Todber Manor – Silvers Open – 29th November 2025
I haven’t been to Todber for a few weeks so booked in for the Saturday open, there were only eight of us but it has been fishing quite hard. The usual lovely breakfast set us up for the day and …
The Archives – Part 15 – A Rude Awakening (1998)
Checking the records, the first match of the year was supposed to be on the Isle but was cancelled due to the river being flooded (sound familiar?). The next few matches were nothing to write home about either (also sounding very familiar!!!) and I seemed to be losing a lot of fish that were costing me framing places and section wins (also …
Eight Things To Do In Lockdown
In these unprecedented times, if you’re missing fishing already (I certainly am, especially with it being a gorgeous day outside), there are plenty of things you can do to keep you busy and stave off boredom while you are housebound. 1 – Give your kit a clean If, like me you’ve spent most of the winter on muddy riverbanks, now’s the time …
Dillington Pond – V.E.S. Precision League 7 – 22nd March 2020
The final V.E.S. Precision league match arrived and I was starting to think we’d never reach this point! If it wasn’t Storm Dennis and strong winds, it was heavy rain and flooded rivers and then just when we thought we were out of the woods, the bloody Corona Virus arrived! It’s supposed to be a river league but even the rescheduled fixtures …
Perry St Pond – Spring League 1 – 15th March 2020
I always look forward to this league as the fishing is normally really good, the breakfasts are superb and the banter even better! In the week leading up to the first match, the world went mad as the Corona Virus sent everybody into a blind panic with supermarket shelves empty of bog roll and pasta and sporting events called off all over …
Dillington Pond – V.E.S. Precision League 6 – 8th March 2020
I had hoped we might get on the river for the last Sunday of the season but more rain scuppered any chance of that so we would head out the pond which has been hard but fair in recent matches. We met at the bowling club for breakfast and decided to use the Aplin bank plus pegs 2 and 4 and to …
Hebditch’s Pond – Barney’s Pairs Open – 1st March 2020
Barney’s Pairs is always one of my favourite matches although I can never seem to keep hold of a partner and I’m getting concerned I may need to change my deodorant! This trend continued with Andy Saunders my latest partner for this match, we’ve also used several venues in various combinations over the years. Ideally we’d have fished the Isle (Barney’s favourite …
Todber Manor – Silvers Open – 29th February 2020
I’d wanted to fish some of these silvers matches after seeing them advertised last year but for one reason or another it didn’t happen then, so I was determined to put that right this year. I booked into two but with the horrendous weather we’ve been having, the first of them two weeks ago was called off. Typically the weather was gorgeous …
Ilminster Canal – V.E.S. Precision League 5 – 23rd February 2020
Before I get on to this weeks match, I had some very sad news on Saturday when Martin Heard phoned me to say that Malcolm Levy had passed away last Wednesday aged 84. I’ve known Malcolm or ‘The Old Fossil’ as he was affectionately known for getting on for twenty years, he used to travel with Martin and they made for a …
Sadborow – 16th February 2020
Well, this weekend was supposed to be a double header of matches I was really looking forward to, a silvers match at Todber sponsored by Drennan and then round five of the V.E.S. Precision league on the Sunday. With Storm Ciara causing chaos the previous weekend I was hoping we’d get lucky with the weather but oh no, the Met Office gave …
Dillington Pond – Ilminster Open – 9th February 2020
I’m getting fed up with this now! The weather is perfect all week and then as we approach the weekend, it either chucks it down with rain or the temperature plummets, well for this Sunday we had Storm Ciara heading our way with 60 mph winds predicted – lovely! We only had a few booked in and when I decided to move …