Saturday 23/11/2019 - Todber Manor - John's Birthday bash Open Match - Hillview, Ash and Homeground

I was thinking of going to Hillview again on Sunday and when Joe offered a lift to Todber Manor and after checking the weather forecast I decided to take up his offer. Later in the week we found out it was John's birthday and had choose to change the all winners qualifiers to anyone who brought him a pressy would qualify in the Silvers providing they caught 12 lb or more and likewise the Carp was 80 lb. So made the visit more attractive for me as I wanted to qualify for the Silvers again. I did think that the 12 lb was carefully worked out and wouldn't be that easy from any peg.

Pickup on time at 06:45 arriving at the "Nine Items" Cafe by eight. Martin Rayet also travelled with us and thought it had changed to "Twelve Items Cafe"! Arrived at the fishery to see John smiling behind a pile of booze (pictured right).

Into the draw bowl and out comes peg Ash 62. Umm the near end peg. Looking like a waste of a decent Carp peg then. Who was to turn up on next peg was Nick Chedzoy - so good company on the left! The wind was perfect for me with it off my right shoulder blowing into the far bank corner. The priority was to qualify for the Silvers, but was thinking I might be able to have a couple of hours on the waggler to catch some of the Carp boshing over in the far corner. I had previously decided to fish very negatively targeting small fish - mainly Ronnies. So other than the waggler which cast and sat well I went for the Ronnie rig and a 4x14 Winter Titan to fish at 10 meters at 10 o'clock. I fed the Ronnie line with a fishmeal mix of GB laced with Pinkie and the long line with natural GB with caster/DR's. Throughout I fed the waggler line with LR's if only to keep the Carp occupied elsewhere.

I decided to count the weight backwards which proved to be more difficult than I thought. I soon started catch 1 oz Ronnies loose feeding Pinkie over the top of the GB. Whilst counting back arriving at 6 lb I realised I was counting a pound back from 12 oz so had to penalise myself by 1 lb!! I left the long line until I hooked my first Carp on the Ronnie rig and when I went over it with double LR's I was getting indications which proved to be very tiny Skimmers whose eyes weighed more than the rest of the body. As I half expected 12 lb was going to take the whole match especially to make sure I didn't over estimate. I didn't loose a fish on the Ronnie rig however, the long line was proving very different - in the last knockings I reckon I lost 4 Skimmers - about 4 lb in weight - with them coming off for no apparent reason. Even though I had the urge a few times to pick up the waggler it stayed in the holster all match.

Luckily I really didn't get bothered by Carp on the Silver lines catching only three for 6 lb 4 oz. My Silvers weighed 15 lb 4 oz so mission accomplished, but was left feeling that the 4 lb of lost Skimmers cost be money and "if only" I had caught some better Skimmers early I might have had chance of a double qualifier - that's fishing.

The match was won from the inform peg 48 by Mark Wynne (pictured right) with 201 lb. Mark started long on the pellet and later down his edge on maggot over GB topping up after every fish. Well done matey.

The Silvers was won by who else other than Ryan Shipp (pictured right) with 35 lb 8 oz of Skimmers. Ryan caught on two lines at 14 .5 metres using a mix of Thatchers Gold and F1 dark GB and maggot. Well done matey.

Happy birthday John hope you enjoyed your day as much as we did. Just wish the fishery was closer.

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