For match number two of my five day fishing marathon it was down to Todber for the silvers open on Ash. I actually overslept and woke up to Nick ringing me at 6:40 when I should have met him ten minutes earlier! After rushing around like the proverbial headless chicken and engaging warp speed, I managed to get there just in time to still enjoy a breakfast!
When it was time to draw, I did my usual and waited until there were only a couple of tickets left, now with the way my day had gone so far, I was sure I’d be on the near end. I managed to avoid those pegs but 73 was just slightly too far up in my opinion, of course the other ticket was 70 which would have been spot on!
The usual pole rigs and a maggot feeder were set up and on the whistle, I fed the pole lines before starting on the feeder, I was expecting to catch ide quite quickly but it was hard going and with 45 minutes gone I only had three and from what I could see, only odd fish were coming out on the pole. The one exception was Roy Vassie on 71 who was bagging with skimmers on the groundbait feeder.
I came in on the pole line but only had a few roach and one skimmer, back on the feeder I still couldn’t catch so tried a window feeder (for no bites) and then a little cage with some chopped worm in the mix and a worm head on the hook. It took a while to get a bite but a 2lb skimmer was worth the wait, a couple of ide and another decent skimmer followed but before I could get too excited, bites tailed off.
An ide on the pole was a one off and it just felt like I was going nowhere and chasing my tail whereas Roy was still bagging and even had a few fish on the wiggler. I’d been feeding a few maggots down the edge as Guy had caught a few better skimmers there in the last match and with an hour to go, I was all out of ideas and with nothing to lose decided to have a look.
After a couple of minutes I had a nice roach and missed a couple of bites, then the float buried and loads of elastic came out before I netted a decent skimmer. I started catching really well and had another roach, a hybrid and three more big skimmers but was sure it would be a case of too little, too late. Lee W on 74 next door also went down the edge and had a good skimmer towards the end of the match. I was sure Roy had won easily and Joe S on 75 had caught well in the last couple of hours so thought I’d be miles away today.
The scales started at the near end and it had fished really hard with Matt Skyme on 66 leading with 22lb 4oz followed by Andy A with 17lb 8oz and then Roy weighed a brilliant 37lb 2oz to win comfortably. Steve P on 72 chucked back, my fish went 19lb 10oz which put me third so far but I knew it wouldn’t last, Lee didn’t weigh and then Joe had 22lb 12oz for second place so it had been pretty close in the end. Photos courtesy of Todber Manor*
Adrian Dew had 10lb 12oz on 62*
Matt Skyme was third with 22lb 4oz*
Lee Jan on 69 had 11lb 14oz*
Roy had a lovely net of fish to win easily with 37lb 2oz*
I had some decent skimmers for 19lb 10oz*
Joe was second with 22lb 12oz on 75*
1 – Roy Vassie (Todber) – 37lb 2oz
2 – Joe Shepherd (Todber) – 22lb 12oz
3 – Matt Skyme (Todber) – 22lb 4oz
I did have a nugget from Ade who’d struggled on 62 but I was left wishing I’d tried the edge a bit earlier as I probably had 10lb in that last hour and was only a decent skimmer away from framing.
Photo credit – Adrian Dew
Guy came for his usual lunchtime wander and kindly donated a pound and with one from Adrian, the Nugget-O-Meter climbed to £222.
There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling
Also I still have copies of my book available from eBay here or Amazon here
And if you could spare five minutes to leave a nice review on Amazon, it would be very much appreciated.
Next up – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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