Viaduct Fishery Thursday Cost-Cutter.

Traveling alone today I gave myself enough time to stop off for breakfast or should I say I would have done had I checked the opening times at the Albion Truckstop as they weren't open till 10am today". It was a case of a Londis cold breakfast roll for me then! Arriving in plenty of time for a brew & a wander around the conditions looked ideal but the forecast of a weather front moving in could change things. A good turn-out of 26 today so the match was to be spread over Cambell with 9 peg on Cary, Into the draw & I found myself on peg 86 Cary which I was happy with as I wanted to fish for the carp today & have a change from the silver's & this can be a good area to target them. The only issue I could see being a problem as the bank between Cambell & Cary was left open to pleasure angler's who can also use pellet's but you cant use them in matches at this time of the year so it would be interesting to see if it made a difference?.

I had a simple plan off attack, One waggler rod set up with a loaded version to fish dead depth if possible with corn over loose fed corn & my Elite 11ft feeder rod to fish a straight lead out into the middle of the lake with either meat or corn hair-rigged. For company I had this years Fisho Mania finalist Roland Lucas next to me on peg 85 who has been doing well of late on the corn & Ben Hagg over on peg 96 who would be casting to the same area as me? I started the day on the bomb with meat on the hook with just a gentle cast to start with but after no signs or liners I put on a bigger lead to cast further out into the lake, The guy on peg 88 had a decent carp after 20mins & soon after Ben Netted one, After 50mins I had my first un-missible" bite & netted a near 9lb fish. Soon after I had a smaller 5lb fish then the next 20mins saw me add two beast' size fish!" All was going well & I was already beginning to think a big weight was on the cards as I estimated on near 50lb in the net in 45mins", Nope! it didn't matter what I put on the hook I just couldn't get a response off of the carp, Roland had netted one & Ben had added another but now everyone was struggling to get a response. The wind as expect had now picked up as the skies blackened which put pay to trying the waggler but I decided to give the bomb & corn over the top where I had been pinging a bit of corn. I had a skimmer over 2lb after 5mins but that was it so was back to chucking further out again.

I Had another 2lb+ skimmer on punched meat but most of the time it was just a case of watching a motionless tip after such a good start" It later turned out that the pleasure angers further down had caught a few so we had it in are heads the fish had responded to their pellet approach, The rest of the match was a real struggle for all of us & it wasn't until the last 5mins I hooked & landed another carp of around 4lb & oddly enough Roland also hooked one with a few minutes remaining, When the scales arrived the top weight on are lake was 44lb odd, My 5 carp went 53lb & my 2 big skimmers gave me another 5lb for a 58lb total to win the Lake but I had heard that a few fish were being caught on Cambell so I would have to wait & see. Back at the results & it turned out Adrian Jefferies on corner peg 110 Cambell had a good day catching on meat down the edge & Corn on the bomb further along the end bank for a total of 132lb odd so well done mate, On the opposite bank to him their were some good back-up weights & just as I was thinking it wouldn't be a day for picking up it turned out Scott Puddy had won the silvers overall so I picked up the 4th place monies by default, It wasn't much being a cost cutter match being £15 but at least I got my money back. Off for a few days holiday in the morning with the lovely wife so wishing you all a happy & prosperous new year & I'le be back on the bank sometime next week.

Full Results -

1st Adrian Jefferies (Avon Angling) peg 110 Cambell, 132lb 3oz.

2nd Rob Eagle (Langport HLS) peg 129 Cambell, 93lb 6oz.

3rd Gary O'Shea (P.I.Thatchers) peg 130, 87lb 1oz.

4th Scott Puddy (Landsend Fishery, peg 116 Cambell, 66lb 2oz.

5th Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 86 Cary, 58lb 4oz.

6th Colin Sandford (Langport) peg 112 Cambell,53lb 4oz.

Silvers - 1st Scott Puddy - Peg 116 Cambell, 13lb 4oz.