Rail Sport National, Makins, Wednesday 11th August 2021

 This match was over all tree phases of Makins and can be fished either as a Teams of 4 or individually.  I was just fishing individually today, so a nice positive approach trying to win the match.

I drew A5 on lake 2 Phase 1, not that it meant much to me, so a quick shout out on FB brought the usual jokers and one bit of useful info.

I set up a bomb to fish bomb and pellet, a method to get to the island, a waggler for fish round the peg and a pole line at 14m.

I am not going to try and make this sound interesting, I had one bite all day, a roach on meat at 5m, the guy to my left on peg A4 was likewise, I was out of the carpark soon after the final whistle and didn't stop to get any results.

The epitaph for this one is.... at least it didn't rain!

Rail Sport National, Makins Fishery, Wednesday 14th August 2019

The Rail Sport National, is unsurprisingly, a national for those employed in the rail industry, it can be entered as a team or as an individual, as a life long Billy-No-Mates, I was one of the lonesome individuals entered.

If I am honest, I am not sure how they work out the draw, as there are two queues, individual and team, there never seems to be many draw cards in the individual tub.  Last time I fished this match, I drew Phase Two, won my lake, but not my section, as that extended to another lake with much higher weights all round.

So hoping to avoid the same this year, I pulled out Phase Three, Avon peg 2, meant nothing to me, so spoke to the guy in the bait shop and he advised fish 6mm pellet across and worms down the RH edge.  Its fishery or green swim stim Dynamite pellets only here, so my Burts choice was limited to Tigernut GB for down the edge.

Fishing this match as an individual, not much point in going too cautious, the guy in the bait shop mentioned throwing a method towards the bridge and I had brought one, but it really would be last resort.  Tackling up I was surprised how shallow it was, 2'6"- 3' anywhere in the peg.  Tackling up it was getting greyer and greyer, I got the method rod set up (it laid in the grass and was packed away unused at the end) and 4 topkits, before the rain started and I fetched an umbrella from the van.  I never used to use an umbrella, but must be getting old, as I now am happy to sit under it when the heavens open.

It was 13.5m across to the far side, I set up two rigs to fish across there, a 4x12 Roob, that takes 3 No 11which were spaced a couple of inches apart, 6" above the hook. This had a 18 LWG on 0.14 with a band.  Next rig was a homemade float, a touch heavier and a 0.16 hooklength to a 16 B960.

A rig for down the track and a margin rig, completed the roost. Started across with the Roob, pinging 6mm pellets with a catapult, had a 5oz skimmer first drop in, then had 40 minutes catching a couple of skimmers, a roach, a feisty little Gudgeon on the banded 6mm pellet, before having a couple of carp.  It seemed like a decent start, but for some 'unknown' reason (the inverted commas will become plain....)

After 40 minutes, the bites dried up, I persevered, fishing two lines across at 10 and 2 O'clock, for over an hour this remained barren and I did try coming closer, down the track over some micro's with a soft pellet, but this was equally barren.  I had a spell of missing bites across, but still no fish, then I started to catch odd fish including a 9lber (most were 2lb).

I committed the ultimate match sin, whilst it wasn't hectic, I came off feeding fish and looked down the edge, where the guy in the shop had said fish.  First drop in with worm over GB, a 4lber, that cost me precious time as I stayed down the edge and ignored the far bank.

Finally sense prevailed and I went back over and picked a couple more fish off, too little too late.

I had 48lb on my clicker and told the scalesman I had 2lb of silvers, after he told me I had 100lb, the scales backed me up and 48.02 of carp and 2.0 of silvers for 50.02.  I could and should have won the lake - that's frustrating, but at least I am now feeling I knew where I'd gone wrong, earlier this year, I was struggling a lot and had no answers at all.  Today wasn't much about feeding, it was more about decision making, I can live with making the wrong call, it helps to learn.  I could and should have won the lake, someone confident and on a roll would have....

Not sure on the overall match result, but I am sure Phase one would have thrown the winner, so I didn't go back for the results as the two hour trip home was a bigger attraction.

No names on the sheet, but that's me on the top, peg 2

Rail Sport National, Makins Fishery, Wednesday 16th August 2017

First trip to Makins for this match, the national of the railway industry.  I had tried to gather some information, but with every lake on the complex being in, it wasn't a simple task.

So, with that in mind, the van had something for every circumstance loaded into it and the bait bill was slightly eye watering. but little point in going to matches like this ill prepared.  I got in early to the draw queue and was second into the individual tub (its run as a team and individual event) and drew Crater 10 on phase two.  Meaningless to me, so I asked in the bait shop on site and they suggested I was looking for carp over 3lb.

If you've never seen Makins and are from Somerset/Bristol, think of a huge, well maintained version of Bullock Farm....

When I saw the peg, I decided to just set up a pole, as the island was tempting, there was an aerator and two decent margins, I felt confident of catching a few, I now know that confidence is over rated.

Topkits were, paste, margin, short meat, shallow, and two for across to the island, one lighter with a 18 on 0.12 and a slightly heavier float with a 16 B960 on 0.16 for when I started bagging....  This was somewhat optimistic, as I was to find out.

I started short on meat and after 10 minutes decided that an early mug fish wasn't likely to happen.  Out to the island point with a banded 6mm pellet, fully expecting some action on this, 20 minutes later I was re-evaluating my match plan, as I was biteless and fishless.  I started pinging caster shallow and lost a couple of rudd - the elastic was far to heavy for rudd, but I had been told I was fishing for 3lb+ carp and I knew a few silvers wouldn't put me in the top 4 on such a big match.

I then a had a look shallow by the aerator, again, nothing, were there actually any fish in this lake???  I decided to try a line with GB/worm/caster tight across at about 1 O'clock.  Three fish in three drop-ins was my reward -sadly they were 1oz perch, another drop in and finally a bit more resistance, but not too much, as a 1lb carp was the culprit.  Another perch, then a 2lb skimmer, that was to be it, small roach and perch made up the numbers, so a switch away from here was necessary.

The match was only 5 hours and by now, I had less than 5lb and it was halfway through, I could see that the rest of the lake were equally struggling, so I fed both margins, RH side GB/maggot, LH side pellet and meat, I had a 3lb carp first drop in over the GB and maggots to my right.

The next couple of hours were spent keeping an eye on the others on the lake and they too were suffering.  I kept swapping between margin lines and had a few more carp on worm, but it was far from frantic.

I thought I had won the lake and so it proved when the scales gave me 35.12, to the nearest weight of 24lb.  Sadly foe my wallet. this was beaten on Reptile by a couple and I went home empty handed, as they were paying 1st and 2nd in section and I was third, I think winning the lake was the best I could have done, really couldn't see another 30lb coming off the peg for the section.

Didn't go back for the results, so only got a picture of my section sheet and no idea what won overall.