I was really looking forward to fishing Todber again, it's one of the premier fishing venues in the South West at the moment, especially fishing Ash which is stuffed with Carp and Silvers. All 14 pegs in so no space which I like. Lost focus on the draw and ended up with the last dip into the box and had remaining peg 67. I was told it would be OK for Silvers. Bela had drawn end peg 75 so some expectation for the van.
After bank running some micro down to Bela I set up the Ronnie rig, a 4x14 Winter Titan to fish at top-set plus four with expander over micro. I had some time to waste before the draw so set up the waggler to fish down the far shelf. I plumbed up the waggler to the depth down the inside shelf on the assumption that the design of the Canal would be cross sectionally symmetrical. I fed the Ronnie line with LR's in GB and micro on the long line. I picked up the catty and fire some maggot over towards the far bank - no indication that any of them landed in the water. Thought the maggots must have fallen out of the cup, as they do, so tried again and the same! The penny dropped the feed was landing well into the the bank grass. The wind was perfect for loose feeding. I finally got a couple of cups of feeded in the water. Started on the Ronnie rig with a single LR on the hook and would have betted anything that the first fish would be a Ronnie Roach. However, it was a micro Perch - umm. I stayed on this for 15 minutes with nothing to show for it. So switched to the longer line with the 4 mm expander on the hook and had a small Tench, quickly followed by a couple more of about 1 lb. Did expect to catch a Carp or two on this line but it had completely died. So converted it to GB and maggot. Whilst this settled I had a few casts on the waggler, presentation was ok but I now know I didn't give it long enough. Back on the Ronnie rig and had a few small Skimmers - still no Ronnies! I did have a proper Bream and a few more Skimmers, but it was slow. It was obvious the fish were not cose in, so switch long where I could not get any bites at all on the LR's. I kept persevering far too long trying to catch Silvers. With 90 minutes to go I picked up the waggler again and with double LR's on the hook I had a tiny Carp of 4 oz. This encouraged me to stick with a little longer than previous. subsequently started to catch some better Carp regularly. But was still pulled in short by the Silvers desire. I caught nothing during these changes, so spent the dying part of the match on the waggler and still was able to catch Carp. The float dipped and I struck and thought was bottom, I kept the rod loaded and had a knock so loaded it some more and the rod just started to jag viciously, similar to a Eel but worse. Then there was this almighty swirl and I thought my eyes were deceiving me as I thought I was looking at the head of a Catfish. Seconds later it was all over. However, the hook had opened and impaled on it was what I believed to be a part of the Cats whisker. Bugger they count as Silvers!! I could now catch a Carp every castneeding only a short wait.
I was on the weigh board and I only seen two Ronnies weighed in? However, for most it was an even and and tight match which is good.
The match was won by Tony Rixon (pictured right with some of his catch) with 110-04-0 from peg 64. Tony didn't start catching until he switched to the pellet waggler and caught steady all match using his favourite 8 mm banded pellet. See his blog for more details.
Result:
1. Tony Rixon 110-04-0 peg 64
2. Bela Bakos 87-03-0 peg 75
3. Joe McMahon 83-11-0 peg 68
Silvers:
1. Ryan Shipp 42-08-0 peg 65
2. Martyn McMahon 26-04-0 peg 63
3. Mike Nicholls 22-04-0 peg 67
Weigh Sheet:
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