Cob House Laugherne Island Sunday 20/6/10

Hi folks, this week it was the turn of the other club i am in Cradley Heath Labour Club for a match at Cob House fisheries on Laugherne Island pool. This would be the first visit for a lot of our members including me so after a bit of digging and a few phone calls it looked like it was going to be a good day as all the info we got was that the place was solid. So after a good breakie at the local cafe in Cradley and around 40 mins on the road me & Stav arrived at the fishery within plenty of time for the 9.30 am draw, so a quick talk to Scott (who lives and works at the fishery) for some last minute tips and pellets was in order. The plan of attack seemed to be method feeder to the island ( if you drew one that is ), long pole with pellet and short pole with paste. The word on the bank was that a good draw would be on the points of the three islands (12 pegs ) or the 4 corners of the pool with 24 fishing. I drew peg 6, no point of the island and not a corner peg either great a good start of to the day, Stav had drew peg 20 odd a corner peg ( jammie git)? When i got to my peg i sat down to asses what i was going to do, even now i could feel the sun on my back with temperatures forecast to reach nearly 30 c and very little wind i thought that this is not going to be easy. I set up 4 pole rigs and a method rod, a 13m pellet rig set 6ft deep, 13m shallow rig, 5m paste line and a margin rig at the same distance down to my right. I didn't bother plumbing up down my left hand margin as Mark ( aka Hercule Poirot) was sat on peg 7 a bit close and also he was looking at the nice point of the island he was going throw his feeder to? Oh Hum? The thinking behind the points of the islands is that as the fish circle the islands the people throwing to them mug the fish before the people sat in the middle get a look-in? and with 12 point pegs in this might be a long day. As i was getting the last of my tackle sorted Scott came over and had a chat, now i know Scott form his days working at Solhampton Fishery and also through a mutual friend i work with ( our pet ). As i tried to get the last bits of info out of him before the all in he came out with a great statement " THIS IS A GOOD WINTER PEG" he said "F*****G GREAT IT'S JUNE AND 30 C" i replied.
On the bait front i had brought a bag each of fishery 2mm & 4mm pellets, 4-5 pints of maggots, 1 tin of corn, some paste and various hard & soft 6mm pellets for the hook. On the whistle i put a pot of 4mm pellets in on the 13m line, a pot of 2mm pellets with a few lumps of paste on the 5m line and started to throw maggots up the margin line. I started on the method with 2mm soaked pellets on the feeder and a 6mm hard pellet on the hook, on the 3rd put-in the tip slammed around and carp no1 was in the net a 4lb jobbie. After the first hour i had got 6 carp in the net and was catching better than annyone i could see, so a top up on the pole lines was called for as i decided to give the method another hour ( if it ain't broke ). The second slowed a bit with only 4 fish netted, there was the odd fish being caught but i couldn't see annyone setting the world on fire. Talking of fire i think i can smell my skin burning, Christ it was hot ( i had left my sun block on the side in the kitchen????) and i think the fish had the same idea as there were plenty of fish cruising around sunbathing not feeding. In the third hour i tried my long pole line both on the deck and shallow without a bite?, i tried my inside maggot line but only managed a few roach and a couple of skimmers. Back on the feeder produced another 2 fish but bites on this had started to relay dry in the heat, another look on all my pole lines without much success and i was starting to struggle. BIG Ritchie had started to catch well on the feeder the last hour so had john in corner peg 39 on the long pole, Ritchie was getting shouted at from Ollie on the opposite side of the pool dubbing him a random caster? Into the last hour i managed 2 fish on the method then decided to have a last look on my short paste line, first put in i missed a bite then had a small 2lb'er next drop. Third put-in i hit a fish that felt a little better as a few yards of 15h elastic came out of the pole, i kept the tip low and turned the fish as i pulled some laccy out of the pulla kit the fish broke the surface a nice 7-8 common? The fish made a dart for the bottom of my keepnet's and went straight under them parting with my rig SHIT, the paste line had finally come to life at least i would have a few as there was still 30 mins left to go? No?? not another bite on the paste i sat there for another 10 mins, then i threw the method for the last bit with 1 more fish gracing my net before the all out was called. I had got 12 carp in one net roughly guessing the weight as i went along and thought there was around 42lb in that net before i put a third net in as per the rules a 50lb limit in each net, another 4 carp in the second net i was guessing at 60lb'ish. We started to weigh in at john on peg 39 who's late flurry on the pole had mustard 39lb, the others had struggled with a few fish being caught but no one beating him until we got to the random caster Ritchie. He managed to ponce 64lb odd from the peg his right not his own? Ollie asked for a stewards enqiurie. Stav put 49lb on the scales from his wind assted corner peg? ( must try harder?), then Steve on peg 20 the opposite corner from Stav put a great 78lb on the scales looked to have won it as no one on my bank had enough to top that. My first net went 42lb what a guess i thought? together with my other 4 carp+ silvers totaled 63lb odd enough for 3rd place. The pub was calling and my arms were burning, my hatrick of wins had gone but i thought i had done quite well only being beat off an end peg and knocked into 3rd by a random caster into one of the gaps in the island. It had been my first visit to the complex and to be honest it had fished well under the day's conditions, hot, still, and plenty of angler pressure, you could see the place is solid by the amount of fish sunbathing on another day i feel sure that we could have caught a lot more. The only complaint i have is that the water level looked well down, we were some 2-3 ft off the water level which makes it a bit uncomfortable as you feel like a garden gnome. That said it is still a growing fishery and they are building a massive on site shop/cafe which looks great from the outside plus doing the drive at the moment. Only one more small gripe is that they don't run any sunday match's at the moment ( some of us have to work ) so i can't make the opens on saturday's, sort it out Scott so we can come down and have a go on Sundays?
Steve had a nice day when we got back to the car park to find out that he had won off one of the bonus peg's to pocket another £100+ the pools money so well done mate. ( he did buy the first round). Cheers!
1st Steve Robson 78lb
2nd Ritchie 64lb
3rd me 63lb
4th Stav 49lb
Thanks to Scott and the rest of the staff at Cob House for a great day out CHEERS.