Todber Manor, Homeground Lake

Another new venue for the club this week. Todber Manor fishery in Dorset which is famed for some quality big carp and catfish fishing and is also home to several decent match lakes, the club were originally booked into Hillview lake but after a few drop outs the match was moved to the smaller Homeground lake which has only been open a few months, no one knew any information about the lake and all we were told was that it was stuffed with silvers along with a huge head of small stockie carp in the 12oz to 1lb bracket along with a decent amount of fish in the 3-6lb bracket.

After all the drop outs we ended up 11 and will decided to pay top two with two sections, and being a brand new lake i  dont think anyone was to fussed where they drew.

unfortunately the match itself was slightly overshadowed by a serious incident that happened to Adam Caswell half way through the match. Adam who has type one diabetes suffered a serious diabetic hypo, lucky for Adam Brian Shanks on the next peg was quick to see what was happening and just about got to him in time before he collapsed into the lake and with the help of Ryan Radford managed to get him off his box and into the recovery position, Mike Wilson and Will Dearlove quickly sorted an ambulance and many thanks must go to the fishery team who had a member of staff who was a first aider come sit with Adam until the medical team arrived. Pretty soon he was in an ambulance and on his way to Yeovil general hospital where he is now and in a stable condition, i'm sure everyone in the club would like to wish Adam a speedy recovery and hopefully he will be back on the bank soon.

Back to the fishing and with mostly flat calm bright conditions it was credit that most people seemed to be getting a few bites, Mike Wilson and Ron Hardiman were straight into the small stockies on the carpark bank along with Alan Healy, Adam and Brian shanks on the far bank.

My match started very slowly as i really struggled to suss the venue out, drawing 83 which is a corner peg on the far bank id planned on a pellet attack at 13 metres, a short meat line and with a long margin to my right a groundbait attack later in the match, after two hours i had about 5lb in the net wich consisted of about ten micro tench and the same amount of bottletop skimmers, dropping in on the short meat line brought the same result and stamp of fish that was until a bait change made all the difference, slipping a piece of corn on the float buried and stockie number one was soon in the net out again and the same result.

After feeding groundbait down the edge for most of the match the last two hours the fish turned up in force stirring up the bottom and clouding up my whole margin and i took a stockie on most put ins along with the odd better one right to the end, Lee williams on the opposite corner also had a great last few hours taking fish regular on his margins and short lines,

One angler who seemed to be getting through the stockies and taking the bigger samples was Brian Shanks on 85 and come the end was catching some proper carp on his long shallow line, those bigger fish were more than enough to give him the win weighing a decent 101lb 9oz

My late flurry enabled me to take second place with 87lb 4oz and the two sections were taken by Alan Healy and Ron Hardiman respectively who just edged out Lee by a few ounces,

FULL RESULT

1. BRIAN SHANKS   101LB  9oz      PEG 85
2. CHRIS SZAKACS   87LB  4oz               83
3. RON HARDIMAN   81LB 11oz              78
4. LEE WILLIAMS      81LB  2oz               81
5. ALAN HEALY         61LB  2oz               88
6. WILL DEARLOVE  51LB                      79
7. MIKE WILSON        50LB  8oz              76
8. MARK RADFORD   43LB 10oz             90
9. RYAN RADFORD    29LB                      89
10. MAT WILLIAMS     27LB  8oz               82
11. ADAM CASWELL  16LB  12oz             86

 A very nice venue with plenty of bites and hopefully we will get a few more matches down there in the future,

viaduct fishery campbell lake

18 Fishing today and with alot of fish in close proximity to the areator Will Dearlove kept his good run of form going making no mistake from peg 130 catching all his fish on straight lead and pellet tactics weighing 141lb 13oz, second and fishing the same way from 115 was Wills father inlaw Keith Ray weighing 132lb 13oz and in third was myself catching a few on the pole and a few on lead weighing 108lb 14oz

FULL RESULT

1. WILL DEARLOVE   141LB 13OZ    PEG 130
2. KEITH RAY               132LB 13OZ            115
3. CHRIS SZAKACS     108LB 14OZ            124
4. DEGSY WILLIAMS   89LB   2OZ             125
5. RYAN RADFORD      87LB  11OZ             118
6. LEE WILLIAMS         86LB  12OZ            129
7. MARK RADFORD     86LB  12OZ            110
8. PAUL PRESTON         83LB   4OZ             119
9. RON HARDIMAN      70LB   15OZ           116
10. MATT WILLIAMS      67LB   7OZ             114
11. MIKE WILSON           66LB   1OZ             123
12. STEVE SEWELL        60LB                        132
13. PETE UZZEL              52LB   12OZ            112
14. ROSS SEWELL           45LB   14OZ            128
15. JOHN BRADFORD     28LB                        126
16. MAT POWELL            24LB   13OZ            127
17. AND TWO DNWS

SILVERS

1. JOHN BRADFORD     28LB
2. PETE UZZEL               24LB  7OZ

Boddingtons reservoir

Something a bit unusual for the club this week as it was the clubs very first visit to the midlands bagging mecca that is Boddingtons reservoir, most people had done they're research and it was always gonna be a rod only match fishing a variety of method,straight lead and pellet wag tactics. A few of the guys had made the trip up before staying in local b&bs and there was talk at the draw of a semi naked Pete Uzell wandering into Wills room during the night but what goes on tour obviously stays on tour!

The club were fishing on the dam wall pegs 1-16 and with the wind blowing down into the early numbers this seemed like the more favourable draw

The match itself followed the same pattern for nearly everybody to varying levels of success as in most had a few pulls in the first hour followed by a barren dire spell for the hours middle match as the carp backed off into the expanse of the reservoir and then the fish returning en mass in the last hour and a half to binge on the pellet mountain that everyone had been feeding all day. The guys that done the best were those that managed to keep the odd fish coming mid match.

I drew peg 12 and had self confessed pellet wag expert Steve Burgess next to me on 11 and on 13 was Mike Wilson who dosnt know what a wag is! or a lead or a method feeder and im not sure he was totally sure what a rod and reel are ether as he started the match 15mins later than everyone else still trying to set up!

Duhh!

My plan was start on the method whilst feeding 8mms as far as i could fire them hopefully catching on the lead and wag later in the day, i did have dreams of a mega bagging session as my first three chucks resulted in three wrap rounds and 30lb in the net followed by err.....nothing for the next three hours.

Now most of the club are used to fishing viaduct and doing battle with scary cary monsters but the fish in Boddingtons are on another level, averaging 8-16lb they are proper tackle testers with probably the most aggressive takes that i have ever encountered. Someone who can testify to this was Keith Ray on peg 10 who after a very quiet match had his expensive Daiwa rod and reel combo ripped off his lap into the reservoir, the butt of the rod luckily stayed afloat doing its best jaws impression, also lucky was that as it got to about 30metres out the fish changed direction and started running parallel to the bank and as it passed myself i managed to drop a lead just in front and hook the butt and much to keiths relief retrieved the rod with fish still attached, keith then clambered back to his peg and promptly lost the fish at the net!

The last hour was frantic for everyone even Steve Burgess started catching on the wag! looking along the bank rods were bent double everywhere.

One angler who seemed to be doing better than most was Will Dearlove on peg 7 who fished a really tidy match fishing a small method and boilie at long range taking fish at regular intervals to win the match with a creditable 147lb 13oz

In second spot was Paul Preston on end peg 2 and Paul had and interesting and frustrating match as he easily hooked enough fish to win twice over but in an extremely snaggy and weedy peg he lost alot more than he landed ending with 124lb

Third was Alan Healy on yet another flyer peg 5 who fished similar tactics to will ending up with a decent 122lb 11oz

FULL RESULT

1. WILL DEARLOVE    147LB  13OZ        PEG 7
2. PAUL PRESTON        124LB                           2
3. ALAN HEALY           122LB   11OZ               5
4. MATT WILLIAMS     111LB    6OZ               4
5. CHRIS SZAKACS        92LB   12OZ             12
6. RYAN RADFORD        80LB                          14
7. MARK RADFORD       75LB    8OZ               3
8. STEVE BURGESS        75LB    8OZ              11
9. PETE UZZEL                74LB    7OZ               8
10. ADAM CASWELL       73LB    15OZ             9
11. STEVE SEWELL          68LB    12OZ            6
12. KEITH RAY                  62LB    10OZ            10
13. MIKE WILSON            36LB    10OZ            13
14. AND ONE DNW

Most people really enjoyed the match as it was a different sort of fishing than most of us are used too and hopefully another trip will be booked in the near future.