Sunday 09/08/2020 - Tony Rixon's Short Pole - Todber Manor - Ash and Homeground

Steady drive down and on arrival bought a black tea from the no so mobile van (pictured right - giving the look of French cuisine). Looks a nice set-up and was popular with the lads, albeit a tad expensive. Joe McMahon aka Yorkie had a problem eating with his hands, dribbling his food - must eat driving his HGV with a knife and fork - pictured.

Tony split the match into two with top four overall  and one Silver on each Lake.

I had a walk around and really fancied a peg on Ash with the wind in the North North West it was perfect for giving some cover to all pegs. I didn't fancy peg 90 on Homeground as not keen to have a Carp fest. As it happened Tony had put Steve Tucker down twice so it wasn't drawn - whats the chances of that!! In I went and picked a peg from the bottom of the tub and had a familiar peg in my hands - 85 Homeground. I have been on this peg a few times now and because the wind would be off my back wasn't that enthused and during my walk had decided that if I drew this side I would fish for Silvers and the other side Carp.

Arriving at the peg I was definitely on the Dark side of the Lake one side young Dark Ginge the other Daddy Dark ex-Ginge. Whilst setting up I found a Sythe in the margin weeds which at my age was worrying (pictured). It was placed well away from my peg. Needless to say I drove home very steadily.

Set up - Long Ronnie rig caster over caster and two paste floats, one for over the Ronnie rig in case I had to fish out nuisance Carp and the other a Bullet to fish in the RH margin - in case. I started on the Ronnie rig with single caster and started catching small Hybrids which were about 4 oz and just too active to swing, in between I caught some Skimmers to 12 oz with plenty of 1 oz Ronnie's. After about 2 1/2 hours I went to the car for a paracetamol and spoke to Clayton who was struggling for Carp with no one catching Silvers I went back and decided to knock up some GB which was laced with caster and caught two quick decent Skimmers and thought I had sorted something - but no I was then pestered by 1 oz Ronnie's, I couldn't get through them. So decided to put the remaining GB down the edge and fished the paste over the caster line and caught 15 Carp in 15 put-ins (interesting that I didn't catch any on the caster). I had been loose feeding 4's over the top which I think brought the Carp up as I stated to foul hooking. I had enough and wasn't going to catch up those opposite on the Carp. So went back to caster over caster and kept a few small fish coming - just enough to keep me occupied. Twenty minutes to go Carp moved in to the margin so dropped the paste in and caught five move before the all out, the Carp certainly know when to feed in the margin so spending the minimum amount of time in a keep net.

My Silver weighed 23 lb 12 oz for the Silvers Lake win and my Carp 70 lb 15 oz for 94 lb 11 oz not quite the ton..

My Lake and the match was won by Clayton Hudson (pictured right) with 260 lb 15 oz from corner Homeground peg 81. Clayton caught all his fish down to his end bank using Tom Thick margin mix with DR's on the hook in 17.547 inches (he is an engineer) of water also feeding three pints of DR's. Clayton caught most of his fish during the second half. Well done matey.

The Silvers overall was won by Ryan Shipp with 35 lb 11 oz from Ash peg 70. Ryan would have caught at full length fishing shallow on caster over loose caster.

Result:

Homeground:

1. Clayton Hudson 260-15-0 peg 81 (Match Winner)

2. Gary Bowden 210-10-0 peg 76

3. Glenn Bailey 189-05-0 peg 78

4. Neil Mercer 179-04-0 peg 82

Silvers: Mike Nicholls 23-12-0 peg 85

Ash:

1. Martin Rayet 245-12-0 peg 72

2. Joe McMahon 236-08-0 peg 66

3. Ryan Shipp 227-14-0 peg 70

4. Tony Rixon 205-11-0 peg 75

Silvers: Ryan Shipp 35-11-0 peg 70

Weigh Sheets: