fish right through to the end as did lee wherrett on 110 although he lost far less than fabsy so that was first and second taken care of but in which order we would have to wait till the end.
as far as my match went i ended up with just over 20 carp and a few silvers, all but one being taken on the deep rig, there were some fish up in the water but the near gale blowing into and across it made shallow fishing to difficult with the rig getting blown along to fast for my liking, i did get one and lost a fouler but it wasnt right so most of the match was spent on the deep rig for a total weight at the end of 142.7
first on the day went to lee wherrett on 110 with 200.4 mostly taken on meat at 16mtrs out in front and down the left hand margin
2nd phil harding 174.1 peg 115 (he is suffering a bit of bridesmaid syndrome of late)
3rd andy lloyd 153.5 peg 88
4th tony rixon 142.7 peg 130
5th dean malin 140 peg 77
6th dan squire 125.8 peg 128
silvers went to kevin murch on 78 with 50.4 of meat caught skimmers at 6 mmtrs

viaduct weds match on the match lake

as there was a daiwa trade match on cambell and cary it was decided to run a small match on the match lake ,and with only 14 pegs on the lake it didnt take much filling.
i must admit to liking this this lake as its a venue that takes a bit of thinking about as its not a carp crunching fish race lake with you needing to catch a variety of different species to win, with good skimmers being the target fish at the moment, but there is a good head of small carp up to 4lb aswell as tench and f1,s with some goldfish thrown in for good measure. as fabio was fishing today i let him draw for me again and he handed me peg 50 which i wasnt to upset with as no one really knows as to where the fish are going to come from cos they seem to move round a bit on this lake, and the few matches we had on the lake last year saw the winners coming from all over.
i set up a margin rig just in case but never had a bite on that but i didnt expect to as i wasnt in a corner and all the pegs were in, so thats the last time i will mention that.
my main line of attack would be at 13 mtrs and 16 with a 4x10 impact 6 float (available again yay) with a 16 6313 on .12 . i only set up the 1 pole rig as there was only 5 inches difference between the 2 lines , and a wag rod to fish hard 6mm on the deck towards the island.
at the start i cupped in some softened micro,s at 13 mtrs and half a big pot of casters at 16 and squirted a few 6,s towards the island , starting with 4mm jelly pellet at 13 mtrs i never had a bite in the first 10 mins which was a bit unusual as last year you could expect a bite first drop, so after 10mins it was on with double maggot and i hooked a 6oz skimmer on the drop ,which i tried to swing and it fell off, so back out and a 1lb skimmer was safely netted, i kept the odd skimmer coming for the first couple of hours on the 13 mtr line then it died , i found the best way to feed today was to fish for each fish as you needed to kinder some bait in and i found miro,s mixed with some casters then fish straight on top of it, you would get e fish almost straight away , but hardly ever 2 , very strange so it was a case of reeding after each fish , sometimes you would get another instantly or you would have a 5 to 10 min wait for another bite and the fish seemed to prefer single caster over maggot on the hook, at about the halfway mark i had a look on the wag and in tha next 45 mins i had 3 carp to 4lb and an f,1 but the white rubbish off the willow trees was making life difficult as you couldnt sink your line so i put that down and went out to the 16 mtr line and by feeding with the pot and fishing single caster i kept a few good skimmers going into the net right up to the end of the match. as far i could see around the lake i had done ok , the only people i couldnt see were tom thick on 45 and dean next to me on 49 who had had a lot of fish on the feeder and some more carp and f1,s down the edge ,but i neednt have worried as my silvers went 38.4 and the carp went 16.2 for a total of 54.6 for first in the match and also the top silver weight
dean malin was second with 45.12 on 49 with most of his fish falling to the open end feeder fished to the island with banded pellet
3rd was tom thick on 45 with 39.2
4th martin lenaghan 27.13 peg 52
5th paul homewood 22.15 peg 44
6th jamie parkhouse 21.1 peg 40

friday 29 april, national fishing day

thanks to the wedding we all had another day off today so there was another pole only at the viaduct fishery, there were 50 booked in but 4 didnt show and they never had the decency phone and cancel, which is always annoying to the organisers.
i fancied another draw on cambell today but it wasnt to be as peg 105 stuck to my hand which is towards the carpark end of cary, i wasnt to dispondent as it had been throwing up some good weights of late but with the fish having started to to spawn during the warmer weather then stopping due to the sudden drop in temps the lake had switched off.
i made up rigs to fish pellet and meat long(14 mtrs) and meat at 6mtrs aswell as down the margins, i,m not going to waste much time on this as all i had was 1 carp after 20 mins on a pellet at 14 mtrs , 3 skimmers in the middle of the match on 6mm banded and 3 carp in the last hour on meat at 14mtrs when the strong right to left wind dropped enough to let the people on our bank get some decent presentation.
i think the fish will need some warm weather again so as they can spawn properly and we will be off again.
1st on the day was mat parsons on 132 with 147.14
2nd s kiefer 137.9 peg 113
3rd nick(mr consistent)collier 133.10 peg 94
4th mike nicholls 124.6 peg 111
5th andy power 123.4 peg 116
6th will bohne 114.13 peg 119
so apart from nick the place to be was on cambell as expected , although the silvers were won with a sterling performance of the highest standard by phil(fabio)harding on peg 71 lodge with 25.1 which gets him into the all winners silvers final in october(fabio wrote this for me to put up, you would never guess would you)

viaduct weds

still a good turn out with 27 fishing so it was on cambell and a part of cary, so into the draw bag and out pops 119 which is the top right hand corner on cambell, its a peg which at times can throw up some good silver weights as long as the tench and skimmers decide to play ball, but not to waste any time with that i only had 1 tench during the match so the chances are they werent there or i did it wrong or it was a copmbination of them both, who knows.
i set up several rigs from a shallow and deep pellet rigs to a meat rig for 6mtrs which has been working lately and a magin rig for pellet at 5mtrs and 16 mtrs to the end bank , apart from the meat line ,8mm pellets were going to be used as feed and bait so the bait tray was looking decidedly naked with a bait box of 8,s and a box of meat on it, nice and simple.
i started off by cupping some 8,s to 14mtrs straight out and at 16mtrs to the end bank, and i started feeding a few 5,s 5mtrs to my right as pete sivell had drawn it at the weekend and had 50lb of tench there as i never had a bite there even when i switched to meat i think pete must have caught them all.
starting on the deck at 14mtrs i fouled a carp first drop then i had some liners so that was the signal to pick up the shallow rig and to start feeding with a catapult, and i soon had a couple of fish in the net but it didnt seem right with the fish not really showing much interest in the pellet feed as you could see fish just swimming through the feed, the next couple of hours was spent trying to mug any fish which came within range, luckily i managed a few and they were of a good size and as no one seemed to be catching to well apart from the angler on 127 i was quite happy, even one of viaducts new breed of rising stars in the shape of mat(shrimphead)tomes
(well thats what he told me when i saw him out shopping on monday)seemed to be struggling but i had no doubt he would turn it round at some stage.
i kept trying the meat rig at 6mtrs but only had 3 proper bites there which resulted in 3 carp but again the fish didnt seem to be happy staying over the feed, so most of the rest of the match was spent between the end bank margin at 16mtrs and trying to mug a fish on the shallow rig if one caught my eye but they were few and far between in general, towards the end of the match i started pushing the shallow rig right in tight to the reeds and that was my best spell , i should have done it earlier, i ended up with 25 carp and 1 tench for what i thought would be about 120lb
first on the day went to p greening with 35 carp for 171.9 mainly on the lead
2nd alex murry 154.12 peg 132
3rd t rixon 139.6 peg 119
4th nick collier 138.14 peg 129
5th scott russel 138.4 peg 114
6th charlie barnes 116.13 peg 111
silvers
nick collier 38.14
and what happened to the new breed matty you were next to second but it was a corner end peg so that was expected, but were also beaten by the 2011 slimmers world slimmer of the year leyton palmer, lol.

viaduct pole only good friday

these matches are usually very popular and today was no exception as 50 were booked in so we were on cambell, cary and lodge lake, so after a brekikie at the fountain cafe which as judith was with me today she had to pay for as the driver never pays, then it was off to viaduct me with my tackle and judith with her kindle and deckchair
the usual pre match banter was as good as always so good times.
time for the draw and into the hat and out comes 135 which is on the carpark bank of cambell and as i had the end bank to myself i thought it would be ok, even though the meat had been working well i decided on an out and out pellet attack feeding 6,s and fishing 8,s.
i set up a margin rig for each side to the empty pallets, a 4x12 rig for 5 and 14 mtrs and an up in the water rig dut with the bright sunshine and flat calm conditions this might be a non starter, all rigs were on .18 with the usual size 16 b960 , i wont dwell on the margin rig as even though i fed it apart from 2 foulers i never had a bite which is unusual as steve feeds the lake off 136 pallet and i,ve drawn it before and caught well by tyhat pallet but not today oh well.
starting at 5 mtrs on pellet i had a 5lb carp first drop followes by a few more during the next hour then the inside line died so it was out to 14 mtrs but after acouple of liners it was out with the shallow rig and that produced 4 more carp but with it being to flat it was hard going so back out on the deep rig for a couple more , at the halfway mark i had about a dozen fish in the net but it was difficult now but by swapping between the 5 and 14 mtr line i kept adding fish so by the end i had 24 carp in 2 nets and a few silvers in the 3rd net, i had a quick look in one net and thought i would be a bit close to the net limit, but the scales would tell, as usual there were lots of fish to weigh in and it took steve an hour to get to me with several nets over 100lb with alan oram on 111 being best with 166.14, my carp nets went 131.12 with one net a shade under the 70lb and my silvers weighed 10.11 for a total of 142.7 for 6th on the day and a section win by befault.
1st on the day went to alan with his 166.14 with nearly all his fish falling to 10mm meat fished at 5mtrs and into the margins
2nd went to steve denmead on 105 cary with 158.3 again on meat
3rd nick collier on 131 with152.10 again on meat
4th andy(the ginger one)power with152.01
5th stu foale 147.10 on 121
6th t rixon 142.7
all in all a very fair match with no one really running away with and with another pole onle being held on friday 29th which has now become national fishing day its selling out fast so ring the fishery asap or you will miss out tel no01458274022
dont forget your meat though or be like me and not be bothered to cut any but i bet i do next week.

viaduct weds

well i got that wrong today.into the draw bag and out comes what i tried to pass off as peg 18 which is a good island peg on spring lake, which unfortunately wasnt even in as we were on cary and lodge, so i turned the ticket the other way up and headed off for peg 81 which is the other side of the spit where i drew last week. this peg used to be a proper carp flier but it seems to have gone off the boil a bit over the last 2 seasons, fishery manager paul greenwood advised me that it was put in because local angler kieth(mash)masheeder had caught 98lb off it at about this time last year
(mint)perhaps there still there then!!!!!!!!!!! lol. i should have listened to owner steve long who told me to fish 4 and 6mm pellets for skimmers as there a lot there as they like to spawn against the spit. but i got to the peg and the area to my left was black with carp sunbathing, and as i like dapping for them on the pole i got the carp goggles on straight away, big mistake. so i set up a 4x12 on a long line for dapping/shallow rig and 2 4x12 rigs ,one to fish straight out ant one to fish on the deck against the spit, both on .18 with the usual 16 b960 hook, and i set up a .30 meat rig to fish by the monk to my left.
at the styart i cupped in some 6,s out in front and against the spit ,some meat by the monk and then picked up the dapper as there were still fish mooching around on the top, there was one at 8mtrs so i dropped the pellet just in front of it ,it turned to take it dut it misseed thepellet and i think i fouled it in the pec, that was the first one gone then, i managed another one 10 mins later but even though it was in the mouth it came adrift on the way back, by now the cruisers had backed off to my left well out of range of the dapping rig plus there were a lot less about so i think they had in the main backed out of the bay, so i went out to the in front line and the misery continued, with just a couple of liners on the deck so out with the shallow rig and 2 more lost fish, 90 mins in now and nothing in the net but i wasnt to worried as it looked to be quite hard with no one really catching well so i wasnt to worried, so out to the spit and first drop and a 2lb skimmer was on its way to the net , thats when i should have changed and scaled down but did, did i fxxx, i continued with the 6 and 8,s, there were plenty of carp against the spit eating bream spawn but they were tight in and you cant get at them as there is to much debris and foliage, very frustrating, so by the end i had managed 25lb of skimmers and 5 carp for 50lb giving me a 75lb total for no where again, and with john geen winning the silvers with 44lb and tim palant coming second with 31lb i should have listened to steve and gone for skimmers from the start as i would have probably had a good few as there were certainly a lot there , but 8mm hard pellets arent the best approach, there goes that hindsight thing again, and as for the carp well i think i lost about 15 or so which was a bit of a phil harding type of day, i think most were fouled as once hooked they just kept going, i did try and catch shallow against the spit but apart from a good skimmer i couldnt get a carp, if i draw the peg again i will be up the spit and clear the peg out as i lost count of the number of twigs branches and brambles i pulled out, i even lost 2 carp when they shed the hooks into a mass of branches on the bottom, well at least i have cleaned out the peg a bit for whoever draws it on friday as there is a pole only there.
the match was won by tony witcomb on 73 lodge which is the corner peg where he fished paste down to the tree for 180lb ish,
2nd was lewis greenwood on 76 with 160lb with pellet on the lead to start snd some fish shallow on the pole later in the match.
i,m not sure about the rest as dean and me slunked off to subway for a cappuccino and a cookie (comfort eating)