Todber 15.09.19

Todays trip was the annual clubs away day at Todber Manor. Now to be honest I did  a bit of research and visited the site on the previous Wednesday where there was a match being held. I walked around the lake and gained some good advice from some of the "resident" anglers who informed me that you want to be on or near the "spit" for good weights of 180lb plus but if you drew pegs on the 30 that you'll still catch but the fish were smaller; so again this was going to be about the draw. I discussed various methods and came away with some what I hoped would be useful information.

Detall had said that he would drive on the day but after seeing him on Saturday he told me he was going for a few shandies on Saturday night so I knew this would be a bit messy. I took his van and loaded up on the Saturday afternoon and dropped him home. Later on in the evening I saw a few Facebook pages of him out and knew he would be hanging and true to form when I picked him he was a mess and still intoxicated. So we made our way to Todber and stopped for a Macdonald's Bacon Roll - (never again, how do people eat that crap) and after a few coffees he was starting to sober up

We all met at Todber in good time and had a wander around the shop to buy some last minute essentials. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere where the mickey taking side bets had begun. I had been informed that Lord C had won the overall category for the last 3 away days and Queenie had always become second, was that going to change today as Lord C is on a fine run of form since the middle of August. Was he going to draw the favoured pegs to make it four in a row? The draw was done nice and early to give us a bit of time to set up.

The draw was as follows

Peg

35 - Sausage
36 - me
38 - Danny
39 - Dick
41 - Tungsten Dave
42 - Mr Grumpy
44 - Mario Tony
45 - Sharp Shopper
47 - Chairman Kev
48 - Jon Bradford
49 - Queenie
50 - George
52 - Stroppy Steve
53 - Lord C
54 - Tony Fry
55 - Shane
56 - Rich Coles
58 - Collin
60 - Bob
61 - Dave Allen

So the draw wasn't favourable for me but for Lord C and Queenie they were in the good areas again. We made our ways to the pegs and I had sausage for company on my left and Danny to my right. To my surprise  I didn't see Danny set up his pole but only a feeder rod which I didn't even know he had a rod. So within 10 mins Danny was set up and raring to go although he did moan that this is not a good silver peg and he drew the same peg last year.

Me, I was happy to be fishing a new venue and set up the feeder to the island, a top2 + 3 + a margin rig. On my tray was some micros, dead reds and some paste so a simple approach. The all in was shouted and I cupped in micros at 2 + 3 before casting to the island. Before I managed to cast I could see that Bob already had one on his pole and I thought this could be an eventful day. I cast to the island and before I put the rod down the line went taught and I was into my first Todber fish. This continued for a spell of an hour to the island before going quiet. The fish weren't big - about 3lb and a few stocky F1'S

I went on my 2 + 3 and continued to pick up Tench, skimmers and F1'S and when it went quiet I would rotate between the feeder and 2 + 3 whilst still feeding the margin. Everyone around were catching with sausage catching some nice skimmers and every time I looked over to Dick his elastic was being tested.

So the day went on and in the last 2 hours I thought Id try paste and that had a great affect with many fish being caught.

The all out was shouted and I had a massively enjoyable day just catching all day compared to my previous weeks disasters where I hadn't caught in the first 4 hours.

Lord C and Queenie did the weigh in and I could tell big weights were caught by the amount of time it was taken to get around. When It came to me 3rd from last to be weighed my sclaes totalled 111 lb my first ever 100lb + haul and was slightly disappointed with the amount of fish that I had caught but pleased with the haul.

Results as follows

Overall

1st - Lord C - 202 lb - 09 oz
2nd - Queene - 187 lb - 03 oz
3rd - Stroppy Steve - 170 lb - 08 oz

Silvers

 

1st - Rich Coles - 48 lb - 08 oz
2nd - Danny - 27 lb - 12 oz
3rd - Bob - 20 lb - 10 oz

So congratulations to Lord C again and commiserations to Queenie, always the bridesmaid and never the bride as his mate continues to batter him.

Again Rich Coles showed his silvers class with another fine haul and well done Danny for framing on the tip

Thanks to all the members that attended and to Tony Fry for collecting the fees, Lord C, Queenie and Danny for doing the long weigh ins

Next week is back to the popular Chilton Trinity Woodlands Lake venue, contact Shane to book in.