Viaduct Silvers League, 5th Round, 26-11-17

The penultimate round of this popular series has now been and gone, the last round is in a couple of weeks.

Anyways I didn't arrive too early, got a couple miles from home and the wife called to let me know I had left my waterproofs at home.....Numpty!!
Once at the venue I had a quick chat with a few guys, Matt Williams and Myself convinced we would again draw less than favourable and with the poxy wind blowing rather cool a draw with the wind off my back would be nice. The weather was due to be dry pretty much all day, but Mr Long said we would be fishing 10:30 til 15:45 due to the light fading and the rain was due at 4pm........

Into the draw and out comes peg 97 on the diagonal bank of Cary, reasonably happy with that area, at least I was on Cary as it does seem the most consistent of the 3 lakes, but individually Lodge seems to produce the winner at the moment, but that is the trickiest lake I think. I still haven't been on Campbell. Maybe next time?
For company I had Paddy Curry behind me on Lodge peg 66 (ouch!), Steve Kedge on peg 96 but not in my section, luckily as that peg seems to be in the top 2 in section each round.On peg 98 was Clive Barrow then Martin Rayet on p99.

Peg 97, Cary Lake. 

Bait for the day was pinkies and maggots both live and dead. Some casters and some corn. I mixed up 1kg of BMG groundbait as I didn't want the temptation to be too positive given the colder few days we have had coupled with the rains we had overnight.
I actually set up a feeder, which I chucked out maybe for 20 minutes in total and went fishless.
A waggler for around 25m out, I would feed corn for that line as the wind was pushing in to me so casters were ruled out.
Lastly 2 pole rigs, a DT F1/silvers in 0.3g to fish at 2+2 in front using small amound of groundbait and loose fed casters. The 2nd rig was using a 0.4g DT Floats Jabba pattern, this would cover 2 lines, the 1st at 14m in front where groundbait and dead pinkies would form the bulk of the feed initially.
The same rig was also used at 11m off slightly right where I fed dead maggots and caster quite heavily via a cup as eels and perch could show.

The match began and 3 balls of groundbait went out long, a full pot of caster/dead maggot went on the 11m line and a gold ball sized helping of neat groundbait went in on the short line. I didn't feed the waggler line but chose to spend 20 minutes on the feeder where I planned to fish the waggler.
No bites for this 20 minute spell though Martin and Kedgey started to get a few small roach and odd small skimmer in this spell.
A quick look on the waggler, but the wind got up, so on the pole, starting short, no bites in 10 minutes so looking over the long groundbait line. A couple little roach and a 6oz skimmer were soon in the net and blank avoided. It then went quiet for a while but Martin on peg 99 was catching consistently, nothing big (he did hook a couple carp and land 1) but regular spells of catching well. Kedgey was also getting a few fish on his pole lines. Elsewhere everyone was struggling.

So fast forward a couple of hours and I had been picking the odd fish from both the long 14m line and the caster line, I had also started to feed a few pieces of corn out for the waggler as I expected that to be the area to produce a better stamp of skimmer. I suppose I had 2.5lb in the net at this point, Martin maybe 6 or 7lb and Kedge about 5lb. Clive, to my left was really struggling and only had a couple roach to show.
It was 1pm when I had my 1st skimmer, around 1.5lb from the long groundbait line, double caster the bait fished off bottom, as like I had last week I was getting indications and liners, so I stick on a better bait and it went under right away. Sadly no more followed. A few more small balls of groundbait went in on that spot again and I switched to the waggler as Kedgey was getting a few fish, 6oz skimmers mostly but had a couple 1lb fish from what I could make out.

15 minutes of thrashing the water with the wag and missing a few bites I connected with a nice fish and soon a 3lb skimmer was netted, Steve lost one of a couple pounds at the same time.
Again no decent fish followed so I stuck with the pole for the last hour or so. I knew I was a long way behind Martin on peg 99, I couldn't see anyone in the section past him so didn't have a clue how I was doing in the scheme of things, but Gabe had gone home and there was a fair amount of grumblings about how hard it was fishing.
20 minutes to go and the rain had already set in, it was not very nice, quite heavy and bloody cold, but I could see the odd bubble over the long line and I suspected an eel to be honest but a couple 8oz skimmers were netted and a couple roach before I bumped a couple better fish, possibly big skimmers as a nice amount of laccy came out. Luckily I had another opportunity in the last minutes as a 1.5lb skimmer was netted. I reckoned to myself I had around 10lb and Martin must have 17lb maybe. But I had more than Clive who tipped back, so at least I was not last in section. From what I could tell Mr Kedge had 15lb and looked to have won that section as it was only Nicky Ewers over on 87 had really caught any amount of fish, similarly Jacko on peg 78 had netted some nice skimmers.

I packed up, well started to, in the rain, when the scales arrived. Martin had weighed 16lb but the rest of my section had struggled to catch with Roly's 10lb next best. Thankfully my weigh tipped the scales to 12lb 3oz and put me 2nd in the section. Steve Kedge did win his section but I was a little surprised to see him total 12lb 15oz, I was sure he had more than that. Nicky Ewers had 12lb 3oz to come 2nd in that section. Jacko won the 3rd section on Cary with 13lb 8oz.

Results:
1. Gary O’Shea - 20lb - peg 70
2. Craig Edmunds - 18lb 12oz - peg 59
3. Gary Webber - 17lb 14oz - peg 129
4. Martin Rayet - 16lb - peg 99
5. Mike Nicholls - 15lb 2oz - peg 132
6. John Fuidge - 13lb 10oz - peg 110

So although a tough day, I enjoyed it and am looking forward to the last round in 2 weeks. Well done to Mr Consistent Gary O'Shea on the win. He caught mostly on waggler and caster I believe.

Trig (Craig Edmunds) is leading the series with a maximum 4 points (dropper is a 3!!) after a section win and 2nd in the match. But a couple of others have an outside chance of overtaking him, although in-realistic at this stage.......but you never know.
For full sheets and standings etc take a look at the Viaduct Facebook page.

Next week I have the first round of the Landsend Winter League, another 1st attempt at the series for me and it can get really hard there at times, so maybe I will draw a bit better than my draw hand has been, generally, in 2017.

Until then, have fun.

Lee

Sedges Brick Lake, Matt Culpin's Series. 19-11-17

Another opportunity to cover in the series, the last round of which was on Sunday at Sedges, on Brick Lake. I could have been fishing the Parrett with Pawlett, but I had done zero prep so didn't commit.

An early 8:30am draw was on the cards, thankfully it is 5 mins from my house so a nice lay-in way past 7am. No wind and not too cold, but we had seen an awful lot of cold rain overnight and Saturday was cool with a nippy northerly breeze. I wasn't expecting most of us to do great, maybe 8 round to 13 would be the best area to draw, but that was one section, the other 2 were the rest of the pegs on either bank (1-7 and 14-20) if I am correct. I would be happy with any peg from 5 up and around to 15 to be fair. So after a natter and a cuppa from Denise we drew our pegs.

No surprise to see drawbags Mark Thorne and Steve 'Peanut' Howell draw the favoured pegs 11 and 10 respectively. But my favourite peg on the lake, peg 12, went to Russ Peck. Me, well my rather dire attempt at drawing a 'flyer' failed again when peg 17 was my pluck from the basket. I pushed my barrow round and proceeded to set my kit up...........on peg 18. Only pointed out by John Dursley who was meant to be on there. So I shuffled along, as did Wayne on peg 17 (moved to 16).

Brick Lake peg 17 at dusk....

I set up a few bits and bobs in the 60 minutes we had to get ready, fishing 9:30-15:30.
A waggler for maggot at 25m, a small cage feeder for the same area.
A topkit aimed for roach down my right edge didn't give a bite, just a snag that ate hooks!!
A line at 14m for banded 4mm over wet 4's and micros. DT RBS Open Water in 0.8g.
A line at 11m for maggots over my So Simple Bait's BMG/Bog combo using a light 0.3g DT F1/Silvers float. Lastly a meat rig for just past the shelf at around 6m off at a slight angle to the right. I used a DT RBS Margin for this rig.

I had, by the obvious fish activity, decided that it was only the section money to fish for, maybe the silvers if I got lucky as silvers ace Ron Stark was on peg 8 and I fancied that to produce. The overall silvers winner and match winners get the same prize and 3 section winners are paid.
At the all-in I was not ready, but I was not the only one. But I got a smallish helping of feed onto the various lines before trying the waggler, hoping for an early carp or 2 should they be in the vicinity.

Within half an hour I had bumped a decent fish, probably a liner, and I had a smallish skimmer fall off just out of netting range. But it was slow. Simon Ryall on peg 20 had lost a carp and landed one. While I could see pegs 10, 11 and 12 all had caught a few carp as expected.
I carried on fishing the waggler as was John on peg 18, he had a couple small skimmers but it wasn't fast and furious. Then he had a moment....He went to sink his line and the top half of the top section of his waggler rod snapped, putting paid to his running line float fishing for the day.

It was about an hour into the match when I had my first few fish, all 2-3oz roach on the waggler, I had 4 of these. A few other peeps I could see had yet to catch, or even have a bite.
In on the pole line and I tried the long pellet line and expected a fish or 2 from here, but it never happened, actually I never caught a fish off that area all day, similarly my banker meat line never saw the float move in all the times I tried it throughout the day.

A couple of hours passed and only the odd roach was entering the keepnet, while the 3 up the far end never seemed to stop catching, Russ Peck and Mark Thorne were even catching on the pellet wag.
For the rest of it, well it was tricky going. Just the odd carp here of there coming out to Emma Drysdale and Matt Culpin on the pegs opposite. Simon on peg 20 was on 2 carp but not seen a fish for a while. Jon Page on p1 was blanking, waiting for his 1st bite, he was not the only one either.

At the halfway stage I managed to catch an eel over the groundbait and then a 12oz skimmer on the feeder, my only bite on that even though I only chucked it out while having a cuppa. Bites on the waggler had stopped.
John had a couple decent skimmers on the pole but was getting missed bites but went on to catch an eel and lose a foul hooked one.
Paul Berry came around and chatted for a while and he said Saturday was tricky going and only had a couple decent skimmers.
A few rig adjustments thanks to missed bites and liners saw another skimmer find it's way to my keepnet with 2hrs to go, this was followed by 3 more, the largest around 3lb. Then it died again.
Though Jonny on peg 1 did hook a carp, probably foul hooked, his 1st bite of the day.....and he lost it after playing it a while!!

A couple roach on the waggler and another over the groundbait pushed me into the last hour probably just ahead of John on peg 18, but then he had another skimmer of 2lb or so and lost a foul hooked one. Then I managed another 2 skimmers around 1lb each. But with 30 minutes to go John again had an eel and a small skimmer. I never had another bite.
Elsewhere it looked close for the outright win between pegs 11 and 12, Mark Thorne and Russ Peck going fish for fish all day. Adrian Jeffery had 3 and lost 1 carp I think, all in the last 45 minutes from peg 15, Wayne Staples added 2 or 3 skimmers in the remaining 20 minutes to add to his few roach.

The all-out was called, my kit was packed away and put in the car. I reckoned on 8lb of silvers, John said I had a couple pounds more than him, he said he had 8lb.....
I caught up with the scales at peg 11 and 6lb 5oz was top silvers and 70lb was top overall to Peanut on p10. Mark Thorne had 115lb and just edged Russ into 2nd, Russ had 113lb so well done those 2. Adrian had 12lb for his carp.
Not much followed as Wayne went into the silvers lead with 6lb 6oz.
I then chucked my 8lb of fish in the sling and onto the scales and they had grown to 16lb.....oooppss!!
Slightly out there then. John's 8lb was 12lb, so he was slightly out also.
Simon on peg 20 ended with 3 carp and they amassed 24lb and he won the section with that.

Results-rounded to the nearest lb:
1st, Mark Thorne, p11, 115lb
2nd, Russ Peck, p12, 113lb
3rd, Steve Howell, p10, 70lb

Silvers:
1st, Lee Williams, p17, 16lb
2nd, John Dursley, p18, 12lb

So sixty-odd quid in the pocket on a tricky day was a decent result, but as expected it fished hard for the majority, and I made the right choice targeting the silvers, though I didn't expect to top the pegs I did. I learned a few things during the day which will defo come in handy.
I fed nearly 2kg of groundbait, 1/2pt of caster and 1pt of maggots through this.

Next up for me is Viaduct Silvers League round 5......though I may go somewhere Saturday.

Until then, enjoy yourselves.
Lee