Edging It In The Park.

Part of my 118lb catch.

Looking down to the little Willow where I caught.

The view of Park lake from my peg.

Todber Manor's Park Lake was the venue for round 4 of the Challis Tackle spring series. I missed the third match due to holiday, so a good result was needed. I always look forward to Todber as it has been kind to me in the past, and a good day can be had by most anglers, the only problem I had was whilst cleaning my pole the night before I found a bit of a ding mark in my number 5 section, probably from the match at orchard, so I taped it up and hoped it would last the match. Talk at the draw was that you would need the end pegs, as the whole of the lake wasn't in, pegs 14, 25 & 38 were the favoured pegs. As usual I waited for the mad rush to ease, before going to the draw bag. Paul Barnard was just before me, and as he drew, he dropped one on the floor, so I claimed it! Knowing the way Paul draws it was bound to be good, and as it turned it was peg 38! Mind you he pulled out peg 25, boy he can draw! Once I arrived at my peg the happier I was with my draw, as the nasty cold wind that was blowing down the lake was relatively calm in my peg, and I had a lovely quiet margin swim, which turned out to be the focus of my attack. I decided on a three prong attack, a far swim tight to the island at 14.5m, a down the track line at 7m, and a edge swim at 7m to my right, just in front of a small willow tree. I had a couple of pleasure anglers opposite me in the part of the lake that wasn't in the match, but as they were fishing in mid water they would not influence me at all, in fact they would benefit me as they were not fishing there far bank, which was to the right of my edge swim, due to the shape of the lake. I set up a Karpa cube on 0.16 to 0.14 hook length 911-16 on green Garbolino on the far line, A Garbolino DC11 on 0.16 straight through to a 911-16 again on green Garbo. I also set up a paste rig to cover the same line, 0.16 straight through to a size 12 911. For the margin swim I set up a 0.3 durafloat 0.16 straight through to 911-16 attached to Green Garbolino hollow. I also set up a heavier rig on 0.18 and orange garbolino, in case my first rig wasn't strong enough. On the bait table I had corn, paste, luncheon meat, soft pellet and 6mm hard pellet for feeding. At the all in I fed a medium pot of pellet and meat on the track line, and decided to have a look straight away on the edge line. Out with corn on the hook and a toss pot full of pellet to my edge swim just in front of the little willow, the float settled and ten seconds later the float buried and a carp of 2lb was in the net! A good start, in again and the float buried again this time with a better carp, things were looking good. A few roach followed, before more carp, some of them were lumps which tested the gear out, but things were working well. I swapped the baits about, but the roach were ragging the meat to much so I concentrated on the corn whilst feeding pellet. I felt I was doing well and was catching steadily, with some big fish thrown in, which was helping me build a nice weight. I could here Dave to my left catching a few, but as I had my back to the rest of the field, I had know idea how every one else was doing. Going into the last 2 hours things were slowing down on the edge swim, still getting some but by now the bites were getting a bit twitchy. I Hadn't touched any of my other swims so far, and was tempted to leave the edge swim alone for a bit, but switching to an 8mm soft pellet on the hook improved the bites, but I was having to wait a bit longer for the bite, but when it came it was usually a good fish, so I persevered. Into the last hour and I was still catching, although I did have little run of bumping and loosing a few fish, and one which took me into the tree, but I did manage to extract the rig. I was still catching right up to the whistle, and my perseverance down the edge hopefully would of paid of. The weighing in started at the other end of the lake with me last to weigh, Mayo on peg 14 weighed 96lb, Paul on peg 25 weighed 109lb, and I knew it would be close, the favoured pegs were putting up the leading weights, with a few good back up weights in the mid eighties it was time for my weigh. The first net went just under 60lb, which was pleasing as I knew I had a similar weight in the second, after the second net I had a total weight of 118lb, more than enough to win the match, and more than I thought I had. I had a good match fishing down the edge, and my pole managed to hold together despite being held together with tape! I think a repair is in order!