Bristol PSV Fishing Club: 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