Viaduct Fishery (Cambell , Cary & Lodge Lakes)

Norman Sterry had organised this match via facebook & it was well attended with 48 of as fishing, Travelling on my own I stopped off for a breakfast at the albion truckstop which was ok but my eyes were bigger than my belly so the dog would be happy when I got home'. It turned out I was quite close to the front of the draw so I had a bit of a mix around before picking out peg 115 on Cambell.

The popular silvers league starts next Sunday & having not been on cambell for quite a while I was keen to get some idea of what to expect next weekend & try & muster up some idea as to how to best approach it so it was silvers all the way for me today, I had good company with Keyford's Steve Denmead on peg 114 & Middy's backed & last year's silvers league winner Sam Powell on peg 116 who was also going to go along the line of silvers. I was going to be a bit different & start the day on the waggler & corn towards the middle of the lake as the wind off are backs on are bank so set up a 3AAA waggler to an 0.11 bottom & a size 18 PR434 hook. Next up was a 4x12 Wire Wonder on 0.11-0.10 & a 16 808 hook to fish a line at 14mts with soft pellet over groundbait & hard 4mm's slightly to my left & I would use the same rig off to my right at 13mts feeding this line with corn & casters, Finally I set another 4x12 Wire wonder on the same line with an 18 PR434 hook to fish at 6mts with worm over chopped worm & casters. I started the match by feeding 4 balls of groundbait on the long left hand line & a mix of corn & casters on the long right hand line & fed the short line with a good mix of worm & casters at 6mts.

I started on the waggler at around 20mts just touching the deck with a single grain of corn, Sam had started on his short line & by the time I had fed my pole lines he was already playing an un-wanted carp" I only fed around 4 grains of corn on the waggler line with the catty & after 5mins I had a 1lb skimmer soon followed by another slightly smaller fish, Sam was already regretting starting short on pellet as the only thing he was attracting were more carp some of which were close to double figures" Steve had started to catch a few carp on the deck also on his short line with pellet but he was targeting them" I stuck to the waggler for just over an hour but only had a couple more 10oz skimmers, I had been topping the other long lines up every 20mins or so, so it was time to try them in the hope of catching some decent skimmers? Starting with a 4mm expander over the groundbait line I fully expected it to under straight away but it didn't! I gave it 15mins or so but all I managed was an 8oz skimmer foul hooked" I went onto the other long line with corn on the hook & thought I had it sorted when I had two 1lb plus fish in two put-in's but that was it'. Onto the short line with a segment of worm where I had been feeding casters by hand from the off but all it produced was a few small roach, I switched to a bit of corn over the top but the inevitable happened & soon found myself landing a 4lb carp" Sam had already given up targeting the silvers & had switched to a heavier elastic to cope with the carp which seemed very willing to feed even though he was feeding very little.

Back on the waggler & I had another skimmer, But I had made a big mistake by feeding more corn over the top as the carp were soon showing interest landing two in the process, The long groundbait line was fizzing like mad & the only bit I had on the long corn line was another carp", It just wasn't happening as far as catching silvers went & I was regretting not having set some rigs up for the carp as looking around they were very wiling to have a proper munch today, Steve had started to catch shallow at 6mts"

& Sam had now started to catch some carp down his inside edge as well as 6mts & was really starting to catch well, My day was spent switching lines just in the hope I could get through the carp to latch into some silvers but it just didn't happen today, With 90mins of the match remaining I had had enough & succumbed to defeat" Sam was thankful as he thought he was getting close to his net limits so I lent him one of mine as he was really bagging down his inside edge catching a fish every put-in,

Once I was packed away I went & watched same fishing down his edge at 4mts & I can say I haven't seen so many fish willing to feed In one small area for a long time' No sooner had he dropped his rig in he was playing a fish & as he was playing it their were already fish straight back on his bait with fish swirling close to the bank, it was fun to watch & with 15mins to go he had to use another net of mine" The lake had fished really well for those who targeted the carp with a few admitting to over 200lb, When the scales arrived John Mills opposite Sam had fished the long pole shallow all day & by the end of the match had seven keepnets in the water" his final total went a cracking level 300lb" There were a couple of other 200lb weights before it was Sam's turn, he was doing well until unfortunately one of his first nets went over the limit of 80lb max by 4lb so that net wouldn't count, It was bad news as had it been allowed he would of won the day with just over 300lb! he finished with 217lb odd to just miss out on the main frame, Managing a section win but a costly loss on the day. Overall their were some great weights proving how good & popular this venue is, Top silvers went to Steve Jackson over on Lodge Lake catching the bulk of his fish on worm over casters to finish with 65lb with a couple of back-up weights in the forty's, Perhaps it was a big mistake not to target carp today but at least it gave me an incite on perhaps what to do next week, Or should I say what NOT to do!" Lol. Off to fish the commercial house league tomorrow on the Kings Sedgemoor Drain, It will be the first time I've fished it for as long as I can remember so should be interesting"

Full Results -

1st John Mills (Ridgeway) peg 125 Cambell, 300lb.

2nd Craig Edmunds (Mosella) peg 129 Cambell, 241lb 12oz.

3rd Mark Wynne (Colmic) peg 80 Cary, 236lb 7oz.

4th Roy Worth (Bait-Tech Viaduct) peg 71 Lodge, 218lb 4oz.

5th Sam Powell (Middy) peg 116 Cambell, 217lb.

Silvers -

1st Steve Jackson (Garbolino) peg 70 Lodge, 65lb.

2nd Paddy (Viaduct) peg 123 Cambell, 45lb 3oz.