Sunday 04/11/2012 - Viaduct Silvers League - Round Four - Campbell, Carey and Lodge Lakes

Having watched the weather forecast just before Bela picked me up I certainly wasn’t prepared what we were to experience throughout the day. It was pouring with rain when Bela arrived and by the time we were on top of the Mendips it was heavy snow, with flakes as big as my toss pot, subsequently it was settling quite fast as the picture right shows. By the time we had the draw the rain had stopped and by time we had started fishing the sun was out. Bela drew peg 85 on Carey which can suffer from the late afternoon sun reflecting on the water. But Bela had this sorted by shielding his eyes using his toss pot lid!! See picture below - right – you would think it was August. During this time Bela helped himself to 7lb of Skimmers elevating him to second in his section with 11lb.

 

For me I drew peg 99 on Carey which can be a good Skimmer peg, but I had the feeling that due to the bright conditions and extreme pressure variations in the last few hours that it wasn’t going to fish that well. On my right I had An-Ton and on my left Andy Neal.

 

I settled for the Ronnie rig which I thought would be a waste of time due to the water clarity and the fish not wanting to chase the feed  – and I was right. I set up the 4x14 Jolly to be fished at 11.5 metres, and finally the Normark 11 foot feeder rod.

 

Having fed the Skimmer line with two balls of GB laced with a few casters it was the quick retirement of the Ronnie rig. Out on the GB line and after 30 minutes not a sign of a bite from any bait I tried. Andy had caught a couple of small Ronnie’s on the waggler, so I set it up and with double dead red fished over loose fed caster I was soon in to a Ronnie followed by a couple more before I hooked a 6oz Perch. Unfortunately I fed a few too many casters as the Carp were soon mooching around on the surface scaring off the few fish that were prepared to feed. With two hours gone the three of us were struggling with An-Ton still blanking. What ever I did I couldn’t get the Ronnie’s to come close enough to make them worth fishing for. So I resigned myself to a painful last half of the match fishing for them at 11.5 metres. I found the best way to keep them in the swim was to kinder pot hard ball of my Skimmer mix GB laced with Pinkies with double pinkie on the hook. This also would get any Skimmers interested that decided to feed. I was rewarded with a 3lb Skimmer and a few 4oz specimens. I must say I was tired and hurting by the end of the match, weighing 9lb 5oz for 4^th in section. I did managed to beat Andy on peg 100 who mustered 7lb and an 18lb Carp, but An-Ton on peg 97 had a good spell late on coming second in the section with 13lb.

 

Lodge Lake came up trumps again with the match being won by Steve Mayo (pictured right with his nice net of Skimmers) with 45lb 6oz from peg 69. Steve fished at 13 metres using double dead red hook bait fished over a mix of Gimps Gold and Sensas Lake GB. Steve fed the caster loose in his pot below his ball of GB instead of combining with his GB.

 

Steve Kedge is the current league leader with a so far perfect score of 4 points.

 

Full Result:

 

1.      Steve Mayo 45-06-0 peg 69

2.      Dave Roper 24-14-0 peg 96

3.      Paul Elmes 22-13-0 peg 71

4.      Tom Thick 21-15-0 peg 130

5.      Lee Werret 20-14-0 peg 62

6.      Phil Cardwell 18-03-0 peg 72