Todber Mid week open 21 Dec 22

Todber again for a mid-week open, I took an opportunity with my current work pattern to book in for this and it is always more practice for the postponed Christmas match. The lakes had been frozen 2 days earlier so we were all unsure about how well it would fish and this along with the standard banter was the start of the day.

John did his spiel and then it was time to dip into the bag of destiny to see what it held. Well peg 40 on Hillview, I need to work on my drawing hand….

 I had done a little prep and had a fairly clear game plan in my head, Bomb and meat to start, long pole and short pole with meat and pellet and a meat feeder rig to try later. I was almost ready for the start, but to be fair I was expecting it to be a slow start, I fed my pole lines, the long pole though I fed with micros and maggot to see if I could generate any interest from skimmers as well as the carp.

The first half of the match was slow, I had a few liners and quick raps on the tip, the long pole gave me 1 carp and some tiny silvers that were not worth catching at 14m and the short pole had given me a carp…. I was going nowhere, it was slow around the lake but everyone around me had had a few fish, many had come on the bomb and some on the short pole.  I decided to try the meat feeder, I was using the Preston interchange ICM bombs and had bought the small cage feeder in the week so that was swapped, and I shortened my hooklength to about 4 inches to try and reduce tangles. It took a few casts, but I had a couple of fish on it, it did still tangle a lot though so I will be looking at that for the next time, it had got some bait out into the area so that was one plus.

The last couple of hours saw me have a few fish on the bomb and short pole each, kinder potting on the pole was best, I think.  Greg to my left was getting a few, the guy to my right was catching well and then Guy on peg 42 was also catching very well on the short pole. Fortunately, the all-out was called and because the scales were coming my way first, I weighed in and got a catch shot.

 

I didn’t hang around though and was able to get a haircut ready for Christmas, the results can be found Here.

The results prove just how bonkers that place is, and I will be back soon.

 

What would I do different:

Draw better, target the silvers pool if I draw pants although it would have been hard to beat Rocky’s 35lb……My meat feeder needs to be sorted out before the next match so that will probably be 2 tip rods set up.  I need to spend longer on the short pole and possibly have 2 short line swims so that I can feed and rest. Like I said many lessons were learned.

 

Rigs used:

Pole long:
Elastic: White Hydro
Line: 0.17mm Powerline to 0.13mm Stream
Hook: 16 B 911
Float: 0.25g Guru Bobbie

 

Pole Short:
Elastic: Drennan power pull 1.8mm
Line: 0.17mm Powerline to 0.13mm Colmic Stream
Hook: 16 B911
Float: 0.25g Guru Bobbie

Feeder:
Rod: 9ft Matrix Aquos C Class feeder, 1oz tip.
Reel: Cadence CS5 4000 loaded with 8lb Sensor
Rig: 10 or 20g ICM bomb with 6-12” 0.19mm hooklength to a size 12 QM1 and bait stop. Tried an 25g inline cage feeder for meat feeder.