I used to fish Makins a lot, maybe 20 times a year for many
years, which takes some doing when you live nearly 100 miles away. However,
things changed and I haven’t actually fished there for the best part of ten
years, not since it was sold off to British Waterways anyhow.
However, I just had the urge to go back for the day, so after
a little planning (sourcing the Green Swimstim pellets is not all that easy
round my way) and a fair bit of grovelling to SWMBO I was allowed to go.
I made a early-ish start leaving the house about 6am and
arrived on phase 2 at about 0715. I think I’d have been there sooner except for
the 50mph restriction on the M1 north of Luton that seems to have been in place
for years and also seems to go on for ever.
On my way up I had already picked my peg, and if that was
occupied I had a few others in mind to try to. Thankfully my first choice was
free, the peg by the path on Lizard (or Lizzard according to the signs) from
which you can reach the first small island with the pole.
This was my opening gambit, 13m of pole in 3ft of water, and
the usual heavy gear and 11mm expanders. A pot full of 6mm pellets to kick
things off and by 0735 I was ready to fish. First drop in got a knock, second
drop in a proper bite. A rather dull, plodding fight followed (not like the
carp at Gold Valley on my last outing) and a 6lb 8oz mirror carp hit the
landing net. Not a bad start.
Hoping that this was a sign of things to come I shipped out
again. And waited. And waited. In fact I waited a good half hour for another
proper bite, another carp of 6lb. I was getting knocks and dips, but they
looked like liners, and a couple of foul-hookers mixed in for good measure
seemed to confirm this. End of the first hour – 2 fish for 12lb, not quite what
I had in mind.
I experimented a little in the second hour, set up a lighter
rig to a 14 hook, tried up in the water (nothing) on the deck, sweetcorn,
banded 6mm pellet, cad potting instead, and nothing really got the fish into
gear. Going back on the big pellet rig with the cad pot seemed to help for a
few fish, but even that was sporadic. A few carp followed, a couple of skimmers
in the one to two pound bracket showed on sweetcorn, but nothing really worked.
And yet, I was still getting dips and knocks signalling fish
in the area.I was still adding to my weight, carp in the 3-5lb bracket mostly,
but they were few and far between. Frustrating.
I plodded on, got up to about 40lb in weight and then it
started to get difficult. In fact it was almost dead on everything I tried.
So at this point I thought I’d give the margin a go. (One of
the regulars was fishing the margin down to my left and he seemed to be picking
the odd fish off). I’d been feeding it for a while so although it was still
early I thought I might as well.
First put in. line bite. Encouraging
Second put in. Bite. Elastic. 6lb common. Now that was
interesting.
I played around with things, it appeared there were fish
present, but not very confident, so I re-fed a new margin line further along
and also on the other side.
The next 30 minutes were very productive with two 9lb fish
visiting the landing net. However, this was as good as it really got.
I was getting signs of fish, managed a small tench on the
other margin, saw my fair share of knocks, but whatever I did, I couldn’t
convert the liners into fish. (Much like the main line in fact).
Mid afternoon, I’d had enough and packed up. 67lb of fish
was not to be sniffed at, but it should have been two or three times that.
Chatting to the other anglers and looking online suggests that my frustration
on the day was not unique to me, lots of others had experienced similar issues,
so the recent cold night might have been a factor.
So, on balance, a reasonable day, but another day thinking about what could have been.
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