Viaduct Fishery (Saturday Open).

Travelling on my own again today I stooped off for a bacon butty at the grub van on route before stopping on Walton Hill to take this nice snap from above the morning mist,

 Being one of the first to arrive as normal so a hot cuppa was the first thing I had before taking a wander around Cambell, We were forecast a chilly northerly wind today but for the time being their wasn't a sign of any wind, Into the draw & I ended up on peg 118 backing on to the top end of Cary, Not really what I wanted as I would be in the shade most of the day & not an area that's been prolific on silvers,

Nicky Ewers draw it in the last round of the silvers & struggled for 6lb odd but when I saw that man TRIG" had draw end peg 123 on the opposite bank the carp pool was all but over & I fancied Roland Lucas who had drawn next to me again for the 3rd match in a row on here on peg 119 would also have a few? I didn't think the silvers would be a high weight affair today so would give it another go, I set up the normal 0.3 & 0.2g Pencil floats both on 0.11-0.9, One with an 18 63-13 hook the other with an 18  Guru F1 Maggot hook.

I plummed up a line at 14mts in the clear gap on the left of the picture & another line at 13mts in the clear right hand light line,

 

I also plumed another line at 14mts down the lake at a 10 o'clock angle & last of all set up a 4x10 chanti on 0.11-0.08 & an 18 PR412 hook to fish under the shadow of the tree on my top-kit plus one section, On the all-in I fed fours balls at 14mts in-front of me with casters & a few dead reds, Fed one ball on the 13mt line & fed a pot of loose on the left hand 14mt line with some casters & chopped worm. I started on the short line & gave it about 30mins taking around a 1lb of small roach before I saw Trig net a decent bream in among the carp he was already netting"! I started on the heavier fed line but couldn't get any early signs so switched to the 13mt line with single caster on the hook. I had an 10oz skimmer before two minutes later bumped a better fish' This killed it so topped up with another small ball & switched to the 14mt line off to the left with a small piece of worm, Again I had a smaller size skimmer then hooked & lost a better fish here!, Not quite going to plan at this stage'. I tried the short line again but only had a few more small roach so I was soon back on the longer lines, The heavier fed 14mt line finally gave me a few small net skimmers but after catching a few the would push away, at around the halfway stage I noticed some bubbles on the 14mt line off to the left so went in with double caster on the hook, I missed a bite as soon as it settled then had a flyer" around 2lb, The pattern was the same as you would get a fish the nothing, I spend the rest of the match rotating the three lines with different baits on the hook but couldn't find a single bait which seemed to work best, I managed a near 3lb fish off the left hand 14mt line but again bummed a better fish which put pay to the swim for some time, I'm convinced these fish are foul hookers as they always seem to come off after a matter of seconds? I managed to catch a few more smaller skimmers of both 14mts lines but the 13mt line what had produced early in the day was all but void come the end, The carp put in an appearance in the last 30mins netting one over 10lb & losing another but apart from another 1lb pus fish on maggot I didn't take any late bigger skimmers I had expected, When the scales arrived Trig had weighed 10lb odd of big skimmers but was winning the match with 76lb, Roland had had just the one carp so didn't weigh-in before I put 11lb 11oz of silvers on the scales not bothering to weigh the carp, Spooky really as I managed the exact same weight last Sunday on here in the silvers league from peg 116'. I was leading the silvers until the final peg 110 where Kev Newman put 12lb odd on the scales, A close weight affair as expected but at least I got £20 back as a bonus. As I expected (And the rest of us!) Lol, Trig won the match catching most of his fish on the long pole & meat in the first hour", Gota take your hat off to him, He can draw but never mucks um up". In hindsight I would of probably been best off switching to carp as it appeared the fish moved away from him into the day between me & empty peg 124 opposite but hindsight's a brilliant thing". Thing it will be a lot harder going on a few areas next week in the silvers league but I will make sure I've fine tuned my elastics for sure.

Full results - 

1st Craig Edmounds (Mosella) peg 123 Cambell, 76lb 6oz.

2nd Paul Bell (Viaduct) peg 128 Cambell, 35lb 4oz.

3rd Dave Cockayne (Weston) peg 131, 25lb 13oz.

Silvers -

1st Kev Newman (Bait-Tech Viaduct) peg 110 Cambell, 12lb 5oz.

2nd Dom Sullivan (Maver) peg 118 Cambell, 11lb 11oz.