Viaduct Fishery (Sunday Open) Lodge lake.

On my own again today as traveling partner Don was fishing the league on the river parrot' So after the normal Hilltops stop off it was off to the fishery, Plenty of time for a pre-match brew & a chat With fellow blogger Tony(In The Tail)  Rixon among others as to what's what with the pegs on this lake, Tony was pointing out the pegs when he told me I would end up on peg 56 with my back to the hut which he didn't rate to highly' We were near the front come the draw & I kindly insisted He went before me. Just as his hand entered the tin I reminded him that going before me he had more chance of drawing it? Well' I nearly wet myself when he opened it and had 56 staring at him" I didn't have to say anything the look on his face said enough..! My turn & I finished up on peg 73 which when I asked owner Steve if it was any good he said it would be better for carp' Craig (Trigger) Edmonds reminded me he drew it last Sunday in the silvers league Catching 20lb odd but having to watch Tony sack up on the more fancied pegs above.

When I got to my swim I was in two minds as what to fish for but after a chat with Roland Lucas & Gary O'Shea (Who just so happened to draw the peg he said he fancied yesterday") I still decided to have a go for the silvers as that was what I wanted to practice for not having fished this lake yet this year. Craig Told me he had a lot of smaller skimmers last week and despite trying couldn't temp any of the larger fish from further up the lake near the rope. I had what looked like two nice inside lines which I would feed with casters hoping for some Perch or hybrids as well as feeding and fishing caster on my topset like yesterday at 3mts infront of me.

Rig wise I set up a 3x8 chanti to fish down the edge on a longer line of 0.11-0.10 and an 18 PR434 hook, A 4x10 Chanti on the same line with an 18 808 hook to fish at 3mts in about 3ft of water and finally a 0.2g PB1 on 0.12-0.10 and a 16 808 hook for 13mts in the open water which was pretty much the same depth all over. Next to me I had John (The Gimp) Bradford above me on peg 71 where Tony Won The League Last week And Chris Davis Next to the rope on peg 70, both of which were also going to target silvers aswell as |Tony Who was opposite me on his choice peg" lol'.

At the all-in I fed 4 balls of Ground-Bait at 13mts but just put some casters and red maggots in one ball I fed half a pot of casters and some worm at about 6mts off to my left and began to feed small amounts of casters at 3mts and down the insides. Starting at 3mts with single caster I had a small roach after 5mins before hooking a skimmer of 5oz which I dropped of like a prat' I expected it to get better but I just couldn't get bite here for some reason and Gimp above me wasn't doing any better at this stage, Tony had caught short" right from the off and I had already noticed him net some better size silver fish so things weren't going to plan at this stage. After 30mins and just 3 small roach I decided to try down my inside lines for any early fish, I did expect to get bites even from small fish but it didn't happen & after 45mins of the match I was out on the 13mt line with dead maggot on the hook, Thankfully I started to get a few bites from small skimmers from 4-6oz with the odd chunkier 10oz fish, I was swapping between Dead maggot & 4mm Expander on the hook in the hook of catching some bigger skimmers but they didn't appear to be in the swim which I pretty much expected, I had a good run of around 10 fish before thing slowed a little and I decided to feed another ball and rest the swim, Back to the shorter line at 3mts and a few more small roach but nothing to add any weight to my net, Another try down the edge still didn't produce and even the 6mt line failed to produce so I new I had to put my faith in the skimmers on the longer line until hopefully the shorter lines would produce?. I kept plugging away adding small skimmers from 13mts mainly on the maggot or expander on and off, Every time I felt the swim was dying I would rest it for 5mins try another line and go back on it & if I didn't catch would top it up again with more ground-bait. At this point Tony was now struggling to catch anything decent on his long pole & The Gimp above me was struggling, Chris next to the rope had landed a few flying" Better Skimmers but not at any pace. This was pretty much how my match went for the first 5hrs as until now the shorter swims seemed devoid' After re-feeding the long line with 45mins to go I had a look down the edge by the brambles yet again except this time it went under the result was a 12oz roach shorty followed by a 1lb hybrid". I hooked another nice fish but it shed the hook on something under the water? so I left it to settle again and tried down the other inside. I pulled the rig right into the grass when it shot under and the elastic ripped out' this time the result was a perch of over a 1lb' Resting them again and few more hand size skimmers off the long line before a run of chunky roach to 6oz down the edge in the last 5mins hopefully kept me infront of Tony & Chris, When the scales arrived I was last to weigh And Both Tony & Trigger' Had 24lb of silvers before Chris weighed 23lb odd, The late fish made a bit of a difference as I ended the day with 27lb odd of silvers which was enough for top on the day picking up £40 along the way. Another enjoyable day really although it started poorly I kept my faith in the peg producing fish especially the way the peg threw up some fish down the edge late proving how important it is not to give up on lines, I did manage 1 skimmer of a 1lb off the 7mt line on worm but the next put-in had a carp over 5lb which I got in but made a bit of commotion'. It Just so happened that one carp cost me another £35 because at the last minute I decided to return it but it turned out after Roland had tipped Back his fish it would of been enough for me to finish 3rd added to my silvers! Doogh!" Much to Tony's amusement I must add until we reminded him he had won nowt". A Good day all round and a good weekend with pleasant mild weather, Cant wait for the Silvers Final next Saturday & the second round of the silvers league next Sunday and long may the run continue"

Full Results - 1st Gary O'Shea (Preston Innovation Thatchers) Peg 66, 101lb 9oz.

2nd Craig Edmonds (Flip Flop) peg 62, 85lb 15oz.

3rd Paul Elmes (Flip Flop) peg 57, 31lb 8oz.

Silvers - Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 73, 27lb.