Todber Manor Individual League Round Three, Sunday 23rd November 2014

Having been working since the last round of this series, I was looking forward to getting out on the bank and catching a few fish.   I was due to be in what has been the poorest section weight wise, but had no concerns about that as the only aim is section points.

Nice to be a passenger down again with Tim, who managed to draw the peg next to me – 25 and me on 26, frustratingly there were two no shows in the section, which gave the other anglers plenty of room, whilst I was in the middle of the section.

I still felt I would catch and was surprised to note the water had coloured up a little since the last match……. the 3 slices of bread I’d brought weren’t coming out of the bag.  Bait tray consisted of maggots, dead and alive, micros, a few dampened 4’s and a few expanders, I also cubed up one tin of meat.

Rigs were as per the last couple of matches, in fact two of them, the ones for down the track, plumbed up spot on with no adjustment needed.  The margin was deeper than the other pegs I have fished on this lake, the far shelf was very similar to the previous peg.  Starting on maggot across, feeding fairly negatively, I expected some indications early, but nothing, then a gudgeon and a small roach.  I had fed a few micros and dead maggots at 5m and some meat at 7m off at 11 o’clock, these lines were just as unproductive and with 1 ½ hours gone had about 3oz in the net.  Tim on 25 had two fish for 16 or 17lb and Ash on peg 28 was catching regularly.

I persisted and ended up with 7 carp and a couple of small silvers for 24.08, the carp were small compared to those that Tim was catching and I must admit to getting pretty frustrated as Tim and Ash caught, whilst I sat for long periods without any indication that there was a fish in the peg.

I wish I could say I fished it wrong, I’m convinced I didn’t do it drastically wrong, my meat line never gave me a bite all day, my fish came to maggot, 3 of the fish down the edge in the last hour.  I am convinced that the fish were sat in the gaps to Tim’s left and Ash’s right, they would not come past either of them.

With 5 minutes to go, I saw the first indication of a fish on the far shelf and dropped a double white maggot tight across, the float buried and a decent carp was on, but came off halfway across, just about summing up my day, although it wouldn’t have made any difference, I was well beaten , I feel by circumstance and the draw, rather than my own hand. 

So a real test for my new found PMA, tricky to analyse when the peg seemed so devoid of fish.  I think these ‘snake’ type lakes suffer worse than bigger lakes when there are gaps in the pegging, as the fish can drop into them and have no reason to move.

It looks like that's the end of my series, but with one match to go, a section win and a couple of results going my way could see me sneak into the last one or two payout places, but with the section I am in next having been bossed by peg 38 - its won the section every time so far - once again the draw will play a big part.

1: Ash Tomkins  115.05 peg 28

2: Alan Oram  74.04 peg 38

3: Tim Clark 61.09 peg 25

4: Dan White 54.04 peg 13

5: Mike Nichols 51.12 peg 23

6: Ken Rayner  51.10 peg 11

Todber Manor Individual Series, Round two. Sunday 9th November 2014

A poignant picture to open this blog, my last ever bag of Avon Angling casters, freshly turned by Mr Rixon's own fair hand.  I didn't really plan to fish caster, but I couldn't resist buying them, for all the banter and jokes about floaters and squatt sized casters, Tony has consistently sold good quality, fresh caster, not sure where I can get bait like this now, without traveling to Viaduct.

To counter the last, a first as well, amiable Auto Electrician Tim Clark contacted me earlier in the week and offered a lift, which I gladly accepted, the journey down was somewhat extended by our 50 minute wait for breakfast at Cannards Well, apparently the breakfast chef didn't show up and then they had to wait for an egg delivery.  They were profusely apologetic and knocked 33% off the bill, but they didn't say call in on the way back for a free pint!! This made us late for the draw, but as Tony had kindly paid our pools, match organiser Mark Poppleton wasn't too grumpy....

As this was only my third visit to the venue the draw didn't mean much to me, peg 17, but as I didn't get any of the usual banter about it being a flyer or terrible, I guess it is just an average peg.  The overnight frost, then bright sunshine and no wind was not going to be conducive to a bagging session, so I intended a fairly negative approach, at least to start with.

Fout top kits set up, a standard edge rig to fish at 8m along to a small bush, where I had 2' of water tight to the bank, a rig to fish maggot across on the shelf which was 18" deep and a couple of rigs to fish down the track, just hook size and line dia the difference.  the method feeder stayed in the rod bag, but I had brought a few slices of bread and set up the straight lead just in case.

Starting across on maggot, I had 7 carp and a couple of roach in the first hour, before the bites completely dried up, a look down the track was equally fruitless, even when dropping down to 0.08 and a 22 hook, I think that when the fish shut up shop on this venue, it doesn't matter what line and hook you are using, nothing seems to bring a bite.

At 12.15 I tried searching along the far bank with the lead rod and bread popped up 6", two bites, two foulers lost, so the fish were still there, just had to work out how to get them to open their mouths.  I swapped between the far shelf and down the track, taking odd fish until 14.00, when I had a look in the inviting margin, this produced an 8lber first drop in and then a 4lb fish, before the margin went the way of the other lines, which was to produce a fish or maybe two, before having to rest the line and try and catch a fish from elsewhere.  In the last hour I managed several fish from down the track and lost a 3lb bream and a 5lb carp which would have won me the section, the hook was just losing is sharpness, not sure if that the reason, but if so, bad angling/laziness on my part not to change it.

I was admitting to 70lb and put 77.07 on the scales for fourth overall and second in the section, by 5lb, lets hope a 10p hook doesn't end up costing me ££££'s come the end of the series. Second in section meant a pick up, so still managing to keep the run going and Chauffeur Tim also picked up second in his section with 73.01, so a content van on the way home.  I'm not back out until the next round in two weeks time, far too much work.......

Oh, the casters..... well I fed a few, caught a roach on double caster and donated most of them to Help the Aged - the Silverfox, Mike Nicholls, for him to use at Emerald later this week.

1: Roland Lucas 118.10 peg 38
2: Ash Tomkins 82.12 peg 14
3: Nick Merry 81.09 peg 9
4: Chris Fox 77.07 peg 17
5: Tim Clark 73.01 peg 7
6: Tom Ince 64.04 peg 9

The league is tight at the top and I doubt anything but a section win next time will keep me in touch with the framing positions.

1: Ash Tomkins 3 1/2 points 168.14
2: Nick Merry 4 points 140.00
3: Fred Roberts 4 points 128.02
4: Calum Craig 4 points 117.00
5: Steve Tucker 4 points 111.02
6: Ken Rayner 4 points 95.14
7Chris Fox 4 1/2 points 163.09