Thursday 21/06/2012 - Viaduct Cost Cutter - Campbell Lake

I do believe the breakfasts in Woody’s café are as good as anywhere that is open early enough for us anglers.

Tim Ford came down yesterday and stayed overnight having a few beers and a meal in the Unicorn Hotel; unfortunately he can’t fish at present as he is still getting himself fit. Tim is pictured left with the lads preparing tackle and rigs for the day.

Again a short walk to the draw for the Skivers and now Holiday makers match. Didn’t bother with standing in the queue and settled for the last ticket and luckily it was a peg beginning with 11 peg 115. Glenn was on peg 130, mark peg 125 and Martyn peg 119 and thought it was his birthday – can’t this boy draw!

I had been on the peg for half hour thinking peg 116 was empty and along comes matey Charlie Barnes. I don’t normally get involved with £1 side bets but that crafty Charlie talked me in to a Silvers only bet knowing well that my peg is a known Carp Slayers peg and his has some form for Silvers.

I discovered that Charlie and me were born the same year, 1949 and married in the same year, 1970. Like me he obviously got a good “Special One” too.

As everyone knows I hate parting with my cash so the focus was on the Silvers, to be honest I would have fished exactly the same either way. I set up three rigs – 4x14 Jolly for the Meat, paste float for over the same line both to be fished at 7 metres (peg 115 stands out further than any other peg on the Lake and it’s as close to fishing 16 metres I will every get). The final rig was a margin paste rig to be fished to the Left in 3 foot of water.

I had brought two pints of red putrid and planned to experiment with. So with plastic gloves on I started to feed them into the RH margin only to find that they float, which the Ducks appreciated, so I just emptied the remainder off the side of the platform.

Out on the meat kindering 6 pieces and it was obvious that the small fish were active intercepting the bait on the drop. I did have a couple of small Skimmers, one Bream and a Carp before I was frustrated by the sneaky Ronnie’s nicking the meat even though I started feeding the meat through Mr. Big Cup. By now crafty Charlie had twenty pounds of Silvers on CW&C. I switched to the paste and the bigger bait over the meat line, converting to feeding hard 4’s. This produced just the one Bream, a Tench and five Carp over the next hour. At least Charlie had slowed down. I had been feeding the LH margin with hard 4’s so I went in over it and had a good two hours catching Bream and Tench. It was about now in the last hour that the legs of my platform started to rattle and on investigation there was a shoal of Carp munching up the putrid maggots - Umm! This also signalled the end of the Silvers and in the last hour I landed six more Carp. Charlie’s swim died quite early and he was cursing the vermin too.

My twelve Carp weighed in at 60lb 10oz and my Silvers 42lb 3oz. This put me fifth overall and second in the Silvers, more importantly Charlie weighed 27lb 2oz – I am waiting for a big audience before I claim my spoils - £1 coin.

The Match was won by Matey Martyn Woodington from peg 119 with 172lb 12oz. Martyn caught in his own words:

“I fished at 16m towards the rushes and feed 8mm pellet. First hour 6 carp then none for the second hour so switched to fishing on the deck and landed 3 carp followed by a foul hooker so came off the bottom by 6 inches and caught steady until the end feeding only when shipping back or out to reduce liners and foul hookers”.

The Silvers was won by Fishery manager Paul Greenwood with 57lb 2oz from peg 127. Paul caught out in front and down each margin catching Tench and Bream on hard pellet.

Full Result:

1.      Martyn Woodington 172-12-0 peg 119

2.      Glenn Bailey 139-0-0 peg 130

3.      Craig Micallef 115-12-0 peg 132

4.      Terry Lenney 113-13-0 peg 129

5.      Mike Nicholls 102-13-0 peg 115

6.      Colin Dyer 102-05-0 peg 128

…

10. Mark Tanner 82-13-0 peg 125

Top Silvers:

1.      Paul Greenwood 57-02-0 peg 127

2.      Mike Nicholls 42-03-0 peg 115

3.      Ryan Musgrave 36-09-0 peg 126

This was our last match of this years fishing holiday and I must say that the accommodation is superb five stars. I have been trying to think of the negatives for a critique but can only come up with “the complimentary bottle of red wine wasn’t quite placed in the centre of the dining table”. Once the secret is out I am sure that these Lodges will become very popular, so if you are looking for a great fishing holiday and catch a typical Carp similar to that caught by Glenn Bailey on Carey Lake book early with Steve Long at the Viaduct Fishery. More details can be found on the fishery website. We have already booked for next year.