A nice big blog this time round. It's been a mad few weeks for myself which is why I haven't blogged. I have had so much tying to do it has been mad ha ha. Any way on to the good stuff...
A few weeks back I fished a club match at Todber Manor on Park lake. I drew old peg 31 as per usual. I seem to draw between peg 30 and 34 whenever I fish a match on Park. I don't know why it just works out that way ha ha.
I fished over to the far bank and pinged 6mm pellet for 3 hours to catch mostly F1's. I fed up a meat line at top 2 and 2 and an edge line to my left near some overhanging bank side shrubbery.
I was steadily catching some F1's and the odd Carp but after my second Carp everything went quiet. I managed a few more F1's before my alarm went off for 2 hours left. I came in on my meat line and didn't have a sniff for 5 minutes so I returned to the far bank. I had two more F1's and back to quiet.
An hour left I went down to my edge where I got bitted out by Roach. Finally a Carp did decide to have some lunch with 5 minutes left. Slightly frustrating but it happens.
I weighed in with 33lb 10oz which placed me 2nd which I won't grumble at. :)
Local Paper Report For The Above Match
The weekend after was time for some action on the River Stour in the Dorset Shield, this time at Hinton St Mary.
I drew Permanent Peg 7 which I was happy with. Though I did regret leaving the rods at home as I had a lovely waggler chuck but left them at home to save room in the team mates vehicle.
Home For The Day
I fished at 13m in to the middle of the river which was just under top 4 deep. I also set up a shallow line as fish were topping everywhere! I set up an edge line for some Perch as well as I had nice lilly area to my right. I had the whip set up for 6m with hemp and caster which I would feed little and often.
I started by putting in 6 balls of the faithfull Super Crumb River. I fished straight over it with single caster and the float buried and 6 solid started streaming out. I thought I was in to a Bream as I had heard that the Bream had been coming out of this part of the river in recent days. But sods law it was a Pike and I got it near the net and it then decided to tail walk right over to the far bank. Thankfully the line broke half way across but the damage was done.
I picked up a few more fish from the 13m line and then went on to the whip. I baited up and shortly after the rig settling the float buried and I had a Perch of a pound and a half :) I flicked some hemp and caster out and went back in. After 5 minutes I had another fish, a mint Roach of around a pound.
Last hour I went to my right after the Perch. Unfortunately only fish around 5oz's were taking the worm. I did manged 9 of them so I shouldn't grumble. I weighed in 6lb 7oz for last in my 3 man section. Overall I think I came 5th or 6th out of 18 so not to bad :)
Right then, this was the match I had been looking forward to for months. The Todber Manor Open! They had a Browning Open Day in the shop and the match rewards were to be handed out by 4 times World Champion Bob Nudd! And I can confirm he was wearing his faithful white cap as always. I swear he never takes it off lol.
So this for me was the biggest match I have fished in terms of the amount of people fishing it and payout. A big field of decent anglers on the day and I was happy to see some of the Tackleuk customers fishing as well as the 3 of us representing the company (myself, Ash and Scott).
I drew new peg 34 on Park. I will be honest, I didn't really want to draw Park lol. In my section was Simon Diment, who wanted to fish with only half his clothing on, and Ash my colleague. These were two I wanted to beat regardless of the overall result.
Home For The Day, Peg 34
I set up 3 rigs plus a spare, 2 for across on the deck for the F1's, 2 across shallow and 2 for down the edge to my left.
Started by going over to the far bank and it wasn't long before I was into a carp. I kept pinging pellets over and soon all I was getting was line bites. I picked up my shallow rig and started slapping. I managed to net a Carp but after that not a touch. I returned back on the deck and I started catch carp at a steady pace. Not seriously bagging but putting together a nice weight.
Come the last hour and I went down to my left under the tree next to a hay bale hoping for some fish. Unfortunately not even a Roach! I left it and went back across. Unfortunately only 1 fish in the last hour.
Shortly after the all out the scales arrived. I weighed in 67lb 14oz's. I was happy with that and I thought I had done alright but then I had news of an 80lb+ weight in my section so I knew I didn't win the section. I packed up and drove back to the Tackle Shop to meet Ash and Scott and awaited the results.
D section (Park Lake) was won by N. Fox with 47lb and picked up £50 from Bob Nudd.
Now here was a shock....
C section (Park Lake) was won by ME!! with 67lb 14oz. I picked up £50 from Bob Nudd
B section (Bottom White Post) was won by Anton Burns with 44lb who picked up £50 from Bob Nudd
Unfortunately I am not sure who won section A (Top White Post) or what the weight was :(
So overall I didn't know where I had come but a section win was very welcome. I forgot the section payout was by default!
On the day...
6th: Pete Neate with 69lb 2oz
5th: T. Can with 78lb 4oz
4th: Ben Dukes with 89lb 2oz
3rd: Steve Tucker with 91lb 12oz
2nd: Tony Gilbert with 95lb
1st: Scott Russell with 97lb 4oz
Well that 6th place beat me by a carp. I was shocked to hear that result when it was read out as I didn't think I had done that well but it meant I had finished 7th out 60 anglers. A year ago I wouldn't of come anywhere near that or had the confidence to fish a match like that.
7th place and a section win!! HAPPY DAYS!!
It was a great day and well run by John and his team at Todber Manor :)
Section Winnings Received From Bob Nudd MBE
So back to League action on Sunday. I arrived at around 5 past 8 at Todber White Post lakes to some of the guys clapping me on the result from Saturday. I am not sure if it was sarcasm or not but I took it as a serious well done and gave them a bow ha ha.
I drew peg 11 which is new peg 25. It weighed in 44lb on Saturday so I set up lite and kept feed down early on.
I set up a rig at 10m on the deck to fish pellet for anything. Also a shallow rig at the same distance just in case the fish responded to loose feed going in.
Then I set up a meat line at 5m and and edge line at top 2 and 1.
Bait was 8mm meat, 6mm pellet, Corn, dead reds and ground bait.
So started off by feeding a small pot of pellets on the deck with a 6mm banded hookbait. I was soon in to an F1 and shortly after a Skimbob. After that I only hand line bites. So I decided to pick up my shallow rig.
This turned out to be a good call as I started at half depth and fed 4 pellets every now and the whilst slapping. I was soon catching F1 at a nice steady pace. Then the carp moved in and I was catching quickly. After 2 carp the line bites started again so I shallowed up to 8" and it was nearly a fish a chuck.
I kept the meat line topped up with 4 pieces now and then and soon my alarm for 2 hours went off. I picked up my cupping kit and cupped in 2 cups of ground bait loose down my edge every 20 minutes. In the mean time I kept feeding my 10m line and went in on the meat line. I had a carp rather quickly but that was it after that.
An hour left and I went down the edge with a big hookfull of dead reds. I had 4 Perch quickly and a Roach before I was soon in to the Carp. In total I had 5 from down the edge before I had to call the all out.
Bob, to my right, and Trev, to my left, had caught some fish so I was interested to see what weight they had. Bob had the same amount of fish as me in the last hour so I thought it would be close.
I weighed in with 57lb 4oz of which 21lb was F1's and those Perch ha ha. My descision to go shallow and fish for anything paid off as I won my section and finished first overall. Beating Trev and Bob also increased my lead over them now to 6 points. Unfortunately Glen didn't have a good day but still had some of the lads laughing and caught a few fish.
The Results On The Day, Like Saturday The Weight Came From The Bottom End
So lets see how the League is looking now after the above results...
My Second Section Win Of The Weekend Moves Me Up Two Places!
Next Up For Me: Stalbridge A.S Summer League Final Round, River Stour (Upstream)
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Tight Lines!!!
