Viaduct Fishery Saturday Open (Cambell Lake).

Lewis Jones & myself decided to book in for this latest Saturday open being as we both have a ticket for Fisho' mania this coming Wednesday on the off chance of drawing this lake on the big day". We stopped off for are hilltops breakfast before arriving at the fishery, I thought their might be a few booked in today but we were surprized to find out their were only 11 of us today, Nether the less their was a space up for grabs in the all winners final/silvers at the end of the year for both the match & silvers winners so I was planning on just fishing for the carp.

The pegs to draw of late have regularly been 112-114 so was hoping to have the lucky hand today' I did joke to Lewis he was bound to be on one of them having not fished here for a few years' Into the draw & he ended up on peg 110 (His 5th Corner peg in a row!) Although I have to say hasn't been the best peg for carp of late so he was planning a more silvers route, As for myself well I wasn't far off as I drew peg 115 so felt I had half a chance should the carp get lost for an hour or two sometime in the day!?

 When we arrived at are pegs the wind had done a total reverse to last week meaning it was blowing into are bank so with the forecast for it to increase I ruled out fishing the waggler for the time being. First of all I set up 2 tip rods, One with a hair stop hook length & the next with a 2ft tail of 0.15 to a 16 PR36 hook. Apart from that all I set up was a 4x12 Chanti on 0.15-0.13 & an 16 808 hook. for company I had Bordan Anglings Neil Gaff on fancied peg 114 & a bit of female company in the way of Emma Drysdale on peg 116, looking around I noticed I was the only angler on the lake not to have an empty peg on either side ruling out an inside swim' With Neil & Roland Lucas on 112 having hot peg 113 empty between them I thought I would be up against it today as the fish don't seem to move much from here at the moment but you never know as they have fins".

I started the day by feeding around 20 cubes of  6mm meat at 14mts, Fed a handful of casters & a few cubes of meat at 9mts & picked up me bomb rod to begin the day on punched meat, At this point Neil was playing his first carp taken on the bomb' No sooner had I cast out shaking my head as I expected it to be the start of things to come Emma had now latched into one"

 Neil with his first'

 Closely followed by Emma'.

 

  Thankfully after a few minutes I had my first pushing 7lb followed be a slightly smaller fish the next cast so a good start' I was just beginning to think perhaps we would have a few today then the inevitable happened as the fish seemed to push down the lake towards Roland who was now latching into a few, Another 30mins past before I found another but after this all signs of fish seemed to have disappeared' I had been topping up my pole lines at regular intervals & after 90mins it was time to give them a try.

Starting at 14mts with a cube of 6mm meat on the hook didn't produce & switching to the shorter line failed to produce so it was back to the tip. Emma was also struggling after having an early carp as was Neil, That was until he decided to give his inside line a try down to empty peg 113, Landing three more carp is as many put-ins" At this point I felt the writing was already on the wall as Neither Emma or myself could get a bite or any liners to tell us their were a few fish in the area. After three hours I had had enough & decided to stretch my legs & go & grab something warm to eat as already I was feeling the cold, Helen kindly warmed me a chicken & mushroom slice & just as I was tucking in I noticed somebody bobbing up & down in Cary Lake" It turned out the guy had lost his mobile phone sometime last week & for insurance purposes decided to try & retrieve it.." Well after 15mins of him being in the lake in his shorts I soon felt warmer to go back & give it another go'.

On the way back Roland was admitting to 12 carp but said he was now struggling to get a bite but Neil was playing one taken on the bomb so perhaps I could snare a few more if they were heading my way? Starting back on the bomb & punched meat I had a skimmer of 10oz so at least it was a response to keep me interested, Nothing followed in the same area so I cast slightly more infront of me, I was just pouring a cuppa when the tip flew round, I grabbed the rod but caught my finger on the bale arm, the fish bolted & with the drag locked up it snapped my hooklenght! Balls". I soon had another attached so cast to the same area & within a minute I had another on which I got in, The next cast I was just sinking the line when the rod when around in my hand! It must be solid out their" four more carp & a 3lb tench in the next five chucks got me really excited, I got up to put another net I & only just managed to get back to my box before I was into another to which extent by now I was getting flack from either side" Its always a curse when you seem to add a new net because as soon as was sacking it died on me" I had been pinging the odd cubes of meat over the pole line & had a liner as it was falling threw the water so I was hoping they had turned up on the long pole line? Starting again on a cube of meat it wasn't long before I was attached to a carp which turned out to be slightly smaller than the other, Oddly though that was it as I couldn't get another bite their so with 30mins to go I re-fed a larger amount before going back on the bomb again, ten minutes later I had a fish pushing 10lb out of the blue but Neil had added a couple more, I switched between both the pole line up to the end of the match but that was it for me, Neil had managed another on the bomb which lead me to believe they had ventured further back to where they live" before he took a bigger fish down the edge just before the whistle so still had him & Roland down as the top weights today. When the scales arrived the best weight so far was 39lb from peg 128, My silvers went 7lb odd before I had just over 80lb of carp, Most of which were caught in the space of 40mins" Neil's two late fish helped him to take the win with 96lb odd before Roland finished with 75lb odd so at least I managed a pick-up today which is long over due taking the £30 section money,

 Winner Neil Gaff.

 

Very frustrating fishing really as there's nothing you can do when the fish decided to venture between pegs like they did again today, I can honestly say I spent nearly 4hrs without so much as a liner before they turned up, Just a shame they didn't stay a bit longer!" Back tomorrow for the last round of the winter league so at least I get chance to fish Cary lake ahead of Wednesday.

Full Results -

1st Neil Gaff ( Drennan Bordon Angling) peg 114 Cambell, 96lb 2oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 115 Cambell, 87lb 1oz.

3rd Roland Lucas (Wiltshire Angling) peg 112, 75lb 10oz.

Silvers -

1st Michael Hall (Viaduct) peg 128, 18lb 10oz.