Makins Teams of 3 - The Final

Today was a day when a good draw was important as there was a good amount of team money to be paid out afterwards.

Nigel came back with Crater 1 for himself (excellent draw for good points), Lake 2 B19 for Mick (awful), and Avon 3 for me.
You will see from last weeks write up that I was on Avon 1 and managed 2nd in the section and a default payout, whereas Peg 3 had 8lb. Despite this, I actually fancied this peg for a few as I didn't think the angler on it last week had done it justice.
For company on my left I had Richie Hull and we both agreed that we were fishing for 3rd & 4th in section at best as it would be difficult to beat peg 1 and there is normally one peg on Inner Avon that throws up a weight.
Behind us on Thames we also had Phil Ringer and Kelvin Acton for company and we all agreed on a £1 side bet - winner takes all !

Now then - on peg 1 was TF member 'Honest' and he knew I drew that peg the previous match and did well off it. He was asking where I caught and I wasn't likely to tell him as he was in my section ! I asked if he had read my Blog and for once he said he hadn't. Then he had a brainwave - he said he was going to ring home to get someone to fire the computer up and read out my Blog to him !!! (he didn't do this in the end as 'that' stick up I mentioned moving last week was at it again !).

Back to the match and I set up 2 rigs to fish against the far side reeds. Both used a MW Cookie and .12 Fox Micro to a PR21 18 and 10 latex. One was set dead depth (2ft) and one was for fishing varying depths of less than 1 ft. Due to the closeness of Richie on Peg 4, the left hand margin was a no go so I set up for 2 lines on my right - one at 6mtrs and one at 10 mtrs which was to pallet 2 and as far as I am allowed to go. My open water swims were both to my right - one at 13 mtrs fishing about 7 mtrs out and one at 11.5 mtrs fishing about 4 mtrs out. Both of these utilised a MW Power Diamond 2, .11 Powerline and 10 latex. The 4 mtr line directly in front of me at the bottom of the shelf was also catered for.

On the whistle, all lines were fed (apart from against the far reeds as this can ruin this line) and the 'at depth' rig was dropped in against the reeds. It was obvious at this time that there were plenty of fish there as the amount of liners was ridiculous. I immediately came back, and went straight on the shallow rig set 1 ft deep. After 1/2 an hour, Richie Hull had 3 carp and I had one while peg 1 was struggling. Peg 6 on Inner Avon was catching well but it was important for me to remember that there was likely to be one of the pegs on Inner Avon that would be hard to beat as stated above.

Fishing against the reeds for fish that are not feeding properly is something that I do not like doing and despite a couple more fish in the next 1/2 hour, Richie was now foul hooking (and losing) fish on a regular basis so I decided to look at my other swims. After about 1 hour of messing about with presentation on these lines, it was pretty obvious that there were not many carp present (either that or they weren't feeding) so it was back to 16 mtrs against the reeds !

At the start of the second half of the match, 'Honest' on peg 1 was catching a few down the edge, Richie and I were picking up odd fish from over, Peg 6 on Inner was still catching as was Steve Crocker on Peg 2 on Inner. Phil Ringer and Kelvin behind us on Thames (remember the £1 side bet) were both struggling so it was between Richie and I for the £4 'pot'.

At the end of the match, Richie had pipped me with 16 carp to my 14, while 'Honest' on peg 1 had 13 - one of which was pushing 7lb. I conducted the weigh in of our section with Honest and Steve Crocker on Inner weighed 46lb. Peg 6 on Inner weighed 48lb and I believed these would be 1st and 2nd in section.
Honest on peg 1 weighed 41lb and then I was disappointed to put 39lb 8oz on the scales. Richie Hull, as expected with those 2 extra fish, put 42lb on the scales to push me down to 5th in the 10 peg section and also to take the £1's of Phil, Kelvin and I.

All in all, the section (and in fact most of Outer and Inner Avon) had fished better than previous weeks as the fish seem to have dispersed around the lake. I was a bit peeved though as one more fish could've seen me come 3rd in the section which was the target I had set myself.

Back at the pub, Mick had not done well off B19 (he wasn't expected too) and Nigel had come back with 5 pts from Crater 1 (apparently it was black !!!). 13 points got you in the money on the day so our 17 point total was well out of it.

Next week I am travelling to Norwich to fish the Angling Trust match at Norwich where I am in a team that is captained by Andy May and also contains Bob Bradford (Swimfeeder off TF) so it should be a good day. This week will be spent trying to gain some info (I have never seen the place before) and getting my gear ready.