Silverfox Match Angling: Saturday 12/08/2017 - Todber Manor - Open

Monday 14 August 2017

Saturday 12/08/2017 - Todber Manor - Open - Hillview And Home Ground

It was another visit to Todber Manor for Steve and me. We travelled down the A36/A350 this time and found it a much easier drive, but the breakfast in the Little Chef was as per usual expensive. Alan Oram did say that Greggs in the garage at the Gillingham Roundabout does breakfast rolls for £3.

Before the draw Steve and I had a walk around and noticed how windy it was here compared with home.

In to the draw box and out comes peg 49 on Hillview. I couldn’t believe it when Steve drew the same peg as last match peg 34! I was told my peg was considered a Carp peg with lumps being found down the LH margin. Got to the peg to find the wind blasting into me at 10 -0-clock, really uncomfortable. The Ronnie rig wouldn’t be coming out today. Went round to see Steve and applying the learning he had from the first match we decided Silvers would be the best option for coin, especially with the wind nearer his back than face, so gave him a pint of my casters. Back to my peg and set up a 4x14 winter to fish top-set plus two, which was to go against the tow with the wind – horrible. I also set up a 0.3 gram paste margin rig to fish into the wind to the left as advised.

On the bank to my left were Alan Oram and Nick Chedzoy, both chucking the chosen slaying equipment towards me. Luckily Alan was the closest to me and knew he hits his target, had it been Nick I think I would have needed a hard hat.

I decided that I would nonetheless initially target the Silvers as holding back the float and letting it run might be more conducive to Silvers than Carp and see what happened. In the meanwhile I would feed the margin up with hard 4’s. As loose feeding caster wasn’t an option due to the bloody wind I Started on single caster over kindered micro and caster. I had a few Ronnie’s, Tench, Perch and small Skimmers, plus a few very small Carp. Because I wasn’t sure where the feed was going I knocked up some hard GB and laced it was caster. This seemed to have a negative effect only now catching small Perch and Tiny Skimmers. At the two hour mark I had about 10lb of Silvers which I thought at the time would not have lead to any coin. So I converted the same line to 6mm meat. Blimey how frustrating this was I was getting ripping bites from small Tench without hooking the blighters. Lesson learnt here. Peg now buggered. So went facing the wind but had to stiffen the paste to hold for any length of time. It was slow with the occasional liner, presentation was again crap. I decided that my GB wouldn’t get a lift back home so filled in the margin with it and found this brought a few more fish in. I landed three Carp for about 30lb losing two foul hooked lumps. If only the wind was the other way or better still just a breeze. I did have to rest the margin because the wind was making my eyes sore, on;y for more torment from Tench – will they ever grow on?

I weighed 38lb 8oz of Carp and 12lb 4oz of Silvers. For a nowhere weight of 50lb 12oz.

Very interesting though 4mm soft pellet for the tiny Tench? I’m not letting them get away with today! With only 22lb getting in the Silvers I think I should have stayed with the Silvers with the kindered caster or persevered with the GB longer. At least Son Steve managed to sneak in last in the Silvers pool. We stopped in the Eastern Spice for a decent curry and a few pints of Kingfisher before getting ready for next days match. I wonder if I will get my money back for my caster investment.

I couldn’t find Jack Stamp to find out how he caught his winning weight of 158lb 2oz from peg 41. However, I did find the Silvers winner Nathan Fox (pictured right with his winnings) who won with 53lb 4oz from peg 83. Nathan caught all smallish Skimmers on Dead reds over GB laced with the same. He fed about 3 kilos of GB throughout.

Full Result: