After a short week it was soon time to go fishing again and Todber Manor was the destination for Saturday’s match. As always, a cracking breakfast in the Lakeside Kitchen set us up for the day before it was time for the draw. I waited until there were two pegs left in the bucket and the one I selected turned out to be 72 so I hadn’t moved far from last week. The usual pound side bet was struck with Mr Dew who was down on 67.
The lake was flat calm and there were loads of bream/skimmers swimming about up in the water and I knew they wouldn’t be interested in feeding. On the whistle I fed my pole lines before starting on the feeder but it hasn’t happened and after 40 minutes, despite a couple of indications, I was still blanking. A few fish were being caught on the pole so I shipped out to 13 metres and started getting odd roach, skimmers along with a couple of nice ide.
Then after two hours, the whole lake switched off and nobody was catching, Guy came for wander and said Pete Neate on 62 was doing the best he’d heard with around 10lb. I tried a little light rig, going to 14.5 metres, down the edge and had another go on the feeder but over the next couple of hours, I added very little to the net.
With just sixty minutes remaining and nothing to lose, I made some groundbait into a slop and poured that in at 13 metres followed by a full pot of loose groundbait and went straight over it. After a few minutes I had a skimmer and then added another before missing a bite, two more followed including one of 1.5lb and then ten minutes before the end, I hooked something that felt a bit more substantial. Shipping back carefully I was surprised when a 2lb tench popped up and I still had time to go back out and miss another bite before the all out.
I only finished up with 25 fish and knew I hadn’t done any good but as the scales started working their way up the lake, Pete had weighed 11lb 13oz and then Adrian had 12lb 7oz to go into the lead until Lee Jan on 69 pipped him by an ounce! Andy A next door had 10lb 13oz and the weights were incredibly close, Martin F on 71 had 7lb 4oz and then my fish went 11lb. Dave G had 7lb 7oz on 74 and Parker ‘The Pole’ in his fetching new hat weighed 5lb 13oz. Photos courtesy of Todber Manor*
Pete Neate on 62 was third with 11lb 13oz*
Adrian Dew was second with 12lb 7oz*
Lee Jan had the top weight on the day with 12lb 8oz*
I had 11lb which included a nice tench*
Parker ‘The Pole’ had 5lb 13oz on peg 75*
1 – Lee Jan (Todber) – 12lb 8oz
2 – Adrian Dew (Todber) – 12lb 7oz
3 – Pete Neate (Todber) – 11lb 13oz
I handed my nugget to Ade who gave it straight to Lee (photo credit – Adrian Dew)
So although it fished really hard, it was really close with just one decent skimmer between first place and fifth, I’m falling just short at the moment and have had my chances (as I’m sure others will have as well).
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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