On Saturday it was down to Todber for the silvers match on Ash, draw time arrived and I managed to avoid the pegs at the near end but felt 67 wasn’t quite far enough up the lake. My neighbours for the day were Lee Jan and Nick P while Parker ‘The Pole’ was on 65 and Adrian Dew was disappointed with 63.
As soon as Nick realised I’d be chucking a waggler around he took the appropriate precautions!
On the whistle I fed pole lines down the edge and at 11.5 metres before starting with the waggler and corn across. A skimmer second chuck was encouraging and I was getting quite a few indications although as per usual I was going through spells of missing bites and then I’d hit several on the trot! I felt I was doing okay but my catch rate would need to improve if I was going to challenge for a framing place today.
A nice 1.5lb tench was very welcome and then I hooked a big fish which headed up towards Nick before it stopped and I managed to gain some ground. I initially thought it might be a carp that hadn’t woken up yet but as it wasn’t doing a lot, I was hoping it would be a bream and then a big tail broke the surface and it was a lovely 3-4lb fish but it wasn’t hooked in the mouth. It headed off again and I couldn’t do anything with it, I knew it would be a massive bonus if I could land it and of course I was receiving lots of supportive comments from my fellow anglers.
Several times I got it in front of me but out of netting range and then the hook pulled out and I just knew that would come back to haunt me! I continued putting odd fish in the net and then with just under two hours to go, I had my first look short and caught four skimmers and a little 8oz tench. Back on the waggler with thirty minutes left I had another two skimbobs, another quick look short was fruitless so the last ten mins was spent on the waggler where I had a skimmer and missed a bite.
I finished up with 31 skimmers, 2 tench along with a few bits and I’d thoroughly enjoyed fishing the ‘wiggler’ again. The scales started at the far end and as they headed down the lake I went to have a look. Rod Dunford on 70 was leading with a fantastic 38lb 8oz and he’s the man to beat on Ash at the moment, Roy ‘The Bomb’ was lying in second place with 32lb 14oz and Tim Martin on 71 was third with 22lb 10oz. Nick P had 13lb, my fish went 18lb 8oz and then Lee Jan pipped me with 19lb 14oz and he’d caught well on meat short towards the end of the match. Parker ‘The Pole’ weighed 11lb 8oz, Steve O on 64 had 7lb 4oz, Ade Dew weighed 8lb and Glynn on 62 had 14lb 4oz. Photos courtesy of Todber Manor*
Roy was second with 32lb 14oz*
Jack Stamp weighed 21lb 4oz and is always there or thereabouts*
Tim Martin on peg 71 was third with 22lb 10oz*
Rod Dunford won again, this time with a brilliant 38lb 8oz from peg 70*
I had an enjoyable day catching 18lb 8oz mainly on the wiggler*
Lee Jan did well with 19lb 14oz on 66*
Parker ‘The Pole’ had 7lb 4oz which included a nice bream*
Adrian Dew weighed 8lb and was sporting one of the several magnificent hats on display today!*
Glynn had 14lb 4oz on 62*
1 – Rod Dunford (Todber) – 38lb 8oz
2 – Roy Worth (Todber) – 32lb 14oz
3 – Tim Martin (Todber) – 22lb 10oz
Roy won the nuggets and the bragging rights today^
Another fantastic day for the Nugget-O-Meter, Ade gave me an accumulated £13 from all the recent side bets, Roy donated the £3 he won off us today, £2 each from Nick P and me plus a pound from Parker ‘The Pole’ saw the charity total shoot up to £458.
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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