This is the final match organised by Roger Sargeant on behalf of the CSSC SR and on behalf of the Southern Region Anglers I would like to thank Roger for about a quarter of a century of organising matches for us. His support in the coming years will still be most valuable and welcome.

Fred Gill

Twenty-eight anglers entered this year’s qualifier held at Todber Manor Fishery, Sturminster Newton. The fishery has a number of lakes, all well maintained and set in beautiful country surroundings. Our event was on Park Lark which is broadly oval with a central island creating a fishing area approximately sixteen metres wide and two metres deep.

Anglers were split into three sections with the top two anglers in each section representing the South West in the National team final. In addition to qualification there were prizes for anglers with the top three weights overall, the winner and runner up in each section.

We had typical July weather – overcast with gusting winds and intermittent heavy showers. As a result fishing was, in the main, hard. Those anglers who adjusted quickest to the unseasonable conditions did however record some very good weights.

The standard approach for this fishery is to fish a long pole close to the island bank and short pole in the nearside margin. This proved to be difficult on the day due to the gusting wind and cold water. Gary Webber used his vast knowledge of commercial fisheries to quickly change tactics and win the match (and C section) with a weight of 103lb. His fish were mainly carp caught on a pellet feeder cast into bankside vegetation so that he was fishing within inches of the far bank. Brian Shuttler was runner up in C section and joint second in the match. He also found in the first two hours that the gusting wind prevented good presentation on the long pole against the island but a change of tactics to fish 6mm pellets shallow at seven metres gave him a weight of 91lb 6oz at the close. Paul Gay was one of the few anglers to catch with the pole against the island margin. He was third in C section with an all carp catch weighing 65lb. The successful method for Paul was worm on the hook fished over hemp.

Paul Barnard tried the standard approach of far bank pole fishing but without too much success for the first half of the match. A change to heavy feeding with corn in his left and meat in his right hand margins resulted in a much improved catch rate for the latter half of the match on his meat line. The end result was a mixed bag of roach, F1’s and carp weighing 91lb 6oz to win Section A and joint second overall. Dave Docherty had second place in Section A with a mixed catch of roach, F1’s and carp weighing 74lb 4oz. He caught initially on the long pole against the island fishing pellet on the hook but the bulk of his weight came in the last two hours of the match fishing meat in the near side margin.

The hardest section on the day turned out to be B Section where a number of anglers did not catch a fish in the first two hours of the match. Steve Houghton was the first to overcome the difficult conditions finding fish at 7 metres on meat and sweetcorn. His weight of 51lb 12 oz was enough to win the section. Second qualifier from this section was Mark Gaylard who teased out a mixed bag weighing 47lb 8oz on his long and short pole lines.

The anglers who qualified to represent South West Region in the National Final are G Webber, B Shuttler, P Barnard, D Docherty, S Houghton, and M Gaylard. G Webber and B Shuttler are not available so are replaced by P Gay and R Coles.

Next years qualifier will be at Viaduct Fishery, Somerton, Somerset on Tuesday 10 July 2012. Further details to be available in April 2012 on the CSSC website and by letter.