James Farrow Memorial Match at Todber, 2009

Match winner Steve with a Todber mirror

Reflections on the 8th event in memory of Richard Farrow's son, James, who also enjoyed fishing. These are the observations of some of the attendees.

Stephen Nieman...
Upon receiving an invite to fish the “James Farrow Memorial Match” on Big Hayes at Todber Manor for the 12th of July and arranged by Fishingmagic, I was looking forward to the whole event.

I meet Claudia at Todber at around 11:30 on the Friday, after purchasing the bait and getting ourselves down to lake, we choose our swims. I fancied the far end bay but a member of the group had taken that, so looking at the next peg up, it looked as good.

Claudia seemed happy to take the next peg up from me. What was amazing that every one of the group choose the same bank.

With the match not due to start until the Saturday at 10:00pm it was a case just fishing for fun. Claudia was the first one to have a run, however she lost the fish. As the day wore on it became obvious that the fishing was going to be hard. Friday evening fell into night and I had my first run, a nice Common of 9lb

At around 3am I had another run, but I pulled out of that fish, which felt like a good fish.
As morning broke at 5pm every one was up and talking about the previous night. Everyone seemed up for it and they were looking forward to the day, however, priorities were more important as people required breakfast.

As the Match started, a few of the Anglers started to catch with 3 people catching Carp all around the 13lb mark. First was Richard Farrow, then Claudia, then I think it was Peter Jacobs.

Well as the day moved into night, I was still fishless, but because I caught during the previous night, I was confident that I would catch during the night. Well as it did become dark, I did have a fish that went 7lb 11ozs, well I was on my way. My next run was at 6:30 in the morning

Claudia had also caught during the night, only a small carp of 2lb but enough to put her in second place with me in a surprising 1st place. With 30mins to go I had another run, a lovely carp of 9lb to secure 1st place.

As the match finished I was chuffed to bits about winning and chuffed about Claudia coming 2nd. However, the overall winner was the money raised for the Charity.

Overall, I feel very privileged to have fished with these guys, I am looking forward to joining them again next year, It was a fantastic weekend full of fun and laughter.

Trev Matthews...
I drove into the farm yard feeling utterly refreshed and ready to fish for another 48 hours session.  Id just finished 48 hrs in Wales after Catfish and was now looking forward to actually putting a bend in my rods for a change.  The shop was huge and I had a pleasant conversation with Kia as I bumbled round the shelves looking for bargains and bits of stuff to spend money on. I always like to think that I have everything I need, but the lure of the tackle shop draws me in every time. 

Anyhow, after my chat I was in quite high spirits and drove the last half mile to the lake in trepidation. There were a few locals on the lake already, but they were all due to leave by 1700 hrs, so I set about walking round the lake to chat to the anglers who were already there and to the locals that hadn’t yet packed up. From my observations of the lake and from the discussions I knew it was going to be a difficult 48 hrs but I like a challenge and it was a fresh start as well.  Cakey, Wayne and Craig had already set up along one of the long banks and I guessed that the pegs opposite them would be taken up with other FMers yet to arrive, so I chose a peg in the bottom bay that the wind had been blowing into for the last few days.

Setting up was a nice leisurely affair and I managed to grab a brew in the process which was welcome as it was a hot day and destined to become hotter.  I put one bait out along the reeds that fringed the bay and another one out into the middle of the bay to intercept any cruising fish that were following the wind.  Both baits were adorned with a tiny PVA bag of pellets.  Little and often was the advice given by Claudia and who was I to argue.

I think I dozed off in my chair in the afternoon sun and when I woke I could hear the sounds of laughter coming from the bank to my left. Quickly checking my immediate area for signs of booby traps or other mischievous antics I saw there was nothing amiss and ventured down to chat and socialise with the crew.  The banter on the first evening was light hearted and fun and it was good to feel like I 'belonged' once again. I retired to my pit after a few Guinness and had a good night’s sleep interrupted twice by single bleeps, one on each alarm that amounted to nothing.

Early the next morning I sat drinking a brew and watching the water and saw absolutely nothing except the ripples of a few small fish dimpling the surface.  Time for a complete change of tactics and very soon I was thrashing the surface to a foam with my marker set up.  I found a clay bed with very little weed and about 3 foot of water all the way across (the lake had lost a good 18 inches of water due to it being pumped into the new lake next door). I did however find a slightly deeper depression full of silt running parallel to the left hand margin about a rod length out.

One bait went into this depression, a Todber Manor special tipped with a bright pink Indian spice daytripper hook bait and 7 single boilies scattered around it.  The other bait was changed and cast to various positions along the reed fringe every hour or so.

At last a fish, my left hand alarm screamed for attention and I was surprised to find myself attached to a lovely looking mirror carp that pulled the needle round to 19 lbs and a bit, after deducting 6 lbs for the wet mat/sling (I have a very big unhooking mat/weigh sling) Kia confirmed the weight at 13 lbs and went to tell the others.

There being no further action during the rest of the day it was nice to be distracted by the barbeque and raffle. I got a bag of carp fishing related goodies that was gratefully accepted, it was a blessing actually as I had run out of PVA mesh earlier in the day and the bag had some in it, yippee!  Also, the barbeque helped build my morale back up again and I returned to cast fresh baits with renewed vigour.

A silent night led to a very subdued angler reluctantly packing his kit away and not looking forward to the very long drive back.  I wandered down the bank to attend the prize giving and farewells. It was an emotional affair with Richard finally handing over the top prize to Steve who fished very well during the weekend and thoroughly deserved it.

Final farewells were exchanged and I started my long journey home.

Will I return again next year? Yes, you bet I will, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Dan Emmerson....
When I arrived at Todber I chose the peg next to Cakey.  I was hoping he knew something I didn’t, but how wrong I was. It was tough and I tried everything I could, but out of the whole weekend I had one run on a pineapple boilie on a zig rig.

As I was to close to the reeds the fish dived straight in there. The hook pulled out straight into them so I got wet going in and untangling it as I didn’t want to risk trying to pull it free and having it snap and leaving it for the wildlife to get caught up in.

So fishing next to Cakey did me no favour’s for catching, just good conversations about anything. Top bloke is our Cakey. The BBQ was great and wasn’t burnt, even better! I enjoyed meeting everyone and I hope the beer washed straight off your motor, Richard.

One of my highlights was winning 1st prize on the raffle as it must be the only thing I’ve won. The whole event was a success and we had a great crowd of us mad FMers.

Many thanks.


Claudia Crowther....
Well, it was time to attend the annual James Farrow memorial match again, Todber Manor is only 30 miles down the road from me.

I invited my friend Steve (aka Banana) to the event as we both fish Todber pretty regular, however this was the first time for me fishing Big Hayes Lake so I was quite excited to see what the lake would be like.

Steve and I arrived Friday midday to find Cakey, Dan and Trev already hard at work trying to tempt the big lumps. After a quick natter and introducing Steve, I set out to find a swim which might produce some fish.

The lake was down to about 4 foot of water, due to the lack of rain they had so I knew things wouldn’t be easy. I chose a swim right in front of the island and Steve took the swim to the right of me at the end of the island.

PJ arrived later in the day and fished to the left of me, a gentleman who knows how to fish in style. Out came the gas BBQ with all the utilities needed for a first class feast that we got treated too by PJ on the Saturday.

By Friday evening everybody had arrived, (except Frothy who turned up on Saturday evening) so we all gathered together for a bit of banter, a drink and to present Cakey with his birthday present from all of his FM friends. (We did see that wee tear in your eye, Cakester )

I think I was the first one who got into a fish that day/evening, not a massive one, an 11lber but a very welcome fish nevertheless, At

least I knew there were fish in my swim, as there were no signs of any during the day. I managed to catch a few more during the weekend, smallest one was a 2lber which put a right bend in to my rod.

Saturday was a gorgeous day, hot and bright sunshine, not ideal weather for fishing but great for chilling and sunbathing, which was welcomed by some people (see picture of Richard snoozing). Steve was doing better than the rest of us and caught a fair amount of carp, including the heaviest fish of the weekend and also the heaviest total weight.

Saturday evening arrived (and so did Frothy) and we got spoilt by PJ with a first class BBQ, fresh salad, burgers and hotdogs with plenty of fried onions. Thank you Peter, you are a star.

I lost track of who caught what and when but that’s not important. The important bit was the reason we gathered together again, to raise money for a worthy charity and to remember young James Farrow who loved his fishing as much as we do.

I had a fantastic time and it was great to have met up with Richard and the guys again and to have finally met Frothy.

I can't believe that Todber was the 8th such event, the years seem to fly by. My sincere and deep felt thanks to Cakey for his fantastic efforts in running the online auction.

My thanks to Graham for allowing the event to run under the FM banner, to Peter Jacobs for his help with the venue, much appreciated. Finally a big thank you to all those who helped the event by offering items for the auction, bidding for auction items, to those who made donations, and finally to those who made the fish-in itself.

I'll leave the story of the event to some of the others, suffice to say that I didn't blank as I normally do, others weren't so lucky. The final amount raised is still not finalised but looks like being in excess of £1850 a sum of money that the Charity will be delighted with, It will really be a great help to local youngsters suffering with diabetes and the charity is a great support to the families of the youngsters with the condition.

Many thanks to you all from Di, Michael & myself (Richard Farrow).


And at the special request of Claudia there is one last picture ......