‘THE CAPTURE OF MR MAGOO.’

The Capture of Mr Magoo Myles Gibson

The Capture of

Mr Magoo

Mr Magoo is a short-sighted elderly cartoon gent who gets himself into all sorts of scrapes. He’s also a red-eyed fish who graced the net of Myles as he targeted the big fish of Stoneacre Lake.

I

am currently halfway through my fourth season on the mighty Stonecare Lake, Oxfordshire. I have been desperately hunting for one of the two big mirrors and as yet they still elude me. My time has been more than enjoyable though, and so far I have been lucky enough to bank 53 of the lake’s carp and it is one of these special creatures that this piece is about.

At the start of the current season (2012-2013) I decided I would concentrate my efforts on the marginal and close-in areas. I wanted to adapt a more selective approach in the hope that I could find, and then catch, one of those two carp I so desperately desire to catch. Concentrating on the shorter spots would mean that

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Sunrise over the big Stoneacres Lake.

Above

I would be able to see the fish that were using those areas, rather than fishing blind out in the pond.

I knew that both of the big two were partial to visiting the edge, and with this in mind, I began to bait spots in the edge all round the lake, right from the off. Once the spots had got going it was simply a case of looking relentlessly for one of those big ’uns, then, if I saw it in an area, I would fish the spots I had created nearby.

It was probably around May time that I first started to target the closer-in areas, and it was during this time that I saw the first signs of carp at close quarters and straightaway I tried to capitalise on it. I had seen Choco (one of the big two) in the edge quite a few times last year and I was hoping that things would

turn out the same this time around.

As it stands, I haven’t actually seen Choco for over a year, I have, however, seen the other big fish, Bite-mark. I saw the mighty fish right in the edge earlier in the year, all covered in clay, just a couple of rod lengths from the bank. I was sitting up a tree with a friend of mine, Scott, and together we watched the fish swim up the shelf and onto the small clay spot that I had been baiting. I had caught five or six out of the edge by this point and the confidence in my approach was high. After seeing Bite-mark I concentrated on that spot for a while, but unfortunately he never turned up.

It was after the sighting of Bitemark that things started to go terribly wrong for me. I had been baiting two close-in spots in that area, they were about 20yds apart and I would fish with my brolly in-between both rods.

That stretch of bank boasted a lot of dirty bottom. I had gone all the way along the bank in the boat, prodding around with a pole and eventually I

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The Capture of Mr Magoo Myles Gibson

had found two areas of clay amongst the weed. The spots were made from that real nice modelling-type clay, the yellowy stuff. This was perfect, so from the bank I spent two hours with the weed rake clearing two small spots and a nice thin channel towards each one, in order to get the right line-lay.

I spent weeks baiting the areas with buckets of particles and chopped boilies, the whole time making a conscious effort to keep the baiting tight and the spots small. Eventually, the spots were perfect, totally clean and ready to rumble. There were tunnels in the weed leading to the spots from all angles, the spots had doubled in size and it was game on.

I started fishing the spots straight after seeing Bite-mark – and that’s when the trouble started. One morning I was sitting there when one of the alarms went off, totally out of the blue – resulting in a hookpull and a load of weed.

The next bite came one evening during my next trip; the right-hand rod burst into life and to my disgust that too resulted in a lost fish.

I didn’t put the rod back that night – I couldn’t believe what had happened. I had landed my last 26 or 27 bites in a row and now I had lost two in a row, again, I just couldn’t believe it. Two on the bounce really messed with my head.

Then, an hour later, my lefthand rod roared off. I picked it up, the fish took line, and then ‘dink’, the line fell slack again. I was like “NOOOOOOOOOO! What is going on? No way!?”

To top things off properly, during my next trip down I received a bite during the night, the line was ripping from the spool and then as soon as I picked up the rod, the line parted. I wanted to kill myself by that point – it really did my head in.

The spots were doing bites but when I arrived back down for another trip, things had changed, there was weed all over the spots. The sailing club had had their boats out and they had chopped up and disturbed a lot of the weed. We had been getting lots of southwesterly winds and the floating weed had drifted down over my spots, ruining them as it did so.

A few other anglers had started to look at that general area by this point and after what happened to my spots I decided to laugh it off and start baiting the middle of the pond. I had other spots elsewhere in the lake so I still had those to keep an eye on anyway.

I kept seeing a big fish in one area of the lake, in one of the corners. I could never quite make out which fish it was, but there was no doubting that it was a very big carp. Around this time there was one swim that was producing a lot of bites, almost to the point that if you knew what you were doing then you were nigh on guaranteed to catch from there.

I turned up one week and managed to find the swim free; I got round there as soon as possible and reserved the swim.

I saw carp straightaway but decided to have a quick wander round anyway, after all, I had my kit in the swim.

I made my way down to the corner

The distance spot Myles was fishing was around 155yds.

Not only can he fish in excess of 180yds but he’s also precise.

RIGHT

BOTTOM The use of a boat has allowed Myles to take his angling to another level.

“One morning I was sitting there when one of the alarms went off, totally out of the blue”

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The Capture of Mr Magoo Myles Gibson

A 28lb common, one of several fish Myles took from a close-in spot lined with yellow clay.

ABOVE Right

INSET ABOVE An Aquascope – the key to another world below the surface. Myles uses it to check his baited patches and rigs.

where I had been seeing the big ’un and there were two day-ticket lads in the swim. I had a chat with them and they were adamant that they had seen Bite-mark in the area – and from what they were saying, they had. They were doubled up together in quite a small area of water so I trotted up the bank to another area and instantly found fish. I climbed up the tree and watched two or three good 30s grazing over some gravel humps; then I saw it, Bite-mark! I decided there and then that I would have to take my gear out of the hot swim and move down to where I had seen Bite-mark. My choices were to either catch fish or to try for the big ’un. It wasn’t a hard decision to make. I had to be fishing in that acre of water.

To cut a long story short, it all went to pot and I didn’t catch him. I had made the right decision though – I told myself at the start of the year that if I saw one of the big ones then I would fish for it in that area, regardless of what was going on elsewhere.

At the start of July I decided that I was going to start baiting an open water mark, right out in the middle of the lake.

During previous years they had always turned up there around August time, so I wanted to have it primed nice and early.

I had received seven takes from the area the August before and anticipated more action this year if I got things right.

I started baiting the swim heavily with buckets and buckets of particles whilst I was still fishing around the edge and in other swims, priming it. I fished the swim a couple of times when

I saw fish there, but I was generally leaving it alone and just baiting it heavily on the Thursdays as I was leaving.

I had been getting cleaned out when fishing the main spots in the swim, by what I think were tench, but then I found a new area, just off the usual areas.

There was no clarity at the time but I could feel it by using a prodding pole.

I decided to start baiting this spot too, which was an area of soft silt amongst weed. Over time, the spot started to get a bit bigger; you couldn’t see it, but when feeling with the stick it became clear that it was growing. I kept baiting the area for weeks and when I did drop into the swim I was fishing a gravel area short of my baited spot, and I could see the bottom here, which is important.

A little while later, I was able to see my new spot for the first time, the water was deep but the clarity was good enough to see. When fishing at such long range I need to be able to see my rigs, so now that I could, I decided I would start fishing the area. It was a good 155yds’ distance so I absolutely had to be able to check for tangles. Now I could though; the spot was clean, with just a few small stones and some shells visible amongst the silt – perfect. My plan was to sit in that swim from then on, keep baiting it, and keep fishing it.

It was probably the end of August when I made the decision to properly start fishing the spot and on my first trip I caught nothing – I think I had a tench actually, but no carp. This remained the case for a few trips and all I was catching were tench and bream. I knew the carp were visiting, but I just wasn’t catching

“I started baiting the swim heavily with buckets and buckets of particles whilst I was still fishing around the edge and in other swims, priming it”

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The Capture of Mr Magoo Myles Gibson 160

“After following the shape of the fish down the side of the boat, something shocked me. It was a big ’un”

them for some reason. It was at this point that I decided to play around with my rigs and hookbaits – it took so long to get the rod accurately and properly in position that I really could have done without the nuisance fish. When you’re fishing at such long range there are lots of things that can affect actually getting a bait on the spot. At times it was real hard work, so if I could find a way of avoiding the tench then it was great. By using Snowman Rigs with a gap in-between the baits and long bits of shrink tubing, I was able to stop many of them hooking themselves, which was good news.

The carp were still getting away with it though, and on several occasions the fish had completely cleaned out the spot and ditched both the lead and rigs some 10ft off the spot in amongst the weed – it was crazy. I would go to reel in my rods and they would just be solid in weed, moved by carp, yet I hadn’t had so much as a bleep. It was then that I decided to redo my rods every 24 hours rather than leaving them for as long as possible. I was baiting with around 4kg of boilies and 3lb of hemp at a time and they were cleaning that out with ease, yet still avoiding capture. Brain-numbing stuff.

My next trip down (my third on the spot) saw me adopt a slightly different approach. Previously, I had been baiting with 100lb of hemp and 12kg of boilies, as I left on the Thursday. This time I decided to switch things around a bit – opting to go straight in with a large

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amount of bait, at the beginning of my session. I had probably already baited the area with a good 300kg of particles and goodness knows how much boilie, so I knew that they would eat it.

The spot was primed by now; one side had a small gravelly bit appearing and the rest was still silty. I decided to spread 50lb of particle over the whole spot and then put 50lb of Parti-blend on the siltier side of the spot, the lefthand side. I decided to put one bait on the gravel and one on the silt.

I left the rods for two days without action and when I came to wind them in, one rod was solid in weed with a bream on the end. The other was just untouched. I repositioned two hookbaits, both Snowmen with a gap in-between, and then rebaited the area with around 1½kg of chopped boilies.

It was around 9.30 that evening when the left-hand rod pulled up tight and out of the clip. I hopped straight in the boat and began pumping myself out towards the fish, which was just coming towards me in the wind. Eventually, I was looking at a tiny black bit of weed, it was dark, and even with the headtorch on it was difficult to see. I had felt nothing kick during my time in the boat and I started to wonder if I was just attached to a small ball of weed. As the bit of weed reached that side of the boat I looked down, fully expecting to see a tench. Nothing moved, so I flicked the light onto red and stared into the water. I then noticed a carp’s

The elusive Mr Magoo at 42lb 4oz.

His red eye earned him his name.

ABOVE

The rig that tripped up the big mirror.

BELOW

head. After following the shape of the fish down the side of the boat, something shocked me. It was a big ’un. I stuck the net under it as quickly as I could and as I did so, it powered off. Luckily for me, it powered straight into the net.

I had a look over the side of the boat and saw what looked like a 40lb linear I had caught previously. I assumed it was a fish called Kev’s. I then headed back to the bank. Once back at the bank I had a look at the fish and it dawned on me that it wasn’t Kev’s – weird.

There were a few of us there, so we weighed the fish at 42lb 4oz and then popped him in a retainer sling for a minute while we sorted out some bits. It was a little while later that we clocked the fish’s red eye. It was Mr Magoo. I couldn’t believe it, it was a carp that had only been caught three times in the last five years, its last capture being 27 months previous to mine. Mind-blowing. CW

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