Viaduct Fishery (Thursday Cost-cutter)

Well the day couldn't come soon enough, finally with my cast removed a couple of days ago and just two fingers strapped up for support it was time to chance my hand and seeing I'm still signed off work take a trip to Viaduct for the Thursday penny pincher match which is not about the money, more of a chance to fish under match conditions without breaking the bank'. Traveling on my own today I still managed to get my breakfast in before arriving at the fishery.

There was a good turn out with 41 fishing today and to be honest it was a case of who's who as there were some very good anglers taking part, The match was to be spread over Cambell & Cary lakes and I was really hoping for a swim on Cary were I could fish the bomb and pellet as I didn't know how my hand would hold up if I had to fish the pole? I had a good chat with Giles's Cochrane before the match as he has a excellent record at the venue including winning the last two matches on how he was fishing the bomb because the results speak for themselves', After Gleaming a bit of information it was time for the draw, Giles's hand didn't let him down' ending up on peg 87 which is a good area for his approach and just happened to be next to where he won Sundays league match! (My money's on him then") My turn and I too was managed to draw Scary Cary, Except it wasn't the area I wanted being peg 74, the end peg as you walk in which just so happened to be more of a pole peg as I was limited how far I could fish the bomb. I found out the peg hadn't produced much in the matches of late but undeterred I was looking forward to the day. I planned to keep it simple, The bomb and pellet to fish around the peg, A rig to fish at 16mts off the end of the tree in the open water which happened to be the deepest part of my peg at around 3ft, being a 0.3g maver invincible on 0.16-0.14 and an 16 wide gape pellet hook.

 

And finally a 0.2g maver invincible on 0.17-0.15 with the same size hook to fish down my inside at 13mts to start with into the channel between the bank and tree in 2ft of water which looked a bit daunting judging the size of some of the fish this lake holds..!

 (Danger??)

 

It was the same depth towards the empty pallet on my left so would feed this by hand and look for signs of fish later on in the match,

 

It was soon time to get going so I fed a minimal amount of 6 & 8mm pellet's onto the 16mt swim and down the inside 13mt swim and started on the bomb and 8mm pellet working from left to right feeding just a few 8mm's. It didn't take to long for the guy opposite to have a carp on the bomb but on the 15min mark I had a good fight with a 10lb carp landing it so a good start, by searching around the peg I managed 2 more in the first hour, The problem I the guy opposite started feeding with a catty between the two pallets opposite me which I thought was a bit far from where he was as I thought you were only meant to fish as far as the next pallet??? The trouble was it was a lot more than I was feeding and the I felt they would venture over to the noise in what was a safe area to be honest!. It wasn't worth making a fuss so I struck at it topping up my pole lines every 30mins, By the second hour I had added a near 20lb' fish as well as a smaller 5lb fish but was struggling to get indications so it was time to try the other lines.

 

I gave the 16mt line to start with an 8mm banded pellet, I missed 3 bites before I had a fish of 7lb but after that I had to wait for bites and then I would miss them" I decided to switch to a hair rigged hook-length to try to improve things but only added a couple of 2lb skimmers, Time to try the inside 13mt line again on 8mm pellet. It didn't take long for an indication as I was lifting and dropping the float except it tore off with the result being a big scale on the hook" 10mins later and I hooked another big fish which put me in a snag further down the bank totally trashing the rig' B*****K'S!, just as I thought things couldn't get worse I chucked the bomb out whilst attaching a new pole rig only for the tip to fly around but I had forgot to loosen the clutch back off after the big fish and it snapped my hook-length! I re-fed the pole lines & tried the bomb again without success so tried the 16mt line again.

 

Straight away I had another 10lb fish which did its best to try and get under the branches followed by 2 more skimmer's, back down the edge and again I had a 7lb fish and a couple of skimmer's so I gave the bomb another try with an hour to go, I hooked a right lump 5mins later which swam straight at me then did a U-turn snapping my main 6lb main line'?? luckily I had two bomb rods assembled so it wasn't to much of a issue but that was the last bite I had on it, the last 45mins saw me add a fish from the 16mt line on 6mm pellet and a couple more from down the edge with a couple more skimmer's before the a out.

 

Word on the bank was Giles had sacked up again on his usual bomb and pellet approach and a couple of anglers were admitting to over 150lb, I was one of the last to weigh, finishing the day with 11 carp for 100lb and 11lb of silvers for a day of all the 1's finishing up with 111lb' Back at the results and Giles had indeed done the business again topping the field with 218lb ahead of Dave Romaine a couple of pegs away on 85 with 209lb so well done to them, Top Silvers went to Ian (Piggy) Parson's with 44lb of Tench from corner peg 123 on Cambell.  It turned out my weight was enough for 6th on the day but picking up 5th in the pool's by default so the £15 was a bonus' Apart from a couple of disasters I felt I had a good match, I didn't feel the peg would ever produce enough to win the match but I approached it with an open mind and learnt a few things along the way, One thing that did stand out was the ratio of bites I hit once I had changed to hair rigging pellets on the pole which I'm sure cost me a couple more fish which doesn't sound much but when there this big the weight soon builds up!

 One Of My Munter's.

 

I'm sure the fish on the bomb line had moved over with the wind to were the guy was feeding between the pallets but as far as I'm concerned it wasn't water for either of us to fish so I wasn't going to approach it. On the reserve list for Saturdays open here on Lodge Lake but failing that it looks like Acorn fishery for me.

Full Results -

1st Giles Cochrane (Mosella) peg 87 Cary, 218lb 8oz.

2nd Dave Romaine (Bait-Tech Viaduct) peg 85 Cary, 209lb 4oz.

3rd Craig Tucker (Royal Marine's) peg 80 Cary, 184lb.

4th Pemb Wrighting (Guru/Bag um' Baits) peg 102 Cary, 176lb 9oz.

5th Howard Woodward (Unknown) peg 86 Cary, 122lb 14oz

6th Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 74 Cary, 111lb 14oz.

Silvers -

1st Ian Parsons (Sensas/ M5 Angling) peg 123 Cambell, 44lb 4oz.

 

 

 

Just to finish blog I made a return trip to the Taunton and Bridgewater canal on Wednesday with good friend Darren (Bigbird) Greenwood, Although I wasn't fishing as my hand was still a bit sore but I went along for the trip. We Decided it was best to go early as its always been said the Tench feed best at the crack of dawn? So He chose a section on the Boat & Anchor stretch Which can be seen off the M5 motorway at Bridgwater.

 

After a bit of a wander up and down to select a swim without to many lily pads to cause problems' He was set up and ready to go not long after 7am in what looked like a very fishy peg".

 

Just feeding two swims across and one down the track with a mix of worm, casters and some ground-bait we expected the action to be pretty instant but it wasn't until the sun stuck its head out and things warmed up the Tench turned up (That knocks the theory on the head then'), Here's where the fun began' in the space of 30mins Birdy hooked two from across in-front of the lily pads and one down the track all on worm but it was a case of 3-0 to the Tench much to his discussed!" There were far more lily pads hidden than we could see and they certainly new were they were.."

Small fish were certainly being a nuisance so a new heavier 0.4g rig was assembled with a 0.13 hooklengh and an 16 808 hook. After dump potting some worm casters across before hand he went back down the track and soon hooked number four,

 

 

At last' on the slightly stronger elastic it eventually ended up in the net"

it was a nice fish between 5-6lb although he still didn't look to happy at the score when I took his mug shot'

 

We thought things were going get better but unfortunately it wasn't the case, The sun really began to hot up which seemed to wake the entire population of Rudd up but put the Tench off the feed, He managed to hook two more though-out the day but with the amount of hidden weed and lily roots they made their bid for freedom. We tried raking the peg as nothing was happening but it was to late in the day for it to work, perhaps we should of done it before we started but the swim just looked to fishy to start with, Lesson learnt really as I'm sure prepping a swim when arriving would produce a few more Tench so we will keep this in mind for are next visit.     

 
     
  

 

        

                  

 

 

               

Shiplate Farm (Canal Lakes)

Returning to hospital tomorrow for another x-ray on my hand and still un-able to fish it made sense to pop up to Shiplate Fishery which is nearly on my doorstep to see how the match on Hawthorns & Westpool canal lakes would fish, With the draw at 9.30 I had a chance to have a whip around the local car boot sale but didn't find any bargains so arrived early enough to share a cuppa with owner Steve Oliver before giving him a hand to record the draw with my lovely wife (Thought I Best Say That").

Their were a few new faces today including Gabriel who had only fished the main lake before so was having his first try on the canals, Recording the draw I noticed Gabo ended up on peg 14 Hawthorns but a draw what caught my eye was venue resident Steve Howell who had drawn peg 12 on Westpool which I class as a good area and being he knows every swim on the lakes' I fancied him to do well.

With the match starting at 11am I was asked by a couple of anglers before hand what I expected the top weights to be so stuck my neck out to say around 70lb but we would see..? I also predicted Hawthorns would come out on top but with owner Steve thinking otherwise we had a quid on it just to see if I could get a pick-up even if I wasn't fishing" lol.

I caught up with about 30mins underway on Hawthorns lake and already it looked as if a few fish were going to be caught as a few had been netted already, Russ Pecker on peg 10 had was playing his second fish as I walked past,

 Russ Pecker.

Next to him on peg 11 Tom Magnel also was into a decent early carp,

 Tom Magnel.

When I arrived a Gabo's swim for a break on my chair he also was also playing a carp although I think he might have had a bad case of wind judging by the picks'

 Windy Gabo".

 

With the signs promising on this lake I had a wanderd around to Westpool to see how things were going. First up was Jamie (End-peg) Parkhouse on, you guessed it' end peg 2 in the narrows who was also playing a fish as I got there,

 

Further up the lake Ron Stark looked to already be running away with the silvers pool adding fish to his net regularly but what I did notice was the amount of pollen which had blown off the trees onto the lakes surface causing problems for the anglers at the top end of the lake, I arrived at Steve (Peanut) Howells peg and he was fishing tight over to the far bank with worm on the hook and was catching quite well adding a few carp as well as a few silvers,

 Peanut in action.

Next to him Pete Sivell on peg 11 was also sneaking the odd fish from tight over on hard pellets feeding pellet with the catty over the top,

 Pete Sivell.

 

Going onto the 3rd hour it had gone a bit more overcast and some what cooler especially on hawthorns lake and when I returned to Gabo he was struggling to add to the 6 early carp, Further down his lake it was much the same story as after an initial burst of fish it seemed that the lake had slowed a lot, Anglers were admitting to 4 or 5 fish tops so he was still well up there and just had to try and add a few more in the second half of the match, Back to Westpool and Jamie on peg 2 was still adding the odd carp fishing tight over on hard pellets feeding the same.

 

Returning to peanut Pete had informed me he had been bagging and the match was already over but Steve was having none of it admitting to 40lb which seemed to be an average weight across both lakes with just over an hour to go, Pete swim had all but dried up and apart from the odd carp it looked between Jamie & peanut to win the lake, hawthorns was still to tight to call with 3 or 4 anglers admitting to 40lb plus but some big fish can turn up late down the edge on this lake so their was all to pay for, As I walked past Mike West me had hooked a good fish in the tail and was making every attempt to net it'

 Mike West.

With 20mins of the match remaining it was to close to call but I went back over to Westpool as I just thought Jamie on peg 2 might just sneak the win as he was still adding the odd smaller carp,

 Back down to Peanut before the all-out I was just in time to see him hook a last minute fish which turned out to be around 6lb so was a right bonus to go with a few smaller samples taken in the last 40mins,

 His Late Lump'

At the weigh-in it seemed Steve had made the right choice by fishing across all day on the worm over ground-bait as catching those few extra late fish pushed his net up to 67lb odd which would be hard to beat,

 Part of Peanuts catch.

working are way back towards peg 2, Ron stark had a nice days fishing on the silvers front catching 24lb of mainly chub on worm down the track ending the day with 24lb odd,

 Ron's Silvers catch.

Jamie was last to weigh and wasn't far off his estimation putting 55b on the scales,

 Jamie Parkhouse.

 

I missed the weigh-in on Hawthorns as it was already done by Carol but it turned out there were a few late fish caught as Julian Pinkett on peg 3 had a few big fish down the edge on maggot over ground-bait just to pip Peanut to the win with 68lb.

 Match winner Julian Pinkett.

Well it turned out I was close in my guess weight but even better with Julian winning off Hawthorns it meant I did take a quid off owner Steve". It turned out to be a very close match and a couple more fish made all the difference which makes for a good result, Really hoping to have something put back on my hand tomorrow which will enable me to fish but not to optimistic so will have to wait and see, Be back out on the bank covering more matches if things don't go my way so look out" lol. 

 

 

       

 

 

 
  
  

 

 

 

 

 
  

 

 
 
    

  

Viaduct Fishery (Thursday Costcutter)

Well with the outcome of my hand not being good, Signed off work for at least 4wks with no chance of me fishing as my hand has to be set in a cast at a certain direction  I was just desperate to get back on the bank even if it was only to watch a few others, Lucky for me I managed to get a lift off good friend Gabrial Skarba and with the sun already shineing it looked to be a nice day ahead. After a stop of for breakfast we arrived at the fishery to see a club match booked on Cambell lake so the open was to be held on Cary & Lodge lakes, It was soon time for the draw And Gabo found himself on peg 99 Cary which suited him as he planned to just fish for the silvers which he had been doing very well on here of late with weights of skimmers over 60b'. The only down side we were the wrong side of a big tree meaning we were soon going to be in the shade most of the day and with the breeze coming at us it could get a bit chilly but I panned to have a wander around so it wouldn't effect me.

Gabo plummed up to lines at 11 & 13mts as well as a short line down towards the tree along the inside edge, starting the match he fed 7 balls of fishmeal based ground-bait onto the 13mt line as well as a few balls on the 11mt swim and a coupe down the edge, Starting the match on the long line hooking two big carp snapping the hook-length both times it didn't take long to get a 1lb skimmer followed by a few smaller samples before things slowed up slightly, Venue expert Dan White who was targeting carp had a good start on next door peg 98 landing a double figure fish within minutes of starting up in the water slapping the pellet on the surface,

 Dan White.

 

From what I could see it wasn't hectic with just a coupe of carp landed in the first hour or so of the match, Gado was plugging away between the 3 lines putting what he could in the net taking the odd better fish from the 13mt line,

 

 

 

It wasn't long after the sun went behind the tree so it was time for a wander to see how everyone else was getting on. I hadn't see much caught from lodge lake as yet probably due to bright sun and calmer conditions on this lake as you can see from the pics I took from the bench whilst enjoying a warm pasty from the on-site shop,

 

On this lake there were only the odd carp caught as it seemed they were more interested in swimming around ignoring anything put in-front of them, I caught up with fellow blogger Tony Rixon who was putting a few of the lakes better skimmers in the net,

 Mr Rixon.

OR

 

 

 In The Tail Tony..! lol.

Next door Titch Williams on next door peg 71 managed to hook a nice fish but not in the mouth' and after a few mins it got the better of him and pulled out,

 Titch peg 71 lodge lake.

 

I wandered on back to Cary lake and although things were quite there were the odd big bruiser's being hooked'

Dave Burford Peg 105 Cary.

 

Walking further around the lake the pegs at the opposite end of the lake seemed to be varying best and as I sat behind Mark Warne on peg 88 found himself attached to this beast taken down his inside swim,

 

 Mark Warne's beast' peg 88 Cary.

Buy now there were only a couple of hours left and it seemed a few fish had woken up and started feeding, Phil soon had a decent fish after mark on peg 90 taken on the bomb and pellet towards the end bank,

 Phil Peg 90 Cary

Back to the bank Gabo was on and next up was Mark Hannon on peg 94 who was now catching a few on the shallow waggler towards the bottom bank again on pellet,

 Mark Hannon Peg 94 Cary.

Further back around to Gabo the pegs just above him were fairing best with pegs 98 ,97, & 98 were all catching hooking fish in the last hour,

 

 

Gabo had a good run of skimmers halfway through the match and was still adding a few smaller fish and tony was still adding the odd big skimmer to his net so it looked like a close call between them from what I could see, I managed to catch up with Titch again before the end of the match just as he was playing another carp,

But you guessed it' it came off! I think I was a bit of a camera jinx today for some as poor Dan White lost two on the trot as I tried to capture him"

 The one that got away"

At the all out it was a close call between a few anglers as late fish were going to make all the difference, Cary always seemed to be the lake the winner would come from and John mills on peg 96 had a last cast fish to thank landed after the whistle to push him into top spot on the day with 152lb all caught up in the water at 16mts slapping pellet,

 Winner John Mills with a couple of his fish.

  

Bill Noble next door finished in 2nd spot with 141lb just ahead of Dan White with 136lb, It was a close battle on the silvers front between Gabo and Tony with Tony taking 42lb to Gabo's 40lb but the top silvers weight went to Mark Skyme over on peg 77 Cary with a great 52lb who I didn't get a pic of due to helping with the board at the weigh-in sorry mate. Well the lakes didn't produce as well as they have been but with the conditions the way they were and the fish with other things on their minds it fished quite well. I will be back following more matches over the weekend and hope to capture some more of the action, when I get chance I will print off some photos and hand out copy's to those I have so far captured.