Viaduct Fishery Teams Of 5 (Round 1) Al Lakes.

The time of year has come around again for this popular teams of 5, Gabo & myself were guesting for the Maver team which included Captain Chris hook, Steve Seager & young Lewis Walker, I met Gabo & we stopped off at the Burnham café again, Sadly despite being the only ones their it still wasn't very warm again but at least it was something to set up the day. We arrived at a very busy car park as most had already arrived, Chris got the pools money in early so we were third in line to draw, He came back not looking best pleased, it turned out Steve would be on Spring lake peg 20 which is an open water swim & not the best, Lewis was on the rope peg 70 of Lodge but we fancied the corners would be best here, Chris was on match lake peg 54, Gabo looked to have faired a bit better with peg 100 on Cary & I ended up on peg 131 Cambell which I would of sprinted to no less than a week ago but on yesterdays open they failed to catch a carp at this shallower end of the lake, Arriving at my peg the good news was the wind was off are backs but looking out onto the flat water their didn't appear to be the slightest sign of any carp moving so already things didn't look promising,

 James cooper was on peg 130 which had previous won seven matches in a row until yesterday so he was just as gutted as me although it was nice to have good company along with Dave Curry on my right end peg 132.

I cant get away from this peg in this league as I just so happened to draw it last year again at the wrong time & struggled for 5lb of bits on the waggler & I really wasn't expecting today to be much better with it being shallow & I could see the bottom in-front of me, As normal the first things out were the bomb rod to fish bread/meat ect towards the middle of the lake, A 0.3 loaded waggler to fish on the same line with an 0.13 botton & an 18 PR36 hook, I had a 0.2g float on 0.13-0.11 & an 18 F1 Pellet hook to fish at 16mts on less than 3ft of water hoping to catch on meat over meat & with loads of time left I also assembled a rig for silvers at 13mts which was the deepest water I could find, just over 3ft'.

On the all-in I fed a few cubes of meat at 16mts, fed a handful of loose casters & a few dead reds at 13mts. Everybody seemed to start the day on the bomb but with the wind in are favour I opted to start at dead depth on the waggler with a bunch of maggots on the hook but didn't feed anything to begin with. after 20mins & no early signs I began to feed a few casters over the top with the catty, After 40mins I had my first fish being a 4oz rudd' but at this point it was more than anybody else at are end, I stuck at it & managed a couple of blip roach but already it was looking like their were no carp present, I did predict we wouldn't hook a carp between the three of us before the day even started but fancied the peg by the spit to manage a couple of carp, After the first hour he was the only one at are end to hook one with both Jamie & Dave still blanking. I tried the pole lines & only managed a blip roach which came off at 13mts, I had nothing to lose so decided to put a good helping of chopped worm and casters on the 13mt line & leave it hoping to see some signs of fish on it later in the day.

I had a quick look on the bomb & bread/meat but after 20mins it was binned until I saw anybody around me catch on it, Being a team match I wasn't prepared to sit waiting for something to happen so decided to switch the hooklength on the waggler to 0.10 & an 20 F1 maggot hook to try & catch some silvers so at least I would be putting something in the net, I was feeding around 20 casters & a few red maggots every 10mins & switched to fishing single red maggot on the hook, I started to catch the odd roach but most were only very small, Every 40mins or so I tried the pole lines but I couldn't get a bite on them.

Around mid match I had just gone back on the wagg when I hooked something better, It turned out to be a decent perch over a 1lb & after a couple more small roach I had another slightly smaller one, 10minutes later I bumped which felt like another decent perch then it went dead, I gave the pole another try & the bomb again slightly further out but still nothing. I new it was a case of catching what I could on the waggler going into the last hour as it still didn't look like any of us were going to be fortunate enough to catch any carp'. James did finally manage to catch after targeting then all day but it wasn't the carp he was hoping for but a 1lb plus skimmer, Dave finally managed to catch two small roach on the pole to avoid the blank' & all I managed were a few more roach & rudd, When the scales arrived Dave was first to weigh & managed 2oz's , My net of silvers went 4lb 2oz & James managed 1lb 9oz with his lone skimmer, the guy on the spit managed a couple of carp but opposite us Gary Webber on peg 110 finished with 3lb 4oz & Dan Squires on peg 111 managed 2lb 7oz so we were in a shite area on the day".

Most of us had to watch Tim Clark fishing under the future network banner on peg 113 catch all day on the bomb to easily win the lake with 150lb". Back at the results & it seemed most of us had struggled, I ended the day with 7pts, Chris had 9, Steve 8, Gabo 8 & Lewis 6pts so are total of 38 would be lower down on the day, Not a good start but that's the way it is at this time of the year. It was really pleasing to see old stager Colin Dyer who can been found at the fishery most days win the match today as only on the weekend a chap I know who takes his boy down for a few hours sometimes mentioned to me how helpful he was & how much he helps his boy out so fair play to you mate, Colin fished the bomb & bread from peg 102 on Cary to finish the day with 154lb. Top silvers went to Sam Powell from peg 2 on spring lake with a level 18lb. On the team stakes Future Networks lead the way on 76pts just ahead of Garbolino BV on 75pts.

Another hard day but hopefully it will be my chance to land on a few in the next round when I'm on Cary Lake.

Full Results -

1st Colin Dyer (Balti Boys) peg 102 Cary, 154lb 11oz.

2nd Tim Clark (Future Networks) peg 113 Cambell, 150lb 6oz.

3rd Paul Greenwood (M5) peg 77 Cary, 111lb 9oz.

4th Nick Collins (Somerset Angling) peg 53 Lodge, 96lb.

5th Tony Rixon (Future Networks) peg 73 Lodge, 94lb 2oz.

6th Mark Wynne (Colmic S.W) peg 128 Cambell, 67lb 12oz.

Silvers -

1st Sam Powell (Preston Innovations) peg 2 Spring, 18lb.

2nd Des Shipp (Preston Innovations) peg 103 Cary, 17lb 10oz.

3rd Colin Sandford (Amigos) peg 24 Spring, 15lb 13oz.