MACMILLIAN CANCER CHARITY MATCH MAYNES LAKES

Well the time had now come to fish the MacMillian charity match before i go on about the match i will give you a quick insight into how this match became to be. A dear family Friend found out a couple of years ago that she had cancer and it was MacMillian who helped her deal with it whilst going through tuff aggressive treatment to try to rid the cancer from her body. After a while this happened and she carried on leading a normal life. With her husband being a avid fisherman and match fisher man he decided to put together a charity match in aid of MacMillian with the money raised going to the said charity as i sign of thank you. The match went along last year raising a nice sum (oh i didn't win the match lol)
This year there was bad news the cancer had returned taking her life in mid July. With the match planned already this year Terry Fisher (her husband) decided to go along with it in memory to his wife and everyone that knew her.
After a couple of emails to a couple of anglers i knew i had the likes of Andy Neal,Christian Vandervleit and Tony Curd all offering them selves up for auction to raise money for the said charity I also had Gaz malman of Malaman floats Neil Powell of Hillbilly pole floats and Mick Wilkinson join in offering floats that could be auctioned off as well as certain tackle/bait companies ( Willis Worms , Carp Vader,Cats and Dogs, Fox,Bait Tech )to name a few that gave raffle prizes and support from the Total Fishing Forum.
With the match time close approaching it was time for the draw in went my hand and out came peg 34 lake 2 to be honest i didn't know what to expect when i got to my peg as this was one lake i hadn't really spent any time on. Getting to the my peg I had the far bank 13m out with a tree to my right in the margin. Plan of attack would be to fish two line down the track 6m out one margin swim to my right (tree) and one to the far bank using method feeder on the pole.
Floats i would be using were once again Tubertini pro carp series 0.3gr down the track and a 0.1gr down the margin. Method on the pole would be a in line fox method feeder with bite indication being the elastic shooting out of my top kit.
Line would be 0.14mm main line with 0.12mm hook length and tubertini 808 size 16 hooks on all rigs.
For the feed i would use Willis worms 4mm low oil pellet on one of the track lines and 6mm down the margin with sweetcorn. The other line would be hemp and meat as before ans method mix for the feeder would be Willis Worms Detenator mix.
All i called and all three pole lines were fed and left i wanted the fish of the far bank and with it being weedy and saggy the method on the pole would be ideal to sit in nice and tight to the bank.
Using the method on the pole i tend to use a plastic clip pushed down the top kit load my feeder up and place the line down the top kit so the method doesn't touch the water. Ship the pole out lift and turn this lets the method feeder swing into its spot once your on drop the pole and ship back until the line becomes tight then its just hold on and wait for the bite.
Well it didn't take long before i had about 20 odd fish in the net using this method rumor was my brother was baggin by tapping his pole and fishing shallow. With this in mind i moved on to my track lines 6m out to see if the fish were there and they sure were baggin another 15 fish quickly then bang it went dead both lines went dead not even a bite I went back over on the method feeder and that had slowed right down ,by now i was scratching my head as it had started so well and now was going wrong arhhh (don't you hate it when this happens lol)
with the match now going slow and picking up the odd fish i wasn't going to be my day.
With a hour to go i cupped in a full pot of hemp and meat and went straight over it and straight away i had a fish in the net. The next put it saw another fish in the net then another one and another they were now queuing to to get caught. The last hour saw me bag around 30-40 fish I knew i wasn't going to win as I was now playing catch up with my brother but i could at least frame.
All out called and with the winning weight being 68lbs caught by my brother i knew i wasn't near it out came the net fish onto the scales to show 38lbs not bad but yet again beaten for third by 4lbs another forth. With the match being in aid of a family friend who died the winning wasn't really what i set out to do it was the talking part and raising as much money as poss for such a great cause. Over all I managed to raise £500 to go towards the final amount which came to the region of £1600.
I would like to thank everyone that took part and to those that helped me reach my total next year sees the match at the same venue hoping to grow on what we have achieved this year.
Jacky Fisher R.I.P

MAYNES LAKES WEDNESDAY OPEN

With the charity match looming on the Saturday I thought this would be chance to see how the lake was fishing and what methods would catch.
Well i turned up on the day for the draw after having a bacon buttie and a coffee and draw time soon approached the left hand went in and out came Peg 24 lake one. Looking around and after asking a few questions it wasn't a flier (never draw fliers need to come up with a new draw method lol).
Once i was at my peg it was a quick set up as the rain which had been light when i turned up was now starting to get harder. Plan of attack was to no more than 7 meters down the track reason why the wind was blowing right to left straight across the peg and i wasn't in one of them moods to fish 13 meters to the far bank and constantly get my pole dragged around by the wind, there would be fish over to the island but i was hopping i could pull them in closer using a little but often approach.
Rigs for the two swims i would set up down the track would be 2 tubertini pro carp floats 0.4gr with a .14mm main line and a .12mm hook length shotting pattern would be a bulk of no 8 a foot above the the hook with 2 no 10 droppers further down and see how it goes and test and adjust where needed.
Feed wise it would be one line 4mm pellet/sweetcorn the other 4mm meat and hemp no cupping in at the start just small cad pot sizes going in after every fish or bite as i wanted to build the swim up slowly as i have seen lads pile it in down here and the fish don't want to know.
All in was called and i decided to feed the meat line once every five minutes over a 30 minute period and leave it to settle while i looked over the pellet line,once over the pellet line it didn't take long for i was into my first small carp of the day happy days.
This went on for the next 20mins topping up with just a small cad pot the wind now had started to blow harder the rain was pelting down and the anglers who gambled with the 13m line to the island were now struggling to hold there pole straight.
With about 15 fish in the net for around 6-7lb (only small fish the lake is full of them) I turned to the meat line hoping that i had a few fish feeding and it didn't take long before i had another 6 fish in the net. Most anglers had now come in on there track line and one or two were catching well using paste. This was one method i had decided no to bother with due to the size of the fish there were a good stamp of fish up to 4-5lbs however sorting them out using paste was a pain due to there being so many small ones so that was the reason i didn't give it ago.With the meat line now starting to slow down it was time to switch again over to the pellet line this saw me bag another 10 fish before the line went dead with just over the hour to go i decided to push both lines harder to see if i could up the catch rate this ment a larger cad pot for every put in with around 45 mins it looked like it was going to pay off with a fish a chuck.
With the all out called i wasn't sure if i had done enough with a noted Peg in view catching well on paste for most of the afternoon. Round came the scales and looking at the scores 46lb was the one to beat (no way i thought) out came the net and on to the scales went 24lb which i was happy with considering the conditions it had been bloody hard work today.Packing my kit away and returning to the car park i found out that i had just missed out on 3rd by 2lbs coming in 4th. On looking back if i had of fed more positive would i have had more fish who knows as i have said if you go in all guns ablaze and feed heavily it can turn into a nightmare. With the noted pegs picking up it was always going to be hard to compete against.
Next match MacMillian Charity Match at the same venue fingers crossed on a flier lol(in my dreams)