Viaduct Teams Of 5 , Rd 1.

It seems to have come around quickly from last year for the eagerly awaited teams of 5 again but with it being very popular with 19 teams entered I was looking forward to it, After Team mate Don Sutherland picked me up we decided to try the breakfast laid on at the globe pub in Somerton for a change and for £5 eating as much as you like I'm happy to say it was good value for money, We had to Start the league with two Ringer's' so to speak as other team members had commitments and couldn't make it which isn't ideal but at least Simon Ryall & Jonny Page filled in for us, It was decided I would do the team draw so I was hoping to give us all a nice home for the day??.

It turned out I found myself on Cambell Lake peg 125 and this time last year I would have skipped to my peg but the lakes vast head of carp seem to be at the opposite end of the lake of late so wasn't to enthusiastic which didn't help when I arrived at my peg for Mark Poppleton next door on peg 124 to tell me that he drew this area on the Wednesday open and told me there were no carp caught off are pegs except for the opposite corner peg of the lake" Not what I really wanted to here but you never know. I Planned to keep it quite simple today so first up was a bomb rod with 4lb main line and a 12inch 0.14 hook length to an 16 hair stop. I set up a 3AAA waggler to fish at dead depth to begin with an 0.13 hook length an a 18 PR434 hook. last of all I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket so had a rig to fish at 14mts for silvers over ground-bait being a 4x12 wire wonder on 0.11-0.09 and a 18 63-13 hook.

At the all in I fed 4 balls with just one containing a few casters & pinkies onto the 14mt pole line and cupped a large pot of casters off to my right at the same distance were it was the same depth at around 4ft. To start the match I began on the bomb and popped up bread towards the middle of the lake as did most others with different baits, Approaching the half hour mark things at are end off the lake were rather slow to say the least and the only fish I had seen caught were from the opposite bank peg 119 in the corner, I decided it was time to try something else on the hook and just began to punch a piece of meat out when my tip flew around and not forgetting to set the Bait-Runner this week! I was soon landing a carp of around 4lb, Great Start'. It was short lived though as the next hour failed to produce so much as a liner but as yet nobody else around me or opposite had caught a carp and were soon trying their pole lines or switching to the waggler but having 1 in the net and although I was finding it very boring" I kept to the bread in the hope of pinching another by casting to different areas every 20mins or so. Coming up to the 2hr mark Don rang me and yep' you guessed it" the tip went around and sprang back before the line started to pick up again and after nearly dropping the phone I bloody missed it!"

After another 30mins I couldn't take it any more so switched to the waggler with maggot on the hook but again nothing happened and the only fish being caught on it were small roach that I could see so it was time to try the pole. Starting on single red maggot over the ground-bait line I soon had a skimmer of 6oz followed by another shortly after on pinkie but then couldn't get a sign, I tried over the loose fed caster line but this failed to produce a bite so fed the ground-bait line and went back on the bomb hoping to snare another carp.

Another 30mins passed without a sign and after Mark had a 2lb plus Skimmer on his pole line I gave it another try, as soon as the rig settled it shot under and I bumped a better fish" B*****KS.. it took me 10mins to get another bite but again it was a smaller skimmer of around 6oz but I was having to wait ages for a bite so spent the last couple of hours trying the waggler, Bomb and pole but all I could add were a few more skimmers on the pole towards the end of the match but again they were only of smaller size, The only other carp along my bank came from Ron Hardiman on the end peg 123 but was of a good size the rest of us seemed to have all struggled, I couldn't see what was being caught below the spit on my bank but it turned out that's were the carp were hiding as Nicky Collins won the lake with a good 116lb from end peg 132 with the opposite peg 110 taking 2nd with 113lb, My total weight of 7lb odd was enough to beat the pegs around me but was only good enough for 7pts from a possible 19 but apart from sitting on my hands all day watching the tip for carp that just didn't seem to be in the area or targeting the small fish I don't think there was much more I could of done but that's fishing. Top weight on the day went to Craig (Trigger) Edmonds from corner peg 73 on lodge lake with 150lb odd taken on bread fished along the edge on the pole, Team wise Viaduct Select won the day but overall we had a disaster finishing in last place but the pegs we had today turned out to be in the poorer areas so perhaps its down to someone else to draw for the next round". Taking a weekend away with the wife this coming weekend so no fishing for me' but it will be a nice change before heading back here for the next round in 2wks and my turn to fish Cary lake for the resident munters"?  

Full Results -

1st Craig Edmonds (Team Flip Flop) Peg 73 Lodge, 154lb 1oz.

2nd Adam Mitchell (Frenzee S/W Orange) peg 66 Lodge, 123lb 7oz.

3rd Nicky Collins (Somerset Angling) peg 132 Cambell, 116lb.

4th John Howell (Burts Baits) peg 110 Cambell, 113lb 13oz.

5th Leon Hubbard (Silver Fox) peg 96 Cary, 108lb 8oz.

6th Richard Aherne (Frenzee S/W Black) peg 119 Cambell, 90lb 9oz.

7th Nicky Ewers (P.I.Thatchers) peg 131 Cambell, 79lb 15oz.