Viaduct Fishery (Cary Lake).

Traveling back from are accommodation near Stafford Moor meant a early start for us today and the best we were going to get food wise was a breakfast roll from Greg's at the services' It wasn't to bad a journey compared to the trip down" & we got their in plenty of time & I didn't really mind where I drew as I just wanted a better day than the last two' so I let the wife do the honours today.

Peg 81 for me then, The first peg above the split on the far side, As we didn't have are carping kit' As such, The main plan was to target the silvers again hopefully getting chance to use up some of the bait purchased for the weekend. I have seen this peg produce some nice perch before so was hoping to catch a few down the edge to the monk or along the bank of the split. First up Was a 0.02g PB1 on 0.10-0.09 and an 18 63-13 to fish at 14mts in the open water on two lines over ground-bait in 4ft of water, A 4x10 chanti to fish at 6mts on the same line with a PR412 hook, A 3x8 chanti on 0.11-0.10 an 20 808 to fish shorter down the edge and finally another 4x10 chanti on the same line/hook with a very short line to fish along the split.

Gabo Had draw the next peg around from me on peg 85 who was also going to target silvers so I could keep an eye on him and Ziggy was on opposite side of the lake peg 96 so we all had a £1 to keep the interest, on the all-in I fed 3 balls at 14mts with some casters infront of me the just one ball laced with worms at 14mts to my left, fed some chopped worm & casters down towards the monk & Along the split, And began to loose feed some casters by hand down the edge & at 6mts.

This is were I began the match with single caster on the hook, straight away I had a 4oz hybrid followed by a small roach but that was soon as far as it went, After 20mins I switched to the short light rig down the edge again on caster and had an 8oz hybrid and a perch of the same size but as expected the fish soon backed off so went further down to the monk with double caster on the 4x10 rig, I had a nice 1lb perch and a 12oz roach before the pattern of no bites followed. the next hour or so was a case of catching what I could by switching between the lines but oddly enough I couldn't catch along the split were I expected too? Thinks were slow with just odd fish & by now Gabo had started to catch on his long line so decided to give it ago.

Starting on dead red maggot over the ground-bait & caster line I expected an instant response but it didn't happen with just a small roach in ten minutes so tried the other 14mts swim were I had just fed the one ball of worm with a piece of worm on the hook. It did the trick as I had a 1lb skimmer but soon hooked and lost a carp shortly after and despite trying it a bit longer nothing followed so it was back to the shorter lines, With things slowing I had began to feed the 6mts line heavier with casters as well as feeding more casters down to the monk with some chopped worm in the hope of some more bigger perch. I did have another 1lb fish before hooking something bigger which turned out to be a carp of 9lb which I got in on the light rig" but had noticed with 90mins or so some bubbles on the 6mt line, Owner Steve Long had wandered around & told me it was fishing hard with a couple of people admitting to just a couple of carp and I had a feeling that it was carp blowing in-front of me so rather than risk trashing my lighter rigs I was of the box setting up a heavier rig with a more suitable elastic. Their were still signs of fish at 6mts so went in with a good segment of worm on the hook, It took a while for the float to go under but the reward was a 3lb tench so a great bonus' Nothing followed so I re-fed another larger amount of casters and still loose fed it by hand before swithing back to the monk again with worm on the hook, Two carp and a near 2lb perch" in 3 put-in's were very welcome before hooking something which snapped the hook-length shipping back? I thought it was odd but when I went back in & had an 8oz eel' It had me thinking it had been a bigger eel which bit me off? Time was soon running out so re-fed the monk and had another go on the 6mts line taking a couple of hybrids to 8oz and some smaller fish on the short inside swim. back to the monk in the last few minutes saw me add a couple more perch to 1lb and a 1lb hybrid before the all out.

Roland Lucas came around from the other side of the split and said his side had fished hard but he had managed 5 carp and the only person he had seen catch silvers was Gary O'Shea on the opposite bank peg 97, I walked around to Gabo after packing up who was admitting to 7lb odd of silvers which turned out to be 9lb odd before my silvers went 13lb 10oz & the carp 23lb odd so a quid of him was safe' Back at the results & Nicky Ewers had 6 late carp on the bomb to thank for 58lb off peg 86 to take the win but thankfully for me my weight was enough to win the silvers by just 2oz over Gary" Picking up £48 along the way, (Plus £2 off Ziggy & Gabo") But more to the point a place in next years silvers final again" Result!. Funny enough I qualified just a week or so after travelling partner Donald last year & the same things happened again this time around" The lake fished much harder today but I really enjoyed just catching odd fish from each line and working the peg, Turned into a good weekend for me after all but a big well done to good friend Des Shipp Who went on to win the Silver mania At Stafford with 16lb 13oz which spookily enough was just 2oz ahead of his nearest rival..! Back to Viaduct Next Sunday for round 4 of the silvers league but still due to take the old boy fishing next Saturday weather permitting?. 

Full Results -

1st Nicky Ewer's (P.I.Thatchers) peg 86, 58lb 5oz.

2nd Roland Lucas (Wiltshire Angling) peg 80, 53lb 8oz.

3rd Colin Dyer (Bait-Tech Viaduct) peg 96, 46lb 12oz.

4th Chris Davis (Flip Flop) peg 74, 43lb 11oz.

5th Paul Elms (Flip Flop) peg 90, 40lb 6oz.

6th Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 81, 37lb 8oz.

Silvers - 

1st Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 81, 13lb 10oz.

2nd Gary O'Shea (P.I.Thatchers) peg 97, 13lb 8oz.