Makins Fishery, Fishomania Qualifier. 29-04-15

My last attempt at fisho for 2015 was today, up at the multi-laked, multi-phased Makins fishery in Wolvey (nr Coventry/Nuneaton). It would be a 2.5hr drive so an early start again for me, but the journey wasn't too bad for the first 90 minutes, but once on the M42 it rained, and rained, and rained a bit more. Visibility was shocking, coupled with the 7:30 traffic around the area, it was a bit tricky in the conditions. But I got there in plenty of time for the 9am draw.
It was my 1st visit to the lakes and finding info wasn't easy, although they have opens several times a week, they tend to rotate the lakes used.

What I first noticed about the lakes in phase 1, was that they looked extremely well kept and pegging wasn't as tight as a lot of other place. With only Lake 5 in on the 1st phase and all the lakes on phases 2 and 3 in the draw we expected plenty of space and this proved true. I figured a weight near 100lb would be pushing a spot at Cudmore in July.

After a chat with a couple of guys, one from Yeovil, it was down to the draw. I managed to squeeze in around 40th in the line of 130, just pushing in front of Warren Martin I plucked peg 14 on Crater......I was told it was ok, I didn't have a clue.!!
A quick look at where it was and I headed off to phase 2, which is only a few hundred yards up the road.
I parked the car and had a quick look for my peg, I found it easy enough, it was literally 40yrds from the car park and there seemed to be a good few carp roaming up in the water in the vicinity of my peg. I didn't expect them to stay there as 40 or so guys were expected to pass the area on their way to the lakes further along, true to form, the fish vanished 10 minutes after I plonked myself on my peg.

Crater, Makins Phase 2 (my peg top right)

My left hand area

P14 Crater, in front.

We only had 6 on this 15 peg lake and coupled with Little Reptile my section was spread over the 2 lakes.

I set up a small method feeder, just incase of emergencies, plus 4 topkits:
A rig for 4m in front using meat over dead maggots.
A rig for banded pellet along to my left hand edge in several spots right along to the tree, this rig was suitable for tight over to the left hand island at 15m, but I never fished there as the wind would make presentation tricky,
A rig was made to fish meat tight to the right hand island at 15m, again this didn't produce a fish and I only tried it a couple times.
Lastly a rig for 13m in front, again for banded pellet. I never picked up this rig,

I had my 2 bags of green swimstim pellets, a bag of 6mm and a bag of 3mm, I didn't use any 3mm!!
Some 6mm meat and a pint of dead maggots finished my bait tray, except 1/2kg of groundbait for the feeder and maybe down the edge.

I began at 11am by potting a few small amounts of bait into various spots and began on the short maggot/meat line.  After a while I remained biteless, though the guy off at the other end of the pool had landed a couple small carp.
A look across to the islands and then down my edge gave me nothing in the 1st 90minutes. It didn't look great!!
After just under 2hrs the fish started to venture down to me and I managed to hook and lose a fish from near the tree down to my left, a scale returned from my culprit. I landed my next couple of carp, both 2lb or so. A fish soon broke my hooklength on the legs of the empty peg to my left, that peg lost me 2 or 3 other fish over the day.
I missed a couple of bites and I thought they were liners so I shallowed up to around 2ft deep, this worked as a couple more fish came before 2pm. I found that feeding 4 or 5 pellets randomly in the area worked best at keeping the fish away from the margin, I would struggle to get too close to the edge over at that distance in the wind and these little carp were mental fighters.

It was now 2:30 and I had landed 8 or 9 carp up to 3lb, the guy on peg 1 was ahead of me as he seemed to be getting fish regularly from the end bank and his side of the island.
Then I had a mishap, my number 5 section broke and I had no spare. I telescoped the section and chucked a method feeder down to the same area and this gave me 3 or 4 carp of 2lb max!!
I gingerly shipped out the pole to the same area and managed several more fish over the next hour, it wasn't fast and furious though.
The lad on 1 was doing well and the man to my right on 12 was getting a good stamp of fish compared to mine, he also had a 4lb barbel and some nice skimmers. The other 3 were struggling.

As we approached the last hour my clicker showed 43lb as I had 16 carp and 1 roach at this point.
A look down my margin never gave me a fish, just crap and snags, the fish were there but catching them was tricky,
I tried my short meat line as the chap on 12 was doing all his fish on meat short, but I only had 2 small carp from here in the last 60 mins.
20 minutes from the end came and the guy on peg 1 landed 3 lumpier carp for around 16lb+ in the last period, which I was sure pushed him ahead of me. I couldn't get any stamp fish from any of my lines.
A couple more fish shallow from my left hand side were netted before the all out. My clicker stoped at 53lb. 20 carp and 1 roach was my tally for the day, losing 4 or 5 for various reasons.

I packed my gear away happy enough, bar the broke section, and I knew that I'd probably done ok really. The scales took a while to arrive, but when they did the board showed the section was being won with 39lb. The chap on 12 landed 42lb or so before I plonked 65lb 12oz on the scales.
Peg 1 weighed next and those last 3 fish proved decisive as he weighed 70lb 4oz to take the section money, unless he finished in the top 6 I wouldn't win a penny.
It proved that way with him just falling short of the overall frame.

I think I finished 10th (or higher) on the day, a decent result overall, I could have done some things different and I made some mistakes, but I am happy enough with how I did.

Results:
1st, Simon Colclough, 93lb 8oz. Lizard peg 16.
2nd, Wayne Ibbotson, 93lb 40z. Lagoon peg 2.
3rd=, Rob Wootten, 91lb, Lagoon peg 3.
3rd=, Andrew David, 91lb, Lizard peg 10.
5th, Andy Geldart, 89lb 4oz, Lizard peg 32.

So a few things I learned a few things today and enjoyed the day, it pretty much stayed dry too, which was a bonus.

Next up for me is Cary on Sunday, whether I have a pole or not remains to be seen.

Until then, Take Care.

Lee

Pawlett Match, Avalon Fishery, 26-04-15

With the weather looking least favourable for fishing (or rather less than 'easier to fish in') I had for some reason decided I would fish for silvers today. That was my 1st mistake, I should not really pre-decide what I am going to fish for before the event, but I know I wont learn.

I arrived in plenty of time for the draw and with 30 or so of us due to fish, including a couple new-comers and a couple who don't fish with us 99% of the time, it was going to be a competitive match.
A good bit of banter flowed, a bit of it based around the 5 day event that Avalon and Sedges are having this week. It was all good fun though.

I waited until there were 3 numbers left in the bag and managed to pluck out end peg(for the match) number 42. A decent margin peg, carp peg and ok-ish for silvers.
I made my way to my peg and set about sorting my kit, 2 rigs for 14m in two spots, one fed with groundbait the other wetted 4mm pellets that a 6mm banded would be fished over (no bite here so nin more...!!).
A 3m whip to fish caster over caster in front and lastly a margin rig down to my left, just as a last resort, plus the odd tench and decent skimmer can get caught down the edges here.
I did set up a pellet waggler too, but the wind wasn't right for good presentation and would blow off course within seconds of it landing.

P42 Avalon.
 

For company I had  Keith Clapp on peg 40, opposite I had Martin Heard  on peg 7 and Eric Fouracre on peg 8. Both of those two were targeting the carp, Martin on the pellet wag  mostly, Keith on the feeder as the wind wasn't great for pellet wag fishing.

Bait was simply 8mm pellets incase I chose to fish for carp, some meat for the edge swim. I also had some caster, dead maggots, expanders and wetted 4mm pellets. Plus some groundbait.
At the all in I deposited 5 balls of groundbait on the 10 o'clock 14m line and some wetted 4's in the 2 o'clock direction at the same distance.
Some 8mm pellets fired to the island and a nice helping of meat down my left margin.

I began on the wag , but other than a lost fouler I gave up on this, mostly as my heart wasn't into fishing for carp today. So I came in on the whip and began catching a few rudd and odd small skimmer and perch.
Opposite Eric and Martin had landed a couple carp, as had Keith.

An hour into the match and it all seemed to be going a bit 'Pete Tong' for me, the silvers had drifted off and the decent skimmers had not appeared in numbers, I had a couple of around 12oz.
I tried the pellet wag and managed to snare a small carp and pulled out of a couple, but I had to get right tight to the island, this was not a problem, but the wind moved the float too far off within seconds of the float landing.

Back on the silvers and I caught a few more small fish on the whip then a baby 6oz carp on the groundbait line. It was tricky for me, but I did feel like I was going nowhere fast, Eric had started catching a few decent skimmers on the pole, plus he'd had a few carp and even a crucian.
Martin Heard was amassing a great weight and looked well clear of everyone I could see or hear.
But I figured most people were getting some carp, I also heard that James Withers on peg 4 had landed a few decent bream/skimmers. So my silvers fishing wasn't going to plan and I was seemingly too far behind in the carp  stakes.

At around 2pm I took a look along my margin and this gave me a couple squeeker carp and a handful of baby perch. I guess I had 15lb of fish in total (6lb silvers and 9lb of carp).
I decide to try the pole rig over the whip line and this gave me around 4 skimmers of 6oz each.

P42 Avalon, left hand margin.

A couple more carp from the left margin and another on the waggler probably boosted my carp net to around 18lb. But I stuck mostly on the topkit with either small bits of meat or 3 dead maggots as bait, this gave me a few small fish before the all out. I reckoned on 30lb max in total.

Elsewhere, Martin was over 150lb, Eric had lost a load of silvers (decent bream) but had landed a good few and looked to be topping the silvers nets. Keith and Nigel (next to him) had  a good few carp each, in fact 3 of us told Nige that he was over his net limit easily......it turned out he wasn't much to a  few of our amazements!!

I packed my gear up and walked around to watch the weigh in.
Bruce Hunt weighed 60lb+ from peg 1, James had 20lb 7oz in his 28lb net from peg 4. Martin Heard put 166lb+ of pellet waggler caught fish on the board and had probably won.
As we went through the field we saw plenty of 30-50lb nets and Eric's silvers weighed 30lb and ounces plus he had 46lb of carp.
Tom Mangnall and Jamie Cook on pegs 28 and 29 had put 77lb and 70lb on the scales respectively, Tom's net was 2nd on the day Jamie won the section.
Then we made our way along with Nige only putting 66lb (not the nr 100lb a couple of us guessed) on the board.
I was last to weigh and I had 26lb 8oz of carp and  17lb 12oz of silvers giving me 44lb 4oz and around 10th overall and 5th in silvers.

Results:
1st Martin Heard 166lb 5oz p7
2nd Tom Magnall 77lb 7oz p28
3rd  Eric Fouracres 76lb 3oz p9

Silvers
Eric 30lb 8oz p8
Pierce Furlong 20lb 11oz p19
James Withers 20lb 9oz p4

So all in all I didn't do myself any favour in terms of either the silvers or overall but I know I should have stuck to the whip as I am sure I could have caught 25lb or so....OR got a feeder out and made an effort for the carp, I am sure I could have had plenty more carp........but my pre-empted decision and impatience never paid off today.

Weigh Sheets, some consistent weights.

Next up for me is a jaunt upto Makins for a Fishomania qualifier, then on Sunday I think I am on Cary with the PSV crew.

Until then, take care.
Lee