Maver Match This Qualifier (Viaduct Fishery).

Lewis & Myself had both invested in a ticket well in advance in the hope of getting a place in the £100,000 final at Larford Lakes later this year, We had are normal breakfast before arriving later than most but it was a good turn out with 103 Anglers spread over all the lakes, As expect the talk was Cambell would be the most fancied lake but I was just hoping to avoid Spring lake as I've been on here the previous two attempts over the last couple of years & it didn't compete, We were midway in the draw & Lewis fancied having a few after picking 86 on Cary, Me..? peg 25 Spring lake! the peg is facing up the lake on a small spit but to be honest not one of the most fancied as I would be cut off fishing the bomb or waggler to the island so limited to what I could do, I took the wrong route to my peg & after taking same route back I was heading back to the van with my kit as I just didn't fancy it, At this point Martin Preston informed me peg 26 hadn't been draw so I would have a decent inside edge, He talked me into it & eventually arrived at my peg' Their were only two of us on the spit with local lad Mark Wynn next to me on the end of it peg 25, After a small bit of pruning" I was able to see down the edge towards the empty pallet at 13mts, so decided on a swim here & another close to me at 5mts down the edge I could feed by hand, It was nearly 3ft deep so I did hope of hooking a few, Rig wise it was a 0.2g float on 0.19-0.17 & a 16PR478 hook. It was only inches deeper at 12mts in the open water so had a line here with a slightly lighter rig being a 0.2g float on 0.17-0.15 , The sun was out as we were setting up & I could see some decent fish cruising around just under the surface which looked ideal for mugging" I remember John Arthur Winning a Fisho Qualifier of this lake a few years back catching some right munters mugging" & was hoping they would hang around? I set up a long & short line rig to fish shallow & planned to start the day on the longer line rig. I was sat on my box with £0mins before the start when a common carp which must of been pushing 20lb' kept putting in an appearance slurping particles off the surface , I reckoned with a bit of coxing I could of fed it out of my hand! but needless to say it clouded over before the start & although their seemed to be a few fish still in the upper layers must had disappeared". What made it worse is the fact I was now looking at a white reflection on the surface I couldn't see them'. It was a change of plan then at the all-in I fed a small amount of  8mm meat & a few bits of  corn at 13mts down the edge & started at 13mts in the open water with meat on the hook feeding just a few cubes with a cad-pot over the top. Thatchers Mark Williams over on peg 1 had started the day on a mugging rig & hooked a few straight away which came off but after 20mins of chasing them was still without a fish, No signs of fish on the long pole so after 30mins I had to have a look on the long edge swim, I did catch but it was only a couple of 8oz skimmers & a small perch so carp didn't seem to resident, I tried for around 30mins on the short & long edge swims but it wasn't happening So went back on the 12mt line with meat.

I had a 1lb skimmer then foul hooked a carp which gave me a bit of interest, before I had a decent bream then losing one minutes after' I rotated the lines for over 3hrs & had around 10lb of silvers before hearing Mark next door land a couple of carp, I got up to see what he was doing as I couldn't see him through the tree between us, It turned out he was also struggling only having a few skimmers on the bomb so he decided just to try slapping on the long pole & had caught two in 10mins', As he dropped his rig in for the 3rd time & the elastic shot out I was soon back to my peg shipping out the long shallow rig with banded 8mm pellet, Slap'Slap'Slap, HE'S ON THEN"! I couldn't believe it, I had fed nowt & their didn't appear to be fish their but they soon came to the sound of that pellet" In the next 30mins I put 3 carp in the net for over 30lb one which was a lovely common over 16lb' Then the wheels came off as I hooked another 7 & lost all of them, A few were foul hooked but two I lost at the net one of which was 20lb plus" I was cursing not trying it earlier as was Mark but they disappeared in the last 30mins, He managed one more from down the edge to finish with 7 carp & a few silvers to my 3 & silvers, When the scales arrived my 3 carp went 36lb odd added with my silvers gave me 47lb odd with Mark weighing also weighing 11lb of silvers but his 7 carp went 86lb odd to finish with 97lb to win the section so well done to him, We both felt after we had missed out on fish today & with the size off the fish we were catching you don't need many" Mark also suffered from losing a few at the net including another 20lb fish! Bit of tester as far as your pole goes but as long as you fish a relatively light elastic you should land them" Lol. We didn't stay to the final results as Lewis had also missed out on a pick-up but we had heard Rob Brennan from end bank peg 135 on Cambell had a great day catching on meat at 16mts down the edge & at 6mts to easily win the day with 234lb to see him off to Larford for the big money final. Its been more miss than hit with my fishing since the start of the year & after what has been an expensive venture I have decided to lay back a bit from matches apart from them I'm already involved in for the time being, I will be helping the team as far as the Superleague on the River Huntspill over the next few weeks but plan to try & have a few trips just fishing for Fun".