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.

Sedges, Brick Lake, 10 July (20 pegs)

I was a bit worse for wear when the alarm went off this morning following a late night sampling the delights of Staple Hill but I just about made it to Hilltops cafe for breakfast.
It was quite busy in there probably as there was a delay while they cooked up a special for Bela although it has to be said he is now a picture of physical perfection and the envy of many.
A full house today with 20 fishing which was good to see, payouts were for the top 3, 1 silvers and 2 sections plus a Pairs match just to spice things up a bit.
Will had split the sections across the lake as opposed to a section on each bank which was a good move giving those down the sheltered end a chance of picking up, he has been trained well!
There was a bit of conflicting information during the pre-draw discussions over the results of Lee Wiliams's Saturday match on the lake. (see here)
Apparently some were saying there were had been  seven weights over 100lbs but  I had heard peg 10  had walked it with 150-odd but the next best weight was half that and quite a few had struggled.
I suspect they were getting mixed up with a match on Tile or another match that had involved some decent anglers!
Anyway, the Gimp drew peg 10 so it was unlikely to be producing a three-figure weight today.
Somehow I managed to avoid drawing a corner and ended up in the middle of nowhere on 15.
My pairs partner Matt Williams drew peg 2 which was going to be tough as the wind was pushing up the opposite end towards 11 which was occupied by Degsy Williams.
I made sure though before the draw I had £1's with Alan Healey, Steve Sewell and Pete Uzzell just to cover my losses and make sure I went home with something.
Alan drew next door to me on 14 so I could keep a close eye on that pound.
On my left side was the "Silvers Slayer" Lee Waller who was not very well hidden behind the reeds ... a few more months of growing would be required before he would be completely obscured.
Today I had a cunning plan, well it wasn't much of a plan as it was the same thing I always do at Sedges and involved a 6g pellet wag, a brand new catapult (I've lost 2 at recent Viaduct matches) and lots of 8mm pellets but I also had a back-up plan which involved lots of corn and a tin of hemp to fish on the deck at 13m and down the edge.
The left hand edge was a no-go as I couldn't get the rig anywhere close to the edge due to collapsed reeds under the surface so I set up 2 rigs at top kit plus 2 down the right margin.
One tight against the vegetation at 3 foot deep and the other a meter off where it was a foot or so deeper.

At the start I gave all the pole lines a generous helping of corn and hemp then went out on the wag after firing out a healthy dose of pellets towards the rope.

Most were doing the same, including Chris Gay on 7 who had a carp on within minutes.

And it didn't take long for my first one either which I suspected was fouled but it turned out to be a fairly hooked common of 14lbs ... not a bad start by any means.
The match started slowly for most and in the first hour I had a smaller carp plus another double that put me well into the running.
Both Alan and Lee had started off on the pole and neither were getting any bites, it seemed the only carp being caught were coming on the wag or shallow on the pole.
I had a quick look round my pole lines and never had a touch on the deep rig while the edge rig was being pestered by small fish.
Back out on the wag and it was still hard work and was made harder as the wind had increased and was pushing back towards our bank.
By halfway bites were still hard to come by and those that I was getting I was missing due to slack forming in the line, a few were walking the bank and the news was that some hadn't caught anything but Degsy Williams was, predictably, doing well on 11 and so too was Luke Pester on 8.
There was a lot of fizzing going on out on my wag line so reluctantly I set up a lead rod and chucked that out.
It did produce one fish and another when I struck at an "iffy" bite that came off almost straight away.
I was getting loads of liners so I swapped back to the wag but with a 10g pike float on instead.
That was an improvement and I managed a couple more fish on this before the end.
My pole lines never produced anything.
Alan did eventually catch a carp but it was the smallest carp in the lake at about 2lbs (he got a bit of stick today bless him)

As expected the match was won by Degsy Williams with 95-12 followed by Luke with 83-4
and Ryan Radford was 3rd with 57-7
My seven fish total went 56-5 which got me the section and (more importantly) all 3 pound coins.
The silvers was won by the gimp with 13-7 and the pairs was won by Ryan and the gimp who had mugged a 14½lb fish on his silvers gear just to enter into the spirit of things.

Full Result:

1. Degsy Williams (11) 95-12
2. Luke Pester (8) 83-4
3. Ryan Radford (19) 57-7
4. Steve Burgess (15) 56-5
5. Chris Gay (7) 53-15
6. Steve Sewell (13) 41-3
7. Rich Jones (12) 39-1
8. John Bradford (10) 27-13
9. Adam Caswell (3) 25-14
10. Lee Tourettes Waller (16) 21-13
11. Mark Radford (6) 19-11
12. Rocket Ron Hardiman (20) 18-0
13. Steve o'Toole (17) 16-3
14. Matt Williams (2) 15-5
15. Will Dearlove (18) 11-9
16. Pete Uzzell (5) 11-3
17. Keith Ray (4) 10-11
18. Ross Sewell (9) 9-15
19. Alan chip shop Healey (14) 9-10 
20. Keith Bilder (1) 6-11

Silvers:1. John Bradford (10) 13-7
2. Luke Pester (8) 12-14

Pairs:Ryan Radford / John Bradford

Viaduct, Campbell, 03 July (17 pegs)

Seems like ages since I last did a blog post or fished a psv match for that matter so I was very much looking forward to this one.

Will had booked us in for an 11-5 match with a 9:30 draw which everyone I spoke to seemed more than happy with, and it meant I had time to enjoy my breakfast at Canards (served by a very pleasant young lady) and had plenty of time to set up all required kit with time to spare which makes a change.

In fact the drive down was that leisurely I got overtaken by some Coffin-Dodgers in a Honda Jazz but I am on 9 points at the moment which is my excuse!

For my sins I drew 119 which I was happy with as there were a lot of fish showing all around the peg as there were next door in Ryan Radford's peg.

Ryan has been doing really well lately so I had a feeling it wasn't going to be an easy ride today. 

I set up a shallow rig for 14m where there were a fair few fish swirling around, a pellet rig for on the deck, an identical rig without a band for meat and a rig to fish as far into the corner as was sensible as it's a bit of a tackle graveyard tight into the corner so I opted for 13m, about 2m off the bank and probably 3m out from the corner.

I also untangled two float rods, 1 shallow and 1 on the deck to fish between the overhanging trees in front of 120 but other than one bite on the deep rod that I missed they were a waste of time.

For some reason I've never done much good with the pellet wag on Campbell, no idea why.
The lead rod stayed in the bag as it was quite calm so there would be no problems for float presentation,

Only trouble with this peg is that you can't see much of what's going on around you which isn't good when you've got 3 pound coins at stake but fortunately Adam was across the other side on 125 so I would have a good idea of who was "emptying it"!

As it turned out most of the "emptying" would be coming from next door but anyways ...

At the all-in I went straight out on the shallow rig and hooked a fish straight away which unfortunately snapped the hooklength .... bugger!
After that slight hiccup a few fish followed, not all of them coming in the right way round but never mind.
After the first hour I was doing ok and ahead of Ryan who had started on the lead without success before switching to a shallow pole rig.
During the second hour he quickly caught me up as I was struggling to keep the bites coming.
I had a go on the deep pellet rig as there was a lot of fizzing but that only produced one fish amongst the liners.
The meat rig got me bites but I never connected with anything?

While I was fishing on the deck there would be fish moving shallow but when I went back on the shallow rig they backed off ... Frustrating!

With a couple of hours to go Ryan's shallow line had also slowed but he was well ahead of me and he was now catching down his left margin.

Rumour has it that Chris Szakacs and Mark Radford on the next 2 pegs down were doing well too.

I had a first look down towards the corner with meat and hooked a fish straight away which trashed the rig.

The rest of the match went well once I got the hang of how much pressure I could put on my pole to haul the fish away from the snags. 

The old Aspire might be a bit on the heavy side but it can take a lot of stick.

The same couldn't be said though for Stevie Wynne's pole.

He was fishing the Capenters Arms match on Cary and his top 3 exploded while playing one of Cary's bigger inhabitants so he decided to put 4 sections across his knee in a fit of rage (as you do)!

By the end I estimated I had near the 100lb mark with Ryan on 150 

The far bank was weighed first and the top weight came from guest Scott Russell on 132 with 106-4 followed by Alan Healey with 105-9, he chucked a 2lb skimmer back to save getting another net which cost him the section but nobody took the piss (honest)!

Matt Williams weighed in 20-7 of silvers from 123 which looked unlikely to be beaten.

My nets went 103-2 and Ryan had 144-5 so my guessing wasn't far off.

Chris Szakacs was painfully close with 142-2 and third place went to Ade Crawley who suprised everybody nearly as much as he suprised himself with 114-12 from peg 112

The unlikely lads ....

Full Result:

1. Ryan Radford (118) 144-5
2. Chris Szakacs (116) 142-2
3. Ade Crawley (112) 114-12
4. Mark Radford (115) 111-3
5. Scott Russell (132) 106-4
6. Alan Healey (130) 105-9
7. Steve Burgess (119) 103-2
8. Lee Williams (110) 100-12
9. Adam Caswell (125) 88-10
10. Steve Sewell (128) 88-2
11. Pete Uzzell (114) 86-6
12. Will Dearlove (111) 65-6
13. Ross Sewell (126) 63-11
14. Matt Powell (129) 55-0
15. Paul Preston (124) 46-0
16. Matt Williams (123) 45-8
17. Lee Waller (127) 39-14

Silvers:

1. Matt Williams (123) 20-7
2. Lee Waller (127) 15-8
3. Chris Szakacs (116) 13-13

Landsend match & lake 3

Today match at the popular landsend had 22 people fish so we decided as opposed to all be cuddling each other on match lake a few would take the walk up to Lake 3, a few groans
But I think we are all happy families again.
16 on match lake and 6 on Lake 3 plus a few day ticket guys who had about 500 rods and more pegs than a clothes line.
Fancied pegs on match went to Matt Taynton on 12, Steve sewell on 13 with rich Jones,  Steve Wynne,  Chris szakacs and new member Keith bilder on 18 to 22. As for me I draw peg 42 again no sign off fish moving but I was hopefully of getting some as was Ryan opposite on 68.
as it turned out both lakes were a bit of a struggle with just odd fishing being caught, I had 23 fish however a lot smaller than usually especially as they were taken shallow fishing across to the island with only 3 fish coming from the inside margin.
Top on Lake 3 was the man on form matt Williams who edged out mark Radford fishing paste in the margins
, surprisingly he only had 15 fish but all of a good stamp for 77lb.
Match lake was a close match between Chris szakacs and Keith bilder on 21 and 22 who both caught across on pellet and then short on meat to finish with 93lb and 106lb with Keith taking the overall winner.
Even the silvers did not play ball today much to the disappointment of Mr Bradford with similar belcham taking the win with 12lb and Matt Taynton 2nd with 11lb.

Winners was Keith bilder off peg 22 with 106lb
2nd peg 21 Chris szakacs 93lb
3rd and Lake 3 winner off peg 58 matt Williams 77lb
Silvers winner site Belcham off peg 3 with 12lb

Sections lake 3 mark Radford 68lb
Lionel leggings peg 16 70lb
Darren north peg 10 with 52lb

Thanks to Adam for doing the weight in, in his all winter bib n brace, fleece and jacket always brings the laughs considering most were wearing tshirts and shorts.

Viaduct Scary Cary June 12th

Today's blog brought to you by your local daiwa fan I'll leave the humour to fellow bloggers.
Only 11 booked in today which was a surprise as this is probably the best fishery in the uk but maybe it's the size of these carp that puts people off, defiantly not an issue for me.
We had Ryan,  Keith and one of our silvers experts on the top bank with Lee waller and Chris szakacs taking the fancied pegs backing onto lodge. As for me peg 80 again, the same as the open the week before when the fish were to far past the end of the spit however today with aerator on there was no sign of fish moving.
The match was slow for us on the Campbell bank with no one getting a take until a few hours in, the fish were coming into heavy feed but not really giving you any positive indications, feeding less or drip feeding didn't work as they just didn't want to settle with the water movement , over on pegs 94 and 96 Lee and Chris were having a fish battle, Chris down into the corner however his fish did look smaller resident fish whilst Lee was catch well fishing shallow.
As it turned out the top bank was the place to draw with a lot of fish showing and bubbling up, the guys caught on the waggle or pole fished at depth with pellet over loose fed pellets.
Winner was Ryan on peg 88 with 134lb courtesy of Keith sharing his platform with the ducks and deciding on a late catch and release programme costing him the win and a place in the winners final later in the year.

Results
Ryan Rafford 134lb
Keith ray 122lb
Matt Williams 114lb
Lee waller 111lb
Chris szakacs 108lb
Will dearlove 83lb
Alan heavy 79lb
Mark Rafford 68lb
Mike Wilson 62lb
Ron hardie an 60lb
Adam caswell 36lb

Silvers winner was Alan heavy just pipping Ron with 16lb.

Boddington accomodation

Accommodation options for Boddington.
Glebe farm, the mill house, little paddock farm, old Manor Farm bnb, there is a travellodge at Silverstone which is a 20 minute drive. All places circa £80  for twin rooms.  I would advise to car share as the car park is limited.