Maver Match This Qualifier Viaduct Fishery.

Up early this morning as to try and not forget anything as with all lakes in there's a whole range of methods you can chose meaning it looked like my gear resembled everything but the kitchen sink" These matches are always popular with people traveling from all over the country hoping to grab the elusive spot in the £50,000 final at Larford Lakes.

 It was anybodys guess where the winner would come from but the talk was a corner pegs on any lake could be the place to be today as it was already hot and bright and with no wind the weights were expected to be lower than of late, At the draw I did managed to sneak in front off Fisho Mania Qualifier Kevin Dicks hoping the chances I could have his draw hand today'.

 I ended up on Cary Lake peg 101 which although wasn't the best of draws at least I had a bit of room to play with and the were already signs off fish swimming around towards the middle of the lake.

 After a chat with a few locals before the draw I got an idea as to what people had been catching on and based my attack around the more favoured meat and hard pellet approach, Setting up a straight lead rod and a waggler to fish towards the middle of the lake and a rig to fish at 5mts on the pole with meat in 4ft of water, Having plenty of time before the start all my rigs were made upon the bank today with proper line and floats (No place for a Chanti today) as these fish run to over 20lb in this lake and with 8lb fish being the norm'. Company wise I had local ace Fred Roberts on peg 102 and Polish Lad Ziggy on peg 100, At the all in I Cupped in some hemp and meat on the 5mt line and started on the straight lead and 10mm punched meat on the hook towards the middle of the lake choosing not to feed anything to start with.

It was a slow start for all I could see and it seemed to the lakes population of fish had chose to bask in the sun rather the think of feeding' A switch to punched polony still failed to produce and despite trying the waggler with 8mm pellet for a wile I was soon back on the lead and swapped to 11mm hard pellet on the hook. After 90mins I had my first fish of nearly 10lb but it was a bit of a false dawn as the lake was still fishing slow for most although a few fish were being caught further up the lake on pegs 97 & 98, I did think of getting the stalking rig out but the fish were swimming around much further than 16mts of pole would reach so that was a no go. A smaller fish of 5lb on the lead and pellet came in the next hour but apart from 1 fish foul hooked on the shallow waggler I couldn't seem to get it to produce today, The short 5mt meat line failed to produce a carp and from those I could see nobody seemed to get a bite on any short line, Ziggy had yet to catch a carp and Fred was also on two fish so we weren't setting the world alight but with £70 for every 6 peg section there was still the chance of winning my entry fee back at least, going into the last hour I chose to mould some paste around the pellet and try to keep it on whist casting and after missing a bite first cast I was wishing I had tried it sooner but again I had to sit and wait and it wasn't until the last 10mins I had another fish and being around 15lb I doubled my weight' As expected the section fished hard and with Fred ending with 4 carp to my 3 he was going to be favourite to take it and so it proved with his weight going 38lb to my 32lb.

 My 3 fish.

 

 Top weight on are lake was 115lb but most struggled due to the bright hot day which was not surprising, The Corner pegs everyone was talking about did seem to produce for some as Scott Russell from Tackle UK on corner peg 73 Lodge Lake went into the lead with a good weight on the day of 159lb,

Scott Russell. 

 

            We all had Scott Down as the winner but it wasn't until the last of the days weighs came in that he had been piped at the post be a weight of 170lb from end peg 135 on Cambell, I did feel for Scott as you don't get many chances of fishing a final for £50,000 but at least he had the Consolation of picking up a couple of hundred pounds on the day, I didn't get the guys name who won as it was a lot for fishery owners Steve and Paul to sort out after but well done to you anyway, Well not the best days fishing but the sun had put the fish off today and considering Fred fishes the place regularly I don't think there was much more we could of done to catch a few fish but that's fishing"