Viaduct Fishomania – Practice Days.

Thursday 22nd June 2006.

Oooops!!

Today was our (the missus and I) 15th Wedding Anniversary and I was going to Viaduct for a few days. A quick visit to the florist (well she was still in bed asleep) and a few cards later and all was sorted. To be fair, I have not missed nor been away for any of our previous anniversaries.

Having applied for 4 tickets for the Fishomania qualifiers (The Oaks, Woodlands, Lindholme and Viaduct), I managed to be lucky enough to get 2 tickets, one each for Lindholme and Viaduct. Marco had also been lucky enough to get a ticket as did Daylite Rothery and Lee Furness. Marco and I agreed to go down on Thursday morning, to get a few hours in during the afternoon/early evening and Daylite and Lee were going to join us on Friday.

Marco arrived at my house for 10 (ish), final preparations were carried out (that meant putting the flowers in water and leaving them in a prominent position so that the missus would notice them when she got up) and the long journey into the back of beyond was under way. Some 3 hrs 20 minutes later we arrived.

I had taken nigh on all of my fishing gear and was hoping to be able to use it all to formulate some sort of plan of attack. Upon arrival a few minutes were spent talking to both Ian and Steve just to re-introduce ourselves and to get an idea of what was needed, both gear and bait wise.

Wake up call!!!

At The Oaks, we generally fish with micro pellets as feed and 4mm or 6mm ‘conkers’ expander pellets as hookbait. At Viaduct the order of the day was 6mm and 8mm hard pellets (as standard) and either 8mm or bigger on the hook. After our chat with Misters Parsons and Long, we decided to have a go in pegs 79 (Marco) and 80 (Me), which where both located on Cary Lake.

I went initially for a pole approach to the reeds that ran for a good 20m down the side of the spit and Marco went for a splashin’ wag and pellet approach. Due to the appearance of the swim, I thought better of setting up my 995 pole and opted to set up my Power Maxim instead (erring on the side of caution). I have had my PM for about 8 years or more now, and it is the only pole that I wouldn’t really consider getting rid of, it is probably the strongest pole that I know (as I will explain later). I set up (on the bank) a .30g float direct to a size 12 Colmic B501 hook tied to .21 Preston Powerline. I had a No 25 elastic (set soft on a tensioner) through the top 2. I also set up a poly-ball rig for up in the water at 14m. I forgot how bloody heavy the PM is at this sort of lengths.

I started to catapult some 6mm pellets at both 13m down the side and 14m into open water. I was planning on getting the fish up in the water at 14m and to feed them on the deck down the side.

I baited up with a 8mm hard pellet on a bait band. I dropped in down the side, the float buried about 2ft of No. 25 elastic came out, then retracted (almost immediately) and a tench of about 3lb was soon beaten up.

I did the same again, the skimmer (about 1.5lb) didn’t even pull the elastic out. 2 drop in’s and about 4.5lb caught. I baited up again, dropped back in, waited a couple of minutes. I got the tell-tale walking of the float (as the fish swims past), the float shot under, about 6yds of elastic shot out (this one was big), then the hook pulled. I came back with a scale bigger than my glasses.

I dropped in again, hooked into a fish, played for all of 5 seconds as it tried to get to the other side of the lake (which was about 50 yards away). The hook came out (at a right rate of knots). I checked my rig, the hook had straightened. Told you that I didn’t want to use my 995.

Marco, meanwhile, was now starting to get the odd fish up in the water fishing with the waggler at about 25yds. Both Marco and I had borrowed a couple of waggler rods. I had borrowed a Garbolino medium waggler rod from Pimmy and Marco had borrowed a Tricast Senator (you must be old if you remember one of these) from John Allerton. You’d have thought that if you had borrowed a rod of a running line legend, that the rod would have been in good nick. Well, Marco was slightly embarrassed to take the rod out of the tube. I had a look, the butt ring was held on with a couple of whippings of red insulation tape and the next ring up was held on with yellow insulation tape. I commented that if he hits a big fish, the rings will ping off, one by one.

I’ll tell you what tho’, the rod was holding it’s own against the fishes. Although Marco had lost a few he still managed to get half a dozen out, and they ran to nearly double figures.



After spending the next hour or 2 persevering with the pole both down the side and up in the water, I decided to set up the waggler rod (it may also have had something to do with getting battered by Marco).

I set up ‘the rod’ with 6lb Maxima straight through to a size 12 Colmic B501 hook. The float was a pellet float of .3g in weight that required a further 3AAA to shot it. First cast and I started to get indications up in the water. I hooked into a fish and promptly lost it. I reeled in, re-cast and the same thing happened. Over the next couple of hours or so, I lost more fish than I got out (I ended up with 4).


Marco ended up with about 8 or 9 carp for a good 60lb weight. One of the main problems being encountered was that due to the weight of the float, the size of shot put on the line and the size of fish being hooked/caught, there was a lot of strain on the line and on a couple of occasions, Marco had to re-tackle due to the line snapping where he had nipped his shot on his main line. It was now gone 8:00 and we decided to call it a day. A few beers in the Somerton Hotel beckoned. At least we had had a go and got a feel for the place.

Friday 23rd June 2006.

A quick breakfast ensued, then a quick call into the onsite tackle shop at Viaduct to have a word with Ian and Steve, found Marco on Spring Lake Pegs 6 (Marco) and 8 (Myself). Marco was again going to fish up in the water (using the pole this time) and I was in Mr Crabtree’s peg.

Marco’s peg was pretty non-descript, he was possibly at the end of a central island which was some 30m + away, but decided on 14m of pole and go for it. My peg on the other hand was entirely different. There was a large lily pad between peg 7 and 8, which was also a corner with the wind blowing into it. There was some 3m between the lily pad and my bank and it was approximately 9m to the lily pads. Stout gear was the order of the day!!!

I set up 2 rigs, one for 14m into open water fishing at full depth (about 4ft deep) and the other was for between the bank and the lily pad at 9m (just under 4ft deep, a couple of inches difference). I decided to fish catmeat on both lines to see if it was still as prolific as the last time that we came to Viaduct. The rig for open water was a .4g Drennan Carp 2 set up on .21 Preston Powerline tied direct to a size 12 Kamasan Animal hook. I also had the same set up for the margin swim (enabling me to swap lines if I should lose a rig). One rig was on a 25 solid latex elastic (the margin rig) and the other was on a 18 – 20 hollow elastic.

I baited up with catmeat, dropped in down the side, waited about 2 minutes and hooked one. The fish swam straight through the lily pad and didn’t even know it was hooked, I lost this one. Best tighten the elastic, I put 10 wraps on the large Vespe winders.

I repeated the process, hooked another one, this shot into the lily pads and shed the hook into the lily pads. I pulled for a break and came back with half a lily pad. Nothing was going to break me. I dropped in again, hooked a carp, pulled for all I was worth and managed to get it in the landing net, it wasn’t far off 9lb. That was it for the margin swim. Every other drop in there after resulted in either a skimmer or a roach, it didn’t matter what bait I had on the hook, they still ate it.

I decided to have a look at 14m into open water. I had been feeding a few pellets on this line and dropped in with catmeat over the top. The float buried and a carp of about 7lb was soon in the landing net, they can’t do a lot with a 18 – 20 elastic putting their brakes on.

I repeated the process and ended up catching a skimmer, then a couple of roach – all on catmeat.

Whilst I was emptying the lake of skimmers and roach, 4 country Oik’s were stood behind Marco watching him, struggling to land a fish. The blue Preston 15h elastic was no match for the fish and Marco was having a hard time of it. After he landed the fish, the lads told him to go to the cabin and get some Dacron and some Vespe E2 elastic. Some £20 later Marco was back at his peg. The Oik’s were all taking it in turns doing various bits of re-elasticating Marco’s pole. One cut the elastic, the other tied the Dacron on, another tied the Dacron to the bung and another thread it through the pole. Didn’t one of them know how to do the job lot? After making a couple of Dacron connectors for Marco’s new re-elasticated pole tips, the Oik’s also went through how he should be playing fish with his new elastic set up – Keep it low. Whilst the Oik’s were still in attendance, Marco promptly shipped out, caught a fish and netted a big carp. He was made up, so were the Oik’s. I must admit though, that Marco’s ring-piece was twitching a bit with the fish that he had hooked and once or twice, he could hear the bung trying to get out of the bush at the other end of his pole.



After taking the Mickey some more, we asked the Oik’s if they would like to join us at the hotel for a beer later on, they all declined, I wonder why. I personally, don’t think that they had the beer legs to keep up with us Northerners, as Daylite and Lee Furness had now made their arrival and were fishing with the splashing wag on peg 100 on Cary Lake.

I decided to have a go at fishing up in the water at 14m (I ended up with muscles in my eyeballs after fishing with the PM for 3 days), which proved to be relatively successful, considering that I was jammed in a corner and could only catch the odd passing fish that came my way when Marco stopped feeding. I still managed to end up with about a dozen carp and a few skimmers. Marco had had a good day and had about 120lb+ up in the water.

Tony’s Fish and Chip’s were beckoning us away, shortly after a few beers were the order of the day. Marco and I decided that we would show both Lee and Daylite how to play Texas Hold’em Poker. After a couple of goes, both Daylite and Lee felt confident to start betting, with a maximum of 50p per betting round (meaning a possible winning pot of some £6 per game). Daylite was promptly dealt a pair of Kings, which he folded thinking that it was no good, and a king was flopped as part of the 5 card flop. He soon made amends, with a 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of hearts ‘straight flush’. Ho hum, he has all the luck. Lee kept on betting even against the advice of Marco. We were finally turfed out of the pub at about 1:30 in’t morning.

Roll on the actual Match!!!!!