After a run of decent weights (if not results) it was back down to earth with a bump on peg 15 on New Lake at Willinghurst on Sunday where I was literally battered left (Tony Yianni, peg 17, 133-8-0), right (Paul Gibson, peg 12, 98-8-0) and centre (Jake Gallagher, peg 7, 106-6-0)!!!
My plan of bagging-up on the long pole shallow early doors then coming down the edge for a couple of hours of epic catching at the end only produced 6 carp for 38-8-0 – and two of those came in the last 10 minutes!!! Though as Paul Weller once sang – We came out of it naturally the worst: Beaten and bloody, and I was sick down my shirt. We were no match for their untamed wit, though some of the lads said they'd be back next week ...
An enjoyable and slightly frustrating day at Willinghurst again on Sunday. I drew peg 1 on Old Lake – something of a flyer but in all fairness you’d have to fancy any peg on this lake at the moment as on their day 1, 3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 22, 24 and 26 are all capable of a very big weight! On reaching the peg it was clear that the wind had blown a huge amount of scum into the corner and the whole peg was covered in that annoying cotton-like fluff that collects on your line and in your rod rings – however this can also be a good thing as the carp like to sit under it and feed on it.
Going into the final two hours I had a decent 75-80lb in the net, mainly caught on the waggler – I started on a 3g float but soon had to step-up to an 8g version so I could cast through the fluff in the eyes of my rod without having to clear it out each and every time! (I probably had to re-tie this rod 5 or 6 times to clear the fluff that had built-up around the base of the float and in the rod rings.) Unfortunately the final two hours weren’t as productive as I’d have liked and I only put a further 35-40lb of margin caught carp in the net. This gave me a total of 113-12-0, not even one out of the money as Kris Fields took that accolade with 114-0-0!!! Saying that we were miles behind Jason Morgan (140 odd), Stevie Gardener (180 odd) and Marc Illingworth (190 odd) – roll-on Sunday, can’t wait for another go!!!
Day two of our cheeky weekend away at Viaduct Fishery – I’d love to say that I spent last night sorting my kit/bait and having a nice meal in the Glastonbury Travelodge but the truth of the matter is that we went to a nightclub that was full of people much less than half my age and they were playing a style of music I couldn’t even begin to comprehend!!! (I was later informed that the music was something called ‘jungle’, though I’m still none the wiser.)
Day 2 - Campbell Lake
After yesterday’s match on Lodge Lake today’s event was to be held on the infamous Campbell Lake, home to some monster carp and home to some monster match weights in excess of 200 pounds. Having not seen this particular lake before we had a quick look around before the draw and I have to say it seemed much more suited to my style of fishing than Lodge Lake – Campbell is a much bigger lake (35 pegs) and hence rod and line tactics seemed more applicable. The lake itself is a simple rectangle with platforms along all four sides, the only visible feature being an aerator somewhere near the middle (so no islands) – it very much reminded me of the first two lakes at Bolingey, just twice the size.
My draw saw me on peg 123 – this is a spot in the far corner of the lake. As a result I had lots of room and access into the corner to my left but unusually for rectangular venues one of the pegs along the short bank was occupied. This restricted my open water fishing to a range of 20-22m – any further than this and I’d have been casting my bomb or waggler onto the end of the guy on peg 121’s pole!
Looking towards 121
Prior to the all-in I settled on four options and set-up the following rigs:
Straight lead – 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line, a free-running 10g Guru square bomb and 30cm of 0.17 N-Gauge to a size 14 QM1 with an 8mm hair-rig (the correct length for a drilled 8mm pellet)
Top 2 plus 2 – black Hydro, 0.17 main line, 4x12 Roob (shot with number 10 stotz shirt button style to give a slow fall), 15cm hooklength of 0.13 to a size 16 LWG (eyed)
Short margin at top 2 plus 2 – red Hydro, 0.19 straight through to a size 12 MWG, 0.3 SconeZone V6
Long margin at 11.5m – same components as above (this line was fished at 11.5m as this is the longest distance I could fish at and still get tight to the bank, any further and the bank disappeared out of sight around a bit of a point)
I was opposite Bagger today
I started my match by pinging a few 8mm pellets onto my bomb lines (one straight in front, one diagonally to the left towards the narrow bank), a nice pull and a decent carp from the line straight in front first cast being my reward. Unfortunately this was only followed by some fizzing and the odd liner so I soon moved on to the bomb line towards bank – this was soon sacked-off as it was full of twigs and every time I reeled-in I found some form of plant matter or other masking my hook point.
I eventually managed a tench and another carp from the original straight lead line but following even more fizzing and the sight of the odd carp swirling through my loose feed I decided to set-up a pellet waggler rod. Second cast on this new approach saw a proper bite (that pulled the rod tip as I was reaching for my catapult) and carp number three was soon in the net – though this was something of a false dawn as over the next hour or so I could only manage two more bites on it, the first being a big foul-hooked fish that took absolutely ages to land!
The margin line to the left
As sport on the waggler was hardly hectic I decided to have a quick look on the 5m line with meat – this saw plenty of bites but generally from very (very) small fish and even though I also managed a tench and a couple of skimmers it was clear that I was going nowhere with this line so it was time to move on again. In mild desperation I upgraded my bomb to a 19g version and tied-up a PVA bag of pellets to attach to the hook and as is often the case such a change of tactic led to a carp first cast. Obviously I thought I'd cracked it, then promptly never had another bite on it – that’s fishing I guess!!!
As a result I went long down the edge to the left earlier than expected (1330) and kicked things off with a big pot of dead read maggots and sweetcorn – this led to a carp straight away on a big bunch of dead maggots, then nothing for the next twenty minutes, so as expected it was still a little bit too early for all out margin fishing. I returned to the straight lead in front line, feeding really heavily with 8mm pellets to try and induce a reaction, though in the end I only really managed to induce loads and loads of fizzing!!! (I eventually got a pull which fell-off at the net - boo.)
Those boots need a polish!
With two hours or so to go I went back down the edge and eventually got into a run of fish, big potting a combination of live and dead read maggots definitely being the best feeding approach. As is often the case I lost a few (almost certainly all foul-hooked), but I also landed a fair few on big bunches of dead maggots. In the end my fish weighed a total of 84-8-0, a decent enough weight but still well short of the superstars that made the frame:
Pete Franklin - 171lb 3oz - peg 127
Martin Johnson - 162lb 15oz - peg 125
Ian Dunlop - 146lb 15oz - peg 114
Neil Morgan - 136lb 13oz - peg 129
Rob Wiltshire - 130lb 8oz - peg 126
Phil Cardwell - 115lb 15oz - peg 128
So that’s the end of a very enjoyable weekend – Viaduct certainly seems to be an excellent venue and the people that run the place are particularly friendly and helpful. It’s just a shame that it’s a two and a half hour trip each way, but I for one would be keen to pay a visit again in the near future.
Something slightly different this weekend – our local Apollo Guildford match team have once again made it through to the semi-final of the Angling Times Supercup, the venue being the prolific Viaduct Fishery in Somerton, Somerset. As a result the guys have arranged a cheeky weekend away to get to know the place and kindly extended the invite to Bagger and myself – Glastonbury Travelodge here we come!!!
Spot the viaduct
Viaduct is not a fishery that I’ve visited before but I’d read a lot about it and a quick look online yielded loads of blogs and YouTube videos, the films showing Jonny Arthur catching just 18 fish for 252-11-0 to win a Fish’O’Mania qualifier and another showing Adam Wakelin beating Andy Power by an ounce (279-6-0 versus 279-5-0) to win a round of the UK championship making particularly good viewing.
Today’s match was to be held on Lodge Lake, a roughly triangular shaped pond with 20 pegs. There was an (inactive) aerator located in the middle of the lake but no central islands – as this isn’t the biggest lake in the world (and there are pegs along all three sides) it struck me as being mainly a pole venue, though there are a few pegs where you could probably cast a waggler or straight lead without infringing too much on your fellow anglers.
My draw saw me on peg 64, probably the furthest pitch from the tackle shop/carpark but apparently a good one as it is in a corner and features something called ‘The Monk’ – a concrete pillar about 5’ from the bank towards the corner to the right that is no doubt something to do with controlling water levels. As well as The Monk and the corner to my right I had a small bay between two trees on the opposite bank (diagonally to my right) and a vacant platform to my left. I had Luke Sheriff for company directly across on peg 66 – he had a nice gap between the bank and an overhanging tree to his left, but as we were pegged opposite each other in the narrowest part of the lake we effectively cancelled each other out in terms of being able to fish long into open water.
The Monk
Prior to the start of the match I settled on a three pronged attack and explicitly chose not to fish a certain area. The lines that I settled on were:
Bomb and pellet into the bay between two trees diagonally to my right. The rules at Viaduct preclude the use of method-type feeders and stipulate legering hooklengths of at least 12” so my set-up included either a 10 or 19g Guru square bomb free running to a 30cm hooklength of 0.17 to a size 14 QM1.
Paste at 5m. I was aiming for carp so this rig included black Hydro and 0.17 Guru N-Gauge straight through to a size 12 MWG.
The margin tight to bank to the side of the vacant platform to my left. Again I was only really looking to catch carp on this rig so I went with my heaviest margin set-up – red Hydro, a 0.3g SconeZone V6 and 0.19 Guru N-Gauge straight through to a size 12 MWG.
Rightly or wrongly I decided not to fish long into the corner to my right and I had 4 reasons for this:
Whilst setting-up I saw lots of fish move under the tree opposite, but saw no signs of fish in the corner.
As I was going to be fishing the straight lead diagonally to my right my view was that this would cut-off any fish that might’ve headed into the corner from open water.
When I’ve been fortunate enough to draw corner pegs in the past fishing the margin to the side away from the corner has been more productive.
Most importantly I didn’t want to break my pole! It seemed to me that if I fished long into the corner then any hooked fish would bolt along the far bank towards peg 66 potentially seeing a very expensive number 7 or number 8 section ‘interact’ with The Monk in a very negative fashion!!!
A map of the complex
To be perfectly frank I found the first 5 and a half hours of today’s match somewhat frustrating (summer open matches at Viaduct are normally 6 hour affairs fished from 11 until 5). The bomb line into the bay diagonally across to my right looked really fishy but seemed to be full of twigs and only produced three proper pulls from three fairly small carp. The paste line at 5m produced plenty of bites but these were generally from small silvers – this line did produce a tench and a couple of nice skimmers but I wasn’t really focussing on the silverfish prize so I soon sacked this off. My margin line tight to the bank to the side of the vacant platform to my left was equally underwhelming – I fed it quite positively with groundbait and dead red maggots but my double dendrabena hookbait only yielded two bites, the second of which went under the platform and around one of the legs transforming my 0.19 rig line into candy floss!!!
Looking left
Having to re-tie my margin rig actually prompted a change that at least boosted my tally from about 20lb to a total worth bothering the scalesman with – rather than fishing (as I normally do) tight to the bank I decided to try fishing right in front of the platform to my left. This put my float some 3 or 4’ from the bank (and hence could’ve been a nightmare with foul-hookers) but I was going nowhere and had nothing to lose! I also decided to switch to feeding corn and some of the new Ringers R6s pellets instead of groundbait. I’ve no way of telling if it was just the time of day, the change in fishing position or the different loose feed but in that last 30 minutes I caught twice as much as I did in the preceding 330!
On-site tackle shop
In the end the 7 or 8 carp caught in the final half an hour gave me a total of 60-4-0, nowhere near the frame but a small confidence boost going into tomorrow’s match on Campbell nonetheless. Well done to the top 5 overall:
After a weekend with no fishing following our recent trip to White Acres it was back to Willinghurst again today. The weather was forecast to be a little wet in the morning but this didn’t deter another decent turn-out of 20 – not bad considering a number of the regulars were tied-up fishing the Avon Valley summer league.
Today’s match was spread across Old Lake and Top Lake – I was actually hoping to draw a nice open water peg so I could fish the pellet waggler, but instead I drew the narrowest one in the bag! My pitch for the day (peg 30 on To Lake) is very different to virtually every other peg on the complex – it’s basically an annex to the main part of Top Lake and is kind of like a snake lake with an island that can be easily reached with 14.5/16m of pole. It also has a bay to the right formed by the causeway of the Bomb Hole and long margins to the left and right – however these margins don’t look very inviting as they are clearly not very deep and shallow-up to nothing quite a way from the actual banking.
The Drennan Margin Crystal
Prior to the start I set-up two pole rigs and one rod: the pole rigs were for fishing the island at 16m left and right, were mounted on black Hydro top kits, included 0.17 Guru N-Gauge main line, featured 0.4g Drennan Margin Crystal floats (which are excellent) and had 0.13 hooklengths to size 16 LWG (eyed) hooks (tight to the island to the left it was 18” deep, to the right 15”); the rod was my usual X-Safe feeder rod set-up and was for fishing to the margin formed by the causeway diagonally to the right.
Ronnie or Reggie?
To be honest I really liked the look of the island and had really
thought that I was going to empty it from the start – however after an
hour I was still fishless and had nothing but a collection of scary
looking crayfish to show or my efforts. (No need to panic though as
summer opens at Willinghurst are six and a half hour affairs.)
My feeder chuck
Unfortunately after a further two and a half hours I only had three feeder caught in the net and I was on the verge of packing-up as the crayfish were driving me nuts – whenever I fished the pole across to the island the float was constantly dancing about and when I fished the feeder I knew I had to get a bite within 10 seconds as after any longer than this the crayfish would snaffle my 6mm pellet hookbait or devour my hair-rigged wafter one snip at a time!!!
Proper gear for down the edge
At 2 o’clock and with nothing to lose I decided to go down the edge
much earlier than expected. These margins really did look terrible and
plumbed-up even worse – at least 6” of bare steep slope was showing
above the water line and it was very, very shallow close to the bank (my
favoured 15-18”was only found at least 6’ from the bank, which would’ve
been a real nightmare with foul hookers as they could easily swim
between the float and the bank). I eventually settled on fishing 12”
deep which was more like 2’ from bank and something of a compromise and
not at all ideal.
The margin to the right
It looked more fishy to the left so I decided to start to the right leaving the left for the last (and hopefully most productive) part of the match. I kicked things off by feeding 4 cups of groundbait and went straight in with 2 big worms on the hook. Being so shallow I could actually see any carp in the swim and that groundbait did lead to an immediate response with some visible churning of the bottom – however initially carp were only coming into the swim individually and it was very difficult to induce a bite until a bit later when then they started appearing in groups of 3 or 4.
The margin to the left
By 5 o'clock I had landed somewhere between 10 and 12 decent (but not massive) margin carp and managed to lose 4 others (3 of which were definitely foul hooked). The right hand side remained the most productive and despite opening a line to the left it never really got going and only yielded one or two fish. Interestingly I didn’t really feed anything in the last hour as I could still see plenty of fish moving through the swim – at one point I could clearly see fish feeding at top kit plus 4 along the bank even though I had been feeding at top kit plus 2!!!
Star of the show!
In the end my 15 or so carp went a level 79lb - not a bad weight but once again not quite good enough as I ended-up 8th and they paid the top 7 (yes, *** *** of the ***** again). However my man of the match was once again our very own Bagger who tipped 85lb onto the scales to finish in 5th, one place above England legend Stevie Gardener and two above man of the moment Paul Holland.
I’ve been trying to think what exactly makes Bolingey my favourite fishing venue. Driving along narrow Cornish country lanes with high hedgerows to get there is certainly part of it, as is a sense of being close to the seaside (which exaggerates the feeling of being on holiday). The complex itself sits in something of a tree-lined bowl, creating a nice feeling of seclusion and an escape from the real world outside. Then last but not least there are the delicious fried egg/bacon sandwiches to eat and the monster carp to catch!!!
I set-up rigs for fishing at top kit plus two slightly to the right and at top kit plus one slightly to the left – both were mounted onto black Hydro top kits, featured 4x14 Roobs and were tied on 0.19 Guru N-Gauge main line. However as I was going to fish with sweetcorn on the longer line I went with a 15cm hooklength of 0.15 to a size 16 LWG (eyed) and as I was going to be fishing with big pellets (the over-sized White Acres 8mm jobbies) on the other I went with a hooklength of 0.17 to a size 14 MWG with a hair-rigged pellet band.
The view to the left
Peg 3 is a great spot for tree lovers as it features nice specimens on both the left and right – unfortunately this makes the peg quite enclosed and meant I could only fish my margin lines on a top kit only. (This didn’t bother me as I know from experience that big carp can be willing to feed extremely close to anglers/nets when they are in the mood and quite often fishing along the margin at top kit plus two can be a really obvious thing that everybody does and is something that the fish have wised-up to.) I set-up rigs for fishing as tight to the bank as I possibly could to the left and to the right – both were mounted on red Hydro top kits, consisted of 0.19 straight through to a size 14 MWG and had SconeZone V6 floats. (The depths were different but both were between the ideal 12 and 18”.)
Surveying the carnage from another lost foul-hooker
The first half of my match today can be quickly and easily summarised as: fished the two short lines; hooked seven carp; lost six; landed one; each and every one was foul-hooked. In short – an absolute nightmare!!!
The left margin
As a result I started to feed and fish my margin lines much, much earlier than I’d have liked – I really wanted to save them until the final hour and a bit but by two thirty I had to stop fishing and foul-hooking carp on the short lines for the sake of my own sanity and pole float collection!!!
For margin feed I had two pints of casters (left-over from yesterday), two pints of sweetcorn and tow pints of live maggots. I started by using-up the casters and sport was fairly good – however switching to feeding full pots of live maggots was much better. Between two thirty and four I actually caught quite a few smaller fish (carp and F1s), boosting my weight from a meagre 4-5lb to somewhere around the 45lb mark.
The right margin
The final hour should be the best at venues like Bolingey but as I had to start fishing the margins much earlier than I’d have liked sport predictably started to fade when it should’ve been getting better and better – things also weren’t helped when I started to get carried away with feeding by hand, a series of lost foul-hookers being the result. However by returning to feeding via a cupping kit only and being really patient I managed to induce three proper bites in that final hour – this doesn’t sound like many bites but they were all from proper zoo creatures and added a further 30-35lb to my total.
That's more like it
All too soon it was 5 o’clock and Cornwall’s answer to Laurel and Hardy (Andy Dare and Ricky Dennis) appeared right on time with the scales – John Pilling was first to weigh and would go on to win the lake with 81lb. Frustratingly my catch went 77-6-0, less than one fish behind and yet again I was one out of the money as weights of 140+ (Geoff Edwards), 110+ (Scott Walker), 100+ and 90+ (Dave Gibbs) filled the frame leaving John to take the section prize. Oh well not to worry – it was a lovely day out and we had fish and chips from Port & Starboard on the way back to the lodge so “all’s well that ends well” as they say!!!
Love ‘em or hate ‘em the Thursday rover match is a mainstay of any (non-festival) week at White Acres. Over the years I must’ve fished at least twenty of these events and only managed to win more than a bag of pellets on just two occasions – a third place in September 2009 (70-14-0 from peg 19 on Twin Oaks) and a second place in June 2013 (112-5-0 from Acorn).
Pre-match excitement
Today’s peg choice was going to be even more interesting than usual – Twin Oaks, Acorn and Canal were out of action due to the Olde English Cider festival, Jenny’s was all but taken-up by pleasure anglers, Pollawyn has been out of form all season, Sycamore has no form whatsoever and everybody knows that Eery can do a big weight meaning it is now the non-secret secret choice!!!
... out of 50 - bugger!
As a result my plan was to fish on Trelawney – ideally on peg 23 as this is the peg from which Geoff Edwards paralysed the match on Monday (167lb), but if not any of the pegs to the left of 23 along the far bank of Trelawney. However this plan was totally destroyed when it was revealed that pleasure anglers had already taken-up 22, 23 and 24 – a drop in the ocean compared to myself drawing 47 out of 50 meaning I had Bob Hope and no hope of getting anywhere near those pegs!!!
With little option remaining I end-up on peg 12 on Trelawney. This is towards the wider part of the lake where the lodge bank starts to turn 90 degrees and form the bank that holds the pegs in the high teens. This can be a very good area – despite being pretty squashed I was heartened to see that Geoff (who being sponsored by Guru obviously had a much better draw) had elected by choice to place himself on peg 14 to my left. As a result I set-up with the enthusiasm of a man that had sat on peg 25 just 48 hours earlier and caught a big F1 every chuck on the jigga during a pleasure/practice session …
The Preston jigger
My tactics were simple – given the ‘shit or bust’ nature of the White Acres rover I settled on one tactic and was going to make it work or blow-out. That approach was fishing for F1s shallow on the long pole and in order to do so I had 4 rigs and 4 pints of casters!!! (Each rig was mounted on a white Hydro top kit, was made-up on 0.17 Guru N-Gauge main line, featured a large Preston Innovations jigger float and had a 3” hooklength of 0.13. Two of the rigs were set for jigging between 4” and 2’, two were set for jigging between 4” and 1’. Two of the rigs had size 18 Guru LWG hooks, two had size 16s.)
Not enough of this today
The first hour was fairly slow (10lb on the clicker) but I remained positive and kept feeding and slapping – 90 minutes later and having only added a further 4lb I’d basically given up!!! I decided to have a dabble on the feeder to the island and fed some groundbait down the edge to my right on the off chance that some of the older/larger resident carp decided to have a munch, but neither line produced anything worth writing about. A paste line fished at top kit plus one straight in front did produce a nice skimmer and a few more of those big F1s, boosting my weight to a titanic 22-6-0 and a bag of pellets for finishing 22nd overall – at least the sun was shining and I wasn’t at work!!!
Keep your eyes on the prize
So once again another Trelawney blow-out but in the context of the Thursday rover I guess it’s par for the coarse as there are very few frame places and no section prizes/points to aim for. It became obvious today that the jigga is a devastating method when it works but when the fishing is harder more subtle tactics will at least catch some fish – you can tell if the jigga is going to work because on the first slip out you’ll go slap, slap, slap, jig, jig and you’ll see ten feet of elastic ripping out of the end of your pole!!!
