Todber on Saturday and as always I was hoping to avoid the near end even though venue expert Ade Dew had actually won off 63 the previous week! The now established and patented ‘Hanging Back’ technique was employed once again but not actually needed today as Parker ‘The Pole’ and Nick P both went in early and claimed 62 and 63. I drew 74 (with 73 not in) while the ‘King of Ash’ was next door on 75.
The usual rigs and a waggler rod were assembled and the side tray contained an array of baits although I was hoping to catch some better fish on corn. I was given the responsibility of starting the match but Ade wasn’t quite ready when I shouted the all in so he chucked a feeder out while he finished setting up. He didn’t really get chance though as the tip went straight round and he landed a decent skimmer!
Starting down the edge I had a few small fish but with my neighbour forging further ahead, I was soon switching to the wiggler and corn and began getting bites but was missing way more than I was hitting. Rich Chave turned up to see how we were doing and while he was sat with me, I had a couple of skimmers but the sheer number of indications where I struck into thin air was embarrassing!
Trying double maggot resulted in a nice 2lb skimmer first chuck but then it was back to missed bite madness, I did catch a couple of little 2oz carassio which might have been the culprits but then every now and again I’d connect with a decent skimmer so I was none the wiser really! Another look on the top kit line and I had two 4-6oz perch in quick succession but then all I could catch was tiny fish and when I got snagged round a bramble and lost my rag giving it a yank, the eye pulled out of the float so that was the end of that.
Rich went for a walk to see how the others were doing and on his return he reported that apart from Ade who was still catching well on the feeder, it was fishing quite hard. Pete Neate was admitting to 15lb and Andy A was getting a few but I probably wasn’t a million miles away although it would help massively if I could convert a few more bites into fish!
For the remainder of the match I swapped between maggot and corn and caught odd decent skimmers, an ide and a little bar of soap but was still missing loads of bites. Three times the float’s gone under and a big skimbob has come flying out the water and I haven’t been attached to any of them!
After a really frustrating match, I’ve only ended up with 22 fish and been properly spanked off the next peg, the scales started at the other end and as they made their way up the lake I went to see what the scores on the doors were, Andy A was leading with an excellent 26lb 8oz but the next best weight was Pete with 16lb+, I pulled my net out and it felt similar, thankfully it was a little more and 18lb 6oz put me second briefly before Ade had 28lb 4oz to make it two wins on the bounce, well done mate.
Andy A had 26lb 8oz
Pete weighed 16lb+ of big skimmers
I’m starting to develop a nervous twitch with this waggler fishing!
Adrian Dew made it two out of two! (although I was a little disappointed he didn’t wear a new hat to mark the occasion!)
1 – Adrian Dew (Todber) – 28lb 4oz
2 – Andy Akehurst (Todber) – 26lb 8oz
3 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 18lb 6oz
Sneaking third and picking up £40 was a welcome bonus but I should have been a lot closer to the top two and I’ve not done a potentially winning peg justice today! At Todber it’s always close and you’re only ever a few fish away from framing or winning.
Photo credit – Adrian Dew
Ade generously gave me £5 from his recent side bet victories and then topped it up with another £3 from today and along with £2 each from Nick P and me, the Nugget-O-Meter passed another milestone reaching £501 which is just amazing so a massive thanks to everyone who has supported it so far. I hand the total over to Chris White for Stoke Club’s charity (the Oncology Unit at Yeovil Hospital) in November every year so with a few months to go, hopefully that total will continue to rise.
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 – River Parrett
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
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