Viaduct Fishery Two Day Pairs (Silvers Only).

An event I have fished the last couple of years but sadly this time around it wouldn't be with good friend Donald Sutherland after passing away suddenly earlier this year, A real shame not to be fishing with him again this year as we had finished 3rd overall in the last two years & were hoping to improve on it. Things move on as they say & this year I was pairing up with now Mosella team Mate Gabo Skarba both hoping the draw bag would be kind to us? With 22 pairs fishing the match would be spread over Cambell & Spring Lake & a section from each pairing on Lodge Lake, Gado thought it would be a good idea to allow me to draw for the both of us (He Must Be Mad"), You could chose which angler fished which section on day one then rotate for day two. Gabo opted for spring/lodge meaning I would be on cambell/lodge.

Into the draw bag & I handed Gabo peg 5 on spring lake, It doesn't usually produce to well on the silvers front & would find it hard to beat the lower numbers in his section especially with England Ace Des Shipp on peg 3 in his section", As for me' Peg 69 Lodge Lake which I was well happy with, it won the last round of the silvers league with 30lb odd on the waggler & caster & is usually a good area of the Lake along with peg 68 which was occupied by Des's Partner Mark Harper & we both expected a few fish despite the hard frost, quite a simple approach as I didn't expect many, if any, fish to be caught short. I had a line at 16mts towards the rope through the middle of the lake & another at 14mts slightly off to my left, Both lines were the same depth around 4ft so set up two 4x12 Wire Wonders, one on 0.11-0.09 & an 18 F1 pellet hook the other on 0.11-0.08 & an 18 63-13 hook. Apart from this I had a 4x10 chanti on a longer line just encase I had to try short, A finally a 4AAA waggler to fish the middle of the lake.

I started the day feeding five balls of G/bait at 16mts with a few casters & dead pinkees added & fed the 14mt line with just the one ball with a few dead reds in. I started the day on the waggler with caster on the hook hoping we would soon be into some fish, Their were signs of fish topping everywhere in the middle of the lake but despite the two anglers opposite & Mark & myself all on the waggler at various depths we just couldn't muster a bite" The splashing" skimmers disappeared after 30mins or so but I stuck at it as others tried their pole lines. I gave it just over an hour but it wasn't happening with just a couple of small roach so it was time to try the pole lines.

Starting on the negative line I had a skimmer of 4oz straight away followed by a 3oz roach soon after but that was it' I fed another small ball & went straight over it, I didn't have to wait long for a bite which saw me hook a decent fish, Well for two seconds anyway" that totally killed it so after another 15mins without indications I fed another small ball & was hoping the positive line at 16mts would have fish queuing up for me".

First drop-in on the caster saw me net an 6oz skimmer, Then the next hour I added the odd small roach or 4oz skimmer from both lines, from what I could see not much was being caught, I kept trying the waggler but still only managed a few small roach, I really thought the last few hours would produce a few bigger skimmers but I couldn't of been more wrong", The last 90mins were dire, I did bump what felt like a better skimmer on the waggler, Missed a couple of bites on the pole lines & all I added was a 3oz rudd in the whistle! I thought mark had a bit more than me as his few skimmers looked slightly bigger which turned out to be the result as he went on to win the section with a massive 5lb 1oz" with me finishing 2nd in the section with 3lb 8oz! that just proves how hard it was in this area today & the two pegs on the lawn on this lake which don't usually produce had 14lb odd each" luckily they weren't in are section. Back at the results & it turned out Gabo had also struggled for 5lb odd with the lower pegs as expected producing the goods with Des winning the section & the match with 22lb of skimmers on the long pole & casters so fair play to him yet again'. With both Mark & Des winning their sections they already looked like holding onto there crown from last year but all could change at the draw on day two, We still had a shout of making the top 4 payout but would need a section win each so were hoping for a couple of flyers"

Day Two.

Gabo left it for me to draw again today & was a bit happier when I handed him peg 126 on Cambell, The only downside, He had Des in his section again", I ended up on peg 12 of Spring Lake just below the famous Viaduct,

But not a good area normally & to make things worse I had Mark Harper again in my section on the opposite bank peg 17 which most had down to win are section as it tends to hold some decent skimmers, With no island chuck I decided on a waggler approach again at around 25mts, Two pole lines at 16mts again with 4x12 Wire Wonder floats, & one line at 13mts with a 0.2g pencil float on 0.11-0.08 & an 20 F1 Maggot hook.

I decided to be a bit negative to start with today as I felt my match might be more about catching small fish regular with the odd chance of a bonus? I fed two balls at 16mts to my left with just a few casters added, Fed a small amount of loose casters & a few dead reds at 16mts in-front of me & a small ball with some squats & dead pinkie at 13mts. Starting on the waggler at dead depth with caster on the hook just feeding a few casters every few minutes saw me start to catch the odd roach which I stuck at for the first hour or so, I switched to corn on the hook & gave it 30minutes in the hope of catching something decent but it never moved, Mark had switched to fishing the waggler & was soon into a decent skimmer but most of my section seemed to be struggling & the guy to my right on peg 11 was yet to catch. I had a look on the long pole lines after leaving them for 90minutes or so but after spending 10minutes on each without any signs of fish I was soon back on the waggler picking off the odd roach to 3oz. As the day went on I had to forget about the 16mt line off to my left as the sun was straight in are faces on are bank & I could see Nowt" I fed another new line with just one ball at 14mts slightly to the right with a couple of hours to go hoping to see some late signs of fish over it, I spent the match swapping between the waggler & the pole lines I could see, With just over an hour to go I went back on the 13mt line with dead pinkee on the hook & was quite shocked when I had two 5oz skimmers & a 12oz fish in as many dob-ins but then I was back to tiny roach on this line so re-fed another small ball with squats & a few dead pinkies, Still no signs on the longer pole lines so was really hoping of a better fish off the waggler line late in the day. I had changed from feeding just a few casters every few minutes to feeding bigger amounts more often to try & draw some bigger fish into the swim.

Twenty Minutes of the match remaining & I was just pouring a coffee when the float went" I hit the bite but was a bit slow which resulted in me bumping something decent! Typical" I managed a few more small fish off the 13mt line & a few roach on caster on the wagg but still nothing on corn, I had been dripping casters down the edge at 4mts all day in the hope of some perch but it didn't happen, Mark had caught a few decent skimmers among his roach on the waggler so had him down as the section winner again but the rest would be close. Mark went on to weigh 20lb odd which was easily enough, Vince Lunn had 7lb 11oz of small skimmers on the end peg 9 of are section, Shaun Wilson who I thought I had beat went on to weigh a level 5lb next to mark so I ended up with 4lb 13oz for 4th in the section so not the result I wanted, Back at the results & it turned out Gabo had had another mare finishing last in his section with 1lb odd so bad day for both of us this time but that man again Des Shipp showed us all his true talent to win the day again with 33lb catching decent size fish on the waggler & caster to easily win the match again so a massive well done mate & I hope you get to grab an individual gold medal to top things off in your England career as it would be well deserved for sure. Well mark & Des did well to finish on two section wins a piece to retain their title from last year which is an excellent performance.

The fishing was hard for most but we are in the depths of winter with two cold, bright clear days to contend with so well done to those who made up the rest of the frame. That's it as far as matches go for this year & over the next few days I will fill in my yearly summing up how things have gone.

Full results - Day One.

1st Des Shipp, Peg 3 Spring, 22lb 8oz.

2nd Dan Squires, Peg 37 Middle, 20lb 12oz.

3rd Phil Cardwell, Peg 111 Cambell, 16lb 2oz.

4th Matt Parsons, Peg 123 Cambell, 14lb 12oz.

 

 

Day Two -

1st Des Shipp, Peg 128 Cambell, 33lb 10oz.

2nd Ryan Shipp, Peg 119 Cambell, 27lb 12oz.

3rd John Fuidge, Peg 59 Lodge, 23lb 12oz.

4th Mark Harper, Peg 17 Spring, 21lb 7oz.

 

 

Overall Pairs -

1st Des Shipp & Mark Harper 4pts.

2nd Ziggy Slowiski & John Fuidge 7pts.

3rd Martin Preston & Phil Cardwell 9pts.

4th Ryan Shipp & Ricky Mills 10pts (Weight).