Cob House Fur & Feather Sunday 12/1210

Hi Folks, the day before this match was something of a logistical nightmare for Bob Baker who was running this match as he still wanted the match to go ahead but there were no where near enough pegs free of ice for the 40 odd blokes booked in, i told Stav of the situation and after a few phone calls with a bit of um'ing & arh'ing we decided to have a drive down to have a look at the situation for ourselves and if the worst came to the worst and the ice was too thick to break at least we would have had a ride out! When we got there and had a walk around the pools it didn't look very promising with thick ice on all the pools with just a few pegs fish-able with only thin breakable ice where the aerators had been put on in the days leading up to the match, after meeting up with Bob he started to count up the pegs available then Phil turned the aerators on to remove the cat ice from the few fish-able pegs and it looked like we might get a match after all if there was not a big turn out. After paying some pools money it was time to draw there was 24 brave ( if not slightly insane) blokes ready to do battle with with the ice before they could do battle with the fish it was still well below zero, i drew out peg 10 on laurel pool which meant nothing to me as i have only fished Wyatts twice before and Laugherne island once Stav drew on Laugherne ( the peg number escapes me 29 i think?). When i got to the peg it was right in a corner with the aerator right in-front of me not where i wanted to be as i have fished many a winter ice match at Woodlands view over the years and you normally need to be as far away from the aerators as poss and fish up against solid ice, i was also a bit miffed at not being able to fish long as the rope from the aerator was stopping me and so was the guy on peg 9 as if we had both fished 13m we would touching poles. I was not to despondent though as i could here a lot of ice breaking going on around the other pools at least my peg was free of ice due to the aerator so at least i had not got to sling my lump of steel & chain around before setting up, i think the pegging ended up something like 6 on laurel,10 on wyatts and 4 each on oak & laugherne island.
I won't bore you with rigs & bait as i was very limited to how far i could fish out so i set up just two rigs both with on 0.10 line one with a 20 to try a 4mm pellet and the other a 22 for pinkies, both rigs would do for both lines with were at 6m & 13m the long line was as far as i could go with the aerator rope both floats were 0.50gr floats for around 7 1/2- 8ft of water. I fed just 5-6 1mm micro pellets with 3-4 flouro pinkies on both lines now and then just to see if i could get a bite first of all, the guy next to Bob on the edge of the ice was first to catch a small roach and before long he had a few of them plus the odd skimmer. I think Bob had 2-3 fish before i had my first bite a 40z skimmer then a couple of small roach it was slow going but at least we had got off the mark, the guy next to Bob was catching the most while they were only small fish but he was quite busy. Bob's fish seemed to be slightly bigger than than mine and the guy's next to him due to fishing the maggot as apposed to the pinkie, i tried maggot and pinkie on both of my lines but could only get a bite on the pinkie at 13m my 6m line never showed a fish all day. After around 2-3 hours Stav came up the bank to steal some of my coffee and said that all of the other 3 pools were all dry with no one having a bite so at least we were catching, i think that at the time i had got 5-6 fish while he was emptying my flask i had another small roach he said it was making him feel bad seeing people catch and went back to his own pool to try and get a bite. The bites now stopped as i was getting trouble with floating cat ice and having to smash it up with the pole pot, Bob was catching a few better silvers still and the guy next to him was catching smaller fish when we all saw more elastic than normal coming from then end of Bob's pole the signal of a carp. Bob netted the carp which looked around 2-3lb from where i was sitting but the always look bigger on such a hard day, i couldn't get a bite on anything the guy to my left had 1 roach and the guy to my right managed 2, the guy 3 pegs up on my left up against the ice had got 1 skimmer with the last hour upon us. In the last hour i managed to hook and land a small 12oz carp and a small skimmer, Bob had another carp smaller than his first plus a few slivers, the guy to his right up against the ice had fished a good match catching small silvers all day, the guy to my left had 3 small carp and a skimmer in the last hour up against the ice. We new that no one on wyatts had a bite there was only a single roach caught on laugherne island and the guy's on oak had gone dry as well! All 6 of us on Laurel had caught so it was the pool to draw, the guy on my left with the 3 late carp was fist to weigh with 3lb odd mine went 2lb 6oz, Bob had done well with his 2 carp and silvers for a match winning 8lb odd and the guy to his right had 5lb odd of smaller silvers with no carp, the 2 guy's either side of me and the 1 roach on island pool all weighed 3oz so they were all joint 5th as 7 had caught out of the 24 that fished but it was bloody cold. We all got a tin of choc's to take home for our efforts on a cold day i was 4th 0ne out of the money but got a free 12 months subscription to match fishing magazine as there had been a few prizes donated, many thanks to Bob for organizing the match and well done for winning the match, many thanks to the staff at Cob House for trying the mission impossible to keep the pools clear.

NO FISHING FREEZING ZONE!!!!!!!!!

As i am writing this our 2nd round of the pairs league at Blythe has been canceled due to some 3-4 inches of solid ice that Warren tried to break during the week without success so no fishing this week JOBS A BAD UN' a day in the house with the misses!
I hope we have a bit of a thaw during next week as Satv and i have booked into the Cob House fur & feather which i have been looking forward to so lets pray as cooking Sunday dinner is not what blokes are built for, that's what i got a misses for!

Staffs-Worcs canal Castlecroft Sunday 28/11/10

Hi folks, today's match is the fur & feather with one of my clubs Halesowen A.C which has been switched from the canal at Hinksford due to it being froze over, the clubs own stretch of canal at Castlecroft nr Wolverhampton has been known not to freeze due to a bit of flow and the fact that it is only around a mile away from some waterworks. I was hoping for a better draw than the 3 times of have fished the stretch before as i have managed to draw the same peg 7 every time without catching much off it, it was the same as the last 3 times i had been to Hinksford until 2 weeks ago drawing on the first set of reeds 3 times on the bounce and the first time i did draw off them i won the match so i was hoping for a different peg today. With 23 hardy ( saft, stupid no brains) blokes assembled at the Green Man pub in Swindon for breakie we all must want our lumps reading as the overnight temperatures went down to -8'c god it was cold, we done the draw in the pub before shooting off to the venue and at last i got a different peg 35 there were shouts of jammy git as i had drawn the chub peg that has won the last 2 club match's on the stretch and it was a boun's peg so the pressure would be on. I missed the last match on here which was won with 9lb comprising of 6 small chub off this peg but i did fish it in March when JB won off it with 27lb of chub, my only concern was how cold it had gone with my local canal first freezing on Thursday now 1 1/2 inches thick the cold snap had come fast and the weather man said we had got it for a least 2 weeks, we were lucky as most of the rest of the country was covered in snow. Stav had cried off saying it was to cold and fancied a day in warm (wimp) he had fished the last club match on here and drawn peg 36 next to the winner also it is a good walk, we got to the canal and there was some ice patches on it so i loaded the barrow up and started to walk and walk and walk!. The pegs on our stretch are well spaced out but there are also a couple of sets of overhead power cables which we have to miss out and a bridge down it the 20's but we cannot get access to it even to drop the tackle off as it is a private road, it was a long walk but at least i had a look at the stretch for the first time and i have to say that there were some very fishy looking pegs but i was more worried about my fingers dropping off as they were exposed pushing my barrow. When i eventually got to my peg you can see why the chub live there, there is an overhanging ivy bush that comes out some 3-4m from the bank and must stretch 15m wide with the peg smack in the middle of them. There was some talk after the match to re-peg the stretch so that we can put 2 pegs on the ivy so they can share the fish which i think would be a good idea as it is certainly long enough, to reach the edge of the ivy i only had to use around 8m of pole but i put the no7 on to reach 2 gaps in the ivy at 10 & 2 o'clock. The ice was a too thick to break with the pole so i lent Steve Robson's ice breaker who had drawn peg 36 to break it out right ( i had left my breaker in the shed as i was told all last winter the canal never froze!), on the other side of me was our PET Geordie Phil who i work with so at least we would have a laugh if we couldn't catch. I was starting to fear the worst as if you fished last weekend you will know what i am talking about it was bloody cold, after cooling down from the long walk and the ice breaking session the weak bit of sun that was out was blocked off by some trees on the opposite side so i had to sit in the shade all day. The next thing i was worried about was that i only had 1 top kit with heavy elastic in all my others were in a tube in the house i had taken them out to put my canal tops in so the 13hollo i had would have to be sacrificed and tightened up, i set up the following rigs to tackle the peg.
Rig 1, i made this up on the bank as the chub rigs i carry are for fishing right over with small in-line dibber floats with short line but the ivy was that far out into the canal you have got 4ft of water! I fished a 4 x 10 Preston pink float, 0.14 line straight through to a 16 b611 with my tightened 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, a 4 x 12 Drennan caster original 0.08 straight through to a 18 pr322 with a no4 elastic which would be fished at 4m down the track on caster.
With the long walk and ice breaking all the guys at our end missed around the first 10mins of the match before we were ready to fish, as i had drawn the flier and a bouns peg i was only going to fish caster and worm leaving the bread, squatt & pinkie in the bag ( good job as i had to give Geordie some of my slices of bread for the hook as he had left his on the kitchen table).
I put half a pot of chopped worm on my left-hand swim and around 20 casters on my right swim then just throwing 3-4 casters at 4m, Steve & Pet both started on the bread with an instant reaction both having a roach first put-in. After around 5mins i had my first bite a 2oz perch then i had 3 more fish in quick succession 1 roach and the rest perch, Pet had carried on catching on the bread but Steve had 2 roach then bumped the third which stopped him from getting anymore bites. The bites started to slow up on the worm so i had a look on the caster line while i put a bit more worm in on the other line, with no bites on the caster i was back on the worm line which produced 2 more perch over the next 30mins this set the tone for most of the day with the worm line catching most of my fish and only 1 4 oz roach on the caster. I was missing a few bites on the worm and bumping the odd perch off due to the tight elastic by there was no sign of the chub that live on the peg maybe the -8 had put them down too far? Boy was it cold as the trees on the far bank were stopping the week sunshine coming through it was freezing everything all my bait worm & casters were freezing in my bait boxes, Steve to my right had been in the sun all day talking the mick by saying that he wished hadn't forgot his sun tan lotion but at least he wasn't catching with no more fish after those 2 first roach. Pet had managed around a dozen roach on the punch before he started to struggle for bites, we had heard that there loads of guys that were dry with the best being Stu with around a 1lb of roach on the punch and a few better perch he was admitting to 2lb after 3 hours. I thought that i had around 1 1/2lb in the net at this point and i was struggling to get a bite from any of my 3 lines even my light fed caster down the track rig failed to produce a bite, with around an hour to go i had a bite on the worm which pulled a few inches of tight elastic out it was a nice 12oz bonus perch lying in the bottom of my frozen solid landing net. On the next put-in i had another bite hoping for another big perch i lifted into the fish but it was to late by the time i realized it wasn't a perch and shipped the pole back the unforeseen beast had gone through the trees on the far side, i applied as much pressure as i could but all i could see was the tree branches moving then nothing it had gone solid all i could do was pull for a break. Shit! I quickly made up another rig and pulled another 1ft of elastic out to try and stop another one if i got the chance, i couldn't get a bite on the worm so i switch to the caster line which buried straight away and i managed to get this one away from the sanctuary of the ivy bush soon i was looking at a 1 1/2lb chub in the net which made me feel a lot better. 5mins later and i was in again but i parted company with this one as i threw the pole back at break neck speed maybe i had tightened the elastic too much? That was the end of the action for me as i didn't get another bite the last half hour but maybe you could understand why, it was now very cold as the sun had gone down behind the hedge row you could feel the temperature dropping like a stone as dusk approached. JB came down the canal with the scales saying it had fished hard for a lot of people with a lot of dry nets Kev on peg 39 had gone dry, Steve next to me had 15oz with 1 small 8oz chub & 3 bits, my net went 3lb 15oz which JB said it should be enough to take home the coin, Pet to my left had caught early on the punch then adding a few more on the pinkie later to weigh 2lb 4oz. The best weight above the bridge was Stu with 2lb 12oz but that was only the bottom end so i would have to wait until i got back to the car park to see if i had done enough, when i got back to the car park John Bab who i had traveled with said he had the best weight from the middle of the stretch with 3lb 2oz so i had won the match, the top end of the match length by the boats had not fished at all with just odd fish and lots of dry nets. John had caught on worm and then on squatt over the top with 1 bouns perch and a few roach, i can not remember being so cold as you could have cut my little fingers off after pushing the barrow back to the car park in the now semi darkness. I was well pleased to have won the match as that's now 2 wins on both my clubs fur & feathers both on the bouns pegs, i am just glad that the 2 chub i lost have not cost me winning the match today or i would have been well happy with myself for leaving my heavy carp kits in the house. At least i will get some brownie points with" her in doors " as that's 2 turkeys and a leg of pork for the Christmas dinner table mega points! All i need now is a couple of 24 packs of stella and i will be well set for the festive period. I must mention our Pet on his virgin punch fishing session after he had drove everyone mad all week asking questions about how to fish the punch even getting one of the customers in the shop to do him a bag of liquidized bread, he's been nagging me to mention him so well done for coming 4th Pet don't forget my 10% of the winnings for lending my hook bread?