Saturday we headed back to Todber for another go and after not being a million miles away last time, my approach would be very similar today. After meeting for breakfast the ‘Ilminster Massive’ (as Guy likes to call us) headed to the venue. I hung back at the draw but 63 wasn’t in today so no need to worry anyway. When I looked at my ticket, it was peg 67 again for me, Nick P was on 69 with PTP1 ‘Parker The Pole’ on 70 and PTP2 ‘Part Time Priv’ up on 73.
Peg 67 again
I set up a little 0.3 gram Guru F1 Slim for the top two to hand, a 0.2 gram Guru AR for top kit plus two and a Preston Innovations F1 Maggot to fish one line at 11.5 metres. The side tray contained the usual fare of corn, maggots, casters and Bait-Tech 2mm Micros plus I had a few worms with me.
On the whistle I fed a few casters on the top kit line up the edge and then micros and corn on the top two plus two and 11.5 metre lines. Starting short I had a few roach and a couple of 3oz skimbobs but it soon faded. Out on the longer line with corn on the hook, I had four 6-8oz skimmers in quick succession but then began missing/bumping loads.
It sounded like it was fishing quite hard so although I wasn’t bagging, I was getting little runs of skimmers and as far as I could tell I was doing ok. I’m sure roach were behind a lot of the missed bites as I was catching the odd one but it was still really frustrating as it felt like there were a lot of fish there. I tried caster and worm which resulted in a few fish bit I was still missing loads of bites, back on the corn I had two 12oz skimmers and then a nice pound plus tench.
Along with feeding regularly via a toss pot, I was also big potting after every three or four fish, the swim was fizzing like mad so I added a section and went past it but that didn’t seem to be the answer. I also tried a little strung out rig and had a roach and a 6oz skimmer but if anything, waiting for bites seemed to be best and putting the odd better fish in the net.
Nigel Bartlett had a walk round and while he was with me I had a couple of 10oz skimmers and then my best fish yet, a nice big one around 3lb. He said Nick P was getting the odd better fish and apparently Parker ‘The Pole’ had landed a big tench, the bankside grapevine also suggested Priv was still here as well!
I was still putting fish in the net but also missing too many bites, another look on the top kit line added a roach and a 4oz skimmer but it was short lived. Guy turned up to eat his lunch and take the micky per usual (although I was disappointed that the cake from a few weeks ago appears to have been a one off!). He also reported that is was fishing hard and even Adrian Dew who was on 75 (where he won last week) was struggling.
The last hour was hard going and I only managed a few 6-8oz skimmers with one just before the all out to put me on 53 fish. As we were all packing up, the scales team swung into action like a well oiled machine. When they got to me, the top weight so far was Mark W on 65 with 15lb 10oz, I was hoping I might have a bit more and was happy enough when my weight was called at 21lb 8oz. I didn’t think it would do any good though with Nick P and PTP1 both having caught some big fish and also Nicky Collins up on 72 who will have fished for roach all day. Photos courtesy of Todber Manor*
Another lovely day at ‘The Manor’ with 21lb 8oz of skimmers, roach and a tench*
Dave G next door weighed 5lb 12oz but had several decent leapers come off during the day, then it was Nick and when he pulled his net out, it was going to be very close but it was called at 21lb 4oz and he was cussing the loss of a big skimmer right near the end. Steve P was next and he also had a lovely net of fish for 18lb 10oz to put him third so far although he also said he’d lost several good fish during the day.
Nick weighed 21lb 4oz for second place*
Parker ‘The Pole’ was third with 18lb 10oz which included two cracking tench*
Nicky Collins on 72 had 17lb 12oz of mainly roach*
I went back to continue packing up and when they finished weighing in and walked back down the lake, they stopped at Steve and then Nick and I was well chuffed when Guy said I’d won it and he handed me a nice envelope containing £90.
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 21lb 8oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 21lb 4oz
3 – Steve Parker (Ilminster) – 18lb 10oz
It’s always really close at Todber and everybody lost fish that could have made all the difference, the sheer number of fish/bites I missed/bumped/lost today was really frustrating and I’m not sure what the answer is when fishing corn. I tried using the smallest bits I could find, corn skins, lightly hooking a grain but nothing made a difference, I did wonder if hair rigging would help but I still missed lots of bites doing that the other week on the waggler!
Nick and me added £3 each to the pot as the Nugget-O-Meter reached £305.
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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