Makins Snake Charming

It was the Makins Fishomania qualifier today which I was really looking forward to. I dreamt all night of a nice draw on Phase 1… but sadly it was peg 21 on Snake that stuck to my hand. This is a really average peg on Phase 2, only 10m wide and 3ft deep at the most. I had a look at the peg and contemplated not setting up before deciding to be more optimistic and at least try and win the 10-peg section.

I’m glad I did as I ended up having an enjoyable day, catching around 12 good carp and 5lb of skimmers for a 56lb total and the lake win! Coincidentally, that was the same weight I won Reptile with on Sunday!

After two hours all I had was two foul-hooked carp to show for my efforts and no one was catching much at all. I then popped the plummet on and found an even shallower spot against the island and started all over again. This did the trick and I had a decent run of fish here, plus a few better ones down the edge. Unlike Sunday there didn’t seem to be anything in the deeper water this time.

With it being so narrow and snaggy I opted for my MTX2 pole and eventually settled on the green 16-18 Slik as the perfect shock absorber. It’s strong stuff but the fish in this lake try and plough through roots and platform legs, so there’s little chance of playing them with light gear! I’m definitely going to thread up another couple of kits with this stuff now as it’s great for bagging but still has a degree of softness to avoid hook pulls.

Well done Steve Brindley for qualifying with 120lb from Lake 5 on Phase 1.

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