Monday, 10 November 2014

Sunday 09/11/2014 - Todber Manor Autumn League - Round Two - Park Lake

Not a good start to the day when arriving at Canards Well for breakfast to find no staff had arrived. The Manager promised the breakfast would only take 10 minutes which stopped us going to some place called McDonalds. Well it took 30 minutes and both my eggs were burnt, not an enjoyable experience. We arrived at the draw with 10 minutes spare.

My turn in B section and in to the box out comes peg 19. Close walk then. I had a chat with match organiser Mark Poppleton who drew it last match he said it was the worse peg in the section and expect to come last as he had, Mark is regular visitor to the venue and a good angler so this information was a bit worrying. Was the day getting worse.

Arriving at the peg I found that the platform was under a tree and as I wasn’t allowed to set up on the bank I put the tackle box as close to the left edge of the platform as possible (pictured right). Of course this meant no RH margin and I only had 2 metres to the next tree on the left side so limited margins all round.

There were a couple of trees on the far bank island which would have made seeing the float difficult at 12 o clock so I opted to fish at 10 metres to the left (away from the reflection of the bright sun) into the white water = black top float. The platform was also well back from the waters edge so needed 10 metres of pole.

I initially set up a 4x14 Jolly but found only 3 foot of water and with a still sunny day I opted for a 4x12 jolly I use at Hillview. I had made up some TBF’s and choose a 4x10 in the remaining LH margin.

I started on the 4 mm soft pellet with the same on the kinder pot. It wasn’t long before I was playing my first stamp Carp. I had four on the trot and then foul hook four on the trot, then it settled to steady catch rate of catch two then wait for another two. This seems to happen not only to me but most anglers on this venue.

For the first three hours I think I was holding my own in the section. Then the swim completely died whilst all the anglers to my left carried on catching short and in their margins.

I tried my bit of margin with various baits finishing with a very large Dendrabena which did produce my only bite a micro Perch hanging on to the end of the worm 2 inches away from the hook. Needless to say it fell off. End of margin fishing.

It’s seems now that a lot of anglers are fishing short and it is at these times that I wish I could fish longer as I was sure the fish had backed off to the far bank 17 metres away. Or I need other anglers to start fishing the far bank again!

I opened another line this time to my right as the sun had moved off the water. Bait and feed was semiconscious red maggot. Never had a bite on this in a fishery that if full of Silvers? Kev Hanson on next peg 20 fished for 5 hours to only catch one small Roach and DNW’d.

Back out on the pellet and at 14:30 I did have a bite and I was into a good fish of about 8lb which was in the mouth as I seen it come up on the top. I then had a twang and my elastic disappeared rapidly out the end of the top set. Not a good experience - bugger. When I was packing up I found a shard of carbon in the top set which must have aided the departure of my elastic.

With twenty minutes left I got another pole section out and re-plumbed at 11.5 metre and started again two inches less depth. I had one more Carp and just before the whistle I started to get indications.

I like playing the game of having equal weigh in each keep net. I had my personal best today with 19lb 8oz in each net for a total of 39lb and last but one in section.

The match was won by Rowland Lucas (pictured right) with 118lb 10oz from peg 38. Rowland caught on bunches of red maggot short at 5 metres fished over maggot.

The framers today all used various baits – pellet, meat and maggot.

The day ended on a good note on the drive back Bala played a Bere’s Hammond CD I gave him, plus a few Pinky Ponks in Bar gar-age ended what is always a great day out fishing.

Full Result:

  1. Roland Lucas 118-10-0 peg 38
  2. Ashley Tompkins 82-12-0 peg 14
  3. Nick Merry 81-09-0 peg 9
  4. Chris Fox 77-07-0 peg 17
  5. Tim Clarke 73-01-0 peg 7
  6. Tom Ince 64-04-0 peg 11

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