It has everything we need as a fishery, the lodges are superb and the town life caters for all our needs, plenty of pubs, restaurants and take-away's. As you can see we do not cook a lot, apart from breakfast. The lads in question are Mick, Vic, Pete, Troy, Del and myself.
Saturday 09 05 15
As stated earlier I had picked Mick up at 0600 and arranged to meet Vic in Buckingham, who would follow us down. Pete and Troy were coming down later, but we had arranged to meet Del at a service station at Amesbury for breakfast. After a full English and a couple of cups of tea we were off to the venue. We could not get the keys until 4pm, so a nice relaxing couple of hours were spent on Lodge Lake where we would catch plenty of skimmers and a few nice carp. With both Mick and Del getting so good fish from the margins.
Sunday 10 05 15
With the venue being used for a league match we were unable to fish Campbell, Cary or Lodge lakes so we decided on a knock up on Spring Lake. A fiver in each and a split pot, one for silvers, the other for carp. Vic, Pete and myself were pegged at the back of the island, Troy went to the corner with the wind blowing into it, Del on the bridge peg and Mick by the lily pads. I was happy with my peg, I wanted to fish the bomb and pellet waggler, but I had a decent margin to my left and set up a line to fish at 11m. I started on the waggler pinging 8mm coarse pellets over the top and after ten minutes the float went and fish number one was on, a good fish around 12lb. With no more bites after an hour I switched to the bomb where plenty of skimmers and a rogue 8lb carp took a liking for my pellet hookbaits. Both Vic and Pete had caught a carp each and I felt the skimmers were just about keeping me in touch. Vic's peg was getting stronger and bites and fish started to come regularly. I switched to the 11m line and more skimmers came, but not enough to compete with Pete who had switched his attentions to silvers. I then went over the margin line with around an hour to go had a look down the edge. A couple more skimmers were followed by a 17lb 8oz Mirror carp. I ended up with 3 carp for 38lb and 16lb of silvers. Pete followed that with 8lb of carp and 23-06 of silvers. Vic won the carp pool with 104lb of carp up to 16lb all on the PW. Troy had around 20lb of silvers and 2 carp for 18lb, Del had a couple of carp and 20lb of silvers, so with just Mick to weigh, Vic had already won the car pool as Mick only had 2 carp and Pete was leading the Silvers pool. Mick,s net of silver,s went 23-03 and Pete was overjoyed ( fist-pumping and all) to win the silver's pool by 3 ounces until it was pointed out that he had another net to weigh. Unfortunately for Pete this had another 15lb of silver,s and Mick had snatched the loot. We never took the mickey, honest.
Monday 11 05 15
Monday saw our first chance to fish Cary Lake, I opted to fish the far bank on peg 86. A decent peg with the wind blowing towards the corner. Del and Vic were on 98 and 97 respectively, Mick sat on 95 whilst Troy sat next to me on 85. Pete wanted some silver practice and sat on lodge lake by the tackle shop. Again I set up a PW and the bomb rod and a pole line for 5m with corn. I started on the PW but the wind made it awkward to present a waggler in the same place two casts on the trot. So after an hour I switched to the bomb and first cast the tip goes round and a nice mirror carp of 16lb. This followed for the next 2 hours, I would have to feed, wait for about 10 minutes and then the tip would go, some were skimmers but mostly carp. Vic and Del were both struggling just getting odd fish. Mick was getting a few from the margins fishing a pole float on the rod. Troy was getting a few on the bomb next door and it was neck and neck. Pete would end up with over 50lb of silvers from Lodge lake. I tried the 5m line and sneaked a couple out on 8m pellet over the corn but lost a couple more, that I think were foul hooked. Although the fish were not weighed I clicked 180lb on the clicker not including skimmers.
Tuesday 12 05 15
Tuesday saw me sitting on peg 96, I fancied it for a few fish, although the area fished hard the previous day. Pete sat on 95 and Troy on 94. Mick fancied a day on the match lake whilst Vic and Del went onto Spring Lake. I decided to just set up the bomb and a margin line to the platform on 97. I would feed this with corn and pellet and have a look every now and again. I got off to a good start with fish coming to the net fairly regularly on GOT Baits Jupiter's in both 11 and 8mm. But found the same thing was happening as the previous day. It was if the fish did not want feed over their heads. But by working at it I ended up with 16 fish on the bomb and 2 from the pole line for an estimated 170lb. Pete was trying to get his head around the skimmers and paste fishing but slowly worked it out the groundbait and not paste was the answer. Troy who had started slowly was pulling a few fish in later to finish with approximately 160lb. Vic who had moved from Spring Lake to Cary ended up with 12 fish for around a ton. Mick had around 50lb of fish from the match lake consisting of f1's, carp skimmers and perch. Del appeared back at the lodge with a big grin and 193lb on his clicker taken on a variety of methods. PW, Bomb and long pole both up and down.
Wednesday 13 05 15
Due to an Army match on the complex we decided on a day out, away from Viaduct fishery. Goodiford Mill was chosen and although I personally am not too keen on the place, it does hold a lot of fish and a couple of lakes to choose from. Pete had arranged to meet his brother Tommy there. Vic and Del had decided to go straight up to the match lake and practice their pellet waggler skills. Troy and Pete sat on the silver lake watching for Tommy to arrive. Mick and I sat on the opposite bank. I had decided to fish a half day on the silver lake and the rest on the match lake. I found that it was quite deep considering its size and at 7m I had 5ft on water and 4ft on a top 3. I fed a couple of pots of 4mm pellets onto 7m and by fishing a 6mm expander over the top slowly started catching skimmers to a pound. Pete, Troy were catching odd silvers, whilst Mick was catching some nice crucians and odd carp amongst his skimmers and roach.
Tommy's arrival saw us all move up to the match lake, Vic and Del had already done a ton and I settled a few pegs away as I wanted to get a few photos. Pete was getting amongst the silvers on the match lake, whilst Tommy and Troy were catching one a bung. Personally I gave it a go for around an hour but with around 60lb thought that was enough and packed up and concentrated on taking the Michael and photos. Vic and Del both had over 200lb, Troy had just under the 200lb from just a few feet in front of him. Tommy and Pete both caught plenty of fish, with Pete not catching a single carp, whilst those around him did well. Mick was getting plenty of action although I was not sure how much he actually had.
Thursday 14 05 15 Open Match
I was really looking forward to this match, it was the only official match during the week and a chance to fish Campbell or Cary again. We had all decided to enter bar Troy who wanted a peaceful day by the lodge fishing Middle Lake. The weather was not going to put us off. It had forcast rain and lots of it, so at least we knew in advance we were all going to get wet. At the draw it was strange both lakes were in and we all drew on Campbell. Mick on 110, a good corner peg, Pete on 116, myself on 125, a peg I fished last year and framed from. Del on the edge of the spit on 128 and Vic end peg 131. Nobby and Paul Davis from the Yam Yams had come down on a spying mission. Nice to see you both and even better in a few weeks time when we go back to Viaduct.
The previous night I had a good chat with a local angler, who explained to me how he fishes meat on both Cary and Campbell Lakes and with this information imparted to all fish I was armed with 4 tins of meat. I started off slowly fishing the bomb for nothing, whilst next door had sneaked a few on 5m line. A quick switch to the pole line at 5m on meat saw me catch a few tench before the carp moved in. After an hour I reckoned on having 40lb. A mix of carp and tench. By alternating between 5 and 7m I could keep fish coming in hour 2 and 3 but the guys opposite on 112 and 115 were catching faster but smaller fish by the look of it. Vic was catching odd fish as was Mick, whilst Pete was struggling on his silver approach. Hour 4 was slow and I think eventually cost me with only around 20lb of carp and around the same of silver's going into the onion sack. Hour 5 and 6 flew by, I had got the fish back but 5 lost fish in a row, two of which were foul hooked.
Overall
1st Mark Warne 112 246-10
2nd Andy Neal 80 230-01
3rd Tucks 115 210-02
4th Keith Ashby 125 193-08
5th Unknown 100 191-11
6th Vic Nugent 131 174-10
Not a bad result considering we only visit twice a year. A frame place and a silver's win for me. Vic getting the silver pool by default. Mick had 104lb from 110, Pete had 16lb 12oz of silvers and Del had finally got some keepnets that were not overweight and weighed in 136-08 for 8th overall. Oh and another MK Nugget off Mick to make it 7-0. Back at the lodge, Troy had caught well from Middle Lake with 18 carp and a few silvers.Friday 15 05 15
Our last days fishing, ideally it would have been nice to finish off on Cary but another match was on it, so I opted for fish for a couple of hours on Spring with the PW and bomb for a couple of skimmers. A move to Middle and a bomb into a bay saw me catch a couple of carp to 9lb in between losing 6 fish in the trees roots either side of the bay. Good fun and a chance to dry some kit out, but nothing more. In fact I think all of us were fished out. It is tiring, believe it or not, fishing for a week.
Overall it was a great week in good company, a great set up at Viaduct, just a shame there were not many opens that we could fish.
