Sunday 15/04/2012 - Avon Angling Open - Viaduct Fishery - Match Lake and Part of Lodge Lake

After the usual, but late breakfast at the Fountain Café it was off to Viaduct – once I had redirected Bela who for some unknown reason was heading to Landsend!

Although the venue had had the biggest match of the year it, Fish-o-Mania, 130 pegger, Tony Rixon had promised it would fish its head off. We all know Tony is the second best Angler in the South West (but not by much), he is also one of the best match organisers. Irrespective of the venue he knows exactly how to split the pools money, which is very important to keep the interest. With seven pegs on Lodge Lake and fourteen on Match Lake, it was always going to be Lodge Lake that would produce the biggest weight, so Tony split the Lakes into three equally paying sections, plus a Silvers in each section, plus the overall winner.

I was hoping for peg 66 on Lodge, but before I got to the draw coffee tin (not de-cafe) the peg had already been pulled by Paul “Speedy Gonzales” Elmes. Out comes peg 50 on Match Lake.  A good Skimmer peg – happy days. However, I was apprehensive as Match Lake is very sensitive to environmental changes and angling pressure. I was wondering who had fished the peg the day before knowing they had no chance of winning through to the final. After an early frost followed by bright sunshine and a bitter cold wind blowing in to me at 2 o clock the conditions didn’t look conducive. I had Mike “Alsop fables” West on next peg 51 – “You can’t ride two horses with only one ass”, and Trigger “the waggler tree decorator” on peg 49. This meant I had a millionaire on one side that lost his one and only waggler before the whistle and another Angler that lost all his five wagglers before landing his four first fish. Trigger had to wait until the wind blew a waggler back before re setting up – his nick name says it all. I did offer to sell his some at £2 each.

I set up the Silvers waggler (I didn’t expect to catch any fish over 4lb) and after chucking it around it was clear that the wind wasn’t right for it, so it was abandoned early on. I set a 4x14 Jolly instead on the usual 4x12 because of the wind and a 4x14 Stainey (brilliant floats but no so clever if it’s too windy).

I decided on two lines, both to be fished at 13 metres. One line to the right of the drum for the 3mm expander over kindered wetted micro with the Stainey. And a CW&C line to the left of the tree. I started on the pellet and was missing un-missable bites – Ronnie’s. So over the CW&C with the Jolly and it was soon obvious that there were bigger fish here as I was getting liners. I was soon in to my first Skimmer. After which a pattern formed – catch a couple then feed to get them back. I did pull out of a couple and I lost a 3lb Tench in the backside braches (I have a mental note to clear the swim before I start -  I will forget no doubt. The worm lined died so I switched back to the pellet line and wind permitting |I managed to pick off a few more Skimmers and a couple of F1’s. Overall the Lake had fished hard. My Carp (f1’s) weighed in at 2lb 14oz and my Skimmers 22lb 14oz for a grand total of 25lb 12oz, luckily this gave me a section win, a Lake Silvers win and a third overall in the Silvers.

The match was won by Bela Bakos (pictured right with some of his catch) with 129lb from peg 73. Bela initially caught on paste over micro (that’s my boy – I will have him fishing Jolly’s next – he will need to get some glasses first!) and later Bela switched to 8 mm hard pellet all caught at 15 meters down his RH margin.

The Silvers was won by Tony Rixon (pictured lower right with the overall winner) from peg 70 with 38lb 9oz. Tony caught on …see his blog for the hard pellet details!

Full Result:

1.      Bela Bakos 129-0-0 peg 73

2.      Tony Rixon 126-13-0 peg 70

3.      Paul  Elmes 88-02-0 peg 66

4.      Martin Lenaghan 64-13-0 peg 71

5.      Steve Skelton 60-12-0 peg 64

6.      Barry Fitchew 59-03-0 peg 69

Top Silvers:

1.      Tony Rixon 38-09-0 peg  70

2.      Don Sutherland 24-02-0 peg 68

3.      Mike Nicholls 22-14-0 peg 50