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
Monday 24 September 2012
Sunday 23 September 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday 18 September 2012
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?
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?
Tuesday 4 September 2012
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)