Viaduct Open, Wednesday 11th January 2012

When I booked into this one it was on Spring Lake, by the time Wednesday came round, there were 20 odd, so an overspill was arranged on the Match Lake. Out of the tin with my card and when opened, it revealed peg 47 on match lake. A peg with a good record of silvers weights, so I was fairly happy with the draw until I heard that it had been fished the day before and 40 or 50lb caught. Probably no big deal in the summer, but would the fish stay there after that in the winter months?

I set up a waggler to fish across, as this has proven to be a successful method for my self and others, winning the silvers in the past helped by big skimmmers on the caster. Along with that, I set up two pole rigs, to fish at 16m, I didn't try a shorter line, as I have found it difficult to catch close in in the summmer, so I imagine that in the clearer water of January, this would be even worse. I started on the pole, initially cupping a couple of casters and dead reds onto the 16m line, live, dead and pupae maggots, in varying combinations and numbers, all brought only one result, roach in the 30 to the lb class. a switch to the waggler saw no improvement, although I could see Fabio on peg 43 catching an F1 most put ins on the waggler.

The wind was pushing into my face and giving a bad surface skim around the island corner, so the waggler could'nt be fished tight to the island. sinking the line pulled it too far away and not sinking the line made the presentation very poor. Nigel Bartlett on peg 45 had an initial run of fish on the lead, but the only ready set up lead rod I had was my 12' carp rod with 8lb line - far too crude for this lake.

At 11.45 I walked back to the van and collected the loaf of bread that I'd purposely left behind and a reel to set up a light lead rod. A 20PR 36 with a long hair on 12" of 0.14 completed the set up and first put in I had a carp on the bread. I did try to catch on the waggler a couple more times through the match, but the wind, the tiny roach and the horrible glare of the sun ( you don't get that on this peg in the summmer, when the island trees and plants are in fulll leaf). I ended the day with 1.07 of silvers, the vast majority was one hybrid and 29.12 of carp and f1s.

Had I fished the bread from the off, I might have pushed the 9lb between me and the winner a little closer. Fabio kept the F1s coming for the majority of the match, for what must have been an enjoyable, all waggler caught 42.10. Second was corner peg specialist, Tony Rixon, from peg 8 on Spring.

1) Phil ' Fabio' Harding 42.10 peg 43
2) Tony Rixon 42.05 peg 8
3) Chris Fox 31.03 peg 47
4) Nicky Collier 30.10 peg 19
5) Nigel Bartlett 25.02 peg 45
6) Adrian Jefferies 21.07 peg 24
6) Steve Hutter 21.07 peg 52


Silvers
1) Anton Page 15.06 peg 42
2) Steve Kedge 12.14 peg 25