Viaduct Winter League, Penultimate Round, Sunday 28th February

Best get this one over with.......

Nice and early to the fishery and getting the team pools paid, Glenn's turn to draw today and he did fairly well, putting himself on 43, Fred on 5, Me on 113, Mike on 79 and Paul on 73.  113 was certainly in the right area and I was going to base today's approach on rod and line, as 113 is about 6m set back from the pegs either side, which housed competent anglers, Mikey Williams on 112 and Tony Rixon on 114.

Two lead rods set up, one fairly standard set up and one I was trying for popping up bread, using some fluorocarbon and mono combined, A waggler, not much point in fishing too fine, so 4lb reel line and 0.14 hooklength to a 16 LWG.  Plenty of time available, so I did set up 3 topkits, all of which remained unused apart from a very short, fruitless look down the LH edge.

I started on the trial pop up rig and in the first hour I had 4 fish, I had a few liners as well, but decided to have a look on the waggler to see if that would speed things up, Tony was in front of me by now and Mikey was struggling. Not sure if the volume of the Wesh lads banter had pushed the fish across the lake, but I was having to chuck the full 1/2 way over to get bites.  The waggler resulted in two foulers on corn, both of which came off, so back on the lead. I tried meat and corn on the lead to no avail.

Back on the bread, this time on the standard lead set up, so I could adjust the pop up height, this produced a couple more fish, but I felt the waggler would be best, so back on it and another fouler.  I pushed the 2 No8's up under the float, so just had a size 24 swivel down the line , This started to bring fish on triple maggot and I got to 65lb on my clicker, so put another net in.  I basically fished the day out on the waggler, having to set it up again after a large fouler snagged me in front of Mikey and I lost the lot.

In the last hour, Tony and Mikey both started catching me up, as they were getting fish at 16m on the pole, I did try catapulting some meat at just over 20m (which was their 16m line), no bites on this.  The only two baits I caught on were bread and maggot.  My second net was clicked at 51lb when my clicker dived off the side tray and straight into the lake.... I only had on other fish after and that was about 3lb, so I though there was 54lb in the net.

I thought I had between 110lb and 120lb, which should be enough to win the lake, my second net was weighed first, 57.07 so not to far out with the clicker, the first net, had over 65lb in when I lifted it out and I was hoping it was under 80lb, no such luck, 82lb and the net was disqualified.  Not sure how I was 4lb out on one net clicking it and 17lb on the other, I am sure I didn't put a fish in it after I put the second net in.  Frustrating to have done that, I have gone over 70lb a couple of times before, but never had a net disqualified,

On a personal note it was disappointing to lose the match win and the payout that goes with it and on a team front, I was lucky that the 57.07 still gave me fourth on the lake, so three points dropped.  That did mean that we were 3rd on the day, instead of second and the final cost, if any, will be revealed next week.  It also cost me in the overall individual standing, where I am 6th and could be joint second.


Top Weights On The Day:

1. Ryan Shipp - 99lb 4oz - peg 85
2. Mike Williams - 88lb 1oz - peg 112
3. Gary O'Shea - 82lb 12oz - peg 86
4. Tony Rixon - 78lb 10oz - peg 114
5. Lewis Walker - 76lb 12oz - peg 51
6. Ivan Oakey - 74lb 4oz - peg 96

Top Silver Weights On The Day:
1. Mark Poppleton - 25lb 1oz - peg 110
2. Simon Hebditch - 20lb 2oz - peg 11
3. Nick Chedzoy - 15lb - peg 10
4. Andy Power - 14lb 4oz - peg 42
5. Dave Roper - 13lb 12oz - peg 9
6. Steve Denmead - 11lb 10oz - peg 13


Top teams on the day:
1. PI Thatchers Gold - 72
2. South West Nomads - 63
3. 2nd Time Lucky - 61
4. Thatchers Vets - 59
5. Viaduct All Stars - 58
6. Thatchers Welsh Wizards - 57
6. Frenzee Black - 57
8. Amigos - 56
9. Viaduct - 55
10. Premier Angling - 54
11. Frenzee Orange - 49
12. Garbolino BVMG - 47
13. Somerset Angling - 45
14. Viaduct Select - 42
15. Avon Angling - 41
16. Maver - 39
17. Moaning Maggots - 37
18. Silverfox - 33
19. Keyford - 25 

Overall Teams:
1. Viaduct All Stars - 248
2. 2nd Time Lucky - 243
3. PI Thatchers Gold - 239
4, Frenzee Black - 231
5. Premier Angling - 230
6. South West Nomads - 223
7. Frenzee Orange - 216
8. Viaduct - 212
9. Somerset Angling - 206
10. Avon Angling - 205
11. Thatchers Vets - 204
12. Thatchers Welsh Wizzards - 188
13. Keyford - 187
14. Moaning Maggots - 184
15. Silverfox - 177
16. Maver - 166
17. Amigos - 164
18. Viaduct Select - 149
19. Garbolino BVMG - 135


Individual Points So Far:
1. Phil Harding - 64
2. Des Shipp - 62
3. Alan Oram - 61
3. Mark Brennan - 61
3. Fred Roberts - 61
6. Chris Fox - 59