Blythe Waters Open Tuesday 26/10/10

Me & Stav had planned this day a few months ago as he had booked the week off but i had no holiday left so we just went on my usual Tuesday off, we had planned to just go on the Bridge pool for a practice for the forthcoming pairs as i have only fished the pool once and Stav has never fished it. On the Monday Stav rang Gail who runs the fishery to make sure the pool was free but he was told that the open match was on there, so we decided to fish it as we know some of the guy's who fish there including Warren who runs them. The day started off badly when we drove to our local cafe only to find out it was shut (disaster)! Thanks to Gail for cooking us a good breakie it might be the best part of the day the weatherman had forecast a very wet & windy day, as we sat in the cafe talking to Gail she informed us that they don't draw for the open until 10am this was only 8.45am as we thought the draw would be a normal 9.00am jobie, as we had plenty of time to waste we had a walk around the pool looking at the pegs that are being used in the pairs league looking for likely fish holding areas. Just before 10am the draw took place and i pulled out peg 31 in a corner then Stav pulled out peg 23 apparently a flier that won the match on saturday with 63lb, all the locals said about my peg was that it is a deep peg with 7ft+ of water and if the fish have gone there it is a good peg if not it is a hard peg i was hoping for the first option as we had 2 more hard frosts on Saturday & Sunday night. When i got to my peg i looked at the water trying to look for inspiration how to tackle it there was a areator at around 20m+ away open water in-front of that & a nice sweeping right hand corner that looked fishey but very snaggy with a lot of tree roots down there. I decided to set up a normal autumn/winter pellet & corn attack at 13m, a 6m maggot line for anything that swims and a pellet & corn job 14.5m up the edge, i was going to ignore the aerator as on Cherries pool they don't seem to hold a lot of fish as there is a lot of other features in the pool with islands and floating booms, unlike a square/oblong shaped pool where the aerators are the only features.
I set up a .5gr j-range float for the 13m line in 7 1/2ft of water a 18 toscirco hook to 0.14 line & 11 hollo elastic, a similar set up for the 6m line only with a 18 808 hook 0.12 line & double no5 elastic the depth was about 3-4 inches deeper than the 13m line?, for the edge rig i went for a 4x14 float of the same make as there was 4 1/2ft of water down the edge (my normal edge rigs weren't long enough) 0.14 line to a 16 tosciro hook with 13 hollo elastic.
I decided to keep things simple and stick to the 3 lines as the weather was getting worse as the day wore on with wind & rain lashing down it was a case of baton down the hatches & hold on to the pole, luckily most of the wind was off our back on our bank with some on the other side getting it full in the face. For bait i had brought some 2 pints of micro pellets, 1 1/2 pints of maggots & 2 tins of corn, nice & simple i had also got a pint of pinkies if all else failed, i had also got a few different hook baits plus some g/bait if i had drawn an island peg which i left in my bait bag.
On the whistle i fed the edge with 1/4 a pot of micros & a few grains of corn, the 6m line got 1/2 pot full of maggots and i started on the 13m line with just 3 grains of corn & a small fruit shoot size pot of micros looking to put very little bait on this line after the 2 heavy frosts the weekend.
I had a couple of very small dink's on the float before i hit my first bite after around 15mins which turned out to be a 30z skimmer falling to a 4mm expander, another 10mins went by before my next bite which turned out to be another skimmer of the same size. Next put in i hit a better fish which gave me a bit of a run around with 11 hollo elastic before i netted a 4lb carp, with around 45mins gone and no more action i put a piece of corn on the hook and hit my second carp of the day which was around the same size as the first. It was looking good as no one i could see was catching but after i spent the next 30mins biteless it was time for a look up the edge, i put a grain of corn on and shipped out 14.5m to where i had potted some bait in from the start i was getting odd dips now and then but nothing i could hit then i got a proper bite which was a 1lb carp. On both lines i was getting small nock's & dink's which i thought were the skimmers that seemed to be missing as no one was catching them normally you can catch 10lb+ of without any carp off any peg it looked like the frosts had been to much for them, it looked like being a hard day as i still couldn't see anyone catching much of note. The rest of the match was very slow and at the all-out i had managed 5 carp & 4 skimmers plus around 6 small roach which was all i had on the maggot line, 2 of the carp were only 1lb each but one of my skimmers was around the 2lb mark. The guys around me hadn't caught at all with only 2-3 carp each neither had Stav who had managed only 1 carp + a few skimmers & roach, you know how the story goes just as the whistle went the rain stopped uncanny how many times that happens ain't it! it had rained virtualy non stop for most of the match. As Warren started to weigh in there was a couple who just broke double figures with 12-13lb until we got to Warren who had found a couple of carp+ some better skimmers putting 22lb on the scales, the next peg put 19lb on then the best weight of the day on peg 18 was 27lb. On my bank there were 5 pegs in which i was the best weight with 18lb 6oz Stav had 11lb and the next 2 guys just breaking double figures, the last 2 guys to my right on pegs 33 & 35 had 10lb & 17lb respectively, i had come 4th overall when they were only paying the top 3 so i was one out of the money by a pound! Crap! Never mind it will only take a week to dry the kit out, i had to throw the maggots & pinkies away after the match as they were every where the pinkies were in the bottom of my bag zipped up & in a bait box with the lid on but still managed to get wet as there was 2 inches of water in the bottom of my bag! I hope the weather gets a bit more settled before the start of our pairs league in a few weeks as you need the skimmers to feed if the carp don't show up in numbers which were missing today.

Larford Classic Qualifier Sunday 24/10/10

Hi folks, back to Larford this week for another bash at the classic qualifier on the speci lake hoping for a better draw this week, as we pulled up on the car park we were greeted by exactly the same conditions as last week with another hard frost and no wind (why do the weather gods wait for a weekend to unleash there bad weather?). With all the lake in this week there was a better turnout with 50+ booked in, i drew out peg 19 which i was happy with as it was opposite where all the fish came from last week and in the middle of the lake Stav drew 61 one peg off last weeks winning peg so we were both a little happier with our pegs. I set up the same as last week a method rod, straight lead & 2 pole rigs the only thing i left in the bag was the pellet wagg as no one caught on it last week and another hard frost looks like it has put pay to this method for another year! As i was setting up i changed my mind and instead of the lead which i only managed one fish on last week i put a Drennan gripmesh feeder on to try and keep the feed tight and not spray 8mm pellets all over the place, i was talking to a Dan at work during the week weather or not to fish for skimmers with proper gear(light lines, small hook etc) and after seeing the frost i should have but you won't win the match with them at the moment as too many carp are still feeding.
Too cut a long story short ( my daughter wants the computer studying for A levels ) i had a crap match ending with only 9 skimmers for about 10-11lb, the welsh guy to my left had 4 carp 1 bream & 3 skimmers for 37lb with only 8 fish and the guy to my right had 2 bites all day 2 carp for 16lb. Battered both sides by carp try as i might to catch them they all seemed to miss my bait! Talking to the welsh guy we had both gone through all the hook bait permutations corn, maggots,bollies & meat but he hooked carp & me skimmers? Mick Varley had caught on the method on peg 11 for 70lb & Andy Kinder on peg 14 had a couple on the lead & then switched to the method for 54lb these were the best weights on the burr bank we later found out that there was a 62lb on peg 72 which is dead in-line with peg 11!
Can you see a pattern emerging here? this is last weeks results.

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Andy Morrison	62	Pole fished pellet at 15m	60-14-00
2nd	Neil McKinnon	67	Short pole	55-04-00
3rd	Sean McCarthy	68	Long pole at 14m	54-02-00
4th	Matt Hodges	65	Method feeder with sweetcorn	52-10-00

I think you needed to draw the 60's???
Then this week 1st & 2nd dead in-line with each other???

Position	Name	Peg	Method	Weight
1st	Mick Varley (Maver)	11	Method feeder (boilie) / pole fished pellet	70-02-00
2nd	Sean McCarthy	72	Straight lead	66-14-00
3rd	Andy Kinder (Maver)	15	Bomb and pellet / Method feeder	54-06-00
4th	John Catermole (Maver)	30	Method feeder	53-00-00

I think the fish are in small pockets & if you don't draw on them your in for a very hard day, Satv feared worse than me so we both went home with our tails between our legs. ( sorry to cut this one short the daughter's nagging, just like here mom!)

Larford Classic Qualifier Sunday 17/10/10

Hi folks, me & Stav had booked into the Larford qualifier on the speci lake but for a change the weather man had got it right in our area they had forecast the first proper frost since the end of last winter, when Stav came around to pick me up he confirmed that he had to scrape the frost off the car windows it was white all over( Great winter's on the way!). As we dropped down into the Severn valley towards Larford off the main road the fog/mist was that dense that you couldn't see the speci lake from the cafe and the temperature gauge in the car was still reading 0c! There was 30 booked in for the match and with only 1 bank available the pegging would be tight i drew out peg 81 one off the end peg & Stav drew peg 74 not as low down as we were hoping, the last big match on here 2 weeks ago saw the top 3 all come from the pegs in the 60's in the center of the lake where the fish tend to hang during the winter ( had the fish gone into there winter quarters already?) . At least i was in good company for the day as an old friend of mine Tim Guise was on the next peg end peg 82, now Tim might be getting on a bit (sorry mate) but he is still a very good angler and he would be hard to beat with all that spare room to his right. I had been in two minds most of the week as to still attack the lake as i would during the summer months hoping the first frost wouldn't damage it too much or go softly softly due to the cooler weather, i opted for the first option thinking that the lake is deep and it would take a few cold days to put the fish right down. I set up just 1 pole rig as i thought that with every peg in they might prove hard to tempt close in, a method feeder, straight lead & a pellet wag just in-case the fish came to the sun that had now burnt off the mist and was quite pleasant.
The pole rig i set up was a 1.0gr maver paste float 0.18 silstar line straight through to a 4 175 hook set 8ft deep at 11m, on this line i would feed with a mix of chili hemp & meat in the hope that the carp moved in later in the match. I had brought 2 bags of 8mm pellets for the straight lead & pellet wagg which would be fished around 30-35m out, i had also brought some g /bait for the method feeder which i would fish at 50-60 turns plus the usual array of hook baits for this.
Well to cut a long story short after the first hour i had 1 skimmer on the straight lead Tim was bite-less and the Welsh chap on the next was bite-less as well! the first proper frost of the winter had took its toll and what wasn't helping was that the lake was like a sheet of glass and the sun was now quite warm probably the worst fishing conditions you could ask for. Even at this early stage of the match i was regretting my all out carp/summer tactics a switch to the method was called for with one eye on the guy's either side as they both had a look on the pole line, second chuck on the method with 2 dead reds on produced a skimmer and over the next hour i had got 6 skimmers before they dried up. Word along the bank was that it was fishing rock hard up our end of the lake no one was catching anything of note at all, after around 2 1/2 hours Stav rang to say that he had got a 3lb carp when he hung up as he had got a bite it turned out to be a skimmer only his second bite of the day! On the 3 hour mark i finally had a bite on the lead on a 8mm pellet it was a 3lb carp just 1 bite out of the blue then nothing again, i had tried all my lines apart from the pole as Tim and Welsh guy hadn't had a bite on it. It was now approaching the last hour so i picked up the pole and decided to sit on it until the end of the match as my section was fishing hard you can have 2 bites for 30-40lb on the pole here ( they don't call it the speci lake for now't?), after around 10mins the float buried it was a nice 2lb skimmer on a 8mm cube of meat but not what i was looking for. Another 10mins passed before my next bite which when i struck i new it wasn't a skimmer and after a short but healthy fight a nice 8lb carp was netted, i was now praying for a late burst with around 45mins left to go i put another pot of hemp & meat in which attracted a 1lb skimmer so i put another pot of feed in as it was to late in the day to build up a net of them. 2mins after the second pot i was playing another carp which felt big but didn't seem to be going anywhere fast just plodding along the bottom but as i shipped back half the pole we parted company, SHIT!, on closer inspection the hook had opened up! What was that these turbertini's 175's are very strong. As i was fishing straight through i now had a decision to make either put another rig on or throw the lead over the top giving me more chance of getting a lump out, there was now fish on the pole line as Tim had a great big lump on the lead over the pole line and got broke by one while the Welsh lad to my left to had a carp on the pole at the same time. I opted to fish the lead over the top of the pole as the safer option so i changed the hook-length from a lasso to a quickstop mounted 2 8mm cubes of meat on the hair and under armed the lead over the 11mm line, with 15mins to go the tip hooped around and a 3lb carp was netted not the big double i was praying for which turned out to be my last action of the day. I had got 3 carp & 9 skimmers what a hard days fishing that was, Tim ended up with 1 carp & 2 skimmers & the Welsh lad 1 carp & 3 skimmers it was not the end of the lake you wanted to be.
When i had packed up i walked down around 10 pegs where i met up with the scales that had weighed from the bottom end up, Phil (Briscoe) said that there had been a 62lb & a 55lb which were the best two weights so far. The guy on Stav's left was the first i saw weighed with 20lb odd
Stav had 1 carp of 3lb and 15lb of skimmers for 18lb odd, 2 pegs to Stav's right saw Mark have the best weight up our end with 5 carp 7 a few skimmers on the method for 49lb, the guy on peg 78 had 1 12lb carp and 32lb of skimmers for 44lb saying like most that he had all his fish in the last 2 hours but was dry until then! Peg 79 DNW, peg 80 DWN, me with 14lb of carp & 10lb of skimmers for 24lb then Tim on the end with a DWN i was right in the thick of all the fish!!! Although Tim didn't bother to weigh as the two 40lb+ weights were in our section he said he would have pushed me close as he estimated his carp at 18-19lb with 2 2lb skimmers. It had been a very hard day with the first proper frost of the winter taking a bigger toll on the lake than me and a lot of others had anticipated but when there is 20lb+ fish swimming around it don't take long to go from zero to hero ( if you can get them out).

Alvechurch Fisheries 3/10/10

Hi folks, today's match is a Halesowen club match booked on the Horseshoe Pool at Alvechurch Fisheries i had fished here years ago but hadn't heard of anyone fishing it for years, that was until a mate of mine Mark told me he was thinking of buying it and turning it into a fishery again as it had been left unattended and overgrown for years. Me and Stav had been earlier this year for a practice and to say we struggled would be an understatement with only a couple of small carp and the odd silverfish to our names, but it was still very cold and it is a new fishery which all need time to settle and mature. I had been keeping an eye on the results through out the summer months and to be fair most of them had been quite good with the odd ton here and there, one or two of the match's seemed to be two or three good weights then the rest of the field struggling. The last open on here was 2 weeks ago when 47lb had won with the week before that 105lb so it was a bit up and down ( like the weather at the moment!), Mark knows that he needs to put some more fish in but can't stock any i until the right time of year. Mark is going to be running a silvers winter league on here so a week before we were due to fish he had taken some of the silverfish out of one of the other pools (house pool) and put then into the horseshoe pool in readiness for the league. There was 18 brave (stupid) soles turning out for this one with a couple of the lads not turning up after seeing the weather on the morning! RAIN,RAIN & more RAIN to say it was p*****g it down would be an understatement, frontwards, backwards & sideways all day until the whistle blew for the all out then the sun came out as usual! Mark cooked us a good breakfast in the newly built cafe but as we looked out into the gloom of the rain it looked like being the best part of the day. I drew out peg 28 from the bag and Stav drew peg 7 on the opposite side of the pool at least both of us had drawn with a throw to the island, i hadn't fancied drawing in the bottom bowl with no island and the pegs looked a bit tight although Mark had said that all the carp were coming from that area.
I set up a small method feeder for the island and just two pole rigs i was going to fish the worm & caster at 9m and the pellet at 14.5m, for bait i had brought 1/2 kg of worms, 2 pints of casters, 1 bag each of micro & 4mm feed pellets, 1 bag of green swimsitm for the method, i had also brought the usual array of hook baits 6&4mm expanders, meat, corn dead maggots.
On the whistle i potted in a full pot of chopped worm & caster at 9m & a pot of micros with a few 4mm in on the 14.5m line then threw the feeder tight to the island which is only around 25m way on my peg. First chuck with a maggot feeder for Phil on the next peg resulted in a carp around the 4lb class then 10mins gone my tip wrapped around and i was in, NO, i wound the feeder back (minus a carp) only to find that i had been broken? Crap how had i been broke on 0.20 line? all that was left was a loop of line i had been done on my own knot! Plonker! never mind it was early days( i hate inline method feeders). I had to wait another 30mins for my next bite when the tip wrapped around again only to be left with no fish again( no i hadn't got broke again)? what was going on Phil had got 2 carp now but i hadn't seen anyone else have a fish apart from Stav who had a what looked to be a lump carp early on. I stayed on the tip until the until the 1 1/2 hour mark had gone without anymore signs of fish, a switch to the pole was called for but i didn't hold out to much hope as i couldn't see anyone else catching on it. I put a worm head on and shipped out to my 10m line where i had fed some worm from the start, it took me 10mins to get my first bite a 3oz roach then a further 10mins for my second a 2oz perch. I went onto my pellet line at 14.5m with a 4mm expander over some micro's and had a 6oz skimmer straight away, i then missed a bite before connecting with a better fish which turned out to be a 3lb carp at last! Unfortunately it was a false dawn as i couldn't raise another bite on anything but i wasn't on my own as no one was catching, Phil in the next peg had got his 3 early carp and lost one but it looked like it wasn't going to get any better so i decided to sit out for carp as there was no sign's of doing any good fishing for silvers. I abandoned the worm line and just fished the method & pellet line until the whistle, i had a carp of around 8lb on the method from the island and another of 3lb on the pole in the last hour. During the match a couple of times i potted in a few micro's on the pole line only to have a fish swirl at the float up in the water, a few times during the match there was odd fish topping by the island in Phil's peg and towards the end of the pool where Ollie was sitting so maybe i should have set a shallow rig up? Ollie had managed to extract 4 carp from his peg in on the car park bank late in the match but most had suffered a bad match with only odd carp caught & a distinct lack of silvers. The best weight on the opposite side of the pool was Stav with 1 carp + a few silvers for 14lb odd but most of the weights were very poor with some only weighing a few silvers with no carp, my 3 carp went 15lb 2oz then Phil's 2 went 15lb 6oz putting me 2nd. Ollie's 4 carp went 21lb odd with only Martin left to weigh he had won the match, Martin who i couldn't see because of the island had managed to find a few big skimmers + some roach for 14lb odd relagating Stav into 4th by a few ounces. It had been a very hard match in very wet conditions but i was happy to come out of it in 3rd place, i was left ruing the loss of the one on the method that broke me costing me at least 2nd or might have cost me the match had it have been big enough? Mark has got big plans for Alvechurch Fisheries and he knows that its going to take a lot of time & hard work as he has just acquired some land adjacent to the fishery, i for one hope that he makes it and i am sure that he will.

Woodlands View Open Sunday 26/9/10

This was the last day of our fishing week as Stav had to do an errand on Friday and then went back to Manor Farm on Saturday with Bash to fish a series match they fish every 3-4 weeks ( they both blew out again & Bash blew his rod up? ) so this was our last day before we went back to work. The only thing that was worrying us and everyone that was fishing was the sudden turn in the weather, Tuesday & Wednesday saw 18-20 C then on Friday night the mercury had dropped to nearly a ground frost then Saturday the same the wind had changed direction and was cold. As we stood outside the cafe at Woodlands Chris Robson said something that would soon become very apparent during the day " if you don't draw with the wind off your back you will be knackered!". There was 20 guy's out today and the match was to be held on both Dean's pool's so Mike Mason put 5 pegs on each bank which would be your section, into the draw box and out popped peg 4 on front Deans then Stav drew peg 7 the next peg in so at least we were together for our decider on the fishing week. When we drove up to the pool and got the tackle out i started to get a bad feeling as the cold wind was blowing diagonally across the pool from corner peg 21 straight into my face. I set up just 3 pole rigs one for 6m, one at 13m and a margin rig, the wind was a bit to strong for fishing shallow so it was a deck job in the cold wind, i will not bore you with the details of the rigs as they are all broke and failed to go under. To cut a long storey short after an hour i had foul-hooked a 4lb carp on my 6m line and couldn't get a bite on any of my lines, i walked over to Stav to see what he had got and he said 2 f1's there was not a lot being caught from what i could see just a few bits & odd carp on the opposite bank. Another hour passed with only 1 skimmer on the 13m line to add to my lonely carp, the younger of the French guy's was opposite me with around 4 carp and Paul Sibbo on corner peg 33 was having only odd bits it was hard going. Stav had 1 carp to go with his 2 f1's and it was bloody cold with me wearing a tee-shirt, jumper and my windproof fleece on what change from in the week my eyes were streaming so was my nose and i haven't got a cold. This was no good as i couldn't raise a bite on any of my lines so i decided to go to the car and get my gun sling out, i could see the odd fish rising on the other side of the pool where the cold wind wasn't hitting the water so i set up the pellet cone. I threw out the cone to the middle of the lake and on only the 2nd chuck the tip went round and a 6lb carp was in the net, 10mins later and carp no2 was in the net by the time carp no3 went in the onion sack Sibbo on the other side shouted over " i bet you wished you've have set that up earlier". With 1 hour left i had got 7 carp and was looking for a few to end up with when my bites dried up, 2 of the carp i had got out on the cone were foul-hooked then in the last hour i only had 3 bites which 2 were foul-hooked and came off landing 1 last carp with 2mins from the whistle while Matt who had come to weigh us in was standing behind me. I said to Matt that you wouldn't believe that it was the same month let alone the same week as we fished here Tuesday with a tee-shirt on now it felt like November. My carp went 46lb 12oz then Stav put 41lb odd on the scales then a 63&73lb as you went up the pool away from the wind the weights got better, the French guy opposite me had 36lb and Sibbo tipped around 20lb back in the corner. We heard there were 3 80lb+ weights on back Deans with the high bank from stock pools hay & barley protecting them from the wind.
The week had started off well on Ghost pool & Wyatts pool then the brown stuff hit the fan on Thursday & today all i want is a hot bath to warm me bones, at least i had the consolation of beating Stav 3-1 so he had to cough up £2. Never mind back to work in the morning!

Manor Farm Open Thursday 23/9/10 Island Pool

Day 4 of our fishing week took us to the Thursday Affordable at Manor Farm, today's match was to be on Island pool and with 12 turning up we would have lot of room as Dave put 3 anglers on each bank. I drew out peg 32 & Stav got peg 8 for company on peg 34 i had Barry Robson who had also had the same week off as us, a quick look at the weight sheet from the open the day before reveled that our two pegs in the 30's had not weighed in! Great i hope the fish no how to use those fins of there's and swim up here! About 3 weeks ago i got battered off peg 33 while i was sat on peg 34 by a guy that caught on the method feeder but he didn't throw it too tight to the island, he also had a few fish by casting 2/3's of the way across over where he was firing some 6mm pellets with this in mind i set up a plan of attack. I set up a method rod, a pellet feeder rod & 2 pole rigs 1 for on the deck at 6m and a shallow rig for 13-14m.
Rig 1, a 13ft method rod 8lb maxima, Preston 30gr method elasticated with black hydro, 16 pr27 0.20 H/L.
Rig 2, a 11ft feeder rod 8lb maxima, Guru 24gr inline pellet feeder, 16 pr27 with a lasso 0.20 H/L for a 6mm pellet.
Rig 3, a 4x14 Maver Jona 0.16 line to a size 3 Tubertini 175 for the 6m line in around 6ft of water.
Rig 4, a 0.30gr Maver Jurassic dibber, 0.14 line to a 18 pr27 with a lasso for the shallow line, i set the depth around 18" but had around 4ft of line above the float to vary the depth plus keep the pole tip off the water.
For bait i had brought lots of different pellets from micro's for the pellet feeder, 4mm's for the shallow line, 6mm's for firing around the pellet feeder 2/3rd's of the way over, i had also got corn, meat, dead maggots & expanders for the hook, ground bait for the method feeder was green swimstim.
On the whistle i put a pot of 4mm pellets & a few grains of corn on the 6m line and cast the method to where i had clipped up around 1m short of the island, Bash had clipped up tight to the island so if they were in the shallower water i would soon see we both sat back and awaited the action. The guy on peg 36 was the first to see action fishing the pole line at around 6-8m after around 10mins, with around 30mins gone he had got 5-6 fish while me & Bash hadn't had a bite yet. Bash was the first to have a carp off the island then after around 45mins i had my first bite on the method a 2lb f1, i stuck to the method for the first 1 1/2 with only 2 fish to show for my efforts Bash had got 3 but the guy on peg 36 had slowed up a bit after his earlier flurry with around 8 fish. I was at a loss for a reason why we weren't catching on the island when we had lots of room to go at? I changed to the pellet feeder at around 30m where the island is around 40-45m away i had been firing a few 6mm pellets in while fishing the method, i packed the feeder with damp micro's & a 6mm pellet on the hook cast out and had 2 f1's in two casts. Just when i thought i had sussed it the bites dried up with only 1 more f1 in the next 30mins, with over 2 hours of the match gone i was going nowhere fast Bash had a couple of fish on the 6m line so it was time to try that. I had 2 fish on the 6m pole line and with half the match gone i had got 7 fish both me and Bash were struggling to come up with reason why we weren't catching as we could see pegs 4,6 & 8 catching, the guy on peg 4 had been catching shallow from the off but he had got some ripple on the water where as the wind was coming off our backs making our pegs dead flat. I had a go shallow and while not setting the world on fire i started to put the odd f1 in the net, i couldn't believe the amount of fizz i was getting on the shallow line i was firing 4mm pellets over the top and slapping the rig in the peg was a mass of bubbles! I tried all-sorts of tricks to try and up my catch rate but it seemed as i was only going to have a fish when they felt like it, i did have a look back on all my other lines but only managed 1 small 1lb tench on the 6m line so i just fished shallow for the remainder of the match. The fizzing on the shallow line was mental when i tried another line and stopped feeding the fizz died down but within 2-3 catty's of 4-5 pellets it would be a mass of bubbles again! When the whistle went i had ended up with 20 f1's & that 1 tench Bash had fared even worse than me, we had both been battered by the guy on peg 36 so we went around to ask how he had caught he said all he fishes here is paste at this time of the year. It had worked for him today not breaking any records but enough to win our 3 peg section ( yes we were in 4 x 3 peg sections with nothing overall for winning overall it is only the affordable after all). My fish went 46lb 2oz, Bash 27lb & paste man won our section with 61lb. Stav came around saying he had come last in his section with 58lb, French guy ( who we had me at Woodlands on Tuesday) on the next peg having 65lb & the guy on peg 4 catching shallow all day had 97lb which was the best weight of the day. The younger of the 2 French guys won his section with 91lb in the teens & the 20's section was won with 78lb on the feeder so our section had been the worst of the day! as i said earlier they didn't bother weighing on the pegs the day before so think there just isn't enough fish there at the moment. On reflection i should have gone shallow earlier and also set up a rig to fish the deck on the same line? I was 15lb off winning the section and worst of all 12lb off being beaten by Stav? Stav had pulled 1 back in our fishing week so it was now 2-1 to me so we would have a decider on our next match double or quits on the £1 side bets. It looks like when you have a lot of room you can catch more on the pole line than when you put 20+ on the pool forcing the fish out to the island?

Cob House Open Wyatts Pool Wensday 22/9/10

Day 3 of our fishing week took us to the open at Cob house on Wyatts pool this is the in complex at the moment if you want big weights, the last time we came down here Bob Baker broke the match record for the first time since then Bob himself broke his own record then Scott Jones took the match record to a massive 396lb! While Bob had 311lb off Laugherne Island Holy Shit! The new cafe is massive and very clean ( it felt almost too clean for scruffy anglers) there is also a new on-site tackle shop. There was 12 anglers booked in for today's affordable open and after talking to Scott & Craig who work at the fishery it seemed that the top tactics are short, shallow & down the edge. Into the draw bag and out popped peg 10 for me & Satv drew 24 but i don't think it matters on here at the moment as the place is solid all over.
I set up 4 rigs 2 for the short line (3m), 1 for the edge & a shallow rig.
Rig 1, 0.30gr Maver invincible series 7, 0.18 main to a 16 pr27 0.16 h/l with a lasoo for a hard 6mm pellet, 11 Preston hollo elastic for the 3m line.
Rig 2, Maver Jona 4x14, with the same line, hook & elastic as the first rig just a heavier if the wind got up which was blowing down the pool.
Rig 3, Preston durra 10 4x12, 0.16 straight through to a Tubertini 175 size 3, 13 nollo elastic for the edge.
Rig 4, Maver Jrassic dibber 0.30gr 0.14 to a 16 pr27, 13 hollo elastic, a lassoed 6mm pellet for the shallow line at 6-8m.
For bait i had got a bag each of 2mm & 4mm fishery feed pellets, around 4 pints of dead maggots (i will use the maggots up i took to arena pool) plus some various soft & hard pellets for the hook.
On the whistle i started on the 3m line throwing 20 or so 2mm pellets at the float and it sailed away with carp no1 a 1lb fish, i caught steady for the first hour on the 3m line before they started to slow up a bit so i switched to the margin line and was rewarded with a few fish of a slightly better stamp with the odd 3-4lb fish thrown in. To be honest most of the match is a blur as i have fished a few match's on venues like this before and all you can do is to put your head down and just try to keep the bites & catch rate ticking over, if you take to much notice of the people around you it can distract you as every where you look all you can see is people playing and landing fish. During the match i tried to catch shallow at 6m but it was too slow and only accounted for 4-5 fish, i was going back and forth from the edge line to the 3m line to keep bites coming. The fish on the maggot down the edge seemed to be of a better stamp so i fished this for most of the match plus as i use a lasso for a hard pellet i was wasting time putting new hook-lengths on when the fish broke the lasso off in the landing net, when using the lasso you need to use a fine micro/hair landing net to stop the hard bait falling through the holes and snapping off when the fish goes mad in the net. Unfortunately at Cob House the nets they provide you with have got big holes so i all but gave up on the lasso after the first hour as i lost three hook-lengths during that time. Like i said earlier its hard to keep track of who's catching and who's not when everyone is catching but i new Stav was having his fair share so was a guy on the same bank on peg 18 but that is only because they were opposite me someone on my bank could have 500lb and i wouldn't have seen them. At the all out i had somewhere in the region of 132 fish but new i had a better weight than the first time i had fished the lake with 120 fish for 120lb this time i had some better stamp fish.
When Scott & Carl came with the scales the first to weigh on my bank had 120lb, next 101lb then 90 odd on the next peg to my right, i thought that i had 150lb - 160lb but i was quite shocked when Scott gave me 192lb 6oz to put me in the lead, the guy to my left had 105lb then the lowest? weight of the day 70lb? the guy fished the feeder all day, the last peg on my bank had 144lb. Over on the on the other bank the guy next to Stav had 166lb, then Stav ( uncle festa) had 189lb 8oz ( phew that was close i nearly had to give him a quid back), we were lying first and second with 2 left to weigh but the guy on peg 18 had caught well all day and put 198lb 50z on the pellet & paste, a mate of mine Lee was in the corner peg and put 144lb on the scales. What a cracking match with ton's all over the place & only 10lb separating the top 3, so with me second & Stav third the jobs a good un' ( 2-0 up Stav get your gold coins ready). So if you haven't already been and want to catch lots of fish in great surroundings get yourself down to Cob House the cafe is great and the staff Scott & Carl will always put you right, thanks lads we had a great day Cheers.