Viaduct Fishery All-Winners Silvers Final.

At last it was time for the Silvers final I've been looking forward too, Traveling with team mate Donald Sutherland we decided to try the Albion truck stop on the A39 for brekky on route for a change & both the £4 & £6 breakfasts were great value for money and all freshly cooked' Shame they don't open on Sundays but well worth stopping off at if traveling that way any other day. Arriving at the fishery it was overcast with no wind and still relatively mild for this time of year although their had been some cool nights leading up to the day. With 44 of us fishing the match would be spread over Cambell, Cary & Lodge lakes, All the talk of which pegs were expected to produce was the norm so into the draw hoping to latch on to one of the talked about flyers", Nope! 55 Lodge' On the lawn directly in front the Tackle Lodge which I didn't fancy' & to make things worse who just happened to be next to me in the draw Queue? Mr Rixon himself" And did he laugh? Very loudly as it happens!". Adrian Jeffries had this peg in last Sundays open & struggled so I didn't expect it to be prolific especially as the pegs by rope through the centre of the lake seem favourite for the bigger Skimmers & Bream and can produce match winning weights quite often, I had Tackle Uk's Scott Russell next to me on peg 66 but we could only speak to each other as I couldn't see him'. Donald was much happier with his draw on peg 71 which happened to be a peg he won off not long ago and the peg Tony Rixon won the first round of the Silvers league two weeks ago but he had Gary Webber On peg 70 next to rope as well as Andy Power on peg 78 just the other side of the rope in his section. It was Going to be a case of 2 long lines and a couple of short lines today so set up two 0.2g PB1's on 0.11-0.10 one with a size 16 808 for soft pellet or bigger baits at 13mts to my left the other with an 18 PR434 to fish maggot or caster over groundbait at 15mts directly infront of me, & two 4x10 chanti's on 0.10 -0.09 and 18 PR412 hooks with the depth around 3ft I had one on a long line & one with a short line to see which worked best?.

At the all-in I fed 6 balls of groundbait and micro's at 15mts & 2 Balls with casters and a few dead red maggots at 13mts I began with the short line rig at 5mts feeding lightly with casters and fished the same on the hook, I didn't have a bad start really, Taking the odd chunky roach amongst some smaller samples, Scott next to me had started on a small groundbait feeder but was yet to catch & looking around those who chose to start on the long pole didn't look to have caught much. It lasted for about an hour before I was struggling to get bites and it was time to look on the long lines. Starting at 15mts with expander on the hook I missed a bite before I had my first skimmer, All of 2oz! I had a try on dead reds or a bit of worm over the top but it didn't produce so was back on the pellet taking my next fish, A roach of 1oz..! Sod this, It was obvious Their weren't better fish on this line so it was onto the 13mt which I was hoping would be a bit more active'? Nope, Another blade skimmer & a single roach already told me it was going to be hard, Back to the short line which I had now turned into two swims feeding left & right with a few casters, By switching between the two I was putting odd roach in the net along with a bonus 1lb hybrid but new I couldn't catch quick enough to put a decent weight together, I kept trying the long lines and no matter what I used on the hook all I could hook were a few small fish, Tony had this problem at this end of the lake last week as the better fish just don't seem to be keen to hold up here, As it happened Don & Gary who were on the more fancied swims were struggling to catch but as the match progressed it was that man Andy Power Making the most of empty peg to catch some better fish on the long pole, Not making it long winded it just didn't happen, The long lines failed to produce anything other than bits so I just made the most of catching what I could on the shorter lines, The last hour was best as I hooked a couple more better hybrids aswell as some better stamp roach to finish the day off. Scott had struggled as had Don & Gary so it wasn't just me' My section was won from the other end peg with 20lb & 13lb 5oz was second so my 13lb wasn't enough for some coin today, Andy Power won are lake with 28lb which was enough to get in the main frame but back at the results Mark Saunders from Newton Abbot walked away with the spoils and £750 richer after taking 35lb of big skimmers at 7mts from peg 112 on Cambell, (I Said This Was A Hot Peg) so well done to him, Good mate Gabriel Skarba Finished 2nd from peg 99 on Cary with 32lb catching on his favourite soft pellet approach which has served him well this season. Well it wasn't to be today but I used the chance to make the most of practicing for the next round of the silvers league tomorrow so here's hoping for a better day?

Full Results -

1st Mark Saunders (Newton Abbot) peg 112 Cambell, 35lb 1oz.

2nd Gabo Skarba (Hillview) peg 99 Cary, 32lb 6oz.

3rd Steve Denmead (Bait-tech Viaduct) peg 129 Cambell, 29lb 1oz.

4th Andy Power (Preston Innovations) peg 68 Cary, 28lb 11oz.

5th Steve Tucker (Garbolino) peg 110 Cambell, 26b 4oz.

6th Paul Elms (Flip Flop) peg 78 Cary, 26lb 3oz.