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Tom Maker
Tom
Maker is a junior angler who spends much of his time
fishing in the Kent Area. With a number of
twenties and thirties and now a pb
‘forty’ under his belt Tom is an
experienced angler who loves to go fishing, he has
represented England in Russia in 2006 and has just
returned from the World Championships held in
Portugal.
Day Session Thorpe Lea
26th
January 2008
With the
cold weather well and truly set in, and our syndicate
lake not producing any fish we decide to pass the
cold winter days on somewhere were could get a few
bites, but not as many as we expected
We
left the house about 4.30am, even though the gate
does not open till 7am, this was just to ensure that
we got a half descent swim for the day, on arrival to
the lake we could see that around 20 people had done
the night despite the temperature dropping well below
freezing, however this did not put us off, we loaded
the barrows outside the gate and then pushed them
through in to the car park, as dad had to wait with
the van so he
could park it up once the gate was open. I
decided to walk with my gear round the lake to find a
good peg for the day, as I was walking round I could
see that every swim was taken, that was except 1
swim, a swim that I fished in the Junior BCAC it was
I swim that fished onto the shallow plateau where the
fish love to spend the days, I quickly put all of my
stuff in there and gave dad a ring to tell him I was
in a good peg and that there was no need to rush.
The swim fishes out into the open water with a
nice tree lined island to the right, I wasted no time
in getting set up, in fact I had both the rods out
before dad had even parked the van up, the rigs I was
going to be using for the day was a Small Fox Size 10 SSC
Hook as the fish have small mouths,
this was going to be knotless knotted to a 6inch
length of 15lb Cortex fished on a Kwik Change Swivel
and 3 ft of weighted rig tube with a Safety Lead Clip
Set up. I knew that the water in front of me
was very shallow and knew I wasn’t going to get
a bite till the sun rose above the trees, so I
decided to drop the baits 60 yards out in to the
deeper water.
Dad
arrived in to the swim about 7.30am and I still
hadn’t had any luck, so I wound in my 2 Small
Cut Down Pineapple Pop Ups and hooked fresh network
bags of Mini Combo on
them both and cast them further out in to the
shallower water, it didn’t take long to get the
first run of the day, after a short but spirited
fight I had a mirror in the net, on the scales the
fish went 21lb 6oz, and was a result seeing as there
was still frost on the ground and all the night
anglers were still asleep. Before I could get the
fish back in the water my other rod was away, this
time a 18lb 15oz mirror, I just could not believe how
active the fish were considering the
conditions.
Tom
Maker
with one
16 carp caught in January whilst fishing at Thorpe
Lea
Around
10.30am the bloke in the swim next door packed up and
dad was soon casting his rods out, and it
didn’t take long till he was into a hard
fighting Thorpe lea mirror, with the sun now well and
truly up the fish were going crazy out on the shallow
plateau, it was just a case of getting a PVA bag out
there, the most hectic action were had was a treble
take, I had two fish on and dad had 1 fish on his
rods, the rest of the day carried on the same way
with fish after fish, with gate closing at 5.30pm,
both dad and myself could not take anymore, we ended
the day with no more than 24 carp between us, me
taking 16 of those which also included 3 20s and dad
taking 8 up to 22lb 12oz with the smallest one going
11lb 2oz. All in all a great day, and with more clod
weather forecast that wasn’t going to be our
last session up there, however when we go there again
could we possibly catch anymore?
Till next
time
Tom.
Session of a Lifetime
With the
dramatic increase in pressure, clear skies, freezing
cold temperatures at night and warm days the weather
was far from perfect, but that was not going to put
me off, I got dropped of down the lake about 10.30am
and was not surprised to find that I was the only
angler down, with the gear loaded on the barrow I
pushed it down to the first swim on the lake where I
fancied going, however I walked the lake for about
3hours looking for signs of carp, but saw
nothing. However I knew that the days were
going to be bright and sunny I settled on a swim that
fished into some shallows about 135 yards out that
had a deep ledge about 150 yards out where the fish
sat at night and moved into the shallows during the
day. Before I got the rods out I went round
with the polaroids and a bucket of Mini
Combos/Response Pellets and half a
kilo of Boilies to see if there were any fish there,
as I was walking down through the bushes I saw a
large mirror stick its head out about 15 yards
through the channel in the deeper water so I knew
there was at least 1 fish present, when I got closer
to the water I could see there was a lot more than 1
carp there, in fact there was nearer 20, with most
being 20+ and a few into the 30s. I didn’t
waste any time in getting the bait in, I only put 5
Catapults of pellet out and 2 of hemp as the fish
were not that interested in feeding, once back in the
swim I rigged the rods up and had 5-6 attempts trying
to cast my single Cell bottom baits up the channel,
once both the rods were out I went about setting my
biyyy up.
Around
3pm I had a twitchy take that resulted in a hook
pull, I was gutted as the fish felt half
descent. I got the rod back out and continued
to eat my lunch, for the next hour I was sat looking
at fish after fish crashing over my bait thinking to
myself they have got to feed some time soon, well the
next hour and half was when they decided to do just
that, the first fish came to the left had rod and was
an old looking mirror weighing 30lb 11oz, a great
start to a 48hour session, before I could get the rod
back out the other was away resulting in a second 30
in just 30minutes, another stunning mirror, with no
rods in the water and the fish still going mad I knew
I had to get them back out, the first flying up there
fine but the second taking a bit longer, once the
bobbins were on it didn’t take long to go again
this time a common rolled over the draw cord, however
it was not the normal 15-18lb in fact at 27lb 14oz it
was my biggest common from the lake, and the last
fish I had that night.
The
night passed without a bleep, which I expected as the
temperature dropped to 1oC and both my baits were
only in a foot of water, I rolled over and put the
kettle when my left hand rod which was about 150
yards out tightened and the tip pulled over, I leap
out of bed and ran to the rod, I sat and watched for
a couple seconds then the line pulled out of the clip
and I lifted into the rod and connected with a heavy
fish that just plodded left to right for about 5
minutes before I finally gained line on it, once the
fish was in the margins it tried its hardest to get
into the weed, and at one point it went solid, gentle
pressure was all that was needed to get the fish
moving again, the fish continued to fight hard before
I finally netted a large mirror, at a glance the fish
looked mid 30. I left the fish in the net for a
couple of minutes whilst I got the mat, scales,
camera ready, when it come to lifting the fish out of
the water I could see it was well over mid 30s, in
fact it was nearer 40, once on the mat I unhooked the
fish and slid it into the weigh sling, on the scales
the needle pulled round once and at first bounced
round to 41lb, but once the needle was all settled
the final weight was 39lb 6oz, a truly magnificent
fish, and my 3rd 30 in just 16 hours.
Tom Maker with a 39lb
6oz Mirror
For
the remainder of the morning I sat behind motionless
rods, debating on whether to have a recast and re
bait, I sat waiting for another hour before deciding
on re chuck, with the rigs hooked in the butt eye I
walked round to the area and catapulted a further 10
pouch fulls of Mini Combo, 100 chopped Boilies but
this time I put in 7 balls of blitz, this was to get
the fish grubbing around, there were already 3-4 fish
investigating the bait I had just put in, I walked
back round to the swim and re baited the rigs, this
time I chose to put a really small piece of boilies
on both the rods, as the fish were shying off the
larger pieces of bait
I
managed to catch 2 off the spot during the afternoon,
a pretty mirror weighing 25-10 and an absolutely
stunning mirror weighing 32lb 13oz. As I got the rods
out perfect before I went to bed I decided I wasn't
going to recast them. The temperature during
the night dropped to almost zero and I knew that I
didn’t have a chance till about 9am, when the
sun come up over the trees, so I decided on a recast
around 7.30am in time for their feeding
spell. I got 2 singles up there first
time and felt confident of a run between
9-10am. About 8.55am I saw a fish crash over my
bait and knew it was only a matter of time, 20minutes
later my left hand rod in the deeper water tore off
and I connected with a heavy carp, the fish ran me
right out into the lake, trying its best to go round
the back of the island to my left, however a bit of
pressure took care of that and I was back in control
in of the fish, once the fish was in the margins I
could see it was another lump, the fish plodded
around for another couple of minutes before I finally
got it in the net, as I was unhooking the fish my
other rod which was propped up against the tree to my
left pulled tight, so I hit in to that and was into
another large fish, this one came in a lot easier,
but I had one major problem, I had forgot my other
net, so I had to try and net what looked like another
30 in the same net, some thing that I would never
normally do. However I managed to get them both
in and unhooked safely before safely transferring one
into the safety weight sling and transferring it to
the mat, the first fish weighed 34-8 and was a
stunning half linear and the second was another
mirror weighing 30-7. I couldn’t
believe it, 2 30s at once, could this session get any
better? With both the fish safely
returned I got the rods back out and began to pack my
gear up as dad was due to pick me up within the next
2-4 hours, whilst breaking down the bivvy I landed a
common weighing 17lb 15oz, and whilst the rods were
laid on the floor I had a ripping take and landed a
21lb 14oz mirror, what an end to an amazing session
and one that will certainly be hard to beat.
Till next
time
Tom
Maker
July 2007
The
first week of my last summer holidays saw me doing a
5 night session on my new syndicate water, I arrived
at the lake at 7am in the morning to find the swim I
wanted was taken, so I bivvied up and chucked a
couple of pop ups out in a unfavoured swim for the
night in hope that I was going in the swim Iwanted in
the morning. After a brief chat with the angler in
the swim he told me he was off at 6.30am.
The
night passed with not so much as a beep, around 8am I
had all my gear in the swim and had just got the rods
into position, with everything done I went round and
baited up, as I was going to be in the swim for 2
days I decided to put lots of bait in, in total I put
in 7kgs of 18mm Mainline Cell Bottom Baits and 5kgs
of
Hemp, as I
knew there were fish in my swim I hurried back to he
rods and sat behind them. It wasn’t long till
the left hand rod bust into life and I was soon
connected to a scrappy 15lb 6oz common, a good start,
but I knew there much bigger fish in the area, with
the fish returned and the rod back into position it
was only matter of minutes till the right hand rod
went off, and this time I was connected to some thing
much bigger, after a long fight I soon netted a scale
perfect mirror weighing 32lb 5oz, excellent what a
start to a 2 night session. With the rig re
baited and the rod back in position it was only a
matter of time before it went of again, well 4-5hours
past and nothing, so in came the rods and I recast
them both and put a further 3kgs of boilies
out.
About 6pm that evening I had a belting take on the
right hander and connected with a hard fighting 23lb
5oz Common, the fish was returned after I had got
some trophy shots and the rod was soon recast.
As I had been up since 4.30am I decided to have an
early night, but that was interrupted by a twitchy
take on the left hand rod, so I jumped out of bed and
struck into what felt like a small common, however
this turned out to be a PB chub weighing 8lb 2oz. I
was over the moon, no sooner had I returned the 8lb
chub I landed another weighing 7lb 4oz on my other
rod, with that chub retuned and both the rods recast
near the spot I jumped into bed and went to
sleep.
I awoke at first light and recast both the rods and
put some more bait in hope of getting a early morning
fish, this soon paid off because at 6.30am I landed
a13lb 6oz common, with an early fish I knew iwould be
in for a good day, and a good day it turned out to
be. The next take came at about 9am which resulted in
a 28lb 7oz mirror soon followed by another mirror
weighing 20lb 2oz, with no action for about 2hours I
decided on a re chuck to try and enduce a take, this
didn’t take long as I soon got a blistering run
of what felt like small common but turned out to be
another mirror weighing 28lb 12oz, what a result 3
20s in a morning and I still had 24hours left, about
2pm I decided to go round and put a bit more bait in,
soon after doing this I had a double take, what a
nightmare, I only had one net set up, so I called for
the angler in the next swim to ask if he could set my
spare net up, I got the first fish in the net which
turned out to be a small common around 12-13lb, but
the other was a mirror weighing 24lb 7oz, with the
fish weight and photographed I went about recasting
the rods, with both the rods back in position I
decided to cook myself some food, as I took the last
bite from the second roll my left hand rod dropped
back about 5inches, so I jumped into the water turned
the buzzer off and tightened up the slack line when
all of a sudden the line melted off the spool and
gave me a nasty burn right across the tip of my
finger, I immediately lifted the rod and was
connected with what felt like a large fish, after a
long heavy fight I soon had the fish wallowing about
in the margins, but as I lent into the tree to get
the net and net the first fish my other rod ripped
off, with one fish in the margins and the other
screaming off and no one else on the lake I turned my
buzzer off and let the fish run, I got the first fish
in, dropped the net over the edge of the swim and hit
into another heavy fish, the fish which was in the
net was over 30lb and I was certain that the fish I
was connected to was another ‘biggun’,
after about 10 minutes I caught my first glimpse of a
very large fish well over 40lb, I was a nervous
wreck, the fish went on another long run before I
scooped it up in the net, I didn’t know what to
do, so I called Dad and he was with me within
15minutes, lifting the first fish onto the mat we
could see it was a bit spawned out, however it still
pulled the needle round to 31lb 8oz, with a couple of
pictures taken of the fish it was time to get the Big
Mirror out, on the mat it looked mahoosive, and
mahoosive it was, at 41lb 9oz it was my second 40lber
within a month ,I was over the moon even though it
was a repeat capture, keeping the fish out of the
water for minimal time dad fired off a few shots and
I quickly put the fish back. What a session and one I
will always remember.
Tom
Maker with his second 40lb Carp all within one
month!!!
Till next
time
Tom
May 2007
Myself and
Dad arrived down the lake about 9am due to horrendous
rain at 5am when we got up to go, we walked onto the
lake we could see that the grassy bank was all free
and there were fish showing in front of it, so we
immediately pushed our barrows round there, before
getting anything else sorted we got the brollies up
as the rain was pouring down, once all the gear was
under the brolly we went about putting the rods out,
we had both opted to fish the new bait which is
currently on test from Mainline, as the fish were
showing about 50yards in front of me and 90 yards in
front of Dad we opted not to cast right in amongst
the fish in fear of spooking them so we cast 5-10
yards short of them.
It
didn't take long for my right hand rod to rip of and
I immediately connected with a heavy fish, the fight
dragged on for the best part of 25 minutes before the
fish finally surface about 10 yards out, when I
caught the first glimpse of the fish I could see it
was another 30+ and took it easy from then until dad
scooped up in the net 5 minutes later, on the scales
the fish went 31lb 14oz. I was so happy
as we had only been there an hour, with the fish
safely returned and the fish now showing out in the
middle of the lake I opted to cast both of my rods
out to where the fish had now moved.
About 3pm
dads right hand rod dropped back and he thought he
had hooked one of the many bream that reside in lake
but instantly connected with hard fighting carp,
after a long hard fight I slipped the net under a
stunning 31lb 10oz linear. By this time were we both
over the moon as we had a 30 each and we still had
6hours left, but the fish had now stopped showing and
we knew that we would have to sit it out to the end
and wait for the fish to move back out in front of
us.
Just
before the sun went behind the trees the fish started
showing in front off me, so to take my mind of the
fish I packed all my gear away and loaded the barrow,
about half way through loading the barrow my left
hand rod ripped off resulting in a scrappy 12lb
mirror probably the smallest in the lake, but it was
a fish.
Yet
another good days fishing, can it get any
better?
Tom
April 2007
Over
the last couple of weeks both me and my dad have been
fishing a local lake, where we have caught some nice
fish, I arrived at the pretty lake about 5.30am to
find that there was 6 night anglers already on there,
however most of the night the anglers were in the
middle of the lake, but with a new easterly wind
pushing down the other end I opted to go down there
for the day as there was no one else down
there. Before setting up I sat and watched the
water for about 1hour to look for any signs of fish,
after about 45minutes I had not seen anything and I
was just about to walk away when I heard a big splash
in the entrance to the bay. This then confirmed
my decision and I stayed down the end I had
originally gone for, I quickly got the gear off the
barrow and baited the rods and cast them to spots I
had caught fish from the previous session.
With
the rods out I sat back and made myself a coffee and
sat watching fish just up to my right knowing that by
the afternoon provided the wind stayed strong the
fish would move down in front of me. By about 3.30pm
the fish had now moved much closer to me but not in
front so before the fish moved any further down I
recast both rods with fresh hooklinks, baits and bags
and got them in position ready for when they were in
front. At about 4.15pm another angler moved in
opposite me, once he had moved in and cast his rods I
did not see another fish and Ithought that I had
missed my chance, however around 5pm the angler who
had moved in opposite landed a stunning 38lb 6oz
mirror so I knew there were still fish down our
end.
My
dad phoned me about 6 and asked if I had seen
anything and I told him ''they had just started
showing again'' and he replied "give me 15minutes and
I’ll be down", with the fish now showing one
after another I knew it was a matter of minutes
before one went down and picked a bait up. Dad
arrived down the lake about 6.30pm and quickly put
his rods out, we both sat back waiting and watching
when both of my rods roared off, at first I thought
it was a bird swam through the lines but a quick
glance around confirmed that I had a double take, I
said to dad I’ll have the left hand rods and
you have the right hand rod, we both struck and I had
connected with nothing. We swapped rods and I
played the fish on the right hand rod and dad wound
in the left hand rod, whilst I was playing the 36lber
dad recast my left hand rod, with the fish now clear
of both dads lines and out in the open water.
Dad
was in the water with net when we both heard my
Neville rip off, to which dad ran from the water and
went on to land a nice 18lb heavily scaled mirror
whilst my fish was still right out in the lake
fighting hard, after about 10 minutes once dad had
photographed his I finally had my fish in the margins
wollowing on the surface ready for the net, so I
floated the net out to it and scooped it up first
time, when the fish first went into the net I could
see it was a ‘biggun’ but when it was on
the mat I realised just how big it was, and at 36lb
dead on I was over the moon.
Tom
24
Hour Session on Charlies Lake, Ashford
On a
recent Friday after school when the weather
wasn’t looking that good I decided to go over
to Charlies Lake in Ashford, I had only ever fished
the small but pretty venue once before and managed 4
doubles in the freezing cold and just wanted to do
another night on there to see if i could get one of
the harder to catch 20s and also a bend in the
rod.
Charlie’s
is about 2 acres in size and holds approximately
250/300 carp, most of which are high singles and low
doubles, it also holds quite a few upper doubles with
34 known 20s and around 4-5 thirties to just over
35lbs, as well as the carp there are alot of big
roach to over 3lb and the biggest perch I know that
has been caught from there is just under 5lb, the
lake has a small island in the middle and a lot of
marginal features to fish to (overhanging trees and
reeds) the depths range from 2ft to 7ft and is a good
all year water. As the weather was set to be cold
with easterly winds I opted to fish the far end where
the water was deeper.
I
got down to the lake about 4pm on the Friday and
immediately spotted fish fizzing in the open water
down the deeper end of the lake so I quickly walked
my gear to the swim, and before setting anything up I
quickly got a rod out. I put a short hooklink with a
Small White
Betalin Pop Up on and a bag of Mini Combo
Pellets and cast to the fish, within a matter of
a minute it ripped off resulting in a hard fighting
15lb common, and from then on in I knew I was going
to be in for a hectic night as this lake fishes
better at night. With the fish weighed and
photographed I slipped her back and then went about
setting the bivvy up, once the bivvy was set up and
all the gear was inside it I then baited up, as the
lake was not very busy I scattered about 2 kilos of
Mainline
18mm Pulse in the middle of the lake hoping that
this would stop the carp moving up the lake. There
were also 5 trees that overhung in the water on the
road bank to my right, so I opted to bait all of
these spots with Hemp, Nutz
Sludge and Chopped Boilies hoping that if I had
caught 1 fish on one spot I could then cast to the
other spot and hopefully pick one up off there and
move the rod to different snags after each
fish.
As
I would be fishing to snags and I knew that they were
submerged under the water I opted for a shorter
Hybrid Hooklink a Size 6
Longshank X Hook, this would be fished on a lead
clip system with the clip cut right down and the
rubber split to ensure the lead came off even on the
slightest of takes with a long length of lead core to
keep everything pinned down. On the other hand
I would be using long 10lb IQ
Hooklink with a Size 10
Longshank X Hook for the open water rod also
fished on a cutdown lead clip and leadcore, the bait
I opted to use was 18mm Pulse, I hoped by doing this
then I would catch more decent sized fish and keep
away the roach and bream.
Once all
the rods were out it didn’t take long for the
takes to start coming, and I think by 10pm I had
already had 10 up to 18lb, from both the open water
and the margins and after each of the fish from the
margins I put a further 9-10 handfulls of the mix in
and sprinkled more Pulse in the middle, through out
the night the action was constant with takes coming
every 35-40minutes and I think on one occasion I had
a double hook-up, buy the morning I had landed 18carp
and lost 2, 16 of which were 10lb+ with 6 of them
over 15lbs, I had already gone through 5 kilos of
hemp and 5kg of Boilies and I had only been there for
a night, thank god I was going home at lunch
time!!!
As
the sun rose and the frost dried up so did the takes,
I got out off bed at 7.30am and put the kettle on
when I noticed a few fish cruising around tight to
the island in the shallower water, I thought to
myself that’s crazy, but when I thought about
it, it made sense, the warm sun would warm the
shallower water up first, so I quickly wound a rod in
put a fresh bait and bag on and cast it to the
island, but I cast it a bit too far and put it on the
island, but with a gentle pull it flicked of and
landed right next to the island.. I put the rod down
and was just about to walk back to the brolly when,
it ripped off resulting in a small but pretty 6lb
common, with the fish safely returned and the rod
back in position I re-baited the other 2 rods and put
them back in the margins hoping there would be the
odd better fish there eating the leftovers of bait
from last nights action.
By
12pm I had taken another 2 small carp of the island
and nothing on the margin rods but I was still
feeling confident off a bit of one of them, as we
were going to be leaving soon I packed all the gear
up and laid my rods on the floor, with 5 minutes of
the session remaining I noticed that my right hand
line had gone slack so I immediately hit into it and
I was in, and straight away I knew it was a better
fish, and after a long hard battle I landed a mint
condition 20lb 2oz mirror.
So
all in all I landed 22 carp, 3 singles, 18doubles and
1 20 in just one night, not bad considering the
weather was cold and high pressure, I have also done
a session on there in the last week and landed 5 carp
up to 20lb 12oz using the same methods.
Till next
time
Tight
lines
Tom
Chilham Mill
I
arrived down at Chilham early Friday morning, the
wind was blowing south westerly and the conditions
looked bang on, on arrival to the lake I found that
the lake was quite busy as you would expect in these
conditions, but there was 1 swim in particular that I
wanted to fish that was free, Peg 19, a big swim with
loads of water and a island were the fish love to go
around when the lake is busy.
I
got to the swim around 7.30am and already was seeing
fish crash out, so during the heavy rain storm
quickly got my brolly set up and all the gear
underneath it, whilst the rain was pouring I had time
to tie 5-6 hooklinks and about 25 P.V.A
sticks to hopefully last the first day or 2 of my
session but as the weed in Chilham is quite bad I
opted for 6 inches of 20lb
Hybrid Knotless knotted to a Size 6
Longshank X hook and the Hookbait would be
a 14mm
Mainline Pro Active Pineapple Bottom Bait, and
this would be fished on a Safe Zone Leader with a cut
down lead clip and a split lead tail rubber to ensure
the lead come off on every take to prevent it
snagging in the weed.
The
stick mix I would be using would consist of Nutz Multi
Mix, Hemp
with the water drained out, Crushed Hemp, Mini Combo
Pellets and Chopped Pro
Active Pineapples with a little of the matching
glug added for taste and smell.
The
rain started to ease off and it was time to get the
rods out, as the fish had been showing at range I
opted to put 2 rods with small sticks at ranges of
about 110-120yards, and with the third rod I was
going to find a smooth silt area and spod a large
area of Nutz sludge, Crushed Hemp, Hemp, Mini Combo
Pellets and Chopped Pro Active Pineapples. As
there were not that many fish close in I started off
by doing 25 spods of the mix and then cast a single
bottom bait to it with a little stick on it.
During
the course of the day the fish started to move closer
and closer in so I was feeling confident of a bite.
At around 5pm I had a 1 toner off the baited area
resulting in a 23lb 4oz mirror, once the fish was
photographed and put back I recast the rod and then
topped the area up with a further 10 spods just to
see if I could get another take before night time,
around 7.30pm I started getting liners on the right
hand rod over the bait, when I had more than a few
bleeps I struck the rod and after a short battle
landed a 6lb+ tench. I wasn’t
unhappy with it as I knew there were still fish
feeding over it, once the tench was put back I recast
the rod ready for the night and spodded a further 15
spods over it ready for the night, as the fish were
now both close and far I opted to cast 1 of the rods
short in between 2 bars and the other to the back of
island at range.
The
night time proved to be a bit quiet but as usual
Chilham started to produce early in the morning and I
think within 2hours between 6am and 8am I landed a
16lb10oz Common a 20lb 4oz mirror and a 19lb 8oz
mirror, with the sun now up and the action slow I
decided it was time to put yet more bait out and put
out another 10 spods to try and get a take during the
day. As the day progressed I could see the fish in
the upper layers cruising over the bait, and I
remember thinking to myself ''one of them is gonna
have it any minute'' when all of a sudden I had a
ripping take and a huge bow wave erupted from the
spot resulting in a long hard fight and I eventually
netted a long lean hard fighting 21lb 12oz common,
with the fish back in the water I got the rod back
out.
As
the fish had been harder to catch during the day I
didn’t spod any more bait out to see if I could
get a take immediately after a fish, my plan seemed
to have worked and soon after the 21lb common was
returned I had yet another ripper resulting in a 20lb
4oz mirror, as the spot was only about 40yards out I
could clearly see through the binoculars all the
fizzing that was happening. I decided to fill
it in, and I put in about 35 spods of the mix out,
but whilst I was spodding I had a take, and normally
on the ''Mill'' if you get a take when you are
spodding of just after it is a grass carp, but this
was fighting a little different, the fish seemed to
know were every weed bed was and proceeded to weed me
every 5 minutes, but after a bit of pressure I
managed to get the fish to the surface and eventually
into the net, at a glance the fish looked massive,
but when I lifted it out of the water it wasn’t
as big as I thought, on the scales it went 27lb 6ozs,
I say it wasn’t massive it was still quite big,
once the fish was safely returned back to its watery
home I re-cast that rod and also moved one of my
other rods on to the spodded area and cast the other
one as near to the spot as I could without getting
them in the way of each other as my dad was coming
down just into darkness.
As
on the first night the night time produced nothing
but early morning I landed a bream and a tench, but
my dad had managed to bag a 24lb common during the
night fishing at range with Single pineapple pop ups.
Around 8.30am I spodded out the last of the mix, Ii
suppose it was only about 5 spods to the area, but
amazingly this produced our last 2 takes in very
quick succession resulting in one of the 30s down in
weight for me at 28lb 10oz and another mirror
weighing 24lb 14oz for dad, by about 11am we had not
had any more action and the fish had moved further
round into the bay were we could not cast to them, so
with all the gear dry we decided to pack up and go
home...
So
yet another good session on Nutz sludge, and between
me and my dad we landed 8 20s to 28-10 and 2 doubles
to 19-12. Can it get any better…..
Till next
time
Tight
lines Tom
Junior Championships Qualifier
Thursday 17th August 2006
Thursday
was the day of my BYCAC qualifying event, we arrived
up at the very productive Linear Fisheries Water
Brasenose 1 on the Wednesday night as we had a long
way to travel and it meant that we would have to
leave our house at 3am on the Thursday morning. On
the Wednesday night dad and myself bivvied up in the
car park ready for the registration and draw at 7am
in the morning the morning of my qualifier soon came
around and before I knew it was time for the
registration. As the draw would be an
'out of the hat draw' there was no need for a walk
round the lake, so to kill the time I sat in the van
and tied 50 P.V.A bags just in case I fished off the
bottom. I had done a practice on the venue
about 1 week before and I had been told that in the
Memorial match that they had recently held there that
most of the fish had come out on Zig Rigs and
spodding over the top of them, the method that I
would be using if the sun came out.
The
draw for the swims was at 7.30am allowing us enough
time to get all our gear to the swim, as the names
were being called out the kids were going up and
pulling a peg out of the draw bag, finally my name
was called and I walked to the front and pulled peg
27 a swim that was in the centre of the lake on the
far side of the lake (the furthest walk from the car
park and one of the swims I wanted to get in, due to
the amount of water) once the draw had taken place we
all set off to our swims, on arriving to the swim I
could clearly see that there were a lot of fish
showing in the middle, so I knew that for the first
couple of hours I would be casting small P.V.A sticks
of Mini-Combo Pellet to the middle about 130yards
out. As the day was going to be a bright one
with some patchy showers in between I found a spot
about 100yards out were I would continuously spod
hoping to get the fish to the top were I could then
use Zigs. The sound of the starting hooter went
at 9am signaling to us that we could now start
fishing, I started of by casting 2 small bags to the
middle and I then spoded a Sludge consisting of Nutz
Sludge, Crushed Hemp, Hemp and Tuna to my spot at
100yards range were I was hoping to get the fish on
Zigs later on in the day. About 2hrs had passed
and had not had so much as a beep, with about 12
competitors caught there was only 1 fish in it,
around 12pm I decided to put 2 8ft Zig Rigs on the
spot and carry on spoding over the top of them as the
middle had not produced a take, the Zigs had been out
there for about an hour and a half when suddenly my
left hand rod rattled of resulting in my first fish
of the qualifier, at just over 10lb it was very
welcome putting me into about 8th place. Once
the rod was back out I then started spoding over the
top again as I knew that if one fish had taken a Zig
there would be a lot more in the upper layers.
For
the remanded of my qualifier I kept spoding regularly
and managed a further 8 fish to 15lb 6oz and a total
weight of 94lb 12oz putting me in to 1st place by
quite a large margin and putting me into the final.
The final hooter sounded at 6
signalling
for us
to pack up and load the gear onto the barrow, with my
arms aching like mad it was time to do the long walk
back to the van. Once back at the control tent it was
time for the presentation which I was a little
nervous to say the least, once the top 9 had walked
up and collected their goodie bag it was then time
for me to go up, they called my name and I walked up
there collecting my trophy and I also received a Rod
Holdall and Carryall from Ultimate Henglesport.
Once all the non-qualifiers had left the 10
qualifiers had to stay behind and talk to Simon Crow
were he explained the rules for the
final. I couldn’t wait for the
following morning, as this was the first time I had
ever made it to the final of the event.... We would
be staying in a hotel over night to get cleaned up
and get the gear tidy again.
The Final
The
morning of the final soon came, at 5.30am dad and
myself left the hotel and made our way to the lake,
the day was set to be a wet one with heavy showers
throughout the day with temperatures around 18oc, not
the sort of weather I had been hoping for as I wanted
to fish the match with Zigs, but after what happened
in the qualifier I knew I could get the fish up in
any weather,
We
got the lake at 6am just in time for registration, on
arrival to the lake we could clearly see that there
were a lot of fish on the wind, but that didn’t
mean anything as the wind was due to change Saturday
afternoon, once I was signed in we got our coats on
and walked round the lake making a list of
swims. By this time the rain was pouring, but
it had to be done, I suppose it took us about 1.30hrs
to walk round the lake and by this time I had a good
idea in my head of were I would go if I came high out
of the draw, the draw was a water craft draw this is
were your name gets pulled out of the hat and you
then choose which swim you think is the best one for
you or the one that has lots of fish in front it, any
way it was now 7.45am and the draw was set to start
in about 1hr so both dad and myself got a coffee and
a bacon roll and went and sat in the van to finalise
the list of swims, the time of the draw soon came
around and the sun had come out, just the weather I
was praying for, well any way the 1st name was picked
out and it was Alexei Bygrave, He was over the
moon and choose Swim 2, a open water swim with loads
of fish in front of it, the draw carried on with
anglers being called out 1 by 1, by the time the 25th
person had been called out I wondered if my name was
in there, so the last 15 names got called out with
mine being the very last one, gutted how unlucky
could you get 40th out of 40 in a water craft draw,
with this draw I only had about 6 swims to choose
from, and with the sunny intervals due to happen I
choose the last open water swim and that was a double
swim peg 25.
I
got all my gear in the swim around 9.30am, the first
hooter would sound at 11am and this was a signal for
us to start baiting up, but we could not get our
fishing rods clipped up, so for the 1st hour I
constantly spoded out a mixture of Nutz Sludge,
Crushed Hemp, Hemp mixed with Tiger Slime, I was
spoding this mix at a range of about 110yards were I
felt comfortable casting to. The starter siren
hooted all to quickly and before I knew it the match
had began. I quickly got the 3 rods
clipped up to the same spots, I clipped the 3rd to
the spot in case of a crack off, I then put 2 8ft
Zigs on with cut down Mainline Pineapple juice
Pop-Ups on and cast them to the spots. By
this time all of the juniors had cast their rods out,
but as the first thunder storm of the match started
all the competitors went in side the bivvies, but I
stayed out in the storm and constantly spoded as I
knew this was the only way to get the fish in the
Zigs, my dad had to go up to Hinders to pick up some
more bait, and by the time he had got back I was
already in 1st place with 35lb having caught 3
doubles in the first hour.
With
the sun now out I thought to myself that the only way
I can go to do well in this competition was to stay
out in all weather and spod spod spod, and spod spod
spod!!! I stayed out and, by the first evening
we had encountered 3 storms with heavy rain and I was
so cold I could have given up and gone home, but by
the end of day one I had landed 8 fish for a total of
92lb and was in lead by about 50lb, with Alexei in
2nd using the same method. The night time
was a little slow for me and I only managed to land 1
17lb mirror a good fish for Brasenose. But the
morning of day 2 saw a new leader in Alexei, he had
had a great night landing 2 20s a 16 and a 17lber
putting him about 20lb in front of me.
The day was going to be that same as yesterday with
heavy showers and storms but the wind was due to
change direction and blow down the ready side, this
was bad news for me and Alexei as the fish like to
follow a wind and this moved a lot of fish down there
away from us. During the course of the
day I managed to pick of about 12 fish putting me
over the 150lb mark as a couple of the fish I landed
were only 3-4lbers.
By
this time I was down into 4th place, but with regular
spoding I managed to keep getting regular bites,
around 3pm on the Saturday afternoon I had caught
some more fish putting me into 2nd place by quite a
large margin. However Alexei was way out in
front by about 100lb. I needed a miracle to
catch him, well, around 5.30pm I had a 1 toner on my
left hand rod on the Zig, I quickly got the fish in
to the net and the rod back out, when both the rods
were back out I spodded over them again this produces
a real flurry of activity, after spodding out I had a
drop back on my left hand rod and whilst I was
playing that fish I had another take on my right hand
rod. I quickly got that fish in and struck in
the other, about 5 mins passed and both the fish were
in the net. I quickly got the rod clipped up
again and back out there and within seconds both the
rods were away again, I couldn’t believe
it. With one fish on and the other rod rattling
off I was in a panic as I did not want to lose any of
these fish as all of them were vital, with Martin
Ford in the water with the other 2 fish in sacks I
landed the 3rd then struck into the 4th and after a
short fight I had 4 fish in nets and sacks. I
knew this was my only chance and I quickly got the
rods back out, and would you believe it I finished
one spod and the left hand rod was off again, after a
heart throbbing fight I had the 5th fish securely in
the net, with all the fish in the net and the rod
back out we attempted to get the fish out and do some
shots when my right hand rod tightened them roared
off resulting in another welcome mirror of 13lb 12oz
putting me within 12lb of Alexei. We got the
fish photographed and I then started to spod again
but it was too late as the fish had moved in, wiped
me out and had gone.
However I
still stayed out and spoded hoping to get a bonus
fish during the night as my swim had not been a night
swim, anyway the night soon came and went and I had
only managed a 13lb and Alexei had only managed 2
singles. Once daylight came the Zigs went back
out and very soon I was in to another fish, and I was
told that if I landed this fish and it was 11lb 14oz
I would be in first, once the fish was in the net I
knew it would be close, on the scales it went 11lb
8oz, this was now a close match as I was just 2oz
behind 1st place. I then got the rod out and
continued to spod, this soon bought a 13 lber putting
me in the lead, then Alexei landed a 19lber putting
him back into 1st place. About an hour passed
with no more action so I decided to stop the spoding
and sit on my hands, I waited for another 20mins with
still no action so I wound my rods in put shorted
zigs on them and changed the bait to a 1inch long
piece of cork on, the rods had been back out for
about 10mins when the left hand rod ripped off
resulting in a 16lb 12oz mirror putting me back in
the lead.
With
about 1 hr to go till the end, Alexei landed a 14lber
putting him in to the lead again by 3lb, in the final
seconds on the match I had a run it was unbearable
for my dad who at this point was sitting behind a
car, hoping and praying I landed it. Well
anyway I landed it and at just under 9lb I was told I
had won the competition. But when we got
back round to the control tent we was told there had
been a mistake somewhere along line and that they had
counted one of my fish twice, so instead of my
winning by 3lbs they had to deduct a 9lb 2oz mirror
they had counted twice meaning I had come 2nd by just
6lb. I was gutted to say the least but we had
both worked so hard through the competition |