The forecast was warmer for the weekend and it made a nice change not having to de-ice the car in the morning. After arriving at Todber and filling our bellies in the Lakeside Kitchen it was time for the draw and although the fish have started to spread out a bit in recent matches, you still want to avoid the near end (pegs 62-64) which hasn’t been great at all.
I decided to hang back and have one of the last pegs in the bucket (well it worked last week!) and looking at the board I could see 69 hadn’t gone yet. So with just a few tickets left, I grabbed one which turned out to be 66, possibly just off the epicentre but Rocky had a good weight off it last Saturday so I was fairly happy. Guy had 69, Adrian Dew was on the same peg he won from last week (71) while the rest of the ‘Ilminster/Yeovil Massive’ had all drawn quite well too, Parker ‘The Pole’ was on end peg 75 (which has been a bit hit and miss recently), Stoke’s ex club angler of the year Norts was on 68 (where I was last week) and Nick P drew 72. For company, I had Mark Harper on my right with Ade West the other side on 65.
I set up a Preston Innovations F1 Maggot for 13 metres plus a 0.2 gram rig to fish through the water. On the side tray I had the usual disco pinkies, lots of maggots and some Bait-Tech Special G F1 Dark plus a few worms that had seen better days!
On the whistle I fed the 13 metre line straight out with a nugget of groundbait before pinging a few maggots on the other swim angled to the left. I thought it might take a while to catch but first put in, I missed a bite and then had a little roach. A couple more small fish followed so I put double maggot on and began getting some nice roach and ide. Norts landed a big skimmer on the feeder and it sounded like they were catching well to his right.
I had a really nice first hour with 19 fish for probably 5lb or so, Mark had started on the feeder across and had a few fish but was also having problems with an underwater snag that cost him several hooklengths. Picking up the light rig, the second sixty minutes was even better and I was up to 46 fish (mainly roach and ide along with a few skimmers). Ade and Carl to my left were catching well although as expected it was a struggle on pegs 63 (Nicky C) and 62 (Mike H).
I was still doing well but as we approached the halfway point, bites were beginning to slow and with Ade catching some decent skimmers on the pole and Mark landing big ide and a 2lb perch on the feeder, my early lead was disappearing fast. Back on the heavier rig, I tried toss potting in some groundbait and being patient which resulted in a couple of skimmers but I was waiting ages for bites and my catch rate was definitely going in the wrong direction.
Going out to 14.5 metres wasn’t the answer either with just a few small fish so I dropped back to 13 metres line and if things didn’t improve, I’d start a new line at 16 metres for the last hour. I began getting the odd fish including a couple of decent skimmers and was getting regular bites again, Ade also caught really well towards the end so maybe it was the time of day or something.
The scales started at the top end this week and I wandered up to see how it had fished and looking at the board there were some brilliant weights, Andy Akehurst was leading with a fantastic 34lb 9oz from peg 73 followed by Nick with 31lb 6oz which included four big skimmers for 13lb. There were loads of 20lb+ weights and then Guy went into third spot with 29lb 3oz. Photos courtesy of Todber Manor*
Parker ‘The Pole’ had a nice net of fish for 18lb 6oz*
Lee Jan had an excellent 25lb 3oz on peg 74*
Andy Akehurst won again, this time with 34lb 9oz from peg 73*
Nick was second with 31lb 6oz which included four big skimmers for 13lb*
Adrian Dew weighed 22lb 8oz on peg 71*
Dave Griffiths had some nice tench in his 19lb 2oz*
Guy had a cracking net of skimmers and ide for 29lb 3oz*
Norts had 18lb 6oz, Mark weighed 22lb 8oz and then it was me, as I pulled my net out I could tell it was going to be a decent weight and it was called at 29lb 9oz which just pipped Guy. Ade had another lovely net of fish for 25lb 5oz, Carl weighed 18lb 2oz, Nicky C had 10lb 10oz which included a big tench and Mike on the end had chucked back.
Norts had 18lb 6oz on 68*
Mark had 22lb 8oz which included a big perch and a nice tench*
I had 88 fish (skimmers, roach and ide plus a rudd and a perch) for 29lb 9oz and third place*
Ade had 25lb 5oz of mainly skimmers on 65*
Nicky had 10lb 10oz including a lovely tench*
1 – Andy Akehurst (Todber) – 34lb 9oz
2 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 31lb 6oz
3 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 29lb 9oz
I picked up £50 for third and apart from the near end it had fished brilliantly with eight weights over 20lb and it was really close with just a couple of fish making all the difference. It’s really interesting fishing and those bigger 3-4lb bream and tench are real game changers. When it warms up the fishing could be incredible but the weather is still all over the place at the moment.
Norts generously gave me a squid which took the Nugget-O-Meter to £158.
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 – Summerhayes
Coming soon – Lots more match reports
#sponsoredpost #affiliatelinks
