Junior Points Match #6, Hillview Lake, Todber Manor.

Say you've been to Todber Manor, without saying you've been to Todber Manor...

It was already very warm as I opened my bleary eyes at 5:15am and realised it was junior match day. I leapt from the duvet like a spring Gazelle and made my way to the kitchen. Still blinking sleep away, I filled the kettle on for a morning brew, popped some wholemeal in the toaster and made my way to the ablution room.

I wondered why it was taking so long for my eyes to clear and peered into the mirror.

What surprised me most is that I’d made it this far without my glasses, as the blurred greying fat bloke in the mirror shook his head at me in disgust.

The next part of the morning would pass without issue and with far more clarity as I sung my way across Dorset in my air conditioned eutopia. Before I knew it, I wheeled into a virtually empty Todber Manor car park. I guessed that we would be fishing the same pegs as the coaching session a few weeks before, so I breezed straight through and up to the lakes.

I opened the door and the change in air temp took my breath away. It was going to a warm one for sure, so I emptied the car whilst it was still cool enough to function.

Pegs out, flags up, all to the accompaniment of enthusiastic Carp excitedly waiting to meet our juniors.

The week has been a challenging one to say the least, and the least said the better.

With all that behind me now, I was back in my happy place in the early morning air waiting for everyone to arrive. I get a chance to take in the peaceful surroundings and enjoy the stillness before everything erupts into mildly controlled chaos up until I blow the whistle for the start of the match when it all seems settle again.

I wandered down to the tackle shop to find someone who I vaguely recognised as Jerry.

After a less than productive 48-hours session on one of the Specimen Carp/Catfish Lakes, Jezza was looking a bit dishevelled and in dire need of a power wash, so I left him in the queue for the shower behind a Welshman, two foxes, and a duck…

Nice bloke Tim arrived along with a summer-hatted Lloyd, and a wooden legged Nigel who was on strict orders to look after himself after the last session put him back in hospital. John would arrive later with Mia and Wendy, and I expected nothing from Martin because I knew what the weather was going to do to him today.

Your participating juniors for today were:

Peg 1: Josh Roe (Jamie’s Clone)

Peg 2: Jayce Hardware

Peg 3: Alexander Adey (I’ve got a new pole and I’m not afraid to use it, Jerry!)

Peg 4: Freddie Campbell (Hoping for a Personal Best)

Peg 5: Alfie Ellis (Grow Bag)

Peg 6: Kenzie Toulson (Fabio)

Peg 7: George Ellis (Not in the match)

Peg 8: Alec Campbell (Not flipping Carp again!)

Peg 9: Austin Scott-Kennedy (Strangely Tall)

Peg 10: Mia Evans (Why can’t this massive Gazebo cover me when it rains?)

Your plunder of coaches (the correct collective noun for 6 angling coaches) today were:

Black Beard – Graham Howard

Calico Jack Rackham – Jerry Bracey

Captain William Kidd – Tim Broughton

Henry Morgan – Lloyd Richards

Long John Silver – Nigel Kemp

Jack Sparrow – John Evans

Peg One:

Josh Roe:

117lbs 2ozs

Josh hadn’t drawn at the favoured end of the lake being, as he was, in the end of the back arm of Hillview. There was a lot of fish hanging around there when I arrived, but chucking in loads of keep nets, the arrival of lots of humans, and the weather changes everything before the start of a match. Josh had his elastic chin firmly fixed into place today as it bounced from the floor, up to around his neck, and back to the floor again. I can only assume that much of this was concern for his dad’s welfare because temps were not kind on Asthmatics today. Believe me, I know! Either way, Josh dipped in and out of focus (and I’m not talking about my glasses again) and managed a reasonable weight, less than he had hoped for, I’m sure.

Josh is also one of three juniors that I am currently not talking to because he managed to catch 2 teeny weeny Catfish that were so cute they should be plushie toys!!!

Sadly, they didn’t count today…

Well done Josh…

Peg Two:

Should have been Jayce Hardware. But dad Jake had come down with a case of watery bottom. So, Jayce’s chauffeur had let him down! You just can’t find the staff these days…

Get well soon Jake, see you soon Jayce…

Peg Three:

Alexander Adey:

96lbs 5ozs:

Our micro-junior had arrived with a new pole which mum, Charlie, couldn’t wait to use…

Therein lay a problem.

You see, Alexander doesn’t really care much about fishing matches at the moment, he is still so very young. Neither Alexander nor Charlie gave much thought to match rules. They were just there to enjoy the fishing, the day, and being with friends. After all, isn’t that what it’s really about?

Alexander loves his fishing. But, now and again, he likes to chill out. He will go for a wander. He’ll even let his mum have a go! More than anything he likes to net the fish and likes to be a part of the weigh in process.

I spoke to them, both at the venue and after on WhatsApp and I think I understand more about Alexander’s fishing objectives. From now until he decides to compete properly, Alexander will come to our events, fish the way he wants (The Alexander way), weigh in with the rest of the juniors, but not be part of the official results, today included. I’m sure no one will object to this, and we can all happily carry on…

I need to mention that Alexander weighed in his personal best catch today, plus a baby Catfish (another one!) too.

Well done kiddo…

Peg Four:

Freddie Campbell:

104lbs 11ozs:

Fred had turned up with ambitions today. He was determined to kick the bottom out of his first 100lb weight, and he did just that. I can’t remember seeing anyone so excited to be weighed in. With eyes like saucers, he watched as each of his three nets were tipped on to the scales. He waited with bated breath as Lloyd (who is a school teacher by the way) removed his shoes and socks to count all the ounces! (I mock, but you’d wait an awful lot longer for me to do it, I can tell you! That’s why I do the humping and dumping…Beauty, not brains). When the triple figures were (eventually) read out aloud, it was wholesome to see the dad and lad embrace the victory together.

200lbs next time?

Well done Fred…

Peg Five:

Alfie Ellis:

140lbs 5ozs, 2nd place:

Tall Alfie was end peg Charlie today, well, one of them! A fairly good draw had given Alf a great chance for that maiden win. He was fishing well, but I noticed that he was missing an awful lot of bites. I nipped behind a tree, tied a stained tablecloth around my neck and put some spare soiled pants outside of my shorts. For a big entrance, I lit a pest control smoke bomb and emerged coughing from a cloud of red smoke as SUPER COACH!

I strode wide legged to the lad and told him that the double feeding pattern was pushing the fish down, away from his shallow rig. I left him thanking me as I pretended to fly away, which resulted in me falling over his tackle trolley…

Some or most of the above may or may not be true. I will let you decide which.

It worked, and Alfie put string of fish together for what I believe is another personal best weight and £10 shop voucher for second place in the match.

Well done fella, nice going…

Peg Six:

Kenzie Toulson:

124lbs 9ozs, 3rd place:

Little mister L’Oreal had arguably the best peg of all, and the one I’d used for a training session a few weeks ago. It was solid then, but would it be solid for Fabio today?

During my SUPER COACH phase, I initiated or advised a couple of changes to Kenzie’s rigs, which I hope helped a bit. But I think he found most success on the feeder, especially towards the end of the match. Exhausted by the heat and from carrying the weight of all that hair (I had to keep all the scissors away from Jerry again!), Kenzie was bushed at the end but proudly telling everyone that he’d achieved a new personal match record.

Well done, mate. Great job!

Peg Seven:

George Ellis?

Apparently not…

George arrived late for reason I need not write about, and wasn’t entered for the match anyway… I had misread the message from Carly saying he was just there for a short while today for some coaching. Even if I hadn’t have misread it, I wasn’t going to argue with her. The facade of a petite English rose belies a strong, mildly frightening woman beneath. I mean, I’m guessing so anyway…

More about the micro-Ellis in a moment…

Peg Eight:

Alec Campbell:

DNW:

Alec decided not to take part in the match today and he and Ian were going to leave, but I managed to encourage them to stay for a while seeing as they travelled so far and paid their money.

To be fair, he had a great day. Fishing right up to the moment where catching loads of Carp becomes slightly monotonous. Plus, the clouds had parted bringing the full force of the sun down on us which was almost unbearable at times…

I’m glad they stayed. I like having them around. Not only that but we have our first team for the Senior/Junior pairs match in September.

A. Campbell and G. Howard.

Despite what Alec has going on in his life, I hope he will always feel that the fishing is a safe space for him…See you soon…

Peg Nine:

Austin Scott-Kennedy:

166lbs 6ozs, 1st place:

Austin had to feel confident today. He was armed with a ‘new’ umbrella from the Re-Gen. A camouflage one had to be the choice for a child of the forest!

This ambidextrous approach that Austin has to his fishing still makes me think of watching a baby deer, horse or giraffe trying to stand for the first time. All over the place… Jerry and I thought about duct taping his landing net handle to his left arm to force him to use that instead of his right hand. But we realised it may impede his feeding too much.

I did watch for quite a while during the day but felt that he was doing all he needed to do despite how much watching him was making me itch! This aside, he was quite impressive today. Speedy landing, firm but careful playing, and a good feeding pattern.

All of this is probably why he won…

well done, Rambo…

Peg Ten:

Mia Evans:

75lbs 7ozs:

Mia might feel that her performance was a little below par today. I think she did her best today with the bait she had!!! I’ve never been a fan of additives apart from oils in the summer, something sweet in the winter, and ‘Goo’s’ when I’m desperate. The fish in these heavily stocked commercials are fed on raw pellets all the time. So why would you not fish with them? I know everyone has their preferences and who am I to say they don’t work?

I don’t feel they do for much of the time. It’s only my opinion which may not be worth spit…

She fished well despite her slightly laid-back approach to her fishing, definitely had the best support team. We haven’t had many Gazebo’s at junior events. Only once that I can remember, and definitely no solar panel powered cool boxes!

The best part about the gazebo was when the rain came which it did at about one o’clock, I was already standing under it. Which a good thing…

I was also joined by Jerry and Lloyd who were both troughing delicious looking rolls. I had to be satisfied with Marmite sandwiches and grass…

Well done Princess, I’ll see you at the next one…

The juniors doing the coaching were around the corner from Mia and having fun in their non-competitive environment.

Newcomer Luke Hare had brought with him his own entourage all the way from Bournemouth in the shape of dad Gary, Mum Dominique, his sister and her friend whose names I apologise for not remembering…Sorry.

I can’t remember seeing anyone turned off so much by using a pole, apart from Nigel. But Tim put a feeder rod in his hand later on and he seemed to light up! Luke did well for a first timer, even the delightful girls had a cheeky go, as did Gary. The only one who didn’t was Dominique which we will need to remedy another time. She did hold a slightly angry little Carp though…

Freddie Hallett had turned out for a coaching session because they couldn’t stay for the full length of the match and who I caught red handed 'scooping for fish' with a landing net!

Thomas Millard had bivvied up for the long haul and was slowly working his way through every method of fishing known to mankind in as shorter time as possible. Thomas’s interest lies in Carp fishing more than match, so he will be keen to come to Luckfield in two weeks’ time.

Lastly, we had a non-competitive George who, I must say, opened my eyes with how far he has come. Playing and netting bad-tempered Carp like a pro. It won’t long before he is worrying the regulars in matches (I hope)…

All of the above caught lots of fish and, I think, had a good day…

Congratulations to our winners, Austin, Alfie and Kenzie. Well done to the rest of you…

It was a great day and boy did I need this. It has been a few weeks of wondering if I wanted to keep doing the juniors with one thing and another. But today rekindled my resolve to keep doing the best we can to teach juniors about the best sport in the world.

Football… FISHING! I meant fishing dammit!

I am going to ask the parents to think about buying some more keep nets of their own though. I hung out 18 keep nets when I got home which was hot and depressing.

We have more events at Todber coming up, so if I could so bold as to ask you to bring at least three keep nets each, it will reduce the number I have bring as spares.

It's more of a begging message, than a request!

Our next event is on Saturday the 5th of July at Luckfield Lake for a coaching session.

The focus will be on specimen Carp tactics and methods in more usual surroundings than the manic fishing at Todber. Regular coaching will be available where we may look at making a pole rig as well as other topics. You may be asked to bring specific things, but I will notify you on WhatsApp about that. Only ten places available, let’s use them all!

There we are then another great day consigned to the folder.

Thank you to our evergreen coaches for their time, patience, Gazebo’s cooler boxes, and expertise. Thank you to Jerry, Tim, Nigel and John. We hope to have a fully functioning Martin back with us very soon.

Thanks as ever to the brilliant Todber Manor and all the helpful staff there. Particularly John Candy. It really is one of the best fisheries and, if you’re reading this and haven’t been there before, what are you waiting for???

This edition of the Mud-Slinger was brought to by Ambre Solaire, Buxton still water, and by the coldest shower this side of Alaska…

See you all soon…

Juniors Sec…