Todber Manor Open, Saturday 13th May 2017

Travelled down to this one with Tony Rixon, not sure it was a good idea of Mike West to sell him a 140 HP van, I'm used to a sedate drive in the gutless old Toyota and came home a little greyer after this one......

30 odd fishing this one, two lakes in, Ash and Hillview, I pulled 55 on Hillview and Tony 74 on Ash, couldn't have been more convenient for the parking as we were opposite each other across the road between the two lakes.  I had been intending to just take pellets and a few maggots for down the edge, but a conversation with Tony had me putting meat into my bait bag as well.

The wind was getting up as I tackled up, but I still got the waggler rod out of the bag and set up a method feeder, although I had no island or spit to chuck to.  4 rigs, one to fish pellet at 13m, although that wasn't likely to be an option for too long, as the wind was worsening. A lighter rig to fish pellet at 7 sections and a meat rig to fish at 5 sections. Finally as there was such a long and inviting edge, a Hillbilly AK47, I found a lovely flat area at about 11m with about 18" -2' of water, I was confident that I'd catch there later in the match.

I started at 13m, but it was slow going, with only tiny tench and very small stockies to show for it.  I had been flicking some meat in and that also seemed to attract a horde of micro tench, I started feeding by a pot and introducing more meat, this did result in more carp, but again just small ones and lots of missed bites.

A switch to 7 sections and pellet off to my right brought a reasonable run of fish, but again no quality, I switched back to the meat line looking for quality, as I could see Fred Roberts and Alex Murray on 56 & 57 both getting better stamp fish.  It seemed that nothing I did picked out the better stamp, I had tried upping the feed and this did stop the mini tench, but the size of the carp didn't improve.

The edge which had seemed so promising gave up one roach and the best carp of the day, one about 2lb. With hindsight I would have left the meat at home and fished two pellet lines, as suspected the stamp of fish cost me, as I was 5th on the lake and 8th overall, missing out on the section money by 6lb or so.

1st: Alex Murray 127lb 13oz (Peg 57 HV)
2nd: Tony Rixon 112lb 2oz (Peg 74 Ash)
3rd: Fred Roberts 106lb 0oz (Peg 56 HV)

Section A winner: Gary Oshea 96lb 1oz (Peg 69 Ash)
Section B winner: Steve Lee 96lb 12oz (Peg 42 HV)
Section C winner: Nick Merry 92lb 14oz (Peg 58 HV)

Silver's 1st: Ash Tomkins 35lb 12oz (Peg 75 Ash)
Silver's 2nd: Tony Rixon 24lb 8oz (Peg 74 Ash)
Silver's 3rd: Joe Shepherd 21lb 12oz (Peg 50 HV)