Tunnel Barn Open Sunday 11/4/10

Hi Folks, back to tunnel barn for our third visit in a week and we were hoping for a few fish as we had just had the two warmest days of the year so far. Some of our local fisheries had produced some great weights with a friend of ours james having a massive 196lb from willow marsh on friday afternoon ( well done m8 ). After pooling up we were surprised to learn that there were only 44 names down we thought that there would be a lot more as there is a fisho qualifier on here next sat? We had found out that new pool had fished well the day before with 130lb+ winning and lots of good backing weights ( 8th place 104lb ? ), the only problem was that new pool was being used again ( would the fish respond after a battering the day before? ). The other pool being used was club pool so into the draw bag i went and out came club 3, i have only ever fished the pool once last year and found it to be more proper carp than f1's. Satv drew 33 on new pool a Flier? ( the peg i done my pb on last year with 222lb ).
When i got to my peg i found it was 13m wide to the island and as usual the pegging was every other peg, on peg one was pete catton ( not another local hero ) with the quite strong and cool wind blowing down his end peg edge? When i fished the pool last year i was 3rd with 74lb, end peg 12 with the wind winning with 90+lb ( are you starting to see a pattern here? ). After talking to the locals it became apparent that the better fish were still in the lake but also there was the addition of some new stockies. I set up the following rigs:
Rig 1, 4 x 12 j8-range float for 3m line set 4ft deep 0.14 line to 18 tosciro hook & 11 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, 4 x 12 j8-range float for 3m down the egde & up the island at 13m set 2ft deep, 0.14 line to 16 tosciro hook, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 3, maver 0.30 jurassic dibber set 2ft deep, 0.14 line to a 18 pr27 with a lasso hair rig.
Rig 4, the same as above only set 1ft deep for fishing shallow up the island.
Bait for the day was 2 bags tbf 4mm feed pellets, 1 bag micro feed pellets, 3 tins of corn, 4mm expander's for the hook & some 6mm hard pellets for hair rigging. I had decided not to bring any maggots after not catching a lot on them on the last 2 visits and replacing them with corn. On wensday i had hooked a couple of better carp down the edge so decided to feed corn down one edge in the hope of bringing some better fish in latter on in the match.
At the start i potted in a full pot of mixed 4mm pellets & corn up the island and down my left hand edge, i began to feed micros at 3m out in-front of me. I started on my shallow rig up the island away from my potted in line to allow lines lines to settle, i had a 1lb f1 first put in with a 6mm hard pellet on the lasso. As i was trying to feed some pellets with the catty it soon became apparent to me that the wind may be little to strong for holding the pole one handed while trying to feed with the catty. After only 5 mins up the island i put the rig down and had a look on my 3m line while feeding pellets at 6-8m for the shallow rig down the track. The float was going under every put in with a stockie of 2-8oz the culprit, it soon became clear that everyone on the lake was catching stockies. After around 45mins i had a go on the shallow line down the track as i had seen a couple of fishing topping there, after 5 put-ins i had got 5 f1's i thought i had got in sorted. The f1's soon vanished and i went back on the 3m line catching stockies after another 30 mins of bashing the stockies it was time to make my mind up, do you stick with the stockies and catch as many as you can or have a go for the bigger fish? With 2 hrs of the match gone and everyone catching small stockies ( some moaning for england saying they had knacker the lake up putting them in as you couldn't get to the bigger fish ) i was up the island with a kinder pot full of corn and 4mm pellets to try and find some bigger fish. With corn on the hook and not pellet i started to catch some of the lakes better fish, mirrors between 1-4lb were coming now and again with odd little stockies but not to many as not to make it worth while shipping up 13m and holding the pole in some strong gusts of side wind. Every now and then i had a look at my edge line when bites dried up on the island and had some carp and big f1's from there, i kept switching between these lines to keep bites coming and potting large pots of bait in to try to avoid the attention of the stockies. With around 15 mins to go i hooked another good fish on the island shipping back i noticed that the elastic was still coming out, then it all went slack i though i had foul hooked one and it had come off?Oh no i had been broken, the fish didn't feel that big so i went down the inside but after 5 mins without a bite i had to get another rig out, i just guess the depth and shortened the rig i had one more fish right on the whistle a 1 1/2lb mirror.
When the scales came pete catton was first to weigh and had 80lb 2oz of mainly stockies with only 4 better fish moaining at mike ( the gaffer ) about the size of the stockies, mike explained that they had only put the stockies in club & canal pool as they are next to a new pool which he had dug out but the fish had arrived before the pool was ready. On this pete was away with every weigh in he was over the mud and into the new lake with a weigh sling full of little stockies ( with mike the gaffers ok of course ) it was the best part of the day watching pete carrying the fish over the mud bank and depositing them into the newly dug lake. My turn to weigh and i had 31lb of stockies and 46lb of better for 77lb 15oz SHIT pete had done me by just over 2lb and i straight away i new the fish that had broke me and the time it took me to put another rig on had cost me beating him. On my left kev adderley had had 63lb nearly all stockies and jason neath on the next peg had 96lb of bigger fish down the edge on meat after spending 2 1/2 hrs getting frustrated by stockies. Had i done the right thing by going for bigger fish? i think that i had, talking to pete we both agreed that if you had got your head down and gone for them for 5hrs 100lb+ of sotckies was on the cards but you pays your money you takes your chance! Had i fished the pool before with the stockies in i would have made my mind up at the start to go for stockies or big fish, but that can only come from fishing the venue and learning the in's and out's as it was i think i spent to much time catching stockies. But when all is said and done 77lb of fish is a great day by annyone's standards, stav had a harder day on new pool but still had 40lb of fish and beat the guy's either side of him.

Date: Sunday 11th April 2010
Pools: New & Canal Pools
No F/Man: 44
Pos	NAME	CLUB	WEIGHT	PEG NO
1st	Stu Palsar	Shakespeare	118 –10 – 0	C 17
2nd	Pete Bennett	Yorkshire Baits/ Banbury Gunsmiths	114 – 3 – 0	N 25
3rd	Mark Johnson	Daiwa Gordon Lg	108 – 10 – 0	N 37
4th	Rob Avery	Redditch	102 – 6 – 0	C 19
5th	Paul Caswell	Shakespeare	97 – 11 – 0	N 1
6th	Jason Neath	Daiwa Gordon Lg	96 – 9 – 0	C 7

A good scorecard from a good fishery.

Tunnel Barn Open Wens 7/4/10

Hi folks, it's back to tunnel barn farm for the wensday open as i have a few days booked off on the end of the bank holiday. Today's open is going to be on extension pool with17 fishing it should be a good match. In went the hand into the draw bag and out popped peg 17, stav drew peg 21 so at least we were close for parking purpose's. As we starting setting up we soon found out that we would be up against it today as pete rice ( local hero ) had drawn in-between us on peg 19? Peg 17 has an island to fish to at 11m but with no features i deiced to fish at 13m to my left where there was a small tree and some reeds that looked a bit more fishy??? I also set up a 4m line , margin rig to my left in a gap in the reeds and a shallow rig. I won't bore you with my rig set up as if you have read my blog before you will know the types of floats, line & hooks i am using at the moment.
Bait for the day was 2 bags of 4mm tbf feed pellets, 1 1/2 pints of red maggots and a few 4mm expanders for the hook plus an emergency tin of corn.
On the whistle i put in 1/4 of a pot of pellets in on my 13m island swim, half a pot of pellets down to the empty pallet peg 16, on my closer margin line and 4m line i decided just to throw 4-6 pellets every few mins so that i had 2 line with next to no feed and 2 with a bit more bait potted in, i could then see how the fish react to the different feeding patterns? ( clever i thought ). First put-in on my 4m line i had a 2lb f1 BINGO next put-in another 1lb f1 and for the first 30 mins i had regular bites, pete was also catching i thought we were on for a good day. After the first half hour bites started to tail off a bit so over to the island i went and had 3 fish in 3 put-ins while still feeding both 4m & edge swims SOLID i thought. I stared to miss bites on the island and soon found out why as some of the new stockie's put in an appearance, these fish are between 10z and 6oz. So i re-fed the island swim and went back to my 4m line and had a few fish until the first hour was up and then bites dried up altogether on this line so with an hour gone i had got around 10 f1's and few stockie's. Pete had been catching steady on the next peg although he seemed to be catching smaller fish, i had look down my close edge line and got 2 fish straight away then nothing. A look down the next pallet produced nothing so i started to rotate all my lines feeding sparingly as i looked like the fish were still not in full feeding mode, although in felt warmer than sunday after some early rain had gone and the sun was now out. After around 3 hours i was struggling realy bad and couldn't buy a bite on any of my lines so i plumbed a line up on the island at 11m and put a few maggots. First put- in i had a carp next put-in a gonk then back to nothing, i was now left scratching my head as to what was going on? pete had caught steady all match with steady stream of fish but couldn't see anybody else as the island was in the way and pete's peg is on a bit of a point blocking my view down the lake. I had odd bites here and there with an hour to go i started getting more regular bites down my short left hand margin. I was now catching well again but losing some fish, i know that a couple were foul hooked but i felt something was not right. Another couple of lost fish and now the air was blue as i was losing to many, all winter i have been using double no5 elastic without ant real problems but as it was now getting warmer i had put double no6 in 2 of my tops. I felt that the elastic was set soft as it only just went back into the pole but when a fish pulled it out around 2-3ft it was powering up to quick and pulling the 18 hook out. A quick swap of the rig to a soft 11 preston hollo and a change up in hook size to a 16 tosciro was in order, i was now getting all my fish out and with 15 mins left i hooked a better fish it took a few mins to get under control, a good looking 6lb white ghostie was the culprit. All to soon the whistle went and i was complaining that my fish had turned up to late down the edge and had suffered a right stiff neck form watching pete catch all day. Stav had come over saying that as well as getting a slapping off pete too he had struggled all day and the guy the other side of him had caught steady on maggot all day shallow at 6m? double slapping with both cheeks red?
When the scales got to us there were 2 good weights of 77&74lb the guy next to stav had 63lb and stav 33lb. Pete was next and we all knew that he had got enough to take the lead he weighed a great 99lb 13oz and i had 51lb 9oz. Talking to pete after the match ( and a spy on his bait table ) reveled that he thought it was still to cool to be feeding 4mm pellets by hand and had fed micros at 6&8m through a kinder pot. I thought that all his thinking of keeping the feed tight and fishing slightly longer than in full summer mode was all very credible, and also he thought that it was to early for feeding large amounts of maggots shallow ( all those hours of fishing 3-4 times a week over 8 years of working there must account for something?????).
On my own match i don't know weather i feed to much, fished to close or what but certainly picked up a few tips off pete, one thing i did find out was that double no6 was to strong for the average size of the fish ( out it come's only used it twice ) i love preston 11 & 13 hollo as it is nice and soft and as i use preston pulla kits just yank out a couple of feet if you hook a better fish. Not that i am complaing as it's a great venue where i have only caught for 2 hours out of the 5 and had 50lb for nothing so you can get some sort of idea of the big weight's that come from the venue when you get it right for 5 hours 100-200lb weights are common.
Roll on sunday as we are coming back for some more armed with some micro's this time ??????

Tunnel Barn Farm Open 4/4/10

Hi folks, this is the first visit of the year for us ( me & stav ) to tunnel as we have been fishing winter leagues & pairs matches elsewhere. We came here last year when we had nothing else on as most of our local fishery's seem to turn to afternoon matches, ( I had to stop fishing afternoons when her/indoors started working nights so i could be back for the kids). We had a few success last year so booked in to the open and got there with plenty of time for the 9am draw, we paid the pools money and found out that the match would be on new & canal pools. Les ( organiser bloke) told us that there were 38 booked in and that canal had received 3600 stockies recently, sounded good although i had never fished the lake. Into the drawbag i went and came out with 7 on new pool and stav drew 10 on canal. I got to my peg saw that it had a long left hand edge with every other peg in it looked good for a few fish, there have been a lot of fish still coming form the islands but when i looked over it looked a long way in the strong side wind. I tried to plumb up close to the island at 16m but i spent a couple of minutes fighting the pole and decided this line would be no good unless the wind blew itself out. I decided to fish at 6m infront of me normlay 4m but as it is still cool in went for another section, 8m & 13m down my edge and a shallow rig.
The rigs i set up were;
RIG 1, 6m pellet line, 4 x 14 j8-range float,0.12 line to 18 808, double no6 elastic shoted with a bulk of no8 stotz and 2 x no10 droppers, 5ft deep.
RIG 2, 8m maggot line down the edge up to some rushes, 4 x 12 j8-range float, 0.14 line to 18 tosciro, bulk and 1 dropper, 11 hollo elastic, 3 ft deep.
RIG 3, 13m pellet line down the edge to a tree stump, preston dura 10 float 4 x 12, 0.14 line to 18 tosciro, bulk of stotz 8 inches from hook & 11 hollo elastic, 2ft deep.
RIG 4, shallow rig 8-10m, maver 0.30gr jurassic dibber, 0.14 line 18 pr27 hook with a hair lasso on set 2ft deep & double no6 elastic.
Bait was simple 1 bag of tbf 4mm feed pellets, 2 pints red maggots & some 4mm assorted soft expanders.
I had another t/a member nearly20mbob on the next peg 5 so at least the crack would be good!
On the whistle i potted in 1/2 preston pot of 4mm pellets down the 13m edge line and the same of maggots down the 8m edge line. I started on my 6m line out in-front just throwing 6-8 pellets at the float every couple of mins and feeding the same amount at 13m to prime a shallow line.
After 30mins i was very surprised to have not had a bite at all( most uncommon at tunnel ) i went down the edge at 8m on double maggot and missed a bite first put in, the next 2 put-ins produced 2 f1's around 1 1/2lb each were off i thought????????
No more bites on the maggot i went back to the 6m line to see if the fish had turned up?NO
I decided to try the shallow 13m line and 20mins later no bites i was fast running out of ideas as i didn't want to go down my 13m edge line to early. The only consolation i had was that pegs 1,3 & 5 to my right were also struggling with just odd fish being caught.
Struggle was the only way i could describe the sport but after 3 hours the guy on peg 9 shouted over" how many fish you had" i answered 4 he had got 7 and was doing as well as anyonne i could see, the only one catching was stu pulsar on peg 14 but the island was stopping me from seeing him & pete catton on peg 12.
With around 1 1/2 hrs to go i had a run of 6-7 fish at 13m down the edge on pellet before they dried up again and i know it is only the start of april and a cold windy day but it seemed as if the fish are not in full feeding mode yet? I went shallow down to the empty pallet at 14.5m and had 2 fish in 2 put-ins then dry again, going back to 13m on the deck i had odd fish right up to the whistle and finished the day with 22 f1's( no silvers even on maggot? ). Talking to bob in the next peg who had also suffered a bad day with a few fish at 6m and 3/4 fish off the island we both couldn't believe the total lack of bites i had not had a bite at 6m allday. When the scales came stu pulsar was the best with 64lb, the guy to my left had had a run of 10 fish down his edge at 3m and ended up with 37lb. My 22 fish went 32lb 9oz, bob had 22lb, kev had 41lb 0n peg 3 and bob's mate on the end peg 1 had 21lb.
On reflection it was still a cold windy day and maybe i was expecting to much this early in the year as it was july-october before we started fishing here last year, but still had 32lb of fish which we would of been pruod of last month! Stav had had a few stockies off canal pool and had just under 50lb, 83lb won off peg 38 on new pool and 2nd off peg 12 on canal with 74lb both end pegs with the wind blowing in them?

STAFFS-WORC CANAL CASTLECROFT 28/3/10

My latest match to report on was a Halesowen A.C match on the staffs-worc canal on our own stretch at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton. There were 25 booked into the club match and having only fished the stretch once before i was going a bit blind. All the talk was that if the big fish feed you would need to draw the bottom end of the stretch and if they don't the top end could win with bags of small roach as they had done all winter. Talking of winter during all the bad weather we have had this winter we have found a little gem with this stretch, as when all other canals and fishery's have been froze ( i mean up to 5 inches thick ) this stretch has not had one piece ice on it???????. I KID YOU NOT. Weather it is down to the slight tow that the canal has or that it is only about 1 mile away from Compton water treatment plant i don't know? there has been a few matches on here over the last 4 months as you can imagine the only place you could fish without the use of an ice-breaker.
Onto the match itself we were all gathered at the to end of the stretch( by the mermaid pub) ready for the draw, paying pools, having the crack as you do. This weeks mickey taking was pointed at the back of one of the lads rear windows there was a sticker reading ASTON VILLA SUPPORTERS CLUB. ( the day before losing to Chelsea 7-1 ) I cannot print some of the jokes as i was to busy crying with laughter. After we had all stopped laughing i drew out peg 7 and with only a short walk i let the lads with longer walks go first. When i started to walk down the towpath i soon realised i would be in the same area as the last time i fished the stretch, no soon as i got there it was not only the same area but the same peg SHIT. When we first took over the stretch i fished the very first match we had on here and all the weights had come from the bottom end around the bend passed the working men's club on the other side. Weights of 7lb,6lb 2x 5lbs and a few 4's were all down there while us up the top had struggled for bites all day. I had around 2lb that day so i was not very hopeful before the start.
I am not going to go into detail on the rigs i just set up a rig for down the track at 6m for the punch, one for squatt over at 11m, one for caster at 13m down the canal just out of the track to my left and a hemp rig for 13m to my right up on top for the shelf.
To cut a long story short all i could catch on the punch&squatt was very small roach one step up from eyes. I had one fish of 3oz on the caster, never had a bite on the hemp and the highlight of the day was while catching eye's on the squatt i had a bite and struck into a better fish when i got it out i couldn't believe my eyes as i was looking at a funny looking RAINBOW TROUT with like a blue colouring to it when i shouted up to gary on the next peg he said he had already had one and then 1/2 hour later john on the the next peg the other side said he had got one we all had a good laugh about it and said it might have been the same fish? the canal stretch is only about 1 mile away from where it runs alongside POOL HALL coarse/trout fishery i think we might have a few escapees? At the all out stories of chub bags and lots of people hooking and loosing them from the bottom end of the stretch only confirmed what i thought at the start that you would need to draw that end to do any good.
When the scales arrived it was j/b that had had all the chub fun weighing in 25lb odd of them and losing as many, there was a 7lb and 2 x 4lbs as well, my section read 1lb, dnw,3lb 1oz, 1lb 13oz and my 2lb 1oz it was plane to see that all the bonus were all at the other end? Are well still better than a day at work or is it? I don't fish the canals as much as i used to only when we have nothing else on and my partner (chauffeur) stav wants to go. I used to fish them a lot at one time a few years ago but with boats, joggers, bikes, dogs, dog shit and some inner city stretches not safe to go on your own i wonder is it all worth it? Not for me anymore i'm afraid i am not knocking them for the people that enjoy that type of fishing each to there own and all that but not for me no thanks. Well done to J/B for winning the match but roll on the carp pools that's what i say.

Nearly there

Hi folks, nearly there as i have been writing this blog playing catch up from the start of this year there is only one match left to report on before i am bang up to date. Hopefully soon i will be able to add some photos to go with the day's events if i can get my phone camera to work?

Blythe Pairs League round 6 21/3/10

Hi folks, its back on to Blythe pairs league this week and after not fishing last week i was rearing to go, as per norm i sent stav up for the draw as we were winning the league by 13 points and he had put me on peg 12 3 times with 2 section wins and a second ( if it ain't broke don't fix it ). This time he came out with a different peg for me peg 19 up the deeper end? and stav on the disabled pegs on peg 4 the shallowest end of the lake. If you have read my blog on the last match most of the carp were caught up this end ( that reminds me of back deans ), while i was happy with my peg i had a couple of reservations 1 was that it has warmed up a lot in the last 3 weeks since the last round and no2 was that pegs 20,22 & 23 all have long edges and if it had warmed up enough for the fish to feed close in i was up against it as i had no egde to speak of as pegs 18 & 20 were very close.
With the central floating boom at 16m i set up the following.
RIG 1, j-8 range 0.50gr float set at dead depth ( 7ft ) with an olivette and 2 droppers, 0.12 line and 18 808 hook with double no5 elastic.
RIG 2, the same float as above but with a 16 pr27 hook and a hair rigged f1 mosella pellet band, 0.14 line, preston 11 hollo elastic just incase the carp showed in numbers. both rigs would do for down the track at 8m line as there was no difference in depth.
RIG 3, a maver jurassic 0.30gr dibber, 0.14 line, 18 pr27 with a lasso tied on the hook for a 6mm pellet and set at 2ft deep.
RIG 4 , The less said about this the better as i carefully plumbed up my left hand margin ( the right hand side was blocked by a tree on my bank) then on the whistle the guy in peg 18 to my left threw in more corn in one handful than i would have put in if it was 20 'c in july? thats that line messed up ( or words to that effect ).
Bait for the day was 1 pint of micro pellets, 1 pint of 4mm pellets, 1 small tin corn & some 4&6mm expanders. I also had some g/bait & dead red maggots for the method feeder if the wind got up to strong to hold the pole at 16m.
At the start of the match i put in 1/4 of the small preston cup of micros & 3 grains of corn on both 8 & 16m lines and started at 16m. It took around 15 mins to get the first bite and a 4oz skimmer was in the net, around 10 mins later my next bite and skimmer no2 was in the net. At the end of the first hour it had become apparent that the overnight frost we suffered was taking its toll although the sun was now well up and a forcast of tempretures into double figures,the wind was also getting stronger. At the end of the first hour i had got 4 skimmers and a small 6oz tench , not a good start but i could 9 of the 11 pegs in my section and no one was bagging. I carried on switching between my 2 lines and ringing the changes on the hook bait front. A the end of hour 2 i had got 7 skimmers and 3 tench one of which was around a pound for around 4lb, while not setting the world on fire all i could see was carl on peg 22 with a 6lb carp + a few bits and i was lying second. A quick phone call to my partner reveled that he had 2 carp and lost 2 under the boom fouled hooked up in the water with his deck rig, so he had put his shallow rig on and had a carp straight away. The guy to his right warren was having a small stockie carp every put in on his top kit by his keepnet, but luckily no one else in this section had had a carp. I decided to carry on for another 1/2 hour as i didn't want to start pinging pellets over my 16m line as i was doing ok as i might stuff up what bits i was catching. 1/2 hour later i hadn't had a bite on either line so i got out the shallow rig put a 6mm hard pellet in the lasso and shipped out to the boom as i did a gust of wind blew and i had to say sorry to andy in the next as i had to let the pole go not wanting to suffer a pole breakage. As i managed to pull the pole back onto my fox bump bar i picked up my catty to start pinging 4mm pellets at the boom the float shot under and lots of 11 hollo came streaming out of the pole tip. BINGO all i had got to do now was land the thing? after around 3-4 mins seemed longer a 6lb carp was in the net and i had just doubled my weight i one bite.
Back out again shallow and i started to fire around 4 pellets at a time at the float and around 5 mins after the last fish the same result only this time the carp was around 2lb.
Another 20 mins later and no more fish i was starting to think that that was it, i was having trouble holding the pole let alone feed it then out of the bule the wind dropped a little and i could feed and work the rig a lot better. It was like flicking a switch i had 2 carp in 2 drops and then the phone went it was stav, he had not seen me catch before as he was at the other end of the lake and asked if that was me he just saw playing a carp i told him it was no4 he had got around 6.The rest of the match was simple fish falling to my shallow rig every few mins and with only carl on peg 22 catching a few carp from his margin line and andy in the next peg going shallow after i was around 5 fish infront the rest of the section had fished quiet hard.
At the all out i had got 15 - 16 carp and those few early tench & skimmers, as we follwed the weigh in stav had a very good 26lb odd and warren on the next peg 42lb that put stav 2nd in his section and great points. My section was next and there was only one double figure weight of all silvers no carp had been caught i weighed in 51lb, andy in the next peg had 26lb and carl on the corner peg22 had 30lb. The rest of the section was harder with only 2 13lb odds and a 15lb so i won the section with room to spare.
Great i had won my section and the match overall, stav was second in his section and when carl had sorted out the points me & stav had pulled away from the rest of the pack by another 6 points. So we are now 19 points clear of carl & warren in second place with 2 matches left to fish.
Lets hope we can hang on to this lead but it ain't over yet as carl & warren are local experts? with carl the ex- baliff of blythe and warren fishing the venue 3 times a week it is not over yet by a long way?
Thanks for reading this cheers i'm off for a stella!

WOODLANDS VIEW W/L ROUND 9 7/3/10

Hi folks. the day after our team victory in the V.D.E clubman supercup i was back at woodlands for round 9 of the teams of 4. I am not going to bore you with the details as the draw bag put me on peg 60 stuck on the shallows again? with all the fish down in the deeper water i was not looking forward to this one. The match was hard again to say the least and after ringing the changes i had a few small roach on the pinkie, one skimmer on the pellet and not a bite again the lead & corn which i spent half of the match on. A mighty 4lb i weighed in and our team suffered another bad day i was glad that it was the last match for me and stav as the last round clashes with a round at Blythe and we were going there as we were winning, we are sending 2 stand-ins to woodlands for the last round.
(Sorry i cannot give you the full sp as i can't remember as i was well pissed off by this time the difference 24 hours can make in fishing?????)
On the subject of woodlands view i have always been a great fan of the venue and have fished there for some15 years but this winter has been harder than i can ever remember. I don't have any answers why even when Ade Mason asked me i had not got an answer to give him. I know we have just gone through the worst winter for 30 years but other venues i have been fishing are producing better results, not overall weights but the average seems to be well down mainly on back deans. The other pools front deans, high & arles pools producing a better average with the deepest pool high making most of the running in the main list, maybe it is something to with the depth, not enough silvers, pellets? I have had conversations with other anglers on the subject and they all felt that it was a lot better fishery when there was no pellets allowed. I remember one such conversation with a friend and the woodlands fishery manager at the time the late Dave Hinton who always said if he owned the fishery that he would only allow maggots, casters, worm & corn. Maybe he could see the problems arising form introducing pellets before everyone else could????
Any way what ever the reason for it fishing so hard i hope they sort it out soon as the winter league has dropped from 22 teams with a waiting list 5 years ago to 13 teams this year and one of them didn't turn up after christmas?
Thanks for listing to my ramblings.
R.I.P Dave Hinton one of the best.

V.D.E SUPERCUP ROUND 1 6/3/10

Hi Folks, the next match i have to report on is the first round of the V.D.E supercup, If you have read my previous posts you will know that my club team Halesowen A.C had drawn away to Rexel A.C at Hawford bridge with the White swan as the third team in the tie. I had been down a couple of times to practise and felt that we had sorted a few things on both pools, with three main lines catching better than anything else. The long pole with pellet , the wagg at half depth and on the top pool the straight lead and corn could come into play.
The format for the match is 8 anglers from each team 5 on the bigger top pool and 3 on the smaller middle pool, with rexel being the home team having to peg out and weigh in.
With pools money paid the lads sent me up to do the draw (why? have they not seen my draw arm at woodlands), i came back with draw 3 so we had that peg in every section ie, 3,6,9,12,15,18,21&24 and all the lads drawed out the envelope as per the rules ( you are not allowed to place anglers) i had the last peg left 18. I was pleased to have drawn on the middle pool as i was confident that i could catch off most pegs with the exception of the end peg opposite the car park as it was half the depth of all the others at only 4ft. As i walked towards my peg i was happy to see that i was on the same side as i was in our practice match 2 weeks ago and only 2 pegs to the right. I set up as follows,
RIG 1, main pellet line 14.5m 8ft deep, 1.0gr maver jona float 0.12 silstar line, 18 808 hook with an ollivette and two droppers.
RIG 2, secondary pellet line at 13m to my right up to some reed that extend out from the island, 0.50gr j-8 range float, same line and hook as above set around 6ft deep.
RIG 3 , Wagg & Magg line 20m with the island around 25m away,set at 4ft in 8ft of water, daiwa tourney 13 ft float rod, shimano super gt reel, 3lb maxima mainline to 0.12 h/l to 16 b611 hook and a 2.5gr loaded crystal wagg with only a size 22 swivel down the line 18 inches from the hook.
Bait was simple a pint of soaked micros, 1 1/2 pints of white maggots, 1/2 tin of corn and some assorted 6 & 4mm expanders.
On the all in i put in around 1/4 of the smallest preston pots of micros & 3 grains of corn on both my pole lines and started on the wagg. the guy to my right had a carp first put in on the wagg and it was not a surprise as he and the rexel guy had been watching the carp before the start crusing around his peg by the island, he was throwing to nearly the same point as me as he was around the next bank the only problem being i couldn't get close to them for the reed bank inbetween us. After around 10 mins of firing 6 maggs in at a time i had my first bite and a carp of around 2lb was safely netted, i stuck to this for the first hour and had 4 carp our bank runners said that most of the team had caught with only 2 so far struggling. I re fed both my pole lines and carried on with the wagg as i was level with the rexel guy in my section who was also on the wag and the guy in the next peg only on 2 fish after his one first put in. Second hour produced 4 more carp and odd roach which put me now in pole position with 4 fish to my right and 6 fish to the rexel bloke (sorry bob). The guy to my right (dean) was now on the feeder and had couple of fish on it at the halfway stage i had got 9 fish but it was slowing badly as deans feeder was landing only 2-3m away from my wagg line and i think that had defenitly put my fish off in the clear water. Out went the pole on my 14.5m line with a 4mm ringers cool water pellet and a fruit shoot pot full of micros , the float shot under straight away and my 11 preston hollo followed carp no10 was in the net.The next put in the same result and i was away, bob in my section had gone on the pole at the same time with the same result. The word on the bank was that we were up in 3 sections half and half in 3 sections and down in 2. I couldn't help the rest of the guys as they all knew what and how i was catching on all i could do was try and win my section and hope that the guy in the tight sections could find some extra fish from somewhere. The rest of my match was easy every5-10 mins i had a fish in the 1-3lb bracket i never felt the need to try my other pole line or go back on the wagg as i was catching steady enough to keep my nose infront of bob & dean and that was all i could to try and win the section.
At the all out i had got 29 carp and although bob had caught well i recond i was 15-20lb infront with dean only manging 7 although 3 of these were bigger fish. I went up to the top pool to watch the weigh in and by the time i had packed my gear up and walked up the bank the first 3 man section had been weighed in with our man big ritchie winning his section with 20lb on the lead & corn. Next to weigh in was baz robson he pulled out his net and the other 2 guys in his section walked off shaking there heads ( a good sign), baz's carp net pulled the scales down to 45lb and we were 2 sections up, baz had caught on half depth wagg & magg too. Rexel lads won the next 3 sections but we were tied on points as they had a last in the first section and our lads were all 2nd in the sections they had won, top pool weighed in and it was all tied on12 points each. This was going to go to the wire as i thought i had won mine but chris was not confident and kev said his section was to close to call. The first to weigh in my section was bob with 37lb & 21lb from dean, i pulled my first net out and they went 31lb i knew then that i had done enough as i had split my fish evenly in my to nets, my second net went 33lb and a grand total of 64lb 9oz was shouted out by the scalesman. So with 2 sections to go we were 1 point up the next section saw us post our only last of the day but luckily the rexel guy had only managed 2nd with wayne form jaspers winning there only section of the day with 30lb,28lb&22lb respectivly. With only 1 section to be weighed we were back tied on points and the rexel guy posted 31lb kev looked to sky's wondering if he had enough, the jaspers guy had 21lb and we were all tense as kev pulled his net out christ it looked close he put them on the scales and they went down to 33lb and change it was enough.
We had won the tie by a single point the points totals read;

1st. S.West 64lb 9oz (Halesowen) on Broomhill
maggott & pellet Halesowen 19 points
Rexel 18 points
2nd. B. Robson 45lb 5oz (Halesowen) on Penlake White swan 11 points
maggott

3rd. M.Duffy 39lb 10oz (Rexel) on Penlake
single corn

4th. B. Mcauley 37lb. 4oz (Rexel) on Broomhill
pellet & maggott

On reflection this was a great match won by a single which i found out later was the third time Rexel have gone out by 1 point so bad luck to them and the white swan. On a personnel note i had the perefct match when i changed from wagg to pole the fish were there after leaving them alone for 2 1/2 hrs.
Many thanks to the Rexel lads for , pegging out, weighing in and sorting the pools money out.
And many thanks to Trev & Sue for there hospitality and use of there great pools CHEERS. If you have never been to Hawford bridge made it to of your list of fisheries to try , trust me you will have a great day.

BLYTHE PAIRS LEAGUE

Hi folks, this weeks adventures take me back to blythe waters on a pairs league match that we haven't fished since the end of november due to the bad weather. The league starts in october and runs through to the may with only one match a month as to miss other league dates and club match's. With only two match's fished and two canceled due to this crap winter me and my pairs partner (stavros) were sitting pritty at the top of the league with a 13 pt lead over second. The format for the league is that one of the guy's from each draws a letter A or B to see which section he and his partner fish then he draws a peg from two seperate bags with the peg numbers on. As we had dropped only one point over the first two match's and stav had drawn both times i saw fit to let him draw again (if it ain't broke don't fix it). When stav appeared form the draw queue and handed me peg 12 again i was well pleased as it was the third match on the bounce that i had drawn the same peg!!! shouts of jammy sod (thats the clean version) were pointed in my direction. I was concerned though as the two times i had fished it before it was about 10'c warmer and three month's ago and as i had found out at woodlands the fish have fin's? the other problem was stavs peg 28 is about 8m behind the next two peg's 29 & 30 that can reach the central floating boom/island that runs down the lake and out of pole range off stavs peg ( unless you have about 25m of carbon?).
On to the match and i set up 3 pole rigs and a small method feeder to throw at the boom which is about 25m out on my peg. Peg 12 has an advantage that it sticks out on a point compared to the pegs either side of it so you only need to fish at a nice comfortable 13m where they would have to fish 16m+ to get to the same line.
Rig 1 , pellet line 4x14 j8-range float 0.12 to 18 808 set dead depth in 5ft of water shotted with a bulk of no8 stotz and 2 no10 droppers, double no5 elastic completed the set up.
Rig 2, pinkies/maggot line 13m to my left at 10 o'clock a garbo dc13 0.30gr 0.10 to 20 808 at 2 inches over depth with strung out stotz, elastic was the same as the pellet rig.
Rig 3, margin rig fished 6m to my left up to a dead reed bed j8-range float 4x12 0.14 to size 1 turbetini 175 3 ft of water with just a bulk set 10 inches from the hook, hollo 11 elastic.
Bait for the day was 1 pint of soaked 1mm natural swim stim pellets, 1 pint of fluro pinkies, 1 pint of red maggots, a few 4 & 6mm soft expanders and a few dead reds.
On the whistle i put in around a kinder egg full of micros on my pellet line and the same down the margin line, around 20 pinkies & 6 maggots on the 10 o'clock line and then threw out a small preston 30gr method feeder double dead reds on the hook moulded with micros at the boom.
After around 20mins the tip dropped back and a 6oz skimmer was in the net, around 15mins later the same again happened and another skimmer of around similar size. After the first hour with no more action out went the pellet rig and as i was looking around while on the tip there was very little being caught up my end of the lake just odd silvers. On the pole i put a 4mm pellet on the hook and a fruit shoot pot of micros in, it took around 10 mins to get my first bite and a 4oz skimmer was in the net ( the skimmers in Blythe go from 1 oz to around 2lb i have yet to see any proper bream). Over the next two hours i was catching skimmers regular enough to just keep me going with the odd look on the pinkie line resulting in a few 1 oz roach but not enough to make me come off the pellet as they were to small. Kev clarke in the next peg was catching at around the same rate as me but his fish seemed to be a bit smaller, a quick phone call to stav reveled that he was suffering only having a few slivers on pinkie and couldn't get any bites on the pellet. To make matters worse at the deep end of the lake in his section there were around 3 guys admitting to catching carp ( crap)!!!
With around an hour to go i had seen the guy on peg 1 have a couple of carp and carl ( the gaffer) have one off peg 5, my 13m line was slowing up so a quick look on my margin line for 10 mins while i rested the main line ended up biteless, so i thought i would have a couple of chucks on the method. Within 30 seconds of the feeder settling a quick pull round and the best skimmer of the day was in the net at around 1 1/2lb, 20 mins later and no more bites it was a false hope that i was going to sack on the method the last hour. Back to the 13m line and it was solid every put in on the pellet produced a skimmer with 10 mins i hooked a carp and 5 mins later i was looking at a chunky 4lb mirror, that was the breathing space i was after and when the whistle went i new i had done well in my section and the carp should put me just in front of kev on the peg who had fished a tidy silvers match without any carp.
At the weigh in peg 31 ( the first in my section ) had 4lb odd but the guy on peg 2 was admitting to 6 small carp????? he weighed 14lb i thought i was close to that but was only admitting to double figures.Carl was next he had managed 2 carp from down the edge to a tree at 16m he and 11lb odd the rest of the section was hard with only single figures for the rest, it was my turn ti weigh and when i pulled the net out i knew it would be close the scales read 15lb 9oz and with only kev to worry about i was happy.Kev had 11lb 15oz and with only 4lb & 6lb on the next two pegs i had managed to win the section GREAT, all we need now was stav not to slip to far down his section as he had not been able to catch on the pellet so had had to settle for scratching for bits on the pinkie.First weight in his section was 11lb of silvers and the next was a single 13lb carp oh SHIT we were seriously worried now, 30lb on the end peg 22 ( one fish was 15lb ) 24lb on peg 23 and it was now apparent that like woodlands view the carp had gone to seek out deeper water after the big thaw.
All the others in the section had suffered with only small nets of silvers stav managed just under 7lb beating 5 in the the section making him 6th wasn't as bad as we had thought and after the points had been sorted reveled that we had managed to hold on to our 13 point lead at the top PHEW!
Looking back it was a tight section and that carp had got me maybe another 3 points at the end of the league they might be invaluable?
Thanks for reading my drivel. i'm off for a stella.