Sunday, 5 January 2025

04/01/25 - Todber - Hillview

Weight - 71lb 8oz
Catch - 21 Carp
Weather - Overcast and cold. Breezy later
Match - Open (14 fished) - 6th overall

There were 14 of us for today’s Open run by Mark Poppleton. After a severe frost on Thursday night and a less severe frost last night no one was sure how the lake would fish, but more importantly the lake hadn’t frozen as the ambient water temperature was still high enough.

I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about drawing peg 51, halfway down the arm, as it can be a bit hit or miss in the winter and last week it didn’t fish well.

On the all-in I started on the straight lead and bread around various areas of the swim, but never had a bite in the first 30mins. Rob McCann to my right had 1, as did Adrian Drew on p49.

10mins after switching to the pole at 13m where I had fed bubblegum micros with some corn, pinging 4mm bubblegum pellet over top, with corn on the hook I caught my first fish. It was slow going but at least I was catching and by the halfway point I was up to 10 fish.

Adrian was slightly ahead of me, whilst Dave Brittan and Michael ‘Ginge’ Hall on p54 & p55 had both been catching quite well.

The next 90mins was very slow, as I only managed a couple of carp on the lead & bread. I had started feeding meat at 2+2 and micros and maggot just off the margins, but I had no bites until the last hour when I had 8 carp from the short meat line.

At the weigh in I beat Adrian and Rob, whilst I couldn’t beat Dave and Ginge as they took advantage of a ball of fish in the corner.

Despite the freezing weather, the fishing overall was pretty good.

1.    143-  0 – Tim Hadland – p48
2.    100-  0 – Michael Hall – p55
3.      91-  0 – Tony Gilbert – p38
4.      87-  0 – Mark Wynne – p46
5.      80-  0 – Dave Brittan – p54

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