Thursday 01/12/2011 - Viaduct Cost Cutter - Campbell and Carey Lakes

I decided to stop on the way to the Skivers match at the Viaduct Fishery in the Canards Well for a lonely breakfast. I must say its good value for money and today I had a bunch of Cherry Tomatoes cooked to perfection with the skins just starting to split – scrummy.

Another reasonable turn out with both Campbell and diagonal bank of Carey in the draw – unfortunately not peg 80!! In to the draw tin and out comes peg 118. With the wind blowing down that way I was expecting a decent days fishing on the waggler and caster. Arriving at the peg the water levels was surprising high – winter level, I think. I have always manage to catch six to seven small Carp in the LH margin up to the Brambles (felt a bit like Darren Gillman drawing on the Canal), so I set a margin rig for this. I also set up a Silverfish rig to be fished at 11.5 metres, followed by the most important weapon - the waggler, Umm!

On the bait table I had dead reds and Caster - that’s it. I started by feeding caster in the LH margin and similarly at 11.5 metres. However, I started fishing on the waggler, feeding caster with double caster on the hook. What happened over the next to hours was a new experience for me – even after 50 years of fishing. I was getting drag away bites which resulted in nothing, not even a damaged caster. I tried double dead red which resulted in the odd tiny Ronnie. Back on the double caster, once again these strange indications. It was if the fish were dragging the line up in the water. I tried varying the depth but nothing seemed to work. I decided to try the margin and did have a run of the predicted small Carp on double caster – no Perch though. I tried the pole at 11.5 metres with double caster and was getting similar indications as the waggler – very frustrating, because I believe the culprits were Skimmers dragging against the line. Back on the waggler where I tried various forms of feeding – heavy, light, before casting, after casting, etc…Frustrating. I finished the match in the margin catching my usual seven Carp which weighed 16lb 11oz adding my 3lb 7oz of Silvers my total weight was 20lb 2oz, for nowhere.

It was a day when I wish I could see how the fish were feeding, assuming they were of course.

The Match was won by Dan White (pictured right with the Silvers winner) from peg 131 with 125lb 7oz. Dan caught on the straight lead using meat on the hook.

The Silvers was won by Steve Woods with 20lb 15oz from peg 123, who caught quality Skimmers primarily on the waggler fishing caster over caster.

It was nice to see Charlie Barns back on the bank after his recent illness and lucky for him he drew the end of Campbell where all the Carp seemed to have mustered.

Full Result:

1.      Dan White 125-07-0 peg 131

2.      Martin Lenaghan 120-14-0 peg 114

3.      Charlie Barns 114-01-0 peg 129

4.      Terry Bruton 77-06-0 peg 126

5.      Paul Greenwood 70-0 -0 peg 110

6.      Chris Rolfe 38-15-0 peg 119

Top Silvers:

1.      Steve Woods 20-15-0 peg 123

2.      Paul Greenwood 20-05-0 peg 110

3.      John Green 19-14-0 peg 116