Thursday 14/07/2011 - Viaduct Cost Cutter - Campbell and Carey

After a great days fishing yesterday I was off to another great South West venue - Viaduct Fishery for the Thursday Skivers match. What a beautiful morning with wall to wall sunshine promised. Another good turn out with 27 Skivers fishing. This was twice as many as the previous days open. So it’s not all about how much you win but more about what you pay out with the anticipation of covering the cost of an excellents days fishing with your mates.

Steve Long decided that the payout would be changed for today, splitting Campbell in to two sections and Carey one section with a Silvers and overall winner in each section. Worth a try I thought, but there was a chance that you could come second overall and win nowt.

In to the draw bucket and out comes peg 119. Both a good Carp and Silvers peg on the day. Arriving at the peg it was soon obvious that there was plenty of Carp mooching around. I am thinking that it’s an Ideal swim for the shallow Carp Slayers. Because of this I decided to keep my options open and fish out at 10 metres with paste and a rig for paste in the margin. Plumbing around the margin I found a good bottom and depth at 7 metres. I decided on a bit of gardening to have a clear view of the float and to enable me to get close into the bank.

On the whistle I piled in a load of corn and pellet in to the margin, the margins on this venue can take a huge amount of feed because of all the small fish that seek shelter from the huge Perch. Out at 10 metres with paste with ten hard 4’s sharing the kinder pot. Blimey the carp homed in on the loose feed with the float not staying still until it was dragged off by a foul hooked Carp. So that was the last I fed this swim except for any free offerings from any struck off paste. The swim settled and I started to put a few carp together. In between I kept topping up the margin swim. I Kept the Carp coming steady picking up the odd Tench and rare Skimmer from the margin, again on paste. Come the final whistle I had 23 Carp which weighed 105lb 11oz and my Silvers 27lb 1oz for a total of 132lb 12oz. This put me first in the section for Silvers and second overall. Plus this was enough for third Silvers and third overall in the match.

The match was won by Lee Johnson (from Leicester pictured right) with 208lb 8oz from peg 78. Lee caught on the straight lead using double hair rigged hard 8’s. Lee fed about two bags of hard 8’s throughout the match.

The Silvers was a close affair with John Green (pictured lower right with the overall winner) coming out on top from reliable Silvers peg 123. John caught 7 metres down his LH margin using 8mm meat hook bait, feeding three tins.

Full Result:

1. Lee Johnson 208-08-0 peg 78
2. Ian Mac 148-04-0 peg 111
3. Mike Nicholls 132-12-0 peg 119
4. Mike Owens 129-01-0 peg 118
5. Terry Bruton 115-08-0 peg 128
6. Craig (Trigger) Edmonds 115-05-0 peg 114

Top Silvers:

1. John Green 30-04-0 peg 123
2. Colin Dyer 28-04-0 peg 132
3. Mike Nicholls 27-01-0 peg 119
4. John Bradford 26-08-0 peg 76
5. Rich Coles 26-06-0 peg 85