Staffs-Worc canal Hinksford Sunday 18/11/12

I am going to keep the next few blogs short & sweet in an effort to catch up as I am some 6 weeks behind, as I write this its Boxing day so a belated Merry Christmas to you all.
This was a Halesowen club match on the Staffs canal at Hinksford a stretch we use quite often with both the clubs I am in, I drew 3 pegs upstream of the bridge on a good peg which has threw up some good bags of fish in the past. I struggled early on while the 2 pegs to my right caught from the off with just the odd Roach coming to the punch it wasn't until the last hour and half before I started to catch some good fish on the caster down the track, Gary on the peg nearest to the bridge had caught all day from the off with mainly small punch fish but we didn't know what was going on else where. I put 5lb 7oz on the scales, Mark to my right had 4lb 4oz and Gary just done me with 5lb 10oz, when the lads came back from the bottom stretch saying that 4lb odd was the best weight that left Gaz and I first and second so not a bad day after all.

Blythe pairs league Sunday 11/11/12

This was the first round of this years Blythe pairs league and for this year I had a new partner John Babb as Stav had given up winter fishing saying he was getting to old for fishing 16-17m of carbon in the snow and ice (puff), joking apart they have changed his shifts at work and has to work some weekends making it impossible for him to join any leagues (plus after winning the league 3 years on the trot we have noting to prove. I on the other hand had decided to fish it again as most of the lads I travel with are fishing ( I don't drive) so if I don't fish this league I would be having a lie-in tucked up in a warm bed on a Sunday morning with the misses!!!! That's why I am fishing. John by his own admission would tell you that he his not the best at fishing the pools and seems to struggle sometimes on our club matches on this type of venue he catches a few on the rivers & canals so it was going to be up to me to give him a few tips and put him on the right path,  this year a few more pairs wanted to fish so it was decided to use 2 pools ( cherries & willow ) as we did a couple of years ago that time we used Bridge pool but not a lot was known about willow pool so a practice session was on the cards Cherries pool was no problem as I have fished it for the last 4-5 years.
We had a good practice session on Willow I fished peg 24 and John peg 27 both pegs were totally different my peg has a natural island to fish to although it is 17.5m to reach it there was plenty of of open water to have a go at, John's peg had a floating boom at 16m which is the same as the boom on Cherries pool about a meter wide held down by scaffold tubes and hollow underneath apart from a few roots dangling from the vegetation on the boom. We both tried a few different things I had 2 Carp & 1 Skimmer from a 16m line towards the island 4 Carp & a Bream from the margins plus plenty of small Roach & Skimmers from a 10m line on light gear, John had around 3 small Carp a nice 3lb Chub plus Skimmers just swapping and changing lines with different baits trying to sort out a few things it looked like there were plenty of fish to be caught!
On the morning of the match I drew peg 18 on willow pool and John got peg 20 on Cherries now Jon's peg I have fished a few times before and it has won more than a few matches on here so after giving him a few tips on where to try in the peg it was just a matter of weather the fish had gone up this end of the pool, this is the deeper end of the pool the only concern was that it had not gone cold enough yet to send the fish down here and the fish would still be in the shallower pegs the other end of the pool. My peg looked OK tucked up in a corner with a long margin towards peg 17 and a boom to fish to a 14.5m slightly to the right again my only concern was that as with most corner pegs on a lot of Carp pools it's normally feast or famine!
 It took me around 40 mins to get a bite from the boom on the pellet which was a 2lb Carp and I was off the mark another 5 mins and bite no2 was a 2lb f1 another 5 mins and bite no3 which felt like another small Carp but it came off while I was shipping back it looked like I was on for a few today! I went for a pee up the bank where John was fishing so I could ask him how it was going he said it was hard up his end of the pool and all he had got was 1 small 1lb Carp and a couple of bits but there were some around him that hadn't had a bite yet, I went back to my peg and try a I might I couldn't get another bite I went all over the peg with different baits but to no avail I had one more bite on the maggot from my right hand margin a 3lb Carp and that was it for my match 4 bites 3 fish! I couldn't work it out I failed to get a bite even on single pinkie on a 22 just no silverfish at all, so much for practicing!!! My 3 Carp went 7lb 15oz for 9th  on the pool out of 15 which was very disappointing and a bad start to the league, John had 3 small Carp plus a few bit's for 5lb 13oz for the same 9th on the pool as me there was a 9lb up this end of the pool John managed to beat all the other pegs around him. As we had feared all the fish were still in the shallow water on Cherries pool although we have had a couple of heavy frosts, the match was won by a mate of mine Mick Davies off peg 11 on Cherries with 47lb so well done to him on his first league match. My pool was won by Ade off peg 15 on the point with 41lb with Martin 2nd off peg 10 there was a few big Carp caught and lost which was the differance between doing well or not Brian on peg 24 had 17lb with 14lb 12oz of that 1 Carp my 3 Carp must have been some of the smallest in the pool, are well there is always next week.

Staffs-Worc canal Limekilns Sunday 4/11/12

This Sunday saw us on the Limekilns section of the Staffs-Worc canal right in the center of Kidderminster town for Cradley Heath's fur & feather, I have not fished this stretch of canal for at lest 25 years I used to fish here with my Dad when I was a lad. To the left of the bridge is down towards the back of Sainsbury's opposite a Church we used to call this ding dong alley as the church strikes its bell every hour and to the right of the bridge there used to be a lot of factory units which have long since gone but there is still a wide concrete path leading up to a new housing estate we used to call this the concrete road. It was the fact that no one had fished here for a long time that it had been chosen for the fur & feather so at least you would go to your peg and fish it instead of being disapointed at the draw, 21 of us had turned up for this one and 11 pegs were on the concrete road the other 10 on ding dong alley I drew peg 7 on the concrete road which looked the same as all the others apart from pegs 1,2 & 3 which were on natural bank where all the others the far bank had just been done by the British Waterways. From the bridge to peg 4 there was new brickwork on the far side along with new reeds that the BW had planted I supposed it had been done to make the canal look good as there were a lot of new builds on the far bank some finished and some not, the other side of the bridge had not been touched but they were still working on the bridge so we had to park in the road and walk over.
To cut a long story short the match was very slow I caught a few small Roach to start with on the punch down the track and then just the odd Perch on the worm over by the far reeds, Ollie to my right never had a bite while John to my left had just 2 Perch for 6oz I put 1lb 10z 8drams to win my section. Pegs 1-3 were first, second & third Martin on peg one had 6lb odd for 3rd, Shaun on peg 2 had 9lb odd for 1'st and Frank on peg 3 had 7lb for 2nd, my mate John Babb was on peg 4 the first peg on the new far bank where the work had been done and weighed in just ounces having to watch the first 3 pegs bagging up! There were 2 more weights over 1lb in our section but mine was the best of them, below the bridge there was a 4lb and a 2lb but on the other 8 pegs no one broke a 1lb, it was hard match but at least I had a few bites and won a Turkey it looked like all the building work and noise had forced most of the fish up to the end of the section.

Woodside Winter League Sunday 21/10/12

This Sunday saw us on the first round of the Woodside winter league on our stretch of the Dudley canal no1 nr Merryhill, we have controlled this stretch of canal for many years which has got a lot harder than when we first took it over. Many of the Roach that we used to catch along here seem to have vanished leaving most of the weights made up of Perch, Skimmers and odd Chub on a few pegs, I used to fish every match on here years ago but as it became harder during the winter months I used to stick to the Carp pools and just fish the odd match here when it took my fancy. Due to a lot of congestion during the summer months with a lot of or lads fishing in two or more clubs or fishing opens there is only time to fish the canal during the winter months, I only fished 2 matches on here last winter and they were both hard winning my section both times with just over 1lb so there a lot of people with less than that, I have planned to fish all of the matches this year come rain or shine ( more like sleet or snow ) but I will see how hard it fishes or how bad the weather gets first! There was a poor turnout today for the first match with only 12 turning up normally there are 20-30 anglers on the first one then a few drop out as the weather gets colder or they have had a couple of bad draws, at least with only 12 we should all be in for a half decent peg. I drew peg 94 which is just before a bridge a few hundred yards away from the main Merryhill Waterfront Basin and not a bad peg but as I have said they were all decent pegs with on 12 fishing, John Babb had drew next to me on peg 95 right on the bridge so at least I had someone to talk to as the next peg in my section was Baz Robson on peg 82 and way out of sight.
I set up 4 rigs to tackle the peg which were a punch line down the track at 10m, a squatt line on top of the shelf at 13m, a caster line at 14.5m to a small bush to my left right over and 2 worm lines at 10 & 2'o clock just out of the track at 11m which I would use the same rig for both lines.
After feeding all of my lines I kicked off on the punch down the track with a 4mm piece of bread on the hook and had a small 1oz Roach on my first put-in followed by another of the same size on the next drop-in a good start I thought to myself, just as I was thinking of a big bag of Roach the bites slowed down and by the end of the first half hour I had got 8 small Roach so it was time to switch lines. I was going to try the squatt line which I had fed with a couple of small balls of g/bait at the start and loosefed squatt over the top but the sun had come out after a misty grey start and it was bouncing off the brick wall on the opposite side making seeing the float impossible, with the reflection of the sun on the far bank I switched to the chopped worm lines which I had fed with around 1/4 of a pot on each at the start I had bites straight away from the 10'o clock swim with Perch in the 1-3oz bracket. While I was not setting the world on fire at least I was catching the odd fish John on my left was having only odd fish with around half the amount I had got, I was switching between my two worm lines in an effort not to blow them out too early taking 2-3 fish from each line then re-feeding before switching to the other. I had a quick look on the squatt line when the sun had moved around a bit but the wind had blew a raft of leaves over the top of my feed and after just 1 small Roach 1 missed bite and around 5 leaves I gave up, back on the punch line for 5mins produced just 1 Roach so it looked like sticking to the worm for the time being. After another few Perch on the worm I had a look on the caster which I had been feeding with half a dozen casters now and then from the start, I had a 3oz Perch straight away but waited a long time for the next bite which was a 2oz Roach I gave it another 5mins after this but decided I was getting more bites from my worm lines. With around an hour to go a big fish topped in peg 93 to my right which seemed more like a predator striking than a fish just  topping I joked to John that it might be a Pike and if it was it can stay over there, you can guess what happened next I was fishing my 2'o clock worm line around 5mins after I saw the big fish rise when I struck into a solid fish that a first refused to move of the bottom I shouted to John that it looked like I had hooked what ever it was that had topped. With a no4 elastic the fish was going where he wanted but after a couple of mins I managed to get some of the pole back then right back to the top kit but with such a light elastic I couldn't get the fishes head up, it started to swim along the inside right along the tins by my feet but with me standing up and around 10ft of elastic out I couldn't see what it was then the 0.08 line parted and the unseen beast had won the battle S**T. That was probably a match winning fish both John and I both guessed that it most likely was a pike after JB had one last year on the winter league around 6lb there are odd ones in the stretch but very rarely hooked I have only ever seen one before around 2-3lb looking at the fish in my net. What ever the fish was didn't put the Perch off and I just picked them off both of my worm lines until the whistle I had caught a few fish with the biggest only around 5-6oz and thought I had got around 4lb, When Barry appeared with the scales he said that he had struggled saying he had only got around 2lb, John was first to weigh with 3lb 8oz, my net went 5lb which I was happy with but as we couldn't see anyone else we didn't know how the rest of the canal had fished. When we got back to the pub we found out that Tony Bowen had caught 8lb odd off peg 57 in the bay for the match win catching a big Perch around 1 1/2lb some skimmers up to 1lb and a lot of small Perch and Roach, I was shocked to have come 2nd with 5lb while the next 3 weights below mine were only 6oz apart so it was close and all of the rest of the lads had 2-4lb weights so apart from Tony's weight the canal had fished well with a few fish caught.

Warwickshire Avon Pensham Sunday 14/10/12

This Sunday saw us on the Pensham stretch of the Avon for a Cradley Heath club match, I have not fished for more years than I care to remember this stretch is slower and deeper than the the next stretch upstream which is Pershore, Pershore is more noted as Chub, Barbel & Roach venue where Pensham is more Bream & Roach. As per usual the rain gods had decided to do there dance in the week leading up to this match leaving the river up and coloured, looking on the web cams it looked up around 18 inches to me but when we got there I would say it was more like 2ft. I drew a peg just below the car park that looked like it had a bit of slack water but on closer inspection the cut away bank below me was just boiling over and didn't look very inviting at all, it looked like there was something just below the surface which without the extra water on would probably be above the water. I just set up one pole rig with a 5gram flat float to be fished at 6m just below me which was just out of the main flow and a small openend feeder, I planned to fish chopped worm & maggots on the pole line with worm, cater & maggot in the feeder with a little amount of groundbait to hold it all in.
To cut a long story short the match was crap for most I messed about with the pole for around half an hour before throwing it up the bank as it don't think that the bait was on the bottom for more than 5 seconds before the water erupted lifting the float out of the water!, I had a massive 14 eels ( sorry elvers they were that small ) and one daddy ruff for 2lb 2oz no matter what I put on the hook or what size hook I put on tiny eels was all that I could catch. John below me had 3-4 eels and half a dozen bits for 1lb 6oz and Baz Robson below him had 3-4 Roach plus eels to beat me by 8drams for 2lb 2oz 8drams. The match was won by Martin Yardsley on upstream peg one opposite the last couple of pegs on Pershore with 3 Bream for 12lb on the pole and he lost another, Ollie was 2nd with one good Bream and two smaller ones for 9lb on the feeder, Shaun was 3rd with one bream for 2lb 12oz, for most less than 1lb was the norm on a very hard and rising river. Baz managed to scrape in 4th leaving me winning the section it was just a shame that there was so much water on as in the right conditions there would have been a lot more fish caught.  

Staffs-Worc canal Hinksford Sunday 30/9/12

This Sunday saw us on the Staffs-Worc canal at Hinksford which is a stretch we fish a few times a year and it normaly produces a few fish, there was some bad news though as there was a league match on the venue the day before but at least we had both sides of the bridge booked so half the pegs were up towards Swindon that hadn't been fished the day before. This was were you would need to draw to win we all  thought as fishing a peg that had been fished the day before on a natural venue does'nt bode well for a good days sport, there were 21 fishing today with 10 pegs above and 11 pegs below the bridge you virtualy had a 50/50 chance of getting one of the unfished pegs. I drew out peg 4 which was on the right side of the bridge so the first part of the day had been done now all I had to do was find out how far up the boats I was, the upstream part of Hinksford towards Swindon has got a lot of moored up boats which is always a danger pegging in a match just incase you get a boater working on his craft or he decides to pop along to the shops mid match ruining your peg. Ollie had managed to get away with just 3 pegs on the boats as the first few pegs are infront of the water works and the top pegs are either side of the turning bay where the are no boats, my peg put me infront of the first 2 boats at the upstream end of the stretch just 1 peg below where I had won a Cradley match from a couple of years ago with 7lb+ so I was happy with my peg as long as the boaters didn't start a party! Well as I began to set up the guy on the boat opposite awoke sipping a cuppa before I noticed him walking up and down the moorings looking for something? When he had found what he was looking for my jaw dropped!!!!! 5mins from the whistle he walked upto his boat with an extension lead and sander!!! F**K ME??? I looked at Brian in the next peg as the bandana wearing hippy began sanding his boat, Brian just shook his head in disbelief . This is the reason you cannot put pegs opposite moored up boats, I couldn't do anything about it now I would have to grin and bare it. I had set up 4 rigs to attack the peg which was 13m across to the boats I was going to fish the bread down the track at 10m, the squatt at 13m, the caster line was at 13m at an angle of 10 o' clock just out of the track and a hemp line at 14.5m up to a gap inbetween the 2 boats.
On the whistle I potted in 2 balls of g/bait on the squatt line and one pot of liquidized down the track while loosefeeding the caster & hemp lines, the first half hour produced 8 fish on the punch 7 of which were small Roach and one Gudgeon. While not setting the world on fire at least I was off the mark but the first boat of the day wiped out the punch down the track so a move to the squatt up to the boat was called for, I started catching on the squatt Roach & Gonks but they were all on the small side so it was just a case of getting my head down for now. I tried different feeding patterns and putting some more groundbait in but couldn't find any better fish at least the guy on the boat had stopped sanding his boat he was now doing some painting, around the 2 hour mark a friend of mine came walking up the towpath saying that there were a couple of guys catching better net fish down the bottom end of my section I was on around 40 small fish which was probably around 2lb. It looked like I was going to have to catch some better quality fish on the caster or hemp as Brian in the next peg had started to catch one or two better Roach and Perch fishing the chopped worm, my mate Paul agreed that if I carried on with the squatt fish for the rest of the match I was looking at around 4-5lb which was ok but Kev Clarke around the corner was catching a lot of net quality fish. It was time to try the caster line which I had been priming since the start of the match with 8-10 casters every 5mins, so out went the rig laying it in upstream of the natural flow which is the way I love fishing the caster on the staffs-worc canal and the float just kept on going I lifted into a better fish that pulled a few feet of no 4 elastic from the pole tip. First drop on the caster had produced a lovely 8oz Roach a nice start I was just hoping there were more and on the next put-in the same thing happened this time another Roach of 5-6oz, now I was starting to think how long had the fish been there eating my free casters while I was squatt fishing? within half an hour on the caster I had managed 7 net fish 6 were Roach and 1 Perch which were all around the 5-8 oz mark which gave me around 2 1/2lb and doubled what I had caught in 2 1/2 hours of squatt fishing. Just as I was about to ship out again a boat came around the corner then after I had waited for him to pass 30 seconds later another one came passed no problem I thought after they had gone through I fed around 15 casters with the pole pot, I was going to have a look on the hemp line for 5mins allowing the caster line to settle again after the boats. I went over on the hemp and had a 3oz Roach after around 5mins so I gave it another 5mins but with no more response I was itching to get back on the caster line I think that my hemp line was too close to the disturbance from the boats opposite. I was back on the caster line but 5mins went by without a bite then 10mins went passed and I was cursing the 2 boats that had gone over my line while the fish were feeding when the float shot under and I was connected to a bigger fish, the fish shot across to my right towards Brian and was trying to get under the far side boats I shouted to Brian that this one was no Roach I was starting to think Chub. I managed to get the fish under control after a couple of minutes but when it came to the top down the middle I was surprised to see it was a small Carp, after a short but scrappy fight on a no4 elastic I netted the Carp which was around 1 1/4 - 1 1/2lb a nice bonus that I thought as I placed him in the net. I sat on the caster for another 10-15mins without a bite so was it the boats that had moved the Roach or was it the presents of the Carp that had saw them off? I tried the hemp line again but while I was fishing it the couple that lived on the boat opposite that looked like they had been for a lunch time pint had come back and the guy looked at my float from above asking if I was trying to catch his Carp? Well that's that line F***ed I said to myself no self respecting Roach is going to take my hemp with a Bob Dylan lookalike staring down at them from above!!! I told the guy that I had 1 small Carp but was now biteless he and his misses told me that there are loads of Carp under the boats in this area that get fished for buy some locals on a night with bread on rod and line. Then the guys misses proceded to clean the canal side windows of the boat by hanging on to the top rail of the boat while shuffling along a tiny foot ledge that runs the length of the boat hanging her bum over the water at the same time, I looked over towards Brian as she had her back turned towards me he just shook his head in disbeilf trying not to laugh as a made a motion with my pole that I could have shoved it up her ARSE!!!! I went back on the caster with 30mins left as both my far lines were now shot thanks to them the float sailed away with my no4 making a b-line towards the boats at a fast rate of knots before my hooklength broke, I had hooked Carp no2 for around 5 seconds at least I was now wishing that the couple had told me about the Carp this morning I might have set a rig for them. I was now 25mins from the whistle what do I do? Set up a carp rig and sit out the rest of the match, I would have to set one up from scratch as all my Carp rigs are in my other draws at home I had 0.14 & 0.16 Chub rigs in my box but there were small floats with short line for fishing the far bank and not deep enough for fishing down the track where I had hooked the 2 Carp from. I took the lazy option and just put another hooklength on and carried on fishing but I didn't have another bite till the end of the match.
I was left wondering what might have been had the couple on the boat not decided to sand the boat down, clean the windows and generaly make a lot of noise all day, I would nave been happy if the Carp had not turned up as I was catching some nice Roach until they came and spooked them. The pegs to my left had not fished that well with 3lb odd the best from them my net went 6lb 11oz, Brian next to me had 6lb 12oz doing me by 1oz great, he had some nice Roach and Perch mainly on the worm. Kev Clarke won the match with 9lb 15oz of big Roach & Perch on the worm, caster and a few hemp Roach the last hour. We found out later that Bri and I were 2nd & 3rd as the best from below the bridge was Ollie with 4lb 14oz from the pegs that had been fished the day before, Steve was the best from the fliers infront of the water works with 5lb odd for 4th. If only the couple on the boat had stayed in bed all day I might have had a few more but I was happy to have come 3rd and caught a few fish after having 1 bite 1 fish on the river last time out.

River Severn Severn Stoke Sunday 16/9/12

This would be my 3rd match on a river on the bounce and another that many of us had not fished for many years Severn Stoke which is inbetween Worcester and Tewksbury, the river a slow and deep here with the main targets Barbel & Bream and the Barbel down here run big many into double figures.
Too cut a long story short I had 1 bite in five hours a single Bream of 4lb 3oz which I had on the worm I had spent most of the day on the pellet or worm fishing for the Bream and Barbel, Andy below me blanked and Stu above me had 1 bite the same as me a 1lb 9oz skimmer, the match was rubbish with clear water it was a struggle with a few blanks recorded. The match was won on the red rock upstream by Terry with 11lb on the float with Chub & Roach which was his first win in the Halesowen club so well done to him, Baz Robson was 2nd with a Bream & Barbel for 10lb and 6lb of Roach & Perch was 3rd. There were 4 of us that had a single Bream but I was beaten by 1oz for the section by Ade who had 6 small Perch with his solo Bream, I had tried a maggot feeder right over and run a stick float through but even this failed to produce a bite, one to forget this one.

River Avon Bidford & Marcliff Sunday 2/9/12

This match saw us on the warwickshire Avon at Biford & Marcliff another venue that many of us have not fished for many years, I think this year our club secratery has booked venues that used to fish 20 years ago to see if there are any fish there now! I drew upstream of the car park which is Bidford around 100yards before you get to the next fence, I set up just 2 rods a feeder rod for the pellet and a waggler rod which I planned to feed maggots over. I was going to fish the feeder just short of the far bank reeds and feed up a wagg/maggot line down the middle which was around 8ft deep, I started on the pellet feeder which after only 20mins wraped over and saw me land a nice Barbel of around 5lb a great start. With around a hour gone bite no2 gave me the same result as the first a 5lb Barbel and I was starting to think that this was going the same way as Arley a couple of weeks ago, with 1 1/2 hours gone bite 3 was Barbel no3 around 4lb and it was the same as Arley 3 bites 3 fish inside the first hour and half. With 2 hours gone I had another bite on the pellet but this one was no Barbel as it came across the river too easy and when I got it under the rod ready for netting I saw it was a Chub of aroung 3lb, then as Chub do it made a mad last minute dash for the roots under the bank and as I tried to pull it away from them the hook pulled out S**T. After that the peg went quite on the pellet so I switched to the wagg which I had fed quite heavy from the start putting around 2 pints of bronze maggots in so far, second run through the float buried as I hooked my first fish a small 4oz Chub which fell to a double maggot. I had 4 of these small Chub and a couple of Gonks before I hooked a better fish which was a 12oz Chub, I had another 3 of these better Chub and a few bits plus one small Roach before I went around 10mins without a bite so I was going to switch back to the pellet for the last hour but it was a fruitful 45mins on the wagg putting around 4-5lb in the net. I chucked the pellet back out to see if any Barbel had moved in over the feed while I had been fishing the wagg? The pellet had only been in the water for around 30 seconds before the tip pulled around with a fish on, it turned out to be another Chub of around 2lb which I gave no chance of finding the roots where I had lost his mate earlier. I sat on the pellet for the rest of the last hour but I had no more bites even having a couple of chucks with the pellet at the end of the wagg line incase a Barbel had come to upset the small fish I was catching on the wagg, the section above me had fished rubbish with only 1lb 7oz winning the section??? John Babb above me had 4lb of small Chub & bits my 3 Barbel & small Chub gave me 21lb 14oz, the two pegs below me had 1lb & 2lb then Brian on the last peg on Bidford had 3lb of bits and a 9lb Pike giving him 12lb. The best from Marcliff was Ade two pegs below the weir with 28lb of all Chub on the feeder with the caster and hemp, there were another 2 single Barbel caught around 5lb each with both anglers loosing another Barbel each. That was it the end of my winning unbeaten run with the club having to put up with second??? Seven matches on the bounce was an unbeliveable run one which I doubt I will ever beat, we had a good laugh on the car park at the pay out when I said there had been a mistake when they gave me an envelope marked 2nd "this is not mine" I said "mine should have 1st on it" then I began a pretend cry saying " the kids will have to go without tea as Dad hasn't got enough money this week"

River Severn Arley Sunday 19/8/12

This weekend saw me on the river Severn at Arley for my first river session of the season with the Cradley lads, some of the lads had already fished the river a couple of times this season with the usual mixed reports of 3-4 guys catching and the rest struggling. I was looking forward to having a go on the river as I do each year as it is something different I know the weights are not what they used to be on the Severn or most rivers for that matter but I think it does you good to have a change now and then, don't get me wrong I love catching big weights of Carp from the pools but now and then its good to dust the cobwebs off the rods and do something different. After fishing the river for many years this match was booked on a stretch I had never fished before the Harbour water on the right bank of the river below the footbridge, this stretch used to be run by the pub of the same name until a couple of years ago when they gave it up and the B.A.A took it over. The river was carrying around 1ft of extra water with a nice tinge of colour so we were all looking forward to catching a few fish as I didn't know the water the draw didn't matter to me I was just going to go to my peg and fish it, when I drew peg 5 I was told I was just off the fliers 6&7 either side of the fence but I was going to give it a good go. My peg was just below a ford which looked to be moving a bit fast with the extra water on the apparent fliers below were a little steadier and with Baz Robson around 15yards below me it looked a out and out feeder job, I set up just two feeder rods as with Baz so close and the extra water the float would have been infront of him before it had settled. I set a pellet feeder and a caster & hemp job on the other both set ups were the same apart from the hooks one with a lasso for the pellet and the other a standard hook for the caster, both had 8lb maxima reel line to a 0.22 silstar hooklength the pellet hook was a Drennan size 14 Super Specalist Barbel the caster hook was a 14 standard Super Specalist. I started the match on the pellet cast to the middle of the river which I had to use 2oz of lead to hold with a mix of 3&4mm halibut pellets in the feeder with a 8mm on the hook, I cast out 6-7 times in the first 10mins to put a bit of a bed down then sat back and waited. It was after around 50mins into the match before I had my first bite a nice dropback before the tip pulled forward and I was hooked into my first Barbel of the season, it gave a good account of itself before I netted it and at around 4lb it was a nice start. It was around15mins later when I had bite no2 which turned out to be another Barbel of around the same size, it looked like being a good day with 2 barbel in the sack and Baz below not hooking one yet. Barbel no3 was hooked and landed after 1 1/2 hours which was maybe closer to 5lb it was looking good as the word along the bank was that no one else was catching yet, another hour went by without a bite so I switched to the caster to see if it would spur another barbel or Chub into feeding but after around 45mins and only 2 small 2oz Dace to show I went back to the pellet. There were a couple of the lads walking around saying that no one was catching it was fishing very hard, after that early run of fish I failed to get another bite for the rest of the match despite castig around, rolling the feeder & trying different size hook pellets my match was over in the first 1 1/2 hours! My 3 Barbel & 2 Dace gave me 13lb 4oz, Baz below me had 4lb odd of bits but no Barbel and Mick on the other flier failed to weigh. Steve Robson had 1 Barbel for 5lb odd and JB had one small Barbel below Steve. There had been only 5 Barbel caught in the whole match luckily I had 3 of them which gave me my 7th Cradley Heath Club match win on the bounce, I don't know what I am doing latley but I which I could bottle it!!!! The match had been realy hard for most and over a pint outside the Harbour Inn there was talk of not booking the middle Severn again as it seems to get harder each year.

Hawford Bridge Sunday 12/8/12

This was a Halesowen club match at Hawford Bridge on the new lake called Reddings pool this would be a new one for me and 95% of the lads, this pool was dug out around 3 years ago but had been closed by the owners Trev & Sue when the fishing was below par and had only recently been reopened when they were sure the fish were in tip top condition. I had asked around a bit and found out that most of the fish were small from a few ounces to around 4lb there were a few bigger fish taken from the other pools by not many, the key to winning seemed to be trying to sort out the bigger fish which I was told responded to corn over pellet as pellet on the hook gets attacked by the smaller fish.
I caught fish from the off at 13m feeding 4mm pellets with a hard banded 6mm on the hook small Carp at first with a few better fish thrown in while feeding quite heavy with pellet & corn at 6m, I had a lot of the better stamp of fish on the corn when I switched to the 6m line. Later on the fish came up shallow on the 6m line where in one spell I had a run of 9 Carp in 9 puts all the better fish 2-4lb without having time to feed before the elastic was being pulled from my pole. I had a fantastic day catching fish of all sizes all day until the last half hour when the peg went quite on me but as far as I could see around the pool I had done well, I ended the day with 121lb which was enough to give me the match win and continue my unbelievable run of form. There were 4 weights between 70-78lb and most of the lads in the club agreed that they would book it again as there were plenty of fish caught with a lot weighing in 40-70lb, thanks to Trev & Sue for a great day with a few fish thrown in.

Woodlands View Open Saturday 4/8/12

In an attempt to catch up with my blog I am going to run through the next few matches in brief.
This was the last day of Stav and I's fishing week and we were going to fish separate matches as he had a club match on Barley pool which is a Saturday club I am not in because I normally work Saturdays so I was going to fish the open, the open was to be fished on back Dean's and after winning the open on Tuesday I was looking forward to catching a few fish. I drew peg 44 which is 4 pegs out of the corner on the left hand side of the pool and not a bad area I planned to fish the worm and caster on a long pole line and pellet & corn short, to cut a long story short I failed to catch on anything much on everything I tried all I could catch was odd fish until the last hour when I had around 6 good Carp on the pellet shallow at 6m. I finished up with 61lb 4oz and while I beat the guys either side of me and the two guys opposite the top end of the pool fished a little better with peg 56 winning the match with 101lb there was a 90lb+ and 2 80lb+ weights at the top end of my bank which took my section.
Stav won his club match with 78lb on the pellet wagg & margin fish late on but as we were fishing separate matches he decided to end our fishing week at 4-0 at Curborough and brought the breakfasts as payment shame that as he finally beat me but had to fish another pool to do it! Lol, cheers mate for a great week of fishing

Curborough Open Thursday 2/8/12

Today Stav was going to take me to a fishery that I have not been to before Curborough fishery which is near Lichfield Stav has fished here before saying that they don't have mega big weights but plenty of small fish most of which are Carp & Goldfish of all colours, there are a couple of lakes that are full of bigger Carp but today's match was booked on the canal lake which is full of these pretty fish. I drew peg 33 which as I had not fished the pool before meant nothing to me Stav drew nearer the access but the peg number escapes me, when I got to my peg it looked good to be honest it was 13m wide which seemed to be around standard for the pool with the corner of some reeds to fish to and plenty of vegetation down the inside for the margin line. There was no more pegs to my left as the pool seemed to go into a dead end and the pegs began again on the opposite side with the wind blowing down there it looked really good for a few fish, there was a guy opposite me but well out of the way with his own reeds to fish to the pool was not at traditional snake type canal pool but more like big offset diamond shape with 50 pegs. We were told by the gaffer that most of the matches on here are won with around 50-80lb which are made up of 200-300 fish with the odd Carp, he said it was better to fish for every thing that swims and not sit it out for Carp alone but you might catch odd Carp in the margins the last hour. As Stav had fished here before we both decided to fish the worm as this will catch fish of all sizes and a great bait for shipping to the far side due to it staying on the hook as you are likely to get loads of bites with the amount of small fish in the pool, I decided to fish the worm over and down the edge with a pellet line down the middle.
There was a good depth over by the reeds at 13m with around 3ft of water so I set up a shallow rig for over in-case the fish came up in the water I set up 4 rigs to cover the peg.
Rig 1, 13m deck rig 4x12 Preston Dura 10 float, 0.16 mainline to a 0.14 hooklength and a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook, 13h elastic.
Rig 2, 13m shallow rig 4x10 Maver Jurassic dibber, 0.14 straight through to a size 2 Tubertini 175 hook and the same 13h elastic.
Rig 3, 6m pellet rig Maver 0.4gr Invincible Series 7, 0.16 to 0.14 to a size 3 175 hook, j-range 6-10 elastic
Rig 4, 3m margin rig 4x12 Preston Dura 10 float, 0.16 straight through to a size 3 175 hook & 13h elastic.
For bait I had brought 4 pints of casters, 1kg of worms, 2 pints each of micro & 4mm pellets and some 4 & 6mm expanders for the hook.
At the start I put a pot full of chopped worm & caster down the margin and a pot full of mixed micro & 4mm pellets down the track I started on the 13m line but feeding with just a kinder pot every put-in to try and gauge the fishes response, I had a small F1 around 4oz the first put-in followed by a small carrot coloured goldfish on the next ship across. I had around 8 fish in the net in no time before a series of missed bites had me taking a couple of inches off the depth and on the next put-in I hooked a better fish which had me shipping back a bit quicker, the fish tried to make a bid for freedom through the reeds but I managed to get it down the track and was soon netting a Carp of around 3 1/2lb which must be worth a lot of carrots I thought. I had a good start to the match but I was missing a few bites as the carrots were taking the bait on the drop so I was soon reaching for my shallow rig, I was soon into a rhythm of shipping out tipping out half of my kinder pot of worm & caster with some predator plus liquid in to create a cloud and shipping back with a fish. Most of the fish were 3-4oz with the odd better one thrown in for good measure the fish were of all colours bright carrots, yellow things, white things some brown goldfish all weird and wonderful fish it was more like fishing an aquatic centre, I had a quick look down the margin with around 1 1/2 hours gone but it took too long get bites so I just stuck to the 13m line but after around 2 hours my bites began to tail off a bit so I reached for the track rig which I had fed with a few 4mm pellets by had since the first pot. I shipped out with a 6mm expander on the hook and lowered the rig in the float dipped and I struck with around 6m of elastic out I had hooked something a bit better, the fish ripped straight through the reeds on the point I was fishing to but luckily for me it turned left into open water without my rig or elastic getting stuck in the reeds the fish was still running! As I managed to get my pole back to the top kit I began to gain some control over the fish while using the puller kit to tighten the elastic up a tell-tale zig zag on the elastic gave the fish away as a foul-hooker, with a lot of elastic out of the puller kit I netted the fish which was around 5lb I had  hooked it right in the tale no wonder it had gone where it wanted with the light 6-10 laccey but it was still a welcome bonus. That Carp must have been a loner down the track as all I could catch after that was Gudgeon on a 6mm expander there were no goldfish down there so I was back to the 13m line but as I soon found out the fish were not there in the same numbers as they were earlier, the goldfish were harder to come by but with around 3hrs gone I had a good run of better fish with a couple of 2-3lb Carp and a few f1's up to 1lb. The guy to my right was struggling a bit, the guy opposite had sat down the margins all day so far and was catching but I thought I had got more than him, the young lad that had drew up the wind dead arm was catching well but because of the reeds I couldn't see if he was catching goldfish or Carp? With around 1 1/2hrs to go I had another look down the edge and the fish were now there with a lot of goldfish but also the odd better Carp, I was losing the odd Carp as well as there was some snags down there which I think were tree roots but I was now catching at the same rate as I was the first hour but without having to ship 13m. Before to long the all out was sounded and I had really enjoyed my first visit to a new fishery I had not used my fish counter today but I had caught a lot of small fish and around 30lb of Carp I was guessing at around 60-65lb which was a busy day. I had no idea what Stav had caught as the pool twists and turns I could only see 2 anglers properly and I had beaten them two so that was all I knew until Stav appeared around the corner with the gaffer weighing in, Stav was top weight on the scales so far with 64lb there was a couple of 40-50lb weights the guy to my right had 28lb, the gaffer pulled my first net out giving me 34lb and saying that I needed 30lb+ to beat Stav as he new about our week of fishing and our £1 side bet, I looked at Stav as the gaffer pulled out my 2nd net and I think his words were B*****D as it looked like there were more fish in this net the gaffer gave 40lb for net 2 and with the oz's gave me a total of 75lb 5oz, that was it 4-0 to me and joking to Satv I said that if it was a boxing match he would be on the canvas now with the ref stopping the match. That put me into the lead for about 5mins before the young lad around the corner put 91lb on the scales apparently the same peg he broke the pool record off on Saturday with120lb he's only 16? But there was some good news as he is so young he only pays his peg fee and doesn't enter the pools BOUNS I thought, the gaffer said he has only fished 4 matches winning 3 of them and coming 2nd on the other! I think someone needs to lend him a few quid on 50/50 split you might earn a few bob? Looking at the peg it screamed fish to be honest up a corner with the wind blowing into it but fair play to the lad you have still got to catch em', the guy opposite me had 54lb and we heard of a 70lb further up the pool later on knocking Stav into 3rd with me winning although by default I wasn't complaining. My first visit to the fishery had resulted in a win and I had really enjoyed myself as it was busy fishing with plenty of bites and fish of all different colours, we went for a walk around the new pool after the match which looked good which is apparently stuffed with pretty fish as well! I will be looking forward to fishing Curborough again soon hopefully.

Cob House Open Wednesday 1/8/12

Today Stav and I had decided to fish the open at Cob House which was booked on Laurel pool for day 3 of our fishing week I was looking forward to today as I have only fished this pool once before a few weeks ago on a Cradley club match winning it with 134lb, after another cracking breakfast in the onsite Mayfly Cafe we headed for the tackle shop to do the draw there were 14 booked in for the open and I drew out peg 22 which is one out of the corner and Stav drew peg 12. When I got to my peg the wind was blowing quite strong into the corner to my left where there is a nice overflow pipe feature and with a good chop on the water I fancied it for catching a few fish, Stav's peg is on the bank with his back to Wyatts pool and he had the wind blowing off his back but to be honest the fish are all around on this pool and the winner can come from any peg there are no out and out flyers. I was going to attack the peg in the same way as I did in the club match as I always say " if it ain't broke don't fix it " so I had brought plenty of dead maggots and pellets for bait, I set up 4 rigs to cover the peg, on the deck at 4m, down the left hand edge at 4m and 2 shallow rigs 1 for pellet with a bait band and the other for maggots.
At the start of the match I fed the margin line with 2 big pots of dead maggots while I kicked off on the 4m line with a 6mm expander on the hook feeding a few 4mm feed pellets over the top but after the first 10mins went by without I was getting worried as you can normally catch straight away here, 5mins later I was on the shallow pellet rig I was shocked at the lack of bites on the 4m line as I could see fish already swirling over my maggots down the edge but I wanted to leave them as long as possible before going for them. I went out to 11m and started feeding a few pellets while spinning the rig to make a noise it didn't take long before the elastic shot out of the pole and Carp no1 was soon in the net, it was very slow going as by the end of the first hour I had only got 4 Carp for my efforts I had started to feed maggots at 6m  for a shallow line but my margin line was alive with fish and I couldn't wait any longer. I went down the edge and started to hook fish straight away with some of them good fish in the 3-4lb bracket as most of the fish are 1-2lb as I began to put a few fish in the net I made a big mistake, as I started to loose feed maggots down the edge instead of potting then in the wind was blowing some of the bait into the grass and into the very shallow water the Carp were in only inches of water and becoming very difficult to hook in the mouth I began to foul-hook fish! Try as I might I couldn't get the fish in the mouth there were too many fish down there every other fish I was loosing so I stopped feeding by hand and went back to feeding with the cupping kit, while I was fishing down the edge I had been feeding the shallow 6m maggot line all the time and when the sun came out from the clouds I could see fish taking the maggots with my sunglasses on most of them were the better stamp of fish. I began fishing the shallow line with good success catching some good fish and by switching between the two lines managed to keep the fish coming until the end of the match, as I packed away I felt that I had done well on the pool but felt that the first hour and half would cost me as you cannot afford to go that long without catching. I walked around to Stav's peg as the scales came around and I asked him how many fish he had got "92" he replied I told he it looked like he had pulled a £1 back as my fish counter only read 68 he said I had bagged all day but I told him that I had lost too many foul-hookers, when the scales got to Stav there were a couple of weights over 100lb with the best 114lb Stav's fish went 143lb to put him in the lead I did notice that a lot of his fish were on the small side most of which he had caught shallow on the pellet slapping and spinning the rig, the guy next to Stav had 120lb and the guy on corner peg had 188lb which looked like being the winner today all of which he said he had caught down the edge all day. The next couple of guy's failed to break the ton before it was my turn my fish went 157lb which was good enough for 2nd on the day and Stav 3rd putting me 3-0 up in our week of fishing ( it's becoming a one horse race this one! Lol ), I had lost too many fish from the margin which would have put me over 200lb and getting off to a slow start didn't help but I was happy to have come 2nd today getting another one over on my mate but I also learnt a lesson. Feeding maggots down here has won me some money this year but loose feeding them down the edge is a no no as it is taking the fish into too shallow a water to catch them even putting the shallow rig on 6 inches deep failed, I think that I might start trying to feed the maggots in balls of groundbait too try and get the Carps head down? I will have to experiment with this, feeding maggots shallow has now twice caught me bigger fish than feeding pellets maybe they have been caught a few times on pellet and have become wary of it or is it just a different bait?

Woodlands View Tuesday 31/7/12

This was my first visit to Woodlands since our last fishing week back in last September I was looking forward to it as I have always liked Woodlands fishing many opens, club and winter leagues here over the years, there are many fishery's I have visited over the years and although I have not fished here a lot the last couple of years I have always said that if I was only allowed to fish one place Woodlands would be the place for me. I have caught plenty of fish from here which while Carp are dominant there are lots of other fish to be caught here and at certain times of the year or when the Carp don't want to play ball the other fish are vital to doing well, whether it is this mixed fishery or it is just a nice place to be I don't know but I just like the place and Mike, Ade & Denise have always made me welcome even after nearly 12 months away.
Today's Open was to be fished on Arles pool which suited both Stav and I as this pool contains lots of  the other fish I was talking about ( to call them silvers would be wrong as in my eyes as Barbel, Tench and Crucian's are not strictly silvers! ), this was good for us as we had both come armed with worm & caster as well as the usual pellet & corn. I was rattling to a couple of the Starlets Vets who were fishing on Deans & High pools when the draw took place so I was left with the last peg in the draw box, peg 34 was left in the bag and Ade's face was a picture he commented " ain't been here for 12 months and gets left peg 34, flier"!!! Now for the people that don't know Woodlands View peg 34 on Arles has won a lot of matches over the years and is a very good peg probably due to it being the only peg on the pool where you can reach the island with the long pole (16m)! for the other pegs on the pool it's a wagg or tip job to reach it, I have drawn the peg twice before in the passed winning off it the first time and then blowing out the second time due to strong winds ( if the wind gets up fishing at 16m is a no go and the peg losses its advantage ). Like all good pegs it never fishes all the time I was just hoping that they would have a feed today as I was in the form of my life I was confident of catching a few kippers! Stav had drew peg 38 just to my left which is a decent draw as well, there are a number of good pegs on here which can all win at any time pegs 4,8, 10-14 & 16 can all throw up winning weights, I like pegs 8 - 14 as they are good pellet wagg pegs which for some strange reason is not an over used method here with peg 10 being my favourite.
I set four rigs to cover me for today the first was for fishing the deck over by the island which was around 3 1/2ft deep a bit deeper than I can remember as the foliage has grown out a bit further from the island because it was only around 15m to get there, most of the pegs on Arles have a wooden board on the island with your peg number on to stop people random casting across other each other, on peg 34 you used to fish right over to this board but now there must be 3ft of reeds in-front of the board stopping you from getting right close to the island. A shallow rig was set up for the 16m line, a rig for a 6m pellet line and the final rig was for my left hand margin where I could get to the empty pallet on peg 35 which is one of the favoured ways of catching here in the latter stages of the matches, I won't bore you with the rig details as if you have read my blog before my float, hook,elastic & line set up don't differ a lot during the summer months. For bait I had brought 1kg of worms, 4 pints of (rank!) caster, 4 tins of corn, 1 bag each of 4mm & 6mm fishery feed pellets plus the usual array of expanders for the hook, the rank casters Stav and I like to use are just older casters that the shop sells off cheaper which we have used for a number of years and have found them not to affect catches in fact we think for Carp fishing they are better than the fresh expensive casters, must be the smell? When fishing the worm I just grab a hand full of worm ( 1/2 pint' ish ), I wash off 1 pint of casters taking off any floaters in the process draining off all the water with a maggot riddle, chop the worms to around 1/2 inch pieces add the casters, then add around 1/2 a tin of corn, then the final ingredient which I have faith in and have used for years a good squirt of VDE predator plus, weather its the smell or more likely the red cloud that hangs in the water I like it and put around 1/3rd of a bottle per mix, then just give it all a good mix up, make sure you take a good towel as this stuff goes all over the place normally after a good worm session my pole has a red tinge to it.
I started the match putting a pot full of worm mix over to the island and down the pallet and a pot full of 4mm pellets and corn on the 6m line, I caught steady for the first hour with a few small Carp in the 1-3lb bracket with the odd silver fish I was catching but not setting the world on fire. A quick look on the pellet line for 10mins produced just 2 skimmers so I was soon back over to the island, I could only see pegs 36 & 4 as the island obscures your view to the other side and a bush that stopped me from seeing what Stav was catching, so all I had to go by was the 2 pegs I could see and while I was only catching odd small Carp it was steady and I was catching better than them. Two hours into the match it was time for another look on the pellet line but after only 5mins without a bite I had my first look on the pallet line but this only got me one small 1lb Tench and a couple of Perch, the 3rd hour I started to get fish swimming through my peg up in the water coming to the worm mix falling out of the pot but try as I might I couldn't catch a single fish on the shallow rig which is strange down here as I can normally catch a few up in the water? I could only see the odd fish being caught by the others anglers so I just stuck to fishing by the island catching odd small Carp with a few skimmers and Roach mixed in, I hit a bit of a purple patch in the fourth hour landing around 6 Carp in a 20mins spell while only small they were most welcome and by the end of the hour I guessed I had around 50-55lb in the net. Into the last hour I had a quick look down the margin and this time at last there were signs of life down there as I potted some mix in there were Carp ripping up the bottom swirling and clouding up the water, it took all of 30 seconds before I hooked my first margin fish of the day and soon a nice 6lb common Carp was in the net I was hoping there was a few of his brothers and sisters down there for me. I hooked and landed another 6 fish in the last hour from the margin in the 4-6lb class along with a nice Tench of around 3lb and a couple of Crucian's but I did loose 3 more Carp which I think were foul-hooked, I had used my fish counter today to roughly guess the weight of my Carp and it read 65 and I guessed my silvers at 20-25lb so I was looking at around 85-90lb. Ade had started to weigh-in from peg 4 so by the time I had packed some of my kit away he had already done the side of the pool I couldn't see so when I asked him about the weights he said peg 8 was the best with 88lb, my Carp net went 67lb ( not a bad guess with the clicker! ) and my silvers went 27lb so combined with the ounces he gave me 95lb 10oz with the guy on peg 36 having 60lb odd there was only Stav left to weigh. Stav said he had caught well all day at 6m with a good few silvers after 1 early Carp on the pellet wagg his Carp net went 43lb but with a good 40lb of silvers gave him 83lb for 3rd overall leaving me with my 5th win on the bounce!!! I which I could bottle what I am doing lately if I knew what IT was???? Brilliant, I had a great day at a great venue but more importantly this put me 2-0 up in the fishing week series, this was one of those days that shows you the importance of fishing the worm here during day matches as the guy in-between Stav and I had fished pellet but caught next to no slivers, this obviously does not always work as there are lots of matches won here on pellet & corn especially afternoon matches but if you fish a day match on here with a lot of people on a lot of pegs you could do worse than fish the worm & caster. 

Hillview Canals Sunday 29/8/12

This weekend saw us back down Hillview for a Cradley Heath club match on canals 2,3 & 4 and I was hoping it fished a bit better than it did a few weeks ago where canal 3 took all the money, low weights were caught that day for this venue 66lb and I won canal 2 with 41lb but to be fair the weather was a lot cooler than today. I was hoping to continue my run of very good form winning 5 of the last 6 Cradley matches on the bounce I was on fire I don't know what I am doing lately but it is working! This was also the first day of our annual fishing week were Stav and I go fishing to different commercials around the Midlands, there is also the pride and prestige of a £1 side bet each day to play for. After a message to Nev (2 METERS) who helps run the matches down here and catches a few kippers too I felt that if I got a decent draw I would do well with the run of form I was in, I had tied a few rigs up for the coming week and got my kit sorted out so after getting some fishery feed pellets I was primed and ready for the draw. I drew a peg in the middle of pool 4 one peg away from the aerator ( the permanent peg number escapes me ) and Stav drew in the middle of pool 3 where all the weights came from a few weeks ago, the peg looked ok as I could get to the bare bank and into the very shallow where I had been told to look for failing this it was going to be a fishing shallow job. My margins were very deep at around 3 1/2ft as the reeds came out a long way from the bank and as I had been told maybe too deep to catch well so I was going to fish shallow there, I was going to set up a short line a 2 meters in-front of me as a back up in-case all else fails. I set up 4 pole rigs too cover my peg.
Rig 1, up against the far bank at 13m around just over 1ft deep a 4x10 Preston PB Carp 1, 0.18 mainline to 0.16 hooklength with a F1 band for hard pellet & black hydro elastic.
Rig 2, the same as above but with a Tosciro 175 size 3 hook for meat or corn hookbait.
Rig 3, shallow margin rig Maver 4x12 Jurassic dibber set 18" deep with 0.16 line straight through to a size 3 175 & Preston 13h elastic.
Rig 4, top kit rig at 2 meters 4x12 Preston Durra 10, 0.16 line straight through, to a size 3 175 hook & black hydro.
For bait I had brought a bag each of micro & 4mm fishery feed pellets, 4 tins of corn & 4 tins of 6mm chopped meat plus a few different hard & soft hooker pellets.
Today for company I had Chris Owen to my left and John Bab to my right so at least we could have a good laugh if we didn't catch a lot, before the all in I had to go on the bait tub scrounge as I had left all of mine in my shed at home (plank!), just to go and show you that old age and forgetfulness creeps up on us all John Bab had forgot all of his keep & landing nets having to borrow some dodgy looking well worn things from the fishery.
On the all in I fed a pot full of mixed micro & 4mm pellets on my 13m line and I was only going to feed corn on my 2 metre line and meat to my left by hand just odd pieces now and then for later on, first put-in on the 13m line with a 6mm hard banded pellet I began to get liners straight away as there were fish over the feed pellets. I missed the first 2-3 bites as there seemed to be a lot of fish already in the peg and it took around 5mins before I hooked my first fish of the day a nice 1lb f1 and I was off the mark , with me missing another couple of bites before hooking another f1 of a similar I knew there were a lot of fish in the peg but it looked like I had fed too much at the start! feeding for Carp with a full pot of pellets were normally when I fish for f1's I would only feed with a kinder egg pot of pellets. The next couple of fish were Carp in the 2-3lb bracket which must have eaten most of the opening pot of pellets as the bites/liners began to get less as I began to feed small amounts through the kinder pot, the rest of the first hour was good as I hooked and landed a few fish from the far line while those around me were only having odd fish. Most of the fish were F1's but with the odd Carp thrown in now and then so I stuck to this line for the second hour while I was putting some fish in the net, after a couple of hours I had quick look on both my 2m line and down the edge but apart from one small 1lb Carp from the margin swim I couldn't get any bites at all so I was soon back out over the 13m line. I was catching both on the deck and up in the water taking odd fish here and there with the same rig (rig 1) if I pushed the rig right up the far bank where I had shallowed up to less than 1ft deep I was taking fish there or if I pulled the pole back to around 12m I was having odd ones shallow were the shelf dropped off to around 3ft deep. With around 3 hours of the match gone I thought I had got around 50lb in the net when it started raining heavy and you could hear the thunder in the distance getting closer, when the storm came right over the top of us the and the lightning was all around I was just holding my top kit with the shallow rig down the margins not wanting to hold 13m of carbon! I hooked a good Carp of around 4lb on red meat which I prefer on the hook while feeding plain meat but as I was playing it I had noticed that the better stamp of Carp that were in my left hand net had all come to the top of the net, the smaller fish in my other net didn't react the same, even when I put the new edition into the net the others seemed not bothered they were all just swimming around the top 1ft of water! Weather it was oxygen the rain was putting in or taking out I don't know but I had never seen fish react like that before? I know that big thunderstorms like this can de-oxygenate the water and cause fish fatality's but what ever it was the fish were up and feeding as the next put in produced another Carp, in fact while the storm was over us I had my best spell of the match and in around 45mins I had around 12 Carp all in the 2-5lb bracket shallow in the margins with the meat putting around 40lb in the net. At one point in the middle of this purple spell the rain turned into hail and it got that heavy that I thought I was going to have to pack the pole away before it got broke! I was playing Carp but as the hail was hitting my top kit it sounded like it was breaking. When the weather broke and the storm moved on the sun came out it was back to t-shirt weather, we were now into the last hour and Chris to my left was now bagging down the edge he too had caught well through the storm but my margin fish had stopped feeding and vanished. I just picked odd fish off from over and one more from the margin just before the all out sounded and at around 3lb it was my last fish of the day, as I started to pack away getting all the water from my luggage which was swimming I thought I had got around 95-105lb which I was happy with after catching 41lb from canal 2 a few weeks ago. There were some good anglers on canal 3 which had produced the better weights on the last match and the word on the bank was that Martin had caught well from opposite me but due to the trees and bushes I couldn't see him, while I was giving all the bait boxes back to the lads I had borrowed them off Barry in the right hand corner said he had caught well all day and was around the 100lb mark. We started to weigh-in from the corners of canals 2 & 3 as you can weigh both pools at the same time coming down the middle and it soon became apparent that canal 2 had not fish very well again with Steve Robson winning this lake with 54lb, canal 3 was better with most weights 50-70lb with Martin Yardsley being  the best with 81lb, Stav next to him had 65lb and I knew I was 1-0 up in our side bet before I had even weighed in. As Baz in the corner peg pulled his nets out it was obvious that he was going to take the lead the scales read 110lb 8oz, there was a couple of 50-60lb weights before it was my turn and as I pulled my nets out I knew it was going to be close to Barry's weight, I was given 111lb 10oz to take the lead there was only Chris who I thought would come close as he had some good margin lumps in the last hour, Chris was given 84lb for 3rd and I had won the match by 1lb 2oz, GREAT!!! this was now my 6th win on the bounce with Cradley out of the 7 matches we have fished this year. I have never had a run like this before I must be doing something right, I have been match fishing since the age of around 12 (now 43) and never had a run like this, I win, fame or section a few times each season but this run is above all this.
More importantly I was 1-0 up on Stav for the start of fishing week. Talking to Baz after the match he had also experienced the same with all his big fish coming to the top of his net during the thunderstorm? strange that one. Thanks to Nev for the info I owe you a pint mate,cheers.

Old Hill Canal Sunday 15/7/12

After a couple of weekends off due to decorating duties I was itching to get back to it as I was on one of the best runs of my fishing career if not the best, I had fished 7 matches since the end of our pairs league at Blythe and winning 5 of them!
This match had been taken off the river Severn at Hampton Loade due to around 6ft of flood water coming down so we switched it to a local section of canal that I had not fished since I was a teenager, the idea being that the two short sections we were going to fish are off the main arm of the canal so hopefully we wouldn't be affected by boats. The main canals we use if the river is out of sorts the Staffs-Worc & Birmingham-Worc are a no go areas in the summer due to heavy boat traffic, the two sections we were going to use today are off-shoots of the main Dudley canal No2 one a dead arm called the Bumble Hole and the other an arm that takes you to Hawne Marina eventually, both of these sections are controlled by Old Hill Legion which sell day tickets on them. As most of the lads had never fished these stretches or like me not for 15-20 years it was a bit of guess work as to what we were going to catch or how to approach it, after a word with one of the lads who has fished it who came into the shop I work in it looked like a bread, worm and pellet attack for Roach and Skimmers with the odd Tench if they feed. I drew the end peg nearest the road bridge at the back of an area called Darby End this is the stretch that runs down to Hawne Marina, for as long as I can remember this bridge has been called the PAP PAP! bridge and I was going to find out why it got its name big style. As you can guess this is a humped back bridge that is only wide enough to take one vehicle at a time so every time they approach it they sound the horn!!!, as we were setting up before the match even started I reckoned I had at least 50 PAPS some of them were single long PAPS while some were going for a more short rapid fire burst of PAP PAP PAP PAP PAP!!!!! F**K me has anyone got any ear defenders by the end of the match it was driving me up the wall and as I lay in bed that night I could still hear them PAP PAP.
Anyway back to the fishing my peg was around 13m wide up to the rushes which run along the whole length of this stretch and are probably around 1m thick sticking out from the far bank, after plumbing around a bit  I found there was around 4ft down the track but still 2 1/2ft over by the reeds I decided on a 3 pronged attack. I was going to fish worm & caster over by the reeds, bread punch down the track as the water colour is quite clear due to the lack of boat traffic, I was also going to put a pellet line in 13m down the canal at a 10 o'clock angle just coming up the shelf out of the track.
Rig 1 was my 13m line with a 4x10 Drennan caster float 0.08 line straight through to a 18 Preston pr322 hook with no5 elastic.
Rig 2 was at 10m down the track a Tubertini Styx float 4x12 0.08 straight through to size 20 pr31 hook with 4 elastic.
Rig 3 was the pellet line down the canal at 13m just coming up the shelf out of the track with the same float, line and elastic as rig 2 but a 18 pr322 hook.
For bait I had brought 1/2 pint of casters, 1/2 kg of worm, 1 loaf of liquidised bread and 1 pint of 1mm micro pellets I also had a couple of rounds of bread for the hook and some 4mm expanders for the hook, no squatts or pinkies as I was going for quality fish.
I fed half a pot of worm & caster over by the reeds at the start and a full pot of bread down the track, the pellet line got just a 1/4 of a pot of micros with 3-4 expanders in, I kicked off on the bread line with a 4mm piece of punched bread on the hook. It took around 5mins to get bite which was a Roach of around 3oz then I missed a couple of bites before hooking another Roach of around 1oz, two more small Roach followed in the next 5mins and while not setting the world on fire but at least I was catching which Chris on my left had failed to do yet as he had set his stall out for Bream, Tench & Carp fishing big baits and strong tackle. Then around 20mins in I hooked a better fish on the bread which pulled my no4 elastic out a few feet which surfaced as I steadily shipped back it was a nice skimmer, that's a nice bonus I thought as I slipped the net under the 1lb fish as shouts of jammy git came down the bank from Steve Robson who was two pegs away. Another couple of Roach were in the net before I hooked and landed another skimmer of around the same size on the half hour mark and it was all going well, I had three more small Roach and a small 3oz skimmer over the next 15mins before hooking and landing another skimmer of around 12oz this was going well I was just hoping that they would keep coming. With the first hour gone I was sitting pretty with around 3 1/2lb in the net already but the last 10mins had gone by without a bite so I made the decision to re-feed as I had only put that one pot in at the start, the bites came back after I put another pot of bread in but only Roach were showing at the start of hour two but I wasn't complaining. The second hour went passed without any more Skimmers just odd small Roach as the bites slowed right up to a stop and it was time for a change, I put a small worm head on the 13m line rig which I had been topping up throughout and shipped over to the reeds. I had been on the worm line for around 5mins before the float slid away which turned out to be a 3oz Rudd and on the next put in a 1oz Perch was in the net at least I was catching again, I was wrong because that was it for this line despite trying caster on the hook, jigging the rig with the worm on altering the depth I failed to get on this line. I switched to the pellet for 10mins but with no signs on this I was starting to scratch my head as I couldn't get a bite on any of my three lines, Chris to my left had only a couple of small fish to show for his efforts with his big fish attack but Steve was catching a few small fish to his left after a slow start. My peg had gone totally dead with only two 1oz Roach on a new bread line I had opened up on my right hand side down towards the bridge in the track at 11m, I was swapping and feeding between all my lines and with around 1 1/2 hours left I was on the pellet when out of the blue the float shot under and another good Skimmer was on, this one turned out to be another of around 1lb and I was hoping that they had decided to feed again. I was wrong as that was my only bite on the pellet line despite sitting on it for a good half hour after that last Skimmer we were now into the last hour and after doing the rounds again on all of my lines all I had was another two small Roach on my first punch line, while the first 2 hours were good the rest of the match had been a real struggle I was now praying for the whistle as the Paps on the bridge were giving me a headache I couldn't believe how busy a small road at the back of nowhere could be on a Sunday. I sat on the pellet for the last 20mins as I thought that if I had a bite on this it was more likely to be a Skimmer than anything else and with 5mins to go Steve shouted down asking if I had any more bites on the pellet, before I could answer him in a split second the float shot under and I struck into fresh air as I missed the bite S**T I blamed Steve for putting me off but despite willing the float to go under before the whistle it didn't. I had a match of two half's one good one bad with most of my fish coming in the first 45mins, had I caught most of the fish in the swim in that short time? Had the fish just stopped feeding? Had the Skimmers stopped feeding as the sun got up as it was 20c+ and bright? I hadn't got the answer but just had a gut feeling that there were more Skimmers in the swim, Steve spoke to one of the locals who said that he normally catches a few Skimmers & Tench up to 4lb but on a night after work? No Tench had been hooked or landed on this stretch today. I was first to weigh-in and was given 6lb 1oz by Baz on the scales which I was happy with but thought it would have been a lot more after that first burst on the bread, Chris next to me only had 13oz after sitting for big fish for 5hours but failing to hook any on another day 2-3 bites could have seen him with 10lb+?, Steve had more small fish than me with 3 small skimmers in amongst his Roach for 4lb 4oz, I went back to my peg to carry on packing up as the next peg Baz was quite a bit away and I didn't want to leave my tackle as the local kids were on the bridge waving the cars over the bridge towards each other! There was a big screech of tyres as a car and van ended up bumper to bumper! Baz had 5lb 3oz and there were a couple of 2-3lb weights passed him so I had the best weight off this section I was just hoping the dead arm had not fished I can remember catching 13 Tench from this section in a day some 15 years ago so they are in there. When we got back to the dead arm we soon found out that JB had won this section with 3lb 15oz of punch Roach off the peg that joins the main line canal most had 2-3lb weights, so I had won again I don't know what I am doing lately but it seems to be working but I still cannot get those 6 numbers up on the lottery. We all retired back to the local pub for couple of sherbets to chew over the fat of the day.

Bockamin pools Sunday 24/6/12

This weekend saw us at the Brockamin Pools near Worcester we had the bottom pool booked for a Cradley heath club match, one of the lads had fished here the day before on another club match saying that 66lb was the beast weight with a few 40-50lb backing weights. I had not fished these pools for around 3-4 years but they contain some real big monsters in the 15-25lb bracket so if you fish this pool on the pole you have to gear up, there are 2 islands on this pool with around 50 permanent pegs and around 70% of them have an island to fish to. I peg 24 which is down the left hand side of the pool with the last peg able to throw to the island, the wind was blowing down the pool towards corner peg 29 which looked really good as it has lots of room to itself, the wind was quite strong blowing right to left and a jacket on jacket off day as some heavy showers came over but in-between them it was quite warm. I was going to attack the point of the island with the method feeder & pellet waggler and set up a heavy pole rig for the margins,
The method feeder was a 28gram Guru X-safe with 8lb mainline, 0.20 hooklength to a 14 pr27 hook with a bait spike for mini boilies although I had others set up with bait bands for pellets.
The pellet wagg was a 4ssg job with a Mayo connector and gripper stops, 5lb maxima mainline to 12 pr27 hook and a 0.20 hook length with a lasso set up for the pellet.
The margin pole rig was 4x12 Preston Durra 10 float in the 4ft deep margin, 0.22 line straight through to a size 4 Tubertini 175 hook finished off with red hydro elastic.
For bait I brought some micro pellets for the method feeder, 4 pints of 8mm pellets for the wagg and 4 pints of dead maggots for the margin, I had also brought some corn and meat but they stayed in the bag when I drew an island peg, plus various boilies for the hook.
I started the match on the method feeder cast 30m to 2 wooden stumps that stuck up from the end of the island while pinging the odd 8mm pellet over the top, it took around 15mins to get my first bite a nice 5lb common was safely in the net took on a white 10mm boilie. By the end of the first hour I had managed 5 carp all in the 3-5lb bracket all on the white boilie and from what I could see around me I was doing ok as there were odd carp coming out but no one with the amount I had, so if it ain't broke don't fix it!, I stuck with the method for hour 2 and ended with 3 more carp and 2 nice bream of around 4lb each. Over the next half hour I only had 1 carp and I felt it was time to have a look on another line, Colin to my left had around 4 carp, Kev 2 pegs to my right was having a few skimmers on the pole line but Mark in corner peg 29 was starting to put a few fish together after losing the first 4 carp in the margins to a tree root!
All the time I was fishing the method I had been pinging 8mm pellets over the top and while I was on the method when the sun came from behind the clouds I could see the odd fishy swirl or shape just under the surface, I was only going to give the wagg 10mins as the wind was quite strong blowing down the pool from right to left and I didn't want to waste too much time if I couldn't get the presentation right. I put a 8mm pellet under the lasso and cast out towards the stumps after feeding 5-6 pellets before the cast,( I think this feed first and cast over the top is most important on the pellet wagg as most of your bites will come in the first 20 seconds after the float has landed you are holding the rod instead of messing around with catty and will end up hitting more bites than someone who casts and feeds later ending up with more fish in your net! ), 5 seconds after the float hit the surface it settled and slid under I was in straight away a nice common of around 8lb was my reward, this was I herd moans & groans from the other side of the pool (christ he's catching on the wagg now!). A few minutes later while I was playing carp no2 on the pellet waggler I saw Barry who had made the jealous comment scrambling around in his gun sling setting up the pellet wagg, too late I thought to myself as I had got the fish my side of the stumps after feeding them for half the match before going for them.
The 2 corner pegs to my left were now starting to catch strongly as the match wore on there empty pegs and wind blowing into them started to bring them some big fish, I was catching steady on the wagg but with no big lumps the first fish being the biggest most of them in the 3-5lb range. With half an hour to go I tried the margin hoping for one or two big lumps to top up my smaller fish, I had fed the margin from the beginning with big pots of dead maggots every now and then with 4 maggots on the hook I lowered the rig in and awaited the action, after around 15mins down the edge with nothing to show but a couple of roach I thought I was wasting time so I spent the last bit of the match on the wagg hooking my last carp 5mins from the whistle. I ended a very enjoyable match with 22 carp and 2 bream while I thought I had done well Mark Farley on corner peg 29 had caught lots in the last half of the match big things from down the edge as well but he had lost a lot also, Colin Knock to my left had caught well from his margin in the last hour playing one real big fish for a long time with shouts of "look at the size of that" from the opposite side as he netted it meant it was going down to the scales to sort this out at this end of the pool.
By the time I had packed up my gear the first half a dozen pegs had been weighed in with Chris Owen being the best so far with 88lb from peg 4 mainly margin fish caught in the last hour, there were a couple of 30-50lb weights before Ollie on the top point of the second island had 65lb. Kev Clarke had a cracking bag of fish off peg 22 fishing pole and worm all day for 19 Bream and a solo Carp for 78lb ( the carp was around 8lb ). My bag went 122lb which put me in the lead, Colin on my left had 95lb with fish to 15lb and then the guy who I thought had won the match Mark Farley put 105lb on the scales he told me he must have left at least another 50lb in the water due to a combination of starting off too light and some tree roots in the water! Baz opposite me had 56lb then a 64lb and a 72lb it was looking good for me, Stu was the only other weight of note off the first island with 64lb, Stu said he lost a Carp of 12-13lb after playing the fish for a good while he netted the fish only for the landing net to rip and the fish drop back into the water breaking him in the process on the frame of the net as it swam off!!! OOPS or words to that effect. I had a great days fishing and I was happy to have won although I had drawn a good peg 1st, 2nd & 3rd were all in a line at the wind assisted end of the pool, the end of a good day was finished off with us retiring to the Fox pub to talk about the one that got away.

Woodside Canal Sunday 17/6/12

This was a Cradley Heath club match that was rearranged from the end of April due to bad weather on our local canal we call Woodside, I drew peg 75 which is a good peg but in a good area with any peg 57,58,59,69.71,73 & 77 capable of winning. With no Roach showing from the canal in the last few weeks since spawning I based my attack around chopped worm & caster for Perch & Skimmers, I fed 2 lines with with this down the track and a caster line over at 14.5m I also put a pellet line just up the shelf at 11m. I caught a few perch from the worm lines for first half of the match before I stopped getting any bites at all the fish had just switched off, the lads either side of me had the same just like someone had flicked the switch off even JB who was on peg 71 came for a walk and said he was the same catching then nothing? In the last 45mins we had a boat come through and I lost my hook on a snag so I sat on the 14.5m caster line for the rest of the match, with 10mins left to go the float shot under and I was connected to a better fish I thought it was a Chub but at I netted it after a good struggle on no4 elastic it was a Tench around the 3lb mark a proper bonus fish. When the scales came I put 6lb 6oz on the scales with the Tench exactly half my weight at 3lb 3oz but with the fliers in the bay and 3 Chub pegs in 51, 44 & 43 I thought I might win the section, Brian Smith was the next best weight on peg 69 with 5lb 7oz but when we got back on the car park I found out that no one had caught a Chub and I had won the match???? That Tench in the last few minutes had won me the match and I was truely on fire with 3rd Cradley club match win on the bounce.

Hill View canals Sunday 3/6/12

This weekend saw us at Hill View which I had not fished for a few years we had got 3 of the 4 canals booked for a Halesowen club match, we had got canals 2,3 & 4 and the weather had took a turn for the worse after 2 weeks of glorious sunshine the rain had come back with a vengeance which never stopped all day with temperature in half from 25-28c down to 14-16c?
The match was hard for most with just odd fish coming now and again I drew canal 2 and just picked off fish from here and there for a modest 41lb but enough for the section/pool win, the top 4 weights all came off canal pool with Baz Robson winning with 66lb on paste and we were all happy just to get out of the rain. I can only put the low weights down to the sudden down turn in temperature putting the fish down?

Cob House Wednesday 30/5/12

Just 3 days after winning our club match down here and I was back with Stav for a knock up on one side of Wyatts which had been booked by a mate of ours Matt (baldy), Stav had missed the last couple of club matches so it was good to catch up. We had 15 pegs booked on the back side of the pool (16-30) the fish were up in the water all over the pool but as they were still spawning on here Sunday they might be just sun bathing in the 27c heat recovering, I drew peg 19 which didn't matter as there were fish all over the place.
I started and finished the match up in the water at 13m hooking a Carp first put in so there was no need to worry about them being shagged out, feeding 4mm's with a 6mm on the hook I ended the match with 112 fish with some of them a lot bigger than I had caught from this pool before. Right on the whistle Stav was playing a fish and as the all out sounded I shouted to him how many fish had he got 100 he replied I shouted he was F****d I had got 12 more. My fish went 191lb 4oz for the 2nd win in 3 days I was on fire!!!! Stav was 2nd with 144lb (must try harder?) and Baldy 3rd with 138lb (must get more hair!).

Cob House Sunday 27/5/12

Back to Cob House Fishery this weekend for a Cradley Heath club match on Oak and Laurel pools both of which I have not fished before, we were going to split the match in half in-case one pool fished better than the other. I was hoping for a draw on Laurel as after a bit of fishing around for info this pool seemed more likely to produce the bigger weights and after winning the last 2 club matches down here I was looking to make it a ha-trick, I got my wish and drew Laurel peg 19 the only problem was that the fish were or had been spawning this week so there was a 2m ban on to stop anglers fishing for them while they are doing there business.
I worked hard all day switching between all my lines to keep fish coming from up in the water between 13-3m picking off 2-3 fish from each line before they faded away, I had fish also from 2 deck lines both at 3m one on pellet the other on dead maggots at 10 and 2 o'clock. I had a good run of fish in the last 45mins from my 3m maggot line as I saw fish coming up off the bottom taking the maggots in mid water, so I cut off the hair from one of my 2 shallow pellet rigs and put maggots direct on the hook they took it sweet as a nut.
I finished the match with 72 Carp for 134lb 1oz and my 3rd Cob House win this season so I was well pleased with more beer tokens for the Bell pub up the road, Kev Clark was 2nd on the peg to my left with 98lb and Steve Robson 3rd with the best weight from Oak pool with 88lb.

Boddington Res Sunday 13/5/12

Hi folks sorry for the long period of non blogging but I have been decorating both the living room and my sons bedroom which has been taking up a lot of my spare time ( No I have not finished yet before you ask ). I have managed the odd club match in-between bouts of plastering and door hanging so I am going to run through these matches in brief to try and bring you up to date before Stav and I embark on our fishing week which starts next Sunday.
I had been looking forward to this match as I have not fished Boddington for 2-3 years but we all had a few concerns that the match had been booked a little too early in the year as waters of this size take a lot longer to warm up than your usual commercial fishery. We had the last 30 pegs booked down the right hand side of the Res to the bottom and the word was that you would need to draw the bottom pegs on the natural bank to catch a few fish, I drew 4 pegs up from the bottom so was happy with the draw.
To cut a long story short it fished absolutely crap with only 40 lb odd winning and half the field blanking I think there were 20 odd fishing and there was not even enough Carp caught to share them out one each! The bottom 3 pegs were 1st, 2nd and 3rd sadly the didn't swim around the corner to me I had 1 bite half way through the match on the method feeder for 10lb 2oz which done me no good at all with Ollie on the next peg winning the section as his 1 fish was 11lb odd?
Too say the lads were disappointed would be an understatement 120 mile round trip from home for that I don't think they will be booking it again.

Cob House Sunday 6/5/12

This weekend saw us back at Cob House Fisheries for a Cradley Heath club match on Laugherne Island pool and after winning the Halesowen match down here a couple of weeks ago on Wyatts pool I was hoping for more of the same, after Stav and I had another great breakfast in the Mayfly cafe we assembled for the draw on the car park there were 24 of us all eager for a good draw I drew out peg 26 on the right hand bank and Stav got peg 36 on the same bank but closer to the car park. I was happy with my draw as I was only a couple of pegs away from where I had won the same match from last year and only 1 peg away from where I had pleasure fished a few weeks ago with my old man and emptied it, peg 26 is in the middle of the last Island next to an aerator rope to my right I had a good mate of mine John Morgan, Kev Clarke had drawn the corner peg 21 and would be hard to beat today I thought and the other side of the rope on peg 28 was Gary Mason so at least we would have the crack if nothing else. When I fished peg 27 a few weeks ago I had 18 Carp in the first 2 hours on the method feeder tight to the Island while I knew it wouldn't fish like that today with 24 on the pool it would still be the opening method as the fish seem to push out to the Islands with all the early bank-side disturbance, I set up 4 pole rigs to cover the peg and the method feeder.
Rig 1, 13m on the deck a 4x16 Maver Jona set just touching bottom in 7ft of water, 0.18 mainline to a 0.16 hooklength to a size 3 Tubertini 175 hook, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 2, 13m shallow rig a 0.30gr Maver Jurassic dibber around 18" deep 0.16 line straight through to a 16 Preston PR27 hook with a bait band, 13 hollo elastic.
Rig 3, 5m line on the deck a 4x14 Maver Jona set just touching bottom in 4ft of water, 0.18 line straight through to size 4 175 hook, black hydro elastic.
Rig 4, 5m to my left hand edge just before the rope a 4x12 Preston Durra 10 float set 3" over-depth in 2ft of water a size 3 175 hook, black hydro elastic.
The feeder rig was a simple small 24gr Guru in-line method feeder ( in-line only rules at Cob House ), 0.23 Maver Dual-band line, 3" hooklength of 0.20 to a 16 Preston PR27 hook with a bait band.
For bait I had brought a 3 pint bag of fishery 4mm pellets, around 2 pints of 1mm fishery micro pellets for the method feeder, 3 tins of corn and 4 pints of dead maggots, I had also got various 6 & 8mm expanders  for the hook a few live maggots and some 6mm hard pellets for the bands.
On the whistle I fed a pot of 4mm pellets and half a dozen grains of corn at 13m and a pot full of dead maggots down the edge the 5m line I would feed now and again with 4mm pellets and corn by hand, I loaded the method feeder with micro pellets and a 6mm pellet on the hook and cast it the short 20m to the shallow water sat back and awaited my first bite. There were odd fish being caught around the lake but it took around 30 mins before I got my first bite a little 2lb job John to my right had a couple and Gary to my left had 3, around another 10mins I hooked and lost fish no2 I had noticed from around 5mins into the match there were odd fish coming and mopping up my maggots from down the edge but in order to give them a little confidence I had resisted going for them too early. With around an hour gone and only 2 fish in my net I was going nowhere fast as Gary had around 5-6 fish so had JB on peg 30 I couldn't wait any longer I put 3 live maggots on the hook and lowered the rig in amongst the fish I could see churning up the mud searching for my dead maggots, I had re-fed the line 3-4 times before trying it before long the float slid away and I was connected to a good fish I had to keep the pole low as the fish swam under the rope and before long I got the better of the fish a nice 8lb common. Next put-in I struck and missed a bite so I re-fed and soon hooked fish no2 around the same size as the first these were good fish, I missed another bite next put-in which marked the end of the margin line for a long time as the fish spooked and scattered. There were a few people around the pool catching a few fish like Kev in the corner who had caught a few fish from the off and was slowly building a weight along with Gary and JB I was a bit behind, things didn't get much better as I tried both the short and long pole lines which produced just a single 1/2lb Carp and two 6oz skimmers then I tried the 13m line for the second time and foul-hooked 3 Carp in as many put-ins. I was now getting worried as we were approaching the half way point in the match so I picked up the shallow rig despite not seeing any fish activity in the upper layers shipped out with a 6mm hard pellet in the band and before I could grab the catapult the elastic came out of the pole, the fish was around 5lb and very welcome the next drop in I fired around 6-8 pellets at the float and the same again a 4lb Carp hooked itself against the pole tip BINGO I had finally found the fish they were up in the water all along while I had been messing around on the deck and feeder. Around 20 mins later before I hooked shallow Carp no3 and it was not a solid as I first thought another 20 mins later without a bite it was time to try another line a quick look on the 5m line I had a couple of missed bites before I hooked a 5lb fish on the corn, the fish had returned down my edge but they wouldn't settle there I would have a couple of bites a fish or two or miss a couple of bites then they would go missing for 5-10mins. With the match entering the last hour I had got 9 Carp and 2 skimmers so I was going to concentrate on the margin and short line switching between the two trying to keep the bites coming as the fish on these lines seem to be bigger, Gary next to me had also caught some good fish from the edge on worm over g/bait and JB was hooking some margin fish as well I had another 4 fish in the next 30mins in the 4-8lb range before I hooked a proper tool from down the edge which tried to hit the Island after around 5mins I started to get the upper hand and landed a common around 12-13lb. The last 30mins saw me land another 4 Carp from the edge with 2 of them going around 7-8lb there seems to be a good head of fish this size in this pool finishing me with 16 Carp and those 2 skimmers, JB ,Gary & Kev had all caught well and it was too close to call I was estimating around 80lb for my fish as I had some big fish but also had 3 for around 5lb with most of the fish from 4-8lb.
We started the weigh-in from peg 1 on the opposite side of the pool with Big Ritchie putting 60lb on the scales and all the way down that side of the pool weights were close from 35lb to the best weight on the bank was Mark Farley with 62lb, around the corner to Kev the first peg on our bank went into the lead with a good 81lb, John next to me had struggled all day for bites putting 45lb on the scales and I was shocked to see my fish go 108lb 12oz I honestly thought around 80lb'ish, Gary the other side of the rope had 91lb and then there was a 60lb next to him before JB pulled his net out and I new he had a few fish his two nets went 95lb, Stav said he had not got that much nor had anybody else up the top end of our bank, Stav had 75lb to win his section there was a 50lb next to him and the last to weigh was Steve on the end peg with 60lb. I was honestly gob-smacked to have won the match I knew the fish were big but I really thought Gary and JB had more then me but I was not complaining more beer tokens to spend in the Bell pub at the end of the road CHEERS!