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
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