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Billy Makins Fishery We'd
got another Friday off work - and it just had to be a visit to Billy
Makins' Fishery in Wolvey. Of course it was sunny and warm Monday to Thursday, but ominous dark clouds greeted me as I loaded the car at 5am on the Friday morning. It only takes just over an hours' drive from Chesterfield, but we wanted the particular pegs we'd fished before, so an early start was a must. True to form, it was raining when we arrived in the car park adjacent to the fishery, and as we unloaded the gear and trudged up the hill to our favourite pegs, I noticed that a diesel pump had been installed, which was lifting water from the bottom Specimen pond up into the Surprise pond. I also noticed opportunist carp grabbing at any food items in the flow from the pipe... As we tackled up, Dave took the bush swim, I was on the Point and Damian was on my right, but I just had to have a go at those carp I'd spotted, so out came the carp rod, on went a controller, size 10 hook direct to 8lb Nash line and I was off! I'm not really built for creeping about on hands and knees, but there I was, sneaking up to the carp, and gingerly lowering a bit of flake into the flow. |
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Within seconds the rod bucked in my hands and I was in. I quickly steered the fish away from the pipe and into the next peg, where it circled about before coming to the net. One
of the many carp caught that day I had another three by the same method,
when Damian came over and had a try - typical of his luck, first drop
in and he hooked up. |
One of the many carp caught that day |
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Without the pump in action, the water reversed, and was now siphoning back down to the lower pond, making a slurping vortex as it drained backwards. And yes, the carp disappeared almost instantly. So back to my peg on the point, I'd still got the controller on, so I cast out to the middle - and straight-away a carp had a slurp at it, this time a small ghostie about 4lb. I reluctantly stopped fishing to put up a second rod, this was going to be a Middy method feeder, set up bolt-rig style with cockles as bait. I literally dropped it 2ft out, under the overhanging bush to my left, fixed the swinger and turned on the buzzer. The idea was to carry on fishing off the top with the controller and let the second rod fish itself. The take was unbelievable... I'd set the bait-runner up with as little resistance as possible, but I only just managed to catch the rod as it disappeared into the water! This time a Mirror about 6lb was the culprit.
Spraying
maggots and casting into the baited area he just couldn't fail. His second rod was set up bolt-rig style with prawn on a size 8 hook, fished just 4 ft out. He
kept getting a strange odd bleep on his buzzer, and eventually when
a decent run developed - he landed a Crucian!. Yep, a good sized Crucian on a size 8 with a prawn as bait. Who says you need fine tackle and small hooks to land these beautiful fish?
As we drove back home via the congested M1, I was thoroughly 'carped-out.' I'd caught enough fish to keep me going for weeks.
What an experience. It's something I'll never forget.
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Two
more came from the same swim, before I decided to fish further out towards
the island. In the meantime Damian had opted for a puddle-chucker out
to the middle with double maggot as bait. He had six carp in six casts!
The
day was tremendous - at one stage Damian hooked a carp on his float
tackle, I was playing a carp out in the middle which took a floating
crust and then my second rod went off! Three
fish - all at the same time! It's a good job Dave was close by to lend
a helping hand!