Viaduct Fishery Silvers Final (Cambell, Cary, Lodge & Spring Lakes).

That time of the year again when the winners of the silver fish pool from the matches throughout the year all ascend for the Silvers Final worth a cool £750 to the winner" as well as good payouts for the top six & section winners. I was looking forward to today & made sure I had plenty of hook-lengths made up this week'

  It was a normal stop off at Hilltops for breakfast whilst its still open, I met up with Gabo & had a chat where we fancied being before arriving in plenty of time to whisk' up are Ground-bait for the day. A good turn out with sixty-one fishing with the who's who of quality silvers anglers lining the banks, I fancied a draw on a couple of the higher numbers on spring which can produce good bags of big skimmers or perhaps the 120's on cambell which seems to be a consistent area along with the rope pegs on Lodge. I let a few draw before me before I found myself on peg 103 on Cary, Its a few pegs up in the narrower section backing onto lodge lake & I happened to draw this swim on the first round of the silvers league last year & had a good day finishing second with 33lb odd of smaller skimmers, Over a year ago but I still felt the peg could produce a few so was looking forward to the day, Gabo happened to draw behind me on the first peg up on Lodge, 73, & for company I had resident Colin Dyer on peg 105 to my left & Dave Roper on my right peg 102 who was already cursing after leaving the bulk of his top kits at home". peg 103 is right next to the tree & with a bit of cover in the water my first two rigs were to fish on my topkit down my inside left bank in 2ft of water using a 3x8 chanti on 0.11-0.09 & a size 18 Guru Maggot hook, & a 4x10 chanti to fish off the end of the tree in the deeper water on 0.13-0.10 & a 18 PR490 hook. I set another 4x10 chanti on a long line to fish on my top 3 infront of me on the same line with a 18 PR412 hook, But most of my faith would be fishing the long pole with a line at 14mts to my left & a line at 12mts slightly right which I would feed differently, I set up two 0.2g pencil floats on 0.13-0-09 & Guru F1 size 18 pellet hooks, Both lines were on slightly different in depth at nearly 4ft so had one rig with a strung bulk & a couple of droppers the other with a double bulk to fish over depth. I started the day feeding 4 balls of ground-bait off to my left at 14mts & 3 balls laced with chopped worm & casters at 12mts, Whilst feeding these lines I had been flicking a few casters on the shorter lines & began In-front of me on the longer lined rig just touching the deck, I wasn't quick but I was soon adding the odd roach to 3oz on single caster, I couldn't see much being caught so stuck at for nearly the first hour putting about 3-4lb of roach in the net, I did hook a better fish but it managed to shed the hook after a few seconds but that was the only sign from the short lines before it switched off, Time to try the long lines & I began at 14mts with pellet on the hook, I hooked & bumped off a decent fish after a few minutes then had a near 3lb bream ten minutes later on a segment of worm but then only had a few smaller 8-10oz samples in the next 20mins so added another ball before trying the 12mt line again with a piece of worm on the hook, I didn't have a sniff on it here & only managed a small blade skimmer when trying caster on the hook, I took a few more small fish off my short lines before going back to the 14mt line, Another 1lb plus skimmer on the pellet before I hooked another decent bream which this time came off shipping back" It wasn't what I wanted to happen in the shallower water as it soon causes the fish to back off, A couple more small skimmers in the next ten minutes had me topping it up again before trying short again.

I had a couple more roach on the long line rig before trying down my left hand margin in the shallower water on the lighter 3x8 rig. I had a few chucky 3oz roach before I hooked something much better, After steering it out from under the branches & a bit of a scrap I netted a near 3lb hybrid", Only a couple more small roach followed & with just over two hours remaining it began to soon cloud over & begin to rain, I felt that the long lines would produce more in the last part of the match so was back out to 14mts, It seemed to be a case of catching a couple of fish before topping it up again, Most fish were between 8-12oz but I did manage a couple more 2lb plus fish but frustratingly I managed to lose another two big skimmers & bumped two off on the strike" Going into the last 90mins the wheels fell off" I had now managed to draw the attention of the lakes beasty" carp hooking & trashing two rigs & snapping one lot of elastic' along with netting two in the process" Dave had called it a day & had soon packed up after the rain arrived & I couldn't see anyone catching to much opposite so stuck at the long lines, It seemed to be a case of hooking a carp before going straight back in & catching a couple of skimmers before the carp arrived again" I did manage to catch a few small roach down the edge in between but couldn't get the worm/caster line at 12mts to work as I never had another fish over it" I managed two more decent skimmers in the last 30mins at 14mts on small pieces of worm but again lost a few more, It was hard to get them to settle with the carp being present but I new they were in the peg & I think I was foul hooking a couple in the process, I had a job to see the float in the last hour & had to take a shot off the rig which was giving false bites which didn't help. My last decent skimmer came seconds before the all-out just as it had stopped raining, As soon as I hooked it I thought it was a carp so skied the pole in the air only to realise it was another near 3lb bream" thankfully I netted it just after the all-out.

I was first to weigh on my bank as Colin had admitted to around 7lb but had tipped back, I was quite surprised to end up with 25lb 6oz but was cursing losing a few along the way, The next best weight in my section was Dan Squires with 14lb odd so at least I would pick up some section monies. Back at the results & it turned out the high numbers on Spring was the place to be, Well one peg at least as Stuart Wilson on peg 18 took todays top weight with just over 50lb of big skimmers on worm over ground-bait so well done to him for walking away with the top prize of £750. Their was a 40lb weight off of Cary Then the weights were close with only the odd fish between the rest of the main frame, It turned out 29lb odd was enough to sneak into 6th so only a couple more fish for me would have seen me go home with some decent coin but was happy to take £55 for the section win, back again tomorrow for the second round of the silvers league & to be honest I wouldn't mind drawing the same area as I felt the peg was worth a few more fish if  change things a little?.

Winner Stuart centre, James (Right) & Des.

Full results -

1st Stuart Wilson (Cwmbran Nobblers) peg 18 Spring, 50lb 14oz.

2nd James Allen (Frenzee S/W) peg 99 Cary, 40lb 2oz.

3rd Des Shipp (Preston Innovations) peg 66 Lodge, 32lb 1oz.

4th Stu White (Premier Angling) peg 115 Cambell, 31lb 6oz.

5th Bela Bakos (Silverfox) peg 69 Lodge, 30lb 2oz.

6th Fred Roberts (Sign Solutions) peg 125 Cambell, 29lb 7oz.