A longer trip offsite today to Todber, though Geoff Francis and Chris Ollis had both decided not fish this match late on as they didn't fancy the fast fishing on offer. We were headed to Ash Lake which some said would not be such high weights as seen on Homeground and Hillview, but 250lb needed apparently.
The drive to the fishery was no bother (unlike last year which was a nightmare) and it was nice to arrive in good time. Tony Rixon and Jason Radford were joining us for this match, and Tony kindly had some scales but requested help with the weighing in at the end as it is too much for one person. Martin Rayet was the main source of info as he fishes it a fair bit, he also did the pegging which was spot on. I got peg 62 which is the first end of the lake you come to, I was told by Guy Manton that the peg was worth 200lb all day long.
I was told a feeder was a good bet to start on, so I set up a method feeder with a mix of micros and Thatchers gbait to mould to it. Before the start I cast the feeder to get clipped up, first attempted when, ahem, a bit too far and it was stuck. I walked around to the far side and managed to get it free and throw into the lake. Whilst here I spotted that a bot of the bank had been cleared before and just a few loose bits and bobs needed removing, glad I walked round now. I was soon clipped up proper and happy with it. I set up a rig for fishing hard pellets at top set plus two, and two margin rigs, one for meat and one for hard pellet.
We started at 11am and I cast the feeder out and it landed well, so much so that after 30 seconds a carp was pulling the rod in. Next cast same result, and for the first hour I was having a decent time of it, a couple of casts went a bit long and hit the reeds, but the feeder always came back and sometimes dropped in nicely lol. I then had a cast that went well into the reeds and was a bit shocked, I looked down and saw the line had come out of the clip, bugger. Had to happen just as guy came up to watch me on his lunch break lol. Luckily a couple of casts and I was back sorted. Then a carp got in the reeds for the first time and although I got it out the hook was straighten so had to change. Guy told me to feed more pellet up to a little bush to my left and soon a few carp were mooching here, I was loathed to come off the method though as I was doing well. Woody on 64 was struggling with about 20lb, I had 65lb on the clicker, but Martin R had 90lb on his short pellet line. When I heard Glenn had over 70lb I thought I had better try short to speed things up as the method was not as effective I thought.
I had fed meat in the RH margin, pellet left (both on top set, and the pellet up to the bush. I saw a carp in the meat margin so went in there and did 7 or 8 carp quite quickly, these were similar size to those on the tip, 1 to 2lb mostly. Woody was trying to sort his margin out after he had tried fishing shallow, and was just starting to get a few lined up. My meat margin died, and it never came back to life, even when I tried to change it to pellet. Over to the LH bush, there were carp there but they were very shallow, and I pushed my float down to the hook length and even then I still fouled some, I wasn't catching anywhere near fast enough and was in danger of losing the plot as you know at this venue a bad hour is bad news. Woody was now flying but I was sure I was on par with him, and I started to get carp on pellet in the close RH margin. I stayed here for the last couple of hours but knew I wasn't catching as well as Woody.
When the match finished I had 225lb on my clicker, Woody said he had 250lb which I guessed was about right. Here though are the results...
1st Woody 309lb 7oz (on meat over micros and meat, much bigger average stamp of fish)
2nd Tony Rixon 304lb 14oz (all shallow on long pole)
3rd Martin Rayet 272lb 8oz
4th Gary Bowden 242lb 15oz
5th Glenn Bailey 239lb 8oz
6th Me 222lb 15oz (only 2lb out on my clicker, that's a win for me PMSL!)
7th Gordon Cannings 176lb 3oz
8th Mark Tanner 69lb 1oz
Jason DNW
A little clip here of Mr Rixon trying to educate Mark Tanner on the art of bringing your fish to the weigh net lol.
Pictured is the star of the week, Martyn "Woody" Woodington. He smashed it out of the park every match, and on many different methods too, man of the week, some results that, think he had a free holiday on us lol. We might have to call him Dick Turpin from now on, seriously though well done mate, brilliant.
On Friday a few stayed and pleasure fished. Martin helped Chris with how to mug fish on lodge lake, Chris had a strange way of playing the carp, we didn't laugh. Here he is striking a pose with a lump on.
I had a lovely week, got my pools money back and a little more, which is always nice. But that's just an aside. Out with your mates fishing (in lovely weather), enjoying the wonderful scenery and wildlife, and having a few beers and putting the world to right and laughing, laughing so much, it is simply fantastic. Spending a week in a wonderful lodge at Viaduct with good friends is something I look forward to every year.
Off for a couple of weeks due to Dad and work duties, hopefully will get a chance to see a bit of river fishing soon.
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