Welcome to my fishing blog… June 2023
June 28th – FishOMania Qualifier, Todber Manor – The Unforgettable Lessons of Fish O’ Todber
So, I bought a ticket for this FishOMania qualifier match at Todber Manor several months ago. Now, those that know me well, know how much I hate commercial fisheries but I have never seen this one before, and more to the point I have not fished a FishOMania qualifier since 2004, when it was held on the Grand Union Canal in Milton Keynes. I won my section that day with 2 big tench and strangely enough, Barry Hearn and Steve Davies were both in my section. However, the beast has grown many heads and limbs since then and it’s totally unrecognisable now, from what it was way back then.
Having followed the events over the years and watched many Fish-O videos, I was under no illusion about qualifying or even framing at this event. The calibre of anglers competing in this competition is incredibly high, with the likes of ex-England internationals, Des Shipp and Callum Dicks plus several other high-profile, heavily sponsored names. For me, it would be like getting into the ring with Mike Tyson but I wanted to do it just for the experience. Will I ever do it again? No way… no thanks. To my mind, this is not real fishing… It’s mechanical, repetitive fish plundering. It’s more like F1 motor racing on steroids. It sucks!
Okay, so enough of all that…
So, we had all heard about the silly weights coming from Hillview in a club match recently, with 834lb being the top weight. So I borrowed 4 nets from Legion club mate, Jason Pitman, which meant I had 12… what was I thinking… lol! I phoned the Todber Tackle Shop on Friday to get some info about catfish, F1s and crucians. So, catfish have to go in separate nets, and F1s and crucians can go in with the silvers or the carp. Fair enough. Then I asked the guy about what was the best bait at the present time and he said, for Hillview, Homeground, and Ash, maggles short and shallow was the way to go.
So, I made sure I had a gallon of maggles plus plenty of pellets, and lots of meat and corn. I spent a lot of time on Tuesday before the match making up new rigs and checking everything. Man, I was loaded and ready for action! I had an early start Wednesday morning, getting up at 5am, loading the car, and away for 6.30am. I arrived at the complex around 8am in time for a bacon butty, a cup of tea, and a look around the tackle shop. I then registered and paid my pools. A crowd was gathering now and Des Shipp was in the middle of them.
Callum Dicks was also loitering with intent and I heard him telling others that he had been down the day before for a last-minute practice. Again maggles shallow was mentioned. I also overheard others, who were obviously regulars, and dead reds were mentioned several times. I got talking to a guy who had been to the venue once before and he told me that he didn’t bring any maggles… only pellets because he was told that pellets would be all he would need. Chinese whispers eh? Anyway, I walked up to get a closer look at the lakes before the draw and I checked out both Ash and Hillview. Both lakes had carp topping and cruising all over. Homeground Lake was a little too far away and the rest of the lakes are offsite.
So, back to the draw. As I queued up I noticed several familiar faces that I have seen on Youtube videos and I overheard many people talking about their practice sessions over the last few days. I really wished I had managed to get a least one practice session in beforehand but unfortunately, work demands put paid to that. As I’m getting nearer to the draw bucket I’m thinking, I just want to be on any one of the lakes onsite. So, in goes the hand of fate, and out comes peg 56 on Hillview. Whoopee! I was happy with that and made my way over to my peg. You can park behind your peg on almost all of the pegs on this lake.
As I was getting set up, Callum Dicks arrived and was in the next peg to me on peg 55. No pressure then lol. I put 4 keepnets in (wishful thinking) and it took me all of the 2 hours we had, to get fully set up. The weather was really warm and humid and there was a light breeze blowing down the lake from right to left. I felt like I was in a fan oven. Anyway, there were a few carp cruising around and I set up a mugging rig for them but my first line of attack would be maggles short and shallow. On the all-in, I threw a handful of maggles out and dropped my rig right into the middle of them. There were swirls everywhere.
However, the swirls were made by small skimmers. Occasionally a carp would come into the swim and the float would get wafted out of position. Meanwhile, the bagging machine to my right had a carp first put-in and then every put-in thereafter. My line was alive with small fish so I fed more to attract the carp and feed these little beggars off. It didn’t really work as I foul-hooked and lost several carp in a row. One of them shot out towards the island and then the rig came flying back at a gazillion miles an hour, leaving me with a bird’s nest on the end of my pole. One rig down five to go. After flogging the maggle line for about 50 minutes, all I had was 4 little skimmers so it was time to call it a day on that approach. So, maggle short and shallow was big mistake number 1.
Callum had about 20 carp in the same period and everyone all around was catching carp steadily. Although it was a bit difficult to see exactly what Callum was fishing with I caught a glimpse of him loose feeding, so it was the pellet that was doing the damage. Well, a change to pellet then for me but the carp were really finicky and not having it. I really couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong as I was now doing exactly the same as Callum but I noticed he fed hardly anything, unlike me who was heaving it in. That was big mistake number 2. Anyway, I spotted a cruising carp and put my mugging rig on its nose and finally, I was in. I had a few more on this method but I couldn’t keep pace with the rest of the field.
I came back on the short pellet line and managed to get one but it was probably only a pound or so. With 2 hours gone, it was obvious I was flogging a dead horse, so I had to change tactics again. I cupped in 2 large pots of Scopex groundbait laced with dead reds to my left-hand margin, hooked a big dendrobena and dropped it in. Immediately, I was into a better carp of about 4lbs. After netting it I noticed my landing net was coming loose, so I screwed it back into position. I dropped another worm-baited hook into the margin swim and once again I was in right away. It was another carp of the same stamp.
It’s disaster time! As I netted this carp, my landing net came off the handle, the carp and the net dropped into the water and then the hooklength snapped. WTF! I managed to retrieve the net frame, which landed on my keepnets but the screw insert was still stuck in the handle and there was no way this could be repaired there and then. And this was a Preston Innovations net by the way. Luckily I had a spare landing net with me but first I had to get the threaded section out of the handle before I could attach the other net. I couldn’t really go around asking anglers if they had any pliers they could lend me, so I spent the next 20-30 minutes looking for something that I could use to get this damn threaded connector out of my handle. I was sure I had a knife in my tackle box but I didn’t. Big mistake number 3. Eventually, I did find a penknife in the tyre well of my car, which had a can opener attachment.
So, using the can opener, I was able to get a grip on the threaded metal and move it around. Finally, I got it out of the handle. By now, I was so pi*sed off, I was losing interest in the match altogether. I was heating up, getting stressed and losing patience fast. So, I spent the next 15 minutes having a cup of tea and watching Callum as I calmed down. My match was long over and with only 2 hours left on the clock, towel duly thrown in, I decided to just fish down the edge and catch what I could. I cupped in more groundbait and carried on with worm on the hook. I caught 4 bream and another 30lbs of carp to finish with just under 60lbs… and I got heat stroke just for good measure.
The next day, at home, I checked my video footage, only to find I hadn’t positioned the camera properly and had cut half my head off all the way through the video. Big mistake number 4. The unforeseen landing net incident aside, I didn’t really enjoy the day one bit, to be honest. I know we all like to win something at our little club matches or get our name on the score sheet on some of the local opens but for me this event was verging on the obscene. I’ve now realised that purely money-motivated match fishing is not for me, so I’ll never be a Fish-O star, get sponsored, and live life happily ever after. For anyone that might crave that kind of “career”, I wish you every success. I’m more than happy watching my stick float dip and dive as I enjoy every nano-second of my river fishing.
So, it was a truly memorable experience but for all the wrong reasons. I know I never expected to win anything but I would have liked to have beaten my PB, which is 164lbs from Campbell Lake at Viaduct Fishery many years ago. The winner on Hillview had 427 lbs and I think 421 lbs was second. Callum had over 300 lbs… I think. Well, it’s all over now and my life can return to some kind of normality… well at least until July 30th when I’ll be fishing a Riverfest qualifier on the Warwickshire Avon. Well, I should be able to handle that one, no sweat. So, my next normal match is at Whitehouse Farm on Sunday… phew! Looking forward to it. And as usual, I’ll keep you posted.
BTW. Thanks to everyone who was rooting for me. Your moral support for the underdog was very much appreciated.
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About me
January 2023
February 2023
March 2023
April 2023
May 2023
June 2023
11th – Margaret’s Lake, Whitehouse Farm
18th – River Avon, Crane, Keynsham
25th – The Lido, Fishponds, Bristol
28th – Fish-O Qualifier, Todber Manor
July 2023
August 2023
September 2023
October 2023
November 2023
December 2023
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June 2022
July 2022
August 2022
September 2022
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December 2022
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