Avalon Fishery (Silvers League).

I had the chance to fill in for somebody in this last round of the silvers league which has been held here for a few months, I haven't every fished here for silvers before & its been a long time since I even visited the venue so was looking forward to the change, With an 8.30 draw & arrived in plenty of time after grabbing a breakfast roll on route, I did expect to be hanging after my birthday yesterday but managed to keep things to a sensible level, I had a quick chat with a few of them who had been fishing the league & the most fancied area was between pegs 37-39 as they had been consistent so far.

Into the draw & I found myself on peg 35, Just off the so say better pegs but when Rich Coles got to the end peg next to me he seemed to think we were still in with a chance of catching a few & with the wind off are backs it looked like conditions were ideal are side of the lake. Rich seemed to think 10lb would be a good weight today after the resent hard frosts so wasn't expecting the day to be to hectic with if this was the case, With plenty of time to set up I set up a 4x16 & 4x14 wire wonder floats on 0.13-0.09 to fish in around 6ft of water, One with a size 16 F1 Pellet hook the other with an 18 63-13 hook, I chose a line at 13mts slightly left where I intended to fish soft pellet over micros & a line at 14mts to fish maggot/caster over G/Bait. Apart from this as I was in one of gaps between the islands I set up a small ground-bait feeder to fish towards the middle of the lake. On the all-in I fed a small ball of micros at 13mts & fed four balls of G/bait with a few casters & pinkie's at 14mts. I started the day on the feeder with dead red maggot on the hook with neat G/bait through the feeder, It was a slow start to say the least with just one small roach in the first 30mins, I switched to the 13mt line with 4mm expander on the hook & missed a decent bite after about ten minutes but twenty minutes later hadn't had another sign even when switching to maggot on the hook, I waited nearly an hour before going on the 14mt line with dead red maggot on the hook, I had a small roach to start with then after 10mins of waiting had a better fish on which turned out to be a skimmer around 1lb, I thought this would be the start of some action but it wasn't happening. The chap to my left had taken just a few small fish on the waggler over to the island with caster but owner Vic Bush had caught a few net fish below him on the waggler, Rich on the end peg next to me had a slow start with just a few bits on the long pole before he switched to fishing off to his right towards the overhanging tree which worked wonders as he netted a decent bream & was getting a few better skimmers soon after, My day was a real struggle, the pellet line produced just one more bite with maggot on the hook which again I missed", I ended up starting another line slightly left at 14mts feeding just one ball with red maggots in, This did produce a few late 8oz skimmers & I managed another 1lb plus fish again on maggot of my first 14mt line, The light was really getting low in the last few minutes & I was struggling to see the float, I lifted it slightly just as some thing went for the bait & I was hooked to a decent size fish but it didn't stay on unfortunately but in the end it wouldn't of mattered, Rich Had a good day with a few early decent fish topped off with some decent skimmers late in the day to take the days top weight with 16lb odd ahead of Pete Neat on the opposite bank end peg with 13lb odd. Vic went on to win are section with 9lb & took the overall league with a weight of 92lb in total, I new the fishing was going to be hard but funnily I really enjoyed working hard to try & induce some bites, In the last 30mins the peg began to show signs of fish so felt I had fed it right but the fish just didn't want to feed here until late in the day. I'm taking another trip back here tomorrow for there Xmas match with  twenty odd fishing, I still think the fishing will be hard but looking forward to it. I have to say I forgot my camera again today but the swims on this lake are done really well with plenty of room & a comfy days fishing which is nice.

Full Results -

1st Rich Coles (The Sedges) peg 34, 16lb 5oz.

2nd Pete Neat (Avalon) 13lb 11oz.

3rd Tony Rixon (Mosella/Veals) 10lb 1oz.

4th Vic Bush (Mosella) 9lb 2oz.

Overall Results -

1st Vic Bush.

2nd John Fudge.

3rd Chris Fox.

4th Ken Rayner.