Viaduct Fishery – Fish South Silvers Qualifier – 3rd January 2026

On Saturday it was off to the Viaduct for another Fish South Silvers Qualifier, I met Norts for breakfast before we made our way to the fishery. As always at these matches, looking around the car park at the plethora of top silvers anglers in attendance is quite frankly, frightening! England internationals, Welsh superstars, serial big money winners and finalists galore including Will Raison, Andy Power, Mikey Williams, John Harvey, Andy Cranston, John Fuidge, Dave Willmott, Stu White, Sam Williams, Greg Welsby, Andrew Crocker, Rob Jones, Andy Akehurst and Scott Puddy to name a few.

The last five times I’ve fished the Viaduct I’ve been on the far side four times and I didn’t move very far today when I pulled out 127. For company I had Andy Power to my left and Andrew Crocker was on 128, I’ve drawn next to them before and both times they’ve qualified! (The Power at Moorlands Farm and Andrew when he was on 131 in 2024).

It was bitterly cold and I was expecting a slow start, much like last year when it took an hour and a half to catch my first skimmer. On the whistle I fed two pole lines at 14.5 metres (one with a nugget of groundbait and a few pinkies while they other received some loose casters) before starting on the bomb and corn while most people I could see kicked off on the waggler. Not a lot was happening on our side although to be honest I just wanted to leave the pole lines to settle for at least an hour before going on them. Then with only 20 minutes on the clock a positive bite saw me lift into a fish which turned out to be a 1lb skimmer, a great start.

I left the next chuck out for the same amount of time with no indications so had another cast which would take me up to the sixty minute mark when I was intending to have a look on the pole. After quarter of an hour, the rod tip pulled right round and I couldn’t believe it when I picked the rod up and there wasn’t a fish on. I had to have another go and the same thing happened so I suspect it was probably liners from carp. We were now well over an hour into the match and odd fish were coming out on the opposite bank while apparently Will was already bagging on 111.

My first look on the pole at 14.5 metres was anti-climatic, going past the feed and then pushing out to 16 metres proved equally uninspiring as I basically just sat there hoping for an arrival and it was the same for most on our side with very little being caught.

Not a lot happened for the remainder of of the match, I did have two decent skimmers out of the blue and a couple of roach but it was a real struggle. Norts only had one skimmer but then in the last hour, they rocked up and he had six decent fish to finish with a flourish.

The scales started on our side, John Harvey on 132 had three skimmers for 6lb 2oz, Scott Puddy had gone, Liam Reynolds weighed 9lb 13oz, Rob Jones had 6lb 14oz, Andrew Crocker DNW’d, my fish weighed 4lb 7oz, Andy Power had three decent skimmers but chucked back, Greg Welsby had 11lb on the waggler and then nobody else on our bank weighed in.

The other side had fished better, Mikey Williams had 10lb 9oz, John Fuidge weighed 14lb 2oz, Sam Williams had 12lb 7oz, Andy Cranston weighed 11lb 1oz, peg 113 had 8lb 8oz, Andy A didn’t weigh and then Will Raison had 35lb 9oz which would win comfortably, Fordy weighed 6lb 14oz and then Norts had seven skimmers for 15lb 5oz which was second on the day, a brilliant result, well done Chris! Photo credit – Viaduct Fishery*

Will Raison weighed 35lb 9oz of skimmers for a place in the Fish South final and a chance to defend his title*

1 – Will Raison (Daiwa) – 35lb 9oz
2 – Chris Norton (Stoke) – 15lb 5oz
3 – John Fuidge (Viaduct) – 14lb 2oz

Norts very kindly donated £5 plus he had a pound off which he also added to the pot as the Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £141.

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