25/04/12 AAF gp2 Match 6, Todber Manor

This match saw 32 anglers for the AAF decend upon Todber Manor, we had booked Park and both of the Whiteposts as we were expecting alot more anglers, but  due to certain reasons we had a few pull out at the last minute. Anyway, the remainder of us did the draw at Skevvys Cafe in Shaftesbury before driving to our respective sections, Tommy drew peg A3 for me and this turned out to be permanent peg 5 on Park. I have a little bit of history with this peg as I have had a couple of big weights off it in the past topped by a near 200lb weight a couple of years ago on paste, but that day the conditions were completely different. On arriving at my peg I had horizontal rain and near gale force winds blowing from right to left along the lake and with this in mind my plan was simple.

I set up 2 pole rigs, 1 for fishing pellet on a 0.12mm bottom and another for meat and corn on a 0.14mm bottom, the most important part of both rigs was the fact that I was using 2 no. 8 backshot o both rigs to help with control. I also set up a method feeder on my 10ft Commercial bomb rod and I was going to use this if plan A didn’t work.

At the all in I shipped out with a big pot containing about 50 grains of hemp and 20 pellet before getting off my bum and getting a landing net handle from the van (DOH). On my return I was kinder cupping 4mm pellet and hemp whilst fishing expander pellet or 6mm meat on the hook. I had 6 carp and a few other bits in the first hour but bites tailed off rapidly, I ended up chucking the method across for a couple of fish and then tried it on the 5m line for another run. Nothing was happening quickly though and before I knew it we were into the last hour and a half, at this point I had around 40lb in the net so I decided to put a whole cup of corn in on a new line down to my left (With the wind) to see what happened. The answer is that skimmers turned up at a pound a piece they were very welcome and then carp turned up. After a couple of carp the skimmers and bits wouldf return but a full cup of corn would see the carp return. In the last hour and a bit I fed two tins of corn on the new line and caught around 30lb of carp and skimmers.

Thankfully I was eventually able to call all out and it turned out that the whole of park lake had fished reasonably well considering the conditions, John Dewberry took victory with over 60kg mainly taken down the edge in the last couple of hours on meat. I ended up with 34Kg that was only enough for 4^th in section so my plan of an end of season comeback is looking less and less likely.

My next trip is Viaduct at the weekend.