Sunday, 26 October 2014

Todber Manor Series, Sunday 26th October 2015

Before the fishing witterings today, I'd like to say a big thank you to Tony Rixon (and the Gimp) for all his help, the good value on bait and purchases as well as all the cups of coffee in Avon Angling, sad to see him closing down, I hope he manages to find himself the job he wants.

Had breakfast at home today and I was amazed at the drive down, it was totally stress free, every tractor or dawdling halfwit occured at a passing place or they turned off just as I got to them, wonderful.

Four sections of six on todays match, no overall payout, just 1st and 2nd in section, which I think is a fair way to pay out a league that is based on section points.  I wasn't too fussed where I drew, but missed out on flyer 38 which was stuck to Tony Rixon's palm, I had thought about running an optional superpool for the overall, glad I hadn't now, as that would likely be an addition to Tony's retirement fund.

I found myself heading to peg 3, which DNW last match, but after last weeks confidence booster, then surely it couldn't be too different... could it??  I had brought a method rod after catching on it last week, but the wind was less today, no ripple, which might mean it would not be the way to go.  The water had lost a bit of colour and on plumbing up (using last weeks rig) I found this peg was almost 12" shallower down the track and the margins had no nice shelf, they sloped off quite steeply.

I did try the method at the start and had 3 fish on it, but it was slow with no liners.  Swapping to the pole at 16m, with a banded 6mm pellet brought a fish straight away, then I hooked on that went mental, I discovered why when I landed it.  it was wrapped in a complete rig, with a plummet attached still and I had hooked the line that was wrapped round its body.  In the net it span like a Whirling Dervish and completed tangled my rig with the other one and bent my wire stemmed float like a banana. Another rig on and back over there, lifting and dropping seemed wrong, no bites on it, if I sat and waited, I would get a bite, but this didn't last long.

Abandoning the 16m line, I looked in on my 5m line, which last week had plenty of carp competing for the maggot, not so this week, I had one, then the small roach moved in, waste of time, a switch to meat was totally non productive, so I had a look short at top kit length, maggot over maggot, this produced a 10oz roach (there seems to be some cracking roach in this venue) a perch and then two carp which went 10lb and 5lb, this line then died as the others had.

I did try the straight lead across, in case the method was putting them off, I had one gudgeon on that, so up the bank it went.  The last couple of hours were spent switching between the margins with maggot and the 5m line with meat, taking odd fish, never more than two from the same swim, without resting it, definitely not as many feeding fish in the peg as last week.

I had dropped my clicker, so lost my way at the end as to what I had, but knew it wasn't anywhere the net limits and the scales showed 86.02, which was exactly the same as Ash on peg 1, that gave us equal second in section and 6th in match and as we had to share the second in section money, we both got our £15 pools back. The drive home was a nightmare, I was stuck from before Castle Cary to Guerney Slade, behind a doddering sod who braked down to 25mph every time a vehicle came in the opposite direction, thankfully the straight in Guerney Slade was clear and I reduced my stress levels after overtaking the cretin.

1: Tony Rixon 156.02 peg 38
2: Bela bakos 123.10 peg 37
3: Mike Nicholls 91.03 peg 7
4: Phil Harding 90.00
5: Fred Roberts  86.06
=6: Chris Fox 86.02 peg 3
=6: Ash Tomkin 86.02 peg 1

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