Viaduct Fishery (Cambell Open).

After a nice breakfast on Burham-on-sea I arrived in plenty of time, There was a club match on Cary Lake & a silvers only match on Lodge Lake today so it was a sell out again with twenty of us fishing, Apparently a few were saying the fish seemed to have moved up the lake a bit from the last week, That's ok then as I always seem to draw up there lately so should be on a few', No such luck as I ended up on the winter flyer peg 110 in the corner' I wasn't to put off until I realised that peg 135 on the end bank to me was in,

As well as being told the guy on my peg didn't even weigh-in yesterday! Sounds about right for me here..

I had no intention of targeting silvers so first out the holdall was the normal bomb & waggler rods to fish the open water, Obviously I still had the option of fishing down into the corner at 16mts if I wanted too but then remembered that Steve Jacko' Jackson who had his toys out the pram a few weeks back decided to deposit all the branches he had hooked in here through the day straight back in after the match!!" I found what appeared to be a clearer area around 12mts so would start this far down the edge & go from there so set up a 0.2g gram rig on 0.17-0.15 & a size 16 hair rigged hook to fish in just over 3ft of water, Apart from a shallow rig if needed the only other rig was a 4x12 chanti on 0.17-0.13 & a 16 hook to fish meat at around 8mts in 4ft of water. I had good company with Clint Wojtyla on peg 111 who is always guaranteed to give you a laugh at some stage, Martin Preston on what has been the hot area peg 112 & Ben Broxson on the end bank peg 135.

I began the day feeding a handful of hemp & a few cubes of meat at 8mts, Fed a smaller amount down the edge of the same & began the day on the wagg at depth towards the middle of the lake with banded 8mm feeding a few of the same, 15mins in & nothing, the wind was off are back to start with but turned around slightly blowing up the lake which kept towing the rig out of place so had a quick look on the bomb over the same line but even this didn't produce, It was first blood to Clint at are end as he managed one on the wagg but things weren't looking to promising at are end already?.

After 40mins or so it was time to try down the edge with hair rigged meat, Fishing 12mts was just over the stump you can see below,

I had a bite straight away resulting in a 7lb fish after a bit of a battle to get it out the corner' soon after I had a 4lb fish after cad-potting just a couple more cubes over the top then the fish backed away, I decided to have a look at 16mts down the edge & missed a bite but then found myself attached to a branch which I managed to drag out the swim but ruined any more bites here for a while. The first couple of hours were slow, just one more small carp & a decent tench at 12mts again but did lose another decent Tench between my keepnets shedding the hook in the net in the process".  Ben was struggling on peg 135 with just a few carp & it seemed to be the same for Clint & Martin with them both just taking odd fish although Clint was ahead of us at the halfway stage, I managed a 5lb fish on the bomb & pellet whilst I was having a cuppa but it was a one off, I had been topping the 8mt line up with hemp & a bit of meat every 30mins or so & after another carp down the edge decided to have a look, I missed a bite then had another decent tench around 3lb before I managed a 6lb carp here but that was it for the time being.

Back down the edge & a managed a couple more carp to keep ticking over, It seemed best to feed small amounts with the cad-pot & if I couldn't get indications over the bait I would pull the rig further into the corner which seemed to work better, Going into the last couple of hours I expected to catch on the shorter meat line & after Martin had a couple of fish off it I gave it another try, I hooked a decent lump which I saw a couple of times but had a hell of a job to try & get it up, It turned out to be hooked outside the mouth & ended up snapping the hook length after 5mins of struggling with it". Things did improve late in the day as I managed a couple of decent fish on the short meat line & a couple of lumps down the edge late in the day one around 13lb, I though I had around 80lb of carp plus my sivers come the end but we had heard the other end had fished well on both banks with the wind in that direction, Typical", Ben had managed a couple more late carp but decided not to weigh-in so I was first to weigh, I wasn't far off as I had 11lb of silvers & 83lb of carp to finish with 94lb odd, Clint finished with a level 80lb & Martin ended up with 72lb odd, Unfortunately that was going to get us nowhere as from peg 115 up they all broke the ton mark as did some pegs opposite.

Back at the results & it turned out Gary O'Shea won the day from peg 125 With 190lb odd catching mainly on the pole with meat as well as a few on the bomb earlier in the day so well done to him, there were some decent back up weights but they all came from the far end today, It looked like the fish had moved up in the warmer wind as those of us in the calmer water didn't compete but I still enjoyed the day & felt that I had a good result considering, I did have one result today as when playing one of my carp it must of brushed along the bottom causing a catapult to waft up from the deck, I don't quite know how but it managed to swim through the elastic & frame & when I netted the carp there it was threaded up my rig" Result!! One decent Preston Catty to add to my collection!" Lol.  Might be back for the open match next Saturday but fishing Shiplate Farm next Sun in a Shipate v Clevedon.A.A match on the Main Lake.

Full Results -

1st Gary O'Shea (Bait-Tech) peg 125, 190lb 5oz.

2nd Mark Cullerton (Viaduct) peg 118, 181lb 1oz.

3rd Tom Magnal (Mosella UK) peg 116, 166lb 15oz.

4th Leon Hubbard (Mosella Bathampton) peg 119, 159lb 11oz.

5th Adrian Jefferies (Avon Angling) peg 128, 133lb 1oz.

6th Paul Blake (Viaduct) peg 127, 128lb 1oz.

Silvers -

1st Chris Davis (Westerleigh) peg 124, 35lb.

2nd Clint Wojtyla (Future Networks) peg 111, 12lb 1oz.