Halesowen Blythe Waters sunday 13/6/10

Hi folks, back to Blythe Waters this week for a Halesowen club match on willow pool and half of cherries, i have only fished willow once before last year but the carp were spawning and the match was won off cherries with 30lb+ of silvers so this pool would be a bit of an unknown quantity today. At the draw i drew out peg 20 on cherries pool so the walk around willow pool before the draw with a couple of the lads looking at all the nice island & corner pegs was a waste of time. Regular readers of my blog will know that i have fished cherries pool a few times due to our pairs league being held on there, i have never drawn peg 20 before but there was a few fish caught off here on the pairs. Peg 20 is a corner peg with a bit of room due to peg 21 being left out because you would be both fishing the same point on the end of the boom. The peg is probably the shortest reach to the boom on the pool only 13m away with a big long right hand edge i fancied it for a few fish, i had won a round of the pairs league off peg 19 with 51lb up in the water so with this in mind i set up to tackle the peg accordingly.
Rig 1, 13m pellet line on the deck 0.50gr maver jona float, 0.16 line to a 3 175 tubetini hook set 7ft deep with a bulk of no8's and 2 no10 droppers, 15 hollo elastic
Rig 2, 13m shallow line 0.30gr maver Jurassic dibber float, 0.16 line to a 16 pr27 hook set 18" deep with a lassoed pellet, all the shot under the float, black hydro elastic
Rig 3, the same as above but without the lasso on and a size 3 175 hook for meat, black hydro.
Rig 4, down the edge at 13m 4 X 14 jona float 0.18 and a size 4 175 with all the shot bulked around 12" from the hook in around 4 1/2 feet of water.
Stav had drew out peg 17 to my left but had to fish 16m to get to the boom and with his old shoulder complaint flaring up again so it was going to hurt, Andy was on peg 12 again the peg he won the last round of the pairs off with 71lb these i thought we my main competition for our section. I couldn't see willow pool behind me due to the trees so i thought fish for the section and if willow pool goes off on one at least we are fishing our own little match on cherries.
Bait for the day was loads of pellets from micros,4mm,6mm & 8mm, 4 tins of 6mm cubed meat, 1 tin corn, g/bait for the method + lots of hook baits including bollies & dead maggots. Once i had drew i new my method & pellet wagg rods would stay in the car along with my 18m extension along with the g/bait & 8mm pellets. I didn't fancy the margin line as it was very snaggy due to tree roots, i had to pull for a break with my first rig and couldn't get to the snag to pull it out due to the 4ft+ depth? ( i just got stung to death for my troubles by the man high stingers ).
On the whistle i put two pots of bait down the edge of 4mm pellets, meat & corn, i shipped out to 13m with my shallow pellet rig and started firing 4mm pellets at it with a 6mm lassoed pellet on the hook. It took only 2 mins to get my first bite a nice 1 1/2lb common was in the net a great start, next put in i had another bite but as i shipped around 6m of pole back i picked the tip out of the water to see where the fish was but the elastic was still under the boom? Seconds after me and rig no1 parted company, not to worry i thought as i got another rig out it looks like there is a few fish in the peg. 2 more fish went in the net in no time an f1 and a 4lb'er, next fish a 2lb carp was netted the lasso broke off in the landing net and rig no 3 was quickly put on. The match was only 20 mins old but i had got 4 fish and minus 2 rigs, i felt there might be a big weight on the cards so i got another top out of the holdall with black hydro to pull them away from the boom a bit quicker. Another couple of small carp in the net and i was on fire????? then i hooked a 3lb carp got it away from the boom all the way back to the net and promptly pulled out, leaving my rig in the tree to my right with only a stem left on the rig Shit! there i was loads of fish infront of me and i was making a right pigs ear of it 30 mins gone i was already on rig no4, if this keeps up i will run out of shallow rigs with a lasso on. After the first hour i had got 10 fish but some of them were 1lb f1's so i had switched back to the softer 13 h elastic at least i had not lost anymore rigs. Hour 2 passed by with me putting a few more fish in the net i felt no need to change as there was only stav having odd fish shallow, the only problem i was having was that the roach and skimmers were plucking at the bait every put in. During hour 3 the fish had slowed a bit shallow so a look down the edge was called for, i fished it for around 30 mins for 2 small 1lb carp and losing a bigger one in the roots so i went back shallow feeling that it was much the better method. The rest of the match went well switching to feeding 6mm pellets to try to put the roach off, switching between 6mm & 8 mm hook pellets saw the catch rate go up in the last hour. There was only stav catching fish on regular basis but i felt that my first hour burst had put me a few pound in-front, i had managed to not loose another rig in the last 4 1/2 hours after loosing 3 in 30 mins? I had managed to hook a duck on the meat much to the amusement of the guys around me, there were 2-3 ducks eating my over-sprayed pellets hiding in the grass on the floating boom. During a quite spell i had picked up my other shallow rig and tried meat on the hook to see if i could pinch a fish or two, i had one fish on it and while i was lowering the rig in next to the boom this stupid duck dived out of the grass and grabbed my hook-bait! After a short tug O war there was only going to be one winner with black hydro and a size 3 175 me!
When the scales arrived the top bowl had fished hard with no one breaking 20lb from pegs 8-16 so the first to weigh with a few fish was stav he put 58lb on the scales. Roy was next with 24lb and then me 54lb of carp & 24lb of silvers gave me 78lb total and i had won my section. I walked down the bank behind the trees to see how willow pool had fished 35lb was the best so far by Shaun, JB put 39lb on the scales to take the lead both anglers fishing opposite corners to each other and both said they had 100lb+ on the hook but lost them all in the reeds? There was another 39lb on the pool so i had won the match again Great! 2 matches in 2 weeks with 2 wins?
I felt that over the 2 matches i had 2 good draws but had made the most of them, both days were still frustrating losing fish in the weed at Stockton and then losing 3 rigs in 30 mins this week but all had come good in the end.
1st me 78lb
2nd Stav 58lb
jt 3rd JB & Steve 39lb.