Sunday 15/01/2012 - Viaduct Teams of Five Winter League - Round One - All Lakes

It was the start of the Viaduct Winter League, with nineteen teams of five taking part (95 anglers), with, I understand a number of teams on the waiting list. This makes it the biggest Commercial League in the South West and most probably in the country.

Silverfox TM had to make a team change as Steve Skelton had to miss the league due to family issues, let’s hope they are soon resolved so Steve is out fishing again. The Team captain brought in replacement Anton Page. So we now have two 2011 record breakers in the team!

After the help yourself to as much as you can get on your plate breakfast, followed by the passing around of huge sums of money, it was off to the fishery to unpack whilst team captain Tom Mangnel did the draw. The team draw Tom came back with was to say the least, indifferent – let’s hope this is a minor relapse for Tom’s draw arm.

With all the fishable pegs in the draw, added to this the cold snap over the past two days we all expected it to fish hard. I was hoping for a peg on Lodge Lake and I wasn’t disappointed to be given peg 61.  A reasonable Silvers peg, so I could forget Carp completely, this was left to the four corner pegs which proved to fish very well for the species.

On peg 60 I had Welsh Wizard Andy Neil, to complete the sandwich peg 62 was occupied by Fred Roberts, both experienced venue regulars. I decided to set up a 4 metre Ronnie whip for caster over caster, a 4x14 Jolly to be fished at 13 metres at 11 o clock with GB and 1 o clock with caster, the same rig needing only an inch adjustment in depth. Finally, I set up the waggler, again for caster. On the whistle I potted a few casters on the 1 o clock and a nugget of GB at 11 o clock, but started on the whip to test if the Ronnie were going to have a go – it doesn’t take long to discover they weren’t in the mood. So onto the caster line which produced nothing, as it happened I didn’t have a bite on this line, which was surprising. So it was over to the GB line which produced two consecutive Skimmers on double Pinkie. The swim then died so I re-fed and picked up the waggler with single caster on an 18 - 808 hook. Loose feeding caster over the top resulted in a number of 1oz Ronnie’s (when is the tackle industry going to design a catapult that can feed casters within 1 metre of your target)? Having discounted the 13 metre Caster Line, I kept switching between the GB line and the waggler to keep the odd Skimmer (and one lonely Perch) coming until the final all out. As expected the Carp fed all round the venue Lake corners and the Silvers appeared to be in hibernation. My Silvers weighed in at 11lb 8oz for 12 teams points and third overall in the Silvers pool – happy days.

Team wise Silverfox TM were plumb last!!

The match was won by Ray Hayward (pictured with third overall and super pool second defaulter) from Spring peg 25 with 115lb 8oz. Ray Landed nine Carp with the first two weighing 40lb. Ray caught on the waggler at 20 metres using either corn or meat hair rigged hook bait.

The Silvers was won by Brian Shanks with 16lb 14oz from Middle peg 37.Brain caught on the pole with either red maggot or caster over potted caster. His GB line failed to produce a single bite.

Full Result:

1.      Ray Hayward 115-08-0 peg 25

2.      Ben Bentley 110-13-0 peg 3

3.      Tony "Default" Rixon 106-15-0 peg 110

4.      John Howell 93-06-0 peg 97

5.      Martin Preston 93-01-0 peg 131

6.      Russ Peck 74-0-0 peg 53

  Top Silvers:

1.      Brian Shanks 16-14-0 peg 37

2.      Barry Fitchew 13-0-0 peg 56

3.      Mike Nicholls 11-08-0 peg 61

Top Teams:

1.      Toss Potts 72 points

2.      Somerset Angling 64

3.      Amigos 61

4.      Dynamite Baits 58

5.      Viaduct Select 54

6.      Team Jinx 53

19. Silverfox TM 33

Finally, back at the pub for the result I caught a Picture of the Dude picking his nose!