Viaduct Fishery Open (Cary Lake).

After keeping the Wife happy yesterday taking her to Brean to see the rodeo's who had spend a week in the resort all dolled up in their cowboy kits with plenty of live music if that's your sort of thing' Fair play to them they go the hole hog & to be honest all the pubs ect had a brilliant atmosphere so would recommend visiting the annual event. Back to today & travelling on my own I made full use of the extended opening of Hilltops for breakfast again before arriving at the fishery, I had a quick walk around & noticed what breeze was in the air was coming from the north slightly blowing into the pegs on the spit between Lodge, I was going to decided what to fish for once I drew my peg & with seventeen fishing I was midway in the queue ending up on peg 96, Gary Etheridge had a weight of skimmers here on Thursday fishing the waggler & banded pellet but with the wind blowing straight at us I ruled it out as apart from being hard to see I new I would suffer with tangles trying to cast a light set-up into it, I had draw this area not long ago & fished for carp but it hasn't really produced enough to frame so rather than chance it I decided on a silvers approach again today with the Silvers final next Saturday I could use it to try & work a few things out just encase I end up here come the day.

With the conditions the way they were I decided to fish two long lines & feed them differently, A 14mt line with an 4x14 Wire Wonder on 0.13-0.10 & an 18 PR434 hook in nearly four feet of water, It was the same depth at 12mts but here I had a 0.2g pencil float on 0.13-0.09 & an 18 PR490 hook. Apart from this I set up a 4x10 Chanti on 0.11-0.09 & an 18 PR412 hook to fish on my top three down the edge slightly off the bank in a couple of feet of water & the same set up on a long line to fish past my loose feed, I began the day feeding 4 bals of ground-bait worm & casters at 14mts & two balls of micro & some hard 4mm pellet at 12mts, whilst feeding these lines I began to feed a few casters down the right hand edge & on just my topkit distance down my left hand side.

I began on the right hand side with single caster & in the first 20mins managed around 2lb of roach but it was a bit slow, I tried the top-kit to my left but never had a sniff, I wanted to leave the long lines so any fish would settle so went back down my right hand side on the longer lined rig which by the first hour had given me around 4lb but it was getting slow so time to try the long lines.

I started at 14mts with a small segment of worm which got me a 12oz skimmer straight away but after another 15mins all I managed was another 4oz skimmer, I switched to the 12mt line with a 4mm expander on the hook fully expecting a bite but after 10mins I hadn't had a sniff so it was time to chase a few more roach down the edge after topping up the longer lines, Starting back on the shorter lined rig I had a run of chunky roach to 5oz before I had to switch back to the longer rig to add a few more. After a couple of hours regular visitor Phil who was also targeting silvers on peg 97 hooked & landed a 2lb Tench then a decent 3lb bream from his 12mt line which signalled me to give it another try, Starting with expander on the hook it didn't take to long to get a bite & I soon netted a fish over 2lb but after that it was back to nothing as neither of us had another fish here for the time being.

I fed it again & had another go at 14mts which produced another 10oz skimmer before I hooked a carp which managed to strip the elastic from my pole taking the rig the lot with it!" Luckily I soon had a new rig resembled but again nothing more from this line. Back down the edge & another run of fish before I hooked something better which shed the hook after a few seconds" before adding just a few more roach, I kept trying my top kit further off the bank to my left but all I managed here was a few tiny roach, The right hand line proved best but I had to keep putting the rig in different areas to keep bites coming, I kept my eye on Phil who had managed a couple of smaller samples on his longer line but I felt by adding fish from down the edge was keeping my Infront, It wasn't until the last 90mins the longer lines showed signs of fish & had another 1lb skimmer at 14mts & had another 2lb plus fish at 12mts before hooking another carp on each line" down the edge improved in the last hour as I had around 5lb of roach & a bonus 1lb plus perch in between trying the long lines in the hope of some more skimmers but it didn't happen, Phil managed another 1lb plus fish before taking another 3lb fish on the whistle but I still though I had a bit more come the end estimating to over 20lb. I had a £1 with polish national Ziggy before the start as he was going for silvers today & he came straight up to me after the all-out giving me the nugget as he was admitting to 15lb? When the scales arrived he was slightly out with his weight, weighing 25lb 2oz" Phil weighed 14lb odd before it was my turn, 25lb 6oz" That will teach him to under estimate or tell porky pies" Lol, Back at the results & their were some decent weight of carp still caught most of which were on the Bomb & pellet for those who did well topped by Jim Morrison with 215lb odd from peg 88 ahead of Phil Hardwick over on peg 77 with 141lb catching from his margins, It turned out my weight was enough to take the silvers pool picking up £48 so another enjoyable day, Think I could have caught a few more bigger skimmers if I had changed the feed pattern but would be more comfortable to catch on the long pole if on here next weekend either in the final or on the Sunday in the second round of the silvers league. Looking forward to both so hope the weather holds up. Owe & just a quick little tip, When Fitting new bungs in your top-kits you always have to cut some of the cone off, I cut them down & smooth them off to used as home made pellet cones which not only works saves me over £5 to buy a set from the tackle shop" Bargin!.

Full Result -

1st Jim Morrison (Tackle Trader) peg 88, 215lb 8oz.

2nd Phil Hardwick (Viaduct) peg 77, 141lb 1oz.

3rd Steve Shaw (Mosella) peg 90, 139lb.

4th David Turbenville (Wales) peg 78, 124lb 4oz.

5th Sean Clayton (Wales) peg 105, 114lb 7oz.

6th Colin Dyer (Viaduct) peg 100, 104lb 1oz.

Silvers -

1st Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 96, 25lb 6oz.

2nd Ziggy Slowiski (Garbolino) 25lb 2oz.