Viaduct Silvers League Rd 2.

Back to Viaduct today for this popular silvers league and after the usual breky at hilltops with team mate and traveling partner Don Sutherland we arrived in plenty of time for us to mix are groundbait before the draw, With Cambell lake being used for a club match today it meant the match was spread over Cary, Lodge & Spring, Cary and Lodge were used yesterday for the all winners silvers final which ended up going the way of  Mr consistent Andy Power with 50lb odd, with back up weights in the 40's. I did fancy a draw on Spring for a change as it hadn't been used for matches this year but holds a good head of skimmers if you manage to draw the right areas and I fancied the early numbers opposite the island or on the far side in the higher numbers so was pleased to end up on the far bank peg 19 which is just on the end of the island,

 My main concern though was I had venue co-owner Paul Greenwood on next peg 18 who was always going to be hard to beat" To top off good company I had my old friend and Angling Mail correspondent Roger Baker

who now lives in Penzance having emigrated from somewhere "UP NORTH" on peg 20 so we made it interesting by having a quid on it although Paul declined as he told us he always gets battered if he does, So I did my level best to talk him into it but it wasn't to be!

I planned to keep it quite simple and put my faith in catching big skimmers on the long pole and on the groundbait feeder towards the island trying to advoid the over hanging branches, I made two rigs up being 4x12 wire stem skimmer floats on 0.13 - 0.09 hooklenghts an 18 PR434 hooks in around 5ft of water, I plummed two swims up at 14mts off to my left and at 12mts just to my right but planned to feed them slightly different, I realised when I went to set my rod up I had again forgotten my reels' but Roger came to my rescue and lent me one of his, even though it looked like it would take pride of place at the antiques road show"lol.

At the all in I cupped 5 balls of groundbait on the 14mt line with a couple of balls containing some casters and floro pinkees, followed by two smaller balls on the 12mt swim with some chopped worm and casters in, Starting on feeder with double dead red maggot after 5mins I was fiddling with something only to look up and see my tip bouncing away' A good start as it turned out to be a 2lb skimmer" it was short lived though as no more followed although over the next hour Paul was up to about 6 skimmers all taken on the tip also on maggot but I couldn't get a bite? I switched to the 14mt line after 90mins with double caster on the hook and after 5mins I had another 2lb skimmers followed by one the next put-in which flew off the hook right were I was fishing" Great!..

After 10mins with nothing I decided to top this line up with another ball with casters added and switched to the 12mt swim with the head of a worm on the hook and had a bigger 3lb fish but then I couldn't get another bite on anything" Paul was still catching on the feeder and was up to about 10 skimmers so I fed some more worm in groundbait on the 12mt swim and went back on the tip, I felt I had to try and draw some fish across from Paul so changed to a larger feeder filling it with casters, After 10mins it seemed to do the trick as I had 3 smaller 1lb skimmers but they didn't seem to want to settle as after that I just had the odd fish, One thing I did notice though is that Paul wasn't catching as well when I was fishing the tip which was odd? With two hours to go I felt that if I had any chance of catching Paul up it had to be on the pole so was hoping they had turned up in numbers".

Starting on the 14mt line with caster I had a 2lb skimmer but was having trouble seeing the float properly due to the wind so switched to the 12mt with double dead maggot on the hook, It was instant" 6 big skimmers in 6 put-ins got me really excited! and a couple were 3lb plus so with an hour to go it could get interesting" again my instinct told me to top it up with another ball and worm as the peg slowed rather than waiting for it to fade completely, By the time it came to the all out I didn't want the match to stop" but the last 15mins were a nightmare as I had two big skimmers fly towards me and shed the hook resulting in nothing going in the net" and with Paul adding some late fish including one on the whistle I felt he had beat me by a fair margin?

Lucky for me Roger hadn't managed to drag the skimmers away from me and being the first to weigh on are lake it was safe I had at least won the quid" I was surprized when my total went 39lb.

 My Catch.

 

But was more surprized that Paul hadn't been in front as I had thought with his total going 40lb which was enough to win the section, A bit disappointed to come so close to beating an angler of Pauls quality on his own water and the couple of flyers cost me but I know Paul had the same problem but I was a good enjoyable battle never the less. 

 Paul Greenwood.

Back at the results the weights were again close and after winning his section yesterday in the silvers final old team mate Gary O'Shea went on to win todays match with 47lb from Cary lake, It turned out my weight was enough for 

 second on the lake behind Paul but second in the section so at least I got my £20 back, A really enjoyable day and looking forward to the next round.

Full Results -

1st Gary O'Shea (Preston Innovations/Thatchers) peg 78 Cary, 47lb 1oz.

2nd Tony Rixon (Mosella/Avon Angling) peg 69 Lodge, 43lb 3oz.

3rd Anton Page (Got Baits) peg 81 Cary, 42lb 11oz.

4th Paul Greenwood (Bait-tech Viaduct) peg 18 Spring, 40lb 11oz.

5th Dom Sullivan (Maver/Cadbury Angling) peg 19 Spring, 39lb 1oz

6th Nicky Ewers (Preston Innovations/Thatchers) peg 68 Lodge, 34lb.