Makins - Teams of 3 Round 6

The pressure was off a bit for the final round as our team have already qualified for the Final which takes place next Sunday.
Nigel Bond did the draw for our team and came back with Reptile 4 for himself (Andy Meadows was on it last round and came 3rd in section), Lake 4 peg 20 for Mick (no chance of winning the section from there), and Avon 1 for me (a consistent peg with the chance of doing well if it fishes).
Upon arrival at my peg there was no wind and the sun was shining - it was the first match this year I would be fishing in a T-Shirt ! My section contains Avon 25 (other side of the bridge), Avon 3 & 4 (Steve Crocker), and Inner Avon 2, 3 (Charlie Shaw), 5 (Sam Perkins), 7 (Roger Parnell) & 8.
My main attack would be the margins to my left, however I would also have two 14.5 mtr lines in open water, a short 4 mtr line at the bottom of the near shelf and a couple of lines against the bridge to my right.
Bait for the day was 3mm green swimstim pellets, corn, meat & hemp, and the new 4mm and 6mm Expanda Pellets from Bait-Tech. I was kindly sent some of these pellets by Wendy Lythgoe at Bait-Tech to try and I have to say they are superb. I pumped them before I left home and then put them in an airtight bag. When I took them out of my bait bag before the match they were very soft and spongey but excellent for putting on a PR21 hook (this hook has a wide gape and is perfect for fishing expanders). I would suggest that if you fish expander pellets then give these new Bait-Tech Expanda Pellets a try - you will not be dissapointed !

Back to the match, and the first hour was a struggle for all and the only person catching fish in my section was Roger Parnell on Inner Avon 7. This more or less forced my hand and I went long down the edge to my left where a reed bed started. I never had as much as a liner for 20 minutes, however I just caught sight of a sinle stick up 'knocking' at about 8 mtrs down this margin which was half way between me and where I was fishing !
I quickly shipped back and dropped the rig in next to the stick up and the float sailed away immediately and a 3lb mirror was in the net.
Despite having a fish as soon as I dropped in on this line, I made a decision not to feed as there had been a frost the previous night and sometimes feeding can spook the carp on Phase 3 unless they are really having it.
Most of the remainder of the match was spent fishing this line with either a 4mm or 6mm expander on the hook and as proof that the fish were not feeding, I had to constantly work the bait by lifting and dropping - most bites coming immediately after doing this. Odd forays onto my other lines proved totally fruitless and as the rest of the section (apart from Roger) was struggling, I was confident of doing well if I stuck to the 8 mtr margin swim.
At the end of the match I had amassed 14 carp which were all around the 3lb mark so estimated 40lb. I used a 4x12 Durafloat Bazzerla, .14 Fox line, PR 21 size 18 hook and Maver Pure Latex in a number 12 all of which seemed perfectly balanced.
My weight of 42lb was good enough for 2nd in the section (Roger had 57lb from Inner Avon) and I believe my ploy of fishing almost exclusively down the edge was justified as the guy to my right on Peg 25 had 9lb and the guy to my left on Peg 3 had 8lb.
It transpired that Roger Parnell was also 2nd on the phase (I was 5th on the phase) so I would be getting the section money by default - bonus !
Team wise, Mick did very well to get 4th in his section having been beaten by pegs 4, 6 & 25 (very difficult to beat these where he was from). So with my 2 pts and Micks 4, we had 6 pts awaiting Nigel, who once again came back with....... 7 ! (it's normally 7, 8 0r 9 !)

The section money made me £60.00 and I believe I got the most out of my peg on a day when the fish were not feeding properly on Phase 3. I also believe that those Expanda Pellets from Bait-Tech made a big difference !

Roll on the final next week - Avon 1 would be nice !!!!

Mark Tomlin