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.
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