Sunday 05/11/2018 - Viaduct Silvers League - Round Three - Campbell, Carey and Lodge Lakes

Bela and me had a nice breakfast at Canards Well, we were joined by Grinner Cannings, Sut White and Rowland.

The weather was mild but to expect some drizzle, but had some heavier rain near the end.

Into the draw coffee tin and out comes a peg on Lodge again - three time now. However, it is a good waggler peg which I have won from and due to my neck injury would be my choice of pegs. So happy. For company today was Martin Preston on peg 70 whom I couldn't see and Craig Orton on peg 68 the only angler I could see in my section.

First the waggler was set up and when running it through to set the depth I had two indications on the bare hook! Next the Ronnie rig and the only other rig was a 4x12 Winter Titan. Ground bait mixed and bait table loaded with Pinkie, DR's and caster.

I fed a few casters on the 20 metre waggler line, a knub of GB laced with Pinkie on the Ronnie rig line and one large ball of GB with loose caster at top-set plus three barrels. Started on the waggler and really expected a bite first chuck - nothing. Was the indications earlier from Motherless? I was wishing I ran the float through with a single maggot before feeding to understand a bit more as to what was happening. I was thinking the fish had shied away from the loose feed. However, Martin Preston was swishing away with his waggler and corn over corn sprayed everywhere and was a getting indications regularly. I changed to the Ronnie rig and started to catch Ronnies and small Hybrids and one 8 oz Perch. I was happy to stay with this all match providing I could keep the catch rate the same. Unfortunately Martin Preston Hooked a Carp which went under the rope a into my Ronnie swim! I refed and rested it and swap the wagger to corn as Martin started to catch the odd Skimmer on it. My feeding of the corn was reasonable but couldn't get a bite on it except for one foul hooked Carp. So back on the Ronnie rig which although I still caught on it, it was never the same and painfully slow. So out on the long line which I fished both right and left handed to share the neck pain. Amazing how hard I struck on the left side!! I was soon catching Ronnie's but kept feeding the line to attract the Skimmers. I did catch a couple. Come mid match I had a terrible run of losing Skimmers. If I dropped the rig in vertically I would get liners, when laying the rig out I got a positive bite which was telling me the Skimmers were up in the water. I lost 7 Skimmers all about 1 lb I got three near the landing net and they were hooked in the mouth, but due to others leaving a lot of slime on the line indicated foul hookers. I decided to change the hook size to a 808 - 16 with single DR. Not sure this was the answer but I did start putting pairs of small Skimmers in the net. I concluded that the Skimmers were swimming around in shoals and after catching a couple would shy away for a while, most probably due to the clarity of the water and the amount of anglers feeding.

I was sure I hadn't done very well in the section and was surprised that my 12 lb 8 oz was sufficient for second section pick up. However, I was so disappointed the waggler and caster didn't work today.

The match was won by Dan White (pictured upper right with his catch of Skimmers) with 30 lb 11 oz from peg 59. Dan started on a small caged GB feeder catching about 8 lb. He then switched the the pole at 13 metres and started to catch decent Skimmers with his peg getting better as the match progressed. Due to the affect of the Aerator pegs 50,60 and 61 are deeper that the rest of the Lake, so it looks as if the Skimmers have moved in to this deeper water. Dan fed 2 kg of GB laced with a few casters and used single DR's on the Hook. Dan used Spottedfin GB - the mix pictured right.
Result:

1. Dan White 30-10-0 peg 59
2. Gary Webber 26-01-0 peg 102
3. Paddy Curry 23-05-0 peg 94
4. Dave Romain 22-14-0 peg 100
5. Joe McMahon 22-12-0 peg 60
6. Steve Tucker 21-07-0 peg 98

Weigh Sheet: