Mary Poppins Umbrella syndrome

[Banana Steve]

Well I had planned to fish Todber manor again over the Easter weekend, I spent the week preparing my kit, only to have the weather men tell me that the Easter weekend was going to be one of the coldest in a very long time and with a seriously strong wind blowing from the north. But in my optimism I decided that the weather men were wrong and it wasn’t going to be that bad. So with a calm day on Wednesday and calm morning on Thursday, I decided that I would finish work early and head out to Todber. On arrival there was a medium wind blowing, and I found my self a nice sheltered spot with the wind at my rear.

So began the roughest fishing events so far in my life.

I set up rods and found 3 marks where I decided to fish, Mark 1 and 2 were on a gravel bed and mark 3 on silt bed. Using red source bollies from the tackle shop I began fishing at around 4pm.

My first fish came at around 5:30ish from mark 1, a small carp of 2lb. with in 20 mins of that fish I had a second carp of a round 4lb. At around 7pm my 3rd had been landed, a nice common of 8lb.

The wind at this point started to pick up and the rain started to move in. However things were still going well, with wind still at my rear and the hedges breaking up the wind, I was lovely and cosy.
The next hour and half produced 3 more carp 2 at 4lb mark and one about 2lb.
At around 11:30 I had a fantastic run, I came out of my Bivvy I noticed that the wind was a lot stronger and was slightly blowing from my left. I struck into a nice fish, after about 10 mins I landed a lovely metallic mirror which weighed in at 12lb, no sooner as I had returned that fish, which came of my 2nd mark. The rod on my 3rd mark screamed off, to produce a great fight and a great common of 15lb.

12lb mirror

15lb Common
The next hour and half produced no fish but plenty of bites but nothing to strike at.
As the night moved on the wind took a dramatic turn for the worse. At 2am the rain started to pound down and wind changed direction completely, blowing hard from my left. At this point I brought my rods in a decided that there was no way I was getting out of my Bivvy in this weather, so I decided that I would try and get some sleep.
As I laid there the wind started to batter my Bivvy, the poles were bending over to the point they were going to snap, the wind would blow up between the outer and inner canvas which felt like the Bivvy was going to take off and i was going to be flying like Mary Poppins. This lasted from 2am until 5:45am when every eased off for the following 3 hours.

The following Morning after the storm

I re-casted my rods back to their marks, to completely surprise when the rod on my 1st mark screamed of to produce yet another 4lb carp. Over the following three hours I landed 4 more fish. My final fish was taken from my 3rd mark, this fish however ran my ragged and managed to swim through both my other rods and caused a massive tangle. However the fish was a nice common of 13lb 3ozs. Two match anglers had turned up as I landed the fish, and they kindly took a photo for me.

Whilst fishing I was listening to the radio, they forecasted the wind picking up again and rain and snow moving in, being the big wimp as I am I decided that one night in a storm was enough for me, so I called it a day.
The fishing was fantastic it was just a shame about the wind. Mind you it seems to par for the coarse when fishing Todber.

10 out of 10 for the fishing, -10 out of 10 for the weather

[perch_king]

well done mate thats what you call a fisherman fish in all weathers not like some numptys good on ya

[Greenheart]

Nice bag of Carp Steve, but why doe's it always blow a Hoolie at Todber. Don't know who's the biggest Jonah, you or Twiddler? LOL Well done for sticking it out mate...

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Steve, some cracking fish in those conditions

[mithrandir]

Well done Steve, there is a good head of fish in Wadmill, and they will usually give you a run for you money, even in the weather! It always seems to blow a hoolie up there.

[Banana Steve]

Originally Posted by mithrandir

It always seems to blow a hoolie up there.

One day i will fish there and it will be like a mill pond and not a breath of wind.Fingers crossed and toes

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Medal awarded for the weather mate plus some lovely carp

[Twiddler]

Very well done Steve, a superb bag of carp there. You will have to learn to listen to the weather man more often though I think

For the wind condition at todber, well I guess the owner has too many beans for his dinner lol.

[BaggieRich]

Well done Steve. A good stamp of fish is just reward for sticking it out in that weather.



You're mad mate.

[fishypaul]

you deserved to get them fish steve,not many would have stuck it out in those conditions,
well done mate