Don Sutherlands Memorial Match Viaduct Fishery. (Silvers Only).

Well" Back on the bank after a somewhat break since Last July apart from the odd day and was really looking forward to fishing this match for my old mate & travelling partner Donald who passed away three years ago now but only feels like yesterday, Today was about the memories for me so anything else would be a bonus as I was sure to be a bit rusty"??

A good turn out with 40 fishing so the match was spread over Cambell, Cary & Lodge Lakes, With no pellet allowed so the bait was a few red maggots & pinkies, Dead & alive , A few worms, A few pints of casters & 2kg limit of G/bait.

Quite close to the front of the draw & I pulled out peg 56, I had to think where I would be for a minute before I twigged it was in front of the shop on the lawn bank of lodge lake, Wouldn't of been my first choice but at least I was out of the worse of the wind with the forecast for it to increase through the day so wouldn't want to draw it in my chops like some had to endure.

For company I had team sponsored Shaun Kitteridge next to me on peg 55 but looking across & seeing Gary O'Shea on peg 70 by the rope & Ryan Shipp opposite him I had a feeling we were going to be up against it but you never know but we would enjoy each others company & the £1 side bet was soon struck'. I kept it quite simple, A line at 8mts where I set up a 4x12 chanti with an 18 PR412 hook to fish in around 3ft of water, & a 4x14 wire wonder to fish two lines left & right at 14mt with the left side being just over 3ft deep but the right slightly shallower. On the all-in I fed three balls of G/bait slightly left at 14mts with some casters & a few dead red maggots added, On the same line to the right I fed one ball with some chopped worm/pinkies added. I began the day at 8mts with caster on the hook lightly loose feeding the same over the top, After 10mins I switched to white pinkie on the hook & started to catch the odd roach & small hybrid so was putting something in the net when others seemed to be struggling after 30mins, Shaun had started on the G/bait feeder & threw a spanner in the works when he netted a near 2lb skimmer, I decided to start cad potting nuggets of G/bait on my short line, After 10mins I hooked a better fish which came off but soon after had a little battle on the light gear to net a near 2lb tench, After this I started to catch the odd 10oz to 1lb skimmer between the roach & was happy the way things were going for the first hour. It wasn't hectic but odd fish came to the net but when Shaun switched to the long pole & started to catch some decent skimmers he was soon back infront, I stayed on it fro a while longer before going over my heavier fed line to begin with starting with double dead red magg on the hook, I had a 12oz fish in minutes then nothing so switched to double caster, this worked for a couple more then nothing, I had a try on the worm fed line to the right but just one missed bite here before I re-fed a ball on each & went back to 8mts again with single caster, Some more roach followed along with another 1lb plus tench & the odd skimmer, At the half way point I though I had around 18lb - 20lb in the net but it was close between me & Shaun as I had a few more but his were of better size, I went long again this time cad potting casters and a small nugget of G/bait each put-in , this got me another run of fish before they backed off but I would switch back to the short line to nick the odd fish which seemed to be keeping me ahead of Shaun at this stage, I had a good run on the short line at one stage when I switched to the head of a worm on the hook even though I hadn't fed any here & put around 6lb in the net in 20mins before they backed off, I was having a great days fishing & to be honest totally un-expected, I took a couple of fish long again on a small bit off worm this time topped with a red pinkie but with 50minutes remaining my wheels fell off slightly' Shaun landed a decent bream around 3lb followed by a few fish pushing 2lb before the nail in the coffin was sealed when he landed a decent hybrid with a couple of minutes to go which even he admitted was 3lb" I struggle as I only added three skimmers around 10-12oz & some small roach before the all out, It was going to be close between us but with Shaun's late run I had him down around 5lb ahead of me come the end, A good battle between us no matter what the out come I was just really pleased to have a nice days fishing after so long away. Shaun was first to weigh & put a great 40lb 3oz on the scales before I fell just short with 37lb 3oz, I handed my quid over with pride as the battle went right to the wire between us, Well done Shaun', I thought his weight would win the day but it turned out Gabo Skarba over on peg 77 Cary put 41lb odd on the scales, Back at the results And Gabo won the day ahead of Shaun & I was fortunate enough to take third on the day picking up £60, It was nice to see Don's widow, Julie turn up with her daughter to present the annual shield & enjoyed having a drink with them & a few others back in are area after in his memory.

We were fortunate enough not to get any rain but some did have to put up with lashing wind in the faces most of the day but well done for sticking it out, On the whole there were some great weights of silvers & I really enjoyed the day. Full results & pictures can be found on the Viaduct Facebook Page.

Full Results -

1st Gado Skarba (Mosella UK) peg 77, 41lb 10z.

2nd Shaun Kitteridge (Mosella UK) peg 55, 40lb 3oz.

3rd Dom Sullivan (Mosella UK) peg 56, 37lb 3oz.

4th Gary O'Shea (Bait-Tech) peg 70, 35lb 2oz.

5th Ryan Shipp (Westerleigh) peg 59, 34lb 13oz.

6th Martin Tizard (Viaduct) peg 110, 31lb 11oz.