Viaduct fishery Spring Series (Final Rd).

I Got the chance to fish the last round of this popular league as a stand in for somebody who couldn't make it and after yesterday's Match This qualifier I was hoping to be lucky enough to draw on a few fish' The normal hilltops breky on route before arriving at the fishery with enough kit in the car to sink a battleship".  Todays match was to be spread over Cambell, Cary, & lodge lakes with a random draw in place so I could end up on any of them but wasn't in a rush to get in the bucket, ending up near the back of the queue.

It turned out I would be on Cambell lake again today on the far bank peg 125,

After a chat with a few other this end of the lake fished hard yesterday but fish have fins so didn't worry to much as things can change over night, Arriving at my peg that was the last of my worries as it looked as if I had drawn one of the hardest to do well in as I had Freenze's Luke Sorokin next to me on peg 126, England Ace Des Ship opposite me on peg 117 and to top it off the man of the moment none other than Giles (the Bomb) Cochrane who has taken the place apart in the last couple of month's the other side of me on peg 124!" and that's not including the likes of venue regular's Phil Cardwell on the end peg of are bank peg 123 with Paul Elms opposite him on corner peg 119 along with Dan white on the peg I had Thursday 118 so I had my work cut out today then..!

I Planned to keep it pretty simple as theirs no point trying to copy what other anglers who are doing well on certain method's so although first out of the bag would be the bomb rod as not to give it all to Giles' I felt my best option would be the short pole line with meat and down the edge both sides with meat & pellet. I set up a rig to fish each side both being 0.2g AS4 floats on 0.21-0.17 and a 14 478 hook, my favourite 4x12 chanti to fish in the open water at 6mts on 0.17-0.15 and a 14 434 hook which would double up to fish pellet on the deck at 14mts should I need a change of plan but didn't plan to feed anything here to start with.

At the all-in a cupped a large pot of hemp onto the 6mt line with some 6mm cubes of meat added, fed a few bits of meat down my inside right had margin and a small amount of 6mm hard pellets down the right hand side by hand. I had noticed on Thursday that some early fish were caught on the short pole line from the off so started with double 6mm meat on the hook, Luke went off like a train having 4 fish in 4 put-in's and I didn't take Giles long to put his first fish in the net on his bomb approach' Thankfully it didn't take me long to have my first fish of around 8lb followed by two more of similar size in the next 20mins, I was feeding a few cubes of meat & hemp over the top via a cad-pot, 2 more smaller carp in the next 20mins were added before things seemed to slow and I had a skimmer and a tench before re-feeding with half a pot of hemp.

A quick look down my edge's didn't produce so it was time to try something else, I fed another half pot of hemp on the 6mt line and had a try on the bomb but buy now are end of the lake seemed to switch off and from what I could see not much was being caught? Luke's swim had also slowed but Giles was still catching the odd fish on the bomb by searching his swim. I decided to re-fed a new line at 14mts with 6mm pellets and fish over the top with a worn on the hook but apart from a lot of fizzing and one missed bite I still couldn't put more carp in the net, back to the bomb and I added a carp and a 2lb skimmer but had to start catching soon as time was ticking away and by this stage Des was catching on the opposite bank along with Paul, And Giles looked to be winning are bank as it stood but Phil had started to take some fish from the end bank of the lake.

 Giles in action.

 

It was time to change tack slightly and I reverted to the 6mt line cad potting hemp and a few cubes of 6mm meat over the top but added a couple of inches to the depth and switched to fishing single or double worm on the hook with less than two hours of the match remaining, this seemed to do the trick and although it was a case of sitting and waiting for bites when I did get them they were positive whack' under's and the fish were of a good stamp. I slowly began to claw my way back and going into the last hour I felt I had chance to catch up with Giles & Paul on are bank although it was difficult to make out what was happening opposite, I ended up staying on this line until the end of the match taking a couple of fish to nearly 14lb but it was going to be close come the end of the match between the three of us as Luke was still having problems with foul hooked fish. When the scales arrived Luke was first to weigh and put 66lb odd on the scales, My turn and my carp added to my silvers went 127lb odd before Giles had 119lb and Phil 120lb so although there was only one fish in it I had came out on top as far as are bank went,

Over to the opposite bank and Paul put 147lb on the scales and after Dan's 120lb it was Des's turn who ended the day winning the section with 166lb, as a whole the lake fished well and Chris Davis on the end bank peg 135 emptied it to say the least weighing more than 300lb but after going over in one of his nets with the 80lb maximum limit had it deducted but still had easily enough to win with 249lb!" catching on the long pole and down the edge towards the next pallet on 6mm pellet.

As far as the league went Craig Edmonds & Giles Cochrane Were tying for top spot going into the last round but it ended up going Craig's way to finish up taking the league win ahead of Giles

I had an enjoyable days fishing come the end and am really enjoying fishing against the top angler's at the venue of late although with the super-league starting on the river Huntspill next week I'm sure it will much more challenging".

 

Full Results -

1st Chris Davis (Team Flip Flop) Peg 135 Cambell, 249lb 4oz.

2nd Andy Neal (Bait-tech/Freenze) peg 66 Lodge Lake, 218lb 2oz.

3rd Mark Wynne (Bait-Tech Viaduct) peg 112 Cambell, 213lb 4oz.  

4th Des Ship (Preston Innovations) peg 117 Cambell, 166lb 15oz.

5th Bob Gullit (Blackmore Vale) peg 115 Cambell, 161lb 2oz.

6th Bob Giles (Freenze) peg 113 Cambell, 157lb 15oz.

7th Paul Elms (Flip Flop) peg 119 Cambell, 147lb.

Overall League -

 1st Craig Edmonds 4pts. (weight)

2nd Giles Cochrane 4pts

3rd Kev Molton 7pts

4th Steve Tucker 7pts.

Knock-out winner - Andy Neal (Freenze-Bait-tech)