Viaduct Silvers League, Round 2. 15-10-17

Second round of this popular series. I arrived early enough but somehow, after a chat with John Fuidge and then Matt Williams the draw was underway. I didn't want Lodge, simples. I wouldn't mind Campbell but would like Cary....please, pretty please!!

Into the tin, halfway along the queue and I pulled out Cary, yay....peg 80....not so yay. Matt drew a nice peg in 115 on Campbell. My peg, well it was in with 74 (good peg), 77 (in-form good peg), 78 (decent), 81 (better than 80) and 85 (worth a nice weight).
Well I had a job to do. Peg 80 is a shallow peg, probably a foot or 18" shallower than 78 to my right. It isn't the best silvers peg on the lake, maybe the worst, but fish have fins and it has produced occasional decent nets of skimmers and odd perch. Steve Long told me that it was deeper in a couple areas along the spit and could produce on the waggler (as Jason King had an upper 20lb net on a recent Pawlett match there).  For company I had Jess Jordan on p78, he had Gabe on 77 to his right. Behind me, ish, was Chris Davis on 116 and Dan Squire on 118. But really it was only Jess I could speak to.

Cary Peg 80, Viaduct

I set up a waggler, but never used it, simply because I had the wind, irregularly, blowing into my peg, so feeding would not work. Plus the light conditions were poor when the ripple was on the water.
4 pole rigs made up, all on 0.10 hooklengths and 18 hooks.
2 DT Floats pencils in 0.4g, the 1st for 2+2 for 6mm meat in front, the second was for expander or dead maggots over micro at 14m, off in the 2 o'clock direction. Also for over groundbait at the same distance directly in front.
2 DT Slims in 0.3g were also assembled, one for along the spit at 14m, where it was a few inches deeper than anywhere else in the peg, the second was for down to my left on the topkit, but this went out of the window after 15 minutes once the wind picked up and filled my left edges with leaves!! Both of these lines would be loose fed with caster and dead maggot.

At the all-in a full cup of micros went in on that line, 4 balls of groundbait and dead maggots went in on the long line in front. Some meat and loose groundbait went in short.
I started on the topkit, but after 10 minutes I had no bites. Meanwhile Jess already had a decent skimmer of a few pounds in the net.
So up along the spit and toss potting casters, this gave me a couple small roach and a 3oz skimmer, but leaves were a real problem, dragging the rig out and missed bites pretty much guaranteed me some float foliage. But I stuck with it for a while and put the odd fish in the net, only small roach and odd 3oz skimmer. Nothing of quality.

An hour in and I had maybe 1lb. A look over the micros never gave me a bite, in fact it never gave me a silver fish all match, just hooking 3 carp over the spot.
Over the short groundbait line and a few roach and small skimmers were put into the keepnet, but it wasn't quick enough and I was not getting any quality 6oz+ fish.
So out long and I was getting more skimmers than roach, but they were only 3oz versions of the 2lb ones I wanted. So I upped the feed but this made little difference. I did hook a carp out on this line, I hooked 3 from this spot during the match.
Back along the spit and it was still only small roach, odd 3oz skimmer and a solitary 4oz perch.

It was soon the halfway stage and I reckoned on 4lb in the net, it wasn't going great, but Jess wasn't getting much, he had landed a decent perch and odd decent roach, but he was mostly getting plippy roach and 3oz skimmers. Oh and he too had started hooking the odd carp.
It wasn't long after this point in the match where I hooked 6 carp, all on single dead maggot, along the spit, thankfully the hook would pull out easily enough. So I pretty much decided to abandon this spot, but cupped in a pot of caster and maggot just in case I chose to try there late on in match.
The following couple hours was mostly spent swapping between the groundbait line at 14m in front and the short meat/groundbait line. I managed mostly roach and 3oz skimmers but a couple 6-8oz skimmers over the meat line helped, but I was certain to be last in section, as expected really. The light caused by the sun and ripple was not great and seeing the float was tricky most of the time, unless it went calm

Into the last hour and with perhaps 7lb in the net, the light was awful and the leaves too were both a pain in the butt up until this point, but the last hour was relatively calm and the leaves less problematic. I had a couple looks along the spit but the roach were still there, but put any more feed in and the carp returned. I wish these roach wanted to come short as I would have been happy to catch them, but they wouldn't really move closer in numbers.
About 5 seconds before the all out I hooked a nice skimmer which was netted after the whistle and was my best fish of the day at around 1.5lb-2lb. I guessed I had around 8-9lb.
I had hooked 16 carp during the day, none on meat randomly, all of them hooked on single or double dead maggots.

The scales came and went, peg 85, Joe McMahon, had 21lb I think, peg 81, venue silvers ace Stu White had 15lb (not 9lb), I managed a level 14lb which I was pleased enough with. Jess had 11lb before Gabe had 25lb and Martin Rayet on peg 74 had around 30lb. So 5 points for me and series over realistically. But I shall try and do my best in the next 4 rounds.....especially at the draw.

Results:
1. John Fuidge - 34lb 8oz - peg 96
2. Ricky Mills - 31lb 13oz - peg 97
3. Martin Rayet - 30lb 3oz - peg 74
4. Bob Gullick - 28lb 1oz - peg 100
5. Gabe Skarba - 25lb 7oz - peg 77

The full results can be found here or on Tony Rixon's blog.
There were 17 weights over 20lb today, but a lot of carp problems, especially on Campbell where some hooked over 25 during the day.

Not sure where I am next weekend, maybe viaduct, maybe todber, maybe a pleasure day with a good mate.
Otherwise it is back to Viaduct for round 3 in a fortnight.

Until then, take care,
Lee

Viaduct Silvers League, Round 1. 01-10-17

My first attempt at this popular series at the very popular Viaduct complex, with around 50 quality anglers taking part I know it will be hard enough to come 2nd last let alone get in the top 30. So my aim is to beat one......haha

51 fish this year, spread over Campbell, Cary and Lodge lakes. With sections of 6 or 7 you need at least 3 or 4 section wins to get in the top ten I would say.
On to today, I was in the queue with fellow debutant Matt Williams chatting away and I commented I would like to be on Cary as it seems the most consistent at the moment and 10-15lb is capable from every peg I feel. I didn't want lodge I said, especially not peg 66 or 53, not the best 2 pegs at all.
So hand in tub, out comes peg 66 for me, Matt next, he pulled 53. So much for beginners luck!!

I got to my peg and the water was black with carp from 3lb up to 20lb, not just my peg but most of them, but it was worst up the end I was. Anyways I had Tom Thick across on 63 and he had Glen Calvert and Gary O'Shea to his left, but Tom was the 1st person in my 7 peg section, so really we had the rough draw. I had Dan Squire behind me and shipping back and landing net useage was a touch awkward, but we coped.
I decided against worms today after seeing all the carp, so my bait tray was casters, a few maggots and some 6mm meat along with a couple kilos of groundbait. I also had some micros with me and I was undecided on whether to use them.

P66 on Lodge Lake, Viaduct

3 rigs made, a topkit for left and right, a 0.2g DT Floats pencils. A rig, 0.3g F1/Silvers pattern for 6mm meat over groundbait at 6m in front. Lastly a 12xno11 float for 13m in front for caster/maggot over groundbait and this rig was also used off the tree to my left using maggot over micros.
All lines and laccy were 0.14>0.10 or 0.08 and middy solids in 4-6 for the edges with roach in mind and the other 2 were middy solid 5-8.

I could go into how excellent the day was for me, but it really was a hard slog for most on Lodge.
I caught the odd roach and very small skimmer on both groundbait lines, there was lots of 1/2oz roach up in the water with odd better fish but these were too small to target and the better fish swirled irregularly , but I was apprehensive on setting up a shallow rig simply die to the amount of carp in front of me.
I tried the micros line a couple of times, each time resulted in carp being hooked, so I soon knocked that on the head.
The margins never gave me a fish all day, something that I would have put down as a banker, but these days happen. So it was a matter of hoping for a decent 1lb-4lb skimmer every now and then from either of the 2 groundbait lines. This never occurred and it was mostly the odd 1-3oz roach with the very occasional 4oz skimmer.

Tom Thick opposite me was also struggling and until he managed a few decent skimmers in a 20 minute spell late on I was probably just ahead of him. The others on his bank looked like they were doing ok, but I couldn't see or hear much from my side of the lake.
I did get 3 net skimmers, maybe 8oz each in the last hour but it was not very good really and I expected me and Tom to be last 2 in our 7 peg section.

Anyways after 6hrs the all out was called and I reckoned on 4lb-ish or bits and bobs. I reckoned Tom had 9lb and the rest of that bank were into double figures to perhaps 17lb, but was hard to tell,
I packed up and waited for the scales. A quick check on a couple other guys in my section and the most anyone would admit to was 11lb, Matt Williams even packed up and didn't weigh in off 53.

Behind me on Cary, Dan and Sam Powell to his left had a great peg to peg battle and bith would hav close to 30lb each. Most people had a few bites on the lake and the weights at the end showed everyone had over 11lb, good fishing.
The scales arrived at me and Tom had weighed 9lb 2oz. My 4lb or so actually weighed 8lb 8oz so I was only a couple of my 'bumped' fish off his weight, but to be fair he bumped a couple and we both had baby roach fall off shipping back throughout the day.
I followed the scales a couple pegs and Rob Eagle had 6lb 4oz, then Nigel Easton 11lb. So I wasn't last in section, result!!

I loaded my car and had a quick update from other guys and rumour was Trig (Craig Edmunds) had won from peg 123 and Campbell with 39-something but it was close as Gary Webber (p115) also had 39lb+. Some of the guys were happy with their day and others less so, even with 17lb coming last in the 1st section on Campbell...

Results:
1. Craig Edmunds - 39lb 12oz - peg 123
2. Gary Webber - 39lb 2oz - peg 115
3. Ziggy Slowinski - 37lb 6oz - peg 126
4. Tony Rixon - 36lb 3oz - peg 94
5. Sam Powell - 35lb 8oz - peg 98
6. Chris Davis - 35lb 2oz - peg 77

In all there was 10 weights from Cary and 10 from Campbell over 20lb, good fishing. Top weight on Lodge was 17lb.

All scores and sheets can be seen on Here or probably on Mr Rixon's or Mr Nicholl's blogs at some point.
Me, well I was 4th in section, which from my draw I was pleased enough with. Maybe I could have got another point, but always 'maybe'.
Next round in a couple of weeks.

Until then, Take Care.
Lee