Sunday 15/02/2015 - Viaduct Winter League - Round Three - Campbell, Carey Lodge, Match and Spring Lakes

First stop Cannards Well for breakfast where were joined by team mate Gordon Cannings. The breakfast was spot on and hot. When I was paying the bill the Chef asked “Two Chews” if he had enough food. Little did the Chef know that Two Chews used half a bottle of brown sauce just to smear half his breakie! I told the Chef Bela’s full once he feels sick.

Bela came back with the draw card which put me on Campbell peg 114. I thought this to be a reasonable draw based on previous results. However, I approach lead fishing half hearted as I find it mentally difficult to sit with a motionless tip with the hope of a few bites. In fact I wasn’t going to set it up but because I had ½ hour before the whistle I decided to. I set up the waggler but found any colour top all most impossible to see. It took some accurate casting to get the float in a narrow band of light water. I also set up a 4x14 Jolly to fish at 11.5 metres with the anticipation of a few Silvers.

After feeding three balls of GB laced with caster, Pinkie and dead reds at 11.5 metres, I started on the waggler with a bunch of dead reds it didn’t take long to catch a ½ Ronnie. The light was so bad I was missing bites coming back on two occasions with no bait on the hook!! The small Ronnie’s became a nuisance and they were too small to be worth fishing for. So I switched to single corn hook bait which resulted in a 3lb Skimmer. I had to rest the waggler as I was going blind trying to see the float. So I tried the GB line with various baits - caster, corn and maggot but could only muster another ½ Ronnie.

There was plenty of Carp coming out particularly the four corner pegs. By half way the writing was on the wall. I wasn't going to win any coin on the Silvers so the only choice was to fish the straight lead for a maximum of 2 points. I started on some of Adrian Jeffery’s red meat, then his yellow meat finally double corn. After 20 minutes and without a sign of a fish or a liner I was bored. So to break monotony I set up a paste rig and gave that a go at 11.5 metres and again I was pestered by small nibbling Ronnie’s. I was well last in the section so decided to try the lead with double corn whilst I packed the pole away. Blimey the tip shot round and I was playing a 10lb Common. After playing it to the landing net the hook pulled, which summed up my day. This is definitely not my type of fishing.

My turn for the 1 section point however, Gordon Cannings came to the teams rescue winning his lake from peg 74 with 60lb taking out total to 48 points – could have been worse and hopefully keeps us in mid table.

The match was won by Stu Woods (pictured right) with 115lb 11oz from peg 132. Stu caught down to his end margin with meat hook bait fished over pinged meat feeding 3 – 4 pieces.

It’s amazing how the Carp on this Lake move around as last match everyone struggled at this end of the Lake.

The Silvers was won by Mark Wynne (pictured lower right) with 24lb 15oz from Lodge peg 69. Mark had a short loose fed cater swim and a 13 metre GB swim catching Skimmers and Roach from both lines proportioned 50-50.

And finally Bela and I stopped in Whetstones Fish Restaurant, which proved the best part on the day for the both of us, especially the Carling Export.

Full Result:

1. Stu Woods 115-11-0 peg 132
2. A Crocker 101-08-0 peg 123
3. Fred Roberts 73-04-0 peg 119
4. Steve Denmead 63-12-0 peg 78
5. Gordon Cannings 60-02-0 peg 74
6. M Jones 57-04-0 peg 115

Top Silvers:

1. Mark Wynne 24-15-0 peg 69
2. Nick Chedzoy 21-10-0 peg 37
3. Kev East 16-01-0 peg 98