Todber Manor – Xmas Match – 13th December 2025

The Todber Xmas fixture was originally going to be on Ash but a recent match on Hillview saw some excellent weights of silvers returned so Guy asked everyone if we fancied having a go on there instead and the entry was increased to 21 anglers. We all enjoyed a fantastic breakfast before it was time for the draw and I was hoping for a peg on the near bank (somewhere like 56-60 would do very nicely) but pulled out 47 on the spit which used to be the place to draw for carp! To be fair it was all a bit of an unknown quantity and it would be really interesting to see how it fished.

The pegs on the spit

When I got there I was in good company with Nicky Collins on 48 and Martin Fuller to my left, Adrian Dew, Parker ‘The Pole’ and Ade West were also all on the spit and there would be no going home early for Ade this week as his van was blocked in! As we were setting up there were quite a few fish topping but unfortunately the majority of them were carp.

I fed a top four line and 11.5 metres with small amounts of groundbait before starting short and the float settled and went straight under with a chunky roach the culprit. Two more and a little skimbob in the next three chucks had me thinking I might be in for a busy day but then the float just sat there! I’d seen Pete Z and Mark Harper on the opposite bank land some big skimmers and I was itching to have a look on my long line. With double dead red maggot on the hook, a positive bite after a few minutes resulted in a 6oz skimmer which was encouraging but a small roach was next so I tried corn and hooked my first carp of the match.

That pretty much set the scene for my day and although I could catch small roach on maggot or pinkie, big skimmers were required to do well and corn or worm just saw me hook loads of carp and it was a similar story for Nicky although he did have a big perch and a couple of decent skimmers in amongst the carp carnage. I think between us, Nicky and me hooked somewhere in the region of thirty carp! Pete Neate was doing well on 45 and catching some bream while Lee Jan on 42 had a little spell catching skimmers before the carp moved in.

I tried fishing past the feed which was a flop and the short swim only yielded very occasional roach, just before the end I had a nice perch of a pound but it wouldn’t propel me up the prize list much! When the scales reached us, Roy Worth was leading with an excellent 20lb 9oz of big skimmers on the bomb and corn so his midweek practice had paid dividends, Lee weighed 7lb 12oz, Mike H had 4lb 2oz, Clive on 44 weighed 6lb 10oz before Pete N went into second place with a cracking net of skimmers for 15lb 14oz.

Roy ‘The Bomb’ Worth had the top weight with some big skimmers for 20lb 9oz*

Pete Neate was second with 15lb 14oz*

Martin had 1lb 12oz, my fish went 5lb 2oz and Nicky weighed 7lb 12oz, Adrian Dew did well on 49 with 9lb 14oz, Rod D had 12lb, Parker ‘The Pole’ weighed 8lb 8oz and Ade West had 4lb 4oz. On the other bank, Nick P had 12lb 8oz from 54, Mark Harper weighed 13lb 8oz, Joe S had 9lb 6oz, Nick King on 58 weighed 8lb, Rocky had 12lb, Pete Z weighed 15lb 12oz which put him third and Andy A had struggled next to Roy with 4lb 12oz. Photos courtesy of Todber Manor*

Pete Z was third with 15lb 12oz from peg 60*

Mark Harper won his section with 13lb 8oz*

Nick P won our section with 12lb 8oz*

1 – Roy Worth (Yeovil) – 20lb 9oz
2 – Pete Neate (Todber) – 15lb 14oz
3 – Pete Z (Todber) – 15lb 12oz

Sections
A – Mark Harper (Todber) – 13lb 8oz
B – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 12lb 8oz

Back in the Lakeside Kitchen all the anglers received a prize with the top three and section winners taking home lovely hampers, I had to wait a while for my name to be called out in 16th place and I picked up some chocolates. So some good nets of skimmers and it was close between the leading anglers with six weights between 12-16lb. I would just like to say a huge thanks to John, Guy and the team at Todber for running a great match and as always it was a really good laugh with a brilliant bunch of lads!

Hamper winners (from left to right), Nick Payne, Pete Z, winner Roy Worth, Pete Neate and Mark Harper*

Roy donated the pounds he took off me, Ade and Lee J to the Nugget-O-Meter which saw the total reach £105.

Roy also won the nuggets today*

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