Friezland Lakes - Sunday 28th Dec.

As Makins Teams of 12 had finished and the second lot of Teams of 3 not starting until Feb, I had booked the match Lake at Friezland for a small open match (really it was a knock up as I had restricted it to 10 anglers by invite only !).
Friezland Lakes are located just off the A444 between Twycross Zoo and the A5. Follow the signs off the A444 for Bosworth Water Trust (which is a large lake) and Friezland is located on the opposite side of the road. There are currently 2 lakes - the Friezland Lake and the Match Lake, with a 3rd lake currently being dug out.

Friezland Lake

Exclusively a pleasure lake which contains approx 30 pegs and is stuffed solid with carp in the 12oz to 1lb bracket. If you are short of confidence and want to catch some fish then this is the place for you !! The only downside to this lake is that you get alot of 'novices' with 2.5lb tc carp rods, 15lb line, size 10 hooks, bite alarms etc etc catching these small carp - unbelievable but true (and a great shame).

Match Lake

This lake is a kind of figure of 8 shape with an island in the middle and another island at the top end in the higher numbers. The lower numbers are in what we call the 'bowl' as it is about 2 foot deeper than the opposite end and also contains no island. I guess a few of us have been fishing this lake for approx 4 years and I have to say that the carp are in fantastic condition. The average stamp is now 3lb but there are also lots of carp bigger than this (some big doubles aswell). Strangely enough there are NO silverfish in this lake !

The 10 invited for the match today were -

Kelvin Acton (Parkdean finalist 2008)
Mick Lees (Parkdean finalist 2008)
Myself
Andy Meadows (my travelling partner)
Les King (ex UK Pike Champion)
Carl Yeomans (Dad of Eric Yeomans - England U21 International)
Paul Twigg
Pete Jupp
Nigel Bond (on a double header after winning an open at Thorpe Constantine the previous day)
Martin Dean

Peg numbers were to be 2,4,6,8,10,12,15,20,23,24 and on previous form I would be happy with anything 15 or higher. I collected the entry money and split into peg fees and then payout for the first three. The peg no's went into the hat and as was usual, Andy M drew for me and out popped peg 20 - I was happy.

For company at my end of the lake I had Martin Dean on 15, Andy Meadows on 24 and Kelvin Acton on 23. The island in front of me is about 25 mtrs away so the first job is to set up my 9-11 Shimano Beastmaster. I set it up at 9ft only and reel line is 4lb Daiwa Sensor. I use a small running lead and a 12" hooklength of 0.13 Powerline. Hook is a Drennan Barbless method in a a size 18 and the hair is long enough to take up to three grains of corn. I set up the pole to fish a 14.5mtr at angles of 10 0'clock and 2 0'clock where it is the same depth of about 4ft. I do not expect to catch here but have set up just in case someone else starts to catch on the pole. I notice that Kelvin plumbs up an edge swim 11 mtrs to his right but I resist temptation as I know it will be hard and I really want to concentrate against the island with straight lead.
Kelvin also has 25 mtrs to the island so sets up the bomb rod. Andy has 17.5 mtrs to the island and decides to fish the long pole. Martin can also reach with 17.5 mtrs (just) but decides to take the easy option and fish the bomb. We have all set up pole swims for the open water with only Kelvin setting up a rig for the edge.

Bait on my side tray was as follows - 1 tin corn, 1/4 pint maggots, 1/2 pt dampened down 1mm green swimstim pellets, a few 4mm expanders blagged off Andy, and a couple of slices of bread.

We were all confessing to having had a liner when clipping up on our bomb rods so there was obviously a few fish patrolling the island - the question was, would they feed ?
At the all in, double hair rigged corn was despatched to within a couple of feet of the island and the tip would not stop still ! Kelvin and Martin confirmed the same and Andy also said is float would not stop moving ! This scenario is a nightmare as you have to quickly spot the difference between a liner and a real bite (remember this is winter and real bites are relatively shy). Kelvin had decided to strike at everything, must to the amusement of Andy, whilst Martin and I had opted to wait for what we saw as a 'proper' bite.

Martin was the first to catch - a carp of about 3lb after 20 minutes and I followed this with a small 2lb carp about 10 minutes later. By the way, this first 'proper' bite I had was difficult to determine from a liner with the only difference best described as a 'vibration' of the tip. We were still suffering from liners at our end of the lake, however a shorter chuck 6ft from the island and the tip never moved ! Looking around, Kelvin was still striking at liners and Andy was striking like Zorro on his 17.5 mtr pole line. Martin and I were waiting patiently for those 'proper' bites. We were all fairing better than those on pegs 2 - 12 who were struggling for bite and it seemed that the top 3 could all come from our end of the lake.

After 2 hours I had 2, Martin had 4, Kelvin had 2 and Andy had 2. Andy had also lost 3 or 4 foul hookers which showed that they weren't feeding properly. In this time I had popped up corn and bread between 1 and 6 inches against the island but could still not induce any proper bites. Liners, although still present, had now slowed considerably. I decided to try the pole on my 14.5 mtr line and a few dinks on the corn followed by a real bite produced a 3lb carp. This prompted all around me to fish their open water pole lines but the bite I had proved to be the only one for anyone. There was nothing else for it but to sit out on the lead.

Martin had a run of fish which took his total to 6 and the word was that Pete Jupp on peg 8 and Paul Twigg on peg 6 had caught fish. I then made a change which proved critical - I unclipped the bomb and put on a tiny cage feeder. I rammed this with 1mm pellets and chucked it to the island. I only had to wait about a minute and a proper bite resulted in a 7lb carp coming to the net. Successive carp followed and I had now caught Martin but with 2 of my carp going to around 7lb I guessed I was in the lead. At this point Kelvin and Andy had 3 a piece with Andy having now lost 6 or 7 foul hookers on the pole.

The last hour was a bit non-descript with no-one at our end having a bite (the liners had completely dried up aswell). Andy lost a couple more foul hookers before the end and Pete Jupp had caught a couple more down on peg 8. At the all in the totals were as follows - Me 8, Martin Dean 7, Pete Jupp 7, Paul Twigg 4, Kelvin Acton 3, Andy Meadows 3, Nigel Bond 1, Les King and Mick Lees had dry netted and Carl Yeomans had gone home 2 hours from the end.

The first 3 places were between myself, Martin, Pete and Paul and to be honest i was hoping I had done enough to win it.

Full Results

1. Mark Tomlin - 36lb
2. Pete Jupp - 28lb 7oz
3. Paul Twigg - 25lb 8oz
4. Martin Dean - 25lb
5. Kelvin Acton - 14lb
6. Andy Meadows 12lb
7= Mick Lees DNW
7= Nigel Bond DNW
7= Les King DNW
7= Carl Yeomans DNW

So there it was - signed off 2008 with a match win and £70.00 in the sky rocket. To be honest it was the 2 bigger fish that had done it for me although the change to 1mm pellets through a tiny feeder was the real difference.

That just leaves me to wish you all a Happy New Year and tight lines for 2009.

Mark Tomlin

Makins Teams of 3 - Round 6 of 6

It would be fair to say that the drawbag had been alot kinder to me in the Teams of 12 rather than the Teams of 3. In fact, our team had drawn so badly throughout Teams of 3 that we were very near the bottom of the 28 team league !

On arrival at the Corner Cafe at Hinckley (Redpaste drove AND bought the Breakfast - cheers mate), Mick Less was there on his own and informed me that Nigel Bond had cried off with 'man flu'. Fortunately for us, Kelvin Acton always brings along Les King (ex UK Pike Champion) with him to Makins and Les always goes pleasure fishing on one of the spare lakes on Phase 3. Les was duly roped in and it was decided that he would fish Phase 3 and I would move to Phase 2.

With little to play for teamwise it was a case of fishing for ourselves to try and win some section or zone money so we needed a big change of luck at the drawbag. I was nominated to do the team draw and duly pulled out Lake 2 peg 12 for Mick Lees (poor peg in a good section), Thames 20 for Les King (small chance if 14 and 17 don't fish). I slowly opened my ticket to reveal.........................SNAKE 15 !!! I stood silent for a moment at this miracle of a draw before proceeding to walk back to the lads in a fish driven daze. I was then told the usual stuff - ''you'll win the match from there'', ''It's solid'' etc etc.

On driving to Phase 2 from the draw, Redpaste and I were discussing the peg. He had drew it last week and won the lake with 20lb and 2 weeks previous Gaz Wood had drew it and won the zone. The peg has a large bay in front of you with a wooden boom at the end of the bay. The distance to the boom is 21 mtrs, but with a 17.5 mtr pole limit your options are limited to fishing as far up the left hand side of the bay as possible. You don't generally tend to catch in open water but there is also a big margin to the left. Peg 12 is round the corner and Redpaste said that the guy on that peg last week didn't fish far enough down the edge or he may have beat him. The only concern I had at this stage was that it was breezy which would not help trying to fish 17.5 mtrs.

Upon arrival at my peg, the wind was of my back however the peg was very well sheltered by the trees behind perfect !. For company I had Ady Lindsay on Peg 12 (round the corner to my left), Gerald King on Peg 18, and Jeff Marsh (Bremes) on peg 5 (opposite). The £1 side bet was placed with Bremes.

My trusty G10 was set up to 17.5 mtrs to see how far up the left hand of the bay I could reach. Rig wise, I opted for a MW Cookie for against the reeds of the bay which was 2 ft deep. Line was 0.13 Powerline with a size 18 PR28 hook and elastic was 12 latex. The plan was to lift and drop this rig up the left hand side of the bay to try and induce bites (there would be no feed going in which is normal for this type of fishing at Makins). I also set up an identical rig but at half depth in case liners became a problem.

The left hand margin towards the corner looked 'fishy' and I plumbed up at 16 mtrs and found about 2 1/2 foot of water. At 16 mtrs I was still about 13 mtrs from reaching the corner, however Ady Lindsay was reaching the corner from peg 12 by fishing 17.5 mtrs. I wasn't worried too much as I was going to empty in in front of me ! Rig for the margin was a MW Diamond (2), again with .13 Powerline, PR28 size 18 hook and 12 latex.

I had a bit of time left so set up my 9-11 Beastmaster rod at 9ft for fishing the straight lead to the boom at 21 mtrs. Hair rigged corn or pellet would be the bait for this

At the all in I cupped approx 50 casters and 6 grains of corn into my 16 mtr margin line. Ady Lindsay had gone straight to the corner and it was obvious he would be fishing this corner for 5 hours ! After feeding the margin, I put the top kit on with the 'Cookie' rig, put double caster on the hook and shipped out to 17.5 mtrs to the side of the bay in front of me. I didn't expect any positive bites immediately but was expecting to see some signs of carp. After 20 minutes of lifting an dropping the rig every 30 seconds I had not had a liner - if there were no fish there I was in trouble. I changed bait to single grain of corn and repeated the exercise - Nothing, not a sign ! With 45 minutes gone, Ady Lindsay had snared a carp from the corner and Jeff, Gerald and I remained biteless (at this stage I must point out that I cannot see anyone else on the lake).

I decided to feed so fixed a small Fox Tosspot to my topkit and put 10 casters in it. I dropped them in at 17.5 mtrs followed by my double caster hookbait and after 20 seconds the float buried but the bite was missed. An inspection of the 'shelled' casters meat one thing - Roach (Arghhhhhh). There was no way I was going to win the lake with roach so caster was quickly changed to corn hookbait and 2 grains of corn were fed every time I fed 20 casters.

I persevered on this line for 2 HOURS with not an indication. 17.5 mtrs is fine in the summer when you are getting a fish every 2 minutes but when you are working your swim, lifting, dropping, dragging without getting a bite it starts to take its toll on your back ! At this point I decided to chuck the bomb so out it went with a single grain of hair rigged corn. After 6 chucks in half an hour to different parts of the end of the bay (no liners or anything), I finally resigned myself to the fact the the carp were not there. Ady Lindsay now had 3 carp from the corner and had also lost 4 or 5 foul hookers and missed lots of bites which he thought were liners - it was now obvious where the carp were - 30 mtrs to my left !!

For the last 2 hours of the match I decided to go shit or bust and sit it out on my 16 mtr margin line. In this 2 hours I had the following - one crucian, one perch and one carp for a grand total of 6lb 7oz. Ady Lindsay had won the lake with 5 carp for 25lb well done Ady. Elsewhere there was a 22lb from peg 24 and a 16lb from peg 7. Gerald to my right weighed 9lb and Jeff Marsh on peg 4 weighed 4lb. My day brightened up slightly when Jeff came round and gave me my quid (remember the side bet ?) - cheers Jeff.

Redpaste has caught 10lb of Paddock, with the Lake being won by Steve Ringer with 25lb consisting of 2 carp and the rest being Roach and Perch. On the way back to the Axe and Compass I was still a bit depressed and not looking forward to the ''only 6lb off that peg'' or ''you've wasted that peg'' comments. As it turns out it wasn't too bad and Andy Findlay assured me that if the carp are in the corner on Peg 12 then peg 15 will struggle.

Overall it has not been a bad Teams of 12 for me (4 pick ups in 6 matches) but a very poor Teams of 3 (never won a bean). The next Teams of 3 starts in Febuary I believe and I suppose Mick, Nigel and I will be entering again.

Next Sunday I've organised a 10 peg knock up on the Match Lake at Friezland, in the meantime i would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone who reads this Blog a very Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

Snooty

Teams of 3 today at Makins and to be honest the drawbag has been nowhere near as kind to me on this event as the Teams of 12.
In teams of 3 you have one angler on each phase in a section of 8.

There are 6 of us from Swad in this event - one team made up of myself, Mick Less & Nigel Bond, the other team being Andy Meadows, pete Jupp & kelvin Acton.

Anyway, after being picked up by Andy Meadows (Repaste on TF), we proceeded to the Corner Cafe in Hinckley for our breakfast where we met up with the others. The talk was where we DIDN'T want to draw !!

Mick Lees was nominated as our draw person today and he came back with Lake 4 peg 12 (crap) for himself, Crater 4 (crap) for Bondy, and Derwent 14 (crap) for me !!!

We are well out of the hunt in the league which is currently being dominated by Ringer Baits (Steve, Phil & Cooky) and based on our draw the decision was pretty easy as to whether to fish it as a team event or an open !.

My attack was based around caster and corn, however the peg is rubbish so it was going to be difficult.
Lines were as follows -
11 mtrs at bottom of far shelf.
4.5 mtrs at bottom of near shelf
14.5 mtrs to the left inside margin
17.5 mtrs to the right inside margin
14.5 mtrs at bottom of far shelf (2 0'clock)
To cut a long story short, I had 2lb 6oz of caster roach mostly off the 11 mtr line. I never had an indication down the edge or on corn.
In 5 hours I fed 1/4 pt casters, 1/8th pint maggots and 1/4 tin of corn.
On my side of the lake there was ONE carp caught which just shows how bad it was. The lake was won with 10lb and fished the poorest of the lakes on Phase 3.

Next week is the final round of this Teams of 3 and I, like everyone else, will be praying for a good draw !!!!
Hopefully I will be in a position to go more in depth into my match !!!!!

Right then, this is my first attept at a Blog and I will accept some advice on the layout if needed.
Over the coming months I will post a weekly update on my match fishing escapades each week.
A brief outline of the type of matches I fish are as follows -

Winter
Spent almost exclusively at Makins doing the teams of 3 and teams of 12. One thing I really enjoy about these matches is the pre and post match banter in the Axe and Compass. There are a few TF'ers who fish these matches (Carpmagic, Woody999, Bremes, Sillybait Blue, Midland Gudgeon Hunter, Redpaste to name a few) and the competition is fierce with the likes of the Ringer family in attendance.

Spring
My favourite time as I make the annual pilgrimage to Whiteacres for the Bait Tech (ex VDE) Festival. The wife comes along to give me moral support and also ensures I have a good dinner waiting for me when I get back from fishing ! For people who have not fished a Whiteacres festival it is difficult to describe how fantastic the week is.

Spring / Summer
I run a 6 match series at a local fishery called Friezland Lakes. I limit the peg numbers to 15 on a 25 peg lake to give everyone room so we can all catch plenty. In between these matches, I tend to fish various opens at places such as Cudmore. If I am lucky enough to get fisho tickets, I also put some practice in at the venues I am lucky enough to get tickets for !

Autumn

Generally fishing opens and start going to Makins in preparation for the Winter Leagues.

Anyway, as I have said, I will keep this blog updates every week as I fish a match every week of the year.

Cheers Snooty Fox