This year
I had gone for five qualifiers and had managed to get three tickets. These were
for Makins, Monk Lakes and my local Coleman’s Cottage, having missed out on
Barford Lakes and Woodlands View. Barford is always a venue that I like to get,
as it marks my only ‘near-miss’ in a fairly miserable effort to try to qualify
for the final. I was second to Les Thompson in 2008 (I think?) however, I
could see Les catching all day and knew that he was beating me, so never really
felt in the running. Also, Barford is a very friendly fishery and is
always a nice place to go to and that’s coming from an Ipswich fan! (Barford is
near Norwich).
This was
to be my first visit to Makins for many years, in fact it was probably 15-20
years ago that I fished a junior match there. I remember drawing ‘Crater Pool’
and catching some Golden Orfe on maggots. As is always the case beforehand, I
needed to cobble together some basic information about the venue. My friend
Danny Grimsey had fished the venue in last year’s Fisho qualifier and reckoned
you wanted to draw ‘Phase 1’, with bomb and pellet waggler being the likely
winning methods. Anyway, Danny’s advice was more or less going to be left on
the shelf, as I found out a few days before the match, that nearly all of it
was going to staged on Phases 2 & 3, with the exception of ‘Lake 5’ which was
on Phase 1. This changed the dynamics considerably, as Phase 1 consisted of (relatively)
large open water lakes, whereas Phase 2 was smaller lakes with islands and
phase 3 was all snake lakes. This would obviously mean lots more pole fishing
and would make the pellet waggler almost redundant. I decided to bring
everything with me bait and tackle wise and attempt to find some specific
information about my peg on the day. It was going to be a nightmare and
confusing to obtain information on fifteen plus lakes in advance.
So on the
morning of Wednesday the 29th, I left home at 5.45 hoping that the
roads would be kind and I would arrive on time. Fortunately, the traffic was
kind and I could even afford the luxury of stopping for breakfast.
Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse as I neared (what I thought)
was the fishery. To cut a long story short, the post-code on the ticket takes
you past the fishery on a motorway, but with no way to actually access the
fishery though! Therefore, I could see the fishery and even the long, snaking
draw queue, but couldn’t actually get there! Thirty minutes later and after a
lot of following my nose, I eventually arrived, fifteen minutes late! Not a
disaster, as it allowed the draw queue to die-down, however, it was quite
amusing to note that a lot of the anglers near the back of the queue had
suffered the same unexpected detour as me! To be fair it does apparently say on
the fishery website not to follow the post-code, but it would be useful if the
Angling Trust put a similar note on the ticket, as I didn’t bother looking up
the directions on the Makins website.
Anyway, I
only had a five minute wait in the draw queue before unquestionably the most
important part of any fishing match. My subsequent draw put me on ‘Lizard’ peg
16. The Angling Trust match organiser David Kent told me that the peg had won
matches in the past, but it didn’t seem to be a current form peg. Speaking to a
few local Browning sponsored anglers re-inforced that idea and the general
consensus was that I’d catch a few fish. This gave me some hope as I’ve drawn
some pegs at Fishos that have caused people’s faces to recoil in horror!
It was a
short drive to Phase 2 from the draw and as I parked next to my lake I was
immediately struck by how well kept and pleasant looking the place was. You
could see that new owners had spent some time cutting the grass, providing
litter bins and maintaining the paths around the lakes. I parked next to Andy
Geldart, (who was on my lake) and after working out where our pegs were,
deduced that Andy was to be sat with the wind blowing towards him, whilst I had
the wind off of my back. Now, I’m a big believer in the fish following the wind
at this time of year, however the wind was cold and I put several layers of
clothing on before leaving the car. We went our separate ways wishing each
other luck, wondering if the fish would follow or stay out of the wind.
As I
arrived at my peg I immediately liked the look of it. To my right I had an
island within long pole range and also had some open water to my left which I
could also target. The main reason for my optimism though were the two empty
pegs to my right and one to the left. I had everything crossed that no-one
turned up late on these empty pegs! As time ticked by, it became evident that I
would have the rare luxury of some space in a Fisho qualifier!
As with
all Fishos you need to set-up with a positive, potentially winning strategy in
mind. My relatively simple approach was to be entirely pole based. Firstly, I
plumbed up a long pole line at 15 metres of my Z14 pole to my right, tight
against the island in just over 2 feet of water. In front of me at an angle of
11 o’clock I plumbed a line at 14.5 metres in the open water where it was
roughly 5 feet deep. I also assembled a 5 metre rig, where the depth was pretty
much identical to that of the long open water line. Finally, I plumbed up 2
edge lines, directly adjacent to the empty pallets to my left and right. I found
about 3.5 feet of water here, which in an ideal world is too deep. I had
shallow rigs ready for the open water line and also a ‘mugging’ rig, which is
an absolute essential on a commercial fishery in the warmer months.
Rig wise,
light floats were the order of the day, as it was fairly shallow and I was also
out of the wind. 4x12 Malman Roobs were set-up for the open water lines and a
4x10 Malman Adam for the island. Lines for these rigs were the beautifully
supple ‘Browning Cenex’ in 0.16, with and 0.16 hook-length to a 16 B911 hook.
Elastic choice was the new ‘Browning Stretch 7’ hollow in green at 5 metres and
the blue Browning Cenex hollow for long. A couple of edge rigs were also
assembled, although these featured 0.18 main lines and hook-lengths.
I had a
variety of bait combinations with me, however, I decided to base my match
heavily around pellets and meat, with maybe some ground bait and corn being fed
down the edges later in the day. It’s worth noting that a maximum of two bags
of Green Swim-Stim pellets and two tins of meat were allowed at your peg. I had
opted for 6mm pellets and 7mm meat.
As I
didn’t know the lake I was reticent to feed bait everywhere at the start, much
preferring to feed one line and try to get a feel for what the fish may want to
eat on the day. A great tactic on commercials is to start short and almost try
to ambush some quick fish before they realise what’s happening. I felt that I
would have a reasonable chance of an instant bite at 5 metres, so I fed a small
quantity of meat and hemp here through a big pot – probably 20 pieces of meat
and dropped straight on it. I did get an immediate response although not from
the intended species, as the first ten minutes yielded two roach. To me this
was a sign that the carp were not present, or they didn’t want to eat meat,
especially as Andy Geldart on the opposite bank had landed two carp fishing in
a similar manner to me.
It was
time to change tactics and I decided to have an early look in the shallow water
on the island. I also decided that hard pellets would be a good option.
Firstly, because of the ‘roach issue’ that I had encountered at 5 metres and
secondly if I was going to have to feed these roach off, then the whole two
tins of meat was going to be required short. A hard hair-rigged banded pellet
on the hook was going to be the way that I approached both these long lines. Out
I shipped and I began pinging three 6mm pellets around my float on the island
and in the open water swim at a rate of three pellets probably every forty five
seconds. After ten bite-less minutes, I was starting to become concerned and
with Andy Geldart still catching I was beginning to wonder. However, a bite on
the drop and a hooked fish meant I was away, the fish tore off and tried to
disappear around the point of the island and the way that it zipped around
convinced me it was foul-hooked. Incorrect I was, as after a ten minute scrap a
9lb common popped up, hooked squarely in the top lip - I was away.
Unfortunately, this proved to be a false dawn though as no more carp bites
followed and a ten ounce hybrid made me make the decision to change lines
again. At this stage I wasn’t to know how crucial this fish would be!
Now we
are roughly three quarters of an hour into the match and it was becoming
impossible to notice that Andy Geldart was still emptying it on his five metre
line. The Sky cameras focusing on him confirmed that he was an early pace
setter and for sure he had gone off at a Usain Bolt like rate of knots.
Naturally I was beginning to fear that the carp had followed the wind. It was
now time to try my 14.5 metre open water line and I was hoping for a fairly
quick response, especially as I had ‘pinged it’ for a while. Unfortunately, it
wasn’t to be though and despite ‘working’ the rig nothing happened and just as
I started thinking the worst, the float dipped and a carp was attached. Much
like the first fish it tore off and fought very hard all of the way to the net,
to my surprise (again) it was hooked fair and square; clearly these were very
hard fighting fish. Ten minutes I picked up another fish and a reasonable
pattern began to emerge, where I had a fish every ten to fifteen minutes for
the next hour. Strangely enough I was getting only proper bites and no other
indications, it was as if one fish would come into my peg before getting
caught. The carp seemed to be mainly in the five to six pound bracket, so were
of a decent stamp and I now felt like my match was moving forward, especially
as Andy had slowed up considerably. All of the while I was still feeding my
island line with pellets. As it was nigh on impossible to throw meat short by
hand, whilst feeding two swims regularly by catapult, I topped up the meat line
every half an hour via a ‘big-pot’.
It was
becoming noticeable that I was starting to get more bites and indications
between hours two and three and a half. My slow-burning peg was really coming
to life! The fantastic thing was the lovely positive bites that I was getting
and the even better aspect was the fact I was hitting nearly every bite and
landing most fish. The fish were settled and in feeding mode. I knew that I was
doing ok as a decent amount of on-lookers were watching from across the lake.
After three hours I decided to put another carp net in as there is a net limit
of 80lbs. In my head I had counted 55-60lb and today was not the day to be penalized
for breaking the rules! I felt that I was catching up with Andy now, although
he was still picking up odd fish and had actually put another carp net in about
thirty minutes before me. It seemed like a lot of anglers were catching on my
lake now though, in particular Mark Tullet who was two pegs to my right. He was
catching on his five metre line, which gave me hope that mine may come good
late.
I had it
in the back of my mind that things were going too well and gradually
my peg began to show signs of exhaustion. Instead of the positive bites that I
had been getting earlier, I was now getting small indications on the float and
when the float did submerge I was no longer hooking fish in the mouth. Several
times I lifted into fish a few inches off of the bottom. These foul-hooked fish
really steamed off and to make matters worse I never landed a single one! Now
this is not particularly unusual with commercials these days. The fish have
seen it all before and you very rarely make one thing work for a long period of
time anymore. The fish are too clever, quickly suss you out and you need to try
to out-fox them in a different way. I tried a few things myself to combat this,
including feeding more pellets, but less regularly and shallowing up slightly.
Maybe I could have even tried fishing up in the water, however, I wasn’t
getting indications to suggest that the fish were moving that high up in the
water column. Also, I had noticed that the green Dynamite pellets sink very
fast and are probably not the best for shallow fishing. Anyway, these changes
did not improve things and now the wheels had badly come off, with less than an
hour left it was time to rest the swim and try back on the island where I had
been religiously feeding all day.
Dropping
back in on the island resulted in what I thought was an immediate bite,
however, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t, as the fish steamed off at a
ludicrous rate of knots and broke me – another foul-hooker. I put another
hook-length on and shipped back, where I promptly lifted my rig into a fish and
fouled hooked another one! This time it didn’t come off straight away and a tug
of war ensued for ten minutes before the fish somehow transferred the hook into
the near side rushes and I lost the whole rig. I took a deep breath and looked
at my watch, there was roughly an hour left and my match was rapidly
unravelling at the seams. I decided that now was the time to feed my edges,
where I put ground bait and corn, before dropping onto the five metre line. I
felt that it was going to be ‘now or never’ on this line now and unfortunately
it turned out to be the latter, as two roach proved that the carp had not
arrived.
With time
running out and only forty five minutes remaining, I had no option but to go
back out onto my main catching line, where I was hoping the rest had allowed
them to re-settle. Pretty quickly I had a proper bite and hooked a fish which I
promptly landed and I was pretty relieved to end a disastrous sequence of hooking
and losing fish. My relief grew as another carp found its way into the net
shortly afterwards. Looking around the lake it appeared that everyone had
slowed up, with the fish not playing ball for the usually fruitful final hour.
Despite my hopes that the fish were now feeding on my terms, I began to foul
hook fish again just off of the bottom, losing two more, but landing another
fish that I managed to get to take the bait. I tried shallowing up again,
this produced no bites or even indications and I decided to fish down
the edge for the last ten minutes, which were frustratingly bite-less.
At the
all-out I was annoyed and frustrated, as I felt that I had probably snatched
defeat from the jaws of victory. I felt that 100lb would be required to win the
match and I knew that I didn’t have that. I had probably lost ten foul hooked
fish during the last couple of hours and sort of felt a bit unlucky not to land
even one. I was equally annoyed that I had not been able to suss out how to catch,
as there were obviously still fish in the peg. Anyway, I evaluated how I had
done on the lake and concluded it would be very close. Although Andy Geldart
had slowed down as the match progressed, he’d still caught odd fish to go with
his flying start and I felt that Mark Tullet had pretty much matched my weight
also.
When the
scales arrived the winning weight was 93lb 4 ounces from Wayne Ibbotson on Lagoon
Pool. I instantly felt that I would be just shy of this. When my two carp
weighs were totaled the scales man told me that I needed 2lb to do it, to which
I replied “I haven’t got that” as I knew that I had four roach and a hybrid in
my silver fish net. Anyway, they went on the scales and to my amazement went
2lb exactly! Then confusion reigned as initially the scales man announced that
I had tied, but then changed his mind and stated that I was actually 4 ounces
ahead! On checking the weight, thankfully he was correct! Thinking back to my
silver fish net, the roach were of a really good stamp, as I could only just
about ‘swing them’ on carp gear and were probably 5-6 ounces apiece, together
with the 10 ounce Hybrid, which gives you the 2lb!
Although
I was pleased to be in the lead, I felt that I was sure to be beaten somewhere
on the complex, so wasn’t getting overly excited. Instead of torturing myself
by following the scales, I decided to just pack up and see what happened. The
scales reached Andy Geldart opposite me and I watched him being weighed in. I
could tell it was close. After his weigh in they tipped his fish back without
taking a catch shot of him, which made me think he wasn’t winning. Had anyone
else beaten me though?
When I
arrived back at my car the closeness of the match became apparent. The top 5
comprised of an 89lb from Andy Geldart, two 91lb weights, a 93lb 4 and I was
top still with 93lb 8. I now knew that I was top weight on phases 2 & 3,
however, there was still 1 final lake where the results weren’t confirmed –
Lake 5, Phase 1. To make matters worse there were rumours of some-one with ‘a
weight’. So it was back to HQ to be finally put out of my misery! As I got out
of my car Andy Ford approached me and said “Do you want the good news or the
bad news?” To which I responded “I don’t like the sound of bad news!” He
replied “the bad news is that there is a weight on Lake 5, however the good
news is that it is only about 50lb” and I had done enough! He then shook my
hand which sealed the deal. Relief at actually knowing the result, was my
overwhelming feeling at the time.
As the
presentations took place it was good to meet Wayne Ibbotson who told me that he’d
hardly lost a fish all day and felt had fished a tidy match. Perhaps he
deserved to go through, as clearly I didn’t get the maximum from my peg.
Anyway, I commiserated him and would genuinely like to see him qualify for a final
in the future.
On the
long drive home I was inundated with nice messages and phone calls and in-between
considered the massive part luck had played in the result. This year I had
entered the London Marathon, which meant that I didn’t enter the Milo Festival
at Whiteacres, as the 2 events clashed. If I had entered the Milo (as I would
have) then I’d have been in Cornwall and not at Makins. I guess it’s sort of an
Angling Version of the film ‘Sliding Doors’ – but without Gwyneth Paltrow in
1998 (unfortunately!)
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