PSV Match, Viaduct Campbell, 07-09-14

Sunday saw myself along with 17 other guys tackling the popular bagging lake at Somerset's finest Viaduct Fishery in Somerton.
Now after Saturday's affair at Ridgeway, I was expecting to catch a good few more than that, in fact it wouldn't have surprised me if a few anglers on Campbell caught more individually than all 20 of us put together at Ridgeway!..........hmmm

Well, I arrived at the venue in plenty of time, so I unloaded the car and went and chatted with a few guys. The subject soon turned to how 'well' the lake fished on Saturday....it turned out something like 102lb won it.....that's over 100lb less than predicted/normal. So high hopes soon diminished, but it was another day and you never know.

The 9am draw was soon ready, we were paying top 3 and 2 silvers. So I fancied any peg except either of the end bank pegs (121 and 135), but 118/119 or 128 took my fancy really.
I again took the 3rd last ticket and was rewarded with peg 121, bang in the middle of the far end bank. Not ideal.
So I headed to the peg, following Chris Davis along the path, he was on end peg 119, a snaggy but fish holding peg for sure.
On peg 123 (best silvers peg on the complex) was Kev Jefferies.



Campbell Lake peg 121, Viaduct Fishery.

At my peg I surveyed the scene, an empty peg/pallet either side of me between which was some decent looking vegetation. There seemed to be a few cruising carp and some speeding along in 2's or 3's, like they would be prior to spawning....this high pressure seems to have done weird things to local fisheries with sport on the downturn.

Baits for the day was 8mm meat, 6mm pellets, a few pints of maggots left over form yesterday and some 8mm pellets. I also pumped some expanders for the skimmers along with a kilo of groundbait.
I set up a shallow rig (13m in front) which would double up for mugging fish, a rig for down my right margin to fish banded pellets over mixed 6's and 8's.
A meat for 8m in front of me was assembled as was a solitary silvers rig to fish maggot or expander over groundbait in the 10 o'clock direction at 7m.

I didn't set up a lead or waggler but was just about ready at the off.
The all in was called and I cupped a pot of groundbait out for the silvers, as I did this I noticed a big carp mooching around at 10m, so I quickly banded a pellet and dropped it on the fish's nose, bingo I was into a mad strong fighting fish, it took me ages to land the fish, 10 mins perhaps, but I got it in the net (just) and looked a good 17lb with a massive tail that was wider than it's belly, no wonder a powerful fight occurred.
Elsewhere a few fish had been hooked, some lost, some landed. With Rich Britton and Steve Burgess seemingly doing well in the early stages.

Well that was my action for another 90 minutes except odd silver fish, but even the decent skimmers were not feeding, just lots of blades and small roach causing fizzing of the swim.
By 12pm I was miles behind most people I could see, except Kev on p123 and Adam Caswell on p125, both were struggling.
I then decided to take a look down by the right hand pallet (peg 122) and 1st drop I was into another powerful fish, this one turned out to be a common of 13lb or so. The 2 carp I had landed must have gone 30lb between them, which was nice.

The next hour saw me add a couple small silvers to my net, but I'd given up on them really, so I rotated my swims. I did pull out of a couple hooked by empty peg 122, but I wanted to keep them away from the wooden legs of the pallet, so I wasn't too surprised to lose them.
Chris Davis and Keith Ray were suffering with losses due to snags, but they had plenty of fish in the nets too. Otherwise Mark Radford further down the lake on around peg 114 was doing ok, but it was hard to tell.

We were soon approaching 3pm and the last hour, I felt as though I was near last place, maybe with Kev and Adam with less, though Adam had a few decent skimmers and tench so looked to be winning the silvers from my view.
At this point I was on 3 carp (I bagged another one from the empty peg) and a palm full of silvers, but my meat line was blowing/fizzing, so I dropped in over that and was instantly rewarded with a carp.
I also began feeding a top-kit line with meat/pellet and after 5 mins I saw a few bubbles so I dropped the rig over the spot and had a 3lb carp soon the net.

The last 40 mins took my tally of carp to 8 and a couple skimmers were added to my nets as well.

At the all out I knew I had done not great, Chris Davis have over 100lb as had Mark Radford, I also believed Steve Burgess had a decent amount and Keith Ray had done ok, I couldn't see much else, though Alan Healey had struggled from his peg and was looking to give a quid to Adam and Steve B.

The scales soon arrived at my peg and I never looked at the board, so got on with passing the fish to Steve Long to weigh. I had 4lb exactly of silvers and my 8 carp added another 64lb 6oz to my total.
A quick glance at the weights saw that I had somehow had more than Mr Burgess, so at least I had a quid to come!!!
I finished packing up and went to load the car before seeing the results, but my 68lb didn't seem a bad weight from what I could gather.

Results:
1st. Peg 119. Chris Davis, 108lb 15oz
2nd. Peg 114. Mark Radford, 107lb 14oz
3rd. Peg 126. Rich Britton, 89lb 6oz

Silvers 1st: Adam Caswell, peg 125, 16lb 7oz
Silvers 2nd: Lee Waller, peg 128, 15lb 2oz



Weigh Sheet.

So another tricky day fishing, and I am surprised to finish in 6th as I was certain to be lower down, so I am thankful of those first 2 carp I landed. It'd have been nice if the larger skimmers had shown, but I guess it wasn't to be.
It does seem that a few fisheries have switched off, it must be this bout of higher pressure, little wind, big moons and an increase in temps.

Next week is Avalon with the PSV guys again.......skimmers or carp? lets see......

Until next time, tight lines.
Lee

Pawlett Club, Walters Lake (Ridgeway), 08-09-14

Saturday saw the annual Club day out to somewhere a bit further afield than we normally do, lake year was Orchard Lakes nr New Milton where the average catch was around the 100lb mark if I remember rightly.
Well this year Vic and Mark had arranged Walters Lake up on the Cotswold Water Park and 20 of us made the 75 minute journey with anticipation of 100lb bags of fit carp and silvers nets to 30lb......I took until the middle of the week to book in due to my lack of enthusiasm that we'd see the expected nets.

We met in the layby at around 6:30am and in convoy (except Nick Selway, Dick Hurford and Vince Brown) headed up the M5 and across to the venue.
We arrived safely and got brekkie organised, not the best but reasonable. Various little groups sat chatting about the place and we all took a look at the lanes we would be on, the Whites and Blues.
Most people fancied the bridge pegs, the far end pegs or the near end pegs, but it is a reasonably fair, if not moody venue.
Out of the 20 of us, I was the only one to have fished it, but my lake time was maybe 18 months ago. Generally it is a place that some effort for decent results, plus plenty of luck that the fish are in yoir lane, let alone your peg!!

We paid our money and done the draw (including a re-draw) and I waited until 3rd last for my peg, which turned out to be Blue Peg 13. A 'nothing' sort of peg with not much in the way of decent margins and maybe a little narrower than other pegs at 15m in front of me.



Walters Lake, Blue Peg 13



For company I had Vince Brown on the White peg 11?. Other than him all I could see was Jamie Cook behind me on the Whites but further down on maybe peg 13?

I set up a small method feeder for across, but other than a couple liners I never had a bite.
Pole rigs were a margin one for down to my left in 3ft of water, to fish banded pellet over pellet (mix of 6's and 4's). A long line shallow rig was made up for banded 6mm pellet, generally used for across and mugging the odd cruiser....but I never had a touch on this either!!
A mat rig for 2+2 line was made up for 8mm meat over a little groundbait. Lastly I made a rig for 14m in front at the bottom of the main far shelf, as right over was only 8 inches deep!!

Baits was 8mm meat, 6 and 4mm pellets, 3 pints of maggot which mostly remained unused. I also had some damp micros for the feeder.

Now for the good bit.......

The all in sounded and I started on the method to give my lines time to settle after depositing baits in the relevant areas.....

3 hours in and everyone was struggling with odd carp being caught, but the few who'd fished chopped worm had been busy with plenty of small silvers. I was getting small roach on 4 red maggots on a size 16....so I gave up on that!!
At this point in the match I had landed 2 roach and a skimmer of 10oz or so. Which was soon followed by a carp and a better skimmer from the bottom of the far shelf.....that was my action for another 2 hours!!

So at around half three, with an hour to go I landed my second carp, this one from the meat line...which was not bubbling. So I pretty much stayed on the meat line for the rest of the hour, landing 6 more skimmers and a roach....plus a smaller carp than my 1st two.

Elsewhere Jamie Cook had been catching all day, fish of all species and all sizes, Vince had a late burst of carp in the remaining 40 minutes, sadly for him he lost a 8lber from his net when he went to put his kit in the van....would it be costly? He had around 40lb he reckoned.
Eric Fouracre had done well too (considering how poor the day was), but some guys had less than 4lb!!
I suppose I had around 12lb.....I really shouldn't guess!!

The all out was called, a few guys tipped back their odd silvers, but the weigh in began.....not much was recorded until we got to Jamie, I am not sure on his weight but it was 40-odd pound I think, with at least half being silvers....
I weighed soon after and my 3 carp went around 14lb and my skimmers took my total to 21lb, so at this point I was winning the silvers by default and my section also.
Next to weigh was Vince, his total went 30-something pound to move into 2nd, Giffy's 3 carp and few silvers weighed 18lb....
We soon were at Eric, his 2 nets of fish gave him 2nd spot.....1 ounce off Jamie's total...!!
We then had a 13lb silvers net, which pushed my out of the silvers default win, but secured my section money.....
Karl Turner then weighed a quid losing 13lb, so Giffy did go home with something!!

So that was that, that was poor and most were not impressed!! Especially when another match on another line gave up a mid-200lb haul to their winner.

We soon waved bye to the fishery, most vowing never to return....I possibly will though at some point. The evening saw us randomise venue suggestions for 2015....!!!

Results:
1st Jamie Cook
2nd Eric Fouracre (by 1oz)
3rd Vince Brown (did that escapee fish cost him??)

I did win £25 for my efforts, so not a fruitless day, just frustrating......

Next up for me was Sunday's match on Viaduct Campbell lake with PSV

Until then, take care.

Lee