Craig Manktelow

Field Tester

0

On arriving at linear fisheries on Friday 23. 03. 12 at 07:30 am I was faced with the dilemma that all the lakes were packed and there was only a couple of swims left on the whole complex. I settled on heading down towards the bottom end of Smith’s pool. The weather was not good as there was thick fog and I had to wait for it to clear before I could start fishing.

Entrence to Smith's

Notice board

After a couple of hours the fog had lifted so I had a feel around with the marker rod and decided on a hard spot at 50 yards so I baited the spot up with 5-8 spods of particle mix soaked in SBS corn steep liquor and half a kg of SBS Premium Bio Ready-Made Boilies.

SBS Corn Steep Liquor

What a bait get on it (PHAZE1)

Here is a picture of my chosen swim:

The chosen rigs for my session were one rod with a basic braided hook link at about 10 inches long using Korda hybrid stiff weed green, with all the coating stripped off and a couple of sinkers on it, tied to size 8 Nash Fang Twister hook.

Braided rig 1

Braided rig 2

On the other rod I decided on a combi rig with the main part being a stiff boom section with a couple of inches of the same stripped braid as the other rig at the hook end with a size 8 Nash Fang Twister hook.

Combi rig 1

Combi rig 2

After a blank on the first day the second morning my right hand rod screamed off and I was into what felt like a half decent fish and then the hook pulled. So I put a new rig on in case the hook point was damaged. As that day became night and then morning I still had nothing to show for my efforts. I had to pack up as it was getting to early afternoon, I kept telling myself I have got to finish packing my gear, then out of the blue my left hand rod screamed off and after a few hairy moments of nearly wiping out the other rods and snagging up in a tree I ended up landing a lovely 21lb 3oz mirror. The set up I used for my capture is my new Sonik sk3 3.5 lb test curve rod with a 50 mm butt rings and a Stillwater bp12000 reel loaded with 16 lb fox line and nash diffusion camo leaders

My set up

21lb 2oz Smith's

I would recommend all anglers to get on the SBS baits as they are just pure quality and always catch. I have never totally blanked on any trip yet.

Tight Lines,

Craig Manktelow